Session 5 – The flood and Ice Age In this session we will review (quickly) the theory on how the flood happened (Catastrophic plate tectonics) From there we will look at the evidence for the ice age, and how it could have happened (and when) within a Biblical framework for earths history

As we move forward to look at the ice age there are several things we need to keep in mind about the flood Large amounts of ash were released into the atmosphere during the flood When we look at the flood and the massive amount of plate tectonics that took place during the flood, it would cause massive volcanic activity

This wouldn’t just be a few average volcanoes, some volcanoes can get very large, and cause massive amounts of ash to be ejected into the atmosphere Yellowstone national park is an example of a huge volcano that would cause a massive amount of ash to enter the atmosphere

This ash would cause the amount of sunlight hitting the surface to go down (an effect that is called nuclear winter) This is the first thing to keep in mind when looking at the ice age

The ocean temperature rose due to the ocean floors being replaced This becomes an incredible important factor in explaining the ice age from the flood, the ocean floors being warmer, would cause the oceans themselves to be slightly warmer These warm oceans would cause a large amount of precipitation, and greatly increase the weather activity on planet earth

Why do we mention these things? They explain the Ice Age

Some Christians argue that the ice age never happened, because they think it goes against what the Bible says But the evidence for an ice age is overwhelming when we look around the world, and we have to explain (Biblically) how it could have happened What the evidence for the Ice Age (or a sort of ice age taking place?)

We can look at whole countries and see the effect of the past ice age

One problem people have had is explaining how these huge ice sheets, like the one covering Greenland, originally formed. What would happen if you removed all the snow off of Greenland? The ice sheet wouldn’t form again in the environment that we find ourselves in today

Some have claimed that ice sheets take hundreds of thousands of years to form because of annual ice rings that we can observe

There are some problems though The lost squadron in WW2 landed in Greenland and was lost (one of the airplanes) Someone got the bright idea to head over there and brush off the snow and fly it back several years after it happened

When they got there, it was a little more snow than they expected. 263 feet of ice was covering the aircraft after only 48 years If they had randomly taken ice core samples out without knowing the airplane was there, it would have dated thousands of years But understand, they’ll have a response

They will quickly point out that the conditions in this area where the plane was found, are different than your normal conditions in other areas The area where this plane is found is near the gulf stream, which is a current of warmer water that runs through the Atlantic ocean

Warmer water means more precipitation which means more snow, and they claim that because of this warmer ocean area, that’s the reason in this area the dating method doesn’t work This shows us that ice sheets can form rapidly under high precipitation conditions which come about when the oceans are warmer

This would give us a great explanation on how the ice sheets could have formed, because the whole ocean (from the flood) would have these high precipitation levels Combine these high levels of precipitation with ash in the atmosphere and you have the “perfect storm” to create an ice age Large amounts of ash in the atmosphere would cause a nuclear winter, which would drive the temperatures down in many areas

How does the ice age happen? The flood causes it! Warmer oceans cause more weather / precipitation, nuclear winter assists in lowering temperatures mildly (although weather would also help) Job 38:29: “From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the frost of heaven?” Does the Bible mention the Ice Age?

Because of the timing on the book of Job, it becomes a real possibility that it could be referring to it But remember, the ice age didn’t have much effect on the area where the Bible is centered around, so we wouldn’t expect much of a reference We’re not done yet, what does everyone think about when you talk about the ice age?

Mammoths are the popular topic with the ice age (There have been some movies that helped with that) Mammoths are often times depicted as big harry hippie looking elephants

When did the mammoths go extinct? What was the weather they lived in? There has been some debate on what the climate the mammoths lived in was really like, not everyone thinks it’s the cold weather that we’ve been taught We won’t spend too much time arguing which climate they lived in, but will deal with some ideas that people have about them

Snap frozen theory There is a theory that the mammoths were snap frozen from an comet (and a massive poor of ice) because of several lines of “evidence” The first (and major) line of evidence comes from the well preserved food inside the stomachs of mammoths, the food is still fresh, which means it had to freeze quick before digestion kicked in

“The good state of preservation of the stomach contents does not call for super- rapid freezing of the carcasses. Rather than food digestion, the mammoth stomach acts as a food storage pouch.” Michael Oard This has since been shown not to be the case with the mammoths stomach Other evidences include things like the mammoths frozen in the upright position

This doesn’t mean they had to be frozen quickly, it just means they had to be buried quickly before they could fall over “They were buried in the dust storms that deposited the loess blankets found in those regions today. Some were entombed in a standing position. “ - Oard That would happen several hundred years after the flood (600 or so years)

How were there so many if they died immediately following the flood? It’s actually isn’t that hard to explain how two or so million mammoths can exist years after the flood They could easily migrate to the North over a few years, and once there they don’t have many predators or competition for food, so they can reproduce at top speed

There are other theories on how the ice age could have happened that we briefly mentioned above One theory says that the ice age actually caused the flood, not the other way around This theory says a comet caused the ice age, and the ice age/comet together cause the flood

And because of the massive amount of material that was dumped on the planet, the crust of the earth begins to crack, and the fountains of the great deep are opened They will claim that ice is water, and would count as part of the flood (not everything has to be killed by running water, ice/solid water would also be acceptable) Most don’t buy into this theory though

According to the theory a comet made a close pass by planet earth and dumped a ton of super cold ice from space on us This cold ice would be magnetic (because of its low temperature) and because of it would be attracted to the poles (which is why the ice wasn’t randomly dumped all over planet earth) This massive dump of ice freezes the mammoths and other animals in those regions

Something else the Ice Age can explain, how do animals get to water locked continents

If all the animals were on the ark which landed in the middle east area, how is it possible that the mammoths got to ocean locked North America (and other animals) and how did Kangaroos get to Australia? After the flood, the oceans would calm down to their normal levels after a few years, which means some continents like Australia and the Americas would be locked off

But at the same time, over the next few hundred years as the oceans are warmer But at the same time, the high precipitation levels would cause much of that moisture to be moved into ice form on the continents (or ice sheets) We can get a good idea how much water would have been in the ice sheets / glaciers / and other ice age formations The amount present would lower the water levels enough to make all continents connected during the ice age

The Bible provides the best framework to understand the ice age that we see evidence of all around the world A catastrophic worldwide event (like the flood) is the best way to get an ice age started (with warmer oceans) There is much more you could study on this topic though, we’ve only skimmed the surface of the research

Memory Verse Job 38:29: “From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the frost of heaven?”