Grand Canyon as Proof of The Biblical Flood
The Biblical Flood has been debated over for many decades. Some people say it didn’t happen; some people say it did. There are many scientific evidences left behind today that the Flood actually happened such as Rodinia, the Waves in Paria Canyon, and six other different evidences. For example, the well-known supercontinent, Pangaea could be considered proof that the Genesis Flood really did happen.
Most people know about the supercontinent Pangaea, but Rodinia is a little less well-known. Rodinia was the supercontinent that came before and made Pangaea. Rodinia is most likely the land that people like Noah - who lived pre-Flood – inhabited, but had broken apart during the flood, and opened up the Atlantic Ocean which created the plate tectonics model which served as a physical mechanism for the Flood. The supercontinent was destroyed at the beginning of the Flood. The land was torn apart as molten rock and steam came out of the breaks after the molten rock had blasted underneath Rodinia and was then collapsing into the water. The pieces that Rodinia broke into are called cratons. One of the reasons we know that Rodinia came before Pangaea is the Appalachian-Caledonian mountains. If you take out the entire Atlantic Ocean, then put the continents back together like a puzzle; you get the Appalachian-Caledonian mountains which run from North America through Europe. This mountain chain is made up of fossil-bearing sediments that had to of been deposited during the Flood in its earlier stages. The only way that is known that can form a mountain chain like the Appalachian-Caledonian mountains is for one continent to collide with another continent.
This means that the Flood must have deposited fossil-bearing layers in both North America and Europe before the two continents crashed into each other to form the supercontinent Pangaea. Pangaea was only temporary, however, as it only lasted for about a few weeks underwater before it broke apart thus forming the seven continents we have today. With the continents that we have today, we can rearrange and fit the pieces together to form what could have been the two supercontinents, Rodinia and Pangaea, an idea that creationist-geologist Antonio Snider-Pellegrini thought of in 1859. While the arrangement of Pangaea is in most cases agreed on, Rodinia is still being speculated. With different theories from different geologists such as secular geologists who think that rock layers that have large salt and sand deposits came from deserts that were close to the equator or the Flood geologists who think that those sand layers were deposited not on land, but underwater and picked up from beaches on Rodinia at the time the Flood happened; it can be hard to come to a general solution. There are, however, many clues that have been left behind that can help geologists figure out the arrangement of Rodinia. Paleomagnetism, for example, is when magnetic minerals line up with Earth’s magnetic poles. Geologists can use the rocks - from cooled lava, for example - alignment to help them figure out the latitude of where the rocks were formed. Different lavas will harden and align in different directions if a landmass is moving quickly over hundreds of miles.
Another clue is rock types. Based on the type of rock and the type of fossils they contain or the radioactive decay of some minerals, geologists can figure out which large deposits were next to each other even if they are hundreds of miles apart. Debris deposits may possibly be the most important clue to figuring out Rodinia’s arrangement. These debris deposits are types of sedimentary rock that have been deposited by the Flood at the edges of the cratons and are located just above the “basement” rocks. These deposits have some different and distinctive characteristics that can help us line up each of the continents. With these clues, geologists have come up with some possible arrangements for Rodinia. With all the different theories on what Rodinia looked like, there are some things that are agreed on. For example, that North America was located in the center, and that Australia and Eastern Antarctica were somewhere along the western edge. No one, however, can agree on how much of the edges are missing, or even the particular location of some pieces such as South China and Australia. We may never know what Rodinia looked like because of how much was destroyed and lost during the Flood, we just know it existed and is key evidence that the Biblical Flood really did happen.
Strange wave-like layers found in Paria Canyon can be considered evidence of the Flood. The Waves in Paria Canyon are located in the western part of the United States above the Vermillion Cliffs near Kanab, Utah. Geologists that reject the Bible’s history think the Wave was once a bunch of sand dunes that were laid down in dry conditions over time. The book of Genesis, however, gives us a much more reasonable and realistic explanation for these wave-like layers. Creationist geologists believe that large sand waves were piled up and laid down deep underwater then fast currents created unmistakable features called cross-beds or “striations”, with the steep cut-offs that we can see to this day. The Wave has many strange features and patterns within its sandstone, some of which that look like whirlpools. For those whirlpools to appear, the sand first would have to be flowing very fast in a sort of watery slurry. Whirlpools can be formed inside of the sand as it is flowing. Once the slurry stops, the whirlpools stop with it. When new deposits of sand and mud are added on top of these whirlpool-like layers, the pressure of these deposits pushes all of the water out, turning the wet sand into stone. The sand that helped make the Wave wasn’t from Utah, either. Based on the properties of zircon minerals in the sandstone, it is believed that it came from the Appalachian Mountains that are at least 1800 miles away. While it isn’t entirely sure how the Waves were made, it does give us suitable evidence about the Flood.
There are six other main pieces of evidence that the Genesis Flood actually occurred. The first piece of evidence is that fossils of different sea creatures were found above sea level. Fossils of sea life are found in the walls of the Grand Canyon, like the brachiopods and corals as well as many more marine fossils that can be found in the Redwall Limestone. Fossilized shellfish can even be found in the Himalayas. The only possible explanation for this is that the ocean water had to have flooded the land at one time, as the continents couldn’t have sunk below sea level because the rocks that make up the top of the continents are less dense than the ocean and mantle rocks underneath them. The volume of water in the ocean must have increased or the ocean floors would have risen due to hot lava replacing the ocean floors thus increasing its thickness, but lowering its density and raising the sea level over 3500 feet. The second piece of evidence is the rapid burial of both plants and animals. Billions of fossilized nautiloids and other creatures in a seven-foot-thick layer in the Redwall Limestone. These sorts of fossils span over 180 miles, covering an area of over 10500 square miles. There have to be at least twenty-four cubic miles of lime sand and silt that were flowing in a thick mixture at more than sixteen per second to form such a large fossil graveyard. Fossilized creatures, including spiders and reptiles, can be found in Mountceau-Les-Mines, France.
Fossilized plants and birds can be found in Florissant, Colorado. Creatures such as alligators and fish were fossilized in the Green River Formation of Wyoming. Chalk beds in Britain contain fossilized many different marine creatures and these same beds are found across Europe all the way to the Middle East to the American Midwest. More than seven trillion tons of plant life can be found buried in coal beds that are found in every continent. Land and marine life were all buried together at what had to be a very fast and rapid speed. The third piece of evidence is the rapidly deposited sediment layers spread across very large areas that are found on every continent. Examples of this include the rock layers found in the Grand Canyon. It has been found that six mega-sequences share the same strata and can be found all across North America. The Tapeats Sandstone in the Grand Canyon also belongs to the Sauk mega-sequence. The Redwall Limestone also belongs to the Kaskaskia mega-sequence. These same limestones appear all across North America and even in England as well. Not only do these limestones have the same strata sequence, but the same fossils and other features as well. The Cretaceous chalk beds located in Southern England can also be found in other places in Europe such as Northern Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, southern Scandinavia, and other parts of Europe all the way to the Middle East. These same strata can be found in the Midwestern United States as well as the Perth Basin in Western Australia. These chalk beds also all have the same fossils in them. Another example of this is coal beds. Carboniferous coal beds located in the northern hemisphere can be found in the eastern and midwestern United States all the way to Europe, all containing the same plant fossils.
Permian coal beds located in the southern hemisphere can be found in Australia, Antarctica, India, South Africa, and South America; all containing the same type of plant fossils as well. Coconino sandstone found in the Grand Canyon has a volume of at least 10000 cubic miles. It holds physical features called cross-beds, which are seen as sloped beds. These cross-beds had to of been made over just a few days due to the rate of which the sand had deposited with water currents flowing at three to five miles per hour with sand waves up to sixty feet high. The fourth piece of evidence is that sediment was being moved long distances that can only happen when there is fast-moving water. The Coconino sandstone is an example of this. The Coconino’s color is different from the Hermit Formation that is directly below, so the Coconino sandstone couldn’t have come from it. The Hermit Formation also spreads into Utah and further, while the Coconino sandstone thins to nothing to the north in Utah. The “waves” found in the Coconino sandstone point to the south, meaning the water that deposited the sand had to have been flowing from the north. This means the pure quartz sand that makes up the Coconino sandstone had to have come from somewhere up north. The Supai Group strata that are located between Hermit Formation and the Redwall Limestone is another example of sediment being carried over long distances. The Supai Group’s sand “waves” point to the southeast. It is also made of quartz sand just like the Coconino sandstone, so it is possible from northern Utah or Wyoming.
Another example of this is the Navajo sandstone in southern Utah which is also made of pure quartz sand. When we look into the sandstone and find the rocks that and eroded to form this sand, we find the mineral zircon. It is hypothesized that the sand came from the Appalachian Mountains and from former mountains in Canada, meaning that the sand was moved approximately 1250 miles across the continent. With all the evidence that the water was moving consistently in one direction, it’s impossible that these layers were created over millions of years. It is more likely that the water lasted a short amount of time, like a few months. The only plausible way this could happen while still transporting sediment large distances is if we had a worldwide flood. The fifth piece of evidence is the rapid or even no erosion between rock layers. In some areas, we find only erosion that moved a very fast pace. In others, we find no erosion. We would only expect this if the Biblical Flood caused the fossil-bearing layers. The Grand Canyon gives us many examples of strata boundaries that would be consistent with deposition during the Biblical Flood. It is known that the Grand Canyon underwent rapid, large-scale erosion because the effects are visible throughout the canyon. For example, the strata below the Tapeats sandstone was eroded at a fast pace and then planned off.
We know that this was eroded at a fast pace because of no signs of weathering below the boundary as well as boulders and “storm beds” above the boundary which are deposited slowly. With many other examples, such as the Muav Limestone which has been rapidly eroded in several places to form channels, and the boundary between Coconino Sandstone and Hermit Formation showing that there was no time for erosion as the Coconino Sandstone was laid down right after the Hermit Formation. If the Genesis Flood did happen and the rocks weren’t eroded over millions of years, we would see the boundaries between rock layers to have been either eroded at and a fast pace or no erosion at all. That is exactly what we see in the Grand Canyon. The sixth piece of evidence is the many strata that were being laid down in fast succession. Some geologists think that the sedimentary units were laid down and changed over millions of years, but there is evidence that those sedimentary units were laid down in a fast succession which would have to have occurred from something like the Genesis Flood. For example, rocks do not bend. If bent, they will break. In the Grand Canyon, however, we see different rocks that were bent but didn’t even fracture. This means that the rock layers were quickly deposited and folded while they were still wet and bendable like clay. The Tapeats Sandstone is an example of this because of how it appears to have bent at a ninety-degree angle without breaking or fracturing. The only way this could happen is if it was deposited in a fast-paced manner and not after a 480-million-year delay like some geologists say. These six pieces of evidence further prove that the Genesis Flood did happen.
There are many different pieces of evidence that the Genesis Flood happened. Rodinia, the Waves, and the six other pieces of evidence are some examples. With all of this information, we can now say with confidence that the Genesis Flood did happen.
Works Cited
- Morgan, Greg. “Flood Currents Frozen in Stone.” Answers in Genesis, Answers in Genesis, 1 Jan. 2012, answersingenesis.org/geology/sedimentation/flood-currents-frozen-in-stone/. Dec. 7, 2018.
- Snelling, Andrew A. “Noah's Lost World.” Answers in Genesis, Answers in Genesis, 1 Apr. 2014, answersingenesis.org/geology/plate-tectonics/noahs-lost-world/. Feb. 20, 2019.
- Snelling, Andrew A. “What Are Some of the Best Flood Evidences?” Answers in Genesis, Answers in Genesis, 13 Feb. 2015, answersingenesis.org/the-flood/what-are-some-of-the-best-flood-evidences/. Nov. 16, 2018.
- “Worldwide Flood, Worldwide Evidence.” Answers in Genesis, Answers in Genesis, answersingenesis.org/the-flood/global/worldwide-flood-evidence/. Feb. 20, 2019.
