Qualitative Hydrology of Noah's Flood

Article Qualitative Hydrology of Noah’s Flood Qualitative Hydrology of Noah’s Flood Carol A. Hill This paper on Noah’s Flood addresses the hydrological questions: (1) How could it have rained for forty days and forty nights? (2) What water sources could have caused prolonged flooding? and (3) Where is the flood sediment left by Noah’s Flood? It also discusses the nature of “nature miracles” (such as Noah’s Flood) in the Bible. he biblical Flood is viewed by many as mian region and surrounding mountainous Tirreconcilable with an actual hydrolog- terrain. Then these patterns can be com- ical event. If the Flood was universal, pared to the Genesis account of the weather then this presents numerous insurmount- associated with the Flood. Carol A. Hill able hydrological problems such as: Where did all of the water for the Flood come from Weather in the “Land of the and where did all the water go to? and Why Five Seas” The does the geologic record not support a uni- Cyclonic Storms. The “Land of the Five versal flood? If the Flood was local, then Seas” refers to the lands encompassed by the other questions can be asked such as: How Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Caspian Sea, biblical Flood could it have rained for forty days and forty Red Sea, and Arabian Sea.1 This entire region nights? What water sources could have is (and has been for thousands of years) is viewed caused the floodwaters to have stayed controlled by the Asiatic pressure system. backed up for 150 days in the Mesopotamian During winter, storms originating over the by many hydrologic basin? and Where is the flood Atlantic Ocean sweep eastward along a low- sediment left by Noah’s Flood? This paper pressure trough that exists over the Mediter- as qualitatively attempts to answer these three ranean Sea, and then they penetrate into local-flood questions. A companion paper southwestern Asia during periods of tempo- follows that will quantitatively address the rary weakening of the Asiatic anti-cyclone.2 irreconcilable most difficult question of all: How could These storms bring cold-season rainfall to the ark have gone against the current and this region except for the southern part of with landed in the mountains of Ararat? the Arabian Peninsula. an actual How Could It Have During a temporary breakdown of the Rained for Forty Days anti-cyclonic system, migration depressions hydrological (cyclonic storms) travel along the low- and Forty Nights? pressure Mediterranean trough to the region event. Before this question can be answered, it is of the Aegean, and then, still traveling east- first necessary to understand the weather ward, these storm tracks bifurcate either to patterns (meteorology) of the Mesopota- the north to the Black and Caspian Sea areas and the mountains of Turkey, Armenia, and Carol A. Hill is a consulting geologist who has authored the books Cave Iran, or to the south to the Palestine, Syria, Minerals of the World, Geology of Carlsbad Cavern, and Geology of the Iraq, and Persian Gulf areas (Fig. 1). For each Delaware Basin. She is presently working in the Grand Canyon on a cave of these winter tracks, there are about three and mines project, and recently took a two-and-one-half-week research river trip storms a month that move across the Meso- through the Grand Canyon. Carol and her physicist husband Alan are members of Heights Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, potamian region, with the peak of rainstorm 3 where they have taught “Science and the Bible” Sunday School classes. activity occurring in March and April. Dur- Elected an ASA fellow in 2005, Carol has been an ASA member since 1984 and ing the summer, the low-pressure system over a member of the ASA Affiliation of Geologists since its foundation. She can be the Mediterranean is replaced by high pres- reached at: 17 El Arco Dr., Albuquerque, NM 87123 or at [email protected]. sure, and the paths of resulting storms are 120 Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith Carol A. Hill northward of the “Five Seas” area. This pervasive situa- In addition to this general weather pattern, when low tion has caused both northern and southern Mesopotamia pressure centers exist both in the Mediterranean and over (Iraq) to experience nearly rainless conditions in the the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea, Iraq (Mesopotamia) summer months for millennia. becomes susceptible to the influence of colliding maritime Figure 1. Geography of Mesopotamia, showing the direction of west to east cyclonic storms across the area (curved nonsolid arrows), predominant wind directions (straight solid black arrows), possible route of the ark from Shuruppak to the mountains of Ararat (largest straight nonsolid arrow), marshlands (stippled areas), and locations mentioned in the text. The black triangles show the two most favored landing places for the ark. Modern cities are underlined; river and wind names are italicized. Volume 58, Number 2, June 2006 121 Article Qualitative Hydrology of Noah’s Flood air masses. The eastern tropical maritime air pass through Iraq in winter and spring pro- masses originate in the Indian Ocean and vide practically the only rain of the year for can travel northwestward via the Arabian this area, and even this meagerly rain can be Sea and Persian Gulf as far as the Mosul area “fickle”—with some years having no rain at (Fig. 1).4 The lower of these two maritime air all and with other years having substantial masses is usually warm and moist, while the amounts. In the Baghdad area, yearly pre- If the “second upper layers are cool—conditions that favor cipitation amounts to about 30 mm/year; instability. This results in heavy rainfall in Mosul, about 85 mm/year; Cizre, about month, the mountainous parts of the country and 100 mm/year; and Diyarbak2r (headwater also considerable rainfall in the lowlands. area for both the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers), Continuous downpours that last for days over 150 mm/year (Fig. 1).11 In the extreme seventeenth day are characteristic of this type of maritime north and northeast, in the mountainous condition, and rains are often accompanied areas of Iraq (Kurdistan), the annual total of the month” by wind and thunder. precipitation is 175mm/year and in some localities, can exceed 250 mm/year. In all of Long-duration downpours are caused by of Gen. 7:11 these areas, rainfall occurs mostly in the win- the stalling or blocking of a Mediterranean ter and spring and corresponds to the passing frontal system, and depending on how long of a low-pressure disturbance. is interpreted the system stalls, a “100-year” or “1000-year” precipitation event can result.5 These rare The alluvial plain of Mesopotamia is as denoting the occurrences of extremely high precipitation surrounded on the east by the Zagros Moun- are referred to as the “Noah effect” by mete- tains, on the north and northeast by the season of the orologists and hydrologists.6 When circula- Taurus Mountains, and on the northwest by tion patterns persist, then high amounts of the Amanus Mountains (Fig. 1). These moun- year when the rain (and snow in the mountains) can also tains receive rain and snow precipitation precede or follow a cyclonic event. An exam- that feeds the Euphrates and Tigris River flood started … ple of this happening was in 1969 over the basins in the spring. The mountains of Jordan basin, when cyclonic circulation pat- Armenia and Kurdistan in the northeastern terns persisted for 24 days, and rain and snow Taurus range experience especially severe then the Bible fell for almost two months.7 The stalling of winters of up to six to eight months dura- this front, over a period of 80 hours, brought tion,12 and snow there frequently reaches is in an average of 75 inches (300 mm) of rain to depths of six feet.13 The Zagros Mountains the basin—the highest amount in 150 years— of eastern Mesopotamia run parallel to the remarkable and caused considerable flooding. Tigris River, and practically every spring, melting snow feeds the Tigris to overflow- Other stalled frontal systems are recorded ing. In these areas, mountain snows come accordance for the Mississippi River region, USA. In the mainly in the winter months (January– Mississippi River flood of 1927, it rained February), while the greatest rainfall occurs with the 15 inches in 18 hours, the water rose one inch in the spring (March–April). Spring rainfall an hour, the flood waters did not start to can quickly melt the mountain snow, caus- recede for two months, and some of the weather ing the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers to reach tributaries of the Mississippi actually flowed their highest flood level in late spring.14 backward (up into their channels) due to patterns that 8 the rapid flooding of the Mississippi River. Wind. The predominant wind in Iraq (Meso- actually exist In the Mississippi River flood of 1973, the potamia) is the northwest shamal (meaning duration of flooding in some parts of the northerly) (Fig. 1). The shamal wind is the watershed was up to 97 days (over three more-or-less constant flow of air down the (and have 9 months). This 1973 flood was caused by valley of Mesopotamia that follows topogra- the duration and persistence of a large-scale, phy and gradient from the Taurus Moun- existed) in the anomalous, atmospheric circulation pattern, tains in Turkey southward to the Persian Gulf. where the trough (low) existed in roughly The shamal operates all year long, but it is Mesopotamian the same location for a prolonged period of especially prevalent from June to October time in March and April.

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