"England’s highest peak is Sca Fell, in the Lake District, at just short of 1,000 metres. The area is one of structural complexity with rocks of the Borrowdale volcanic group (BVG) deposited supposedly in the ‘Ordovician’ period (~450 Ma) being the dominant surface rocks. However, these are underlain by the Tarn Moor Mudstones deposited in water. So the area was once under water at least 450 Ma.
There are four reasons Garner gives for the possible watery origin of the BVG rocks:
1-The welding of ignimbrites has been cited in support of the subaerial interpretation, but this has been strongly challenged by field and theoretical studies demonstrating that welding can take place underwater and may even be more likely underwater. Notably, BVG ignimbrites are often underlain or overlain by subaqueously deposited pyroclastics.
2-Attention has been drawn to lava flows with features suggesting weathering in a subaerial environment. However, many of these ‘extrusive lava flows’ have now been reinterpreted as ‘intrusive sills’, which were never exposed to the atmosphere. Their weathered appearance is due to interaction between the hot magmas and the wet sediments into which they were intruded.
3-Many of the bedded tuffs in the BVG display evidence of having been deposited underwater or reworked by water. Observed structures include ripples, channels, slumps, cross bedding, graded bedding, flute marks and load casts. In some locations, such as Pavey Ark, the volcanic breccias are interpreted as hyaloclastites (glassy) which formed when lava was rapidly chilled and fragmented by contact with water.
4-Fossil-bearing marine mudstones of the Holehouse Gill Formation occur in the upper part of the BVG, although this is regarded as a brief, localised incursion into an otherwise subaerial succession.
Turning our attention to other high spots in the UK, the highest mountain in Wales is Snowdon
(1,085 m). At its simplest, it is now a series of irregular-shaped plugs of igneous rock, but these plugs pierced a series of layers of mudstone, which had been laid down under water supposedly around 500 Ma (‘Cambrian’). The mudstone has been tilted almost to the vertical and has been compressed and heated into slate.
Scotland’s highest mountain, and the highest in the UK, is Ben Nevis at 1,343 m. The reason we can be sure the area was once under water is similar to the story for Sca Fell and Snowdon. Much of the
area is metamorphic rock, but Ben Nevis emerged from depth as a granite intrusion, displacing the water-deposited sediments, which then transformed the surrounding country rock into metamorphic rock by the heat from the granite.
In Northern Ireland, the highest mountain is in the Mourne range (852 m). Though the mountain range is granite, it is underlain by slate and shale. Thus the area was under water supposedly 440 Ma.
In order to validate the biblical account of the Flood from geological evidence, it is not sufficient, though it was helpful as a precursor, to show that all our mountains were once under water.
Thompson objects to the doming because the thermal dome would have eventually subsided, to which Cope replies that that is why the Irish Sea is now sea, rather than land. Both authors agree that some kind of ‘igneous underplating’ (bolstering up) would also have been necessary to explain the runoff processes.
Uniformitarian geologists have traced the subsequent events. Initially, short rivers developed in the northwest, creating a large delta lagoonal complex covering much of what was to become England. The ancient rivers have been named either after modern day rivers that follow similar courses (Trent and Thames) or geographical names (Solent and Hampshire). These earlier tracks have been ascertained by discoveries of gravel deposits consistent with erosion at upstream positions. The present-day river courses are due to recent earth movements, and the ice age adjusting the drainage patterns.
The key question in our minds, once we free ourselves from the bondage of uniformitarianism, is what sustained these UK rivers of Amazonian size in terms of width and ability to create that amazingly large lagoonal complex basin. The rivers were only fractions of the length of the Amazon and Mississippi, which need large rain-catchment areas to sustain them. So either it rained 100 to 1,000 times as much as it does today in the UK (an average of about 1 m per year) or the life of these ‘Eocene Amazons’ was short-lived (just days). This would have been because the land was uplifting in the NW (with a corresponding tilting down towards the SE, shedding huge volumes of floodwater)—not at the rate of around 1 mm/20 years that uniformitarian Cope offers, but centimetres to metres a day.
The result of the rainfall figures suggested would leave all the ground continuously flooded with sheets of water, except for the highest ground. The most obvious answer to what sustained these rivers is therefore the rapid uplift of the ocean floor so that water flow was generated by retreat of the ocean. Note that the rates of uplift mentioned are in ballpark agreement with those described in Genesis about the rate of the retreat of the Flood.
Large portions of the UK would then have been out of the water within months. By making this choice of answer we have removed 10–30 Ma from Earth’s recent history, condensing the Palaeocene’, and parts of the ‘Eocene’ into a matter of months." CMI
For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights;
Genesis 7:4
There are four reasons Garner gives for the possible watery origin of the BVG rocks:
1-The welding of ignimbrites has been cited in support of the subaerial interpretation, but this has been strongly challenged by field and theoretical studies demonstrating that welding can take place underwater and may even be more likely underwater. Notably, BVG ignimbrites are often underlain or overlain by subaqueously deposited pyroclastics.
2-Attention has been drawn to lava flows with features suggesting weathering in a subaerial environment. However, many of these ‘extrusive lava flows’ have now been reinterpreted as ‘intrusive sills’, which were never exposed to the atmosphere. Their weathered appearance is due to interaction between the hot magmas and the wet sediments into which they were intruded.
3-Many of the bedded tuffs in the BVG display evidence of having been deposited underwater or reworked by water. Observed structures include ripples, channels, slumps, cross bedding, graded bedding, flute marks and load casts. In some locations, such as Pavey Ark, the volcanic breccias are interpreted as hyaloclastites (glassy) which formed when lava was rapidly chilled and fragmented by contact with water.
4-Fossil-bearing marine mudstones of the Holehouse Gill Formation occur in the upper part of the BVG, although this is regarded as a brief, localised incursion into an otherwise subaerial succession.
Turning our attention to other high spots in the UK, the highest mountain in Wales is Snowdon
Scotland’s highest mountain, and the highest in the UK, is Ben Nevis at 1,343 m. The reason we can be sure the area was once under water is similar to the story for Sca Fell and Snowdon. Much of the
In Northern Ireland, the highest mountain is in the Mourne range (852 m). Though the mountain range is granite, it is underlain by slate and shale. Thus the area was under water supposedly 440 Ma.
In order to validate the biblical account of the Flood from geological evidence, it is not sufficient, though it was helpful as a precursor, to show that all our mountains were once under water.
The retreat of the Flood
The uniformitarian understanding of what happened after this total (or almost total) immersion of the UK ~65 Ma was that the area started to uplift in the Irish Sea because of thermal doming. This is seen as one cause of a general stratigraphical tilt towards the southeast in England and Wales. Cope places the apex of the dome between Anglesey and the Isle of Man. So the overlying water would have had to run off radially from this position because a cone-like structure would be emerging. Thus over England and Wales the flow would be towards the south and east.Thompson objects to the doming because the thermal dome would have eventually subsided, to which Cope replies that that is why the Irish Sea is now sea, rather than land. Both authors agree that some kind of ‘igneous underplating’ (bolstering up) would also have been necessary to explain the runoff processes.
Uniformitarian geologists have traced the subsequent events. Initially, short rivers developed in the northwest, creating a large delta lagoonal complex covering much of what was to become England. The ancient rivers have been named either after modern day rivers that follow similar courses (Trent and Thames) or geographical names (Solent and Hampshire). These earlier tracks have been ascertained by discoveries of gravel deposits consistent with erosion at upstream positions. The present-day river courses are due to recent earth movements, and the ice age adjusting the drainage patterns.
The key question in our minds, once we free ourselves from the bondage of uniformitarianism, is what sustained these UK rivers of Amazonian size in terms of width and ability to create that amazingly large lagoonal complex basin. The rivers were only fractions of the length of the Amazon and Mississippi, which need large rain-catchment areas to sustain them. So either it rained 100 to 1,000 times as much as it does today in the UK (an average of about 1 m per year) or the life of these ‘Eocene Amazons’ was short-lived (just days). This would have been because the land was uplifting in the NW (with a corresponding tilting down towards the SE, shedding huge volumes of floodwater)—not at the rate of around 1 mm/20 years that uniformitarian Cope offers, but centimetres to metres a day.
The result of the rainfall figures suggested would leave all the ground continuously flooded with sheets of water, except for the highest ground. The most obvious answer to what sustained these rivers is therefore the rapid uplift of the ocean floor so that water flow was generated by retreat of the ocean. Note that the rates of uplift mentioned are in ballpark agreement with those described in Genesis about the rate of the retreat of the Flood.
Large portions of the UK would then have been out of the water within months. By making this choice of answer we have removed 10–30 Ma from Earth’s recent history, condensing the Palaeocene’, and parts of the ‘Eocene’ into a matter of months." CMI
For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights;
Genesis 7:4