Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
this? We live on Earth's surface, and the lay of the land influences almost everything we
do, all the more so if you've ever climbed a mountain, or found yourself in a flood, an
earthquake, or near an exploding volcano. How the world was made and how it works is of
interest to anyone living on Earth—which pretty much covers everybody.
After Tibet, another encounter with flood traditions made me suspect that there may be
more truth to flood stories than I ever imagined. A bright spot in the tragic December 2004
tsunami that decimated Indonesia and Thailand was the remarkable tale of how the Moken
people, the region's sea gypsies, survived without casualties because they knew to run for
the hills. These seafaring people had an oral tradition of a big flood that warned them to get
to high ground when the tide mysteriously went out far and fast. Knowledge that it would
soon come back in as a monstrous wave helped them survive, and gave them a chance to
pass the story to future generations.
Could science be playing catch-up to folklore? For most of our history as a species, oral
traditions were the only way to preserve knowledge. So why wouldn't the world's flood
stories record actual ancient disasters? After all, the world's first civilizations were agricul-
tural societies settled along major floodplains where swollen rivers periodically submerged
fields and towns. And, of course, among the best-known and most controversial flood stor-
ies is that of Noah's Flood. Could there also be truth to the biblical tale?
Today, geologists generally dismiss Noah's Flood with a chuckle and shrug it off as a
relic of another time. But for centuries it was considered common knowledge among Chris-
tians and many natural philosophers that Noah's Flood shaped our world. What else could
have? If the planet itself was but a few thousand years old, as Christians believed the
Bible implied, how could the processes we see today have possibly shaped a mountain like
Everest or a place like the Grand Canyon, let alone the whole world? The work of rivers
slowly grinding away at a mountain range would not add up to much even over dozens of
centuries. The busted-up rocks and rough terrain of mountains were seen as the ruins of a
former, once perfect world that raging floodwaters destroyed at the behest of an angry god.
Topography was concrete evidence of the awesome power of divine wrath, a humbling re-
minder of our place in the grand scheme of things.
Throughout history, stories about catastrophic floods have been framed by conflict
between orthodoxy and heresy—both religious and scientific. At first, arguments from all
