Where Did All the Water Go?

Psalms 104:8
“They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them.”

“There can’t possibly have been a worldwide Flood. Where would all the water have gone after the Flood?” This is a common objection to belief in the biblical account of the Flood of Noah’s time. Did the water drain away, or evaporate?

This misconception is because our society is very Western-centered. As a child, growing up in Britain, all pictures of the Earth would have London at their center. This is, after all, where the 0º longitude line is! In America, most similar images would show the United States at the center. But what if we center our image on the Pacific Ocean? Then we will see a hemisphere almost entirely made up of ocean. This reminds us that nearly three quarters of the Earth’s surface is water. What if all the existing water on the Earth could be spread out? French diver and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau used to say:

Were the crust of earth to be leveled—with great mountain ranges like the Himalayas and ocean abysses like the Mariana Trench evened out—no land at all would show above the surface of the sea. Earth would be covered by a uniform sheet of water—more than 10,000 feet deep!

This agrees with what the Bible says in Psalm 104:8.

The mountains rose, the valleys [or deeps] sank down to the place that you appointed for them.

The rising of the mountains and the lowering of the ocean deeps, at the end of the Flood, easily explains where all the floodwater went. It didn’t go anywhere. It is all still on planet Earth.

Prayer: We worship You, Lord, the King enthroned above the Flood; enthroned as King forever. May You give strength to Your people, and may You bless Your people with peace. Amen.

Author: Paul F. Taylor
Ref: Mortenson, T. (2009), Psalm 104:6-9—the Flood or Day Three of Creation Week?, , accessed 6/12/2017