High mountains were raised during the Flood (Talk.Origins)

Claim CH570:


 * The earth was relatively flat before the Noachian Flood. Most of the world's high mountains were formed during the Flood. This explains how all the waters in the oceans could cover all the mountains at the time. It also explains how mountains formed (from the violence accompanying the Flood) and the existence of marine fossils on mountains.

Source: Whitcomb, John C. Jr. and Henry M. Morris, 1961. The Genesis Flood. Philadelphia, PA: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., pp. 127-128.

CreationWiki response:

This is another example of an argument from an old source. Much work has been done on this topic since The Genesis Flood was published in 1961.

The fact that uniformitarian scientists have a theory that might explain mountain building does not negate the possibility of a catastrophic model.

Some creationists question the legitimacy of the plate tectonics theory. The following are links arguing that it doesn't work.


 * Does Subduction Really Occur?
 * Plate Tectonics: A Paradigm Under Threat
 * Geology and Cosmology: A Discussion
 * Problems with Plate Tectonics
 * Plate Tectonics' mechanisms are too weak to build mountains
 * Magnetic stripes: look again
 * Beyond the Plume Myth

Other creationists have proposed a model of rapid plate tectonics, and one of the leading plate tectonic researchers believes that only the Flood adequately explains it. It also needs to be noted that the idea of plate tectonics predates publication of The Genesis Record, and in fact an early version of plate tectonics was proposed by a creationist over 100 years ago, partly on the basis of the history recorded in Genesis.

This argument is flawed in that it assumes that the mountains were solid rock at the time. Mountains are formed mainly out of sedimentary rock, which would not have completely hardened until years after the flood. When mountain building was occurring during the later stages of the Flood the rock would still be plastic enough that relatively little heat would be produced.

The claim that the Appalachians are much older than the Rockies is based on uniformitarian assumptions. The Appalachians could still be older than the Rockies even if just by a few days, weeks or months. Also, the height of the Rockies would have placed them above the maximum Flood level, whereas the Appalachians are not that high. The result is that the latter naturally would have been more eroded by the flood water.