Hydroplate theory
| Rescued from the |
| Seven of the clean kind |
Hydroplate theory is a creationist hypothesis - developed in 1980 by Walter Brown (PhD Mechanical Engineering[1]) - that the antediluvian Earth had huge chambers of water that encircled the planet's mantle. The whole idea falls nicely into the not even wrong category.
Apparently, before the flood, the Earth's crust floated on the above mentioned chambers (rock floats on water! Perhaps it had lots of pumice in it?). Walls and tendrils connected the mantle and crust, allowing the inner and outer reaches of the planet to rotate on its axis at the same speed.
But the fantasy does not stop there; according to this "theory" antediluvian Earth had one super-continent—similar in concept to, but not the same as, Pangaea—that covered about 75 percent of the surface. Oceans, if you could call them that, were really giant lakes (like the Sea of Galilee, the Red Sea, etc.). To maintain consistency they are obliged to argue that Earth's mountains rarely reached more than 5000 feet (1524 meters) above what was then sea level and the highest mountain was probably much lower than 9000 feet (2743 meters).
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[edit] How the "Great Flood" occurred
When it came time to flood Earth, God cracked the crust, releasing the water (like a soft-boiled egg). These cracks formed underwater mountain ranges like the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The subterranean water sprayed upward with such great force that it caused worldwide rainfall for 40 days and 40 nights (and made the comets, and anything else they don't understand). The water left its subterranean encasements so quickly that many land masses immediately began to sink (crunch!). These rapidly sinking land masses uplifted other land masses (oops, ow!), thus causing deep-sea fossils to appear at the tops of mountain peaks. (Creationists always point to "mountaintop fossils" as proof of the flood - naturally wanting to wish away the vast amount of evidence for slow-motion tectonic forces taking millions of years to uplift mountains from the ocean floor.)
[edit] Results of the Flood
The proponents of this pseudoscience claim that many of the sunken land masses remain sunken today, forming the world's ocean floors. All of these sudden movements caused the super-continent to develop tectonic ridges and mountain ranges that run parallel to Earth's coastlines. These movements also created, in the eyes of creationists, an illusion that led scientists to develop the theory of Pangaea.
The ocean floors took less than six months to sink to their current depths. The flood waters then filled these troughs, creating the oceans and drying out the deluged land.
This theory is also being prepared as a pre-emptive strike against any living microbes that might be found on Mars or other parts of our solar system. Creationists are claiming that some mud might have gone flying out into space, and landed on another planet.
[edit] Biblical origins
This theory comes from Genesis vii, 11-12, and viii, 2-3 (No, seriously. This is the entire basis of the theory.):
- Ch. 7: (11) In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. (12) And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
- Ch. 8: (2) The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; (3) And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. (Both of the above from the King James Version.)
[edit] See also
[edit] External Links
Links to Creationist web pages that discuss this theory and other similar theories:
- http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/FAQ311.html
- http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/FAQ39.html
- http://www.icr.org/article/506/12/
- http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=13091
- http://www.cryingvoice.com/Evolution/Hydroplate3.html
- http://creationwiki.org/Hydroplate_theory
- Glenn R. Morton's rebuttal to Walter Brown's Hydroplate Theory
- http://www.answersincreation.org/walter_brown_hydroplate_theory.htm
- A YouTube video about Hydroplate Theory