A popular question many ask is, “It would take 4.4 billion cubic kilometers of water to cover Mt. Everest. Where did the water come from to flood the earth?”
This question assumes that the pre-Flood world was like the world is today. It would only take one inch of water to cover Mt. Everest if the earth were smooth. The Bible states clearly that the water was 15 cubits over the tallest mountain. Seashell fossils have been found on top of mountain ranges all over the world. The top of Mt. Everest is covered with sedimentary rock containing petrified, closed clams. Since clams open as soon as they die, they had to have been buried alive to be petrified in the closed position. There was definitely a worldwide Flood. The Bible says in Psalm 104:5-9 that, as the Flood ended, the mountains lifted up and the valleys sank down and the water hasted away. Today’s mountain ranges are well above sea level, but this was not the case before the Flood. If the earth were smoothed out (that is, the mountains pressed down and the ocean basins lifted up), there is enough water in the oceans right now to cover the entire earth 8,000 feet deep (approximately 11/2 miles).
All of the water ran off rapidly through the soft sediments into the ocean basins during the last few months of the Flood. This would explain the rapid carving of features such as the Grand Canyon and the Bad lands.1
- See Creation Seminar Part #6 ↩
