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The idea of Pangaea or a Super Continent is often presented with a strong evolutionary bias, mostly pertaining to dating (see National Geographic image above) and speculations concerning the process. A straight forward reading of Scriptures seems to point toward a combined single land mass during the creation week... Genesis 1:9-10 And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good. (NIV) That the water would be gathered to one place as seas, separate from the dry ground, certainly provides for the possibility of one large super-continent. The greater question is how did we end up with the highly divided continents of today? For the evolutionist it's easy to claim vast amounts of time for the slow division of the continents. In fact, the evidence points to a much more rapid process, even as there is volumes of evidence for a much younger earth than evolution claims. Dr John Baumgardner, considered to be a preeminent expert in his field of plate-tectonics, has used modeling (Los Alamos National Laboratories) to show that a rapid process is the most viable explanation for this continental breakup and the forces God used to drive the Genesis Flood. Again, a straight forward reading of Scriptures implies that far more than just rain (from above) was behind the rapid global flooding of the entire earth. Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month — on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. (NIV) The stated disturbance of "the great deep" could certainly be the focus of this runaway subduction (the folding of one under the other) of the continental plates. Residue of this process that occurred very rapidly during the flood has been observed to be still occurring -- albeit at a much reduced rate; approximately 0.78-5.9 inches (1.98 to 14.99 centimeters) per year. Yes, our continents are still drifting apart! The bottom line is that the idea of Pangaea is not incompatible with Scriptures concerning creation and the global flood of Noah's day. In fact, based on very credible modeling of plate-tectonics, it's a preferred theory concerning what took place during the catastrophic events of the flood. Consider also that the formation of many of our mountains and the massive oceanic valleys would have taken place at this same time due to the great stresses caused by this rapid motion. With the final word to Scriptures, examine this inspired passage which also speaks of the events of this flood... Psalms 104:6-8 You covered it with the deep as with a garment; The waters were standing above the mountains. 7 At Your rebuke they fled, At the sound of Your thunder they hurried away. 8 The mountains rose; the valleys sank down to the place which You established for them. (NASU)
Lots More Reading: For more about Pangaea from an evolutionary perspective, check out the official USGS web-page on this subject: USGS Pangaea Answers in Genesis has a great article on this subject entitled, "What about continental drift?" The definitive work on plate-tectonics is provided by the Institute for Creation Research, written by John R. Baumgardner Ph.D., entitled "Runaway Subduction as the Driving Mechanism for the Genesis Flood." Another article of his is "Computer Modeling of the Large-Scale Tectonics Associated with the Genesis Flood." |
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