How did the waters of Noah’s Flood drain off the continents?

Creation Ministries International ^ | 1-9-17 | Mike Oard

[fishtank]

How did the waters of Noah’s Flood drain off the continents?

by Mike Oard

Many ask: “If Noah’s Flood really covered the whole earth, then where did the water go?”

This question has a simple answer, and once we understand what happened and how, we can see the reality of the biblical Flood all around the world.

As the ocean basins sank, thousands of metres of sediment washed off the continents, forming the continental margin. The floodwater is in the oceans

Actually, the Bible tells us where the water went. By Day 150 of the Flood catastrophe the floodwaters had risen until they covered “all the high mountains under the whole heaven” (Genesis 7:19). After that “the waters receded from the earth continually” (Genesis 8:3), a process that took about seven months.

As the water receded from the continents it must have flowed into the oceans. It only takes a quick look at a globe of the earth to appreciate that the water indeed sits in the oceans. The Pacific Ocean alone takes up almost half the earth’s surface (Figure 1).

[DoughtyOne]

I believe that at some point tectonic drift occurred. Looking at the continents today, you can see how they seem to fit as if they were separated at some point.

This could easily have taken place during the flood.

Lets say the planet was far closer to flat than it is today. The flood wouldn’t have needed to be 30,000 feet deep to cover the ground. As the flood wound down, ocean valleys developed and mountains were shoved up.

I would also like to address the idea of rain. When did it start?

Was there rain in the garden, or was the moisture provided more by dew and subterranean access?

The reason I ask this, is because until the flood, man had not seen the rainbow. God is described as providing it as a covenant between Him and man, as a reminder He would not destroy the earth again by water.

Was water mostly subterranean until the flood? Was water expelled from the earth as well as the sky? Was the tectonic shift related to all of this?

I don’t know the answer. So as you state, it is a matter of faith. There are many questions we’ll have for our Savior after we are restored to Him.

Until then, may the faith be with you.

[TXnMA]

"So the oceanic basins did not exist prior to the flood? The ocean floor was flatter?"

Right question!

All the Water on Earth

~~~~~~~~~~~

Water attains an equilibrium level.

1) Was there more water on Earth during the Flood?

or..

2)Did the ocean basins not exist prior to the Flood?

If 2), is dumb@$$ Ourd claiming that all the plate tectonic activity (aka "Continental Drift") that created our ocean basins (plus the volume displaced by erosion-deposited continental shelves) took place in a span of ?seven? months?

Scripture does not mention unimaginable earthquakes during that time.

~~~~~~~~~

Why do these ministerial imbeciles who have zero comprehension of physics insist on embarrassing the rest of us Christians by proclaiming their own ignorance thereof?

~~~~~~~~~

AFAIK, & IMO, the God Who created this universe:

has zero need for ignorant, "theologian" jack@%%3$ to "apologize" for what He did...

[TXnMA]

"Oard" -- profound apologies...

[thoughtomator]

> Why try to find a scientific explanation for something that is expected to be taken on faith?

Because the concept of metaphor - and for that matter, the concept of object permanence - is too advanced for many.

[Manly Warrior]

Most of us and virtually “scientists” have a barrier to understanding the whole of the creation. That barrier is a paradigm that insists what we see is what it was, of course, excepting that” long ago and far away ( 4.5 billion years give or a billienium) dust or what ever began coalescing after nothing went bang”.

The account found in the book of Genesis ( Beginnings) is quite radical when we peel back the onion. Here is a link to a theological description of the 6 days of creation. It happens to be from an Orthodox source, but truth is truth!

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/99285.htm

I recommend you read through each section several times, referring to your Bible and a good Hebrew lexicon as a help. The Amplified translation is a great help too.

Blessings!

[Oatka]

My thinking is that there was no flood aka the Bible.

IMO, either something collided with Earth, tearing out a large chunk of what is now the Pacific and/or the axis of the Earth shifted. The oceans moved to its new base, drowning nearly everybody in the process (SOMEBODY had to be left to tell the tale, figuring it had to be a Flood) and then settled into its current location.

[Twinkie]

What a bummer! EVERY day a cloudy day?! - Where did they
get their Vitamin D? Rampant depressing! Gloom, despair
and agony on me . . deep dark depression, excessive
misery . . . and if not for bad luck, I’d have no luck at
all . . Gloom, despair and agony on me-e-e-e!! :o(

[Mr. Douglas]

I personally love cloudy days. They are perfect days for working in the garden. ;-)

[Palio di Siena]

clockwise north of the equator.
counter clockwise south of the equator.
straight down at the equator.

[Twinkie]

They didn’t have to “catch” any of those animals. The Lord
sent them in pairs; and since He was able to do this, he
was also able to calm them down and render them docile just
like in the lions’ den in Daniel’s time. - They walked
calmly in pairs into the ark. Of course, no whales or other
fish had to go into the ark. They were right at home and
thought that, finally, FISH had taken over the world!!

[Iscool]

JEREMIAH 5:22 Have you no respect for Me? Why don’t you tremble in My presence? I, the LORD, define the ocean’s sandy shoreline as an everlasting boundary that the waters cannot cross. The waves may toss and roar, but they can never pass the boundaries I set.

PSALM 104:9 Then You set a firm boundary for the seas, so they would never again cover the earth.

Of course...There's a massive body of water, 'up there'...

Gen 1:6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Gen 1:7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
Gen 1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Gen 1:9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
Gen 1:10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

The water came down and there's no reason to believe it didn't go back up...It's fun to ponder what took place but one thing is for certain: we won't know til God reveals it to us and he hasn't yet...Psalm 104 is a good read...

[DoodleDawg]

You really can’t apply sciences like geology or mineralogy or biology to matters of faith like Noah’s ark. You wind up with more questions than you answer.

[Oscar in Batangas]

Gravity???

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

I have a lot of questions about Noah and thevflood.

It seems they were at sea for around 10 or 11 months.

Question 1

What did the lions eat for 11 months? A single male lion weighs 300-500 pounds. A 400 pound lion eats 600 pounds of meat a month or around 6000 pounds of meat for the entire trip. Sure you could just board a bunch of extra cattle or pigs for lion feed, but that starts taking up a lot of room and you have to haven hay for all that livestock.

That is just one predator. Now add in Mrs Lion, the tiger couple, panthers, cheetahs, pumas, etc. all the cats. Throw in some wolves, hyennas, badgers, etc and that is a lot of meat.

Question 2

Did they take 2 ants and 2 spiders on the ark? There are 12,000 species of ants and 40,000 species of spiders. Did they take 2 spiders and the other 40,000 species evolved, or did they take 2 tarantulas, 2 daddy longlegs, 2 black widows, for 80,000 spiders in all?

[Polynikes]

I blame the Russians its all Putins fault!

[ealgeone]

What is there was one land mass? You presume the world has always looked as it does today.

[Big Red Badger]

I love Old Testament stuff!

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

What is the diameter of that sphere of water? It looks like some 1500 miles.

[TXnMA]

The original APOD article at https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160911.html gives the radius of the water sphere as "only about 700 kilometers, less than half the radius of the Earth's Moon"...

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

It looks like more than 440 miles to me. It seems to easily span Texas, which is some 800 miles across. Oh well, my eye must be deceiving me.