The Flood is Not a Fairy Tale

“It is evident that when we find a bed of clay now hardened into stone and containing the roots and rootlets of these plants in their natural position, we can infer, 1st, that such beds must once have been in a very soft condition; 2dly, that the roots found in them were not drifted, but grew in their present positions; in short, that these ancient roots are in similar circumstances with those of the recent trees that underlie the Amherst marshes. In corroboration of this, we shall find, in farther examination of this [stratigraphic] section, that while some of these fossil soils support coals, other support erect trunks of trees connected with their roots and still in their natural position.

Some creationists look at the thick layers of sediments in Grand Canyon and declare that within those precipitous cliffs is conclusive proof that the Flood of Noah was a historical event. They point to the flat-lying strata and declare that here, at last, is physical evidence of vast inundation. And on a very superficial level, these rock layers might seem to give them some comfort; many of the rock layers found in Grand Canyon were indeed deposited in shallow marine waters. But on closer inspection, there’s nothing extraordinary about that because most sedimentary layers form in water. In fact, when rocks are lifted above sea level by plate tectonics, they tend to break down and crumble rather than accumulate.

But of all the persistent problems that plague the creationist model of the Flood, one problem in particular stands out as a fatal flaw for the idea of a universal Flood: the Coconino Sandstone.

The Coconino Sandstone is a buff-colored unit first encountered just a few miles down river from the Lee’s Ferry launching point. The Coconino is known for having striking diagonal features, called cross-beds, which you can see in the picture above. These cross-beds formed, according to standard geologic interpretations, as wind pushed sand up desert dunes, piling the particles higher and higher until an avalanche of warm sand spilled down the steep face. When you think of how the Coconino formed, think of an endless ocean of tan sand, punctuated by migrating dunes. The National Park Service describes it this way:

The Grand Canyon region would have looked much like the Sahara desert in northern Africa does today.

One of the classic signatures of sands in a desert environment is the “frosting” of grains, which happens in eolian (wind-blown) conditions. As wind blows dry sand grains up dunes, the blown grains smash together in uncountable tiny collisions. When viewed with a scanning electron microscope, such grains have pitted surfaces resembling frosted glass. Another feature of a desert environment is the large-scale cross-bedding (see picture above and huge cross-beds in Zion below). A third feature is the fossilized trackways of terrestrial animals.

Does the Coconino have frosted grains? Check. Cross-bed structures? You bet. Fossilized trackways? Yep. Everything seems to fit with the standard eolian interpretation. And here is the crux of the problem for creationists: this evidence means the Coconino formed on dry land in the middle of what should have been the year of the Flood.

Folding- Folding occurs when tectonic processes put stress on a rock, and the rock bends, instead of breaking. This can create a variety of landforms as the surfaces of the folded rocks are eroded.

Anticlines are folds shaped like an arch, and synclines are shaped like the letter 'U.' 

Geologists recognize these formations by what is visible at the surface. Look at the diagram of the syncline and notice how the surface shows a symmetrical pattern with the youngest rock in the middle and older rocks appearing on either side. Notice that the opposite is true of the anticline.

In structural geology, a fold occurs when one or a stack of originally flat and planar surfaces, such as sedimentary strata, are bent or curved as a result of permanent deformation. Synsedimentary folds are those due to slumping of sedimentary material before it is lithified. Folds in rocks vary in size from microscopic crinkles to mountain-sized folds. They occur as single isolated folds or in sets (known as fold trains).

Folds form under varied conditions of stress, hydrostatic pressure, pore pressure, and temperature gradient, as evidenced by their presence in soft sediments, the full spectrum of metamorphic rocks, and even as primary flow structures in some igneous rocks. A set of folds distributed on a regional scale constitutes a fold belt, a common feature of orogenic zones. Folds are commonly formed by shortening of existing layers, but may also be formed as a result of displacement on a non-planar fault (fault bend fold), at the tip of a propagating fault (fault propagation fold), by differential compaction or due to the effects of a high-level igneous intrusion e.g. above a laccolith.

 

7 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate; 3 and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” 5 And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.

To illustrate how much storage for food would be required, let’s just take a look at the elephant. According to the National Elephant Center, elephants eat between 200-600 pounds of food a day [1]. So with 2 elephants eating 200 pounds of food per day that is equal to 400 pounds of food each day for the elephants. That’s 136,000 pounds of food for just two elephants for a 340-day journey. Where and how is Noah storing all that food. 

Answers in Genesis estimates that there were about 7,000 animals on the ark [2]. Let’s assume that each animal was given 1 gallon of water per day. This means that Noah would use up 7,000 pounds of water per day, or 2,380,000 gallons of water for the 340-day journey. One gallon of water weighs about 8-pounds [3], so if we multiply 2,380,000 by 8, Noah would need to find room for 19,040,000 pounds of water.

A flood that reduced all species to 2 or 7 individuals would have left a noticeable trace in the genetic record. Whenever a population is severely reduced, it forms a genetic bottleneck. We can easily see this in species today and can even calculate roughly when this bottleneck occurred and how many individuals remained. For example, the African Cheetahs experienced a bottleneck effect roughly 10,000 years ago [7]. The Ashkenazi Jewish population also suffered a bottleneck, which is why there is a high rate of genetic disorders within the Ashkenazi Jewish community [8].

What then would have happened if a species population would have been reduced to 2 individuals? Well, for one thing, the species would effectively be extinct as it would be incredibly difficult to rebound the population when it’s reduced to such a low number. Finally, once they’re let off the ark, the predators would have gone after most of the remaining prey. Once one of the pairs were killed and eaten, there would be no way for the species to survive.