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For those that don't believe in a global flood, I would like to propose the alternative type of flood: the local flood. If we assume Noah lived near the Euphrates River, then what would a local flood look like? What would be required to flood that valley? I looked at a topographic map and figured out what kind of dam would be required to back up the Euphrates. The flood waters would need to rise to about 650 feet above sea level in order to flood the valley. The only way to back water up into the valley is to dam up the south end where it drains into the Persian Gulf. According to my map, a dam would need to be formed with a length of about 750 miles and a height of 650 feet. Assuming the side slopes of this natural, earthen dam are about 2:1 (very liberal assumption), this would be roughly 1.3x10^11 cubic yards of earth and rock, or 30,000 times more material than what was used to build Hoover Dam. I'm sad that I can't show you my map used for these calculations. But here is a link to my image I created:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-3Dgi ... _flood.jpg

So, in order to create this localized flood, God would need to create a very large dam.

Stay tuned for an analysis of a local flood in the Missouri area - assuming that is where Noah really lived.

photo courtesy of Google Maps, 2011

Oh wait, a local flood means Noah must have lived in the Middle East. Never mind the Missouri analysis.

zeezrom wrote:Oh wait, a local flood means Noah must have lived in the Middle East. Never mind the Missouri analysis.

What I am curious about is, how much rain would have had to occur over 40 days and nights to cause a localized flood without a dam.

And I don't think a local flood is even an option, based on the scriptural account.

Why does the orange line extend pass where the flood is. Couldn't you make the dam a little shorter.

I don't think you would need a dam for a local flood because you could easily get flash flooding in the region. I believe flash flooding can happen in most areas with enough rain or snow melt off. I guess you would need a dam if you wanted the flood to last more than 40 days. Although it did rain for 40 days right. Do apologists that believe in a local flood believe that it lasted for 40 days. Wait I can't remember was it 40 days?

One time I visited to Hoover Dam as a kid and the tour guide started saying he is the damn guide, this is the damn elevator, and you are the damn tourists. I was a little slow on the joke and I thought to myself holy crap why is he swearing so much.

Hoops wrote:And I don't think a local flood is even an option, based on the scriptural account.

I'd be interested in your thoughts on the questions I had about a global flood.

Runtu wrote:

Hoops wrote:And I don't think a local flood is even an option, based on the scriptural account.

I'd be interested in your thoughts on the questions I had about a global flood.

Hebrew word "erets", especially in the Book of Genesis. Its translated "earth" 665 times, "land" 1581 times, "country" 44 times, "ground" 119 times, "lands" 57 times, "countries", 15 times, and a few others.

dogmatic wrote:Hebrew word "erets", especially in the Book of Genesis. Its translated "earth" 665 times, "land" 1581 times, "country" 44 times, "ground" 119 times, "lands" 57 times, "countries", 15 times, and a few others.

I recognize that (I'm not a Biblical literalist), but some people seem to believe that the Flood must of necessity have been global. That's the perspective I'm interested in, though, as Zee showed, a local flood has its problems too.

Rambo wrote:Why does the orange line extend pass where the flood is. Couldn't you make the dam a little shorter.

I don't think you would need a dam for a local flood because you could easily get flash flooding in the region. I believe flash flooding can happen in most areas with enough rain or snow melt off. I guess you would need a dam if you wanted the flood to last more than 40 days. Although it did rain for 40 days right. Do apologists that believe in a local flood believe that it lasted for 40 days. Wait I can't remember was it 40 days?

One time I visited to Hoover Dam as a kid and the tour guide started saying he is the damn guide, this is the damn elevator, and you are the damn tourists. I was a little slow on the joke and I thought to myself holy crap why is he swearing so much.

Good points Rambo. A regular type of flood along the Euphrates floodplain would be very small in comparison to my proposed local flood. In fact, it would be so small we would all be left wondering why Noah had to build an ark at all. They simply need to pack up and head up to higher ground (say, 50 or 100 feet higher). I messed up my dam a little in that drawing and don't want to go back and fix it. You are right, the line should not be shown that way on the left side.

I did the Hoover dam tour as well. Truly, an engineering marvel.