Floodology

Hi Friends!

I have always had an interest in the Biblical Flood. The point of this little overview is not to establish whether it happened or not. In mind, each story deserves existence, if it bears no internal contradiction. My purpose is, assuming it did happen, to establish how it happened.

Let’s start with animals.

Genesis 7

Clean are those with split hooves: cow, sheep, goat, deer, and gazelle, etc. This includes 100 species of the deer family, 170 of bovid family and let’s say another 30 species of others. Altogether 300 animals x 7x2 = 4200 animals.

Then birds, which is around 10,000 x 7 x 2 = 140,000 animals.

Now not clean animals are all the rest of herbivores like Elephant, Rhino, Giraffe, Horse, Hippo, etc. Then carnivores like tigers, lions, leopards, hyenas, wolves, etc. and omnivore animals like bear and pig. Of course, all these animals have subspecies.

Elephants

Tigers

And so on… seven sub-specials of a lion, four subspecies of leopard, three subspecies of a jaguar, and six subspecies of a puma. The list goes on and on…

Which lucky couple won the tickets to Noah ark? Or did Noah accommodate all the subspecies? He must have. Or else...where would they come from? Five thousand years is too short of a time for evolving subspecies.

Some animals are more peaceful like maybe rabbits, squirrels, and some antelopes so Noah could probably get away with putting several of them together in the same cage. Yet, most animals are very territorial. Try to put 2 male lions say Asian and Barbary in the same cage. One of them for sure wouldn’t make it through the trip. Thus, as a rule, you’d need a separate partition for every couple of animals.

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Altogether, we have around 6 million species of land animals. With subspecies, it would be at least 10 times more. But many of them are tiny: flies, beetles, scorpions. So instead of multiplying this number by ten let’s divide it in half. This should filter out by size. Then, if we allocate 1 cubic foot for each animal we would need 3 million cubic feet. Woops. That’s more than the volume of the entire Ark was.

The Ark dimensions were specified in Genesis 6:15

Cubit - an ancient measure of length, approximately equal to the length of a forearm. It was typically about 18 inches or 44 cm, though there was a long cubit of about 21 inches or 52 cm.

Thus 300 cubits x 50cubits x 30 cubits or 6,300 in x 1,050 x 630 in or 525 ft x 87.5ft x 52.5 ft the total space = 2,411,718.75 cubic feet

Not very accommodating, indeed. And what about the food storage: grains and seeds for birds, hay for herbivores and meat for carnivores?

An average tiger, for example, eats 25lb of meat per day. We have 6 males and six females, which makes it 12x25=300lb per day. Just to recall, animals were on the Ark for 376 days. In order to feed the tigers, Nova had to have 300lb * 376 days = 112,800 lb of meat. A bull weighs 2,400 lb. Thus, in order to feed only tigers, Arc had to have 47 bulls. Make it 50lb because some weight is carried in bones.

What about seven sub-specials of a lion, four subspecies of leopard, three subspecies of jaguar, and six subspecies of a puma? That’s (7+4+3+6) x 2=40 animals Let’s say each eats 15lb per day on average. That’s 40x15*376 = 225,600 days Now divide of 2,400 = 94 bulls.

There are, of course, tons of other smaller carnivores: cats, dogs, mustelids, and other small carnivorous. We are looking at a huge herd of a thousand heads. Each such animal consumes around 30lb of dry food per day. So we are looking at 30x1000x376=11,280,000lb of hay just to support the food stock for canines.

What about all other large herbivores? Two subspecies of elephants, five of rhinos, five of hippopotamus and then all those endless deer and, antelopes, buffalos, bison.

That’s dry food. How about fresh water? How much would this huge herd drink? Where would Noah keep that much water?

Finally, who would slaughter the animals, chop them to pieces and distribute the food between caged carnivores? Would it be Noah himself, or would he delegate the duty to his sons and their wives? Because considering the number of animals requiring food and drink they would have to devote to it their entire day.

I can only imagine what a health-hazard this work would be. The smell of rotten corpses, feces of animals. I used to work in a microbiological lab with white mice, and let me tell you, they were able to stink up the place, despite periodic cleaning. Ark hasn’t been cleaned for over a year!

I can only imagine what a health-hazard this work was. All these animals produced enough fecal matter to stick up the entire forest let alone a ship. I used to work in a microbiological lab with white mice and let me tell you they were able to stink up the place, despite periodic cleaning. Ark hasn’t been cleaned for over a year!

I have no questions about local Mesopotamia fauna. While Noah was building the Ark for over seventy years, his team had the time to roam around and somehow get them to the Ark.

But let’s say an African Lion, Indian elephant, Siberian tiger or Polar bear. Why would they be wandering thousands of miles from their native habitat?

Surely, God could compel walruses, seals, and penguins to swim oceans and then crawl through deserts to the Ark. However, what about all the marsupials in Australia? Could kangaroo just hop their way through the Indian Ocean while astringes flew?

Wouldn’t it be easier for God just to flick his fingers and zero out the population, rather than go through all these troubles?

First, it is important to establish the correct sequence of events. All further numbered lines from Genesis.

7.11	In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
7.18	And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.
7.19	And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.
7.20	Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
7.24	And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.
8.2	The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;
8.3	And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.
8.4	And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
8.5	And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.
8.7	And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.
8.8	Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;
8.9	But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.
8.10	And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;
8.11	And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouthwas an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.
8.13	And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the firstmonth, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.
8.14	And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.
8.18	And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him:
8.19	Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.

To summarise...

• Noah was the tenth generation in a straight line from Adam and was born in 1056 from the creation of the world. (See appendix in the end)
• The events of the Flood unfolded in the 600th year of his life. That is…
• The flood began on February 17, 1656 (all the dates here are assumed from the creation of the World) and the rain poured 150 days.
• The ark stopped at Mount Ararat on July 17, 1656 (just after 150 days)
• Top of the mountains appeared on October 1, 1656
• The release of the crow and dove implemented on November 10, 1656
• The release of the second pigeon implemented on November 17, 1656
• The water dried up on January 1, 1657 The earth dried up on February 27, 1657 In total, Noah was in the Ark a year 375 or 376 days.

To what level did the water rise?

That's an interesting question. On one hand...

If that means that all the mountains on Earth were covered that the water level must have been over 8848 meters, which is the height of the Mount Everest.

On the other hand… from 8.4

Considering that the 7th day of the 7th month was exactly 150 days since the beginning of the flood, it is the exact date when the rain stopped.

But wait… Ararat (5165m) is much lower than Everest. So, at this historical moment, either Ararat was covered for a good 3 kilometers with water in which case how could the Ark rest at it? Or if the Ark did rest at Ararat, the water did NOT rise above the level of "all the mountains." Indeed, there are many other mountains above Ararat. It must mean that that the hills (or mountain) mentioned in 7.19 are specific mountains not all on the entire Earth.

Think about it, the events described in Flood were written a couple of thousands of years later. How could the narrator know whether “all the mountains” if even at that time life was concentered mostly in the Middle East and the narrator had no idea about the existence of America or Australia.

There must be some high hills near the place where Noah lived. Where did he live? Well, probably not far from the place where his ancestor Adam was expelled. The confluence of the Euphrates, Tiger, and Kura. That is, in the area between modern Iraq and Turkey. Pretty close from Mount Ararat.

Let’s recall that by July 17, 1656, the “tops of the mountains” were covered with water for 15 cubits. (7.5m) Then by October 1, 1656, the tops of the mountains appeared again. This means that during this time - 106 days, the water has dropped by 7.5 meters. Having made the assumption that the rate of decrease in water was the same throughout the decline in its level, and the fact that the water dried out on January 1, 1657, that is, in another 92 days, the water went down even approximately (15 x 92) / 106 = 13 cubits or 6.50 meters. (See appendix for more precise calculations)

Thus, the maximum height of the water during the flood could have reached 28 cubits or 14 meters. That is - the height of a five-story building. Indeed, many hills could disappear under this stratum, and many ancient cities could have been flooded. Conversely, neither Cheekha Dar mountain (the highest point of Iraq is 3,611 m) nor Mount Ararat (the highest point of Turkey is 5165 m) were not under the water.

I think that all Earth’s millions of animals could not be collected in the Ark, placed on it, fed, or served. Noah collected only those who were in around. There was no elephants, rhinos, let alone polar bears, penguins, and kangaroos. Many animals could have migrated to highlands. Besides, again, it was most likely a local flood.

Apendix

Noah Ancestry

From Genesis

Nova was born in 1056 year since the creation of the World

Calculations of the mountain height

The volume of the Earth sphere is

Twhere Re is the Earth radius = 6371km

Let's designate that the unknown height of the water was h1 (see the picture above)

Then the volume of the water, which decreased in 92 days, could be expressed by the following formula:

At the same time, the volume of the water which decreased in 106 days (here we know the height of water of 7.5 m) could be expressed by the following formula:

Assuming that water descended with the same speed, we can conclude that

or

To solve this algebraically is long and cumbersome, however, it is much easier to solve programmatically. This is how easy it is done in c#

The answer is approximately 6.5 meters