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CHAPTER SIX
A WATERY WORLD
Before four billion years ago, the Earth's atmosphere maintained a temperature well
above the boiling point of water. Consequently, the water on our world was trapped as
super-heated steam. As the Earth cooled, water vapor began to condense into rain.3 Soon
the rain turned into a torrential downpour. For millions of years, the primordial atmosphere
relentlessly yielded water to the surface of the Earth.
Tectonic plate movement, which is the process that formed the great mountain ranges
of the world, had not yet begun, and the Earth's surface was relatively smooth. Water
steadily poured from the sky, filling the shallow valleys, and eroding areas of higher
elevation. Volcanoes continued to release more gasses and steam into the atmosphere.
Comets, which are primarily composed of ice, added even more water upon impact with our
planet.4
Soon, the Earth was virtually covered by one large body of water.5 The continents
that we take for granted today did not exist four billion years ago. Volcanoes would
occasionally rise above the ocean surface to spew forth their molten materials. But
the Earth was essentially in the very condition that the Bible declares - the land
was submerged under a global ocean.
NOTES:
3. Jon Erickson, "Plate Tectonics: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Earth",
The Changing Earth Series (New York, Oxford: Facts on File, Inc., 1992), p.125
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
(These are selected paragraphs within this chapter. This is not the entire chapter.)
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