Science in the Bible – Ocean Reservoirs

(2 Minute Read)

Scrambling to avert catastrophic loss of Northern California’s prized Oroville Reservoir, officials today are feverishly analyzing every option. But this vast storage lake is just a puddle compared to massive water reservoirs that the Bible reveals exist underground!

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. (Genesis 7:11)

But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided. Also the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained. (Genesis 8:1-2)

When Yahweh asked Job a series of unanswerable questions to demonstrate His sovereignty and to teach Job humility and faith, He asked Job about the “springs in the sea.”
“Have you entered into the springs of the sea,
Or walked in the recesses of the deep?” (Job 38:16)

Genesis and the Apostle Peter both refer to the earth being made out of water and by water:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2)
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)

These verses from Genesis, Job, and 2 Peter point to the existence of subterranean springs and reservoirs of water. It’s indicative of the Bible’s divine origin. How could Job have known about springs of water in the depths of the sea? Never had he walked the ocean floor to see them, as Yahweh’s rhetorical question indicates.

Explorers, researchers, and scientists today use technology and great ingenuity to explore the ocean depths. They have discovered hydrothermal vents (hot springs) at the bottom of the oceans that support diverse forms of life that were previously unknown. Yet Yahweh told Job about the ocean springs 4,000 years ago. How could Job have written about springs in the ocean, unless Yahweh actually told him, as Job reports?

One source of the water for Noah’s Flood was the fountains of the great deep burst open. This means there was a huge subterranean reservoir of water that burst forth to flood the world. But the reservoirs were not exhausted, for the post-Flood book of Job mentions springs of the sea which must be fed by reservoirs of water.

Have scientists discovered such reservoirs? Yes!

In recent years scientists have discovered “underground oceans” several miles beneath the earth’s surface. A June 2014 press release from Northwestern University, New evidence for oceans of water deep in the Earth, announced the discovery of huge subterranean reservoirs of water.

Scientists at Northwestern University and the University of New Mexico published these findings in the journal Science in the article Dehydration melting at the top of the lower mantle.

The researchers say the underground reservoirs lie between 255 and 410 miles beneath the earth’s surface. They think the reservoirs dwarf earth’s oceans.

These discoveries are consistent with the Bible’s indication of waters below the surface of the earth. The recently discovered water reservoirs could be left over from the fountains of the great deep that flooded the earth in Noah’s day.

Modern discoveries of springs in the oceans and huge water reservoirs beneath the earth’s surface were long preceded by the Bible’s references to these waters. Although the Bible is not primarily a science textbook, it does contain many scientific truths like these and those mentioned in this Science in the Bible series, truths that long pre-date their discovery by today’s scientists. This is strong evidence of divine authorship.

Questions to Ponder

1. What are some practical ramifications of oceans having deep springs and reservoirs?
2. Why don’t we hear more about the unusual life forms Yahweh created on Day Five to live at hydrothermal vents in the ocean?

Share your thoughts on these questions in the comments below. It could encourage or help another reader.

Soli Deo Gloria.

This is the fourth in the Science in the Bible series of blog posts. While there is much science connected with Creation and Noah’s Flood, this series will focus on lesser known scientific truths that were alluded to in the Bible long before they were known to scientists.
Read the prequels:
1. Science in the Bible – Blood
2. Science in the Bible – Ocean Currents
3. Science in the Bible – Undersea Mountains

Read the sequel:
5. Science in the Bible – Good Medicine

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
“for the defense of the gospel”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:5; Phil 1:16)
Wednesday February 15, 2017 A.D.

Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105)