Kid Zone Articles
Continental Drift Theory
By Lanny and Marilyn Johnson
In
1859, a creation scientist, Antonio Snider got an idea by reading the
Bible. Genesis 1:9-10 says, "And God said, let the waters under the
heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land
appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the
gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it
was good." Antonio felt there was only one land mass which split into
separate continents and moved apart during Noah’s Flood. His ideas were
laughed at. Today, however, many scientists are no longer laughing.
They believe the continents did float apart (continental drift) since
the continents appear to fit together like a giant jigsaw puzzle. This
is especially true looking at the continental shelf and ocean ridges.
Fossils and rocks on one continent also match those on another
continent across the ocean.
The surface of the world appears to be made of many huge sections
called "plates." As these plates move, they change the look of the
Earth. This movement is called "plate tectonics." Some plates move away
from another plate, some grind past each other, and others move toward
each other.
When plates move away from one another, it causes a pulling apart such
as along the middle of the ocean where volcanic rocks ooze out (rifts).
These rocks have magnetic particles which lined up as the rock cooled.
Some scientists claim that when a magnetic measuring device is dragged
over the top of these rocks, it maps out a zebra-striped pattern,
showing that the magnetic field or pull has reversed many times. They
think this pattern shows very slow and gradual formation, hinting at an
old earth. But when test holes are drilled downward next to these
rifts, the neat pattern is not seen. Rather a haphazard pattern is
found. Other evolutionary scientists say the striped pattern isn’t even
there based upon their research. Some creation scientists say patterns
could be produced due to activity during Noah’ s Flood.
When
plates grind past each other, faulting (breaking) can occur. Many
believe that the San Andreas Fault in California is an example of this
type of movement. As plates move toward one another, one plate can
slide under another plate (subduction) or shove together to make
mountains.
Based on very small rates of movement (less than 1 to 6 inches per
year), some claim it took millions of years for continents to move
apart and mountains to form. That is liking watching someone inch their
car over a bump in your driveway and assume at that speed, it took
millions of years for them to get to your house from theirs. We don’t
know how fast things were moving in the past. When things break, they
break quickly, not slowly. Another problem for those who hold to the
slow process is what are the forces that can make it work?
Dr. John Baumgardner, a creationist who is also recognized as one of
the top geophysicists in the world, has developed a model that shows
how these plate movements could have happened very fast. This idea is
known as catastrophic plate tectonics.
Baumgardner’s model starts with a super-continent (Gen. 1:9) and ocean
floor rocks before the Biblical flood. The ocean floor rocks were cold
and heavy (dense) and began to sink into the softer, lighter molten
mantle (see drawing below). This sinking made friction which caused
heat, especially at the edges. This heat softened the mantle even more,
allowing the ocean floor to sink faster, dragging the rest of the ocean
floor along with it. The faster the ocean floor sinks, the more heat is
generated causing the ocean floor to sink even faster and faster. This
idea is called runaway subduction. At the peak of this movement, the
ocean floor could have been moving very rapidly (about 3 feet per
second)! As the ocean floor sank beneath the land into the mantle,
large movements would start through the mantle causing the continent
and ocean floor to be pulled apart.
Along
the splits in the ocean floor, hot mantle would be forced out as the
sinking ocean floor displaced the mantle. (An example of this: Fill a
large bowl completely full of water in the bathtub or sink, then plunge
your hand into it. Something has to give! Water will overflow the bowl
as your hand displaces it.) As this hot mantle is pushed out of the
rifts into the ocean water, the water would vaporize, making huge
amounts of steam all along the split. Could this be the "fountains of
the deep" found in Gen. 7:11 and 8:2? As this steam rose into the
cooler atmosphere it would condense, causing rain (Gen 7:12?). As the
ocean floor sinks, it would begin to get hotter, and lighter
(less dense). This new ocean floor would then begin to rise (from 3,000
to 6,000 feet) pushing up the sea level, which would flood the
continents. This flood would lay down lots of mud (sediments) on top of
the continents, as we see today.
As the cooler ocean floor sank into the mantle, it would have also
caused the molten material in the mantle to circulate faster. As the
mantle was stirred, the cooler mantle material that was near the
surface could be pushed down to the hotter core of the earth. The core
would lose heat very rapidly, causing magnetic reversal, which would be
recorded in the rocks being pushed out along the rifts. As this rock
rapidly cooled on the surface of the ocean plate, the magnetic
particles would lock in, being seen as a zebra pattern of stripes.
Using seismic equipment, what seem to be huge pieces of old ocean floor
have been recorded under the continents. According to Dr. Baumgardner,
this subducted ocean floor would not have had time to absorb (or melt)
into the mantle in the short time since the flood (about 5,000
years ago).
This subduction model would explain Psalms 104:8; "The mountains rose
up; the valleys sank down." As plates collided, mountains would be
pushed up. At the end of the flood the new ocean floor would begin to
cool, getting heavier, and sink, making deeper ocean basins to receive
the water as it ran off of the rising land.
While this model of catastrophic plate tectonics is just a theory, it
explains very well what we see today. Although the Bible does not talk
about continental drift, this model fits with many of the ideas of the
Bible. There are many other theories on continental drift. Another idea
is called the Hydroplate Theory. To learn more about this idea, visit
Dr. Walter Brown, at The Center for Scientific Creation
(www.creationscience.com). As with any theory , ideas can change
as more evidence is revealed. So what we believe in science today, can
change tomorrow. Thank the Lord that the Bible doesn’t need to change!
