The previous article, Fossil Reefs, discussed the different ways reefs can form, and how the fossil reefs show a quicker formation than is usually considered. Now we will see how the speed of reef growth points to a global flood.

Living Reefs

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Living reefs are considered to be slow growers. They also require certain conditions to grow.

Reefs are constructed of many organisms, including mostly coral and algae. Since algae are photosynthetic, the reef must be in contact with enough light to sustain the algae. However, once the reef reaches the surface of the water, its growth is stunted because the organisms are sensitive to air and UV radiation. Maximum coral growth occurs a few meters beneath the water’s surface. However, the coral cannot usually grow up from the bottom of the ocean because it is too deep.

Estimates for coral reef growth are usually studied at the surface, where growth is not optimal. However, high rates of growth have been recorded below the surface of the water. In fact, a number of ships have sunk in areas where reef has unexpectedly grown up quickly. Usual reef growth rate estimates are 0.8 to 26 mm/year, but maximum rates of 414 mm/year have been recorded. Studies also show that if water temperatures are 5°C warmer, the growth rates double.

The Enewetak reef in the western Pacific is 1405 meters thick. According to surface growth rates, this reef would have taken many thousands of years to develop. However, according to the optimal growth rate of 414mm/year, this structure could have grown in around 3400 years, which fits into the Biblical timeline.

If ocean temperatures were higher in the past, which is likely, reefs would have developed even faster. Reefs grow as fast as the temperature and light allow. They can grow—and have grown—much faster than the usual growth estimates suggest.

Dead Reefs

If coral must have sunlight in order to develop, how did the dead corals in the deep ocean form in the first place?

Clearly, these corals must have been in contact with light at some point, otherwise the could not exist. But now that they are on the ocean floor, they can no longer grow or survive because of the lack of light.

A reasonable solution to this problem is that the ocean floor was higher in the past, and at some point dropped to its current level. The ocean floor must have dropped at a rate slow enough to allow coral to grow, but fast enough in some places to kill the corals that were cut off from light.

Thus, reefs give us a model for what happened during and after the Flood. At the time of the Flood, the ocean floor was raised, dumping water and marine species onto the land. This explains the massive marine deposits we find on the continents. At the end of the Flood, the ocean floor warped down. This warping was fast in some areas and slow in others, forming the current ocean floor.

Ahead to The Post-Flood World