On Thu, 13 Aug 1998 22:42:35 +0800, Stephen Jones wrote:
[...]
SJ>Basically, unless my maths is horribly wrong (which is always possible!), I
>showed that because of the limited 1.8 sq. mile cross-section of the
>Straits of Gibraltar, for the Mediterranean to be filled in a year, the water
>would have to flow through the Straits of Gibraltar at greater than 3600 miles
>per hour (ie. at nearly Mach 5)!! Yet Glenn had previously advised that water
>cannot flow faster than 20 miles per hour.
Ooops! My maths *were* "horribly wrong"! I have just rechecked this. It
should be 62 miles an hour (see below).
[...]
SJ>Since Hsu says it would take "more than 100 years" to fill the
>Mediterranean "at a rate of 10,000 cubic miles per year" (Hsu, 1972,
>p33), to fill it "in a year" would require a rate of 1,000,000 cubic
>miles per year! That is 2,739.7 cubic miles a day, 114.1 cubic miles
>an hour or 1.9 cubic miles a second.
This is where I went wrong. It should read "1.9 cubic miles a" *minute*! I
had already worked out the miles per hour figure, so there was no need to
go lower.
[...]
SJ>That is, 8 mi x 0.23 mi = 1.8 sq. mi. Now for it to be
>"filled in a year" that would require a whole mile of water
>flowing through *each second*, ie. 3600 miles per hour! And
>remember this is the *average*. The first water would have
>had to flow much faster than this, because as the basin
>filled, the existing water in the basin would slow the flow.
>So for it be "filled in a year", it would require an initial
>rate of flow of far greater than 3600 miles per hour. Yet you
>pointed out that "Water has NEVER been observed to flow faster
>than 20 miles per hour":
The actual velocity of 114.15 cubic miles squeezing through a 1.84 sq.
miles cross section is an *average* of about 62.04 miles an hour.
This is still more than *three times* the maximum velocity that Glenn
claims water has been observed to flow at. Unless Glenn can come up with
a faster flow rate or show my maths is wrong (which is still possible), then
this is still the coup de grace to his 5.5 mya Mediterranean Flood theory.
There is also another problem for Glenn anyway. Glenn equates the
"springs of the deep" with the breaking of the natural dam across the Strait
of Gibraltar. But the Bible says that these were "closed" after 150 days:
"The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days. But God
remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with
him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.
Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been
closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. The water receded
steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water
had gone down..." (Gn 7:24-8:3)
150 days is only 41.1% of a year. So the Mediterranean had to be filled in
*150* days to agree literally with the Biblical story (which is the whole
point of the excercise).
But to fill the 1 million cubic miles Mediterranean basin in only 150 days
would require a rate of 1,000,000 cubic miles*150 = 6666.7 cu. mi. per
day, or 277.78 cubic miles an hour. That is 277.78/1.84 = 150.97 miles per
hour. That is 7.5 times as fast as the 20 miles per hour that Glenn claims
water has ever been observed to flow at!
[...]
Steve
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen E (Steve) Jones ,--_|\ sejones@ibm.net
3 Hawker Avenue / Oz \ senojes@hotmail.com
Warwick 6024 ->*_,--\_/ Phone +61 8 9448 7439
Perth, West Australia v "Test everything." (1Thess 5:21)
--------------------------------------------------------------------