I believe I've isolated the problem. It has to do with some sort of creation that is more commonly found on maps with oceans (I feel like some detective show right now).

I started by genning a world with  the following stats:

World Size : Medium
History : Medium
# of Civs : V Low
Maximum # of Sites : V Low
Number of Beasts : V Low
Natural Savagery : V Low
 Mineral Occurrence : V Low

I successfully generated a world. I then proceeded to turn each stat up to 'Medium' until I received a crash.

I only receive a crash, when the # of Sites or the # of Beasts is set at medium. Supporting the animal theory.