Whose breaking all those plates?

As I study the Flood in Creation Science literature, I realize that we (meaning the church) have a diminished view of the Genesis Flood. I may write more about that later, but for now I want to present one theory that describes what the Flood may have been like.

The Catastrophic Plate Tectonics Theory was published about 18 years ago by a group of excellent creationists -- Steve Austin, Larry Vardiman, John Baumgardner, Russ Humphreys, Kurt Wise and Andrew Snelling. These are good men as well as qualified geologists and physicists. Other creationists who are also good men and qualified scientists disagree with this proposed mechanism for the Flood. True or not, it will give you a new perspective on a familiar story.

Genesis 7:11 describes all the fountains of the deep breaking up in one day. The Catastrophic Plate Tectonics Theory is one way of trying to understand this verse.

The earth is made up of three layers -- a crust, the mantle, and the core. The crust is just a few miles deep. That is the part of the earth we walk on. Under that is the mantle which extends about half way to the center of the earth. It is made of liquid rock which is very, very hot. The center part of the earth is the core.

The crust is made of plates. Under the ocean the crust is fairly thin, while under the continents it is thicker. Before the Flood, so the theory goes, there was just one continent (Pangaea) and one ocean (see Genesis 1:8). As the flood began, the crust at the boundary between the ocean and the continents began to sink into the mantle. (Currently, the crust floats on the liquid mantle, but just a slight change in the density of the crust or the viscosity of the mantle and the crust would sink.) As it sank, it caused frictional heat, making the mantle less viscous and accelerating the sinking.

This caused stress on both the mantle and the crust. The mantle began to flow as the crust sank into it. Meanwhile the crustal plates were being pulled toward the sinking crust. This split the one continent into pieces. The ocean rushed sideways into the new openings and the mantle rushed upwards. When the mantle met the ocean -- STEAM!! The ocean was vaporized, sending steam jets high into the atmosphere, providing the moisture for forty days of rain.

During the same time, (and I don't exactly understand this) the crust under the ocean floated higher, dumping the ocean across the continent.

Thus the beginning of the Flood was not a calm, gentle, gradual rain with slowly rising flood waters. The earth was moving, steam was shooting up into the atmosphere, water was crossing the continents in walls of water, rain was falling in torrents, and the waters rose to cover the mountains.

During the Flood, as the plates of the crust moved at speeds of miles per hour, earthquakes racked the earth, volcanoes formed as the mantle pushed up through weak spots in the crust, the waters would have rushed back and forth over the earth, eroding the land that had been there (destroying all evidence of man's civilization) and redepositing sediments into vast layers of sedimentary rock.

The Flood was a violent judgment of God on sin. Let us never diminish the awesomeness of God's holiness or justice.

PS I have explained this to the best of my ability and understanding. If any of you understand it better than I, please comment so I can improve this explanation. If something doesn't make sense, don't blame the good scientists who formulated this theory; blame your poor translator.