Why the Flood is not Global
File Modified 2/19/98
Copyright 1997 G.R. Morton This can be freely distributed as long as no
charge is made and not changes made to the text.

1. The Bible does not say that it must be global. The word which the
translators translate "earth" is more often used as "land". In Genesis 6:17
"earth" and "ground" are the same word. The choice to translate 'eretz' as
the "planet earth" is strictly an interpretation. Arthur Custance (1958, p.
3) points out:

"Assuming that Young's list is exhaustive, actual count shows that the word
is translated Earth about 677 times and translated land 1458 times.
Moreover, of the 677 occurrences in at least 100 instances the word may be
equally, if not more appropriately, rendered land rather than Earth. Whereas
in the cases where it is translated Land in the English the instances in
which Earth would have been more appropriate are rare. That is to say, the
choice of Earth or Land as a translation of the original in any particular
instance is a matter of context: and on the whole, if we exclude the account
of the Flood, usage elsewhere shows that the context favours the word Land
rather than Earth."

Often 2 Peter 2:5 is cited as evidence that the ancient "world" was
destroyed an thus the flood must be global. This verse says NIV,

"If he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its
ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven
other;"

The Greek word which is translated as "world" is kosmos. According to
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon,(Thayer 1962, p. 356) the translation in
preferred order is: harmonious arrangement or order, ornament, the universe,
the earth, the inhabitants of the world, the ungodly multitude, worldly
affairs, an aggregate. People act as if the absolutely only way this verse
can be interpreted is applying to the earth. Considering the way the rest of
the New Testament translates this word as either "worldly affairs", or the
"ungodly multitude" why are these not perfectly acceptable translations?

All of the below are acceptable translations.

God destroyed the harmonious order.

God destroyed the earth.

God destroyed the inhabitants of the world.

God destroyed the ungodly multitude.

God destroyed the worldly affairs.

1 Peter 3:20 says 8 people were saved in the Flood. In order to argue that
this means the Flood was global, one must assume that people were spread all
over the earth. This is not at all clear from the Scripture.

2. A global Flood violates the second law of thermodynamics. The earth is
made of continents and ocean basins. the continental platforms are made of
granite and float high above the ocean basins. On the average, the surface
of the continents is 5 km above the abyssal ocean floor. On average, the
sediment cover on top of the continents 1.6 km. The average surface
elevation above sea level is about 600 m. The average oceanic sediment
thickness is 300 m with an average elevation of -4500.

Here is why a global flood violates the second law of thermodynamics. The
thickest sediments are on top of the continental platforms. If you think
that this is not a problem, then perform the following experiment. Take a
large brick place it onto the bottom of your bath tub. Fill the bathtub up
to a level that is twice the thickness of the brick. Pour dirt into the tub
and stir vigorously. let it settle out. Where do you think the thickest
layer of dirt will be? It will be on the tub bottom not on the brick. In
fact the sediment on the tub bottom will be twice as thick as the sediment
on the brick if you truly stirred vigorously. In point of fact, the sediment
is much thicker on the continents than it is in the ocean basins.

The average sediment thickness on top of the continents is nearly 1.7 km.
The average sediment thickness in the ocean basins is only .3 km; a 5 to 1
ratio. This is a violation of the laws of physics for the Flood to have
created the sediments as young earth creationists believe.

There are equations that can be derived which show that it is impossible to
account for the sediment thicknesses by having a global flood. For more
information see Morton (1980). I will stand by the problem but not my
suggested solution. It has been disproven by subsequently acquired data.

Could the continents sink and then rise again after the Flood? No. If that
had happened there should exist a huge, vertical fracture zone along each of
these contnental shelves. There is none. During my career as a
geophysicist,I have personally examined hundreds of thousands of miles of
seismic data along the continental shelves of eastern Canada, the Eastern
U.S, the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, China, NW Africa, South Africa, Brazil, and
England. In fact along some of these continental margins, not a single major
fault occurs. The sediments simply thin out into the ocean. This makes these
basins poor targets for oil exploration but very good regions from which to
disprove the concept that the continents sank and rose during the Flood.

3. The fossils are too well sorted. I am indebted to R.S. Beal Jr. for
reminding me of this. Conodonts are microscopic fossils which are the
"teeth" of an ancient animal. The shape of these conodonts change with each
succeeding geologic level are unique. In the Grand Canyon, in the Redwall
limestone, is divided vertically into the Whitmore Wash, Thunder Springs,
Mooney Falls and Horseshoe Mesa members. In each of these layers a peculiar
shaped and unique conodont is found. A conodont named Gnathodes typicus is
found in the Whitmore Wash member and not in the other layers. Scoliognathus
anchoralis and Dolignathus latus are unique to the Thunder Springs member.
Gnathodus texanus is found in the Mooney Falls member only and the conodont
Taphrognathus variarus is limited to the Horseshoe Mesa member.

Conodont are extremely small and microscopes must be used to examine them.
How in the world could a global flood so perfectly sort these tiny particles
into layers that only contain conodonts of certain shapes? The turbulence of
the flood was supposed to be so great and yet world-wide, microscopic
animals are sorted vertically through the various layers of the geologic
column.

In the Gulf of Mexico, when we drill wells, we always find the same vertical
order of microscopic planktonic foraminifera, nannoplankton, and benthic
foraminifera. I know that a peculiar shape of planktonic foram, Glob Menardi
changed its coiling direction at the same geologic horizon as the last
occurrence of D. brouweri "A", and the benthic foram, Cristellaria S. I know
that microscopic benthonic Trimosina A is found above this level and the
microscopic calcarious nannoplankton Discoaster A is below this level. Each
of these fossil forms have a unique shape and are easily distinguishable.
How could the flood so perfectly sort these small uniquely shaped creatures
into vertical layers?

Other fossils are equally well sorted but not on the characteristics that
global Flood advocates suggest. I use some rather old books for this,
because it illustrates how long ago this information was known. This is
important because as long as this has been known, Christian apologists never
talk about ammonites in their books on the Flood.

Ammonites were a nautiloid-like animal that lived in the Late Paleozoic and
Mesozoic seas as the animal grew, it excreted a shell wall behind the animal
but inside the shell which was attached to the outer shell. The junction of
this interior partition with the external shell left a suture pattern on the
exterior of the shell. This suture pattern was constant for each species and
was constant for each individual throughout its life. A small individual had
the same sutures as a large individuals of the same species. This is
important because global flood advocates believe that the fossils are sorted
according to the laws of hydrodynamical sorting. These laws, Stoke's Law and
variations of it, would predict that the ammonites would be sorted by size,
with the biggest ones on bottom and the smallest ones on top. (See Potter et
al, p. 9)

Henry Morris, an expert on hydrodynamics (1967, p. 40) wrote:

"The hydrodynamic sorting action of moving water is quite efficient, so that
each stratum would tend to contain an assemblage of fossils of similar
shapes and sizes."

Now, what do we find? We find that the ammonites are not sorted by size in
the geologic column, but are sorted by suture shape!

The same sized organism with different suture shapes are found at different
stratigraphic levels. In the Jurassic ammonite zones are defined nearly
world wide based upon the different sutures of the animals.

Raymond Moore (1933, p. 483-484) writes

"The sutures (junction of the shell partitions with the inner wall of the
shell) are only moderately curved or angulated in the simplest amminoids.
This type was characteristic of the later Paleozoic rocks but some of the
amminoids of the Triassic are little, if any, more advanced. An increased
number of bends and angles in the suture line, accompanied by a progressive
complication in pattern, marks the development of most of the Mesozoic
ammonoids. In many cases the suture pattern is so intricate that it is
indeed difficult to trace. The diversity is amazing, but each type of suture
is constant according to genus and species. Because even slight changes in
the sutures are readily determinable and with other characters permit
definite recognition of specific differences, these shells are well fitted
to serve as markers of stratigraphic zones and of geologic time."

W. J. Arkell (1956, p. 8) writes of the vertical consistency of certain
species of ammonites over the entire world. Evolutionists say that these
ammonites lived in the seas world wide.

"From the Hettangian up to the Middle Kimeridgian these stages can be
recognized all over the world, but after that the scheme breaks down owing
to regional differentiation of faunas."

Below is the vertical sequence of Jurassic ammonites which was first defined
in NW Europe but works over vast areas. Remember each species represents a
separate suture pattern. The question is: Why would the flood perfectly sort
ammonites according to their suture patterns-ammonites which otherwise are
indistinguishable except for the markings on the shell?

Standard Stages and Ammonite zones of the Jurassic of NW Europe.(Arkell
1956, p. 10-11)

Top of Sequence

Upper Jurassic

.....Portlandian Stage

........................Titanites giganteus

........................Glaucolithites gorei

........................Zaraiskites albani

.....Kimeridgian Stage

........................Pavolvia pallasioides

........................Pavolvia rotunda

........................Pectinatites pectinatus

........................Subplanites wheatleyensis

........................Subplanites spp.

........................Gravesia gigas

........................Gravesia gravesiana

........................Aulacostephanus pseudomutabilis

........................Rasenia mutabilis

........................Rasenia cymodoce

........................Pictonia baylei

.....Oxfordian Stage

........................Ringsteadia pseudocordata

........................Decipia decipiens

........................Perisphinctes cautisnigrae

........................Perisphinctes plicatilis

........................Cardioceras cordatum

........................Quenstedtoceras mariae

Middle Jurassic

.....Callovian Stage

........................Quenstedtoceras lamberti

........................Peltoceras athleta

........................Erymnoceras coronatum

........................Kosmoceras jason

........................Sigaloceras calloviense

........................Proplanulites koenigi

........................Macrocephalites macrocephalus

.....Bathonian Stage

........................Clydoniceras discus

........................Oppelia aspidoides

........................Tulites subcontractus

........................Gracilisphinctes progracilis

........................Zigzagiceras zigzag

.....Bajocian Stage

........................Parkinsonia parkinsoni

........................Garantiana garantiana

........................Strenoceras subfurcatum

........................Stephanoceras humphriesianum

........................Otoites sauzei

........................Sonninia sowerbyi

........................Ludwigia murchisonae

........................Tmetoceras scissum

........................Leioceras opalinum

Lower Jurassic

.....Toarcian Stage

........................Lytoceras jurense

........................Hildoceras bifrons

........................Harpoceras falcifer

........................Dactylioceras tenuicostatum

.....Pliensbachian Stage

........................Pleuroceras spinatum

........................Amaltheus margaritatus

........................Prodactylioceras davoei

........................Tragophylloceras ibex

........................Uptonia jamesoni

.....Sinemurian Stage

........................Echioceras raricostatum

........................Oxynoticeras oxynotum

........................Asteroceras obtusum

........................Euasteroceras turneri

........................Arnioceras semicostatum

........................Arietites bucklanidi

.....Hettangian Stage

........................Schlotheimia angulata

........................Psiloceras planorbis

bottom of Jurassic

The point of this is that the upper layers of a geologic column must have
been deposited AFTER the lower layer. This is because sedimentation occurs
from above only and covers whatever is below it.

Do an experiment Dump sand containing yellow metal cubes into a tub. It will
settle out and you will have a layer of sand on the bottom with yellow
cubes. Now dump more sand into the tub only this time let the sand contain
blue cubes of the same size. Do this over and over again with green, purple,
white,and red cubes respectively in the sand. You will now have a vertical
layer looking like,

top

sand-red cubes

sand-white cubes

sand-purple cubes

sand green cubes

sand- blue cubes

sand yellow cubes

bottom.

What you have is a geologic column built up over a period of time with
different cubes in the the sand each time it was deposited. Now, the young
earth creationists say that the geologic column was deposited all at one
time; in on great catastrophe. So, now take all the sand and all the cubes,
mix them thoroughly and dump them into the tub all at once. You will not
find the above order at all. You will find red,white purple, green, blue and
yellow cubes at all levels and lying next to other cubes of all other
colors. That disorder would be an indication of rapid deposition.

In the geologic column with the ammonites and conodonts, we find them sorted
according to "colors" not mixed up. One is correct to say that the flood
could not sort everything perfectly, yet if the geologic column was built up
by a 1 year flood, that is exactly what you must say happened. Ammonites
were deposited in a strict order based upon suture shape. Since the suture
shape could not have made that much difference in the sorting process, the
only conclusion is that the ammonites were not deposited in one big
catastrophe.

The only reasonable explanation is that the layers were laid down over a
very, very long time period and the ammonites which lived in one time period
died out before the next and were replaced.

4. The rates of deposition are too great to have allowed any animal life to
have survived to leave traces of itself high in the geologic column. Below
Austin, Texas lies approximately 15,000 feet of sedimentary rock which
contains fossils of all sorts. On the surface all around Austin are dinosaur
tracks.

Several years ago, I took an AAPG field trip to examine the carbonate rocks
in South Texas. Some of the dinosaur tracks were seen at the Leander Section
just north and west of Austin. (Moore and Bebout, p.33)

15,000 feet of sediment, which is deposited in 365 days, is being deposited
at the rate of 41 feet of sediment per day or 1.7 feet per hour. At these
rates, a dinosaur must fight the deep and raging waters of the flood for an
entire year, never sleeping or getting sick (or he would be buried after
merely 12 hours). During this year of fighting to stay on top of the
sediments, he must be able to find food and fresh water throughout the year.
Only after doing all of this, the dinosaur lives through the flood so he can
leave his footprints along the San Gabriel River.

But dinosaurs are not the only ones who must perform this amazing feet. In
the rocks around Austin one can find huge and small snails, and some type of
bivalve-big and small- (I am not an expert in their names, although I
believe they are called Turritella for the snails and pectins are abundant.
Since bivalves normally open up upon their death, we can surmise that these
were alive when they were buried and fossilized. But since they were found
on top of the sedimentary column, these snails must have performed
supergastropodian feats of movement in order to avoid being buried. This is
not likely. It is far more believable that these animals lived where they
grew and that the dinosaurs were walking on a mudflat, stepping on the
bivalves and snails.

5. Astronomical cycles seen in the sediments. Various cyclicities have been
observed in the thicknesses of laminae of various sedimentary sections
throughout the world. Variations in laminae thickness have been observed
over periods of 11 years solar cycle) 20,000 years precessional cycle,
100,000 year cycle of the earth's orbital eccentricity. These cyclicities
are seen in rocks like the Eocene Green River formation of Wyoming, the
Devonian Catskill Delta, a Triassic Hungarian carbonate platform, The Newark
basin of New Jersey.( See Fisher and Roberts 1991, p. 1147; Fischer and Lee,
1993, p. a112; Balog et al, 1995;)

Why should these cyclicities be seen in rocks deposited during a single
year? Why do the cyclicities correspond to the earth's orbital elements?

6. Why are mudcracks found in the geologic column since the flood was an
aqueous event?

This is a vertical sequence from California. Old Highway section Ridge Basin
Group 80 m thick

top

Mollusks

mudcracks ripplemarks

gypsum

sandstone (cross-bedded)

[snipped section]

Mudcracks

burrows

crossbedded sandstone

plants and vertebrate remains

ripple marks

mollusks

bottom~

Martin H. Link and Robert H. Osborne "Lacustrine facies in the Pliocene
Ridge Basin Groups: Ridge Basin, California" in Modern and Ancient Lake
Sediments ed. by Albert Matter and Maurice E. Tucker London: Blackwell
Scientific Publications 1978 p. 179.

Another vertical section

Pyramid dam section 90 m thick

bottom

mudcracks

mudcracks

mudcracks

crossbeds

2 erosional surfaces

ripplemarks

gravel

2 burrow layers

plant remains 2 erosional surfaces

2 layers with burrows

slump folds

burrows

ripple marks

crossbedded sandstone

burrows

sandstone

burrows

slumpfolds~

Martin H. Link and Robert H. Osborne "Lacustrine facies in the Pliocene
Ridge Basin Groups: Ridge Basin, California" in Modern and Ancient Lake
Sediments ed. by Albert Matter and Maurice E. Tucker London: Blackwell
Scientific Publications 1978 p. 179.

Another vertical section

frenchman flat sections

mudcracks at bottom

then pebbly sandstone

then burrows in shale then sandstone (pebbly)

then dark grey sandstone (crossbedded)

then redbrown breccias and conglomerate

then burrows

then stromatolites

then red mudstone with mudcracks

then plant remains ~

top of section

Martin H. Link and Robert H. Osborne "Lacustrine facies in the Pliocene
Ridge Basin Groups: Ridge Basin, California" in Modern and Ancient Lake
Sediments ed. by Albert Matter and Maurice E. Tucker London: Blackwell
Scientific Publications 1978 p. 178.

7. Absolutely NO living species of terrestrial animal can be found in
Mesozoic and Paleozoic rocks. Life HAS changed. If the animals found in the
fossil record represent the remains of animals which lived prior to the
Flood, and if the animals alive today are the descendants of animals which
got off the ark, then why are there no living forms in the flood sediments?
Why are there no whales or dolphins found in Mesozoic and Paleozoic rocks?

Conclusion

The Bible does not require a global flood, and the evidence goes against
that view. Local flood theories are Biblically acceptable and
observationally required.

References

Arkell, W. J., 1956, Jurassic Geology of the World,(Edinburgh: Oliver and
Boyd),.

Beal, Jr., R. S. 1997. Neither/Nor: An Evangelical Assessment of the
Evolution/Creation Controversy, Prescott: unpublished manuscript, p. 70.

Balog,A., J. F. Read, and J. Haas, 1995. "Late Triassic Milankovitch Cycle
Record of a Hungarian Marine Carbonate Platform Compared with Record from
Italian Alps and United States Rift Basins, AAPG-SEPM-EMD-DPA-DEG Conv Pap.
Abstracts, 1995, p.6A in Petroleum Abstracts, April, 22, 1995, p. 1313,
Abstract # 596, 165.

Custance, Arthur C.,1958. The Extent of the Flood, Doorway Papers, 41,
(Ottawa: Privately Published)

Fischer,Alfred G., and Lillian T. Roberts, 1991. "Cyclicity in the Green
River Formation (Lacustrine Eocene) of Wyoming," Journal of Sedimentary
Petrology, 61:7, December 1991.,

Fischer,Alfred G. and Calvin Lee, 1993. "Milankovitch Signature in the
Catskill Delta," Annual GSA Meeting, Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 25, No.
6, 1993,page A-112

Moore, Clyde H. and Don G. Bebout, undated. Lower Cretaceous of Central
Texas, AAPG Field Seminar-Ancient Carbonates.

Moore, Raymond, 1933. Historical Geology, (New York: McGraw-Hill)

Henry M. Morris, 1967, Evolution and the Modern Christian, (Phillipsburg:
Presbyterian and Reformed).

Morton, Glenn R. 1980, "Prolegamena to the Study of the Sediments", Creation
Research Society Quarterly, 17:3:162-167

Pottter,Paul E. , J. Barry Maynard, and Wayne A. Prior, 1980, Sedimentology
of Shale Springer-Verlag.
=========
 1. Building the Ark
 Wood is not the best material for shipbuilding. It is not enough that a
 ship be built to hold together; it must also be sturdy enough that the
 changing stresses don't open gaps in its hull. Wood is simply not strong
 enough to prevent separation between the joints, especially in the heavy
 seas that the Ark would have encountered. The longest wooden ships in
 modern seas are about 300 feet, and these require reinforcing with iron
 straps and leak so badly they must be constantly pumped. The ark was 450
 feet long [Gen. 6:15]. Could an ark that size be made seaworthy?
This is correct. The longest wooden hulled ships were built in the USA in
the 19th C and although they floated they were totaly unseaworthy in any
kind of swell. The hulls hogged, twisted and sagged and the hull seams
leaked, they had to be pumped constantly. Iron keels and ribs are needed to
provide stiffnes

-------
 The formation of calcium carbonate is exothermic, and
>there's roughly 5 * 10^17 tons of it.  How much must have been formed
>during the Flood, though?  Some comes from reworked sediments, but other
>limestone forms directly, and even the reworked sediments require
>cementation.

* Frictional heating. *Large* quantities of sediments were moved from
relatively high positions to lower depositional sites. The resulting
lost gravatic potential energy must have been converted to heat.
The erosion of such huge volumes of material must have liberated heat
END***************************************************************************

Flood

Geological Periods of the Earth.
Pre-Cambrian, Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Mississippian,
Pennsylvanian, Permian,/ Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous,/ Tertiary, Quaternary.

Eight people could not care for millions of species.
A wooden boat the size of the Ark would collapse.
The millions of species of plants and animals would not survive a year on
the Ark and afterward, on a flood ruined world.
Most require special fresh food. One olive tree can not feed many animals for
very long.
If all the stories about the Ararat region are true about the Ark, the
whole area is one vast Ark parking lot.
There are about 200,000 known plant species and millions of animal species,
each requiring a special environment to survive.
The Flood requires 5.5 miles of additional water and then you must get rid
of it.
The ice caps contain 420,000 yearly layers of ice over much older unlayered
ice.
The atmosphere has one inch of water.
The disease smallpox could not survive in only 8 people.
Thus, the flood is a myth, not a physical event.
The traditional date for the Flood is about 2350 BC, when pyramids were
being built.
There is too much genetic diversity in animals and people to have 
the populations reduced to only a few people, plants, and animals about
2300 BC..
The cave paintings of the ice age survive, over 12,000 years old.
The physical evidence refutes the Flood story.
The sea life and fresh water life could not survive a flood 5.5 miles deep.
Olive trees could not live a year under water and do not grow on mountain
tops.
The world distribution of plants and animals does not reflect migration from
Turkey about 2300 BC.
There is no historical date which fits the flood story.
The flood would have to be a mile deep to reach the base of the mountains of
Ararat and 17,000 feet to reach the peaks. It would be 5.5 miles deep to cover
Mt. Everest.
The maximum evaporation rate is 160 inches of water a year.
During the Flood, all the animals ran up a hill and the mammals ran fastest,
then the reptiles, then the amphibians, then the fish and last all the
trilobites died at the bottom of the hill. 
Creationist explanation for the fossil distribution.
Tell me why the Australian animal and plant life are found nowhere else in the
whole world.
Jesus sinned when he lied about the flood, in Matthew.

How did any South American animal make it from the Ark? Certainly not via the
Atlantic --there is no island chain that could have constituted a land bridge.
It is possible to move across the Pacific, and there is fossil evidence that
indicates that such migrations did occur (but not, sadly, of modern sloths).
So, obviously, after the Flood subsided, the llamas, vicunas, nutrias, etc.
(and yes, sloths), trotted along what is now known as the Silk Route until
they reached the east coast of Asia, skirted around the Sea of Japan and the
Sea of Okhotsk, continued northward to the agreeable climate of 65 degrees
north latitude, crossed the Bering Strait to the Seward Peninsula of Alaska,
clambered through the Canadian Rockies, continued southward along the coast of
California, the rain forests of Mexico and Central America, and the Panama
isthmus, until they reached their destination. The journey, at the most
moderate calculation, was at least 16,000 miles and covered an incredible
variety of terrains and climates. It is rather curious that to date no vicuna
remains have been found in Alaska or Siberia; but those areas are pretty big,
after all, and they have lots of unexplored territory.
==
³A very few species of plants have seeds that can float for months in
seawater and remain viable.  Many plants have seeds with no dormancy;
these would die right away.  Many plants reproduce by spores, not seeds;
some of these also lack dormancy.²
³1] There are large floods somewhere in the world almost every year--
so where are all the modern examples of flood-generated, floating rafts of
live vegetation?  Show us any evidence of months-old floating forests
[there arenıt any].
2] The salty water would kill nearly all species of plants apart from
mangroves and other halophytes.² ³Very few trees might possibly survive
a brief flood this way, by floating but none would live and root after
a year at sea. Besides, you have to argue for a _submerged_ survival of
the olive [_Olea europea_], since the Biblical
bird-returning-with-an-olive-sprig-as-the
-sign-of-the-end-of-the-flood bit makes no sense if the olive twigs were
always exposed as part of a floating forest.²
³Thereıs another obvious experiment for the ICR: let them sink pots of
seeds and whole potted plants of various species deep in an estuary, and
tether others and let them float uprooted, and see if they can be made to
grow after a year. Extremely few (if any) plants or seeds will still be
alive.²
The veggie mats [even if they really formed and somehow magically didnıt
break up and sink] canıt explain:
1] the survival of all the vast numbers of very salt-intolerant species;
2] all the many dampness-intolerant, desert-adapted species;
3] the many kinds of lichens and mosses, etc. that
only grow attached to big rocks [itıs kinda hard to get them to float];
4] the many plants restricted to the sheltered deep shade of rain forests;
5] the obligate symbioses like fig wasps and yucca moths, etc.
You also completely fail to ³explain² biogeography [Why are all the
hundreds of Cactaceae only in the Americas, but African deserts have
hundreds of superficially cactus-like _Euphorbia_ species, and the
cactus-like family Didieriaceae exists only in Madagascar?  Why are there
hundreds of Eucalypts only in Australia?], paleobotany [why did no
Lepidodendrons or other ³Paleozoic² plants make it into the floating
mats?], and paleopalynology [how does the dispersed fossil pollen and
spore record show any strict taxonomic/stratigraphic/geographic
correlations [it does] if all strata were formed in a single flood?  Why
are there no pollen or spores in Precambrian or older Paleozoic strata?
Pollen really gets around and sporopollenin is nearly indestructable; with
the total lack of spores it sure looks like the strata were formed before
land plants...].²
If fossils formed during the flood and modern animals and plants arrived
at their present distributions only after the flood, then tell us how it
is that all the living kangaroos are now found in the
only part of the world where fossil kangaroos are found [both wholly
extinct types and types much like the living ones]?  How did so many
plants and animals dispersing after the flood somehow ³home² to the only
places where all their ancient kin were buried [presumably in ³flood
sediments²]?  And why are there no traces of any typical Australian
marsupials anywhere between Australia and the alleged ark landing site
[Ararat, right?]

How did the vertically migrating plankton masses, which incidently form the
basis for the oceanic food chain, survive the upper layers of fresh water?
This claim of a flat bottomed, square cornered boat is nonsense. Why do
you think that ships are rounded and longer than they are wide?
Flat surfaces are a lot weaker than compound curved surfaces, look at how
a dome is self supporting but a flat roof needs lots of support. Also how
would you waterproof a sharp corner composed of butted planks? A box shape
is also a non-starter when it comes to stability. What makes you say it
would be very stable and not easily capsized? Quite the opposite is true.
Try ballasting a flat square boat, see what happens when a wave hits the
flat hard side. Ships and boats are the shape they are because itıs the best
shape for riding a swell and keeping the bow into a wind or current.
Speed of cutting through the water has nothing to do with it. Cutting
through waves is more important.
==
If the "global flood" was supposed to be a time of very rapid  (e.g., a year)
deposition of huge amounts of sediment (kilometres in some places), yes, it can
not account for many types of sessile (i.e. attached) organisms that are found
in life position at various levels in the Earth's stratigraphy, because if
deposition was rapid the organisms would have been smothered long before they
could have grown (unless growth rates were somehow thousands of times faster
during the flood).  The real problem is *not* quickly generating the hard (or
firm, or soft) surfaces for the organisms to grow on, because there are many
situations where hard sediment surfaces can develop relatively quickly, and it
can perhaps be speculated that some analogous processes were operating in the
midst of a global flood.  The real problem is for the organisms to become
established on those surfaces, grow to maturity, and get buried numerous times
in the midst of a global flood that was supposed to be dumping kilometres of
sediments on top in a year or so.  Any pause in deposition for organisms to
become established and grow -- and there would have to be a great many of them
to account for the evidence -- would add time to the duration of the flood, or
imply that the deposition in the intervening times was that much more rapid.
==
Wooley was mistaken in his claims of finding deposits from the Noah flood
about 1925.
The flood strata he found at Ur were deposited about 3500 BCE, but were found
only at Ur and Nineveh. Deposits of a flood was about 2900 BCE and strata dated
then were found at Shuruppak, at Kish, at Uruk, and possibly Lagash.  The
earliest version of the Noachian flood myth began about the time writing was
invented about 2600 BCE which was in the Early Dynastic Period.
Max Mallowan suggested that the river flood of 2900 BCE that preceded the Early
Dynastic Period was the basis of the Noah's flood story.
=====
The San Diego Zoo is on 100 acres of land, and only houses a tiny
fraction of the species that exist on our planet.  It is also run by
hundreds of doctors, nutritionists, and volunteers.
==
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/flood-myths.html

The world's coal deposits contain, or at least, contained, forty
times the carbon in the Earth's current biomass. The  carbonate deposits have
much more carbon than this.
==
Insects fact sheet
As an idea of how many insects Noah would have had to take on the ark,
here is a list of insect orders with the number of species in each
(source - Natural History Museum):

              COLLEMBOLA: 6000 eg. springtails
              THYSANURA: 370 eg. silverfish
              EPHEMEROPTERA: 2100 eg. mayflies
              ODONATA: 5500 eg. dragonflies
              PLECOPTERA: 2000 eg. stoneflies
              BLATTODEA: 3700 eg. cockroaches
              ISOPTERA: 2300 eg. termites
              MANTODEA: 1800 eg. mantids
              DERMAPTERA: 1800 eg. earwigs
              ORTHOPTERA: 20500 eg. grasshoppers
              PHASMATODEA: 2500 eg. stick insects
              PSCOPTERA: 3200 eg. bark lice
              PHTHIRAPTERA: 3000 eg. biting lice
              HEMIPTERA: 82000 eg. aphids
              THYSANOPTERA: 5000 eg. thrips
              MEGALOPTERA: 250 eg. alderflies
              RAPHIDIOPTERA: 175 eg. snakeflies
              NEUROPTERA: 5000 eg. ant-lions
              COLEOPTERA: 400000 eg. beetles
              MECOPTERA: 400 eg. scorpion flies
              SIPHONAPTERA: 2400 eg. fleas
              DIPTERA: 120000 eg. fruit-flies
              TRICHOPTERA: 10000 eg. caddisflies
              LEPIDOPTERA: 150000 eg. butterflies
              HYMENOPTERA: 130000 eg. ants, bees

giving a grand total of approx. 965,420 different species of insect,
about a million (and these are just the species known to western science.
There could be another several million unknown species). Given a male and
female, make that at least two million insects aboard the ark,
ranging in size from a millimetre, up to six inches in size, many having
extremely specialised requirements for life, (not to mention quite an
appetite for eating other insects...).
==
³Why do so many of the earthıs ancient cultures have flood legends?²

Because a lot of cultures lived close to rivers or estuaries. It turns
out that most cultures DONıT have a flood legend. Richard Andree did a
comprehensive study of flood traditions in 1891 in Die Flutsagen:
Ethnographicsh Betrachtet. He found no flood traditions in Arabia,
China, Japan, northern and central Asia, Africa, and much of Europe.
==
http://home.flash.net/~mortongr/geo.htm  geology refuting the flood

Koalas are highly vulnerable to changes in temperature and have a specialized
diet, eating only the freshest tips of eucalyptus buds. The plants are also
their main source of water.Koalas have no body fat and, when they're
off their feed, can lose 10 percent of their body weight overnight. 
Koala care includes a specialized diet of selected eucalyptus, a 65 degree
environment and minimal stress. Without those things, the animals suffer
dramatically and may die of dehydration within days. 

====
There are large numbers of ripple marks, rain drops, and
animal tracks (and sun cracks) in the geologic record.
Over 500 animal trackways have been found in the Western US alone.
These trackways are in sediments ranging  from late Paleozoic
to Recent with most of them being in sediments creationists
attribute to Noahıs flood.  It does not take much intelligence
to understand that if these sediments truly were laid down by
the flood, it would have washed away any footprints that were
laid down.  But there should have been few, if any footprints
laid down anyway since the sediments should have been laid down
mostly under water after the animals were drowned.  Moreover,
there are dinosaur nesting sites near the top of the Mesozoic
sediments.  Most of what creationists claim is flood sediment lies
below them. And above the nesting sites is the world-wide
iridium layer that marks the end of the Mesozoic. And above that
is far too much sediment to have been laid down by natural
processes in a mere 10,000 years.

Thus in reality, trace fossils disprove the claim of a world-wide flood and
verify the reality of an old earth.  That the creationists should use them to
³prove² a young earth only proves their willingness to make selective use of
facts to create to create a false impression
=====