No Ice Age but Melt Age after the Flood
Subglacial water flows during the recessive stage of the Flood
- Authors
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Stef J. Heerema
Author
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- Abstract
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Conventional geology interprets Pleistocene deposits, erosional landforms, transported erratics, buried tunnel valleys, and megafaunal remains within a framework of repeated glacial–interglacial cycles. Most modern young-earth creationist models instead place a single Ice Age after the Genesis Flood, commonly proposing approximately 500 years of ice-sheet growth followed by 200 years of melting. However, these post-Flood models face difficulties explaining how sufficient snowfall could accumulate over continental interiors while the continents remained warm and precipitation from heated oceans tended to fall as rain. This paper proposes an alternative model in which major ice sheets formed during the Flood itself and subsequently underwent a comparatively rapid post-Flood “Melt Age.” In this model, explosive release from the fountains of the great deep, volcanic activity, high atmospheric moisture, reduced solar heating beneath extensive cloud cover, and hail formation within towering storm systems produced rapid atmospheric cooling and floating polar ice caps during the inundatory stage of the Flood. Meanwhile, thick deposits of warm sediment and widespread igneous activity maintained elevated temperatures within the continental crust. During the recessive stage, differential vertical tectonics raised the continents toward the floating ice masses, grounding them and forcing pressurized Floodwater and sediment-laden subglacial flows across the emerging land surfaces. These catastrophic flows are proposed to account for deeply incised tunnel valleys, channelized erosion, transported megalithic erratics, and the removal of large volumes of Pleistocene sediment into offshore basins such as the Gulf of Mexico. Long-distance rock transport traditionally attributed to slow glacial creep is instead interpreted as the result of rapid subglacial debris flows. Pleistocene megafauna and Paleolithic human remains are interpreted as Flood-buried pre-Flood organisms rather than inhabitants of a prolonged post-Flood Ice Age. Following the grounding of the ice caps, residual continental heat drove rapid melting, filling subglacial channels and completing a short-lived Melt Age. This model places Pleistocene glaciation, erosion, sedimentation, and mass extinction within the final stages of a single catastrophic Flood year.
- Author Biography
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