What were conditions like prior to the Flood? There are several pre-Flood evidences that we find today:

WATER VAPOR—What produced the changeover from a worldwide warm climate to our present climate zones that vary between very hot to icy cold? It was probably a change in the earth’s atmosphere.

There are three factors in the atmosphere that provide us with whatever greenhouse-type climate we have today: ozone, carbon dioxide, and water vapor. If, prior to the Flood, one or more of these were more abundant in the air above us, a profound change in our worldwide climate would occur. The most powerful of the three is water vapor. Indeed, a lot of the water in our present oceans, came out of the skies at the time of the Flood!

A universal water-vapor blanket must have covered our planet in ancient times. It is called the "vapor canopy." The evidence is clearly available that tropical plants were once in the far north and south. Only a great increase in encircling water could possibly explain that earlier worldwide warm climate.

Apart from a massive increase in pre-Flood water vapor, the situation we find in the rock strata is unexplainable.

It has been suggested that our planet was not inclined 23o prior to the Flood. But, if the earth was not then on an inclined axis (which may well not be true), worldwide yearly temperatures would be even more extreme than now! The only solution to the problem is that a sizeable portion of the water in the oceans was once in the skies overhead.

LOWER SEA LEVELS—Before the Flood there were probably only broad rivers. The enormous concave ocean basins we have today—in some places over five miles [8 km] deep—were not needed then. The entire earth must, indeed, have been very beautiful.

(1) Seamounts were first discovered by a naval captain during World War II. As a personal research project during trips back and forth across the Pacific, Harry H. Hess, commander of an attack transport, the U.S.S. Cape Johnson, kept his deep-water echo sounder turned on all the time. Continuous profiles of the sea bottom were recorded on graph paper. Analyzing the data, he discovered extinct volcanoes hundreds of feet beneath the sea with their tops flattened off.

None of them broke the surface of the ocean. The name "seamounts" was given to these formations. (An alternate name for them is "guyots.") What could have caused them?

Volcanic activity began before the Flood ended. The volcanoes in the basin of the ocean, which became extinct before the seas had filled, had their summits eroded away—flattened out—by storm and wave action as sea level reached those summits. The oceans kept filling and the horizontal tops became submerged, some distance below the surface.

This would also explain some of the coral atolls in the Pacific. Coral only grows near the surface, yet the remains of earlier coral are to be found deeper in the ocean. It has been said that low-lying and partially or totally submerged volcanoes, in the center of these coral formations, probably sunk at some time in the past. That is possible. Or they could have been covered by the rising ocean.

Oceanic volcanoes could also have blown their tops, as Krakatoa did a century ago; but such explosions would not lower the tops as far down as they presently are, nor would they flatten the tops. As the oceans neared their present level, infilling would slow and coral would have time to build atolls above those particular guyots.

(2) Similarities between plants and trees of now widely separated areas. Vegetation in Brazil has a number of remarkable similarities to that of western Africa. Climatic conditions may be the sole cause of this similarity of vegetation on separated continents. But the possibility that the South Atlantic in ancient times may not have existed as a broad ocean could also be a factor.

It is clear that remarkable evidence of a former worldwide Flood is abundant. Wherever we turn we encounter new insights into its effects. A sizeable amount of additional evidence will be found in the appendix (at the back of this chapter, Effects of the Flood, on our website). The Whitcomb and Morris book, The Genesis Flood, will also provide you with much additional scientific data on this topic.

4 - EFFECTS OF THE FLOOD

With the exception of its initial Creation, our world has been changed more by the Flood than by any other event in the history of this planet. There is hardly a place where you and I can look, which has not been drastically affected by the Flood and its immediate aftereffects: the deserts, the seas, the river canyons, the hills, the plains, and the mountain ranges. Here are several examples of these effects:

CONTINENTAL SHELVES—The continental shelves that surround all the continents on the globe are another evidence of a lower—or a gradually rising—sea level at some earlier time. These are ledges protruding out from land beneath the oceans. From the shoreline at the edge of the continents, the sea slowly becomes deeper for a number of miles. This outward extension can be as much as 750 miles [1206.9 km], but the average width is about 42 miles [67.59 km]. Then, at a definite, higher first point, it descends gradually to a lower second point which has a maximum depth of about 300 feet [914 dm] to about 1500 feet [1,310 dm], with a mean depth of about 430 feet [4,572 dm]. Beyond this second point, it then descends more rapidly to the sea bottom.

Here are four possibilities for the origin of continental shelves:

(1) The first or second point of sudden change may mark the ancient sea level.

(2) The second point may also mark the freeze point, the place where the gradually filling sea greatly slowed for a time as the rapidly obscuring volcanic dusts in the skies caused the polar areas to begin capturing large quantities of water and transform it into thick masses of ice. During that time of slower infilling, gigantic waves and storms could have eroded out massive sections.

(3) The first point edge of the shelves may also mark the point of orogeny (mountain building), the point where the continental blocks began uplifting and/or the—what is now marine—blocks lowered as the result of fault slippage.

(4) The water in the oceans rose to a certain height. Then, later, at the time of glacial melt, as the ice sheets melted, this water flowed into the seas and brought the water level up to its present height.

Those are the possibilities, but however it may have happened, it took the Flood to produce the continental shelves.

Later in this chapter, in the paragraph section "Mountain Building," indication is given that the mountains and continents rose both during the latter part of the Flood (late Pliocene) and again just after it (Pleistocene). This twofold uplift might help explain the two continental shelf point pauses in rising ocean levels.

SEAMOUNT CORALS—Coral and foraminifera are small plants containing sizeable amounts of calcium, which grow close to the surface of the sea. Deposits of these small creatures have been found on the flat-topped seamounts. At some earlier time coral were growing on those deeply submerged seamounts! This is an important point, since coral cannot live below a depth of 200 feet [609 dm]. At some earlier time, the sea must have been far below its present sea level.

The 100 million year estimate, given by *Hamilton in the above quotation, is based on the fact that coral can only live and grow near the ocean’s surface. Evolutionary theory has assigned those deposits to the late Cretaceous or early Tertiary, but a sudden infilling of water by the Flood could answer the point just as well. It is of interest that a full 30 percent of the oceans lies above those coral deposits on the submerged seamounts!

Evolutionists think that the cause was a lowering of the ocean basins. But that solution would only add 7 percent more water to those oceans! Something more beside seafloor sinking is needed.

Submarine canyons are yet another evidence that lower seas gradually filled and became our present large oceans. We will discuss these canyons later in this chapter.

ORIGIN OF THE OCEANS—The Flood, described in Genesis 6-9, has had more profound effects on our planet than probably any other single event since its initial creation, with the exception of the fall of man. An astounding example of this is the vast oceans which surround the continents on every side.

With our present continents and deep ocean basins, if all the water in our present atmosphere were to suddenly fall as rain, it would cover the entire surface of the globe to an average depth of only two inches (*C.S. Fox, Water, 1952). Prior to the Flood, we apparently had a far greater amount of moisture in the atmosphere. That would have given a more uniformly warm climate to the entire world, and would explain why fossils of tropical plants have been found in the far north and south. Massive amounts of water poured out of the skies. In addition, large amounts of water apparently were released from within the earth. Because of that, we now have so much water in our oceans that, if the land were leveled out, "the Earth would be completely covered by water about 0.75 mile [1.2 km] deep" (Creation Research Society Quarterly, June 1987, p. 27). Another estimate figures it at 1.7 miles [2.7 km]: CRSQ, September 1987, p. 54.

Immense upheavals as well as sinkings of land must have taken place in order to provide a place to hold the oceans. If that had not occurred, the entire earth today would be under water and there would be no continents. Very frankly, this was an act of Divine providence. The ocean basins had to sink and the continents rise—or there would be no dry land after the Flood.

By the end of the Flood year, recorded in Genesis 7 and 8, "the valleys [basins] sank down" and the great masses of water which "were standing above the mountains" "fled" and "hurried away . . to the place which Thou didst establish for them. Thou hast set a bound [the shorelines] that they may not pass over; that they return not to cover the earth." Psalm 104:6-9.

SUBMARINE CANYONS—Another relic of the Flood is the great canyons cut into the ocean floor. These are to be found just below where each of our major rivers dumps into the ocean. They are known as "submarine canyons." Those canyons could only have been made if the floor of the ocean basins sank, the ocean level was then lower, and was gradually filled by rain from the skies and by water pouring down into it from these waterways. One example is the canyon in the ocean just opposite the Hudson River in New York.

You will find these diagonal canyons, cut into the continental shelves, out beyond the mouths of all the great rivers of the continents: the Colorado, Columbia, Amazon, etc.

Such colossal river currents could not run downward, if the oceans were earlier at their present height. Scientists cannot account for those canyons. Some suggest "turbidity currents," as the answer while others recognize that something far greater was involved.

Brown discusses their immense size and significance.

HIGHER LAKES—It is quite clear that at some earlier time there was much more water in the enclosed lake basins of the continents.

Anyone who has ever driven into the Salt Lake City area cannot help but notice the high-water marks on the surrounding mountains. Four distinct marks are to be seen, the highest of which is about 1,000 feet [3,048 dm] above the present level of Great Salt Lake. At some earlier time an area of 20,000 square miles [51,798 km2] was covered by this ancient lake (scientists call it "Lake Bonneville").

Another basin of an ancient lake ("Lake Lahontan") is to be found in Nevada; it once filled 8,400 square miles [21,755 km2]. *Flint, in Glacial and Pleistocene Geology, lists 119 ancient lakes which are now dry or nearly so.

LARGER RIVERS—There was also a far greater volume of water flowing at some earlier time in the rivers. It is common today to see small streams flowing between the steep, high sides of large canyons. Obviously, at some earlier time gigantic waterways must have flowed there for a time. In addition, extensive deposits of sediments (alluvium) left by these ancient rivers are to be found at higher levels.

We consistently find valleys with small streams in their center, with evidences that once a very large river coursed down the center of the valley.

Then there are the massive flood plains, remnants of earlier gigantic river overflows. There is an enormous flat area on both sides of the Mississippi River. This is its flood plain, and it extends for many miles. In ancient times, this was part of a gigantic river, now referred to as the "Teays River."

IMMENSE EROSION AND SEDIMENTATION—(*#1/6 Water Power*) Tremendous quantities of water flowed outward from the land; and it took a lot of soil and sediment with it. In many parts of the world, only sand remains. This would be but another result of the Flood. We see evidences of it today as we look at our mountains, plains, deserts, and waterways. Consider the Grand Canyon of Arizona.

One important result of all this was the burial of so much vegetation and animal life. There are places in our world where fossil-bearing sedimentary rock is several miles deep. From bottom to top, the sedimentary rock provides fossil evidence of a gigantic yet rapid catastrophe. Prior to the Flood this sedimentary strata did not exist.

WAVE EROSION—Water is powerful, not only when it is running but, when it strikes a surface head on. Ocean waves can be very destructive, as we are told by Rachel Carson in The Sea Around Us. *King also mentions this:

Terrible storms raged during the Flood. Immense quantities of water were flowing, grinding, wearing away surfaces. Massive wave action took its toll also. All this resulted in an astounding rate of erosion, which produced sediments which resulted in the thousands of feet of sedimentary rock strata which we see today.

(1) Sedimentary rocks, sometimes deep ones even down to the Cambrian, are in an unconsolidated state. That is, they have not been pressed together into solid rocks. Yet if these stones had been lying under millions of tons of overrock for millions of years, they would long ago have consolidated.

(2) The fossils and the rock strata indicate rapid deposition, due to a sudden worldwide Flood, rather than being slowly laid over a period of long ages. We discussed this in detail earlier in this chapter in the section, Fossils and Rock Strata. There are thousands of cubic miles of such materials; yet hardly any of it is being made today. The entire process took place rather quickly at some past time.

(3) The strata are confused and often crushed. If slow, uniform layering occurred as a result of erosional forces, the layers would also be uniform and fairly flat. As it is, what we see is the result of a terrific upheaval.

(4) Geologists well-know that rivers only cut through hard materials when they rush fairly straight down steeply slanted surfaces. In contrast, rivers that meander serpentinely are slow-moving waters going through more level land and can then only cut through softer materials. But what we find is evidence that, at some past time, meandering cut through, what is today, thick rock—at such locations as the Colorado River, in the Grand Canyon of Arizona, and the San Juan River in Colorado.

VARVE DATING—"Varved clays" are banded sediments, with each band quite thin with light and dark color gradations between them. "Varve chronology" is another evolutionary means of dating the sediments, for evolutionists theoretically interpret each varve as an annual (one year) deposit. But we find pebbles, plants, insects, and dead animals in the varves. How does one explain a dead fish lying on the bed of a lake for about two hundred years without rotting while the slowly accumulating sediments gradually cover it and then fossilize it? Where does this occur in modern lakes? There is a lot more that could be said on this topic, but the above should be sufficient to disprove the theory of "varve dating."

FACTS ABOUT THE DINOSAURS—Very high up in the theoretical column of rock strata we find the Mesozoic, which includes the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. In these levels we find the dinosaurs. Apparently reptilian in nature, many of these were gigantic creatures. The dinosaurs died as a result of the Flood.

Evolutionists recognize that they were suddenly destroyed all over the earth and are unable to give a satisfactory reason why.

It has been suggested that the dinosaurs were killed by volcanoes, climatic changes, or the eating of their eggs by other animals. Yet far more delicate wildlife have survived volcanoes, climatic changes, and egg predators. Evolution has no answer to the extinction of the dinosaurs.

(1) No dinosaurs were taken onto the Ark. We have reason to believe that mankind was larger, stronger, and longer-lived before the Flood. It was seen best not to have these giant reptiles wandering over the earth’s surface afterward, when mankind would become smaller and weaker. Why would dinosaurs have been taken onto the Ark if they were only going to become extinct not long afterward?

(2) Some Creationists believe that some young dinosaurs may have been taken into the Ark and died out within a short time after the Flood ended. Other animals have become extinct after the Flood; dinosaurs could have also. It has been suggested that the cold climate that reigned for a time after the deluge caused them to die out.

A few of the dinosaur-type species were taken onto the Ark. This definitely included crocodiles, alligators, and komodos, and could also have included the young of what today are referred to as "dinosaurs." After the Flood the dinosaurs became extinct while other dinosaur-type creatures, the crocodiles, alligators, and komodos did not. There is some indeterminate evidence that some dinosaurs were alive for a time after the Flood.

A provocative recent discovery may provide additional insight as to the cause of the disappearance of the dinosaurs. One major short-term effect was a rapid cooling after the Flood, caused by volcanic air pollution which kept warming sunlight from reaching the earth for a number of years.

It is also of interest that a majority of the larger dinosaurs were vegetarians, and many of the carnivorous dinosaurs prayed upon other dinosaurs. This would explain why dinosaurs could exist on the earth contemporaneously with man—before the Flood and perhaps after it,—without being a major threat to him.

As with many animals, the dinosaurs apparently gathered into groups in time of danger. The rising waters of the Flood finally overtook and buried them beneath water and sediment. Today, we find their bones in so-called "dinosaur graveyards." The entombment of such vast numbers of these large creatures demands a terrible worldwide catastrophe.

The fact that they collected together in the crisis, before dying, indicates that they were drowned by the Flood rather than dying afterward. Tell those you meet that the dinosaurs are another evidence of the Flood and another denial of evolution.

In Wyoming, dinosaur bones were found "piled in like logs in a jam." In the Dinosaur National Monument in Utah and Colorado (the Morrison formation of the Jurassic), over 300 dinosaurs of many different types have been dug out.

Evolutionary theory declares that the "age of the dinosaurs"—and the death of the dinosaurs—occurred millions of years before man evolved on this planet. But there is clear evidence that dinosaurs and humans were living on earth at the same time. In chapter 13, Ancient Man, we went into detail on the events at Glen Rose, Texas, where human footprints intermingled with dinosaur tracks in the same stratum of mud—sometimes with human footprints on top of the dinosaur tracks. This is known as the Cretaceous Glen Rose formation, located in flat limestone beds near the small town of Glen Rose, Texas, and is found for some distance along the Paluxy River, west of town. The tracks occur in trails; and, in two or three instances, the dinosaur and human trails cross each other,—with two known instances in which human and dinosaur tracks actually overlap each other. Books and films of these tracks have been produced. (See the excellent book, Tracking Those Incredible Dinosaurs and the People Who Knew Them, by John Morris, 240 pp.)

There is a simple answer to the question of why dinosaurs are only found in the strata of the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous—the three divisions of the Mesozoic Era. On the basis of Flood geology, the answer is simple enough: They could run faster than conifers, trilobites, ocean corals, amphibians (such as frogs), plants, and fish, all of which we find in the so-called "Paleozoic Era"; but they had a more lumbering gait than the faster mammals and birds, which we find in the "Cenozoic Era."

MOUNTAIN BUILDING—During the Flood, vast amounts of water came from the skies; yet, according to Genesis 7:20, the surface of the world did not have high mountains during the deluge.

(1) If the Flood had covered the highest mountains we have today, there would now be no exposed continents, because there would now be too much water in the world. (2) If mountain building had not taken place after the Flood, there would be no exposed continents now; since the waters covered the highest pre-Flood mountains (Genesis 7:20).

Oceans would have forever covered the world if mountain building had not occurred—but providentially it did. (By "mountain building," we include not only the production of our present mountains and ranges, but also the raising of the continental masses,—which involved the sinking of the ocean basins.)

The ocean basins of our present world are much deeper than before the Flood; for they must now serve as reservoirs to hold massive amount of water which at that time poured from the skies and burst forth from the ground. Before the Flood, the sky had a thick water canopy of "waters which were above the expanse," and the ground had underground channels and aqueducts filled with "the waters which were below the expanse" (Genesis 1:7).

Not only are the ocean basins deeper since the Flood, but the mountains are higher also:

Mount Everest is 29,028 feet [8,848 m] above sea level, and the deepest part of the ocean (the Mariana Trench near Guam in the Pacific) is 35,810 feet [10,915 m] deep. The highest mountain is 5.5 miles [8.85 km] above sea level, and the deepest depression is 6.78 miles [10,914 km] below it!

Scientists have found abundant evidence of mountain building. They call it "orogeny." On the basis of fossil evidence, it is generally believed that most of our mountain ranges uplifted during the Pleistocene or late Pliocene (both of which occurred shortly after the Flood). This would agree with Flood events. A leading evolutionist geology expert writes:

Immense crustal movements occurred during the Pleistocene or late Pliocene. Mountains rose and basins sank. Water flowed into those basins, and under its great weight they sank still further. (A similar sinking occurred in Antarctica, which sunk under the weight of miles of ice piled on top of it.)

Scientists cannot provide a reasonable explanation of such ranges, but they do try to describe the results. The term, "folded mountains," is frequently used to describe this activity. This vast pushing together of earth masses was accompanied by terrific pressures on rocks that caused many of them to be crushed.

Folded mountains is but one of the two major types; the other is volcanic mountains. Both had their origin at about the same time, although volcanic activity on a much-smaller scale has continued since then.

Evolutionists theorize that mountains rise at a uniformitarian, very slow rate of 1 kilometer [.62 mi] each million years. But the theory does not fit the facts. The Cascades in the Pacific Northwest are one of the tallest ranges in America, yet geologists declare them to be the youngest mountain range in North America.

SUBTERRANEAN STREAMS—There is an interesting historical statement in the book of Genesis regarding the beginning of the Flood: "The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened" (Genesis 7:11).

Much is involved in that sentence. Prior to the Flood, massive quantities of water were in the ground, and the fountains broke up—and geysered out. Enormous amounts of water were in the water vapor canopy overhead—and the windows of heaven opened—and it poured down.

It appears that the greater portion of the water in the Flood—now in the oceans—came out of the earth, not out of the skies. This upwelling of water in gigantic geysers caused violent upheavals on the surface, but also below it. The ground became tortured, crunched, folded, as it attempted to adapt to the immense forces unleashed. In addition, continents began to arise and seafloors began to sink.

(A remarkable insight about water in the ground, as an indication of a recent Flood, is to be found in "The Earth Hasn’t Dried Out Yet," in Appendix 5: "Things to Think About, in Effects of the Flood on our website.)

VOLCANISM—(*#2/4 When Water and Magma Mix*) But there was another fountain that also opened. This was the basins of underground molten magma. When the water came out of the ground, earth’s geologic system itself was reduced to havoc. Material had to shift in order to fill the major gaps produced when the water left. Huge cracks developed—and water from above went downward and made contact with molten magma.

The Flood had begun. The fountains of the great deep had broken up, and water poured out. Soon lava began flowing out also. These volcanoes, in turn, produced several other effects which we will note shortly. The release of so much water caused immense low and high pressures within the earth itself. Gigantic cracks sent lava closer to the surface. Water pouring down these cracks hit the molten rock, and exploding jets of lava poured out at the earth’s surface, producing thousands of volcanoes.

Krakatoa was a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait, between Java and Sumatra. It had been venting for several days, when a lateral (sideways) crack developed. Seawater poured through that crack, and then went straight down the main vent hole. That caused the explosion.

Next to the Tambora explosion in 1815, the explosion of Krakatoa in 1883 was the most violent explosion of the past several hundred years. What would it be like to have a dozen Krakatoas going off at the same time!

That one 1883 volcano caused a worldwide drop in temperatures that lasted five years. A similar effect occurred after Tambora’s eruption in 1815. New England received six inches of snow in June 1816, and temperatures there went as low as 37 degrees F [2.8o C] that August (National Geographic, December 1943).

It is clear that old lava flows are found not only on the ground but below it, yet in no instance are lava beds from ancient volcanoes ever found below the Cambrian level. The beginning of the Cambrian marks the beginning of the Flood. Thus volcanic action took place throughout the Flood, and afterward as well,—but not before.

Volcanic action not only occurred for a time after the Flood, but also during the Flood and as it was receding. We know this because of pillow lavas. This is a special rounded pillow-like shape that lava will form when ejected from a volcano underwater. Such lava is found in great abundance all over the world, including Canada:

MAGNETIC CHANGES—Magnetic changes in earth’s core, caused by structural corrections occurring within the earth, repeatedly took place at this time. These were caused by displaced earth, water, and volcanic explosions. This topic is dealt with in chapter 20, Paleomagnetic Dating. [Due to a lack of space, we had to omit nearly all of that chapter; but you will find it on our website.]

VOLCANIC POLLUTANTS—For the most part, air-borne pollutants do not stay aloft in the atmosphere very long. Particles of soot or dust in the troposphere (reaching to the top of the clouds, or to 12 miles [19.3 km] up) generally settle or wash out, in rain or snow, within a few weeks. Gases are absorbed by moisture within four months.

RAPID COOLING —There are over 10,000 extinct volcanoes in the world today. This includes the seamounts under the ocean. They had their origin in the catastrophic conditions below the surface of the earth at the time of the Flood. Thousands of volcanoes poured forth so much smoke that they darkened the sky. The result was a rapid cooling of the earth.

When Krakatoa blew its top in 1883, the explosion was heard for thousands of miles. Over a square mile [2.5899 km2] of dirt was blown into the skies. According to H. Wexler of the U.S. Weather Bureau, it took three years before the Krakatoa dust settled to earth again. He also tells us that as much as 20 percent of the solar radiation may be reduced after just one severe volcanic eruption.

The Krakatoa dust caused a definite lowering of worldwide temperatures for about two years. Enough dust had settled by then, that temperatures rather quickly began to return to normal. Yet Krakatoa was only one volcano. At the close of the Flood, when several thousand volcanoes were erupting at the same time, climatic conditions dramatically and quickly changed throughout the world. When they subsided, the climate could again warm up.

A similar explosion occurred in the East Indies in 1815:

An increase of carbon dioxide, from volcanic emissions of ash, would raise the temperature but little. Even an eightfold increase in CO2 would raise the mean temperature by only about 2° F. But the dust factor (aerosols) would decrease the temperature significantly and more effectively. Scientists tell us that volcanic action, sustained over several years, could trigger an ice age.

FREEZING OF POLES—(*#3/2 Killed, Frozen, and Buried*) Water changes temperature more slowly than does soil or rock. Polar seas helped slow the freezing of the poles; but when the freezing of polar waters finally occurred, they locked in the cold all the more solidly.

Amid the eruptions, explosions, and pollution of 10,000 volcanoes, the poles froze and the animals, in the far north, were overwhelmed by the cold. One of these was the mammoth, a type of gigantic elephant.

Not only mammoths but a number of other animals were rapidly frozen. Here is one scientist’s listing of the different species which were quickly frozen:

One field zoologist, *Sanderson, tried to visualize the possible circumstances that could have caused such quick-frozen specimens as he had seen in the far north. The animal remains appeared to have undergone both the effects of violent storm conditions and rapid freezing.

Violent winds would help explain why we find large quantities of remains clumped together, either frozen in hollows in northern ground or as fossils contained within pockets in sedimentary strata farther south. The lack of sunlight from volcanic dust overhead would bring on both the intense cold in northern latitudes, as well as violent storms that would reach down into warmer areas in the south.

What could cause all this? *Sanderson, a non-believer in the Genesis account, decided the storms and sudden freezing was caused by gases and smoke shooting skyward from large numbers of volcanoes! Here is his vivid description!

The freezing of the poles had two major effects. (1) Vast quantities of water were locked into ice in the polar regions, and (2) Sheets of ice slid southward partway down the continents. Popularly known as the "ice age," this is scientifically known as the period of glaciation. It was not until the Flood receded that the ice sheets could begin their inexorable march southward. The ice sheets made the air above them extremely cold.

Evolutionists declare that it requires many thousands of years for ice caps to form, and that their very existence is an evidence of long ages. During World War II, a squadron of eight P-38 Lightning fighter planes left a U.S. Army air base in Greenland, headed for Britain. But a blizzard forced them to turn back. Although they crash-landed, all the pilots were rescued. In 1988, the U.S. Army decided to salvage those aircraft. But, instead of dusting off a little snow from them, as they expected, the airplanes were found to be buried under 250 feet [76.2 m] of ice! (*Life, December 1992).

RESIDUAL CATASTROPHISM—This is the name given to effects which occurred during a short period of time just after the Flood was finished. Most of what we see about us today is a result of that time span. Let us now consider some of these effects: