Physical Evidence for a Universal Flood

What Kind of Things Would We Expect to Observe on the Earth as a Result of a Global Flood?

•         We Might Expect . . .

–       Deep Ocean Basins, Large Mountain Ranges

–       Large Sedimentary Deposits containing the fossilized remains of dead plants and animals.

–       Large Canyons carved out by vast amounts water and mud as it ran rapidly back into the seas after the flood.

–        Flood Legends in Cultures Throughout the World

Mount St. Helens:  Explosive Evidence for Catastrophe
by Dr. Steven A. Austin

•   In this video, Steven A. Austin, a Ph.D. in Geology and Bible believing Creationist, discusses the Mount St. Helens explosion and shows some of the amazing geological changes that resulted from that catastrophic event. Austin then compares these changes to similar geological changes

Mount St. Helens – Before

•   Before the devastating May 18, 1980 eruption, Mount St. Helens was considered to be one of the most beautiful and most frequently-climbed peaks in the Cascade Range. Spirit Lake was a vacation area offering hiking, camping, boating, and fishing

Mount St. Helens Explodes - May 18, 1980

•   On 18 May, 1980, Mt St Helens in Washington State erupted with the energy of 20,000 Hiroshima bombs.

•   Although tiny by the standards of most eruptions, this eruption:

–  Flattened millions of trees in 240 square miles of forest.

–  Melted snowfields and glaciers, and caused heavy rainfall.

Mount St. Helens Explodes – Resulting Mudflow

•   The melted snowfields and glaciers and heavy rainfall resulted in a mudflow that picked up the fallen logs (some of which traveled upright), so that both forks of the Toutle River were log-jammed.

Floating Logs on Nearby Spirit Lake After the Mount St. Helens Explosion

•   An earthquake, Richter magnitude 5.1, caused a landslide that dumped one-eighth of a cubic mile of debris into the nearby Spirit Lake. This caused waves up to 860 feet high, which gathered a million logs into the lake, forming a floating log mat (see photo). Most of them lacked branches, bark and an extensive root system.

Logs in Spirit Lake Begin to Float Upright

•   Since roots are designed to absorb water, the remains of the roots on the floating logs soaked up water from the lake.

•   This caused the root end to sink, and the log tipped up to float in an upright position (see photo on p. 21 of the magazine).

•   When a log soaked up even more water, it sank and landed on the lake bottom.

 

The Logs Began to Sink - Upright

•         Debris from the floating log mat and a continuing influx of sediment from the land (in the aftermath of the catastrophe) buried the logs, still in an upright position.

•         Trees that sank later would be buried higher up, that is on a higher level, although they grew at the same time.

•         In 1985, a team led by Drs. Steve Austin and Harold Coffin confirmed that there were about 15,000 upright logs on the bottom of the lake.

•          Later, the lake was partly drained, exposing some of the bottom, revealing upright logs stuck in the mud.

•         Imagine if the logs on the bottom of Spirit Lake were found thousands of years later.

•         Evolutionists would probably interpret them as multiple forests buried in place, rather than trees living at the same time that were uprooted, transported, and then sunk at different times!

 

Polystate Fossils

•   27 layers of forests at Specimen Ridge, Yellowstone, WY have broken off roots and extend through many layers.  Evolutions claim they grew there.

 

 

•    A 30 foot petrified tree is one of hundreds found in the Kettles coal mines near Cookville, TN.  The top and bottom are in different coal seams dated thousands of years different in age. (http://www.bible.ca/tracks/rapid-fossils.htm)

 

 

 

 

 

•   Some polystrate trees are upside down extending through many layers including layers of coal. Picture from Bone of Contention by Silvia Baker  p. 12

 

The evolutionist has only two choices to solve this dilemma:

1. The trees stood upright for millions of years while the sediment layers formed around them.

2. The trees grew through hundreds of feet of solid sedimentary rock looking for sunlight.

 

There is a third way to look at this:

The trees were buried upright in a big flood.

 

Petrified Wood

•    Petrified wood does not take millions of years to form. 

•    Researchers placed a log on the end of a rope down inside an alkaline spring in Yellowstone park. 

•    They cam back a year later, pulled the log out, and found that significant petrifaction had occurred

•    A.C. Sigleo, Organic chemistry of solidified wood, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 42:1397–1405, 1978; cited in J. Morris, The Young Earth, p. 113.

 

Rock Layers

•    Fine layering was produced within hours at MT St Helens on June 12, 1980 by hurricane velocity surging flows from the crater of the volcano. (http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/456.asp)

 

Examples of Layered Rocks from the Flood:

Normandy, France

 

The White Cliffs of Dover, England

 

The Grand Canyon

 

Mount Saint Helens – Small Model of the Grand Canyon?

•   The 100-foot-deep Engineer’s Canyon on the north fork of the Toutle River  is like a model of Grand Canyon.

•   It was carved very quickly by a catastrophic mud flow from a Mt St Helens eruption through earlier volcanic deposits.

(http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/feedback/negative_31march2002.asp)

 

May 19, 1982

 

Flood Legends

http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2004/0324ark.asp

 

Some Examples From  Dinosaurs By Design, Duane Gish, p.74-75:

Hawaii

•   “Long after the death of Kuniuhonna, the first man, the world became a wicked terrible place to live. There was one good man left; his name was Nu-u.

•    He made a great canoe with a house on it and filled it with animals. The waters came up over all the earth and killed all the people.

•    Only Nu-u and his family were saved.”

 

 

China

•    Chinese classic called the “Hihking” tells the story of Fuhi, whom the Chinese consider to be the father of their civilization

•    This history records that Fuhi, his wife, three sons and three daughters escaped a great flood.  He and his family were the only people alive on earth. 

•    After the great flood they repopulated the world.

 

 

The Toltec Indians

•   The Toltec Indians of ancient Mexico said, “the first world lasted 1716 years and was destroyed by a great flood.” Only one family named Coxcox survived.

•    The Bible dates put the flood 1656 years after creation.  The Toltec legend is only 60 years off! Not bad!