"Using the Kilauea eruption as a model, Terrence M. Gerlach of Sandia
National Laboratory in Albuquerque estimated that the Deccan Traps injected
up to 30 trillion tons of carbon dioxide, six trillion tons of sulfur and
60 billion tons of halogens (reactive elements such as chlorine and
fluorine) into the lower atmosphere over a few hundred years." ~ Vincent E.
Courtillot, "A Volcanic Eruption," Scientific American, October, 1990, p.
85-92, p. 89
Now, the Deccan traps contain 8.2 x 10^6 cubic kilometers so the output
from the Deccan traps is:
30 x 10^12 tons/8.2 x 10^6 cubic kilometers = 3.658 megatons (Mt) / cubic
kilometer of basalt.
Now, as noted earlier, the various volcanic traps, which must have been
laid down during the flood (according to young-earth views) are:
Volcanics flood basalt flows
Ontong Java/Nauru 121-124 my 38-55 x 10^6 km^3
Kerguelen Plateau/
Broken Ridge 114-109.5 my 15-25 x 10^6 km^3
North Atlantic 57.5-54.5 my 6.6 x 10^6 km^3
Deccan Traps 65-69 my 8.2 x 10^6 km^3
Columbia River 6-17.5 my 1.74 x 10^5 km
Millard F. Coffin Olav Eldholm "Scratching the Surface: Estimating
Dimentions of Large Igneous Provinces." Geology, 21:515-18.
Basalt flows Volcanics flood basalt flows
Snake River Plain 16 my-present area .5 x 10^5 km^2
Parana Plateau Brazil 119-149my area 12 x 10^5 km^2
Karoo Basalts 166-206 my area >1.4 x 10^5 km^2
Siberian Platform 248-216 my area >15 x 10^5 km^2
~Paul C. Hess, Origins of Igneous Rocks, (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1989), p. 180
Ethiopian Traps 7.5 x 10^5 km^3 before erosion (estimated by me from the
data of. ~Paul Mohr and Bruno Zanettin, "The Ethiopian Flood Basalt
Province," in J. D. Macdougall (ed.), Continental Flood Basalts, (Kluwer
Academic Publisers, 1988),pp 63-110, p. 63)
All of this adds up to approximately 36 x 10^6 cubic kilometers.
so at 3.6 megatons/km^3 x 36 x 10^6 cubic kilometers of basalt = 1.31 x
10^14 tons of CO2.
Given that there are 1016 kg/ton this means that during the one year flood,
1.33 x 10^17 kg of CO2 would be released. According to my CRC the mass of
the atmosphere is 5.2 x 10^21 g or 5.2 x 10^18 kg. Thus the amount of CO2
released ONLY by the volcanic traps during the YEC global flood, is equal
to 2.5% of the entire atmosphere.
How does this relate to the present atmosphere? Currently we are
approaching 400 parts per million (ppm) CO2 in the atmosphere, yet the YEC
scenario would produce an atmosphere that had AS A MINIMUM a CO2 level of
25733 parts per million. Scientists are worried about a 600 ppm CO2 world
next century, the YEC post flood world would create such a hot climate
that all life would be destroyed. Yet amazingly, Creationists like Austin,
Baumgardner, Wise, Snelling, Vardiman, Humphreys and Oard think that the
post flood world would be glacially cold. (See "Austin et al, Catastrophic
Plate Tectonics" 3rd ICC 1994, p. 615 and Michael Oard, A rapid Post Flood
Ice Age," CRSQ 16(1979):29-37; Oard, An Ice age Caused by the Genesis
Flood, 1990 ICR).
Of coarse, CO2 is a strong greenhouse gas and young-earth creationists have
not given the thought to this issue that they should have. Their global
flood would choke Noah on sulfuric acid and then choke him again on the
CO2, and with an atmosphere so clogged with CO2, Noah would burn up. Venus
has an atmosphere with lots of CO2 and the temperature there is several
hundred degrees C.! But somehow, YECs want us to believe that the
postflood, CO2 rich atmosphere would be very cold. Is there any scientific
fact that will move them to reconsider their views?
glenn
Adam, Apes and Anthropology
Foundation, Fall and Flood
& lots of creation/evolution information
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm