There Go the Continents

Theme: The Genesis flood was worldwide.

Bible Verse: In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. (Genesis 7:11)

Materials Needed:

• Enlarged copies of the map provided

• Scissors

Bible Lesson

The world today is very different from the original creation. This lesson suggests that the continents and the seas themselves were completely reshaped at the time of the great flood of Noah’s day. Genesis 7:11 describes the bursting forth of the “springs” or “fountains” of the great deep. This verse describes a worldwide fracturing of the earth’s crust. Subterranean water then moved upward from ground reservoirs as the rain fell. The world’s climate also changed after the flood, from uniformly mild to our current seasonal changes. These physical effects show the global extent of the Genesis flood.

Many scientists reject the idea of a worldwide flood, and they thereby miss a key event in earth history. Many modern theologians also deny the flood story. As a result, they miss the vital message that while God is patient with the sin of mankind, global judgment comes eventually. And when judgment comes, it is complete. In Noah’s day, water was used to cleanse the earth. According to 2 Peter 3:12, fire will purify the earth in a future day. This is surely a fearful thought to those who do not acknowledge their Creator. For believers, however, it is an encouragement to realize that someday all things will be made right and faithfulness will be rewarded.

Science Activity

Enlarged copies should be made of the map figure ahead of time. It shows the continents and also the locations of many earthquakes. Quakes tend to occur along lines where the earth’s crust is fractured, or faulted. Participants are asked to cut out some of the continents and fit them together like puzzle pieces. It is preferable if no instruction is given on which continents fit where. Most participants will quickly “discover” the South America–Africa fit. Connections between other land areas are less obvious due to coastal erosion and complex motions of the continents.

A map of the world. The dots are the locations of earthquakes, called epicenters. They occur along fractures and weak regions of the earth’s crust.

Participants may also notice that South America and Africa fit snugly against the fault line in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It is helpful if a second copy of the map is available on which to place the cut-out “puzzle pieces.” During the flood event the earth’s land surface was broken up into the continents we observe today. Continental drift, also called seafloor spreading, thus fits into biblical history. It began dramatically and rapidly with the Genesis flood and still continues today at a much slower pace.

Science Explanation

In 1912, scientist Alfred Wegener first suggested that the earth’s continents had split up and drifted apart. His idea was scoffed at and rejected by others for several decades. Today, however, geologists recognize the existence of an original “supercontinent” called Pangaea. They believe that about 200 million years ago, Pangaea broke up gradually into the separate continents of today.

In the creation view presented here, the great flood triggered the original Pangaea breakup. The continents were rapidly driven apart due to the worldwide geologic disturbance. The Mid-Atlantic ridge or fault line, shown on the map, remains as one of many great scars from this catastrophic breakup event. The ongoing slow drift of the continents is probably a much-diminished “leftover” motion from the original flood event.

The solid outer part of the earth is called the crust. It averages 40 miles thick, and it actually floats on the denser mantle of melted rock beneath. The density of the crust averages 3 g/cm3, while the mantle density is greater, around 3.5 to 5.5 g/cm3. The crust is divided into several large plates, similar to puzzle pieces. Some of the edges of these plates are ridges, where new crustal material is moving upward and outward from below. The Mid-Atlantic ridge is one example. Other plate edges are called trenches, where the crust is bending down into the mantle and remelting. This occurs near Indonesia, a region of severe earthquake activity. The continents are carried along as the plates slowly move horizontally, somewhat like conveyor belts. Another illustration of the earth’s dynamic crust is the surface of a pot of heated soup. Heat convection causes heated soup to move to the top, then spread outward to the sides of the pot, then downward again. Likewise, new crust material moves upward from the mantle to the earth’s surface, then outward.

Satellites measure the exact positions of North America, Europe, and South America, and find them to be moving apart at a rate of 0.5 to 2 inches per year. At the time of the great flood, when continental breakup first occurred, the motion could have been greatly accelerated.