What about the Ice Age?

Evolutionists opinions regarding the Ice Age differ tremendously with regards to cause, effects, and just how many there were. The creationist model points to one Ice Age being caused by the flood of Noah's day.

The Ice Age was a time when great sheets of ice built up on land. As snow accumulated in extreme northern and southern latitudes, its own weight packed it into ice. And then, because ice is less than rigid, it can flow out from heavy snow accumulation areas into lower latitudes.

The glaciers never covered more than a minor portion of the globe. In North America, ice covered much of central Canada and as far south as Kansas as well as Northern Eurasia, Greenland and Antarctica. Weather in the rest of the world was affected, but the areas were not under ice. Evolutionists propose that there were several ice ages, from four to sixty such ages, each lasting for long periods and separated by vast ages, but the evidence for multiple glaciers is poor and evolutionists have no valid cause for such events.

The obvious requirements for ice build-up are more snowfall and less snowmelt. But how does this happen? No scheme, shackled by the constraints of uniformitarianism can alter earth's conditions to that extent. And besides, if things get too cold, the air can't contain much moisture. And it doesn't snow much. And so the puzzle remains.

A key to more snowfall is more evaporation, and the best way to achieve that is to have warmer oceans. In 1998 the Pacific Ocean, to a lesser degree, experienced such a change as identified by the name El Nino. With the waters of the southern pacific pushing further north than normal, these warmer waters increased the evaporation rates, which simultaneously increased the level of precipitation all along the western coast of the United States.

However, a warmer ocean alone would not cause an ice age as we would also need somewhat warmer winters in polar latitudes to allow for more snowfall and intense weather patterns to transport the evaporated moisture from the ocean to the continents. And then we need colder summers to allow the snow to accumulate over the years. Everyone agrees that these conditions would cause an ice age, but uniformitarian ideas can't allow the earth's systems to change that much and they certainly will never admit to a global flood, that would be too Biblical for them. Many creationists think the Flood of Noah's day would initiate such weather patterns.

The pre-Flood world had been uniformly warmer and as the "fountains of the great deep opened" up (Genesis 7:11), enormous amounts of lava would have flowed into the oceans due to the tectonic readjustments during and after the flood, contributing to the rise in ocean temperature. As the Flood ended, the ocean remained warmer than it is today. This warmth would be a continual pump of warm moisture into the atmosphere, thus warm, wet winters.

Furthermore, the land surface at the end of the Flood was little more than a mud slick, and would have reflected solar radiation without absorbing much heat. The large temperature difference between ocean and land and coupled with strong polar cooling, would cause intense and prolonged storms.

Finally, the late and early post-Flood times witnessed extensive volcanism, as the earth struggled to regain crustal equilibrium. This would cloud the atmosphere, bouncing incoming solar radiation (the suns rays) back into space, thus, colder summers.

More evaporation, warmer winters, more intense storms, and colder summers: The result? An "ice age" which would last until the oceans gave up their excess heat, the volcanism lessened, and vegetation was re-established. This likely would take less than 700 years following the Biblical Flood.

When we study the book of Job, who incidentally lived right after the flood and during the time of the ice age, we find many references to the snow and ice up in the north.

Job 6:16 "Which are blackish by reason of the ice, and wherein the snow is hid."

9:30 "If I wash myself with snow-water, and make my hands never so clean;"

24:19 "Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the grave those which have sinned."

37:6, 9 "For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength." "Out of the south cometh the whirlwind; and cold out of the north."

38: 22, 29-30 "Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? Or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail," "Out of whose womb came the ice? And the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it? The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.

God, Job, and Job's friends repeatedly make reference to the frozen areas of the north. It is quite evident this area of snow and ice was massive enough that Job knew of it.