Is there proof of a worldwide flood in the time of Noah? (continued)
Naturally occurring flood events may be caused by:
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excessive rainfall beyond the capacity of a watershed to sufficiently carry away the water
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tidal forces in which rising tide water covers land surfaces
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storm surges in which sea levels rise and water is driven over land by high winds
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tsunamis, in turn, caused by earthquakes
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changes in elevation or direction, including blockages, caused by avalanches, earthquakes, volcanoes, ice formation or meteorite impact
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Regardless of their causes, floods produce erosion and generate sediments that are carried by the floodwater. The continents of the world contain abundant layers of sedimentary rock consistent with their formation by a major flood event. According to Wikipedia, 73% of the earth’s current land surface is covered with sedimentary rock. This extensive deposition of sedimentary rock cannot be accounted for by processes observed today.
Photo credit: PIERRE ANDRE LECLERCQ [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)] The use of this photo does not imply endorsement by the photographer of the write-up accompanying it.
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Extensive deposition of sedimentary rock, such as occurs at the Grand Canyon, in layers of strata, is evidence for a vast flood event in earth’s history.
In the Colorado Plateau, through which the Colorado River has cut the Grand Canyon, the sedimentary rock layers are over 1 kilometre in thickness and range over thousands of square kilometres. Most sedimentary rocks are a mix of core rock minerals and detritus—materials from living sources such as sea shells and marine organisms that are mingled with particulate mineral matter eroded from core rocks.
In many exposed sedimentary rock strata around the world, the layers are stacked on top of each other, with no other material in between. The way these strata are aligned—no discontinuity—indicates consecutive, rapid depositing of those layers over a relative narrow time period.
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The continents’ vast layers of diluvial sediment, or sediment dropped by flowing waters, are evidence of a massive flood event associated with great upheaval of the earth. This explanation of earth history is called “catastrophism” because it suggests that the earth’s landforms are best explained by one or more non-recurring catastrophic events. The opposite view, called uniformitarianism, suggests that the earth’s landforms arose through gradual processes acting over long periods of time.
Uniformitarianism is an inadequate explanation for many geological features of the earth. Specific small catastrophes, called micro-catastrophes, such as the volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, and the flood that it triggered, have provided valuable insights into the forces that changed the planet at a time of macro-catastrophe (giant catastrophe).
The macro-catastrophe of a global flood connected with Noah has clear testimony in the Bible confirmed in the teaching of Jesus
(Luke 17:26,27)(1) and the apostle Peter (1Peter 3:20; 2Peter 3:5,6)(2). Further, a global flood is supported by the legends of many ancient tribal communities across the face of the world. The convergence of many details about a significant flood event in ancient records has been well documented.1 The consistency of these widely scattered records is best explained by an actual historical event within the past thousands of years that profoundly altered the physical form of the earth and human civilization upon it.
[1] The Deluge Story in Stone, Byron C. Nelson, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI (7th edition, 1978) – Refer particularly to Appendices I and II for an analysis of flood traditions
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