Proposal
This paper summarizes a beginning attempt to develop a numerical simulation tool for the primary erosion, transport, and sedimentation processes that operated during the Genesis Flood. It is based upon a code developed in the 1990’s that solves the shallow water equations on the surface of a rotating sphere. The shallow water approximation, appropriate for this application, treats the water on the face of the earth in terms of a single vertical layer but with variable bottom height. The model assumes that the dominant means for sediment transport during the Flood was by turbulent, rapidly flowing water. Theory for open-channel turbulent flow is applied to treat the suspension, transport, and deposition of sediment. Cavitation is assumed to be the dominant process responsible for degradation of bedrock as well as for erosion of already deposited sediment. As an initial working hypothesis, horizontal accelerations required to achieve water velocities of 100-250 m/s arise from a sequence of large tides produced by repeated near approaches of a moon-sized body with the earth. An illustrative calculation shows that with plausible parameter choices a single tide 2500 m in height produces a blanket of sediment some 150 m thick on average over the continental surface in the span of only a few days. Based on this result, it is proposed that six near encounters with a moon-sized body temporarily captured by the earth can plausibly account for the six mega-sequences that are so prominent in the Phanerozoic sediment record. In particular, such large impulsive tides conceivably might explain the global erosional unconformities that define the mega-sequence boundaries.
Keywords
Turbulent sediment transport, turbulent boundary layer, open channel flow, cavitation erosion, shallow water approximation, super tide, fossil-bearing sediment record, global flood
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Recommended Citation
Baumgardner, John
(2013)
"Explaining the Continental Fossil-Bearing Sediment Record In Terms of the Genesis Flood: Insights from Numerical Modeling of Erosion, Sediment Transport and Deposition Processes on a Global Scale,"
Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism: Vol. 7, Article 3.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/icc_proceedings/vol7/iss1/3