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This paper describes a numerical model for investigating the large-scale erosion, transport, and sedimentation processes associated with the Genesis Flood. The model assumes that the dominant means for sediment transport during the Flood was by rapidly flowing turbulent water. Water motion is driven by large-amplitude tsunamis generated in subduction zones as the subducting plate and overriding plate, having been locked for an interval of time, suddenly release and slip rapidly past one another. While the two adjacent plates are locked, the sea bottom is dragged downward by the steadily sinking lithospheric slab beneath. When the plates unlock, the sea bottom rapidly rebounds, generating a large-amplitude tsunami. Theory for open-channel turbulent flow is applied to model the suspension, transport, and deposition of sediment. Cavitation is assumed to be the dominant mechanism responsible for erosion of bedrock as well as of already deposited sediment. The model treats the water on the surface of the rotating earth in terms of a single vertical layer but with variable bottom height. Illustrative calculations show that with plausible parameter choices average erosion and sedimentation rates on the order of 12 m/day (0.5 m/hr) occur, sufficient within a 150-day interval during the Flood to account for the approximately 1800 m (5905 ft) average thickness of Phanerozoic sediments that blanket the earth’s continental surface today. A remarkable discovery from these calculations is that the tsunamis impinging upon the continental coastlines produce a piling up of water over the continental interiors. Until equilibrium is reached, more water is carried onto the continental surface by the tsunamis than can drain away by gravity. In the illustrative examples, the sustained water levels above the continent in places rise to more than a kilometer above the original sea level. Such deep water above the continent allows for large thicknesses of sediment to accumulate on top of the continent surface above the mean global sea level. Although the most intense erosion of continental bedrock occurs along the continental margin, significant portions of the continental interior also suffer significant erosion, plausibly accounting for today’s continental shields.
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