Catastrophic Plate Tectonics IV

By Jon Covey, BA, MT (ASCP)
Edited by Anita K. Millen-Covey, MD, MPH, MA

Crustal Plates

Catastrophic plate tectonics theory can answer questions about the Flood such as "Where did all the water come from to cover the entire earth, and where did it all go?" This theory can also explain most features of the earth's structure and sediments better than uniformitarian geological theory, which is based on Charles Lyell's misinformed ideas. It also has better explanatory power than the new catastrophism of evolutionary geologists, which attempts to correct Lyell's errors. It can also explain why and how the ice age occurred.

A short digression about salt deposits

Someone recently asked how diluvialists (those who believe in Noah's global flood) explain salt domes. A salt dome is formed in areas of extensive salt deposits that have been buried by sediments for thousands of feet. After the salt is buried, it begins to migrate upwards through the sedimentary rock and forms a dome [Tarbuck]. Evolutionists believe entrapped continental seas and salt lakes evaporated over thousands to millions of years and formed the extensive salt deposits. This is why some rocks are called evaporites. They owe their existence to evaporation of water solutions bearing their distinctive minerals. However, evaporation is not the only way to get "evaporites."

Sodium chloride (NaCl), the main ingredient in table salt, is very soluble in water, and people, including creationists, have always assumed that salt deposits must be the work of evaporation over many millennia. However, if most of the water for the Flood came out of the earth and the ocean, we can assume that great quantities of hot subterranean brines gushed into the ocean when the fountains of the great deep erupted. These hot water geysers were undoubtedly supersaturated with various minerals, including NaCl. A solution is supersaturated whenever there is a higher concentration of a specific salt than could normally be achieved by the simple addition and dissolution of that salt at standard temperature and pressure.

Superheated water (much greater than 212^o F) under great pressure in a mineral environment (rocks) beneath the earth's surface will quickly dissolve many minerals. During the Flood, gigantic jets of superheated, supersaturated water from the fountains of the great deep hit the greater volumes of cold, ocean water and cooled rapidly. This caused instantaneous crystallization, precipitating much of the dissolved minerals, including NaCl. Some of the minerals simply mixed with the surrounding ocean water, of course, but much salt crystallized and precipitated and was quickly buried by Flood sediments. These buried salts were protected from dissolving in the Flood. Some of these precipitates might have been swept away by sediment-laden turbidity currents and deposited far from their point of origin. Afterwards, the deeply buried salt deposits formed salt domes.

Ocean salinity probably increased as a result of the Flood. If one were inclined to calculate the rate of increase in oceanic salinity (about 3 x 10¹¹ kg/yr) and extrapolate this over time, one would discover that not too many million years ago the ocean must have been fresh water. Drs. Russell Humphreys and Steve Austin (both on the ICR team) made calculations based on known influx of salt to the ocean and concluded that the maximum age of the ocean is 62 million years. This conclusion is based on uniformitarian assumptions, and a global flood would drastically change the estimate [Austin].

Mantle-wide Flow

Remnants of cooler mantle have been detected as seismic anomalies deep in the mantle. This is good evidence favoring the ICR team's theory of runaway plate subduction during the Flood. Baumgardner cites evidence that mantle flow was still happening during the mid-to-late Flood stage (evolutionary Cenozoic era) [Baumgardner]. For instance, evolutionists Anderson and Perkins [Anderson] proposed that thermal runaway might produce surges of hot material just under the lithosphere, causing unprecedented volcanic activity. According to them, this might have happened in the southwestern United States. Volcanic activity decreased in frequency and intensity for many years after the Flood. Severe earthquakes persisted well into the Biblical era, e.g., Amos 1:1 and Zechariah 14:5. The whole earth has been destabilized as a result of the Flood, and we are actually in a quiescent period. Earthquakes and volcanic activity were nonexistent on the pre-Flood earth. From the Scriptures, we know that tectonic activity, including earthquakes and volcanic activity as described in Joel 2 and Acts 2 will increase:

And I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth,

Blood, fire, and columns of smoke.

The sun will be turned into darkness,

And the moon into blood,

Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.

Theoretically, with rapid plate subduction, slabs of oceanic crust sinking into the mantle would heat the mantle surrounding them. Heated mantle would be more fluid and more buoyant, making it flow faster and move upward. Wherever plates sank, plumes of hot mantle would rise to the surface, erupting as volcanoes (called seamounts in the ocean). At the same time, falling crust would have carried cooler mantle to the core boundary and cooled the outer core. This would have caused strong convection in the core. According to Humphreys [Humphreys, 1987, 1988], this would have resulted in rapid reversals of the earth's magnetic field. (Humphreys is part of the ICR team.)

Oceanic plates have low electrical conductivity. As they subducted during the Flood, they would have interfered with the mantle's high conductivity. The mantle's high conductivity normally attenuates the core's magnetic field, but interference by ocean plates plunging deep into the mantle during thermal runaway would have allowed the rapid reversals of the core's magnetic field to be expressed on the earth's surface. Humphreys' model is superior to other models because it can account for:

Low intensity of paleomagnetic and archaeomagnetic data
The erratic frequency of paleomagnetic reversals through the Phanerozoic
Patchy distribution of sea floor paleomagnetic anomalies
Rapid reversals seen in lava flows such as those at Steens mountain in Oregon

Ocean Floor Spreading

If rapid plate subduction quickly dispensed with the ancient ocean crust, how was it replaced? Hot liquid mantle material welled to the surface and erupted through a series of fissures called the mid-oceanic ridge (see Figure 1 for approximate route of ridge). This ridge is approximately 40,000 miles long, bisecting nearly every ocean in the world. The mid-oceanic ridge acts as a spreading center where upwelling mantle material flows out, creating new ocean floor.

This spreading occurred during the Flood, during which volatile gases escaped from the magma and entered the atmosphere. These gases would have been partly responsible for the cooling condition which would have helped start the ice age because they would have reflected heat from the sun back into space. The magma's heat vaporized huge amounts of ocean water, adding to the torrential downpour that lasted forty days and may have been the actual source of the "windows of heaven."

One might wonder why the ocean waters continued to rise until 150 days after the Flood began if the rain stopped after 40 days. Water was still pouring out of the fountains of the great deep. Understanding this and how new sea floor was made is essential to explain how the entire earth could be inundated. One also needs to remember that after the sea floor material cooled, that its density would become greater and would begin sinking down, and the continents would rise up in the process of isostatic equilibrium. The new ocean basins resulting from this process would provide a place for the Floodwaters to go. The ocean, heated by the enormous outflow of magma through the mid-oceanic ridge, would now be prepared to deliver the huge quantities of water vapor required to sustain the ice age at a time when volcanic gases cooling the earth would have prevented oceanic heating from solar radiation. On going, but steadily decreasing, volcanic activity would continue to expel volcanic gases into the atmosphere, perpetuating cooling conditions for an ice age.

Credits

The cartoon by Dan Leitha shown above was published in Creation ex nihilo, Vol. 19(4). Creation ex nihilo is a family magazine, which school children can understand. It is also informative for adults. Call 800-350-3232 to order a subscription ($22/yr or $60/3 yrs.). They also have many books, videos, T-shirts, and software for Bible study and home schooling.

References

Anderson, O.L. and Perkins, P.C., Runaway Temperatures in the Asthenosphere Resulting from Viscous Heating, J. Geophys. Res., Vol. 79, pp. 2136-3138, 1974.

Austin, S.A., and Humphreys, D.R., The sea's missing salt: A dilemma for evolutionists. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Creationism, Robert Walsh, editor. Creation Science Fellowship, Inc., Pittsburgh, p. 17, 1990.

Baumgardner, J., 3-D Finite Element Simulation of the Global Tectonic Changes Accompanying Noah's Flood, Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Creationism, Robert Walsh, editor. Creation Science Fellowship, Inc., Pittsburgh, p. 38, 1990.

Humphreys, D.R., Has the earth's magnetic field flipped? Creation Research Society Quarterly 25:3, pp. 130-137, 1988.

Humphreys, D.R., Reversals of the earth's magnetic field during the Genesis Flood, Proceedings of the First International Conference on Creationism, Robert Walsh, editor, Vol. 2, pp. 113-126, 1987.

Tarbuck, E.J., and Lutgens, F.K., The Earth: An Introduction to Physical Geology, 2nd ed., Merrill Publishing Company, Columbus, pp. 68-69, 1987.