and the Thermal Expansion of Ocean
Waters Explain The Floodwaters and Ice Age
By Yoel Natan
20 March 2007
Let Dry Land Appear
In the creation week, God separated the water and the land (Gen 01:09). How was this done? Perhaps the continents were raised up and the basins of the oceans deepened. However, the water still would not fit in the ocean basins unless most of it was refrigerator cold.
Most people do not realize that water expands when it is heated and contracts when it cooler. For the earth’s ocean water to stay where it is, it must maintain a certain temperature:
o The surface water quickly cools until it reaches 6C (42.8F) 1000m down
o The water continues cooling until it is 3C (37.4F) 4500m down
Runaway Continental Drift
Cartography, geology and fossil evidence show that the continents were contiguous with one another, if not connected at some point. Creationists have already theorized that the continents moved quickly during the Flood to where they are positioned today. The mechanism proposed that caused this was runaway subduction of the oceanic plates:
A Catastrophic Breakup: A Scientific Look Catastrophic Plate Tectonics, by Andrew Snelling, Ph.D.
Adapted and condensed from Chapter 14, “Can Catastrophic Tectonics Explain Flood Geology?” New Answers Book by Dr. Andrew Snelling, November 2006
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v2/n2/a-catastrophic-breakup
The continental rock is lighter (specific gravity: 2.7) and floats on top of the heavier mantle (specific gravity: 3.3). Water is lighter than rock and floats on top (specific gravity: 1.02).
Here is how tectonic plate subduction occurs: from the moment the ocean floor is formed from magma and lava, it gets denser. At some point it gets so dense that it plunges into the earth. However, it doesn’t break off generally because the ocean floor is 16 kilometers thick or more. So the plunging part bends the plate and drags the whole ocean plate down with it. Next to continents, deep mid-ocean trenches, and at the Pacific Ring of Fire are places where plate subduction can and does occur.
The subduction of one plate does not affect that plate only. Because the earth is a closed system, if a plate dives into the mantle in one part, this creates pressure on the liquid interior, and an equal volume of magma and lava is displaced and wells up elsewhere.
The welling up of magma and lava push the plates apart and new ocean floor is formed. So while subduction is occurring in the Pacific Ocean drawing the Pacific plate underneath Asia, the Trans-Atlantic Ridge or Rift is forming new floor and pushing N America towards Asia.
Eventually N America will abut Asia, if the earth lasts that long. Of course, there could be another case of runaway subduction, but that is not likely since this would cause a worldwide Flood, and God said that he would not send another flood like the Flood.
At the future time when N America and E Asia abut, there will be no Pacific Ocean, and the Atlantic will be wider than the Pacific is now—greater than half of the globe. The continents will not subduct into the earth’s core because they are just too light. The continents are made of different rock than the mantle.
When E Asia touches N America, the oldest and densest ocean floor will be right on N America’s east coast, and also way around the world on the Europe’s western coast. The older ocean crust will start to subduct, and lava and magma will well up between N America and Asia, pushing the continents apart. After a long while N America will return to where it is now in relation to Europe, and then finally touch Europe.
GPS data from all the continents show that all the continents are generally drifting toward the Ring of Fire around the Pacific Rim: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Global_plate_motion.jpg
also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics
More specifically, they are headed toward the subduction zone of the Pacific plate that runs N and S just to the E of Japan and the Philippines. That subduction zone then turns E just before reaching Indonesia. Since the Pacific plates moves in one direction, only the one edge by Asia and Australia is a subduction zone.
The Pacific Ring of Fire is bigger than the Pacific plate, and takes in several plates that are jostling each other: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ring_of_Fire
Not all the continents are headed straight to the Pacific subduction zone, but are a little like floating soap bars jostling each other as they spin around a tub drain before they plug up the drain hole. Of course, the continents would not go down the drain into the mantle because the continents are too light to sink.
The GPS data indicates (as expected) that between N America and Europe, there is new ocean floor formation at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. However, there must also be a similar ocean floor creation zone west of S America, since the Pacific plate is going ENE at nearly 8cm per year, while the ocean plate subducting under S America is going east at 8cm per year while S America is hardly moving at all. That’s 16cm of new ocean floor per year in that area. The N. Atlantic rift only produces about 2.5cm per year: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/understanding.html
What this means is N and S America might be ripped apart at some point, and N America will head west toward Asia, while S America might follow Africa and goes east toward the Pacific Rim. However, S America is only moving at about 1cm per year, so with so little momentum involved, S America could easily change course.
The GPS data indicates that the Himalayas were made by new ocean crust being formed far away in the mid-Atlantic and at the ocean plate just west of S America. New crust from these areas pushes S America, Africa and Europe toward the Pacific Rim. Also, the Australian plate is being pushed toward the Pacific Rim since new crust is being formed behind it somewhere in the ocean. Because Asia is so massive, it has massive inertia, and does move as fast as Australia and Africa. Thus Australia and Africa have pushed the Indian plate north where it subducts under Asia, forming the Himalayan Mountains.
So here is the rundown from the global GPS maps:
o Africa, Europe and Iceland are moving together in the same direction, NE, at 3cm per year. Since Europe is attached to Asia and Asia is headed ESE at 2cm per year, Asia experiences a little clockwise spin.
o N America is heading WSW at 2cm per year, but Alaska is heading SWS at 3cm per year. Also, Greenland is part of the N American plate, and is moving WNW. Thus N America has a little counter-clockwise spin.
o The massive Pacific plate, partly contiguous with the Ring of Fire, is moving WNW 8cm per year.
o S America is heading NNE at 1cm per year, but the small ocean plate next to it on the west side is headed east at 8cm per year.
o India is headed NE at 5cm per year.
o Australia is headed NNE at 8cm per year.
o Antarctica is barely moving at all. Since Australia is moving 8cm per year away from Antarctica, there must be new ocean floor being formed between Antarctica and Australia at a rate of 8cm per year.
The Floodgates of the Deep Opened
Where the Floodwaters came from is there was no ocean floor subduction before the Flood, or else it was at the same rate as now. However, at the start of the Flood there was runaway subduction of the Pacific plate. This pulled all the continents toward the Pacific Rim of Fire.
In perhaps 40 day’s time, N America came to rest nearly where it is now. Since America had been touching Europe before the Flood, that meant that many thousands of square miles of new ocean floor were forming from hot magma and lava. There was also a great turbulence as the water from the Pacific made its way to the new Atlantic Ocean.
There was new ocean floor elsewhere just like that area between N America and Europe, and S America and Africa. All this new ocean floor plus under-water volcanism caused the oceans to heat up, but not so much that it killed all the fish everywhere. In some areas the water expanded a lot as it went from 3C (37.4 F) to nearly boiling, but in many places the water went from 6C (42.8F) to room temperature.
How much can the ocean be heated without turning into a steam or killing everything alive? It turns out a lot since the ocean is so cold on average. “The average temperature of the ocean surface waters is about 17 degrees Celsius (62.6 degrees Fahrenheit).” The surface water quickly cools so it reaches 6C (42.8F) 1000m down, and continues cooling to 3C (37.4F) 4500m down.
“The average depth of the oceans is 3,794 m (12,447 ft), more than five times the average height of the continents.” “About 70% of the surface is covered by water, with much of the continental shelf below sea level. If all of the land on Earth were spread evenly, water would rise to an altitude of more than 2500 meters (approximately 8000 ft.).”
How much does water expand when heated? Here is some sample data:
- Global warming is causing islands to be submerged under water, more every year. The surface layer of the ocean is warming up between 0.6-1.0°C, and this causes a “concomitant oceanic thermal expansion” that raises the “sea level by 4-8 cm.”[1]
- Heating water from 90 to 140 degrees causes a 1.25 percent increase in volume, so that 40 gallons in a water heater becomes nearly 40.5 gallons, a problem that plumbers deal with.
- The same mass of water takes up 0.5% more volume at 37C than at 20C, or a 1000 ml of water at 20C will be 1005 ml at 37C.
The ocean water does not weigh any more when it is warmed up, but it’s volume increases. So when the expanded water flooded inland, this took weight off the ocean floor and put weight on the continents. Thus the continents sunk, say, a foot while the ocean floor rebounded upward by, say, a foot, increasing the flooding of the continents.
The heated Floodwater was likely what helped the oil pools and coal formations to form quickly during the Flood, along with other phenomenon requiring some but not too much heat.
Thermal expansion in the ocean was mainly what the Bible referred to when it said the floodgates of the deep were opened during the Flood (Gen 07:11; 08:02). However, once the expanded ocean water reached inland areas of the continents, it was further heated by on-land volcanism.
There are many huge volcanic formations on the continents that probably occurred during the Flood during the course of the runaway subduction. The runaway subduction lead to mountain building that is often associated with volcanism. Moreover, when Floodwater pressed down on the continents, it causes some lava to gush forth. Also, the Flood water seeped into the earth, turned into steam, and drove lava and geothermal heat out of the ground:
o Geologists say that 240k cubic miles of molten lava gushed from a subterranean chamber below Siberia and blanketing an area the size of Europe.
o Similar to Siberia, the Deccan Traps of central India is huge area that is a flat plateau created by a massive lava flow.
o In the Indian Ocean there are large plateaus of lava.
o Yellow Stone Park in Wyoming is huge volcanic caldron, and much of Arizona and other states have large lava flows and many volcanoes.
o The Great Lakes basin in N America was formed by lava flows that were so thick and heavy that they sank into the earth and were subsequently filled in with rainwater runoff.
All these area of volcanism heated the water expanding it further. Also, the heated water increased evaporation and caused the rains during the Flood.
The Post-Flood Ice Age
During and after the Flood the water slowly cooled off and shrank back into the ocean basins. In all latitudes there was heavier than normal precipitation. However, as the ocean waters cooled off, at a certain point the heavier rains turned to snow in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. This explains why the mammoths thrived in Siberia after the Flood for a few centuries, but when the tipping point was reached, the heavy rain fell as heavy snow and froze the mammoths along with their vegetation.
The snow continued to fall until the earth’s poles where covered by one or more miles of ice, thicker of course in domed areas. Then after a thousand years there was less snow falling at the poles because there was less evaporation from the still cooler oceans. Also, the CO2 and other gases re-accumulated in the atmosphere increasing the greenhouse effect. So the combination of less snow and more melt led to the end of the ice age only four thousand years ago.
Related links:
The Deccan Plateau region in India extends south of the Narmada River to the Nīlgiri and Palni hills, and bordered by the Western and Eastern Ghats:
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761578545/Deccan_Plateau.html
Prehistoric crystalline and lava rocks form the Deccan Plateau. Between the Deccan Plateau and the Gangetic plain lies a series of low mountain ranges like the Aravallis and Vindhyas. The plateau has the Eastern and Western Ghats flanking its sides:
http://www.maps-india.com/overview/topographyofindia.htm
The Deccan Plateau of India:
http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/europe_west_asia/india/deccan.html
The Deccan Plateau:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deccan
World’s biggest lava plateaus under the Indian Ocean:
http://www.breitbart.com/news/na/070109171042.m6a4unko.html
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge:
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/fac/rsvlab/Lab8.html
GPS data and localized earth movements (up and down) due to seasonal flooding:
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/rivsink.htm
The Average Specific Gravity of the Earth:
http://webspinners.com/dlblanc/tectonic/floating.php
Sea Water: 1.02
Average Specific Gravity of Continents: 2.7
Average Specific Gravity of SiMa (Mantle Material): 3.3
The average width of a continental shelf is 70 kilometers (43 miles):
http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Oc-Po/Ocean-Floor-Bathymetry.html
[1] Wigley, T.M.L. & S.C.B. Raper. “Thermal expansion of sea water associated with global warming,” Nature 357: 293-300, year 1987.
----------
Comments:
Someone commented on 20 Mar 2007:
This idea was already presented in a paper in 1994: http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=research&action=index&page=researchp_jb_largescaletectonics
Answer's in Genesis has a response to it here:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v16/i1/plate_tectonics2.asp
Yes, right near the top I mention that creationists had already thought of plate tectonics:
Creationists have already theorized that the continents moved
quickly during the Flood to where they are positioned today. The
mechanism proposed that caused this was runaway subduction
of the oceanic plates.
However, they didn't think of the mechanism of thermal expansion of water to explain the floodwaters. What they did theorize about the floodwaters is that in the midst of the continents sliding to where they are today during the flood, the continents sunk and resurfaced. In my explanation, the sinking and resurfacing is not necessary.
In AiG's response to CRI's tectonic plate model of the flood, first Michael Oard seems to doubt that plate tectonics ever occurred. He says that the data is all based on radiometric dating and uniformitarian principles. In 1992 I assume they did not have the GPS data. Second, he says that the heat generated by tectonic plate sliding is a problem, but he seems to assume the continents slid rock upon rock, but I say that the continents slide around more like soap floating in a tub filled with liquid. Moreover, all the heat generated in the process, mostly from the new ocean floor, would explain the flood by thermal expansion, and the ice age, etc.
Yoel Natan
Update:
"VIVE LE VOLCAN: Réunion Eruption Reveals New Fish Species," Spiegel.de, 18 Apr 2007
Excerpt: Marine biologists believe they have found new species of fish after a volcanic eruption on the French island of Réunion killed hundreds of fish. The scientists discovered the fish floating belly-up in the ocean, killed by rising water temperatures after molten lava poured into the sea.
0 comments:
Post a Comment