Why Did the Floodwater Drain So Slowly?
After the Ark landed on the mountains of Ararat, 74 days passed before the tops of surrounding mountains were visible (Genesis 8:3–5). Shouldn’t most of the floodwater have quickly drained off the high, thickened continents and into the new, deep ocean basins? And why did all passengers (except a few birds) stay on the Ark for 221 days after it landed? Surely, the eight humans wanted to leave that noisy, smelly boat, breathe fresh air, stretch, stand on solid ground, cease caring for the animals, and explore the new earth. First of all, the earth was still a hostile place. Secondly, powerful forces, slowly unleashed at the center of the earth, produced elevation changes at the earth’s surface for years. Let’s briefly review pages 111–190.
Review. During the flood phase, the escaping subterranean water widened the rupture, so the chamber floor directly below steadily bulged upward—similar to that shown in Figures 63 and 65 on pages 130– 131. This upward arching increased stresses and melting below that bulging floor. Deep fractures resulted in slippage, friction, instantaneous melting (lubrication) along vertical faults, and even greater slippage. This, in turn, triggered deeper stresses, fractures, melting, and uplift of the new Atlantic floor.
With this steady uplift, the hydroplates eventually began sliding downhill, away from the rising Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This removal of weight from the rising Ridge accelerated the rise, increased deep fracturing and slippage—and, near the center of the earth, melting. Within hours, the entire Atlantic floor was rapidly rising; that, in turn, pulled down the Pacific plate and shifted surface water violently toward the Pacific side of the earth. The subsiding Pacific plate and the rising Atlantic floor steepened the slopes on which the hydroplates slid away from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Gravitational settling of dense magma deep in the earth released more heat than did frictional sliding along faults. [See Endnote 47 on page 185.] The more the melting, the greater the heat released by gravitational settling. This runaway melting at the exact center of the earth began the formation of earth’s core. [See “Forming the Core” and Figure 89 on page 160.]
Drainage. When rock melts below the crossover depth, its volume decreases. [See “Magma Production and Movement” on page 156.] Therefore, the inner earth shrank as it melted. This, in turn, slowly compressed and deformed earth’s mantle and crust. Elevations at the earth’s surface became increasingly varied in the months and years after the flood—much like the wrinkling skin of a shrinking, drying apple. Consequently, the floodwaters slowly but steadily drained as the wrinkling continued.
The growing liquid core produced irregular elevations at the earth’s surface in a second way. Imagine a unique waterbed. Rather than its water being a liquid, it is a uniform layer of ice. Resting on the bed are two types of blocks: wood (representing continents) and bricks (representing the denser magma from the upper mantle that had spilled primarily onto the new Pacific Basin in the months and years after the flood). As the ice melts, the bricks slowly sink into the liquid, forcing the wood to rise in compensation. Similarly, the denser ocean basins (density ~3.0 gm/cm3) and the mantle below them sank into the earth’s new and growing liquid foundation—the earth’s core. As they did, the less dense crust (density ~2.7 gm/cm3) and the mantle below the crust rose in compensation. This allowed more floodwater to drain into the new, deepening ocean basins, and probably accounts for the high Himalayan Mountains. So it took a few months before the tops of mountains surrounding the Ark could be seen—just as Genesis 8:3–5 states.
Summary. On the 150th day of the flood, the accelerating hydroplates, sliding away from the rising Mid-Atlantic Ridge on a layer of water, crashed, crushed, and buckled. Seashells were then on every major mountain range on earth. [See “Seashells on Mountaintops” on page 46.] Within hours, the Ark landed on the thickened crust. [See page 488.] For a few years, internal melting enlarged earth’s liquid outer core, so elevations on earth became increasingly irregular: denser ocean basins slowly sank, lifting the lighter continents (all relative to the core), so most of the floodwaters drained into those new ocean basins.
The compression event at the end of the flood crushed, buckled, and thickened each hydroplate, so their masses were concentrated on a smaller base. [See Figure 50 on page 117.] Therefore, continents and the new mountains sank very slowly (relative to the mantle) to their equilibrium levels in the solid, but deformable, mantle, forcing the ocean basins to gradually rise in compensation (again, relative to the mantle). Simply stated, the crust and mountains sank relative to the mantle, but rose relative to the core.
Sea level. Because the preflood chamber floor into which the floodwaters drained was far below the preflood surface of the earth, sea levels for centuries after the flood, were much lower than today. [See Pages 516–518.] This allowed animals and humans to migrate between temporarily connected continents. However, sea level eventually rose to today’s levels, because, as stated above, (1) the post flood ocean floor rose in compensation for the sinking of the new mountains and thickened continents into the mantle, and (2) magma spilled up onto the Pacific floor which raised sea level about 4,500 feet. [See page 169.]
Figure 247: Genealogy Chart . This chart is based on the ages of the patriarchs as given in the Masoretic (Hebrew) text. Based on the Septuagint (Greek) text, the flood was 2242 years after the creation.
[See "When Was the Flood, the Exodus, and Creation?" on pages 482–484.]
Years were required to approach equilibrium levels in the newly formed liquid outer core, but centuries-to-millennia were needed for continents to sink into the solid mantle. Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and very slow shifts of blocks of crust and mantle toward the Pacific still occur [ Figure 94 on page 171], demonstrating that perfect equilibrium has not been reached. Consequences of the flood, at times catastrophic, are still with us.