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To: Right Wing Professor; Havoc
Geology isn't based on assumptions. It's based on a huge body of careful observational work. But hey, in 2003 anyone can go on the internet, totally ignorant of that work, and claim it's all speculation.

Havoc had mentioned the writings of a Dr. Walt Brown to back up his statements in an earlier post. I went looking for Dr. Brown, and I found The Hydroplate Theory.)

Assumptions

Every scientific theory that is used to explain an ancient, unobserved and unrepeatable event, has some assumptions about the starting conditions that existed before the event. The hydroplate theory has the following three:
 

Cross-section of preflood earth, illustration by Bradley Anderson, In the Beginning, p. 86
Figure 6: Cross-Section of Preflood Earth. The layers from top to bottom: ancient sea, granite, subterranean water chamber, basalt, the Moho, mantle. 

Interconnected continents: Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas were once closer to each other and were joined across today's Atlantic Ocean.

Subterranean water: There was a large amount of salty water in interconnected underground chambers, forming a continuous layer around the whole earth, in the form of a spherical shell. This was about 5/8 mile (1 km) thick, lay at a depth of 10 miles (16 km) under the earth's surface and contained about half of the water which is now in the oceans. The water contained dissolved minerals and gases, especially salt (NaCl) and carbon dioxide (CO2). There was basaltic rock underneath this water, then the earth's mantle. At this time the features mentioned on the previous pages had not been formed yet.

Increasing pressure: The pressure was increasing in the subterranean water layer. This could have been caused by several things, for example the mantle's temperature could have been increasing due to radioactive decay, causing it to expand, therefore pressurizing the water above it. 

In the following, we will see that the features described earlier are a direct result of these three assumptions. To make it simpler to understand, Walt Brown divided the events into 4 stages.
 

Events

Rupture Phase
 

The rupture phase of the flood, illustration by Bradley Anderson, In the Beginning, p. 87
Figure 7: The Rupture Phase of the Flood.

  The increasing pressure in the subterranean water stretched the granite crust above, until it reached its failure point. At this moment, a crack appeared. The enormous stress at both ends of the crack enlarged it, and its two ends raced around the earth in opposite directions at about 2 miles per second (a characteristic of tensile cracks in rocks). Following the path of least resistance, the two ends circled the earth in a few hours, their paths meeting somewhere on the opposite side of the globe and intersecting each other in a "T" or "Y" shape. As the 10-mile deep crack opened up, the pressure in the subterranean chamber beneath the rupture dropped. The water exploded out of the ground with great speed into and above the atmosphere, spreading around the earth and producing raging rains, never seen before. The water rising above the atmosphere froze, and fell back to earth in the form of hail, which buried and froze many animals, including mammoths. This 46,000 miles long rupture was near today's Mid-Oceanic Ridge.

Flood Phase
 

The flood phase, illustration by Bradley Anderson, In the Beginning, p. 88
Figure 8: The Flood Phase. 

The water jetting out of the rupture eroded both sides of the crack. Eroded sediments were swept up in the water, making it thick and muddy. These sediments settled all over the earth's surface, burying most of the world's plants and animals. A phenomenon called liquefaction (see In the Beginning, pages 138—149 for details) sorted sediments, dead animals and plants into horizontal layers according to their densities, and the process of forming today's fossils began. Evolutionists believe this sorting is a result of macroevolution and the lower organisms lived millions of years before the upper organisms, the sediments being deposited very slowly. This belief of evolutionary geology is called the principle of superposition. 

Before these events, today's major mountain ranges had not been formed yet. The water covered the whole earth, causing a global flood. As a part of the water's energy was converted into heat, the temperature of the escaping water increased by about 100°F (56°C) (see In the Beginning, page 218 for calculations). As a result of evaporation, the water became supersaturated in salt, and the salt precipitated into thick, pasty layers. These lighter layers were covered by denser layers of sediments, and the salt flowing upwards through the sediments formed the salt domes.

Lower pressure liquids can hold less dissolved gases than high pressure liquids. As the pressure of the water dropped, much gas came out of solution, mostly carbon dioxide. Calcium ions (from the basalt beneath) in the water and dissolved carbon dioxide gas precipitated into large amounts of limestone, CaCO3 (see In the Beginning, technical note on page 219).

The flood uprooted vegetation, and the currents carried it to some areas where much of it accumulated. Some plants even drifted to the South Pole in the global flood. In the next, continental drift phase, these buried layers of plants were heated and compressed, creating today's coal and oil formations.

The hydroplate theory of Dr. Walt Brown continues (here) with descriptions of how the continents formed.

136 posted on 01/26/2003 11:09:16 AM PST by forsnax5
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To: forsnax5
The hydroplate theory of Dr. Walt Brown continues (here) with descriptions of how the continents formed.

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA! That one sets a new record for applied stupidity.

137 posted on 01/26/2003 12:10:31 PM PST by balrog666 (If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything - Mark Twain)
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To: forsnax5; *crevo_list
Hydroplate Theory Bump
147 posted on 01/26/2003 6:16:15 PM PST by Nebullis
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