animal migration, particularly for the largest mammals and the hoofed animals (Whitmore and Garner 2008; Whitmore and Wise 2008; Snelling 2009; Ross 2012; Snelling and Matthews 2013; Ross and Arment 2022). Recall, that at the end of the Flood and before the Ice Age, water levels were about 190 meters higher than today, which includes 70 m for the ice still remaining in Greenland and Antarctica. Suggestions that nearly all Cenozoic fossils were the result of post-Flood local catastrophes fails to explain how the post-Flood animals arrived at the newly separated continents. Large mammals and hoofed animals would have a hard time floating on log mats for weeks or months without proper footing, nor sufficient food and water supplies. In contrast, a high Cenozoic or N-Q Flood boundary better explains the timing of the land bridges and the migration from the Ark during the Ice Age, well after the Tejas deposition was fully over and the water had drained from the land. Finally, it is the strength of the data in any debate that is most critical and revealing. Sedimentary data are not open to as much interpretation and manipulation as are fossil data alone. Fossils are only as good as what has been discovered and identified. Biases in collection, extent of erosion, and amount of exposure all factor into the fossil database. Each can filter and skew paleontological data. Whereas, stratigraphy (the rock layers in place) provides a much more extensive and indisputable complete record of history. The fossils are merely found within the stratigraphy. The rock record is as strong and robust as the principle of cross-cutting relations or the principle of superposition. Stratigraphic data cannot be altered easily by biases. It represents the true rocks in place, verified by outcrops and wells, spread across vast portions of the continents, and as real as the pages of a book. As discussed above, one of the major conclusions included in the progressive Flood model is that the upper Flood boundary is much higher than some have previously thought (Austin et al. 1994). Rock data indicate that the Middle East, North Africa and much of Europe were still inundated by Flood water throughout the deposition of most of the Neogene (upper Tejas) sediments (Figs. 28-31) (Clarey and Werner 2019a). Stratigraphic columns across Europe, Turkey, Syria and Iraq show continuous carbonate, salt and/or marine sand deposition from the Cretaceous up through, and including, the Miocene and sometimes the Pliocene level (Figs. 30, 31). These rock data demonstrate that the post-Flood boundary is high in the Cenozoic. For these reasons, we are confident in our interpretation that the upper Flood boundary was near the N-Q boundary, and possibly right below the Ice Age deposits. 2. Progressive Flood Model and CPT Explains the Flooding of the Continents One of the strengths of CPT is its ability to explain the progressive Flood that the stratigraphic data suggest. The Bible plainly states that during the initiation of the Flood (Genesis 7:11), the “fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.” In terms of CPT, the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep may be a description of the initial rifting that took place globally at the ocean ridges and even within continents (Reed 2000; Clarey 2020). It seems likely that this was the moment when the global tectonic plates first formed as individual, moving pieces. Curvilinear cracks opening up all over the earth may have been initiated by a miraculous event. Whatever their origin, it appears that these long rifts may have allowed the cold, dense, pre-Flood ocean crust to begin to subduct in some places. Some creationists have suggested that a source of water for the fountains may have been the upper mantle. Studies indicate that indeed there are massive quantities of water disseminated within the minerals of the upper mantle in a layer called the transition zone (440 to 660 kilometers or 270 to 400 miles below the earth’s surface) (Fei et al. 2017). Secular scientists estimate that just as much water is trapped in the minerals at these depths as there is in all the oceans. Ringwoodite and wadesleyite, the two most common minerals at those depths, are estimated to contain 1-2% water by weight. Although it’s possible that a tiny amount of this water, and even limited shallower mantle water, was released as the fountains burst at the onset of the Flood, it is highly unlikely that the amount was large enough to make any significant contribution to the total water inventory at the earth’s surface. The reason is that this water is part of the crystal structure of the minerals comprising these rocks residing hundreds of kilometers below the surface. For this water to become water vapor or liquid water, the rocks themselves somehow would need to rise to near the earth’s surface and melt. Even in the framework of CPT, it is highly unlikely any significant amount of rock from the transition zone was transported to near the earth’s surface. While it is true that today about 95% of the gases released by volcanoes are water and carbon dioxide, demonstrating that volcanoes do release water, this water originates in the highly restricted zones of partial melting in the asthenosphere immediately below mid-ocean ridges and in subduction zones where water carried down by the subducting plate is released and reduces the melting temperature of the rock there. Obviously, the intense rainfall described as the opening of the “windows of heaven” contributed to the flooding of the pre-Flood landmasses. And some of this rainfall was likely from the water coming out of the volcanic eruptions as described above. But, because newly created oceanic lithosphere is hot, less dense, and more buoyant, the CPT model provides a potentially even bigger source for water for the flooding of the continents. After its formation at the ridges, freshly formed, low-density oceanic lithosphere rises and raises the top of the seafloor from below, displacing ocean water and forcing it on land. Creationists have calculated that this elevated seafloor could have raised the global sea level by 1.6 kilometers (Snelling 2014c) to 2.0 kilometers (Baumgardner 1986). greatly helping flood the continents. If the bottom of the bathtub is raised, the water will rise. If the bottom of the ocean is raised, sea level will rise. The more newly created ocean lithosphere, the more the ocean level was pushed upwards. This process is what likely caused the water to finally go over the top of the highest hills as the Flood reached the 150th day. Rapid movement of the plates during runaway subduction also supplied innumerable tsunami-like waves to wash across the land, helping deposit blanket-type sediments across continents. Numerical modeling by Baumgardner has found that repetitive tsunami waves, caused by rapid plate movement, could result in water accumulation more than a kilometer (0.62 mile) deep on the continents, contributing to the flooding (Baumgardner 2018). The runaway subduction model also provides a mechanism to lower the continental crust about two miles in the proximity of the subduction zones, causing more extensive flooding of the land and creating room for thousands of feet of sediment (Baumgardner 1994a). In summary, plate motion provided two of the major potential sources of water to inundate the pre-Flood land. First, the rapid creation of new seafloor during the Flood caused the ocean levels to rise up to 2 km higher. Second, the tsunamis generated by plate motion (subduction especially) could have added another kilometer CLAREY AND WERNER Progressive Flood model 2023 ICC 439
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