Carla Estell
Continued from Connecting the Dots of the 9th ICC Presentations: Part 1]
There are three held positions for the Preflood boundary:
- Where the granite and sedimentary rock meet within the Precambrian,
- at the Great Unconformity,
- and between the Cambrian and the Ordovician.
Paul Garner believes the Preflood boundary should actually be within the Precambrian. He said Scripture should be used to show the epoch events and that the stratum varies according to the event. The violent beginning of the Flood would be marked by sedimentary strata on granite.
Mike Oard also believes in a low Preflood boundary. He said the violent beginning of the Flood ground down to where the granite is today. He said that if there had been Preflood sedimentary layers, they would not have survived the early Flood. Therefore, the Precambrian strata we have today had to have been formed during the Flood.
The Bible states that on the same day, every fountain of the deep burst open, the windows of heaven were opened, and it began to rain for 40 days and nights. Calling the beginning violent would not contradict the Bible. Seeing how normal wave action quickly turns coral, shells, and even lava into sand, as was observed on the Island of Surtsey, the violent beginnings of the Flood should have produced sand and other sediments as well.
The Precambrian contains strata of limestone, thick strata of rippled sand that became quartzite, even strata containing rounded boulders of quartzite, evidence of grinding mudflows and violent wave action. If the boundary is lowered to the Archean, then these sediments would have been produced during the violent beginnings of the Flood and then laid as the violence subsided.
Although Dr. John Baumgardner believes the Great Unconformity marks the beginning of the Flood with sea life being buried first, I think these dots connect best if the Great Unconformity marks the beginning of a new stage of the Flood instead of the beginning of the Flood.
Seeing how it is rare to find a complete sand dollar or even many intact sea shells after they have been wave-tossed onto the beach, it seems illogical to think that invertebrate sea life remained intact during the beginning Flood stage. I think the invertebrate fossils of the Cambrian, which start with the Great Unconformity, are the remains of sea life that was quickly yet gently buried. In my opinion, it is more logical to view them as the remains of the sea life that was re-established after the 40 days of violently erupting fountains and rain had stopped (see Genesis 8:2).
Dr. Ken Coulson has done an extensive study of stromatolites (large colonies of fossilized bacteria) that are found in both the Precambrian and Cambrian strata. He believes the yearlong global Flood would not have been enough time for the formation of the stromatolites, and therefore they must be Preflood.
However, bacterium multiplies exponentially, as shown by the frequent cyanobacteria blooms (blue-green algae) in Lake Erie. Even though winter temperatures leave the water clear and clean, these blooms can grow rapidly and are a common occurrence by late summer. Colonies of bacteria could have quickly grown within the water-saturated, newly laid strata of the Precambrian and on into the Cambrian, only to become fossilized in place, becoming stromatolites.
Again, the violent beginning would have ripped apart the colonies of bacteria if they were Preflood. Also, how and when would the Cambrian strata have formed Preflood?
I believe that this dot would also connect best by lowering the Preflood boundary.
It is here that I would like to add an additional dot of my own. Genesis 8:1 mentions that God created a wind.
Wind is generated by variations in temperature. The Precambrian contains faulting and volcanic activity, which happened after the strata had been laid. I believe this faulting happened at the start of the receding stage of the Flood. I think that when God broke the earth’s foundation, He also tilted the earth to its present 23.5 degrees, which would have thrown one pole into darkness and the other into light. This would cause temperature variation, generating a wind. The faulting plates would have generated underwater mudflows, which would have concentrated and buried the invertebrate sea life creating the Cambrian strata.
So, I would connect the dots by lowering the Flood boundary to the Archean, which would mark the violent beginnings followed by the Cambrian explosion, which was formed from the buried remains of the reestablished sea invertebrates. Bacterial colonies would have then grown within the strata of both the Precambrian and the Cambrian.
Meanwhile:
- fish were thriving,
- sharks were feasting,
- dinosaurs were dying and sinking,
- trees were floating,
- vegetation was beginning to sink,
- minerals were precipitating,
- mammals were swimming, floating, and riding on log mats.
Once dead, their bloated bodies could have continued to float, which brings us to the Postflood boundary. This will be the topic for the next article.
