Catastrophic Plate Tectonics

Catastrophic Plate Tectonics (CPT) was first published by Antonio Snider in 1859 as a geologic model of Earth History and the Genesis Flood. The idea of Plate Tectonics was later picked upon by Alfred Vegner around 1910. He slowed down Antonio Snider's Catastrophic Plate Tectonics to make it fir evolutionary time scales producing continual drift. This slowed down version of Plate Tectonics became an establishment theory around 1963. Catastrophic Plate Tectonics was revived by Dr. John R. Baumgardner in the 1990's supporting the concept with computer modeling of the Earth's interior. The result is a Scientific description of the Genesis Flood. It is basically plate tectonics on over drive. It provides a source of water, describes the fountains of the deep and the recession of the Flood waters.

It starts with a pre flood Earth with a single continent and a large ocean. Like the present Earth there were distinct continental and oceanic crusts. The continental crust was the same granite crust that exists today, and the oceanic crust was also basalt. From this starting point Baumgardner models runaway plate subduction producing a viable model the Genesis Flood. According to this model non of the pre Flood  oceanic crust  remains at the surface but has been entirely subducted and replaced with a new basalt crust.

The process starts with material from the upper mantel suddenly sinking to the lower mantle the energy of this event is released as heat change the mantle's viscosity. This causes the oceanic crust to start to sink being denser than the continental crust. This along with material in the upper mantle continuing to sink forces material from the lower mantle upward, pushing up the oceanic crust at about the location of the mid oceanic ridge. With the ends of the oceanic crust near the continent sill sinking runaway subduction begins. This process splits oceanic crust along what is now the the mid oceanic ridge, heat from  lava entering this gap heats the water above it causing a super sonic burst of steam. (Fountains of the Deep breaking up) This steam shoots in to the upper atmosphere where it cools and falls back as a torrential rain. The runaway subduction of the oceanic crust drags down the continental crust causing the water to start flooding the the continent. These processes would cause fast moving currents to move of the continent depositing massive amounts of sediment 

As the original oceanic crust was subducted it was replaced by a hotter and there by less dense crust that rose up more increasing water depth. As some point in the process the strain on the continental crust reaches the point where it splits apart, this begins the formation of the Atlantic Ocean. As the new oceanic crust cools it star to sink to a lower level. The runaway subduction comes to a stop as the energy of the original crust sinking to lower mantle is expended. This causes the buoyant continental crust to float up and the flood water to drain off.

The big advantage of  CPT is that it fits in with standard geology better than other Flood models. It allows standard interpretations of events like Earth quakes and volcanic activity to be accepted. Unfortunately it also renders it poor for making predictions different from standard Plate Tectonics, thus making it harder to test. However it does make some unique predictions a couple of  which have already been verified.

1. There is a ring of relatively cool material in the lower mantel that corresponds to past and present subduction zones surrounding a hit zone under the Pacific, and hotter material being squeezed up under Africa. This is predicted by CPT.
2. A more recent discovery id of a slab of oceanic crust in the lower mantel also predicted by CPT.

In both cases standard Plate Tectonics predicts that the temperature and composition of the lower mantle should be fairly uniform, since there would be ample time for mixing.

Catastrophic Plate Tectonics is probably the easiest Flood model for some trained in Uniformitarian Geology to accept since it simply requires them to speed up what they have been taught.

The main problem  with this theory is that it generates way too much heat, but this can be dealt with, by several methods.

1. A rapid expansion of space would remove large amounts of heat. This could be either universal or local.
2. Based on M-theory a super cold extremely near parallel universe could serve as a heat sink.
3. A direct act of God.

CPT has no Biblical problems, and is fairly popular. The few difficulties is has are not insurmountable and and there is supporting evidence for it.

Catastrophic Plate Tectonics - The physics behind the Genesis Flood

Computer Modeling of Tectonics Associated with the Genesis Flood

Runaway Subduction as the Mechanism for the Genesis Flood

Giant Slab of Earth's Crust Found Near Core

Dr. Steven Austin speaks about Catastrophic Plate Tectonics

Catastrophic Plate Tectonics: A Global Flood Model of Earth History

Custom Search