THE OCEANS SAY NO! TO EVOLUTION

adapted from an article by

Stuart E. Nevins

M.S.

Evidence indicating the age of the earth and its oceans is of great importance to the creation-evolution controversy. Any evidence suggesting the ocean is very old will be used to support the supposition that life arose from primitive, inorganic marine chemicals many millions of years ago and has since evolved into the panoply of life forms we see today. On the other hand, if the world's oceans can be shown to be comparatively young, a key component of the evolutionist's argument will have been proven false, and the case for special creation will be correspondingly strengthened.

Ocean Models

There are two basic historical models for the world's oceans: one is based on evolutionary ideas; the other follows the tenet of creation.

According to evolutionary-minded uniformitarian geologists, the earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old. They believe the world's oceans formed from water released by volcanic processes early in the history of the planet. In the evolutionary scheme, the oceans reached their present size and chemical state no later than one billion years ago, after primitive single-celled life forms had already evolved by chance from the lifeless chemicals therein. Ever since then the oceans are said to have remained at roughly constant salinity, while single-celled creatures evolved into molluscs, fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and finally man. During this time, it is supposed the rock mass of the continents eroded more or less continuously, the detritus steadily being deposited as sediment on the ocean floor.

Conversely, most adherents of special creation theory maintain the oceans were formed comparatively recently - probably less than 10,000 years ago. Bible-believing creationists accept that originally the earth was covered with water (Genesis 1:2), but they believe God formed oceanic basins to collect the waters and cause dry land to appear (Genesis 1:9). Creationists also believe that water again covered the earth during a global flood in the days of Noah, and that the Flood came to an end as the waters covering the land receded into newly fashioned oceanic basins.

Oceanic Sediments

The floor of the ocean is blanketed by a layer of poorly consolidated sediment. It consists largely of tiny particles of rock and precipitated chemicals transported from the continents, chiefly by streams and rivers. Chemically precipitated calcareous ooze is the most common deep-ocean sediment, whereas continental sand and mud predominate at shallower depths and in offshore areas.

Deep-sea drilling and seismic surveys in the latter half of the twentieth century have provided a great deal of information about the thickness of oceanic sediments. The findings from these investigations are quite surprising to oceanographers. Assuming a great age for the oceans, they expected to see a great thickness of sediment. As it turns out, however, the average thickness of deep-ocean sediments is less than 0.40 mile (650 metres), the depth of sediment being somewhat greater on the continental shelves and slopes. The best estimate of the average sediment thickness for the world's oceans is about 0.56 mile (900 metres). The estimate is generous and would be accepted as reasonable by most evolutionary geologists.

Let us estimate the volume of oceanic sediments. This is done by multiplying the average thickness (0.56 mi.) by the area of the world's oceans (139.4 million sq.mi.). We find that there is probably about 78 million cubic miles of sediment present on the sea floor.

Next, we can estimate the mass of oceanic sediments by multiplying the volume of sediments (78 million cu.mi.) by their average density (10.7 billion tons/cu.mi.). From this we learn that the mass of oceanic sediments is about 835 million billion tons (8.35 x 10¹⁷ tons). We also know that the portion of the continents above sea level has a volume of about 30.4 million cubic miles and a mass of about 383 million billion tons.

Thus, if the present continents were eroded down to sea level and deposited on the ocean floor, the total mass transferred would be a little less than half of the sedimentary mass in today's oceans (8.35 x 10¹⁷ tons / 2 = 4.17 x 10¹⁷ tons; cp. 3.83 x 10¹⁷ tons). In other words, it would only take the erosion of twice the total current continental mass above sea level to produce the sediments now lying at the bottom of the oceans.

Rates of Erosion

The careful study of modern rivers world-wide has shown that vast quantities of rock are being transported to the sea as suspended sediment (viz., small rock particles are carried along by the speed and turbulence of rivers). The best estimates suggest that rivers dump 20.2 billion tons of sediment into the world's oceans every year. In addition, a portion of the dissolved chemical substances pouring into the ocean will precipitate out of solution. This accounts for another 4.6 billion tons of annual sedimentation.

There are still other sources of oceanic sediment. As huge chunks of ice break off glaciers, icebergs begin floating into the surrounding ocean waters. When the ice melts, entrapped solids are released and eventually settle on the ocean floor. This process delivers about 2.2 billion tons of sediment into the ocean each year. Water from the continents and submerged volcanoes enters the oceans through the sea floor, adding a further 0.47 billion tons of dissolved chemicals to the ocean annually. Wind-blown dust, especially from desert areas and volcanic eruptions, adds another 0.06 billion tons per year.

Totalling up these estimates we find that around 27.5 billion tons of sediment are added to the oceans of the world annually. If it were all loaded into railroad freight cars, each having a capacity of eleven tons, this sediment would fill 2.5 billion such cars! The train would extend to the moon and back 34 times. Traveling at 60 miles per hour, it would take the train 32 years to pass by a stationary observer. The equivalent of 80 cars of sediment are being added to the oceans every second!

To calculate the time required to produce oceanic deposits equivalent to the present mass of all the continents, we divide the last of the continents above sea level by the annual rate of erosion:

Apparently the continents are being eroded at a rate that could level them in just 14 million years. Yet uniformitarian geologists feel certain that the continents have existed for at least one billion years. If this were so, the continents should have been eroded 70 times over! Yet the continents are still here and do not appear to have been eroded away even once.

Age of the Oceans

During one billion years, 27.5 billion billion tons of sediment would be produced at the estimated current rate of erosion, enough to cover the entire ocean floor with 18.5 miles (30 km) of sediment. But this enormously thick layer of sediment does not exist; as we have seen, the average depth is only 0.56 mile. Furthermore, in order to produce 18.5 miles of sediment, a layer of rock an incredible 38 miles (over 60 km) thick - seven times the height of Mt. Everest - would have had to have been eroded from the continents. It seems that evolutionists grossly over-estimate the age of the oceans!

How long would it take to deposit the present thickness of sediments on the ocean floor, assuming constant erosion at the current rate? To obtain that answer, we divide the mass of sediment by the annual rate of sediment input:

It seems all of the oceanic sediments could have accumulated in only 30 million years if the rate of erosion remained constant. This does not square with the over one billion years spoken of by geologists who use the uniformitarian suppositions of evolution theory.

In contrast with the difficulties of the evolutionary model, the creationist model is remarkably consistent with the evidence. According to creationists, the oceans reached their present condition only after the catastrophic Noachian Flood, when subterranean waters were released and joined with atmospheric vapour to deluge the planet. The catastrophism model envisages an upheaval so great that tremendous amounts of earth and rock would have been picked up, transported, and later deposited as the floodwaters settled down and began to recede. In the humid climate that would have prevailed immediately following the Flood, rates of erosion would have been significantly greater than they are today, and oceanic sediments would probably have continued to accumulate at a rapid rate for several centuries afterward.

Therefore, geologists who accept the Biblical account of a world-wide flood suspect that most present-day sedimentary formations are not the products of eons of erosion and subsequent deposition of continental granite, but are instead the results of the Flood having scoured, transported, and redeposited the material laid down at the time of the Creation.

If we dispense with uniformitarian assumptions and adopt a framework of analysis that contemplates a catastrophic global flood, it is reasonable to believe that the oceans are young - perhaps no more than 10,000 years old.

The Evolutionists Dilemma

Is the world's oceans are one billion years old, there should be an enormous quantity of oceanic sediments. But, as we have seen, this enormous quantity is not there, and even evolutionists are aware of this scarcity. What is their rebuttal?

In order to have an ocean over a billion years old possessing a meagre layer of sedimentary deposits, the evolutionist must assume there is some process constantly removing sediments from the sea floor. One hypothesized mechanism is that of uplift: sediments are uplifted from the bottom of the sea to again become part of the continental mass. This may account for some of the “missing” sediment, but the total continental mass above sea level is only equal to about half of the mass of sediments on the sea floor. Adding the two quantities together (0.56 mi. and 0.28 mi.), we are still well short of the anticipated 18.5-mile thickness of oceanic sediments, even if the oceans are one billion years old. The uplift of the ocean floor does not resolve the evolutionist's dilemma.

The second process is ingenious. If the majority of oceanic sediment is not being removed by uplifting, then the evolutionist must propose a process that takes deep-ocean sediments into the interior of the earth! The hypothesized mechanism for this is called sea floor spreading. It is based on the idea that the ocean floor is like a conveyor belt. The earth's crust is said to form continuously at the mid-oceanic ridges, accumulating sediments as it moves away from the ridge, with both crust and sediments finally disappearing down oceanic trenches to melt and be drawn into the earth's mantel.

Uniformitarian geologists estimate that about 2.75 billion tons of sediment per year are being consumed by sea floor spreading. But this figure is only one tenth of the current rate of oceanic sedimentation (27.5 billion tons). Put another way, oceanic sediments are being added ten times faster than they are being removed by sea floor spreading! Therefore, sea floor trench subduction is unable to destroy sediments fast enough to account for their scarcity.

Conclusion

After a careful analysis of the erosion of continents and associated sedimentation in the world's oceans, we need to ask two important questions: First, where is all of the oceanic sediment if, as evolutionists say, the oceans are over one billion years old? And second, who has the better model for explaining what we have learned about oceanic sediments - the evolutionist or the creationist? The answers seem clear. The “missing” sediment is missing because it never existed; and the creationist's model, with its world-wide flood, offers a superior scientific explanation of oceanic sedimentation.