Smoky Mountain Bible Institute
Lesson #35
Welcome back class. Please get settled in and take hold of your
pick point rock hammer and hand lens so that we can continue our study in
geology. We will examine Ice Ages today. The last major geophysical event to take
place on earth was an ice age. Now the
uniformitarian models for ice ages are all sadly lacking in sound plausible
theories for anyone to latch on to and say this is the predominate theory or
theories. There are currently dozens of
theories that are all fraught with algorithmic holes or unobservable and improvable
assumptions. So first let's dispense
with the currently accepted models of 30 ice ages that have as their only basis
the need for time and flawed ice core assumptions which I will address
later. While we are at it, let’s also
dispense with the more popular predecessor of 4 major ice ages. Let's imagine
for a moment one ice age and when we do this, we will find that all of the
problems that other models suffer from evaporate, because a model that has one
ice age following a world wide flood around 4300 years ago and taking about 500
years to peak and about 200 to melt to our current ice levels, actually fits
very nicely with both observable glacial geology, strange mass extinctions, and
the biblical narrative.
So
we now jump into a discussion that spends most of its time arguing for the
biblically harmonious explanation and less time on disproving the currently
popular, albeit weak, models. It is
always good to start with scripture, and a good text to start this discussion is
Saint Paul
So
why are we discussing the ice age under the topic of geology? Because our earth is covered with geological
evidence of that geophysical event.
Geologic formations exist that can only be explained by the ice age,
much of it associated with glaciers: glacial till, moraines, lakes, scratches,
U-shaped valleys, and erratic boulders. We can understand each of these
formations while also reviewing a sound theory for how the ice age came to be.
Following
the flood in around 2300 BC, the oceans were much warmer due to volcanic and
plate tectonic activity. This led to
greater evaporation which led to greater cooling, combined with the high levels
of particulates in the atmosphere which provided for further cooling. These two things would have been sufficient
to start a steady cooling trend that in approximately 500 years, depending on which
models and variables you plug in, could easily develop ice sheets and glaciers
onto the Eurasian and North American continents, down to the latitudes where we
know they once existed because of the geological formations that we can observe:
-
Glacial till: the mixed rock matter caused by glaciers breaking off and
carrying and mixing sediment from various sources of various sizes. Glacial till is often found on top of
sedimentary rock, not found covered by layers of sedimentary rock. This is what you would expect to find if the
ice age followed a worldwide flood which is responsible for many sedimentary
rock layers.
-
Glacial moraines: ridges of mixed glacial till pushed into place by a glacier,
giving evidence of where the sides and ends of glaciers were before
melting. If the ice age started melting
back around 1800 BC and reached close to current levels around 1600 BC, then we
would expect to see these formations as we do today showing evidence of only
about 3600 years of erosion.
-
Lakes, long striations or scratches, and U-shaped valleys. All three of these are evidence of glacial
activity. Many lakes in North America and Eurasia
can be attributed to the extreme weight and land-moving ability of glaciers.
Rocks of all sizes and large rock surfaces show the scratches and scoring that
you would expect to see when tons of rock and ice flow for years over a hard
surface. Normal erosion leads to V-shaped valleys, but when large glaciers
create valleys, they scrape to the bedrock. Therefore U-shaped valleys can be attributed
to glaciers.
-
My favorite glacial geographic formation is erratic boulders. These boulders, some larger than houses and
weighing tons, are located in some cases hundreds of miles from the closest
formation that contains that kind of rock.
So we have three main theories about how they got to their current
location: they floated there inside an iceberg, were carried there inside a
glacier, or during the melting of a large glacier were washed to that location
in a violent and powerful flash flood following the breaking of an ice dam. Part
or all of these processes can easily explain the existence of erratic boulders.
I
seem to have run out of time and still have not addressed some other important
ice age questions. Next month I will
address how areas that are now deserts, like the Sahara or parts of the Middle East,
were once very green, with evidence of large (now dry) deep inland lakes, and mass extinctions
of disharmonious associations like wooly mammoths, hippos, musk ox, and
reindeer. We will discuss ice cores and I also need to briefly address global
warming.
Lots to cover in coming lessons!
See you next month,
Pastor Portier
