If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or

whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in

him.  John 7:17-18Is the Hydroplate Theory

Consistent with the Bible? Police can usually reconstruct the general outlines of an automobile accident by carefully studying

the skid marks and wreckage—without hearing from eyewitnesses. So also, some details of the flood can be pieced together by studying its wreckage. Nevertheless, witnesses provide details that are

consistent with the physical evidence as well as information we could never have learned otherwise. 

For example, the flood was initiated by God as a consequence of man's sin. We may never understand exactly how God physically triggered the flood. However, once triggered, many other events must have occurred whose consequences, or "wreckage," we can still see. Examples are: the death, rapid burial, and preservation of trillions of organisms as fossils in layered rocks, the crumpling of major mountains, the jigsaw fit of the continents, the formation of strange features on the ocean floor, the gouging out of canyons, and hundreds of other events. One should be able to place many of these consequences in a cause-and-effect sequence that (a) conforms to scientific laws, (b) best explains all the details of these observations, and (c) provides a greater understanding of this global catastrophe. That is the purpose of the hydroplate theory. 

Table 7 shows the close correspondence between the biblical description and chronology of the flood and the hydroplate theory. 

Table 7: Comparison of Biblical Chronology with Major Events of the Hydroplate Theory   

Biblical Chronology  Hydroplate Theory Flood begins suddenly with all the fountains of the great deep bursting opening on one day. "Geshem rain" begins. 

Rupture Phase : A crack propagates around the earth in about 2 hours releasing subterranean water. Some of the fountains of muddy water jet high above the earth. Mammoths are frozen in muddy hail falling from above the atmosphere. 

40 days and 40 nights of "geshem rain" ends. 

Flood Phase : Rising flood waters blanket and suppress the high jetting of the fountains of the great deep. Animals and plants are buried.  High-pressure subterranean waters continue to gush out. Liquefaction sorts sediments and dead plants and animals. Coal and oil deposits begin forming. Salt domes begin forming. 

Flood waters continue to rise until the 150th day when they cover all the earth's mountains. 

150th Day: A wind passes over the earth. Waters begin to subside. Ark lands on the mountains of Ararat. 

Continental Drift Phase : Mid-Atlantic Ridge buckles up, and the hydroplates slide downhill.  As the massive hydroplates decelerate, they crush, thicken, buckle up and down, and heat up in a gigantic compression event. Overthrusting occurs in some places. Continents take on present shape. Major mountains and trenches are formed displacing air and causing a great wind. Metamorphic rock is formed. 

150th -- 371st Day: All passengers remain on Ark. 

Recovery Phase : Hostile environment: earthquakes, volcanic activity, initially high continents, water drainage, and lack of food. Ice "ages" begin. Lowered sea level facilitates land migrations, allowing formation of tablemounts and submarine canyons. Plateaus form. Many continental canyons form by dam breaching. 

371st Day: Ark off-loaded. 371st Day to the present. Many Bible verses speak of subterranean water. When taken collectively, they appear to provide support for the statements that precede them and the hydroplate theory. 

1. In the ancient past there were large quantities of subterranean water. 

Psalm 24:2: . . . He has founded it [the earth] upon the seas . . . 

Psalm 33:7: . . . He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deeps in storehouses. . . 

Psalm 104:3: He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters . . . 

Psalm 136:6: . . . [He] spread out the earth above the waters . . . 

II Peter 3:5: . . . the earth was formed out of water and by water . . .

2. These subterranean waters burst forth bringing on the flood. 

Genesis 7:11-12: . . . the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. And rain fell . . . 

Job 38:4-11: . . . the sea . . . bursting forth, it went out from the womb; when I made a cloud its garment . . . 

Psalm 18:15 . . .the channels of water appeared, and the foundations of the world were laid bare . .

Proverbs 3:20: . . . the deeps were broken up and the skies dripped dew . . . 

3. After a time, the avalanche of water ceased, but the waters continued to rise. 

Genesis 7:12: And the [geshem (see note 4)] rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. 

Genesis 7:24, 8:3: And the water prevailed upon the earth one hundred and fifty days . . . and at the end of one hundred and fifty days the water decreased. 

4. Mountains dramatically formed as the flood waters receded. 

Psalm 104:5-9: . . . the waters were standing above the mountains. At Thy rebuke they fled; at the sound of Thy thunder they hurried away. The mountains rose; the valleys sank down to the place which Thou didst establish for them. Thou didst set a boundary that they [the water]may not pass over; that they may not return to cover the earth.

A possible description of some events in the early history of the earth may be found in Proverbs 8:22-29. 

5. Some subterranean water still remains.

Exodus 20:4 . . .the water under the earth. 

References and Notes 

A storehouse is a closed container that preserves something you may draw upon later. God did this when He brought the waters forth as a flood. There were many storehouses, or interconnected chambers for the subterranean water.

Peter points out in II Peter 3:3-6 that in the latter days, scoffers will not understand that the water from which the earth came was the water that flooded and destroyed the earth. This author interprets this to mean: On the second day of creation (see Genesis 1:6,7,9) a solid crust or expanse was formed in the midst of the liquid water covering the earth (Genesis 1:2). About half the earth's water was above this crust and half below. On the third day, this crust was brought up out of the water

causing the water above the crust to gather gravitationally in one place (Genesis 1:9). In other words, the earth (its crust) was formed out of (lifted out of) water. Centuries later, the water which remained below the crust burst forth and flooded the earth. 

The same Hebrew word,baqa, is used for "broken up" and "burst open" in Genesis 7:11 and Proverbs 3:20. Baqa describes a violent and complete splitting, sometimes of the earth's crust (Numbers 16:31, Micah 1:4, Zechariah 14:4). Isaiah 34:15 and 59:5 use baqato describe the breaking of an egg shell by internal pressure as a baby bird exits. All of this aptly describes events of the hydroplate theory—the global rupture (splitting) of the earth's crust by internal pressure just before water erupted.

The "floodgate terminology" shows that the water fell in a violent and concentrated manner. Imagine the overwhelming force you would feel if you stood under floodgates that suddenly opened—floodgates which had 40 days worth of water behind them. The word for violent rain, (transliterated geshem), was used instead of the word for normal rain. Geshem rain is sometimes accompanied by high winds and huge hailstones that can destroy mortared walls (Ezekiel 13:11-13). Normal rain ( matarrain) is formed by condensation, a relatively slow process because heat must be transferred away from condensing droplets. Rain formed by condensation does not correspond to the dramatic release of power suggested by the "floodgate terminology" and the bursting forth of water in the hydroplate theory. 

The Hebrew word for "floodgate" is( arubbah ). In Isaiah 24:18, its opening was associated with the shaking of the foundations of the earth. In Malachi 3:10, II Kings 7:2, and 7:19, it describes an almost miraculous opening of the sky. In Hosea 13:3, it means chimney and is used to describe smoke pouring from a chimney, just as water jetted into the sky in the hydroplate theory. 

The sequence of these two events—the bursting open of the fountains of the great deep, andthe opening of the floodgates of the sky—is in cause-and-effect order in the hydroplate theory. This is also true in Genesis 8:2 and Proverbs 3:20.  After 40 days and 40 nights, the " geshem rain" stopped. However, the flood water rose until the 150th day when it covered the preflood mountains, and the floodgates were closed (Genesis 7:19 - 8:2).  The hydroplate theory helps us understand this. After 40 days, the layer of water rising on the earth blanketed and suppressed the high jetting of the fountains of the great deep . Nevertheless, high-pressure subterranean water continued to gush out and add to the rising flood water until the 150th day. On that day, the fountains were closed (Genesis 8:2) by the hydroplates settling on the floor of what was the subterranean water chamber, pinching shut the outward flowing water.

The Hebrew word gabaris usually translated in this verse as "prevailed." It carries the idea of a mighty opposition of forces, in which one force overwhelms (or prevails over) another. It is as if the flood waters were fighting to overcome forces that would have drained the water from the earth. It was the high-pressure, jetting action that drove the subterranean water up onto the earth's surface. As long as those forces acted, the flood waters "prevailed" over the gravitational forces that would have drained the water back into the deep, ruptured and eroded zone. On the 150th day, as the hydroplates settled onto the floor of the subterranean chamber, that "prevailing" ceased. The flood waters then began to drain into those abnormally deep basins that have since risen to become our present ocean basins. God promised never to send another global flood (Genesis 9:15). This psalm gives someunderstanding why water would "not return to cover the earth." It is because the mountains rose and the valleys sank down so that a boundary was set for the water. But what does this mean? What was happening? 

The hydroplate theory provides further understanding. During the compression event, the continents were crushed and mountains buckled up. Water drained into the low spots as the land rose out of the water. Can you imagine the violent sounds, or "the sound of Thy thunder," during the compression event? The hydroplates had just settled onto the floor of the subterranean chamber, so water could no longer be forced up onto the continents. In this way, surface water was contained in "a boundary that they may not pass over; that they may not return to cover the earth." With almost all the subterranean water expelled from under the plates and the plates resting on a solid foundation, it is now clear why there will never be another global flood.  Although other translations of Exodus 20:4 may not strongly support the idea of subterranean water remaining, Genesis 8:2 does. From the perspective of the hydroplate theory, this is understandable. Continental-size plates, settling onto the floor of the subterranean chamber, would trap water in the topographic irregularities at their interface. Trapped subterranean water under continents seems to explain mysteries associated with

shallow earthquakes and why deep drilling has intersected "hot flowing water" that is too deep to have seeped down from the earth's surface.

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