Sunday, October 09, 2005
BACKDATED: Water circulation during the genesis flood
This is an older article, but I thought it was interesting. One of the problems with looking at a worldwide flood is that we have no way of directly testing what this would look like. The problem is that most known water dynamics is dependent on the nature of the shoreline, but in a worldwide flood you are faced with the fact that there is no shoreline. And, unfortunately, we simply can't test shoreline-less water activity.
However, Baumgardner and Barnette have used computer models to try to simulate this activity. Now, before giving you the results, lets be clear -- computer models are not a substitute for experiment, and should always be taken with a grain of salt. Perhaps a large grain. But in this case, there is literally no other way to examine it. All computer models are subject to modelling flaws and assumption flaws.
Anyway, having said all that, here's what Baumgardner discovered in his investigation. Basically, the currents accelerated over land. Even starting with an initially motionless ocean, the spin of the earth was enough to cause currents to start, which accelerated over land.
This is interesting combined with the fact that the paleozoic and mesozoic have continental-wide current indicator patterns.
The paper is here:
Patterns of Ocean Circulation over the Continents During Noah's Flood
However, Baumgardner and Barnette have used computer models to try to simulate this activity. Now, before giving you the results, lets be clear -- computer models are not a substitute for experiment, and should always be taken with a grain of salt. Perhaps a large grain. But in this case, there is literally no other way to examine it. All computer models are subject to modelling flaws and assumption flaws.
Anyway, having said all that, here's what Baumgardner discovered in his investigation. Basically, the currents accelerated over land. Even starting with an initially motionless ocean, the spin of the earth was enough to cause currents to start, which accelerated over land.
The calculations argue that strong currents spontaneously arise over flooded continents. They suggest that accurate observational data on the current directions in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks coupled with careful numerical modeling could be extremely fruitful in understanding the origin of much of the earth's sedimentary record.
Numerical solution of the shallow water equations on a rotating sphere with parameters appropriate to the earth and flooded continental topography yields closed patterns of flow with velocities of 40 to 80 m/s and length scales typically 2500-5000 km above the flooded continental regions.
This is interesting combined with the fact that the paleozoic and mesozoic have continental-wide current indicator patterns.
The paper is here:
Patterns of Ocean Circulation over the Continents During Noah's Flood
Permanent Link posted by crevo @ 11:36 AM 
