This subject presents Ron's research and conclusions for your consideration.

The Ice Age

Finding Noah's Ark is solid proof of the flood recorded in the Bible. But mainstream scientists have explained different aspects of evidences found in and on the earth today in a manner that is not consistent with the story of the Biblical flood. Ron Wyatt prayed and asked to be able to understand the history of the earth and be able to explain it to others in a way that corresponds to the facts recorded in the Scriptures. The following is his understanding from a scientific viewpoint.

Where Does “THE ICE AGE” Fit In?

That there was an “ice age” cannot be denied. But how did it come about? And WHEN? For me personally, this was one of the most crucial questions of all when examining the story of the flood and the chronology of the Bible.

There is conclusive evidence that at some time in the past, glaciers covered a tremendous portion of the planet (in addition to the portion still covered). Most of northern North America was covered, down to the Great Lakes and the US-Canadian border in the west.

The British Isles, Scandinavia, and northern European Russia were all covered with ice-caps which extended down into Germany and Poland.

Even in South America, the southern Andes Mountains were covered by a narrow ice sheet which divided into several glaciers which extended all the way to the Caribbean.

The South Island of New Zealand, as well, was covered.

This is only a partial list of the areas that were once covered in ice.

How can this possibly be explained?

“God made a WIND to pass over the earth”

We believe that these glaciers were formed at the time of the flood, and in light of the Biblical account, there can be no other explanation. The key to the answer, I believe, lies in the following verses:

 GEN 8:1  ... and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged; 2 The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;.

Is it possible that by Divinely using the “laws” of nature that He ordained, God somehow caused a great wind to heap up massive amounts of water in the regions of the glaciers, then caused them to instantly freeze, effectively sealing a great deal of the waters on the face of the earth within these massive glaciers?

“Freezing in still air is the poorest method; circulating cold air greatly accelerates freezing.” (Encyclopaedia Brittanica, vol. 7, p. 490, 1985.)

The Force of the Wind Strong Enough to Cause Glaciation

In order for this wind to have such an effect on the incredible amount of water on the face of the earth, it would have had to have been of incredible force, greater than any hurricane or tornado we can imagine. Some water returned back into the earth (underground aquifers), some was evaporated, a large amount was frozen forming the massive glaciers, but the majority of water drained into the incredibly deep chasms that now contain the oceans.

Crucial to the understanding of the “ice age” and what next occurred is an examination of events during the flood and the incredible processes which took place. To present a quick background of our belief of what happened based on the evidences we have today, I am including a portion from another article I wrote in  Oct. 1993.

The Cataclysm of the Flood

The description of the flood in Genesis is incredibly short, but it says enough to let us know what a tremendous catastrophe occurred:

GEN 7:11 ...the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

In Genesis, it tells how God made dry land appear:

 GEN 1:7  And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8  And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. 9  And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

What He did to make dry land appear, He UNDID to cause the flood.

All the water contained in the earth was "broken up" and the waters above the atmosphere came hurtling down to the earth. Now, if all this doesn't sound particularly violent to you, think again. Before the flood, a tremendous amount of water was suspended above the atmosphere in the "canopy" and also great quantities were in aquifers in the earth. All of this water, most of which is now contained in the oceans, came exploding out and down at the same time, as we read in Gen. 7:11. (See above.)

The force of this cataclysm had to be far greater than any nuclear explosion man could dream of. Then, when it was over with, the entire planet was completely covered in water. All life was extinguished except for those on the ark and some animals in the sea. The tremendous currents and tidal waves would have had such force that the face of the planet was marred and scarred beyond description.

All matter except the bedrock had to have been engulfed in the turmoil. To better understand, if you take a bottle of water, place soil, pebbles, grass, leaves, etc., in it and then shake it up, you can see on a tiny scale what had to have occurred. But during the flood, it was more than soil, pebbles and grass- it was everything, including animals, men, women and children, homes,- everything on the face of the planet. Nothing would be the same after it was all over.

The Earth During the Flood

Everything on the earth's surface was in liquid suspension. The only thing remaining stable was the bedrock. And in this "earth soup" were the bodies of thousands, perhaps even millions, of dinosaurs, some gigantic and some as small as our lizards today.

As the turmoil lessened, the debris in the water began to settle. The heaviest and densest materials naturally settled to the bottom first such as radioactive isotopes. But, the turmoil was not consistent over the entire planet so some areas experienced some settling before others did.

Also, as the waves and currents traveled continually over the face of the earth, new debris would be washed into some areas after initial settling had begun, producing multiple settlement, or "strata".

The Earth’s Axis Shifted Numerous Times

Evidence that the earth shifted on its axis numerous times in a very short time period is proven by rocks such as magnetite. During their formation, these rocks developed lines within them which aligned with magnetic north. Magnetite specimens have been found which display as many as 10 or more different alignments, proving that during the time that the rock was cooling, the earth changed its magnetic poles at least 10 times.

And during this tremendous cataclysm, some of the huge bodies of the gigantic "dinosaurs" were buried deep in the earth, along with everything else. Due to their density, many were buried in a deeper layer than the lighter animals, but not always.

As the currents and waves continued, more debris was deposited, again settling out according to its weight and density, resulting in the multiple layers or “strata”.

The Melting Glaciers

Just as the glaciers were formed at the time of the flood, something else occurred. The part highlighted in the above section is important to understanding this. After the flood ceased, the heaviest elements were now deep in the earth, those whose isotopes are radioactive.

The decaying isotopes of the heavy elements began to heat, melting the surrounding rock and forming magma. The expansion of the magma is slow (liquids expand when heated) and does not produce of itself enough rapid pressure increase to cause the violent eruptions we associate with volcanos.

Some volcanos grow slowly to massive height, then remain stable. But then, some erupt with extremely violent force. Yet, something happened to cause rapid volcanic activity on a wide scale- something which resulted in massive glacial melting in a relatively short period of time.

Volcanos and Magma/ Glaciers and Water

In answer to the questions “What makes lava rise and overflow from its crater?”, and “What causes some volcanos to erupt with explosive force from time to time?”, one geologic encyclopedia gives the following answer:

 “The answer to both questions is water, in the form of steam.” (The New Larousse Encyclopedia of the Earth”, Hamlyn London/Crown Publishers, Inc., NY Rev. 1972, p. 153).

We all know what happens when we boil a pot of water and put a lid on it. As the rock melted below glaciers, it slowly heated the earth. The ice at that spot began to melt and seep into the earth. As the water came in contact with the molten rock, steam was produced. This exerted tremendous pressure beneath the surface, forcing the earth up further. The cycle continued until enough pressure was exerted to expel the gases, lava and earth at the weakest point.

A cycle was established. Each “fed” the other. The magma slowly heated the glacier and melted some water; the resulting melted water seeped into the earth and came into contact with the magma which produced steam. The pressure thus produced pushed the magma closer to the surface, melting more glacial ice, which in turn, seeped into the earth and came in contact with the magma. This continued. Massive glaciers were melted quickly, not over long periods of hundreds and thousands of years but perhaps a hundred years or even less. We have no way of knowing how long this took.

“The amount of water released during an eruption is amazing. At the height of its activity, Paracutin produced 16,000 tons of water daily, as well as 100,000 tons of lava..” (The New Larousse Encyclopedia of the Earth”, Hamlyn London/Crown Publishers, Inc., NY Rev 1972, p. 153).

An example, on a much smaller scale, of what occurred during the glacial period:

“Direct observations show clearly the effect of exterior water on volcanic eruption. Snow melting in a volcano’s crater, or heavy rain over the summit area during a period of activity is sufficient to trigger off renewed eruptions. This process was observed in 1915 at Lassen Peak, California and in Vesuvius in 1926.” (The New Larousse Encyclopedia of the Earth”, Hamlyn London/Crown Publishers, Inc., NY Rev 1972, p. 153 & 154.)

The Earth is “Divided”

By God’s Divine Hand, the melting of a portion of the glaciers took place at the exact time He ordained:

GEN 10:25  And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided;

Peleg was born 99 years after the flood and died 239 years later, or 339 years after the flood. All we know is that at some time during his life, the earth was divided.

Most people tend to think that he received his name, Peleg, meaning “divide or division” as a result of the “division”. HOWEVER, this would mean that the event had to occur BEFORE he was given his name. Since children receive their names at birth or shortly thereafter, this would mean that the event had occurred AND that it was KNOWN to his parents at the time he received his name.

Yet, the Scriptures say the earth was divided “in his days”, or sometime during his lifetime. This implies NOT that HE was named after the event, BUT that the EVENT was named after his name. What was this event?

What Caused the Earth to Be Divided?

While the glaciers were in place, sea-level was much lower and much more of the earth was dry land. As time progressed, heat continued to be generated deep in the earth by the decaying isotopes of the heaviest elements such as uranium. Molten rock began to expand, pushing its way to the surface.

These “hot spots” caused areas of the glaciers to melt, forming lakes within some of the massive glaciers. As these glaciers continued to melt more and more, the exterior walls of ice which contained the melted waters gave way under the tremendous force of the melted water, flooding the region below it. In time, enough of these glaciers had melted to raise the sea-level several hundreds of feet.

There is evidence of several periods of fluctuating glacier activity which the evolutionists have decreed were several different ice-ages, all thousands of years apart. We believe that enough glacial water was melted within the period of Peleg’s life to raise sea-level enough to isolate the continents.

The glaciers advanced and retreated, finally stabilizing when the glaciers had retreated to today’s approximate extent.

We are, however,  still living in an “ice age”, since 10% of the earth is still covered in glaciers. And these glaciers still advance and retreat-

“In Greenland, phenomenal rates of almost 100 feet per day have been recorded for coastal ice-tongues.” (The New Larousse Encyclopedia of the Earth”, Hamlyn London/Crown Publishers, Inc., NY Rev 1972, p. 138.)

“More recently, on June 9, 1983, the lower part of the Variegated Glacier, in Alaska, was clocked moving 210 feet a day”. (Planet Earth”, Jonathan Weiner, 1986, Bantam p. 120).

"In 1820, 3 guides from Chamonix were overtaken by an avalanche and hurled into a crevasse near the summit of Mont Blanc. Their remains reappeared in 1861 at the foot of the Bossons glacier, about 2 miles lower down. The glacial ice had traveled at an average speed of 276 feet a year.” (The New Larousse Encyclopedia of the Earth”, Hamlyn London/Crown Publishers, Inc., NY Rev 1972, p. 138.)  

The potential power of these massive glaciers is awesome, and sometimes they still cause catastrophic destruction-

“On January 10, 1962, a glacier on Peru’s Mount Huascaran surged, and the lowest part of the ice broke off and avalanched into the valley below, killing 4,000 people in nine villages.” (Planet Earth”, Jonathan Weiner, 1986, Bantam p. 120.)

Extinct Animals Found in the Ancient Ice

After the flood, when all the animals left the ark, they began their journeys in all directions. Ron found etchings of animals on the ridge above the present resting site of the ark remains one animal depicted was a giraffe. There are no giraffes anywhere near Turkey today. But once upon a time, all the animals left the ark to begin their new lives and journeyed from Turkey.

Most of us are familiar with the wooly mammoths that have been found in the glaciers. And at some point, some animals ventured north into the glaciated regions.

Because of rapid temperature changes, some of the animals were caught in catastrophic weather events that caused them to be frozen so quickly, that some have been found with food still in their mouths.

But how was that possible?

Weather Can Change RAPIDLY

While we can’t imagine the climatic forces at work during the time of the “division” of the earth, we can get a glimpse of it sometimes. For example, one world’s record for a QUICK temperature change is held by Spearfish, South Dakota. At 7:30 am., January 22, 1943, the temperature was -4 degrees F. TWO MINUTES later, it was 45 degrees F! (Planet Earth”, Jonathan Weiner, 1986, Bantam p. 100).

Then, there was what has been termed “the Little Ice Age” which began in the 13th century and culminated in about 1750 AD when the glaciers were more widespread than they had been since the original “ice age” during Peleg’s life.

Interestingly, critics had long believed that many of the 17th century Dutch painters, such as Rembrandt, had used more than a little “imagination” in some of their famous winter landscape paintings, which featured huge snowdrifts and completely frozen canals with ice-skaters everywhere.

Today, their  winters are not this extremely cold and fierce. But when the canal records beginning in 1633 were found and studied, it was discovered that during that time period, many times the canals were frozen and impassable for as long as 3 months.

 “Hans Brinker had PLENTY of time to practice for the Silver Skates!” (Planet Earth”, Jonathan Weiner, 1986, Bantam, p. 112.)

But no one knows what caused this and other known climate extremes. But it is evidence to us today of how quickly and how extremely weather can change and the catastrophic results. It does NOT take tens of thousands of years for glaciers to form, or melt, or flow over great distances, etc.

People Traveled Throughout the World by Land before the Time of Peleg

We believe the glaciers and ice-caps covering almost 1/3 of the earth were formed at the flood, just about 4,300 years ago. 339 years later, after 4 or 5 major world-wide glacial advances and retreats, enough glaciers were melted to raise the sea-level to the extent that North America and Australia were isolated as continents. The pathways which man and animal had walked across were now under water.

The animals that had made their way to Australia were sealed off from the rest of the world and from them would arise species unique to the entire planet. The few people who had arrived on the North American continent were now isolated and their descendants would become the Indian tribes of North America, the Incas, the Mayans and the earliest peoples of South America. Australia would be home to a group of people we know today as the Aborigines.

After the Flood Part 2