FIVE - Worldwide Catastrophe

Joseph Kezele, M.D.

Noah’s Flood was an extremely violent worldwide catastrophe that totally remodeled the surface of the planet. It is so difficult for us to grasp the degree of geological upheaval caused by continental masses moving at speeds of 35 miles per hour, colliding and thrusting up mountain ranges such as the Himalayas and pushing up huge plateaus many thousands of feet. Earthquakes resulted in faulting and thousands of volcanoes erupted, laying down layers of ash and lava.

Add in factors due to water such erosion by the fountains of the great deep with huge numbers of cubic miles of rock ground up into sand, tsunamis, hypercanes (hurricanes 100 times the size of modern hurricanes), and massive sheet erosion, as land masses were thrust upward and water ran off. Continental basins overflowed their rims, cutting out canyons with accelerating erosion as water cut deeper and dumped more water even faster. Then you can begin to comprehend the degree of destruction and remodeling caused by the Flood.


With elevation of land masses and sinking of ocean basins, the flood waters, originating from the fountains of the deep and the opening of the windows of heaven (Genesis 7:11), collected and formed the current oceans. There are thousands of dormant submarine volcanic cones in today’s oceans. During and after the flood year they were liberating a lot of heat along with lava. That heat warmed up the oceans to a significant degree, leading to great amounts of evaporation of warm moisture into the atmosphere.

Meanwhile volcanoes on land were liberating great amounts of ash and lava. As we have seen this year with the Eyjafjallajokul‎ Volcano in Iceland, ash can remain suspended in air and block sunlight. Imagine hundreds of volcanoes doing this simultaneously, causing cooling of continents while the submarine volcanoes are still warming the oceans and continuing to cause the evaporation of great amounts of warm moisture into the atmosphere.

As winds blew the warm moist air over the cold land masses, rain fell at the warmer latitudes and snow at the colder latitudes. With time snow accumulated and packed to form ice masses in polar regions and on high mountains in other parts of the world. Nearer the equator a tropical climate developed with lush vegetation. Temperature differences and resultant air pressure differences set up prevailing wind patterns that blow moist air away from 30º north and 30º south of the equator. This is responsible for the desert belts we see at these latitudes.

These climate zones, combined with local variation due to mountains, valleys, seacoasts, lakes and plains, created a great variety of ecological habitats in the post-Flood world. This is in great distinction to the pre-Flood world, from clues we can gather from Scripture and the fossil and rock record:

• The climate was uniformly comfortable with no clothing, subtropical, no polar arctic conditions or tropical hot zones – Genesis 2:25, 1:28;
• No rain – Genesis 2:5b-6;

Pre-Flood oceans were much smaller – Genesis 7:11. Most of the water in the current oceans was still underground. Large oceans would generate weather systems;

Pre-Flood mountains most likely were low compared to today’s – Genesis 7:19, less water needed to cover them and high mountains would generate cold weather and rain;

Much higher atmospheric levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide – Layers of sandstone, limestone and other sedimentary rocks throughout the world, as well as deposits of natural gas, coal and oil, contain vast amounts of locked up oxygen and carbon;

The pre-Flood world living biomass was unimaginably greater then than now – the fossil record and fossil fuels attest to this;

Gigantism in the fossil record – 6 foot beavers, dragonflies with 3 foot wing spans, 30 foot tall ferns, and many other examples would necessitate higher oxygen levels;

Genealogies in Scripture – life spans of 800 and 900 years. Higher oxygen levels are consistent with infectious disease being kept under control, therefore not contributing to shorter life spans. The use of hyperbaric chambers to treat infectious diseases is consistent with this.

So the contrast in living conditions before and after the Flood is quite stark. Next we will examine the effects of those changes on the animals that left the ark (and plants), multiplied and filled the earth.

Until next time . . .