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 Seventy percent of the surface of the earth is covered with water. Its
been suggested if all land masses were leveled evenly, water could cover
the earth’s surface to a depth of hundreds of feet.
Witnesses to the Indian Ocean Tsunami of December, 2004, are tragically
aware of the destructive force of raging waves of water. When the fabric
of the earth ripped apart from an undersea earthquake, a force equal to
hundreds of atomic explosions such as devastated Hiroshima in 1945,
wreaked unimaginable havoc.
Holiday celebrants basked beach-side in the tropical breezes that bathed
resorts lining the Indian Oceans. A balmy Sunday, December 26, 2004
started like every previous remembered morning after Christmas in
Southeast Asia’s favorite get-a-ways. The term “tsunami” lurked beyond
the vocabulary of most tourists and citizens.
Moments later, more than 175,000 victims were swept to their deaths by the
vicious surge of a devouring ocean triggered by a Richter Scale 9.0
earthquake epicentered off the coast of Sumatra.
 Vicious violence from a rampaging sea lacked precedent in living memories.
Without warning, the angry ocean, with torrential waves surging at speeds
estimated to reach 500 miles-per-hour speeds at times, swept all in its
path, snuffing out lives in a half-dozen countries.
The
ripple effect stretched ugly tentacles westward at least 3,750 miles to
the east coast of Africa demolishing the lives of 298 Somalia residents in
the coastal village of Foar. The initial surge of the crushing onslaught,
ripped seashore lobster beds, depositing a harvest of death high up the
side of nearby hills.
(Rob Crilly, “Remote Somali Village Reels from Latest
Hardship,” USA Today, January 7, 2005, p. 5A)
The
brutal impact shifted the geographic foundation of one Indonesian island.
A piece of the ocean floor more than 700 miles long (imagine distance
between Denver and Chicago) and 10 miles wide jolted 100 feet upward
unleashing a raging torrent of 135 cubic miles of water. The magnitude of
the destruction removed entire towns and left battered human remains mixed
with the debris of civilization strewn helter-skelter in grotesque heaps.
Nature’s fury greeted century 21 with monumental shock waves so violent as
to impact earth’s wobble. The grim reaper’s scythe rode furious waves
overwhelming shores in Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, Seychelles, Maldives,
India, Bangladesh, Burma, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia.
All
this global destruction, unleashed by a single, beneath-the-ocean seismic
jolt Richter Scale rated at 9.0.
An
1811-12 earthquake bordering the Mississippi River sent ripples of soil
rolling in five-foot waves; created a basin for Tennessee’s Reelfoot Lake;
and rang church bells in Boston. A twentieth century Alaska shock,
strongest earthquake in North American recorded history, sloshed water in
Texas swimming pools.
Observers such as Charles Darwin have insisted that a deluge submerging
the entire earth, as reported in the Bible, is out of the question.
Although Darwin did not claim eye-witness authority, he assures his
readers that “…we may feel certain…that no cataclysm has desolated the
whole world.”
Charles Darwin,
Origin of Species, p. 648.
Prior to the tsunami triggering the hydraulic cataclysm of December 26,
2004, the most vivid imaginations might readily view the disaster as
beyond impossible odds. In the wake of the Indian Ocean
mega-catastrophe, can 21st century observers claim that the
once-in-world-history flood of Noah’s day didn’t happen?
At
one time or another, local floods have surged over earth’s land masses.
Marine fossils have been discovered high up the slopes of earth’s tallest
mountains. The Biblical account of the deluge describes a non-stop
torrent of rain for forty days and nights augmented with an internal
explosion of water from the “fountains of the deep” that buried the planet
in water and left it drenched and uninhabitable for a year.
Suppose the Indian Ocean tsunami and quake was but one of many,
simultaneous earthquakes, in all the world’s oceans, each with an
intensity of at least 9.0? Or a 120-mile wide gash in the earth like the
Yucatan Peninsula’s Chicxulub Crater where an outer-space meteorite or
comet crashed causing magnitude ten earthquakes and tsunamis that dwarfed
the 2004 Indian Ocean impact. (See Chris Hawley,
‘Researchers Explore Mysteries Surrounding 65-million-year-old Crater,”
USA Today, March 2, 2005, p. 9D.)
Add
to this fearsome mix the fire and smoke of multiple, earth shattering
volcanoes, exploding world-wide? And don’t forget the effect of water
unleashed by the broken-open “fountains of the deep.” Top off the recipe
with a torrential rain pelting the planet non-stop for 40 days and nights.
The
crust of the earth could be ripped open like a cloth garment. Gouges
would crease the earth’s face baring jagged chasms; tectonic plates might
break land masses into continent sized pieces of a ragged jig-saw puzzle;
repeated bursts of tsunami triggered swells traveling at 500 miles per
hour could dump layer-upon-successive-layer of sediments, larded with
fossil remains; and jagged mountain ranges would be pushed skyward above
fields of once lush terrain.
Mega-tons of shifting layers of sediment would engulf and bury lush plant
and animal life in haphazard stacks of instant death---an ultimate
treasure trove of carbon-based fuel for future generations.
WLJ
6-6-2005
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The attached photos have been downloaded from the internet, original
source unknown. Whether or not genuine photos of the 2004 Indian Ocean
event or whether computer generated by someone’s imagination, is not
known. Whatever the source or composition, the pictures illustrate
dramatically the power of raging water.
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