Leftover from Noah’s Flood?

A recent news article Huge Freshwater Aquifers Discovered Beneath Ocean Floor announced the discovery of enormous sources of fresh water underneath the ocean.

Ocean Currents

These freshwater aquifers were discovered off the coasts of North America, Australia, China, and South Africa.

How large are these deposits? Researchers estimate the volume of water in the aquifers to be 100 times the amount of water man has withdrawn from land-based aquifers over the last 100 years.

How and when did these huge aquifers originate? I think there are two possibilities:
1. Creation Week
2. Noah’s Flood

Creation Week

On Day 1 of Creation Week, Yahweh created an enormous amount of water, called the deep (Genesis 1:1-2).

On Day 2 He created an expanse which He called heaven and separated the waters into two regions, one above the expanse and one below (Genesis 1:6-8).

On Day 3 He collected the waters below the expanse into one place calling them seas and exposed the dry land which He called earth (Genesis 1:9-10).

Subterranean water is alluded to in Psalm 136. The passage praises God for specific creative acts during Creation Week:

To Him who made the heavens with skill, For His lovingkindness is everlasting;
To Him who spread out the earth above the waters, For His lovingkindness is everlasting;
To Him who made the great lights, For His lovingkindness is everlasting:
The sun to rule by day, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
The moon and stars to rule by night, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
(Psalm 136:5-9)

The preparation of subterranean water at Creation is also mentioned in Proverbs:

When He established the heavens, I was there,
When He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep,
When He made firm the skies above,
When the springs of the deep became fixed,
When He set for the sea its boundary,
So that the water should not transgress His command,
When He marked out the foundations of the earth; (Proverbs 8:27-29)

Read how the Apostle Peter described the formation of the earth out of water. He said of those in the last days who mock Christ’s promise to return,

“For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.”
(2 Peter 3:5-6)

Noah’s Flood

Large subterranean reservoirs of water were a primary source of the water for Noah’s Flood. The other main source of Flood waters was 40 days and nights of rain, probably coming from the waters above the expanse (Genesis 1:6-8).

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. (Genesis 7:11-12)

Ocean researchers found freshwater aquifers on continental shelves near the coasts. They believe the aquifers “formed during a previous age when the sea level was much lower and coastlines were further out.”

The Ronald H. Brown

Oceanographic research ship from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sits over an undersea volcano (fountain of the great deep) named “Kick ‘em Jenny” in the Caribbean.

This fits with the Biblical picture of Noah’s Flood. Prior to the deposit of the waters of the Flood on the surface of the earth, the oceans would have been lower and the continents larger. The continental shelves probably mark the shores of the pre-Flood continents. When the Flood waters drained off the continents into the oceans, it raised the sea levels.

In Psalm 104 Scripture describes the process of mountains rising up and valleys sinking down to facilitate the draining of the Flood waters:

Thou didst cover it with the deep as with a garment. The waters were standing above the mountains.
At Thy rebuke they fled. At the sound of Thy thunder they hurried away.
The mountains rose. the valleys sank down to the place which Thou didst establish for them.
Thou didst set a boundary that they may not pass over, that they may not return to cover the earth. (Psalm 104:6-9)

Noah’s Flood is the pivotal geological event of all time because it utterly transformed the globe. Mountains, ravines, ocean basins, and continents probably all date from the time of the Flood—they were either formed or drastically altered by the Flood.

Turbulent Flood waters caused massive erosion worldwide. Swirling sediments were hydraulically sorted and settled in layers, solidifying during the following decades. Geological adjustments continued for centuries after the Flood. Climate adjustments after the Flood probably led to the Ice Age. The oceanic, atmospheric, and geologic upheavals of Noah’s Flood exceed man’s capacity to comprehend.

The Apostle Peter declared the Flood destroyed the world (2 Peter 3:6). The Flood left the earth unrecognizable. It caused geological damage to the earth that defies imagination. At this time massive pockets of fresh water easily could have been buried.

Job knew about the springs in the sea because Yahweh asked him about them some time after the Flood:

“Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?” (Job 38:16)

So what about the freshwater undersea aquifers that were recently found off the coasts of several continents? It is possible that they were formed at creation and contributed water to the Flood.

However, I think it is more likely that they were formed during the geological upheavals of the Flood and absorbed some of the Flood drainage. The continental shelves were probably not underwater prior to the Flood, so these aquifers would not have been part of the fountains of the great deep that burst open (Genesis 7:11).

Soli Deo Gloria.

See my Related Articles on Noah’s Flood and/or Noah’s Ark:
Noah’s Flood—Key to the Past
Noah’s Flood—A Global Event
Noah’s Ark Replicas
Noah’s Ark Found?
Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Volcanoes, & Noah’s Flood
Rebuilding Noah’s Ark
Ark Encounter Park
Noah’s Ark Model in Holland
Noah’s Ark
Noah’s Ark Found? (with video)
1. Rebuilding Noah’s Ark – Intro
2. Rebuilding Noah’s Ark – Kentucky Governor (with YouTube videos)
3. Rebuilding Noah’s Ark – How Big?
4. Rebuilding Noah’s Ark – Ark Encounter video
5. Rebuilding Noah’s Ark – Ark Encounter Park
6. Rebuilding Noah’s Ark – Location (with maps)
7. Rebuilding Noah’s Ark – Funding
8. Rebuilding Noah’s Ark – Facing Opposition
9. Rebuilding Noah’s Ark – Ham Debates Lynn (with video)
10. Rebuilding Noah’s Ark – What Would Noah Think?
11. Rebuilding Noah’s Ark – Tour the Dutch Ark (with video)
Dinosaurs on the Ark?
Tsunami Videos and Noah’s Flood
Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Volcanoes, & Noah’s Flood
USA TODAY features Noah’s Ark
Wallenda, Niagara, & Noah’s Flood (with video)
Mystery of Noah’s Flood (with videos)

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:4)
Wednesday December 25, 2013 A.D.

Ascribe to the LORD the glory due to His name. Worship the LORD in holy array. The voice of the LORD is upon the waters. The God of glory thunders. The LORD is over many waters. (Psalms 29:2-3)