ABSTRACT: Glenn's 5.5 mya Mediterranean Flood theory, while it has
the advantage of a major, historically verified Flood, suffers from
a number of serious Biblical and scientific defects. One of Glenn's
main sources cited is Hsu K.J., "When the Mediterranean Dried Up",
Scientific American, Vol. 227, December 1972, pp27-36. However, it
is clear from this article that the bottom of the dried-up
Mediterranean basin, before its infilling 5.5 mya, was a vast salt
lake with no fresh water and temperatures in excess of 35 degrees C
(95 degrees F). Hsu likens the dessicated Mediterranean sea-floor as
a Dead Sea or Death Valley, only worse, since it was 10,000 feet
(nearly 2 miles) below sea level - indeed he describes it as a "deep,
dry, hot hell".
The idea of Noah and his countrymen chosing to live in such a hostile
environment (even if they could), when 200 miles to the North or
South, on Europe or Africa there was a far more hospitable savannah
climate, is far too implausible for serious consideration. This is
especially so when one of Glenn's main reasons for rejecting a
Mesoptamian Flood is that even a local flood would have left
sediment, but no such sediment has been found by geologists. As I
have pointed out, there are Biblical reasons to doubt that there was
any such sediment, but in any event, Hsu notes that the sediment left
by the 10,000 foot Mediterranean flood was only five inches thick!
* * *
In your web page "A Theory for Creationists" defending your thesis of
a 5.5 may old Flood (http://members.gnn.com/GRMorton/dmd.htm), you
state:
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Was the Mediterranean dry?
This is the currently accepted view of the geologic history of the
Mediterranean region. (Hsu, 1972, 1974; Hsu et al, 1977; Hsu, 1983).
The evaporation of the Mediterranean region is such that if you built
a dam across the Strait of Gibraltar today, the entire sea would
evaporate in 1000-4000 years. The evidence Hsu cites are many.
Caves are eroded into the limestones which form Malta down to a depth
of 2000 meters and deep karsts are found in Yugoslavia (Hsu, et al,
1974, p. 140; Hsu, 1983, p. 175). Rivers cut canyons as deep as
3,000 meters below sea level along the Rhone in southern France, the
Nile, in Italy, Corsica, Sardinia, and Libya.(Hsu, et al, 1973, p.
243) Desert deposited alluvial fans were drilled into at the base of
the Miocene (Hsu, 1983, p. 149). Desiccation cracks filled with salt
were found (Hsu et al, 1974, p. 139) The fauna below the desert
deposits were deep ocean sediments. These were overlain by salt,
anhydrite, limestone and other desert-like deposits with animals
indicating a hypersaline environment. (Hsu et al, 1977, p. 401).
These in turn are overlain once again by animals which could only
have lived in excess of 1000 m of water (Hsu et al, 1973, p. 240; see
also Robertson et al, 1995, p. 233). The European fauna from the
time of the Mediterranean desiccation changed from a forest to a
savannah environment as the climate dried up (Hsu, et al, 1974, p.
141). Hippopotami walked down the Nile and up onto Cyprus during
this time. (Hsu, 1983, p. 177). Since Hippopotami do not live in
the ocean, they could not have swum to Cyprus. Chicken-wire dolomite
is a type of rock which is only deposited if the temperature is above
35 deg C. Chicken-wire dolomite is found on the bottom of the
Mediterranean where today the water temperature is near freezing.
(Hsu, 1983, p. 14) Finally, stromatolites, a type of algal
precipitated rock is found on the bottom of the Mediterranean,
several thousand meters below the present sea level. Stromatolites
are only deposited when the water is less than 10 meters deep! (Hsu,
1983, p. 14-17)
Thus there is lots of geologic evidence that the Mediterranean was
once a desert. The most fascinating thing about this is that very
shortly after this time the earliest hominids are found in the fossil
record!
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I have finally read one of your main sources: Hsu K.J., "When the
Mediterranean Dried Up", Scientific American, Vol. 227, December
1972, pp27-36. It actually presents even more problems for your 5.5
mya Adam/Noah theory because it shows that the bottom of the dried-up
Mediterranean was not only a "desert" but it was not fit for human
habitation prior to the last infilling of the Mediterranean 5.5 mya:
1. The Mediterranean sea-floor, where according to your theory Noah
and his countrymen lived, was a desert. You say:
"Was the Mediterranean dry? This is the currently accepted view of
the geologic history of the Mediterranean region. (Hsu, 1972, 1974;
Hsu et al, 1977; Hsu, 1983). The evaporation of the Mediterranean
region is such that if you built a dam across the Strait of Gibraltar
today, the entire sea would evaporate in 1000-4000 years...Desert
deposited alluvial fans were drilled into at the base of the Miocene
(Hsu, 1983, p. 149). Desiccation cracks filled with salt were found
(Hsu et al, 1974, p. 139) The fauna below the desert deposits were
deep ocean sediments. These were overlain by salt, anhydrite,
limestone and other desert-like deposits with animals indicating a
hypersaline environment. (Hsu et al, 1977, p. 401)... Thus there is
lots of geologic evidence that the Mediterranean was once a desert."
Hsu, in his article, states that the Mediterranean basin was a great
interior desert lying 10,000 feet below sea level:
"Evidence acquired on a recent cruise by the deep-sea drilling vessel
Glomar Challenger has revealed that six million years ago the
Mediterranean basin was a desert 10,000 feet deep" (Hsu K.J., "When
the Mediterranean Dried Up", Scientific American, Vol. 227, December
1972, p27)
"The Mediterranean must have looked something like this approximately
six million years ago, when the basin was a great interior desert
lying 10,000 feet below sea level. The Balearic abyssal plain was
then a salt lake where evaporite minerals, including rock salt, were
precipitated..." (Hsu K.J., 1972, p30).
The idea that Noah and his countrymen, lived in a desert, "10,000
(nearly 2 miles) feet below sea level", in what must have been one of
the most inhospitable places on Earth, when only a couple of hundred
miles north or south, up on what is today's European or African
continent, the climate would have been much better (ie. "savannah").
2. There was no fauna on the dried up Mediterranean seafloor (apart
from the hardiest marine fauna) where Noah and his countrymen would
have had to live. The dried up Mediterranean seafloor, was in its
last stages of desiccation, as you indicate "a hypersaline
environment". Indeed, From 6 mya until the infilling 5.5 mya, all
but the hardiest marine fauna left the drying Mediterranean basin:
"Six million years ago a biological revolution swept across the
Mediterranean Sea. The ancient marine fauna of the Mediterranean,
descendants of mixed races from the Atlantic and Indian oceans,
effected an unorganized mass exodus to find a refuge west of
Gibraltar. Those that remained were soon to face annihilation,
except for some hardy species that could tolerate the deteriorating
environment." (Hsu K.J., "When the Mediterranean Dried Up",
Scientific American, Vol. 227, December 1972, p27).
"One could imagine the gradual shrinkage of the Mediterranean and the
increasing salinity of its waters, with the death of all normal
marine animals except for some dwarf species of clams and snails
tolerant of supersaline conditions."(Hsu K.J., 1972, p29).
"We saw evidence in our cores of the gradual deterioration of the
Mediterranean environment, the advancing stagnation of its waters,
the inevitable extinction of its bottom-dwellers, the struggle for
existence by its swimming and floating population and the evolution
of a hardy race that could survive widely changing salinities. We
saw a change from an inland sea to a series of great lakes, and we
saw their desiccation and the complete extermination of the fauna and
flora at the bottom of the Miocene Death Valleys, 10,000 feet below
sea level." (Hsu K.J., 1972, p34)
2. The bottom of the seabed where Noah and his countrymen would have
lived would have consisted mainly of dried up salt lakes, which would
have made agriculture impossible.
You indicate that "Desiccation cracks filled with salt were found".
But Hsu's article indicates the entire Mediterranean floor was
covered with salt:
"it was found that the Mediterranean floor is underlain by an array
of pillar-like structures, each a few miles in diameter and hundreds
or thousands of feet high, protruding into the beds of sediments [see
top illustration on next page]. Geophysicists were familiar with
structures of this type; they looked very much like salt domes. Salt
domes are formed after rock salt from a deeply buried mother bed has
forced its way upward into overlying sediments." (Hsu K.J., 1972,
p27)
"One could imagine the gradual shrinkage of the Mediterranean and the
increasing salinity of its waters...The inland sea would eventually
be changed into a salt lake, like the Dead Sea, where the brine would
be dense enough to precipitate gypsum. Continued evaporation would
eventually have laid bare the Mediterranean bottom." (Hsu K.J.,
1972, p29).
Indeed, Hsu says the salt would have been about a mile thick:
"Our drilling had barely scratched the top of a huge salt deposit.
The Mediterranean salt should be 5,000 or 6,000 feet thick, according
to geophysical surveys. This estimate is probably not too far off
the mark, since we were told that late Miocene salt formations are
present in Sicily and are several thousand feet thick. We now
believe the Sicilian evaporite represents a segment of the
Mediterranean sea bottom that was pushed up by mountain-building
movements a few million years ago." (Hsu K.J., 1972, p33).
Moreover, there was no evidence of an intervening layer between the
"salt" and "the deluge":
"After the salt came the deluge. The evidence is unmistakable from
our drill cores. We obtained the geological record from three drill
sites (in the Balearic, Tyrrhenian and Ionian basins), showing that
the separate parts of the Mediterranean were simultaneously flooded
and submerged under deep marine waters at the end of the Miocene
epoch some 5.5 million years ago." (Hsu K.J., 1972, p33)
3. There was no fresh water at the bottom of the Mediterranean basin,
which would have made human life impossible:
"Seven million years ago...Most of northeastern Europe was covered by
a very large freshwater to brackish-water lake that extended from the
vicinity of Vienna eastward to beyond the Aral Sea...named the Lac
Mer ...Just before the uplift of the Carpathian Mountains, which took
place roughly seven million years ago, the Lac Mer drained into the
Mediterranean, supplying fresh and brackish waters to form a series
of large inland lakes there. Laminated diatomites were deposited in
such lakes. Eventually the Carpathians rose and formed a barrier,
depriving the Mediterranean of its supply from the Lac Mer and
turning the entire Mediterranean basin into a vast desert. The large
fresh-water and brakish water lakes were reduced to shallow lakes and
playas where salt and various other evaporites were precipitated."
(Hsu K.J., 1972, p32)
"Distribution of evaporites under the Balearic Sea shows the
characteristic bull's-eye pattern one would expect in a completely
enclosed basin. The less soluble carbonates and sulfates, being the
first to precipitate, are found around the periphery of the basin;
anhydrite and gypsum are found in a narrow ring just inside this
outermost region, whereas rock salt, being the most soluble, is
present only under the central, deepest part of the abyssal plain,
where the last bitter waters must have been concentrated." (Hsu
K.J., 1972, p34)
4. The temperatures of the water at the bottom of the dried-up
Mediterranean seafloor was over 35 degrees C, which would have
ensured that no one would have (or even could have) lived there.
You mention "Chicken-wire dolomite is a type of rock which is only
deposited if the temperature is above 35 deg C." Indeed, Hsu says:
"Light-colored nodules evident in this Mediterranean rock core are
composed of anhydrite: a high-temperature form of calcium sulfate
that can only be precipitated from brines at temperatures higher than
35 degrees Celsius. At lower temperatures the low-temperature form
of the sulfate, gypsum, is precipitated. Anhydrite is formed today
almost exclusively in the sedimentary layers of the hot and arid
coastal deserts called sabkhas, where it is precipitated in the pore
spaces of sediments near the ground-water table. The high-
temperature form typically grows as irregular nodules, similar to the
limy concretions one finds in arid soils." (Hsu K.J., 1972, p28).
"Anhydrite is a variety of calcium sulfate formed at high
temperatures. At temperatures below 35 degrees Celsius in the
presence of a brine that is saturated with sodium chloride (NaCl)
anhydrite would be hydrated to form gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O). (The
hydration temperature would be higher if the brine were less salty).
Since deep brine pools rarely exceed 35 degrees C. in bottom
temperatures, anhydrite is formed today almost exclusively as a
mineral in sabkha sediments. Since it is precipitated in the minute
pore space of sediments near the ground-water table, it tends to grow
as irregular nodules rather like the concretions one finds in arid
soils." (Hsu K.J., 1972, pp29-30)
5. The bottom of the dried-up Mediterranean was 10,000 feet (nearly 2
miles) deep, which Hsu likens to the Dead Sea and Death Valley (only
worse):
"The Mediterranean abyssal plains are more than 10,000 feet deep and
the basin holds almost a million cubic miles of water. It was
unthinkable that this beautiful blue ocean should disappear and be
replaced by a series of Dead Seas and Death Valleys." (Hsu K.J.,
1972, p29).
"...the rock salt showed evidence of repeated solution and
recrystallization, much like the salt in the modern coastal salinas
of Lower California or in parts of Death Valley. The analogy, to
Death Valley can be carried a step further. We sampled red and green
floodplain silts and well-rounded arroyo gravels from a nearby site.
Those were carried to the base of an exposed continental slope by
flash floods from the mountains of Sardinia and were deposited as
alluvial fans fringing the salt pan. The similarity ends when one
recalls that whereas Death Valley lies nearly at sea level, the
floors of the Mediterranean desert basins were some 10,000 feet
lower." (Hsu K.J., 1972, p33).
"We saw evidence in our cores of the gradual deterioration of the
Mediterranean environment, the advancing stagnation of its waters,
the inevitable extinction of its bottom-dwellers, the struggle for
existence by its swimming and floating population and the evolution
of a hardy race that could survive widely changing salinities. We
saw a change from an inland sea to a series of great lakes, and we
saw their desiccation and the complete extermination of the fauna and
flora at the bottom of the Miocene Death Valleys, 10,000 feet below
sea level." (Hsu K.J., 1972, p34).
Hsu describes the place, where your theory claims Noah lived, a
"deep, dry, hot hell":
"It must of course seem somewhat far-fetched to imagine the
Mediterranean as a deep, dry, hot hell. We ourselves were reluctant
to come to that conclusion until all other explanations had failed;
the facts left us with no alternative." (Hsu K.J., 1972, p36)
6. The filling of the "10,000 feet" deep Mediterranean basin took
somewhere between "more than 100 years" and "a few thousand years":
"Even with such an impressive influx, more than 100 years would have
been required to fill the empty bathtub." (Hsu K.J., 1972, p33)
BTW, one of your objections to a Mesopotamian Flood is that a major
flood would leave sediment. Yet Hsu's drilling showed that the
sediment from the Mediterranean's 10,000 foot infilling of was only
"five inches thick":
"The first deposit is a dark gray marl five inches thick, deposited
when the basin was being filled up, followed by a white ooze with
local patches of red ooze." (Hsu K.J., "When the Mediterranean Dried
Up", Scientific American, Vol. 227, December 1972, p33)
"The Mediterranean must have looked something like this approximately
six million years ago, when the basin was a great interior desert
lying 10,000 feet below sea level...At the end of the Miocene epoch,
some 5.5 million years ago, an opening was breached at the Strait of
Gibraltar. The inrushing water of the Atlantic constituted a great
waterfall, which probably had a discharge rate 100 times greater than
Victoria Falls. Within a few thousand years the desiccated
Mediterranean would be filled to the brim, and deep marine sediments
would again be deposited on the Balearic abyssal plain." (Hsu K.J.,
1972, p30).
Assuming the infilling took 100 years, this would be an average rise
of only 100 feet a year, or about 3 1/4 inches a day. If it took
1,000 years, it would be an average rise of only 10 feet a year, or
about 1/3rd an inch per day. Either way, it wouldn't drown anyone.
7. Finally, one of your objections to a Mesopotamian Flood is that a
major flood would leave sediment. Yet Hsu's drilling showed that the
sediment from the Mediterranean's 10,000 foot infilling was only
"five inches thick":
"The first deposit is a dark gray marl five inches thick, deposited
when the basin was being filled up..." (Hsu K.J., 1972, p33).
On this basis, what Ramm says below appears reasonable:
"A local flood could come and go and leave no trace after a few
thousand years..." (Ramm B.L., "The Christian View of Science and
Scripture", Paternoster: London, 1955, p165).
Your Mediterranean Flood theory should therefore be abandoned. At
the very least, according to your own standards with which you
criticise other Christian apologists, to avoid misleading sincere
young Christians, I suggest you add a "Difficulties of the Theory"
section to your web page, which considers all the Biblical and
scientific arguments against it.
God bless.
Steve
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