Erosion, Runoff, and the Genesis Flood

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Although secularists often resent the distinction, there are two kinds of science. Operational science deals with the here and now: analyzing, building, treating illnesses, etc. When science is used to attempt to explain what happened in the past, it is historical science — for obvious reasons.

When scientists propose ideas for what happened in the past, there should be evidence for their claims. Biblical creationists believe that the Genesis Flood was a global catastrophe. Two aspects of Flood geology include the runoff of the waters and the accompanying erosion.

Rocks showing layers near Hurley, NY, Unsplash / Cowboy Bob Sorensen
Small areas of erosion are no big deal, but geologists know that there is continental erosion. There are several ways of measuring it. Coal is important for this process in some areas. The lack of it in the Great Plains and the flatness of the area makes it very difficult to estimate erosion. Other areas have domes with erosion around them. The Appalachians are rounded, which shows a great deal of erosion.

Creationists say that during the late part of the Flood or shortly after, the mountains rose and the ocean basins sank. Imagine all that water running off, sometimes at tremendous speeds! Valleys and canyons were also getting eroded. These things are strong physical evidence in historical science of the Genesis Flood.

Massive amounts of sediments, many kilometres thick, with buried plants and animals, were laid down early in the Great Biblical Flood (often called Noah’s Flood). These were cemented into sedimentary rock and the organisms were fossilized. Then the mountains and continents rose up and the valleys and ocean basins sank (Psalm 104:6–9). This caused the Flood water to rush off the continents, sometimes at high speed. This is called the Recessive Stage of the Flood, and probably started about Day 150, nearly midway into the Flood. It would have resulted in enormous erosion of vast areas of the continents. The results of this erosion are clearly visible in every landscape around the world.

The rest of the article and several examples are located at "Massive erosion of continents demonstrates Flood runoff."