Article #6 on Noah's Flood & Science
Although the floodwater increased upon the earth for a total of 150 Days, according to Genesis 7:24, the timeline provided in Scripture indicates that there were two distinct phases of flooding. Do you know there is a biblical timeline of the worldwide flood? Both dates and days are provided as follows:
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Date #1: Gen. 7:11 |
40 Days: Gen. 7:4, 12, 17 |
These details are provided in the Bible so interpreters can map out the major events of the flood because this has theological, meteorological, and geological implications. The two phases of flooding can be discerned by the count of days provided in the timeline: 40 Days & 150 Days. These days correspond with the events marked on Date #1 and Date #2. In summary, the first 40 Days of slow flooding were followed by 110 Days of rapid cataclysmic flooding (Gen. 7:4, 12, 24). The killing time was followed by a cleansing time of baptismal waters.
A detailed analysis of what happened in the first 40 Days of the flood is provided in Article #1 entitled: Reconciling the Geophysics and Meteorology of the Flood & the Recession to the Biblical Timeline. Assuming that you have read and agree with this article, you now see how rain was weaponized for the killing time of sinners during the first 40 Days of the flood (Gen. 7:4; Ps. 104:35). However, the creation of rain for this purpose does not omit the importance of the geological event called, the BREAKING UP and STOPPING of the fountains of the great deep, according to Genesis 7:11 and Genesis 8:2. A worldwide flood would have been impossible without the fountains of the great deep! This is made abundantly clear in the subsequent 110 Days of the flood.
The floodwater was only rising ≈11.7 inches per day during the killing time of rain for the first 40 Days. Modern hurricanes and cyclones have done this in isolated locations without the help of fountains. However, immediately after 40 Days, and for the next 110 Days, the floodwater began to rise 154 feet per day (6.4 ft per hour) to an elevation of 16,971 feet. Floodwater like this worldwide could not have come from rainfall even if the atmosphere was completely saturated with water vapor. This fact can be demonstrated mathematically by the following equations.
“At 100% humidity worldwide, the maximum amount of water vapor that can be contained in the Earth’s atmosphere is 12,900 cubic kilometers or 3,100 cubic miles. In terms of mass, that is approximately 13 trillion kilograms or 13,000 billion tons of water. This may seem like a lot, but if this amount of water was poured out upon the Earth’s surface worldwide it would form a layer of floodwater only ≈1 inch deep.
However, of note, the mist / fog of clouds during intense rainstorms can be so saturated in one place due to winds that they sometimes reach 60,000 feet in altitude. But even if the entire atmospheric mass of 5.15 x 10^18 kg of air was replaced by water molecules (which is impossible, and it would make the earth uninhabitable), this would theoretically produce only ≈32 feet of water on the earth's surface. This comes nowhere near the 16,971 foot requirement for the flood in the Days of Noah. ” – Moses David, PhD in Chemical Engineering
This is conclusive evidence that the flood was impossible without the fountains of the great deep. Unless more water was added to the surface of the old world from somewhere, the worldwide sea level would remain the same. The rainfall would simply be recycled as it drained back into the sea through rivers, as stated in Ecclesiastes 1:7.
“All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.” – Eccl. 1:7
The fountains of the great deep had to be BROKEN OPEN! Massive amounts of water had to be injected into the sea of the old world through the BROKEN-UP springs that feed the seas (Job 38:16, Ps. 42:7; Ps. 135:6). Massive amounts of water had to be injected into the rivers of dry land through the BROKEN-UP fountains of Pangea (Deut. 33:13, Gen. 49:25, Deut. 8:7, Ezek. 31:4). For example, when “the fountains of the great deep” were OPENED in the wilderness of Sinai, according to Psalm 78:15-16 & Habakkuk 3:10, floods of water created two mighty rivers in the barren landscape of the desert (Ps. 105:41, 114:8, 107:35, 95:4). However, in contrast, during the worldwide flood in the Days of Noah, the fountains of the great deep were “BROKEN UP” rather than simply being OPENED. We are talking about a flood of about ≈693 million trillion gallons of water to be exact! Let me explain. The grounding of the Ark on Day 150 could have looked something like the following illustration.
The Ark was grounded on the mountain of Ararat on Day 150 of the flood when the floodwater reached its peak elevation – 26 feet (15 cubits) above the tallest mountain on earth (Gen. 7:20, 8:4). Evidently, Ararat was the tallest mountain on earth at the time, because the Ark was grounded on it while sitting in the water at a depth of ≈39 feet. Therefore, we can be sure that the flood had reached an elevation of ≈16,971 feet. Knowing the elevation of the floodwater, at ≈16,971 feet, enables us to calculate the approximate volume of water that was required to bring about the flood.
If our calculations are correct, the flood would have required ≈693 million trillion gallons of water, and there are only ≈348 million trillion gallons of water currently in the earth’s oceans. Nearly two times the amount of water in our oceans had to be added to the surface of the world to accomplish the flood.
Subsequently, during the recession, nearly two times the amount of water in our oceans had to be drained from the surface of the world. This is scientifically possible through deep underground oceans. The floodwater that came up through the fountains of the great deep was sourced by deep underground oceans (Gen. 7:11, 8:2). Hence, during the recession, the water went down the same way it came up.
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