Global evidence for Noah’s flood

Everywhere you look you can see evidence for the global Flood of Noah’s time, but most don’t recognize it. That’s because they don’t know what to look for.

This blogpost is a summary of six main points that were made by Dr Tasman Walker in a presentation on “Global evidence of Noah’s flood”.

What would we expect to find on earth if there was a global flood as described in Genesis chapters 6-8 in the Bible?

1. Billions of dead things

If a catastrophic flood covered the earth for over six months you would expect to find billions of dead things all over the earth. And we do find many land and sea creatures buried in sedimentary rock layers all over the earth.

For example, Drumheller in Alberta Canada has been called “The dinosaur capital of the world”. The area is rich in fossil deposits from dinosaur bones, ammonite (fossilized shell), and pieces of amber to dinosaur teeth. The dinosaurs include Tricetatops horridus, Camarasaurus, and Tyrannosaurus rex.

Fossils of ammonites (extinct spiral shelled cephalopods) are found around the world. They are prevalent in Antarctica and at Winton in Queensland, which is called “the dinosaur capital of Australia”.

So, we would expect to find billions of dead things (fossils) in sedimentary rocks and we do. These fossils are evidence of Noah’s flood.

2. Evidence of rapid burial

If a catastrophic flood covered the earth for over six months you would expect to find evidence of rapid burial.

For example, a fossil of an Ichthysoaur giving birth was found in Europe. This burial was rapid and not over thousands of years!

The fossils show that there was little decomposition or predation after death, meaning that they were buried quickly, not slowly. When animals and fish die today, they disintegrate and are recycled. They aren’t fossilized.

And polystrate fossils penetrate across several layers of rock. But if the layers took millions of years to form, the tree would have rotted!

In Mongolia there is a dinosaur graveyard where many dinosaurs were buried rapidly. Many of them were in the “dead dinosaur posture” with the head and tail bent backwards. This could be caused by the fact that the dinosaur was buried so quickly that it was suffocated or that the water changed the length of the tendons.

Also, ripple marks, rainfall drops, and animal tracks are preserved in rock strata. These would erode unless they were covered up quickly.

After a volcanic eruption on 18 May 1980 at Mt St. Helens, Washington USA, sediments about 6 meters deep were laid down in about three hours. This shows that sedimentary layers can form rapidly. Then an eruption on 19 March 1982 caused a mudflow and flood that cut a 30 meter deep ravine into the 1980 pumice deposits in a single day. So, the stream in the canyon today had nothing to do with the formation of the canyon. It didn’t even exist before the canyon – the canyon caused the stream! This is an example of an “underfit stream” or an “overfit valley”.

Bent layers of rock such as an anticline (arch-like fold in sedimentary rock) are also evidence of rapid deposition. Solid rock would crack if it was bent. But there would be no cracks if it was bent when the sedimentary layers were still soft.

So, we would expect to find evidence of rapid burial and we do. The fossils of creatures that were buried rapidly are also evidence of Noah’s flood.

3. Sediment covering huge areas

An enormous global flood for over six months would cause sediments to cover large areas of the continents.

For example, at the Grand Canyon, you can see many horizontal layers of sediment extending across hundreds of kilometers. And this sedimentary rock is up to about 4 km thick!

And the Great Artesian Basin in Australia extends over 1500 km across Australia and is over 1 km deep.

So, we would expect to find evidence of sediment covering huge areas and we do. These layers of sedimentary rock across huge areas are evidence of Noah’s flood.

4. Evidence of raging waters

If a catastrophic flood covered the earth for over six months you would expect to find evidence of raging waters. As these flood waters would have been highly energetic, they would have transported material along with the flow.

For example, at Wollomombi Falls near Armidale, NSW Australia, the sediment layers are almost vertical. And the top is a plateau. So, the sediment layers have been tilted by almost 90 degrees before the receding waters of Noah’s flood carved the flat plateau. If the plateau was eroded over millions of years, when you have sediment layers at a steep angle you expect differential weathering between hard and soft layers. The soft layers would be eroded more than the hard layers. But the hard and soft layers are cut off evenly indicating that what cut them didn’t worry about whether they were hard or soft. That points to raging waters. And on top of such layers (but not at Armidale) you often find rounded boulders. They are visible at Cooper Pedy in South Australia. There are also large boulders at Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) in the Northern Territory.  It takes a lot of water to move these rocks and erode them into rounded boulders.

So, we would expect to find evidence of raging waters (which transport and deposit lots of sediment) and we do. This plateau and the boulders are evidence of Noah’s flood.

5. Evidence of massive erosion

If a catastrophic flood covered the earth for over six months you would expect to find evidence of massive erosion. After the flood waters peaked and subsided, they would have flowed off the continents and eroded material away as they flowed back into the ocean.

The Grand Canyon is a monument to Noah’s flood. It is surrounded by a flat erosional plateau. As the flood waters decreased in height there were huge channel flows that eroded wide valleys that are much larger than the stream there today. Geologists call this an “underfit river”. The valley is too big for the river. I call it an “overfit valley” because it was carved by lots of water. And that’s evidence of Noah’s flood.

And Monument Valley, is a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of sandstone buttes, the largest reaching 300 m (1,000 ft) above the valley floor. These are erosional remnants. They show that most of the sedimentary strata have been eroded. The tops are at about the same level. So, water has eroded the original flat surface at the top and then as the water levels went down during the recessional phase of the flood they eroded all the strata between the buttes. You can see this all around the world.

And the Blue Mountains in Australia have a flat erosional plateau. As the flood waters decreased in height there were huge channel flows that eroded wide valleys that are much larger than the stream there today. This is another “underfit river” or “overfit valley” because it was carved by lots of water.

As the waters of Noah’s flood receded from the plateau associated with the Grand Canyon sediments, they also eroded cliffs and valleys into the plateau created by the rising stage.

The earth’s surface was clearly shaped by receding floodwater. Landscapes, although a puzzle for mainstream geologists, are what we would expect from the catastrophic water runoff late in the flood.

So, we would expect to find evidence of massive erosion and we do. These large overfit valleys are evidence of Noah’s flood.

6. Evidence of youthfulness

If a catastrophic flood covered the earth for over six months about 4,350 years ago, you would expect to find evidence of youthfulness.

For example, at Monument Valley, USA. The material between the buttes has been eroded away and caried out of the area. And there is very little erosional debris at the base of the buttes. So, since the waters have done the large scale erosion not much erosion has happened to the buttes themselves. If there had been millions of years of erosion, the buttes would have been eroded away! And there would be more erosional debris at the base of the buttes.

And the same thing is evident at Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) in Australia. There has only been a little bit of erosion at the base of the rock mounds. There is little rock debris compared to what has been eroded away. The materials eroded have all been carried out of the area as the waters of Noah’s flood were receding.

Also, in some instances there is no evidence of the alleged millions of years. For example, in the Grand Canyon there is a straight line of contact between the layer of Coconino sandstone and the layer of Hermit shale below it. This indicates that there has not been a lot of erosion between the deposition of these two layers. The mainstream geologists say there is a gap of at least 6 million years missing between these layers. But there is no evidence of any erosion over this alleged time period!

And there are two other flat erosion surfaces in the Grand Canyon that are said to represent 14 million years and 100 million years. But the long ages are not consistent with the observations. Millions of years are said to be missing, with no evidence of any erosion at all! There are no signs of millions of years between these layers. It’s invisible, like the emperor’s new clothes!

So, we would expect to find evidence of youthfulness and we do. The lack of erosional debris is evidence of Noah’s flood.

Summary

There’s plenty of evidence around the world of Noah’s flood. Evidence of six aspects of Noah’s flood show that what we observe is consistent with what the Bible says. Additional evidence is given in Appendix A and Appendix B. There was a global fluvial event (flood) that wasn’t slow and gradual, but rapid and catastrophic.

But this evidence is not shown in museums or textbooks. It’s deliberately hidden from us, but it is clearly evident once it is pointed out. It’s censored because it undermines the current academic paradigm of biological evolution over millions of years.

This flood is a key to understanding the earth’s history and to connecting the Bible to the world around us.
– It makes sense of biblical creation in that God created a good world that was spoiled by sin.
– It make sense of the world as it was the cause of most of the sedimentary rock layers and of most of the fossils.
– It washes away the millions of years that are assumed by evolutionists. It was a huge catastrophe over a period of 12 months that caused changes in the surface of the earth that would otherwise take millions of years. You can use the geology transformation tool to covert geologic ages to the biblical ages.

Most people don’t recognize this evidence today because they are taught the long-age belief system of slow sedimentation.

Appendix A: Other evidence of the global flood

Fossils

Marine fossils in sedimentary rocks high on mountains. These sedimentary rock layers were uplifted at the end of the flood to form mountains.

The existence of massive fossil graveyards with widely diverse fossil mixtures.

Exquisitely preserved fossils. Delicate species were well preserved. This means that they were buried rapidly.

Geomorphology

Plateaus (elevated relatively flat areas) are common on the earth. If they are hundreds of millions of years old, they would be heavily eroded by now. Instead, they are only slightly eroded on top. Mesas and buttes are remnants of plateaus. The plateaus are made of sedimentary rocks. On average they are 2km thick. This implies an incredible amount of erosion, which we don’t see today.

Underfit rivers and water gaps are common on the earth. Runoff from a global flood would not be uniform. It would concentrate and erode these features which can’t be explained by current runoff.

There are massive sedimentary deposits on the earth – they cover 70% of the continents. And there is no bioturbation (the reworking of sediments by animals or plants) between the rock layers.

The sediment supply today is too low to cause massive sedimentary deposits or to cause fossils. For example, the rate of sediment build-up on the ocean floor is about 50mm per 1000 years. And for the continental shelf it is about 300mm per 1000 years. And for a flood plain, it is about 3-10cm per event. These rates are extremely small and not sufficient to produce a fossil. But the sedimentary layers contain many fossils. And over 95% of fossils are marine.

To create a fossil, you need a lot of sediment and it needs to be travelling pretty fast. Rapid burial is what you need. Nothing is being fossilized today at all. We don’t have enough sediment in any environment around the world. You need a lot of pressure in order to force the liquids out of the body. There needs to be sufficient depth of sediment to create this pressure. Without lots of sediment you can’t produce a fossil. But this amount of sediment is not available today.

The amount of sediment that can accumulate from present processes is nowhere near the amount required to form the sedimentary rock layers observed on earth or for the formation of the fossils within them. To form fossils requires a much bigger event then occurs today.

Appendix B: Biblical evidence of the global flood

The depth of the water – 8 metres above the mountains (Gen. 7:20).
The duration of the flood – Noah was on the ark for a year and ten days.
The need for the ark.
The size of the ark.
The need for animals and birds to be on the ark.
The flood was similar (a typology) of the universal judgment to come (1 Pt. 3:6-7).
Jesus said that the flood killed everyone not on the ark (Mt. 24:37-39).
God promised never to send such a flood again (Gen. 9:11, 15).
All people descended from Noah’s family – there are hundreds of flood legends around the world.

References

Austin S A (1984), Rapid erosion at Mt St. Helens, Institute for Creation Research, El Cajon, CA, USA.
Batten D et al (2017), Was the flood global?, The creation answers book, Ch 10, Creation book publishers, Chapter 10, 149-158.
Neller, R (2023) “Flood expert finds evidence for Noah’s Flood”, video, Creation Ministries International.
Pitman S (2010), “The geologic column”.
Snelling, A (2021), Global evidences of the Genesis Flood, Answers in Genesis.

Acknowledgement

This blogpost was sourced from a presentation by Dr Tas Walker (a geologist with Creation Ministries International) on “Global evidence of Noah’s flood”.

Written, January 2024

Also see: Australian evidence of Noah’s flood