While this is very old, and the 11,000 year date may be wrong, it does
illustrate that river floods do carry lots of sediment. If there had been a
widespread flood in Mesopotamia, there should be some geologic evidence.
Artefacts in the Nile vally have been found under nearly 40 feet of sediment.
"The investigations in the bed of the Nile confirm these views.
That some unwarranted conclusions have at times been announced
is true; but the fact remains that again and again rude pottery
and other evidences of early stages of civilization have been
found in borings at places so distant from each other, and at
depths so great, that for such a range of concurring facts,
considered in connection with the rate of earthy deposit by the
Nile, there is no adequate explanation save the existence of man
in that valley thousands on thousands of years before the
longest time admitted by our sacred chronologists.
"Nor have these investigations been of a careless character.
Between the years 1851 and 1854, Mr. Horner, an extremely
cautious English geologist, sank ninety-six shafts in four rows
at intervals of eight English miles, at right angles to the
Nile, in the neighbourhood of Memphis. In these pottery was
brought up from various depths, and beneath the statue of
Rameses II at Memphis from a depth of thirty-nine feet. At the
rate of the Nile deposit a careful estimate has declared this to
indicate a period of over eleven thousand years. So eminent a
German authority, in geography as Peschel characterizes
objections to such deductions as groundless. However this may
be, the general results of these investigations, taken in
connection with the other results of research, are
convincing."~Andrew White,A HISTORY OF THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE
WITH THEOLOGY IN CHRISTENDOM,I,( New YorK: George Braziller,
1955), 263
If nothing more, it shows how much sediment has been deposited since
Egyptian civilization began.
Some have suggested that if the Flood was in the Mesopotamian basin, that
repeated groundings of the ark would keep the ark from washing into the
Persian Gulf for the year that the account requires. I have just perused a
book Great Lakes Shipwrecks and Survivals by William Ratigan which says a
few things about such a possibility. A grounded boat must be supported by
two points of support. Doing this is bad for a boat. The Edmund Fitzgerald
may have been sunk in this manner.
When the ship sank, the most prevalent theory was that the boat was riding
two waves at once;
^wave
-----------
|---------/
^ | ^
V
force
The theory that the ship was probably riding two gigantic waves at once--one
at the bow and one at the stern- and that the unsupported weight of her
taconite cargon cracked her in half and drove her own gross tonnage of
13,632 pluse her iron ore load of more than 26,000 tons to the bottom in a
plunge that took only seconds, was popular, just as it has been in the days
of the Bradley." Ratigan p. 340
The application of all this to a river flood which requires the ark to be
repeatedly grounded is that the structural integrity of the boat would be
compromised. Wood is not as strong as metal and so it should break sooner if
it is supported at each end in a grounding.
Striking the ground is also a major danger for a ship. Lots of damage occurs
to the boat bottom when it strikes ground. The Elma "struck aground one
hundred feet in front of the formation named Miner's Castle by travelers,
because of its arched portal, turreted entrance, high windows, and other
fanciful resmeblances in sandstone." Ratigan p. 258
The Algoma landed on a rock which punctured her hull, sinking the ship with
the loss of 37 crew. Ratigan p. 267.
In 1905 a storm drove 14 steel carriers ashore. The Lafayette was blown on
the rocks and cut in two. The William Edenborn suffered the same fate. The
Ellwood was about to reach dock when a wave lifted her and slammed her into
the pier, puncturing her hull. The Mataafa had the rudder ripped from her
when she struck the bottom and then was broken in two by the waves when she
reached the shore.
Once grounded the waves mercilessly will pound a ship, grinding it over
whatever it is grounded upon and eventually breaking the ship up.
The view that the time element in a Mesopotamian flood can be solved by
grounding the boat is dubious at best.
glenn
Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm