Great Alaskan megafloods described in articles in ScienceDaily 28 April 2010 and Quaternary Research, 2010; 73 (3): 413 DOI: 10.1016/j.yqres.2010.02.005. Researchers from the University of Washington have found evidence that four gigantic floods covered a large area of Alaska around what is now the city of Wasilla. The team studied vast dunes in this region that are higher than 110 feet (34m), with at least a half-mile (804m) between dune crests. These can be seen on topographical maps but are now covered by roads and built up areas. (See them on Google maps) Michael Wiedmer, one of the team commented: “Your mind doesn’t get around dunes of that size. Obviously the water had to be very deep to form them”.
The researchers suggest the dunes were formed when water burst from a glacial lake named Lake Atna that once covered more than 3,500 square miles (9,000sq km) in the Copper River Basin northeast of Anchorage and Wasilla. They estimate 1,400 cubic kilometres, or 336 cubic miles, of water drained from the lake in about a week. By definition a “megaflood” has a flow rate of over one million cubic metres of water per second. The University of Washington team estimate one flood down what is now the Matanuska River had a flow of about three million cubic metres per second and another down the Susitna River had a flow of 11 million cubic metres per second. The largest freshwater megaflood is believed to have originated in Glacial Lake Missoula in Montana as part of a series of cataclysmic floods that formed the Channelled Scablands of eastern Washington State in the USA. It is estimated to have had a flow rate of about 17 million cubic meters per second.
Editorial Comment: Megafloods are thought to have formed many significant features of the earth’s surface. The English Channel and the Mediterranean Sea are now argued to have formed by megafloods that reworked the earth’s surface in months, not millions of years. (See New Scientist 21 July 2007 and 9 December 2009). In spite of the general belief that the earth’s surface is the result of millions of years of slow gradual deposition and erosion, real world geology and geography reveal the earth has been subject to rapid catastrophic processes.
The idea of the earth being formed by slow gradual processes was sold to academics and the public largely by the writings of Charles Lyell, who convinced people that the present is the only key to the past. Lyell argued that if we see slow gradual deposition and erosion now, it must have always been that way. However, as Lyell never did observe the past, this is a belief held only by faith.
We also know from his other writings that what motivated Lyell’s old earth slow process mentality was his aim to “free the science (of geology) from Moses” (Letter to George Scrope, 14 June 1830). Freeing science from Moses meant, and still means, deliberately ignoring the Genesis record given by the Creator and Judge who was there all through earth’s history. Lyell and his followers are one fulfilment of a prophecy given by the Apostle Peter that in the last days scoffers would come and claim all things are continuing as they were from the beginning. But as Peter explained: “they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished”. (2 Peter 3:4-7) Peter also prophesied they would do this because they don’t want to be reminded that the same Word of God will judge the world and everyone in it.
By denying the evidence of the Creator and Judge’s handiwork scoffers are also encouraging others to ignore the good news that Christ the Creator and Judge has died for them and has risen from the dead, and offers eternal life to all who come to Him and ask forgiveness for their sin. (Ref. catastrophism, deluge, uniformitarianism)
Evidence News 1 December 2011