Evidence of Noah’s Flood: Fossils

(4 Minute Read plus 2 videos. 27Apr2022)

The Bible clearly and unambiguously teaches an amazing fact:
Noah’s Flood was worldwide.
Does evidence exist today of a worldwide flood?

A flood of water engulfing the entire globe surely would have left evidence of such a disaster. Is there evidence today that a flood once covered the entire earth?

Fossil Evidence

What kind of evidence would one expect to find after reading the historical report in Genesis 7:17-24? The record states that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered and that all flesh that moved on the earth perished. From this report it should be obvious as to what evidence would result — fossils all over the world!

Noah’s Flood explains fossils, and fossils bear witness to Noah’s Flood. Fossils are petrified remains of once-living plants and animals. The Flood would have laid down great deposits of water-borne sediments full of plant and animal remains. As the sediments solidified into rock, the remains fossilized. Remains must be buried quickly in order to fossilize instead of decaying.

There is much evidence of rapid burial. Sometimes fossilized tree trunks pass through many rock layers. These polystrate fossils prove that layers were deposited rapidly, for otherwise the trees would have rotted away. Rapid deposition of successive layers is also evidenced by razor-sharp demarcations between layers — there is no erosion, no plant growth between layers, no soil formation. Animal tracks, surface ripples, and raindrop marks have all been preserved as fossils. This means they were quickly covered by sediments; otherwise the fossil tracks, ripples, and raindrop marks would not have kept their clearly defined form.

Without rapid burial by flood sediments, dead animals would decay or be eaten, leaving no fossil trace. In the 1800s, hunters slaughtered an estimated 100 million buffalo on the western plains of the USA. After harvesting the hides, the carcasses were left. But no buffalo fossils exist there, despite the vast number slain. Since they were not rapidly buried by flood sediments, the buffalo carcasses rotted away on the plains without being fossilized.

Consider this fossil evidence: on every continent there are fossils of sea creatures high above sea level. There are many kinds of marine fossils in most of the rock layers of Arizona’s Grand Canyon, even in layers well over a mile above sea level. Marine fossils are found high in the Himalayas. Deep-sea limestone (containing ocean-bottom fossils) crowns Mt. Everest at heights over 29,000 feet.

How did these fossils get there? Marine fossils atop all mountain ranges worldwide relentlessly proclaim, “Global Flood!” Fossil-laden sedimentary strata worldwide are indelible records of a global flood.

Scattered throughout the world are massive fossil graveyards with billions of fossilized plants, animals, and sea creatures all jumbled together in broken and disarticulated states. These were quickly buried in Noah’s Flood and fossilized by vast sediment layers deposited quickly.

Wyoming’s huge Green River limestone formation contains fossils from a variety of ecosystems. Fossils abound from swamp creatures (alligators and turtles), fresh water fish, salt water fish, crustaceans, mammals, and birds. How did these creatures from very different habitats happen to get buried and preserved together? It could only have occurred as a result of Flood deposits.

The Fossil Bluff graveyard in Tasmania, Australia has innumerable marine and terrestrial fossils of over 1,000 species, including a whale and a possum. Since whales and possums do not live together, this is evidence of deposition by an aquatic catastrophe.

The Redwall Limestone of the Grand Canyon extends for over 10,000 square miles up through northern Arizona and into southern Nevada. It has billions of nautiloids (a squid-like sea creature) along with numerous other marine fossils.

Other massive graveyards of jumbled fossils are located at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California, at Florissant, Colorado, and at Mazon Creek near Chicago, Illinois. Well-known international fossil graveyards include Montceau-les-Mines in France and Great Britain’s chalk beds. Others are found across Europe and in the Middle East.

Fossil of a fish eating another fish in the Creation Museum

Fine details like eye structure are preserved in some of the fossils. There are fossils of fish swallowing other fish and a dinosaur giving birth. These are proof of extremely rapid burial in order to capture these actions in stone.

Trillions of tons of vegetation buried in coal beds contain innumerable marine and terrestrial fossils. These occur on every continent including Antarctica.

Here is a 5-minute video on the massive dinosaur graveyard in western North America containing millions of dinosaur fossils. It stretches 1,800 miles long by 1,000 miles wide from Mexico through the US and into Canada. A million square miles contain billions of fossils, including most known dinosaur species along with fossils of plants, birds, marine life, and terrestrial creatures.

In Conclusion . . .

What outcome would you expect based on the Genesis report that a worldwide flood destroyed every living thing on the face of the earth? To answer, Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis coins a memorable phrase, “Billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth!”

This record in stone is hard evidence. The worldwide fossil record is a silent witness to a worldwide flood. In fossil graveyards all over the world, thousands of feet above sea level, billions of terrestrial and marine fossils lie jumbled together in death, buried quickly under layers of mud and petrified as rock forms. This is eloquent testimony that oceans in upheaval once washed across continents and covered mountains. It is persuasive evidence supporting the record in Genesis of Noah’s Flood.

Believing the Bible rules out believing that Noah’s Flood was only local. Moreover, the fossil-laden sedimentary strata all over the world are remnants of the Flood still visible today. The Biblical worldview rightly identifies these effects with Noah’s Flood and understands the Flood as God’s global judgment on a sin-soaked world.

Here is Buddy Davis’ catchy earworm tune, “Billions of Dead Things,” emphasizing the fossil record as evidence for Noah’s Flood.

Questions to Ponder

1. Which example of fossil evidence is most intriguing to you?
2. Where could you visit local fossils and ponder the Creator’s amazing lessons of the worldwide flood?

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

For Christ and His Kingdom. Soli Deo Gloria. Alere Flammam Veritatis.

This is the 13th in a series of articles on Noah. This Noah Series will suggest answers to many of the questions believers and skeptics have about Noah, Noah’s Ark, and Noah’s Flood.
Read the prequels:
1. Think You Know Noah?
2. Did Jesus Think Noah Was Real?
3. How Long Did It Take Noah to Build the Ark?
4. Could Noah Build the Ark in 75 Years?
5. How Big Was Noah’s Ark?
6. Were Dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark?
7. Could Noah Fit All the Animals on the Ark?
8. What Was Noah’s Flood Like?
9. Was Noah’s Flood Global or Local?
10. Life on Noah’s Ark
11. Were Zebras on Noah’s Ark?
12. Evidence of Noah’s Flood: Canyons

Read the sequel:
14. Evidence of Noah’s Flood: Rock Layers

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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 April 27, 2022 A.D.

Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish.
(Genesis 6:13-17)

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