A. Geologic History According to the Bible
1. God created an originally perfect world, teeming with life, without death or predation, with man as its ruler. (Genesis 1:26-31)
2. The only event since creation involving global-scale geological upheaval mentioned in Scripture is the Genesis Flood.
B. The Error--Uniformitarianism
Uniformitarianism assumes that most of the geological record can be understood in terms of present-day processes and rates. “The present is the key to the past” is the uniformitarian mantra.
C. The Reality of the Flood From Other Written Sources
The Flood is by far the single most widely documented event of ancient history.
D. An Overview of the Geological Record
1. Thick layers of fossil-bearing sediments blanket the continents.
2. Relatively little sediment covers the ocean bottoms.
3. The continents have moved apart by thousands of miles since fossil-bearing sediments began to be deposited on them.
E. Some Evidences For Global Water Catastrophe
1. Layer upon layer of sediment through much of the geological record whose lateral dimensions and internal characteristics require rapid and coherent global-scale processes.
2. Continuous sheets of coarse sediment, thousands of miles in lateral extent, absolutely requiring high velocity water transport.
3. Staggering volumes of water-transported plant debris, today in the form of coal, deposited in continuous layers tens of feet thick covering tens of thousands of square miles.
4. Widespread evidence of animals suddenly and catastrophically buried.
F. Some Evidences for a Short Time Scale
1. Unfossilized dinosaur bones from many sites around the world.
2. Small amount of helium diffusion from zircon crystals in granitic rocks.
G. The Mechanism Responsible for the Flood Catastrophe
The mechanism was a tectonic one, namely, the rapid subduction of the pre-Flood ocean floor, in conveyor belt fashion, into the Earth's interior, aided by a potent instability in the deformation properties of silicate rock.
H. Main Geological Consequences of This Tectonic Catastrophe
1. Molten magma erupts to fill the gaps in the ocean floor as the pre-Flood ocean plates slide rapidly, like giant conveyor belts, into the earth's interior.
2. Steam generated from the magma in these gaps (corresponding to today’s mid-ocean ridges) erupts violently into the stratosphere and produces intense global rain.
3. The volume of the ocean basins decreases and the global sea level rises dramatically as hot lower density rock replaces the cold denser rock comprising the pre-Flood ocean floor.
4. Sediment scraped from the pre-Flood ocean bottom accumulates at continent edges as the ocean plates plunge into the earth at the continent margins.
5. Intense water currents in the form of giant eddies, driven by the earth’s rotation, arise over the flooded continental areas as the global sea level rises.
6. Thick sediment sequences are spread in blanket-like manner over the submerged regions of continent, as these currents circulate over the continents.
7. Flow of hot, but solid, rock in the mantle, driven by sinking seafloor slabs, moves continents apart by thousands of miles and opens the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
8. Cooling and contraction of the hot, newly formed ocean floor begins to restore the volume of the ocean basins and causes the global sea level to fall.
9. Retreating flood waters erode and rework previously deposited sediments.
10. Zones of thickened crust, mostly at continent edges, bob up like a cork because of buoyancy to generate the present day mountain ranges.
I. Some After Effects of the Flood
1. Warmer ocean temperatures lead to more vigorous atmospheric circulation, more moisture carried to high latitudes, and the build up of massive ice sheets near the poles.
2. Rockies, Andes, Alps, and Himalayas rapidly rise to their present elevations.
3. Intense earthquake and volcanic activity persists for centuries.
References: (all are available at ICR)
Baumgardner, John R., "Computer Modeling of the Large-Scale Tectonics Associated with the Genesis Flood," Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Creationism, 1994, pp. 49-62, Creation Science Fellowship, P.O. Box 99303 Pittsburgh, PA 15233.
Baumgardner, John R., "Runaway Subduction as the Driving Mechanism for the Genesis Flood," Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Creationism, 1994, pp. 63-75.
Baumgardner, John R. and Daniel W. Barnette, "Patterns of Ocean Circulation over the Continents During Noah's Flood," Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Creationism, 1994, pp. 77-86.