Figure 24. Isopach map of the combined Absaroka and Zuni. This approximates the extent of Flooding from days 40-150 of the Flood. Measurements in meters. still being made during the Tejas, demonstrating that catastrophic plate tectonics was still functioning, including the generation of massive earthquakes and tsunamis (Fig. 4). Advocates for a K-Pg Flood boundary must explain how the Flood mechanism was still as vigorous, yet maintain that all of the floodwaters had receded before the Tejas was deposited. The recession of the water is likely tied to the cooling of the newly created ocean seafloor/lithosphere. As ocean lithosphere cools it becomes more dense, contracts, and sinks a bit deeper, pulling the water depth in the ocean down with it (Clarey 2020). This was likely the primary process that drove the waters off the continents and back into the ocean basins. As noted above, ocean seafloor was still being created at an astounding rate from the Absaroka megasequence right through much of the Tejas. However, the older ocean lithosphere that was created in the Absaroka and early Zuni was apparently cooling fast enough to subside significantly, lowering the seafloor in those areas. The result of this seafloor subsidence surpassed the rate of production of new buoyant seafloor, causing a net lowering of sea level. This process continued throughout the Tejas megasequence and contributed greatly to the withdrawal of the floodwaters off the continents. Support for this interpretation is found in the volume of sediment by megasequence graph (Fig. 14) and Table 1. Note, the Tejas has the second most volume of sediment compared to all other megasequences, at 32.5% of the world total (for five continents). The likelihood that the Tejas as a receding deposit is expanded upon below in the Flood boundaries section. It is important to note that volcanic activity associated with subduction was also peaking during the Tejas (Clarey, 2020). Supervolcanoes, like Yellowstone, spewed out thousands of meters of ash and volcanic debris. Most of the world’s mountain ranges rose simultaneously as the subduction process had thickened the crust and caused renewed uplift (Clarey, 2020). Much of the Tejas megasequence likely represents material washed off the highest pre-Flood hills that became spread onto the Zuni strata as the floodwaters began to recede (Day 150+). Fossils in the Tejas megasequence also contain increasingly more angiosperms (flowering plants) and mammal fossils compared to the Zuni deposits, possibly indicative of higher terrains. These areas were apparently wiped free of all life, removing even the pre-Flood soil and any rock layers that might have existed there. Dr. Russ Humphreys, in his translation of Genesis 6:7 and Genesis 7:23, suggests the term “wiped off” to explain this stripping of the land surface right down to the crust: And the Lord said, “I will wipe off man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping thing and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” Thus He wiped off every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky, and they were wiped off from the earth (Humphreys 2014, p. 57) God wiped off these areas of highest elevation where most of the large mammals, flowering plants, and humans likely existed in the pre-Flood world, spreading their remains in sedimentary layers on top of the earlier buried dinosaurs, creating Tejas strata. Animals may have been buried closer to their place of origin as the floodwaters were rising (Sauk through Zuni Megasequences) until Day 150 was reached. The water and sediment likely engulfed the animals nearly in situ as the water level increased. But the Tejas depositional pattern appears to have been different (Fig. 12). It was apparently the result of a reversal in flow direction as God began to remove the waters off the continents after Day 150. This not only transported the flora and CLAREY AND WERNER Progressive Flood model 2023 ICC 432
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