Troublesome Topic: PHASE 3 THE WATER LEVEL BEGAN TO RISE FASTER

Lesson 8 of 20

Something changed, because now the waters began to rise noticeably faster. This sounds like a small thing, but the changes that brought about this change were huge.

This was the Kaskaskia Megasequence. It was characterized by runaway subduction in new zones, a water level that was rising faster than before, and a reversal of continental shift, at least in some cases.

We finally begin to see a few land animals and plants show up in the fossil record. This means that the tsunamis were now reaching further than they did before, affecting the coastal areas, catching some animals off guard, and burying some plants in sediment.

RUNAWAY SUBDUCTION IN NEW PLACES

The rise in water level was caused by runaway subduction happening in more places.

The rise in water level was caused by runaway subduction happening in more places. This new subduction caused earthquakes in new places. Even an earthquake in the 7.0 – 7.9 range can cause significant damage at 150 miles away, and all of these would have been around 8 on the Richter scale, although they were well out to sea. Thus, more coastal areas, where most population centers were likely found, were feeling the effects of large earthquakes off the shore. This did not happen everywhere, but it was an obvious increase in the number of places and the speed at which the waters were rising.

A CHANGE IN THE MOVEMENT OF A CONTINENTA CHANGE IN THE MOVEMENT OF A CONTINENT

During this Megasequence, the Kaskaskia, North America reversed course and came back toward West Africa. What caused the movement to stop? It appears that Runaway subduction was still going on, in fact the level of it increased, but the places and manner in which these new subduction zones opened up were powerful enough to stop the movement of North America and Greenland and make them go back toward Africa and Europe. That is what the rock layers tell us.

How much force would it take to quickly stop the forward motion of something with the mass of an entire continent? If it collides with something else that is very big, there are big consequences. Thus, when North America and Greenland collided with Africa and Europe it caused parts of one or both of those tectonic plates to rise upwards.

That is how the Appalachian mountains, the mountains of Ireland, and possibly several mountain ranges in Western Europe were formed. When North America pulled away from Africa a second time in the next Megasequence, the Appalachian mountains were already lifted up to close to their final height.

Something similar can be said of the mountains of Ireland.

This was still within the first 40 days of the flood event. The ark was still sitting on its platform; it had not yet floated. Those still alive were probably thinking something like this: “Noah was probably right about some things, but look, his big boat is still sitting on the ground!   Maybe he was wrong about some things too. So maybe there’s a chance I can survive this thing. I survived this long, so maybe enough people have died, and I will survive this thing. After all, I don’t deserve all this. I did good to some people sometimes. I don’t see what God is so upset about.”

The next lesson in this study is PHASE 4.1  THE WATER LEVEL ROSE EVEN FASTER