I. Biblical Flood Model
Many have debated and doubted both that the flood was a global flood and that the flood of Noah's time occurred at all. Evidence has been found which indicates that there was a great catastrophe that seems to have been of water, which young earth creationists claim was the global flood of Noah's time. |
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A. Order of events
(use chart from J. Morris', Noah's Ark and the Ararat Adventure (p.62 - 63)) |
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| 1. Rain for 40 days and 40 nights; the waters prevailed for a total of 150 days.
2. The waters began to assuage, and the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat (17th day of the 7th month)
3. Waters continued to subside so that the tops of the mountains could be seen (1st day of the 10th month)—drop of about 15 - 20 feet per day.
4. Waters continued to lower 40 more days when Noah released the raven
5. 7 day later, the dove sent, but returns
6. 7 days later, the dove sent again, returns with olive branch
7. 7 days later, the dove sent again, and doesn't return
8. 29 days later, "waters were dried from off the earth"
9. 57 days later, left ark because the earth was dry
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| B. Biblical evidence of a global flood
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| 1. Genesis 7:19 - 20 states that the floodwaters covered all the high hills that were under the heaven.
2. Jesus makes a comparison with His return to the Flood (Matt. 24:37 - 39; Luke 17:26, 27). If the flood was only a local flood, and not universal, and did not kill all humanity (save the elect—Noah and his family), then this comparison loses a lot of its force.
3. Peter makes a reference to the destruction of the earth by water in the flood of Noah's time (II Peter 3:3 - 7).
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| C. Predictions of a global flood
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| 1. Mass mortality
2. Rapid burial
3. Fossilization
4. Trees and bones in similar orientations due to strong water currents
5. Sorting
6. Presence of fossils together which are not normally in same ecological habitats
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II. Evidence of fast sediment deposition indicating catastrophic conditions
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A. Turbidites
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| For more information on Turbidites, see Evidence For A Global Flood in Module 9, A Geologist Looks at Noah's Flood.
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| B. Surface features that are evidence of rapid burial
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| 1. Fossilized "ripple marks"
a) Ripple marks look very similar to the marks made by water on sand as the tide recedes, or underwater by a prevailing current.
b) The preservation of these marks is evidence of fast burial because they were covered before they could be erased.
2. Animal tracks
a) There are many fossilized animal tracks in sandstone. Experiments have been performed that indicate that many of the tracks are unlike animal tracks made in dry sand, but are very similar to tracks made underwater. Many of these tracks are going uphill. Some tracks show evidence that the animal was facing uphill, but was being carried in the opposite direction.
b) Possible Interpretation—The animals seem to have been underwater, and many seem to have been climbing to higher ground. The fact that their tracks were fossilized indicates that sediment covered the tracks before anything could erase or disrupt them.
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| C. Fossil evidence of rapid burial
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| 1. Many fossil fish show violent death and rapid burial.
a) Many are buried in contorted positions with their heads bent to their tails and their mouths open.
b) Some well-preserved fish have small holes in their bodies that seem to have been made as gases accumulated in their bodies during decomposition after they were buried. The gases escaped the body by "exploding" through the tissue. This seems to indicate that the fish were buried very rapidly and were either still alive, or had died very recently.
c) In Mowry shale, vast numbers of fish scales have been fossilized. Scales are rarely found at all at the bottom of lakes, and so seem to have buried very rapidly.
d) Possible Interpretation—the fish died and their bodies and scales dropped to the bottom mud of a warm marsh and were fossilized.
Problems with the interpretation—experiments were done by the Natural History Museum in which the scientists lowered dead fish in wire cages to the bottom of a warm marsh. Six and a half days later, the flesh of the fish had all decayed and the bones were becoming disconnected.
e) Possible Interpretation—Many, many fish lived in a very large body of water and were buried (or their scales were buried) quickly, before they could decay or be eaten.
2. Bivalve mollusks
a) The shells are automatically open, unless the animal is alive and holds them closed.
b) Many fossils have been found of bivalve mollusks with closed shells, indicating that they were buried alive and could not burrow out of the sediment.
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| D. Unusual ecological assortment of plants and animals.
Two different locations (Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park (WA) and a region near Yellowstone) have over 200 types of fossil plants each, and both areas have types that range from temperate to tropical. Such ranges are not found living together in modern times.
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III. Evidence of water covering the continents
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A. Marine sediments on the continents
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| 1. Marine fossils are found in limestone that is 9,000 feet in elevation in northern Arizona.
2. 100 square miles of marine fossils several hundred feet deep have been found in southern Ohio.
3. Fossil fish have been found in the rock layers of the Alps.
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| B. Unique sediments widely distributed
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| 1. Many of the sediments that form vast horizontal sheets had to be transported from somewhere else. In the Grand Canyon, these sedimentary layers are often of a different sediment type from the layer they overlie, so they could not have been formed by slow erosion.
2. Coal Beds
a) Coal beds are commonly regarded as being formed slowly by peat bogs. There are several problems with this theory (which will be addressed later in Module 5: Mt. St. Helens)
b) Many coal beds are extremely thick and extend for great distances.
1) The Pittsburgh bed covers 2100 square miles.
2) The Appalachian coal basin extends 70,000 square miles.
3) A coal bed in Australia is reported to exceed 800 feet in depth.
c) Significant evidence has been reported that indicates that coal beds may have originated as a result of mats of trees that were accumulated, transported, and deposited by water. d) Possible Interpretation—The flood waters of the Genesis flood ripped many trees up by their roots. The trees floated in aggregates as mats, and bumped together dislocating the bark that fell to the ground below. The bark, together with other plant sediment, was buried quickly by sediments in hot water. The heat from volcanic flow converted the plant material to coal.
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IV. Evidence of a global flood Flood stories
The abundant number of Flood stories from different cultures around the world.
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A. "Some 270 flood stories have been recorded around the world" (Vos, H.F. 1982. Flood (Genesis). In G.W. Bromiley (ed.), The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. vol.2, pp 319-321. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI.
B. Flood accounts are recorded in Sumerian cuneiform—the oldest known literature
C. The epic of Gilgamesh—refers to a global flood planned by god in response to evil in the world. The hero built a vessel and took a select group of people, animals and provisions. After the flood waters subsided, a raven and a dove were released to test the ground. The hero offered a sacrifice to his deity and it was accepted.
D. Greek stories—Zeus, wishing to destroy mankind, sent great rains that washed away the greater part of Greece. Deucalion and his wife escaped in a vessel, and most other men were killed. (This flood is referred to in the writings by Aristotle and Plato.)
E. Aztec legends—the original earth was destroyed by their rain god with rain, lightning, and earthquakes. The hero and his wife built a boat and were saved.
F. Common points in flood stories are a favored family which was saved in a boat, a world-wide flood, and birds sent out to test for dry land.
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