Why the Flood is not Global
Copyright 1997 G.R. Morton This can be freely distributed as
long as no charge is made and not changes made to the text.
The recent discussion of polystrate trees has made me decide to
post my reasons for beleiving that the Flood cannot be global in
scope. Polystrate trees are used to try to prove that all the
sediments were deposited in a single catastrophic event. They do
not prove what is often claimed and young earth creationists do
not often talk about the details like those below.
1. The Bible does not say that it must be global. The word which
the translators translate "earth" is more often used as "land".
In Genesis 6:17 "earth" and "ground" are the same word. The
choice to translate 'eretz' as the "planet earth" is strictly an
interpretation. Arthur Custance (1958, p. 3) points out:
"Assuming that Young's list is exhaustive, actual count shows
that the word is translated Earth about 677 times and translated
land 1458 times. Moreover, of the 677 occurrences in at least
100 instances the word may be equally, if not more appropriately,
rendered land rather than Earth. Whereas in the cases where it is
translated Land in the English the instances in which Earth would
have been more appropriate are rare. That is to say, the choice
of Earth or Land as a translation of the original in any
particular instance is a matter of context: and on the whole, if
we exclude the account of the Flood, usage elsewhere shows that
the context favours the word Land rather than Earth."
Often 2 Peter 2:5 is cited as evidence that the ancient "world"
was destroyed an thus the flood must be global. This verse says
NIV,
"If he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood
on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of
righteousness, and seven other;"
The Greek word which is translated as "world" is kosmos.
According to Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon,(Thayer 1962, p. 356)
the translation in preferred order is: harmonious arrangement or
order, ornament, the universe, the earth, the inhabitants of the
world, the ungodly multitude, worldly affairs, an aggregate.
People act as if the absolutely only way this verse can be
interpreted is applying to the earth. Considering the way the
rest of the New Testament translates this word as either "worldly
affairs", or the "ungodly multitude" why are these not perfectly
acceptable translations?
All of the below are acceptable translations.
God destroyed the harmonious order.
God destroyed the earth.
God destroyed the inhabitants of the world.
God destroyed the ungodly multitude.
God destroyed the worldly affairs.
1 Peter 3:20 says 8 people were saved in the Flood. In order to
argue that this means the Flood was global, one must assume that
people were spread all over the earth. This is not at all clear
from the Scripture.
2. A global Flood violates the second law of thermodynamics. The
earth is made of continents and ocean basins. the continental
platforms are made of granite and float high above the ocean
basins. On the average, the surface of the continents is 5 km
above the abyssal ocean floor. On average, the sediment cover on
top of the continents 1.6 km. The average surface elevation
above sea level is about 600 m. The average oceanic sediment
thickness is 300 m with an average elevation of -4500.
Here is why a global flood violates the second law of
thermodynamics. The thickest sediments are on top of the
continental platforms. If you think that this is not a problem,
then perform the following experiment. Take a large brick place
it onto the bottom of your bath tub. Fill the bathtub up to a
level that is twice the thickness of the brick. Pour dirt into
the tub and stir vigorously. let it settle out. Where do you
think the thickest layer of dirt will be? It will be on the tub
bottom not on the brick. In fact the sediment on the tub bottom
will be twice as thick as the sediment on the brick if you truly
stirred vigorously. In point of fact, the sediment is much
thicker on the continents than it is in the ocean basins.
The average sediment thickness on top of the continents is nearly
1.7 km. The average sediment thickness in the ocean basins is
only .3 km; a 5 to 1 ratio. This is a violation of the laws of
physics for the Flood to have created the sediments as young
earth creationists believe.
There are equations that can be derived which show that it is
impossible to account for the sediment thicknesses by having a
global flood. For more information see Morton (1980). I will
stand by the problem but not my suggested solution. It has been
disproven by subsequently acquired data.
Could the continents sink and then rise again after the Flood?
No. If that had happened there should exist a huge, vertical
fracture zone along each of these contnental shelves. There is
none. During my career as a geophysicist,I have personally
examined hundreds of thousands of miles of seismic data along the
continental shelves of eastern Canada, the Eastern U.S, the Gulf
of Mexico, Alaska, China, NW Africa, South Africa, Brazil, and
England. In fact along some of these continental margins, not a
single major fault occurs. The sediments simply thin out into
the ocean. This makes these basins poor targets for oil
exploration but very good regions from which to disprove the
concept that the continents sank and rose during the Flood.
3. The fossils are too well sorted. I am indebted to R.S. Beal
Jr. for reminding me of this. Conodonts are microscopic fossils
which are the "teeth" of an ancient animal. The shape of these
conodonts change with each succeeding geologic level are unique.
In the Grand Canyon, in the Redwall limestone, is divided
vertically into the Whitmore Wash, Thunder Springs, Mooney Falls
and Horseshoe Mesa members. In each of these layers a peculiar
shaped and unique conodont is found. A conodont named Gnathodes
typicus is found in the Whitmore Wash member and not in the other
layers. Scoliognathus anchoralis and Dolignathus latus are unique
to the Thunder Springs member. Gnathodus texanus is found in the
Mooney Falls member only and the conodont Taphrognathus variarus
is limited to the Horseshoe Mesa member.
Conodont are extremely small and microscopes must be used to
examine them. How in the world could a global flood so perfectly
sort these tiny particles into layers that only contain conodonts
of certain shapes? The turbulence of the flood was supposed to
be so great and yet world-wide, microscopic animals are sorted
vertically through the various layers of the geologic column.
In the Gulf of Mexico, when we drill wells, we always find the
same vertical order of microscopic planktonic foraminifera,
nannoplankton, and benthic foraminifera. I know that a peculiar
shape of planktonic foram, Glob Menardi changed its coiling
direction at the same geologic horizon as the last occurrence of
D. brouweri "A", and the benthic foram, Cristellaria S. How could
the flood so perfectly sort these small uniquely shaped creatures
into vertical layers?
The only reasonable explanation is that the layers were laid down
over a very, very long time period.
4. The rates of deposition are too great to have allowed any
animal life to have survived to leave traces of itself high in
the geologic column. Below Glen Rose, Texas lies approximately
15,000 feet of sedimentary rock which contains fossils of all
sorts. On the surface at Glen rose are dinosaur tracks.
15,000 feet of sediment, which is deposited in 365 days, is being
deposited at the rate of 41 feet of sediment per day or 1.7 feet
per hour. At these rates, a dinosaur must fight the deep and
raging waters of the flood for an entire year, never sleeping or
getting sick (or he would be buried after merely 12 hours).
During this year of fighting to stay on top of the sediments, he
must be able to find food and fresh water throughout the year.
Only after doing all of this, the dinosaur lives through the
flood so he can leave his footprints along the Paluxy River.
But dinosaurs are not the only ones who must perform this amazing
feet. In the rocks at Glen Rose one can find huge and small
snails, and some type of bivalve-big and small- (I am not an
expert in their names. Since bivalves normally open up upon
their death, we can surmise that these were alive when they were
buried and fossilized. But since they were found on top of the
sedimentary column, these snails must have performed
supergastropodian feats of movement in order to avoid being
buried. This is not likely. It is far more believable that these
animals lived where they grew and that the dinosaurs were walking
on a mudflat, stepping on the bivalves and snails.
5. Astronomical cycles seen in the sediments. Various cyclicities
have been observed in the thicknesses of laminae of various
sedimentary sections throughout the world. Variations in laminae
thickness have been observed over periods of 11 years solar
cycle) 20,000 years precessional cycle, 100,000 year cycle of the
earth's orbital eccentricity. These cyclicities are seen in rocks
like the Eocene Green River formation of Wyoming, the Devonian
Catskill Delta, a Triassic Hungarian carbonate platform, The
Newark basin of New Jersey.( See Fisher and Roberts 1991, p.
1147; Fischer and Lee, 1993, p. a112; Balog et al, 1995;)
Why should these cyclicities be seen in rocks deposited during a
single year? Why do the cyclicities correspond to the earth's
orbital elements?
6. Why are mudcracks found in the geologic column since the flood
was an aqueous event?
This is a vertical sequence from California.
Old Highway section Ridge Basin Group 80 m thick
top
Mollusks
mudcracks ripplemarks
gypsum
sandstone (cross-bedded)
[snipped portion]
Mudcracks
burrows
crossbedded sandstone
plants and vertebrate remains
ripple marks
mollusks
bottom~
Martin H. Link and Robert H. Osborne "Lacustrine facies in the
Pliocene Ridge Basin Groups: Ridge Basin, California" in Modern
and Ancient Lake Sediments ed. by Albert Matter and Maurice E.
Tucker London: Blackwell Scientific Publications 1978 p. 179.
Another vertical section
Pyramid dam section 90 m thick
bottom
mudcracks
mudcracks
mudcracks
crossbeds
2 erosional surfaces
ripplemarks
gravel
2 burrow layers
plant remains 2 erosional surfaces
2 layers with burrows
slump folds
burrows
ripple marks
crossbedded sandstone
burrows
sandstone
burrows
slumpfolds~
Martin H. Link and Robert H. Osborne "Lacustrine facies in the
Pliocene Ridge Basin Groups: Ridge Basin, California" in Modern
and Ancient Lake Sediments ed. by Albert Matter and Maurice E.
Tucker London: Blackwell Scientific Publications 1978 p. 179.
Another vertical section
frenchman flat sections
mudcracks at bottom
then pebbly sandstone
then burrows in shale then sandstone (pebbly)
then dark grey sandstone (crossbedded)
then redbrown breccias and conglomerate
then burrows
then stromatolites
then red mudstone with mudcracks
then plant remains ~
top of section
Martin H. Link and Robert H. Osborne "Lacustrine facies in the
Pliocene Ridge Basin Groups: Ridge Basin, California" in Modern
and Ancient Lake Sediments ed. by Albert Matter and Maurice E.
Tucker London: Blackwell Scientific Publications 1978 p. 178.
7. Absolutely NO living species of terrestrial animal can be
found in Mesozoic and Paleozoic rocks. Life HAS changed. If the
animals found in the fossil record represent the remains of
animals which lived prior to the Flood, and if the animals alive
today are the descendants of animals which got off the ark, then
why are there no living forms in the flood sediments? Why are
there no whales or dolphins found in Mesozoic and Paleozoic
rocks?
Conclusion
The Bible does not require a global flood, and the evidence goes
against that view. Local flood theories are Biblically acceptable
and observationally required.
References
Beal, Jr., R. S. 1997. Neither/Nor: An Evangelical Assessment of
the Evolution/Creation Controversy, Prescott: unpublished
manuscript, p. 70.
Balog,A., J. F. Read, and J. Haas, 1995. "Late Triassic
Milankovitch Cycle Record of a Hungarian Marine Carbonate
Platform Compared with Record from Italian Alps and United States
Rift Basins, AAPG-SEPM-EMD-DPA-DEG Conv Pap. Abstracts, 1995, p.
6A in Petroleum Abstracts, April, 22, 1995, p. 1313, Abstract #
596, 165.
Custance, Arthur C.,1958. The Extent of the Flood, Doorway
Papers, 41, (Ottawa: Privately Published)
Fischer,Alfred G., and Lillian T. Roberts, 1991. "Cyclicity in
the Green River Formation (Lacustrine Eocene) of Wyoming,"
Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, 61:7, December 1991.,
Fischer,Alfred G. and Calvin Lee, 1993. "Milankovitch Signature
in the Catskill Delta," Annual GSA Meeting, Abstracts with
Programs, Vol. 25, No. 6, 1993,page A-112
Morton, Glenn R. 1980, "Prolegamena to the Study of the
Sediments", Creation Research Society Quarterly, 17:3:162-167
glenn
Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm