Evolution Encyclopedia Vol. 2
Chapter 19 Appendix Part 2
WHEN THE SAHARA WAS A PARADISE Prior to the Flood, the world was a paradise. Consider for a moment new discoveries about what one of the most desolate areas on earth the Sahara Desert of North Africa used to be like in ancient times.
"Recently, researchers have learned that abundant fresh water lies beneath the enormous area of the [Sahara desert]. . There is abundant evidence that the desert did not exist in historic times . .
"In areas where even camels now turn away in despair, lush vegetation grew in historic times. Most of the Sahara was a land of lakes and rivers full of fish. There were meadows, forests, and fertile valleys offering sustenance for a large human and animal population.
"In remote areas rock carvings and paintings exist by the tens of thousands. The cattle wore disks between the horns as in Egyptians drawings. Some rock drawings show Phoenician work or influence. Pottery, tools, and polished stone weapons have been found in abundance. The desert did not form gradually over long eons of time. It occurred suddenly in historic times." Erich A. von Fange, "Time Upside Down," in Creation Research Society Quarterly, June 1974, p. 22.
"The largest desert in the works the Sahara, the very word, in Arabic, for "desert"is as large in area as the U.S. The Sahara wasn't always a Sahara. Twenty thousand years ago, glaciers covered much of Europe, and cool winds brought moisture to northern Africa. What is now desert was than a pleasant land with rivers and lakes, forests and grasslands." *Isaac Asimov, Asimov's Book of Facts (1981), p. 326.
"In extensive parts of the desert [of the Near East and North Africa], once cultivated soils are overlain by a thin cover of sand. Recently scientists have become aware that there is a vast reservoir of water below the Sahara, the only source of which could have been the heavy rains from the time before the disaster struck." Erich A. von Fang, "Strange Fire on the Earth, " in Creation Research Society Quarterly, December 1975, p. 131.
"The surface of the Sahara is strewn in places with milling and grinding stones from the new Stone Age. Biologists and other scientists believe the stones were used to grind wild grainlike grasses that once grew there." *Op cit., p. 329.
WHERE DID THE GLASS COME FROM? Before concluding this section, here is an interesting discovery. Immense heat on a large scale is required to fuse sand into glass. Consider this:
"In the Euphrates valley of Southern Iraq, exploratory digging was done in 1947. Beneath the many cultural levels covering many centuries even before the time of Sumer was a floor of fused glass. It was similar to nothing else except the desert floor in New Mexico after the atomic blasts. Intensive heat melted the rock and sand into glass.
"In the interior of Africa, engineer Albion W. Hart, traversed a great desert area. At one place he came upon a large expanse of greenish glass which covered the sands as far as he could see. Later he recognized the same type of silica fusion at White Sands after the first atomic explosion there.
The surface of the Gobi desert near Lob Nor Lake is covered with vitreous sand which is the result of atomic tests conducted by China. But the desert has certain other areas of similar glassy sand which have been present for thousands of years. The source of the intense heat is unknown. Similar sites are reported in Iraq.
"In the Mohave Desert there are huge circular or polygonal plies which are covered by a hard substance like opaque glass." Erich A. von Fang, "Strange Fire on the Earth, " in Creation Research Society Quarterly, December 1975, p. 131. [Supporting references are given in the article.]
After reading the above, you can see that the Creation Research Society Quarterly is well worth subscribing to! It ranks as one of the best Creation-science journals available anywhere. Address your inquiries to; Creation Research Society, P.O. Box 14016, Terre Haute, IN 47803.
WHERE DID THE LIMESTONE AND SALT DOMES COME FROM?Immense numbers of shellfish were killed in the roiling waters of the Flood. Their remains were laid down into vast limestone beds. The extremely rich soil of the world was laundered repeatedly during the Flood, and large amounts of salts were washed into concavities, which were then covered over by additional sedimentary deposits. There is no other possible explanation of these limestone beds and salt domes than that they were caused by a worldwide Flood.
"Why is most limestone in extensive and very pure sheets, some of it tens of thousands of square miles in area? In the Bahamas, it is over 3 miles (5 km) thick!
"There are many large, thick layers of salt on the earthsometimes 100,000 square miles in area and sometimes a mile in thickness. They are buried several miles beneath the earth's surface. Where are such deposits being laid down today? Certainly not in the Great Salt Lake. Sometimes this salt layer has bulged up like a big bubble to form a salt dome several miles high. One of the most surprising salt deposits lies under the Mediterranean Sea. A discoverer of the huge deposit claims that the Mediterranean must have evaporated eight to ten times. His estimate is probably low, but even so, why didn't a subsequent refilling of the Mediterranean basin redissolve the salt residue left behind from the prior evaporation?" Walter T. Brown, In the Beginning (1989), pp. 64-65.
6 - ADDITIONAL EVIDENCES OF THE FLOOD
After completing this chapter, two unusual books by the same author were discovered. Both contain geological anomalies; that is, geological facts which do not agree with scientific theories. Upon examining the books, it was found that much of the material dealt with information pointing directly to the Flood. This is why the data are not in agreement with the theories. In addition, some of the anomalies indicate a relatively short time span leading back to that flood.
The information in these two volumes consists largely of reprints of out-of-print scientific journal articles. Much of the material which points to a worldwide Flood will be surveyed below. A brief topical summary will be given, then what it may indicate (not always stated in the articles), then the book page references where the topic is found in one or both of the books, and the number of scientific articles quoted in those pages. Finally, a sample quotation or two may be given. Some of the quotations will be from the compiler of those two books, *William Corliss.
The two books are as follows: (1) *William R. Corliss, Unknown Earth: A Handbook of Geological Enigmas (1980), 833 pages. (2) *William R. Corliss, Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds, Submarine Canyons and other Topographical Phenomena (1988), 239 pages. Both volumes are available from the compiler at the following address: Sourcebook Project, P.O. Box 107, Glen Arm, MD 21057. He has produced a variety of interesting books.
To conserve space in the following abstract, the two books will be coded UE and CB. The first volume, being much larger, had the most material. But the second, when it dealt with a similar point, also had a worthwhile amount of material.
Iceberg seas once covered Arkansas, providing additional support for ice-age which occurred after the Flood. (UE, page 24 - 1 scientific article.)
"Icebergs similar in form and size to those that imperil the ship lanes of the North Atlantic Ocean were once carried by ocean currents into western Arkansas." *Science News Letter, 14:364 (1928).
Thick loess deposits in China, etc., consists of unconsolidated silt brought from elsewhere by wind or wave action. (UE, pages 105-116 - 5 scientific articles.)
"The district [covered by loess] within China Proper represents a territory half as large again as that of the German Empire, while outside of the provinces there is reason to believe that loess spreads far to the east and north, possibly in varying thicknesses." Frederick Williams, Popular Science Monthly, 22:243-248 (1882).
Erratic rocks and boulders found in coal, indicate they were moved there by some gigantic force. (UE, page 147-153 - 2 scientific articles.)
"Miners sometimes encounter erratic boulders in coal. It has always been a mystery how these rocks were transported to the embryonic coal measures. Ice-rafting, always a favorite carrier of erratics, hardly seems applicable in dinosaur-haunted tropical swamps." *William Corliss, Unknown Earth (1980), p. 147.
Fossil reptiles and fossilized vertical trees found in coal. (UE, pages 159-161 - 2 scientific articles.)
"The upright trees usually enclose in their interior pillars of sandstone, or shale, or both these substances alternating, and these do not correspond in the thickness of their layers, or in their organic remains, with the external strata, or those enveloping the trunks. It is clear therefore that the trees were reduced while yet standing to hollow cylinders of mere bark. (now changed into coal), into which the leaves of farms and other plants with fragments of stems and roots were drifted." *Charles Lyell, "On the Discovery of Some Fossil Reptilian Remains, etc.," American Journal of Science, 2:16:33-44 (1853).
"In 1959 Broadhurst and Magraw described a fossilized tree, in position of growth, from the Coal Measures at Blackrod near Wigan in Lancashire. This tree was preserved as a cast, and the evidence available suggested that the cast was at least 38 feet [116 dm] in height. The original tree must have been surrounded and buried by sediment which was compacted before the bulk of the tree decomposed, so that the cavity vacated by the trunk could be occupied by new sediments which formed the cast. This implies a rapid rate of sedimentation around the original tree." *F.M. Broadhurst, American Journal of Science, 262:858-869 (1964).
Thick layers of salt discovered at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea in 1970 by the U.S. drilling ship Glomar Challenger, indicating that at some earlier time the Mediterranean was dry. (UE, pages 217-219 -3 scientific articles.).
"So intriguing was the problem that the DSDP sanctioned a second trip to the Mediterranean in 1975 during which the ship put down seven carefully selected holes . . It underscores heavily the theory that the Mediterranean basins dried out almost completely a mere 51/s million years ago . . One problem posed by the evaporates [salt deposits] is their thickness, which is often thousands of feet. The evaporation of 1000 feet [304 m] of ordinary sea water leaves a layer of salt only about 15 feet [46 dm] thick. Therefore, whatever geological process created the thick salt layers must have provided several times the quantity of sea water now stored in the Mediterranean." *Peter Stubbs, New Scientist, 74: 704-705 (1977).
Geologic unconformities: Missing strata and thin vs. thick strata indicates that a catastrophe, rather than gradual deposition, originated all the strata. (UE, pages 219-224 - 4 scientific articles.)
"Many unconformities seem to record widespread catastrophism and geological revolutions of great significance in terrestrial history. Potentially more important to geological thinking are those unconformities that signal large chunks of geological history are missing, even though the strata on either side of the unconformity ["unconformity" = missing strata above, below, or to the side of the in-place strata] are perfectly parallel and show no evidence of erosion. Did millions of years fly by with no discernible effect? A possible though controversial inference is that our geological clocks and stratigraphic concepts need working on." *William Corliss, Unknown Earth (1980), p. 219.
Overthrusts: examples of older strata on top of younger strata. (LIE, pages 225-249 - 9 scientific articles.)
"When thousands of square miles of rocks, thousands of feet thick, are shoved bodily for up to 50 miles [80 km], there should be ample evidence of motion. Indeed, the rock layers themselves might be expected to buckle. But they do not; and geologists are still unsure of the mechanism involved. "*William Corliss, Unknown Earth (1980), p. 225.
Youthful rivers, deltas, and waterfall gorges point to an earlier massive Flood. These would be small rivers traveling through large canyons or valleys ("undersized rivers" they are also called), river mouth deltas which continue to grow and should be much larger if they began more than a few thousand years ago, and waterfall gorges that were begun only a few thousand years ago. (CB, pages 214-215 - 2 scientific articles.)
"Estimates of Niagara Gorge are about 4-5 feet (12-15 dm] per year, based upon historical records. At this rate, the Gorge is only about 7000 years old. However, in the 1920s, the middle of Whirlpool Rapids Gorge was found to contain a thick deposit of boulder clay, indicating that it had been partially excavated during the Ice Ages.
"The overall implication of the erosion of the Niagara Gorge is that the present river is young and that the Ice Ages terminated around 2000 B.C., give or take a few centuries for changes in erosion rate." * W. R. Corliss, Carolina Bays, etc. (1980), pp. 214-215; summarizing *Immanuel Velikovsky, Earth in Upheaval (1965), and Reginald Daly, Earth's Most Challenging Mysteries (1975).
Shorelines of earlier high-level of oceans in mountainous areas: 860, 1,150, 1,070, and 1,170 feet [262, 356, 326, and 357 m] in Scotland (350-351); 1,500 feet [457 m] in Nachvak south (p. 354); 1,100-2,580 feet [335-786 m] in southeastern Ohio (357);1,069 feet [326 m] in Lanai, Hawaii (p. 359); etc. Shorelines of earlier low (now submerged) ocean shore levels: 360-400 [110-122 m] and 550-650 ft [168-199 m] below sea level, west of Hudson Bay (p. 355). (UE, pages 350-364 - 9 scientific articles; CB, pages 77-79, 79-83 - 25 articles quoted or referred to.)
"In the heart of the Andes at an average elevation of 12,300 feet [3,749 m], extends the highest lacustrine [lake] basin in the world, the Meseta or Altiplano, on the floor of which occurs a succession of remarkable lakes. The largest of these is Lake Titicaca . . [Its saltiness and certain marine fish in it] strongly suggested that the present fauna of Lake Titicaca has survived from a time when the lake communicated directly with the ocean." *J.B. Delair and *E.F. Oppe, The Path of the Pole (1970).
Wind gaps point to an earlier Flood of incredible size (or to rising mountains after the Flood). These are large notches high up in mountain ranges which could only have been formed by wave action during high water levels. (CB, pages 208-209 - 2 scientific articles.)
"The wind gap is one of the strangest and most inexplicable features of the earth's surface . . I am not aware that any serious attempt has been made to construct a satisfactory hypothesis of its origin . . A long, straight, sharp-crested ridge, 1000 feet [305 m] high on a base two miles [3.2 km] wide, is here, not split by a fault, nor gapped by a stream, but worn smoothly through to half its altitude. The raggedness of the mountain crest ceases and smoothly rounded slopes descend to the smoothly rounded bottom of the gap which is lined with sand and gravel." *Carville H. Lewis, "On the Supposed Glaciation in Pennsylvania South of the Terminal Moraine, " American Journal of Science, 3:28:276 (1884).
Slanted high-level ocean shorelines indicating that at an earlier time extensive mountain building occurred (UE, pages 354 and 361- 2 scientific articles.)
"In the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec it has been found from actual levelings . . that the old shore lines are not perfectly horizontal, but that they slope upward in a northeasterly direction at rates varying in different regions from a few inches to a foot and even 2 feet per mile." *Robert Bell, "Rising of the Land Around Hudson Bay, " Smithsonian Institution Annual Report, 1897, pp. 359-367.
"The strandline [near Lake Titicaca] was carefully surveyed for a length of about 375 miles [603 km]. And then it was established that it is not `straight.' . . Its level showed a slant of a most peculiar character in relation to the present ocean-level, or, which amounts to the same, relative to the present level of Lake Titicaca." *J.B. Delair and *E. F. Oppe, The Path of the Pole (1970).
Submerged fossil reefs contain fossils of creatures that normally would be close to the surface, thus indicating earlier lower ocean levels. Some data on raised fossil reefs is also given. (CB, pages 73-77 - 12 scientific articles quoted or referred to.)
"Fossil coral reefs located hundreds of feet above or below the present sea level [have been found] . . [Significant here is] the restricted building activities of various marine organisms; corals, for example, cannot survive above sea level or below about 40 meters [131 ft]." *William Corliss, Carolina Bays, etc., (1988), p. 73.
Wave-planed guyots (seamounts) deep in the ocean indicate the oceans were much lower at some time in the past and kept filling with water, and, that at the time the ocean was filling, volcanoes had erupted at various sea-level heights. (UE, pages 365-372 - 6 scientific articles. CB, pages scientific articles. CB, pages 85-89 -12 scientific articles quoted or referred to.)
"Some one hundred and sixty, curious, flat-topped peaks have been discovered in the Pacific Basin between Hawaii and the Mariannas. They appear to be truncated volcanic islands rising about nine to twelve thousand fast [2,7433,658 m] from the ocean floor. The flat summit levels generally range from three to six thousand feet [914-1,829 m] below sea level. Some less well-developed ones are deeper. The flat upper surface is commonly bordered by a gently sloping shelf a mile or two [1.6-3.2 km] wide. The summit surfaces are apparently not all of the same age since adjacent peaks may have flat tops which differ in elevation by as much as a thousand feet, though in some cases groups of peaks do have the same elevation." *H.H. Hess, "Drowned Ancient Islands of the Pacific Basin," American Journal of Science, 244: 722-791 (1946). [Hess was the captain, during World War II, who initially discovered seamounts.l
Submerged ocean plateaus, often very large in extent and produced by wave action, indicates that the oceans were once quite shallow. (CB, pages 89-90 - 2 scientific articles.)
"Submerged plateaus, often of large areal extent, which stand out from the normal ocean-floor topography, morphologically and seismically." William Corliss, Carolina Bays, etc. (1988), p. 89.
Submarine canyons below river outlets indicate earlier lower ocean levels, at which time rivers were pouring large amounts of water into the rising ocean. (UE, pages 273-385 - 7 scientific articles. CB, pages 192-204 - 62 scientific articles quoted or referred to.)
"The major submarine canyons put the Grand Canyon of the Colorado to shame, for many are much deeper and longer. They cut deeply into the continental shelves and slopes all around the world. Some seem continuations of terrestrial rivers; other exist in their own right . . The submarine canyons are so much like ordinary river valleys that early students of the phenomenon decided that the submarine canyons must also have been eroded by rivers when the oceans were much lower. The objection then as now is the need to account for the removal and reappearance of a couple miles [3.2 km] of sea water. . Of the alternate theories proposed, turbidity-current erosion has been the most popular. . But have they been frequent and strong enough to gouge out mile-deep [1.6 km] canyons in solid rock?" *William R. Corliss, Unknown Earth (1980), p. 373.
Filled river bottoms. Many rivers in the world were once immensely deeper than they now arefrequently deeper than the Grand Canyon! Accumulated sediments have raised these river beds to their present height. At some earlier time, vast quantities of water must have rushed through those rivers. (CB, pages 202, 215 - 2 scientific articles.)
"Modern geophysical instrumentation has sketched out an immense buried valley filled with Pleistocene sediments below the present [Mississippi] River." *W.R. Corliss, Carolina Bays, etc. (1980), p. 215: summarizing *Immanuel Velikovsky, Earth in Upheaval (1965), and Reginald Daly, Earth's Most Challenging Mysteries (1975).
"Pontian regression has also been reported in Egypt, where the River Nile at Aswan cut a gorge 200 m [656 ft] below sea level. It should be recalled that Aswan is a long way upstream, some 1250 km (4,101 ft] from the coast; buried beneath the Marine Pliocene and Quaternary alluvial sediments of the Nile Delta area is a grand canyon comparable to the Grand Canyon of Colorado. Similar buried gorges have been found in Libya, Syria, Israel, and other Mediterranean lands." *Kenneth J. Hsu, et al., "Late Miocene Desiccation of the Mediterranean," Nature, 242:240 (1973).
"To the Russians' amazement [when they drilled into the Aswan Dam site] they discovered a narrow, deep gorge under the Nile valley, cut 700 feet [213 m] below the sea level into hard granite. The valley was drowned some 5.5 million years ago and filled with Pliocene marine muds, which are covered by the Nile alluvium. Aswan is 750 miles [1,207 km] upstream from the Mediterranean Coast. In the Nile delta boreholes more than 1,000 feet [305 m] deep were not able to reach the bottom of the old Nile canyon." *Kenneth J. Hsu, "When the Mediterranean Dried Up," Scientific American, 227:26, December 1972. [Data gleaned from a Soviet report on drilling in the Nile riverbed.]
"He [Stetson] has tested currents in the Georges Bank canyons and demonstrated that normal tidal currents are not significant as an erosive agent [in producing ocean channels]." *"Submarine Canyons," Geographical Review, 27:681-683 (1937).
Ocean floor flood channels indicate fast-running water on the ocean floor at some earlier time when it was first being filled. (LIE, pages 386388 -4 scientific articles; CB, pages 205-208 - 13 scientific articles quoted or referred to.)
"Southwest of Ceylon, the Swedish Deep Sea Expedition crossed five trough-shaped and levied depressions in an otherwise flat bottom which are probably striking examples of such [ocean-bottom] channels. Three of these are more than a mile [1.6 km] wide and 200-250 feet [61-76 m] deep. (By comparison, the Mississippi near New Orleans is half a mile [.8 km] wide and about 50 feet [152 dm] deep below its levees.) The sea floor of the Indian Ocean between India and Malaya appears to be a gently southward-sloping sedimentary plain. Foredeeps separate this plain from most of Malaya and Ceylon. thus the Ganges submarine canyon appears as a possible source for some of these deep sea channels even though it is 1000 miles [1609 km] to the north." *Robed S. Dietz, "Deep-Sea Channels," Geological Society of America Bulletin, 63:1244 (1952).
Deep lake floor valleys (in Lake Superior, etc.) indicate they were dry at some earlier time. UE, pages 388-389 - 1 scientific article.)
Mims mounds over broad flat areas in various locations (Western Washington, California, Alaska, Missouri, etc.) exist, and may be caused by water flowing out of flat valleys into restricted outlets. (UE, pages 391-426 -15 scientific articles; CB, pages 116-131 - 61 scientific articles quoted or referred to.)
"All these inland valleys in San Diego County have one thing in common: they have narrowly restricted drainage outlets. The great Central Valley of California has the same characteristics, only on a larger scale.
. . These mounds are gigantic ripple marks made by deep water flowing slowly out of these valleys through the narrow openings. The same thing can be seen on a small scale in any tidal basin where the outgoing tide leaves mud flats. The size of the ripple marks on these mud flats will be found to vary with the depth of the water and the rate of flow. The deeper the water, the larger the mounds." *Allan O. Kelly, Scientific Monthly, 66:174-176 (1948).
Pingos (ocean-floor mima mounds) are like mima mounds, but are on the ocean floor, and would appear to indicate an earlier time as the ocean was initially beginning to fill. (UE, pages 427-428 - 1 scientific article; CB, pages 144-148 - 9 scientific articles quoted or referred to.)
"This detailed survey [in the Beaufort Sea] revealed a large number of underwater mounds interrupting an otherwise smooth sea floor. . The mounds were generally irregular and asymmetric in form, with one side steeper than the other. The diameters of the bases averaged 400 m [437 yd], and the elevations, from base to peak, 30 m [32.8 yd]. In most cases a shallow (0 to 10 m [010.9 yd]) moat or depression surrounded the base of the feature. A total of 78 mounds was located in the survey area." *J.M. Shearer, "Submarine Pingos in the Beaufort Sea," Science, 174-81 s-818 (1971). Mme Beaufort sea probably has a restricted outlet; also see CB, p. 126.1
Prairie mounds are probably also leftovers from melting glacial ice after the Flood. (UE, pages 428-437 - 3 scientific articles.)
"Locally, the ground moraine of the western prairies is covered with till mounds. The moundswhich from the air resemble giant doughnutsaverage 300 feet [91 m] in diameter and 15 feet [45.7 dm] in height, and in most cases have a central depression which lies 3 to 4 feet [9-12 dm] lower than the outer rim of the mounds. It is believed that the mounds originated as debris-filled pits on a stagnant ice surface and that the melting of the ice left the pit fillings as mounds."*C.P. Gravenor, "Origin and Significance of Prairie Mounds," American Journal of Science, 253:475-481 (1955).
Channeled scablands indicate rapid water drainage on a massive scale at some earlier time. (UE, pages 437-440 -3 scientific articles; CB, pages 211-214 - 7 scientific articles quoted or referred to.)
"Anyone who has ventured into the channeled scablands of Eastern Washington is immediately aware that something unusual has happened to the region in the fairly recent past. The observer feels like an ant on the floor of a dried-up river bed. In a sense he is, but the river was immense and transitory. The debate among geologists about the cause of the channeled scablands was intense. When Bretz proposed an origin involving a catastrophic flood, he was ridiculed." *William Corliss, Unknown Earth (1980), p. 437.
Labyrinthine topography may indicate water runoff from the Flood. (CB, pages 218-219 - 4 scientific articles quoted or referred to.)
"Systems of erratic, interconnected channels cut into sediments or solid rock. There is some resemblance to interbraided channels and dendritic drainage patterns, but, generally speaking, labyrinthine topography is much more chaotic." * William Corliss, Carolina Bays, etc. (1988), P. 218.
Anomalous erosional topography also indicates earlier drainage. (UE, pages 441-442 - 2 scientific articles.)
"An area of some 18 square kilometers at the head of Wright Dry Valley displays an erosional terrain of unique characteristicsa labyrinthine complex of erratic, interconnecting channels cut to depths of more than 100 meters [328 ft] in bedrock. It is interpreted as a result of catastrophic fluvial erosion, probably analogous to that which produced the Channeled Scabland of eastern Washington [State], though on a greatly reduced areal scale." *H. T. Smith, "Anomalous Erosional Topography in Victoria Land, Antarctica," Science, 148:941-942 (1965).
Giant Saharan ripple marks indicate earlier major drainage. (UE, pages 443-443 -1 scientific article.)
"One of the most extraordinary features of the sandstones lying above and to the north of the glacial moraines, was a belt where the sands had been swept by powerful currents into giant ripples ten feet [30 dm] or more from crest to crest, extending in a formation up to 100 feet [40 dm] thick and stretching out for several hundred miles [kilometers]. Giant ripples are formed by tidal currents in certain restricted areas today, such as the southern North Sea, the Celtic Sea, and in the Strait of Malacca. But the ripples in the Sahara are of vast dimensions. Could they represent the decanting [outpouring] of millions of tons of meltwater from the margin of the Ordovician glaciated region during the melt period?" *Rhodes W. Fairbridge, "The Sahara Desert Ice Cap, " Natural History, 80:66-73, June/July 1971.
Ocean bottom blue holes appear to be from pelting rain at some earlier time. (UE, page 444 - f scientific articles.)
"The blue holes were first observed [while cruising in the Caribbean], he [Cousteau] said, when the Calypso was approaching British Honduras. From the surface they looked like giant tiddleywink counters lying in the depths. There were dozens of holes about 300 yards [274 m] in diameter, some strung out in lines up to 25 miles long [40 km] . . Closer inspections showed the holes were only a few feet deep just enough to make the cavities show up dark blue against their surroundings.
"The mystery is how these cavities were formed. Commander Cousteau theorizes that they were scooped out of the rocks by pelting rain back in pre-historic times when this part of the ocean floor may have been above surface." *Janet Gregory, "UFOs Ahoy!" FSR, 17:29-30, September/October 1971.
Desert varnish on rocks in various places all over the world indicate that the varnish may have occurred at the time of the Flood. (LIE, pages 480481 - 1 scientific article.)
"The deposits of varnish that are forming today are restricted to places that are wetted frequently. Boulders lying between the high and low-water stages of the Colorado River, for example, are stained; so are the sandstone cliffs where they are moistened by seeps. Such deposits suggest that the moisture requirements for deposition of desert varnish are considerable." *Charles B. Hunt, "Desert Varnish," Science, 120:183-184 (1954).
Ripple marks in Triassic strata in Utah from a flood. (UE, pages 485-486 - 1 scientific article.)
"Ripple marks is one of the most commonly observed primary features of sedimentary rock. It has been noted in rocks of practically all ages." *William Lee Stokes, "Some Unusual Ripple Marks from the Triassic of Utah," Journal of Geology, 58:153-155 (1950).
Ancient fossils in young rocks: unfossilized skull of a camel in Utah (pp. 636-637); Extinct pollen in late glacial sediments (p. 637); ancient extinct ammonites in young rocks (pp. 637-638); both ancient and modern insects in "ancient" amber (p. 639). (UE, pages 636-642 -6 scientific articles.)
"Radical changes in our ideas of the course of events in recent geological timessay the last half million years or somay be brought about by the discovery in Utah of the unfossilized skull of an extinct camel, with a bit of dried flesh still clinging to the bone. The relatively fresh condition of the specimen argues that its one-time possessor died only a few centuries or millenia ago; present ideas hold that this particular sort of camel became extinct a half-million years ago. If this camel really died so long ago, the bone should have been largely or wholly replaced by stone, and there should have been no flesh on it at all.
"The find was reported by Prof. Alfred S. Romer of the University of Chicago . . In his [Romer's] opinion the animal belonged to the genus Camelops, which is supposed to have been extinct for at least half a million years . . Prof. Romer states that other recently discovered remains of camels, lions and other animals in the West also hint at a longer survival of these extinct beasts than has hitherto been supposed." *Skull Promises Geological Upset," Science News Letter, 14:81 (1928).
Upright whale (643). (UE, page 643 - 1 scientific article.)
"Workers at the Dicalite division of Grefco, Inc. have found the fossil skeleton of a baleen whale some 10 to 12 million years old in the company's diatomaceous earth quarries in Lompoc, Calif...
"The whale is standing on end in the quarry and is being exposed gradually as the diatomite is mined. Only the head and a small part of the body are visible as yet. The modern baleen whale is 80 to 90 feet [24-27 m] long and has a head of similar size, indicating that the fossil may be close to 80 feet [24 m] long." *Workers Find Whale in Diatomaceous Earth Quarry," Chemical & Engineering News, 54:40, October 11, 1976.
Living and fossil marine life has been found far inland in continental areas. The book, Anomalies in Geology: Physical, Chemical, Biological, by *W.R. Corliss (1989), lists a number of these on pages 48-52. Here are some sample items: (1) Freshwater seals in Lake Baikal, indicates that that lake was once connected with the ocean. (2) Mummified seals in Antarctica. (3) Whale skeletons in Vermont; Ontario, Canada; Sweden (330 feet [101 m) high, 20 miles [32 km] inland); Norway; Michigan; Alabama. (4) Marine invertebrates living in fresh water in Lake Tanganyika, Lake Baikal, New York lake, Ross Ice Shelf, Lake Titicaca. (5) Salmon in northern U.S. lakes. (s) Sharks and Sawfish in a Nicaraguan lake (110 miles [177 km] from the ocean). (7) Herring and salmon in Lake Baikal. (8) Seahorses in Lake Titicaca. (8) Sponges and dead fish on Ross Ice Shelf. For details, see the book. [The existence of living seahorses in Lake Titicaca is questioned by some experts.]
Polystrate tree trunks, most of which are vertical or nearly so, indicate they were placed there by massive flood conditions. (UE, pages 644-647 - 2 scientific articles.)
"While those trees from Joggins [Nova Scotia, Canada, in Carboniferous strata] are much thicker than those described here [in western Colorado], it is believed that these Triassic plants were fully as long. In both localities, however, the tops have been broken off, thus making it impossible to get a true picture of the actual height
"Perhaps the most striking feature of the fossils is the evidence which they present of very rapid sedimentation. Although these hollow-stemmed plants, as now preserved, are about 20 feet [61 dm] high, yet they were rapidly and effectively buried before they could fall . . Another problem is how the sands got into the hollow stems to form the casts. Two possibilities are suggested. First, the tops of the trees may have been broken off after rapid sedimentation had buried some 20 feet [62 dm] of their trunks, and sand then had access to the hollow interiors. A second possibility is that they were completely buried before the woody structure of the outside decomposed, thus allowing for the formation of molds, which were subsequently filled with sand." *Edward L. Holt, "Upright Trunks of Neocalamites from the Upper Triassic," Journal of Geology, 55:511-513 (1947).
Mass extinctions of plants and animals at some earlier time are indications of the Flood. (UE, pages 655-661 -5 scientific articles.)
"The distribution and physical condition of fossils sometimes support the idea of catastrophism. The early geologists were greatly impressed with the bone caves and bone-filled fissures found in northern Europe. Ancient catastrophes, deluges in particular, seemed inescapable to Curier, Buckland, and their contemporaries. Bone caves have since been found worldwide. They are filled with immense accumulations of diverse, jumbled, smashed bones that certainly suggest environmental turmoil.
"Down deeper in the planet's strata are bone beds, bone breccias, and layers jammed with incredible concentrations of fossils. The bone beds and breccias are generally mixtures of unconnected bones." *William Corliss, Unknown Earth (1980), pp. 655-656.
Bone caves and bone fissures containing large numbers of washed in fossils. (UE, pages 661-670 - 4 scientific articles.)
"It seems desirable at this time to make a brief preliminary announcement of what is believed to be an unusually significant bone-cavern find recently made in the lower slope of Bishop's Cap peak in southwestern New Mexico . .
"[Interesting details of the discovery] . . From the foregoing, it would seem obvious that we have here the undisturbed occurrence of human remains in direct association with a number of animals regarded as extinct since the Plane period, and all deposited in such a manner as to preclude even the suggestion of their later intrusive burial." *William A. Bryan, "Ascent Bone Cavern Find at Bishop's Cap, New Mexico," Science, 70:39-41 (1929).
Note: There is a sizable variety of information given in the remaining pages, cited below, of Corliss' book, Unknown Earth, but we will not take the space here to sample most of it, since it was partially covered earlier in this present chapter and in chapter 17 (Fossils and Strata).
Immense fossil graveyards and bone breccia point us to the Flood. (UE, pages 670-681 -9 scientific articles.)
Fossils in concretions indicate flood deposition and later hardening. (UE, pages 682-683 - 1 scientific article.)
Frozen mammoths in Arctic muck are evidence of earlier massive extinction. (UE, pages 68394 - 5 scientific articles.)
Preservation of flesh of mammoths and other creatures is an indication of a short time period since their burial. (UE, pages 694-702 - 4 scientific articles.)
Anomalous dates for mammoth finds indicates a relatively short time period from their death till now. (UE, pages 703-705 - 3 scientific articles.)
Live, hibernating animals (toads and frogs) found encased in solid rock, iron ore, coal, and stones would indicate that the sedimentary strata is not as ancient as theorized. [Toads and frogs are able to hibernate for long periods if their body fluids are not able to evaporate away. No one knows how long a toad or frog could survive, encased in rock strata, but we can know that it could not be "millions of years."] (UE, pages 705-709 - 5 scientific articles.)
"The older scientific literature contains dozens, perhaps hundreds of accounts of torpid toads discovered imprisoned inside rocks and other geological cells apparently locked Bans ago. The testimony is profuse and generally rather consistent. Of course, the laws of biology and geology unite to disclaim such evidence; the hapless toads being sort of subterranean UFOs. The toad finders were mistaken or lied. Toads and other amphibians and reptiles do have marvelous powers of hibernation and suspended animation, but survival over millions of years? Impossible! Nevertheless, in the spirit of bibliographic completeness we do not discard these unbelievable data." *William Corliss, Unknown Earth (1980), p. 705.
Fossil algae and bacteria brought back to life, after being taken out of supposedly very ancient salt deposits. (UE, pages 709-711 - 3 scientific articles.)
"When they dissolved away the salt, they found that the coloration was due to species of algae entombed in the salt that they could not classify with any known kinds. They were then amazed to find that the algae began to show signs of life: they transferred them to various culture media, until they began to reproduce and to form large colonies. Moreover, the bacteria associated with the algae also apparently came to life again. The experiments were repeated on a large number of samples from different salt deposits." *Fossil Algae Brought Back to Life?" New Scientist, 16:187-188 (1982).
Biological evidence of extreme sea-level changes: buried forests on land (712-714); deep-sea remains of trees (p. 714); vegetable remains in the drift deposits of the Northwest (715-716); fossil remains from deep in the ocean, such as shallow-water shells dredged from continental shelf depths of 100 meters [328 ft] and more (716-718); shallow-water fossils on sea mounts (guyots) several thousand meters [feet] deep (718-723); marine organisms stranded in fresh water lakes after the oceans subsided (718-722); recent marine fossils and low-altitude plants at high elevations, such as whale bones at 330 feet [106 m] above sea level, and sea shells high in the Andes (pp. 723-733). (UE, pages 711-733 - 21 scientific articles.)
Flood legends among various racial groups and tribes (LIE, pages 813-820 - 3 scientific articles.)
It would be well of this point to summarize the material we have newly discovered in this appendix section, as that data might relate to events during and just after the Flood.
When the predicted rains came, they really came! Water poured out of the skies and pounded upon the ground. Ripple marks are found in various layers of strata as a result. The pelting rain produced what are today called blue holes in the ocean floor. Deep lake valleys were cut in the bottom of certain land areas today filled with large inland lakes.
Large ocean floor channels were formed as fast-running water began flowing over bottom land, which later sunk and became the floor of the ocean. Salts in the ground were dissolved and large salt deposits were laid down in various places. (The Mediterranean bottom salt deposits could have been formed as Lake Mediterranean dried out, later upheavals laid down new sediments over the deposits, and still later the rising oceans poured in through the gap at Gibralter, producing the present sea.)
Eventually the highest mountains were covered, and all that could be seen was one, vast shoreless ocean. Then, what would later become our ocean basins, sank and the continents began to rise. Shorelines of earlier high-level oceans left their marks as continents and mountain chains began to arise, pause, and then continue rising. Wind gaps in the highest mountains were formed as the oceans flowed through them as the mountains broke surface and continued to move upward.
Biological evidence of extreme sea-level changes were produced as shallow-water and marine shells were left on the highest summits, and recent marine fossils and low-altitude plants were left at what are now high elevations, such as whale bones at 330 feet and sea shells high In the Andes. As the waters subsided, marine organisms were left stranded in freshwater lakes, and their descendants are living there today.
As the ocean beds sank and continents began rising, billions of tons of water poured down through various channels into the ocean, producing grand canyons In river beds closer to our present oceans. Flowing down the continental slopes, the outpouring of water etched submarine canyons into those slopes.
The water run-off left behind it a variety of patterns and sediments, according to the type of soil, the terrain, and other conditions. Prairie mounds were left in western prairies, and mima mounds in flat valleys with restricted outlets to slow the outward flow of water.
Channeled land markings of various kinds were produced by faster flowing water as it hurtled toward the basins: channeled scablands, labyrinthine topography, anomalous erosional topography, giant Saharan ripple marks remained behind.
Pingos (ocean-floor mima mounds) occurred in seas probably those with restricted outlets into the larger ocean basins.
As the oceans continued to rise, higher areas in what is now our ocean beds were covered over and smoothed into submerged ocean plateaus by surface wave action. As the oceans continued to rise, newly extinct volcanoes were wave-planed into flat-topped seamounts (guyots).
On land, the surface tipped here and there as the continents continued to arise, causing our present slanted high-level ocean shorelines. Up and up, the continents continued to go.
Water, wind, soil, and rocks were thrown everywhere as Earth's biggest storm deepened. Layer after layer of sediments of various kinds were laid down. Immense rafted vegetation mats floated and then were covered by additional sediments, turning them into our coal beds with erratic rocks, boulders, fossils, and fossilized polystrate trees mingled below, into, and above those coal beds. Immense quantities of topsoil were mingled In with the rest, and sometimes floated separately, later to settle out as thick loess deposits. Immense bone caves, bone fissures, and fossil graveyards were formed. Fossils In rocklike concretions and bone breccia (bones mingled with dirt and gravel; later cementing together) also resulted. Geologic unconformities took place amid the turmoil, producing missing strata here and there, mixed-up strata, diagonal strata, and even upside-down strata. Overthrusts occurred as "young" strata was covered by "older" strata. As a result, "ancient" fossils and pollen are today found in "young" rocks, and vice-versa. The result included mass extinctions of plants and animals.
Then there were two or three pauses as ocean basin and continental masses continued to readjust positions. Shorelines of of what, to us now, were earlier low (now submerged) ocean shore levels were formed. Probably the lock-up of vast quantities of water into ice during glacial period that followed the Flood lengthened certain of these pauses, and produced earlier-discussed level markings on the continental slopes. Reefs with shallow-water creatures died as the sea-level began to again rise.
Lower-level shoreline marks were left behind as the waters continued to move upward. Trees were deposited in what is now the deep sea, Fossil remains, such as shallow-wafer shells were deposited in continental shelves now 100 meters [328 ft] or more deep. The remains of shallow water creatures were left behind on sea mounts (guyots) as the water continued to rise.
The frequent wetting by waters, filled with various dissolved substances, produced desert varnish on rocks. As the continents were reaching their full height, and, as the oceans continued to rise toward their present height, the effect of the thousands of spewing and exploding volcanoes produced such a darkening sun-screen that the Earth cooled and glacial action began to occur. Lacking the vapor in the sky, which previously kept the entire planet uniformly warm (as evidenced by remains of tropical plants now found in arctic regions), and then losing so much sunlight because of volcanic smoke shot into the stratosphere, water in the far north and south turned to ice and the glaciers began moving outward. This had a variety of effects on the continents, as it scoured rocks and deposited hills of laterial and terminal morraine in Temperate areas. Because of the cold, Icebergs traveled farther into tropical waters than they now do.
The full extent of the glaciers could have continued for a century. When intense volcanic action subsided, the glaciers rather quickly retreated under warming sun and the oceans again continued to fill upward toward their present sea-level. All this time, continental river channels poured their water down the sides of continental slopes. But as the oceans reached their full height, the bottoms of the "grand canyons" in the Nile, Mississippi, and elsewhere became lower than sea-level. Temporary fjords occurred, but gradually filled river bottoms resulted as rivers, carrying their continual load of sediments, filled these canyons and brought their rivers to their present riverbed heights. A variety of facts, such as those concerning the youthfulness of rivers, deltas, and waterfall gorges indicate that it has not been long since the Flood occurred.
The final portion of the mountain-building process may have been more delayed than indicated above, and extended beyond the time when glacial activity began. This would help explain the fact that floating icebergs were once in the lower southern portion of Arkansas, which at that time was submerged beneath the Gulf of Mexico.
None can know exactly what occurred back then. It is in the past and dramatic, unique, and chaotic events were taking place. But enough is known to help us fill in more of the picture than one might at first expect. Additional discovered facts on that period of time shortly after the time of the Flood will be found in chapter 35 (Archaeological Dating).
7 - THE WATER EXPLOSION
The most powerful event ever to occur in the history of our created planet took place during the worldwide Flood, described in the book of Genesis, chapters 8 to 9. Surely, in this present chapter on effects of the Flood, we ought to glue attention to that Genesis description.
According to Biblical records, only a few thousand years have elapsed since the Genesis Flood. That event is variously placed at 4200 to 6500 years ago; the present writer dates it at 2,348 B.C., or about 4,350 years ago. On that basis, the Flood occurred only forty centuries in the past. Figuring the average lifetime at 50 years, that would be only 80 consecutive lifetimes ago! Assuming that the oldest tribal members would relay the story of the Flood to their grandchildren, that would be a span of only sixty 75 years. It is difficult for the fact to penetrate our minds that the Flood occurred such a short time ago!
The book of Genesis was written in Hebrew, and the story of the Flood as given in chapters 6 through 9 is not too lengthy. You can read it through in a fairly short time. But in that account, there are eight special words. As we consider the implications of these eight words, we shall obtain a far better understanding of the immensity, power, and impact of that "flood of waters."
1 - FLOOD
The first of these words means "flood" in the English. Mabul occurs only eleven times in the Hebrew Old Testament. Each one refers to the Genesis Flood and all but one are in Genesis. You may want to read each one: Genesis 6:17, 7:6, 7:7, 7:10, 7:17, 9:11, 9:28, 10:1, 10:32, and Psalm 29:10.
The Flood was of such magnitude, with such powerful effects, that events before and after it were carefully distinguished (Gen 10:1, 10:32). It was so powerful that only God could produce it: "I, even I, do bring a flood of waters" (Gen 6:17). The waters continually increased for forty days during it (Gen 7:7). The promise was given that it would never happen again (Gen 9:11), therefore it could not have been a localized flood, for there have been large numbers of them in the intervening years.
The last passage in which mabul occurs is Psalm 29:10: "The Lord sitteth upon the Flood [mabul]; yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever." Read this entire 11-verse psalm. It is speaking of the immense strength of the Lord, and the assurance we can draw from that strength that He will care for His people. The climactic evidence of His strength is His mastery of the Flood, that event which was the greatest exhibition of God's strength since the Creation.
Mabul comes from the Hebrew verb yabul, which means "to flow copiously and with some violence." Other floods mentioned in the Old Testament are translated by a different word, setep, which is describing localized floods (Ps 32:6; Nahum 1:8; Dan 9:26, 11:22, Job 38:25).
The Genesis Flood was so distinct from all others that nothing equals it in immensity or sheer violence. For this reason, only one Hebrew word was ever used to name it.
2 - BROKEN UP
When the Flood began, something was "broken up". "In the six hundredth year of Naoh's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep [tehom] broken up [baqa] and the windows of heaven were opened."
What had happened?
Inside the earth were multiplied thousands of interconnected channels and springs of waters. These provided a vast watering system for the entire earth. As the first rains of the Flood began falling, this vast system was "broken up," or baqa. These channels and underground pools were torn open and ripped apart violently! Baqa means a "violent cleavage." We have not here a gurgling forth of an artesian spring, but rather the most violent bursting forth of hundreds of thousands of subterranean water sources! One example of this would be Eccl 10:9, in which a man cleaves a block of wood with an axe: a powerful, quick thrust followed by a bursting apart. The presence of baqa also helps to graphically explain two other historical events: As the Israelites approached the Red Sea, the waters burst aside to make room for their passage ("divides" Ex 14:16). As Korah and his associates stood defiantly, the ground beneath their feet exploded sideways, and they and their possessions fell into the chasm which had opened.
Proverbs 3:19 speaks of Creation, 3:20 of the Flood "when the depths are broken up."
Isaiah 35:6 and Psalm 78:15 mention the mighty miracle which occurred when Moses hit the face of a rock monolith with a stick and a powerful cleavage ripped apart, out of which pure water poured.
The Hebrew word baqa is used to describe the breaking up of the immense fountains of the great deep (tehom). Pictured here is a gigantic cleavage of the crust of the earth, with oceans of water exploding outward from those fissures in continual commotion.
3 - FOUNTAINS OF THE GREAT DEEP
Psalm 78:15, mentioned above, includes both the word baqa and tehom, just as we find in Genesis: "In the six hundredth year of Naoh's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep [tehom] broken up [baqa] and the windows of heaven were opened" (Gen 7:11). One would expect to find, in Hebrew, "fountains of waters" (mayim), but instead we are presented with "fountains of the great deep" (tehom). "Tehom" specifically means "water in violent commotion, making a great noise."
An understanding of these Hebrew words is enabling us to obtain a better understanding of what the Flood was like!
In Psalm 23:2, we are told about the "still waters," the mayim. But in Genesis 7:11, we are told about the tehom, not the mayim. Those of you who have lived near the ocean, as the present writer has, can understand something of the violence of large, rapidly moving waters. An entire earlier section of this chapter describes the destruction that storm waves can produce. Psalm 42:7 uses tehom to describe the turbid violence of those waves. Exodus 15 speaks of the intense destructive capacity of turbulent waters restrained by the hand of God (15:8), and afterward when they covered the enemies of God's people (15:5).
So in tehom we have a description of massive quantities of water in violent, turbid commotion!
4-RAIN
And then it rained. And did it rain! Yet we have already learned that massive amounts of water came from the ground even as the rains from above were barely beginning! The sheer massive violence of that up-thrust water hurled immense boulders into the air. As mentioned earlier, this was the most awesome event between Creation and the Second Advent of Christ which ever occurred in our world!
The rains came! And when they came, they only added to the fury of the cataclysm. "And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights" (Genesis 7:12).
What kind of a rain was this? There are two different Hebrew words for "rain." The first of these is matar. Most any kind of rain can be described as a matar rain. In Exodus 9:18 it is used of a very heavy rain; in Deuteronomy 28:12 of a light rain, and in Genesis 7:4, of the Genesis Flood rain.
But the primary word for "rain" in the Genesis Flood is gesem, not matar. A gesem rain is the most violent rain of all "And the rain [gesem] was upon the earth forty days and forty nights" (Genesis 7:12).
At the end of the three-and-a-half year rain of 1 Kings 17, Elijah prayed for rain, and a gesem rain came (18:45). So powerful was it that Ahab's chariot bogged down, and Elijah on foot ran past him. In Ezekiel 13:11 and 13, a similar torrent violently destroyed mortared walls. This passage in Ezekiel also helps describe what a gesem rain can be like: Both in verses 11 and 13 we are told that such an immense downpour is accompanied by violent winds and great hailstones.
The rainfall during the Flood was no gentle shower. Instead it was a gesem, the most powerful of all rains, accompanied by a windstorm of immense ferocity. It was the most terrible rain describable in the Hebrew language.
5 - EXCEEDINGLY
Unlike the first four words, which are less common in the Old Testament, the fifth is found in many parts of those 39 books. Meod means "exceedingly." The Genesis Flood was an event which could only be described by superlatives, and meod is an outstanding one.
Meod comes from a root word which means "massive strength." Twice it is translated as a verb ("might") and 23 times as different adverbs. One of these 23 is "exceedingly." As a sampling, here is where mend is translated by "exceedingly" in the Old Testament: Gen 7:19; 13:13; 17:2, 20; 30:43; 47:27; 2 Kg 10:4; Esth 4:4; Ps 119:167.
In Genesis 1:31, mend is found, where the Creator states that everything which has been created is "very [meod] good." In Hebrew, a word could be intensified by saying the word twice. A superlative doubled becomes even more powerful. Five times meod is doubled in the Old Testament. The first two are in Genesis 7:18 and 7:19:
"And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly [meod meod] upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly [meod meod] upon the earth; and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven, were covered."
It is obvious that "greatly" and "exceedingly" in these two verses do not express what happened strongly enough. They do not express the powerful doubled meod which Moses used to describe the Genesis Flood. It was an incomprehensible explosion of water everywhere! At first, there was relatively little water to be seen, and then, dramatically vast quantities of it soon covered the earth!
Another example of powerful multiplication is shown in Genesis 17:2, 6 and 20, where meod is also doubled. God makes a covenant with Abraham, who had no children, and promised to give him so many descendants that, the time would come, when they could hardly be counted for multitude. That promise was later to find a meod meod fulfillment (Gal 3:29; Rev 7:9).
The immense increase of water is described by a doubly emphatic superlative, meod meod, which is used on only one other occasion in the Old Testament. Maximum emphasis was used to describe the maximum flood.
8 - PREVAIL
There is a sixth special word that is used to describe the Flood. Four times it is used, and a study of that word will help us better understand conditions during that earth-shaking event.
Gabar means "to be strong, great, mighty." When used in the Qal stem, it becomes an extra-powerful word meaning "to overcome, prevail, conquer." Everywhere this verb is used in describing the Genesis Flood, it is translated "prevail." We find it in Genesis 7:18, 19, 20, and 24. Each time it is rendered more forceful by being in the Qal stem.
Of all the times that gabar is used in the Old Testament, only nine times is it placed in the stronger Qal stem. Five of these times are in Genesis 7 (listed above). The other four occurrences will greatly help us understand the meaning of this word.
In Genesis 49:26, while blessing Joseph, Jacob says that this blessing prevails over the blessings given by his ancestors. It is greater than the earlier blessings; it covers them up. In Exodus 17:11, when Moses' hands were held up, Israel prevailed in battle against the Amalekites. They were "gabaring" them; overwhelming, conquering them. One powerful force was overcoming another one.
In 2 Samuel 1:23, David laments that his fallen friend, Jonathan, was stronger than lions; that he could prevail over them. Once again, one force is conquering another one. In Job 21:7, the wicked overcome the righteous.
In Genesis 7:18, 19, 20, and 24, we find the water overcoming the land, conquering it, and completely covering it up. This was no mere local flood! It was worldwide, and all the world was covered with water! The land was entirely overcome by the water. "The waters prevailed" pictures a conflict between the waters and the land, and the waters became the victor.
7 - UPWARD
In trying to understand the meaning of milemaelah, we shall learn something very important about the Flood: its depth.
Genesis 7:19-20 states: "And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fiteen cubits upward (milemaelah) did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered."
Verse 19 tells us that every high hill was covered, and verse 20 says that the Flood was only 15 cubits (about 10 yards) deep!
Of the other uses of this Hebrew word, only in one other place was it used in a numerical measurement sense. In Genesis 6:16, Noah is building the Ark, and he is told: "A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shall thou finish it above (milemaelah); and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it."
What technical dimension is discussed here? What does this Hebrew word mean?
Milemaelah comes from a root word, ma'aL" Written as Mima'al, it means "higher, the higher part." The word can have a prefix, mi(n), which renders it "from above." It can also have a suffix, ah, which indicates direction. It can also have a prefix, le, ("to") which renders it "upwards." But, in Genesis 7:20 and 6:16 it has the two prefixes and the suffix also! What does it mean, then, in Genesis 7:20 and 6:16?
In these two passages, milemaelah literally means "from the above," "from the thing that is above," or "from the top." Now we can understand the depth of the Flood!
In Genesis 6:16, that which was above the window was the top of the Ark. God was telling Noah to finish the window so that it would be not over one cubit from the top of the Ark. He well knew that the Ark would float low in the water and that window would need to be placed high in the side of the Ark. With that window high up, the second and third decks of the Ark would be placed below that window.
Genesis 7:20 would then mean this: "Fifteen cubits from the top of the ark did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered." The waterline of the Ark, as it rode the Flood came halfway up to the 30-cubit-tall Ark! The verse adds the fact that the waters also covered the mountains. The 15-cubit dimension does not, therefore, refer to flood depth (from the surface of the earth to the surface of the water), but instead to the draft of the Ark as it floated on the flood waters. The surface of the ocean was not 15 cubits above the land, but the depth of water (draft) needed for the Ark to float.
8 - CONTINUALLY
We have here another key word to our understanding of the Genesis Flood. "The waters returned from off the earth continually (halok wesoo), and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated" (Genesis 8:3). "The waters decreased continually (halok wehisor) until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen" (Genesis 8:5).
In these words are described another powerful portrayal of the immense turbulence of the Flood waters.
In Genesis 8:3, "continually" is a translation of two Hebrew verbs: sub, which means "to turn about, to return," and halak, which means "to go." Together they present us with a graphic picture of the powerful churning action of the flood waters! A going is followed by a returning. Both verbs are set in the infinitive absolute form, indicating emphasis and duration. The flood waters did not tranquilly seep into the soil. This was a moving Flood, carrying back and forth vast amounts of water, soil, vegetation, and sediments. Gradually, layer after layer of sediments, vegetation, and other materials were laid down and covered over. The infinitive form means that it kept happening over a period of time (instead of only once if the imperfect form had been used).
Terrific hydraulic forces were at work. Massive erosional and depositional actions were taking place.
Then, a new action began in Genesis 8:5, as the first mountain tops were seen. The waters now decreased continually (halok wehisor). We now have a different pair of Hebrew infinitive verbs translated as "continually." The result is that the meaning has changed from "returning" to "lessening." The wave action continued, but now the reciprocal return action was no longer taking place. Literally miles of material were deposited by the flood waters during this astounding event, called the Genesis Flood.
From this eighth word, we learn that massive erosional and depositional activity took place, and that much of it apparently occurred after the first 40 days when the rain stopped falling. An immense commotion of water capable of fantastic erosional and depositional action took place.
The preceding study was based on "The Hebrew Flood Even More Devastating than the English Translation Depicts," by G. Russell Akridge (Creation Research Society Quarterly, March 1981). Akridge is not only a scientist at home with complex mathematical formulas, but also with detailed Biblical studies.
EFFECTS OF THE FLOOD
CHAPTER 19
STUDY AND
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1 - Discuss and contrast the theory of
uniformitarianism, and the fact of catastrophism.
2 - Select one of the following topics and write a
half-page report on how it points to a former worldwide Flood: (1) the
existence of sedimentary strata and fossils; (2) why smaller, slower fossils
are found lower in the strata and larger, faster ones are found at higher
levels; (3) the fact that fossil deposits were laid down so rapidly; (4) the
fact that, beginning with the lowest fossil strata, the Cambrian, there is
such a vast amount of fossils; yet below it there is next to nothing; (5)
the existence of polystrate trees; (6) coal and oil deposits; (7) the origin
of graded bedding; (8) unity of the strata; (9) strata sequence and
overthrusts.
3 - There are evidences of
what conditions were like before the Flood. In a brief paragraph or two,
discuss one of the following: (1) pre-Flood climate; (2) pre-Flood
atmosphere; (3) pre-Flood oceans.
4 - The Flood affected the
entire world, and it was mentioned in later records. Select one of the
following topics and write a half-page article on
it: (1) Flood stories; (2) Noah's name in world languages; (3) the Flood in
Chinese; (4) the size of Noah's Ark in the Biblical record; (5) Flood
chronology in the Biblical record.
5 - The Flood exerted the most powerful effects on
our planet of any event since the six-day Creation. Select one of the
following topics and write one or several paragraphs explaining how one of
these effects points us to the Flood: (1) continental shelves; (2) seamount
corals; (3) submarine canyons; (4) existence of the oceans; (5) submarine
canyons; (6) higher lakes; (7) larger rivers; (8) immense erosion and
sedimentation; (9) sedimentary strata; (10) varve dating; (11) dinosaurs;
(12) mountain building; (13) subterranean streams; (14) volcanism; (15)
volcanic pollutants; (16) glaciation; (17) increased tropical rainfall for a
time afterward; (18) sudden warming.
6 - On the basis of the information supplied here,
write your own Flood model, indicating the possible sequence of events
during and after the Flood.
You have just completed
APPENDIX 19-B-
NEXT
Go to the next chapter in this
series,
CHAPTER 20- THE CREATOR'S HANDIWORK: AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES