Geologic

Worldviews and the

Global Flood
 Beliefs of Scientists
1998 survey of the National Academy of
Science found that fewer than 10% believe
in God:

“among the top natural

scientists, disbelief is greater
than ever; almost total”
Larson, E. J. & Witham, L. Leading Scientists Still
Reject God. Nature Vol. 394:6691 (1998)
 Geology Worldviews

Is the Grand Canyon evidence of a catastrophe

or millions of years of erosion?
 Uniformitarianism
• James Hutton (1785) -
Anticatastrophism - uniformity of
causes. The doctrine that
sedimentary rocks are the result
of cyclic processes of decay and
rejuvenation.

• Charles Lyell (1875) Gradualism -

uniformity of intensity. It was
argued that the same gradual
processes and intensities
Charles Lyell occurring today were largely
responsible for geologic
formations.
 Geological Worldviews

Geologists claim that rocks with fossils formed through

the same rates of erosion and deposition happening today,
and interpret layers of fossils as a history of life on earth
extending over billions of years.
Monument Valley, Utah
A naturalist can not
correctly interpret a
world with a
supernatural history.
Geology
Bias
In the 1920s Harlen
Bretz proposed that
geologic features in
eastern Washington
must have been
formed by flooding of
catastrophic
proportion.
Satellite Photo of Scablands

Landsat Photo
Channeled
Scablands

Palouse Falls Gorge in southeastern Washington

was eroded through solid basalt.
Grand Coulee

Channeled Scablands
 Dry Falls

Channeled Scablands
 Dry Falls

Channeled Scablands
The Missoula Flood

Glacial Lake Missoula

covered over 3,000 square
miles of what is now
western Montana, and was
over 2,000 feet deep at the
edge of the glacial dam.
Missoula Flood
In about two days the
waters of Lake Missoula
destroyed and reshaped
the US landscape from
Montana to the Pacific
Ocean.
Flood waters were over
400 feet deep and
traveling at over 90 miles
per hour, and equal to ten
times the discharge of all
the Earth's rivers today.
Giant Ripples
Rolling hills west of
Spokane are actually giant
ripples up to 30 feet high
and 250 feet apart.
 Harlen Bretz
The Seattle Times - 2/10/2003
Natural Wonders: Rock of Ages’ Roiling Tale
“Mystified by the forces that could have exposed such
massive features, Bretz set out in the early 1920s to solve the
riddle. He returned with a hypothesis that was dismissed as near
lunacy: in a region that sees less moisture in a year than Seattle
gets in a month, Bretz concluded the entire landscape was
carved by water.”
“Bretz, according to some reports, was quickly isolated as a
crank, while his critics' theories continued to make it into
textbooks. Fifty years later, Bretz was hailed as a hero, and in
1979, at age 96, given geology's highest honor — the Penrose
Medal, which rewards one researcher each year for exceptional
contributions to geology.”
“Two years later, he passed away.”
Bretz Dedication Placque

Dry Falls Visitor Center

North American
geological strata
 Strata
Sedimentary rock typically exists as
distinct layers or strata.

– Superimposed - Oldest strata lies on the

bottom with successively younger above
– Lateral Continuity - originally extended in
all directions until thinned or terminated.
– Original Horizontality - particles settle by
gravity, so strata was originally
horizontal.
 Sedimentary rock typically
Sedimentary Rockforms when eroded
particles settle out of fluid
and harden into a rock.
– Sandstone (mostly quartz)
– Shale (fine silt and clay)
– Limestone (calcite from
shells)

Arches National Monument

Sedimentary Rock from the
Great Pyramid of Khufu
Utah Arizona

Grand Staircase
Correlating Sedimentary Rock Strata

Correlating Sedimentary Rock Strata

Fossil Record
North American
geological strata
 Strata Formation

Law of Superposition - is a fundamental

interpretation of Earth’s history, which states the
oldest strata lies on the bottom with successively
younger layers above.
Strata Formation

Small Particles

Medium Particles

Large Particles

Layers form anytime particles

are suspended in fluid then
allowed to settle.
 Strata Formation
Wind action

River

Landslides

Mudflows

Turbidity currents

Liquefaction
Several layers form simultaneously
where sediments are flowing.
Strata formation video
Simultaneous Strata Formation
 Turbidity currents
in a laboratory flume
 Turbidites
Turbidites - Sandstone
deposits resulting from
turbidity current
underwater landslides,
which carry particles of
widely different sizes.

Characteristics
• Graded Bedding - coarse
particles on the bottom
and finer particles on top
• Many thin layers
 Widespread
Turbidites
Tapeats Sandstone
• Graded bed - Lowest layer
possesses coarse-grained
sandstone and large boulders.
• Thin layers formed by a series of
underwater flows of sand.
• Total thickness 125 – 325 feet

About 30% of all sedimentary

rocks in the Grand Canyon are
turbidites formed through
deposition by turbidity currents.
Grand Canyon, Arizona
 Widespread
Turbidites
Tapeats Sandstone
(light color) covers most of
North America

– Shepherds Point, Utah

– Ventura Basin, CA
– Marathon, TX
– Grand Canyon, AZ
– Castle Point, New Zealand

Some geologists suggest that

50% of the world's
sedimentary rocks might be
turbidites.

Turbidity Currents Across

North America
 Rapid Strata
Formation
Touchet beds
Missoula Flood
Slackwater Deposits

Near Walla Walla, WA there

are up to 40 distinct
rhythmite layers exposed in
the Burlingame Canyon,
Burlingame Canyon that were formed during the
Missoula Flood.
 Rapid Strata
Formation

Polystrate Fossils

Petrified tree trunks are

found that frequently
cross several strata
proving the layers were
deposited at the same
time instead of over
Polystrate Tree millions of years.
in Sandstone and Coal
Strata Folds in Western Iran
British Columbia, Canada
Mount St. Helens
The eruptions at Mt. St.
Helens were an
important geological
event for creation
science.

Rapid deposition and

erosion occurred
providing a model of the
type of activity taking
place during the great
Biblical flood of Noah.
Mount St. Helens
Before
Mt St Helens eruption
Mount St. Helens
After
 March 19, 1982
Rapid
North ForkStrata Formation
Toutle River
southwest of Spirit Lake
at Mt. St. Helens
June 12, 1980

May 18, 1980

Stratified layers up to 400 feet thick formed as a result of landslides, air

fall tephra, pyroclastic flow, and mudflows, during the eruptions.
Helens-Rock Layers +
Hand 01107
Mt St Helens eruption
 Rapid Erosion at Mt. St.
Helens

Little Grand Canyon

Toutle River, Mt. St. Helens

On March 19, 1982 a small eruption melted the snow causing a

mud flow, which eroded a canyon system up to 140 feet deep.
 Little Grand Canyon

Mt St Helens eruption
Engineer’s Canyon, Mt St Helens
Rapid Erosion of Burlingame Canyon

In 1926 the Burlingame Canyon was observed to

have formed in less than six days. It measures 1500
feet long, up to 120 feet deep, and 120 feet wide.
 Grand Canyon

A lot of
water and a
little time?
A lot of
time and a
little water?
 KAIBAB UPWARP
Cross section of Grand Canyon geology
Kaibab Limestone 250 my
showing monocline and Kaibab Upwarp

Muav Limestone
Bright Angel Shale
Tapeats Sandstone 550 my

Vishnu Schist

70 my
The ground slopes
up to the top of the
Colorado Plateau
reaching 8000 foot The Colorado
elevation. River enters the
Canyon at 2800
foot elevation and
runs downhill.

1800 foot
Colorado River
 2800 ft
8000 ft

7000 ft

1800 ft
Creation scientists assert that the Grand
Canyon was eroded rapidly when a dam on the
northern side burst causing a massive
catastrophic flood of water to cut through the
Colorado plateau (Kaibab Upwarp) rapidly.
 Canyonlands Lake

Hopi Lake

W. Brown, In the Beginning, pg. 103

 CANYONLANDS LAKE

HOPI LAKE

UPPER COLORADO RIVER

In Glen Canyon

LITTLE COLORADO
RIVER

The Geology Book by John Morris (p.69)

 Grand Canyon:
Grand and Young
Secular geologists now believe that a massive
flash floods have occurred in the Grand Canyon,
resulting from breached lava dams.
 As much as a third of the canyon's depth may
have been cut in the “blink of a geologic eye”.
 They found evidence of a 400,000 cfs flow that
occurred about 4,000 years ago.

Grand Canyon; Grand and Young

University of Arizona - 2003
http://www.uagrad.org/Alumnus/Winter03/canyon.html
 Yellowstone’s Petrified Forest

Yellowstone’s
Petrified Forest

Across the valley rise the slopes of Specimen Ridge, but the forest you see there
today is only the latest chapter in a remarkable story. Buried within the volcanic
rocks that compose the mountain are twenty-seven distinct layers of fossil
forests that flourished 50 million years ago.
PRONE FLOATING LOG UPRIGHT FLOATING LOG

UPRIGHT
DEPOSITED
LOGS

PRONE BURIED LOG

Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the
second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on
the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst
open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.

Fountains of the great deep

 Source of the Great Flood

Mid Oceanic Ridge / Lithosphere Plates

The flood possibly began when the earth's crust was fractured
releasing subterranean caverns of water and magma.
Subterranean Aquifers

Ogallala Aquifer spans 8 states in the US

2 Peter 3:3-6
2 Peter 3:3-6
 What do these stones mean...
these stones shall be for a memorial…
Joshua 4:6 & 7
 For the wages of sin is death...
but the gift of God is eternal life…
Romans 6:23
I am the door; if anyone enters by Me, he will be saved...
John 10:9
Geologic Worldiews
and the
Global Flood
Christopher W. Ashcraft M.S., M.Ed. MTMS
nwcreation.net
creationwiki.org
Creationist Organizations

– Institute for Creation Research icr.org

– Answers in Genesis answersingenesis.org
– Creation Research Society creationresearch.org
– Creation Ministries International creationontheweb.com
– Discovery Institute discovery.org
– Northwest Creation Network nwcreation.net
Always be prepared
to give an answer to
everyone who asks you to
give the reason for the
hope that you have.
Creation Science

Creation Biology
Creation Geology
Creation Astronomy
Biblical Archaeology
 Liquefaction
Soils can become liquefied and form strata when saturated
with water and disturbed by actions such as earthquakes.
 The Flood of Noah

Genesis 6 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all
flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, "I
have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with
violence through them; behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make
yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it
inside and out with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: the length of
the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty
cubits.
450ft long / 75ft wide / 45ft high
 The Flood of Noah

Genesis 6 18 But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall
come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with
you. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every
sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and
female. 20 Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals
according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according
to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you, to keep them alive.

Noah’s ark preserved

two of every living kind of land animal.
 The Flood of Noah

Genesis 7 19 And the waters prevailed so mightily upon the earth that all
the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; 20 the waters
prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 21 And
all flesh died that moved upon the earth, birds, cattle, beasts, all
swarming creatures that swarm upon the earth, and every man; 22
everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died..

The mountains were covered by 22.5 ft, and

everything on land that breathed died.
Biblical Flood
Genesis 6-8
 The LORD saw how great the wickedness of
the human race had become on the earth,
Genesis 6
and that every inclination of the thoughts of
the human heart was only evil all the time.
The LORD regretted that he had made
human beings on the earth, and his heart
was deeply troubled. So the LORD said, “I
will wipe from the face of the earth the
human race I have created—and with them
the animals, the birds and the creatures that
move along the ground—for I regret that I
have made them.” But Noah found favor in
the eyes of the LORD.
 For forty days the flood kept coming on the
earth, and as the waters increased they
Genesis 6 lifted the ark high above the earth. The
waters rose and increased greatly on the
earth, and the ark floated on the surface of
the water. They rose greatly on the earth,
and all the high mountains under the entire
heavens were covered. The waters rose and
covered the mountains to a depth of more
than fifteen cubits. Every living thing that
moved on land perished—birds, livestock,
wild animals, all the creatures that swarm
over the earth, and all mankind.
Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of
every kind of creature that moves along the ground will
come to you to be kept alive. (Genesis 6:20) NIV
This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark
three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its
height thirty cubits. (Genesis 6:15)
450ft long / 75ft wide / 45ft high
This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark
three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its
height thirty cubits. (Genesis 6:15)
450ft long / 75ft wide / 45ft high
Noah’s Ark: Thinking
Outside the Box
 Geological Worldviews

Geologists claim that rocks with fossils formed through

the same rates of erosion and deposition happening today,
and interpret layers of fossils as a history of life on earth
extending over billions of years.