The Biblical Flood would have been a catastrophe of awesome magnitude. It would have totally restructured the world. According to Scripture, the whole world was submerged under water, and the restructuring of the earth to produce the present topography must therefore be a post-Flood phenomenon.

Evidence for total submersion of the continents is widespread on Earth. Water deposition is a feature of the geological column, but one layer in particular—the Cretaceous layer—points to a transition between the pre- and post-catastrophic events in the Flood model.

The Cretaceous layer comprises chalk deposits caused by vast deposits of coccolith shells and other microorganisms with calcium carbonate skeletons. The Cretaceous layer is evidence that at some point in history, there was a worldwide shallow sea. The calcium carbonate skeletons of certain algae would only settle out in large quantities if the seas were shallow and conditions favored algal blooms. Such disturbed ecological conditions would have prevailed immediately after a worldwide Flood.

The Cretaceous layer varies in thickness, a condition which could have been brought about by currents or by differences in the time that the various areas were submerged under water. In the area of the white cliffs of Dover, the deposits are substantial, possibly indicating that these areas were submerged for a long period. These type of deposits do not occur today, as the calcium carbonate skeletons would dissolve in the deep oceanic waters presently existing.

Although no present-day scenario can parallel the Flood model, there are some events today that can shed light on what might have happened in the past. The present-day agricultural endeavours and chemical industries have disturbed the ecology around them, resulting in some extraordinary algal blooms in waters rich in inorganic salts. One such area is the Mediterranean, where masses of chemicals provide environments conducive to massive algal blooms.

The post-Flood waters would have been rich in minerals and decaying organic materials. In such circumstances, the algal blooms that produced the chalk layers could have been deposited in a very short time. Shifting continents would then have caused water drainage, recycling of sedimentary deposits, and subsequent burial of the chalk layer, plant debris, and decayed animal remains. The chalk bed deposits of the Cretaceous period are proof that everything was underwater.

Further evidence supporting this model can be found in the tertiary deposits which are packed with fossil graveyards and pieces of broken mammalian bones, a condition which is difficult to explain using the standard evolutionary paradigm, but is to be expected in the case of catastrophism. Moreover, stream-orientation of fossils is evident in the tertiary which further points towards catastrophism.

A catastrophe of this magnitude must surely have left its mark on the stratigraphic record. Indeed, the later Cretaceous is associated with huge-scale extinction of numerous species including the dinosaurs. Of the animals that survived this great extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period, more than 50% of marine organisms also died in the destruction. In fact, the post-Cretaceous world is a mere shadow of what it was prior to this time period. The ammonites and belemnites suffered complete destruction, and of all the swimming reptiles only three survived. Only 30% of all swimming marine organisms survived, whereas the survival rate of the freshwater organisms (97% survival) was much better.

Marine organisms are adapted to stable conditions and a large-scale upheaval of the marine environment can be expected to lead to large-scale destruction. Numerous fossil beds of redistributed corals and molluscs account for massive destruction of the once-stable marine environment. It is therefore not surprising that only about half of the bottom-dwelling marine organisms survived this event.

It's no wonder that scientists have debated the reasons for this massive extinction with such vigor. Among the hypotheses are intense volcanic activity, epidemics of disease, large-scale greenhouse effect with rise in CO₂ levels leading to death of dinosaur embryos, change in plant composition, change in ocean salinity, high ultraviolet radiation, and dust clouds caused by collisions with comets or asteroids.

Most of these theories concentrate on the dinosaurs, but fail to explain the large scale destruction of all the other life forms. Surprisingly, a worldwide destruction by water comprising large scale upheaval of the ocean floor and submergence of the continents is totally absent from all scientific discussion, although all the evidence points precisely to such an event.

Read more about the extinction of marine animals in Reasons for Extinction. Updated January 2009.