This section will explore answers to the following questions ...
• Was There an Ice Age?
• What caused the Ice Age?
• When Was the Ice Age in Biblical History?
• Where can I learn more about the Ice Age?
• Was There an Ice Age?
• Was There an Ice Age?
• What caused the Ice Age?
• When Was the Ice Age in Biblical History?
• Where can I learn more about the Ice Age?
• Was There an Ice Age?
Yes, there is strong geological evidence of an ice age. Today, receding glaciers often leave behind recognizable geological features such as drumlins (elongated ridges) and moraines (rock debris carved and then deposited either along the side or at the end of a melting, moving glacier). Since these features are also found in lower latitudes than today’s ice sheets and glaciers, it is clear that both the northern and southern hemisphere ice sheets extended to lower latitudes than they do today and have since melted. Secular scientists have dozens of theories to explain ice ages, but they all have serious problems. The Bible, on the other hand, suggests a plausible mechanism for explaining a relatively recent ice age that began shortly after the Flood about 4,300 years ago and may have only lasted for several centuries.
Surprisingly, the Ice Age actually required large amounts of heat, which this mechanism provides. One can use the acrostic H-E-A-T to remember its key points.
H-ot Oceans. During the Genesis Flood, hot, molten material from Earth’s interior, possibly including much warmer waters from the “fountains of the great deep” (Genesis 7:11), volcanism, and friction from plate tectonics, would have significantly warmed the world’s oceans, perhaps by tens of degrees Celsius.
E-vaporation. Warmer oceans would have resulted in greatly elevated evaporation. This would have increased the amount of moisture in the atmosphere, ultimately resulting in much greater snowfall over the relatively cool continents in the mid- and high-latitude regions.
A-erosols. The enormous amounts of volcanic activity that occurred toward the end of the Flood and afterward would have ejected an enormous volume of tiny particles called aerosols into the atmosphere. These aerosols would have reflected significant amounts of sunlight away from Earth’s surface, resulting in cooler summers over the continents. Thus, winter snow and ice would not completely melt, even during the warmest months. Ice sheets would grow as more snow and ice accumulated during subsequent winters.
T-ime. Explosive volcanic eruptions can result in noticeable cooling over the continents, and both creation and evolution scientists agree that many enormous volcanic eruptions have occurred in the past. Creation scientists believe many of these eruptions occurred toward the end of the Flood and for many years afterward as Earth slowly returned to equilibrium after the Flood cataclysm. As noted above, aerosols from explosive volcanic eruptions are a potent cooling mechanism for keeping developing ice sheets from melting.
However, because secular scientists hold that millions of years separated each volcanic eruption from the next, they cannot use this mechanism to account for an ice age. Thus, the Bible’s short timescale is critical in explaining the Ice Age. Yes, extensive geological evidence demands that high-latitude ice sheets did once extend to much lower latitudes than they do today.
(Source: Was There an Ice Age? ICR, Jake Hebert, Ph.D., http://www.icr.org/article/was-there-ice-age)
• What caused the Ice Age?
Surprisingly, the Ice Age actually required large amounts of heat, which this mechanism provides. One can use the acrostic H-E-A-T to remember its key points.
H-ot Oceans. During the Genesis Flood, hot, molten material from Earth’s interior, possibly including much warmer waters from the “fountains of the great deep” (Genesis 7:11), volcanism, and friction from plate tectonics, would have significantly warmed the world’s oceans, perhaps by tens of degrees Celsius.
E-vaporation. Warmer oceans would have resulted in greatly elevated evaporation. This would have increased the amount of moisture in the atmosphere, ultimately resulting in much greater snowfall over the relatively cool continents in the mid- and high-latitude regions.
A-erosols. The enormous amounts of volcanic activity that occurred toward the end of the Flood and afterward would have ejected an enormous volume of tiny particles called aerosols into the atmosphere. These aerosols would have reflected significant amounts of sunlight away from Earth’s surface, resulting in cooler summers over the continents. Thus, winter snow and ice would not completely melt, even during the warmest months. Ice sheets would grow as more snow and ice accumulated during subsequent winters.
T-ime. Explosive volcanic eruptions can result in noticeable cooling over the continents, and both creation and evolution scientists agree that many enormous volcanic eruptions have occurred in the past. Creation scientists believe many of these eruptions occurred toward the end of the Flood and for many years afterward as Earth slowly returned to equilibrium after the Flood cataclysm. As noted above, aerosols from explosive volcanic eruptions are a potent cooling mechanism for keeping developing ice sheets from melting.
However, because secular scientists hold that millions of years separated each volcanic eruption from the next, they cannot use this mechanism to account for an ice age. Thus, the Bible’s short timescale is critical in explaining the Ice Age. Yes, extensive geological evidence demands that high-latitude ice sheets did once extend to much lower latitudes than they do today.
(Source: Was There an Ice Age? ICR, Jake Hebert, Ph.D., http://www.icr.org/article/was-there-ice-age)
• What caused the Ice Age?
The Ice Age has been a longstanding problem for uniformitarian thinking, with many unsolved mysteries. No mere tweaking of today’s climate conditions would cause such a catastrophe. A creationist model based on the revealed events of Scripture, however, offers a possible answer. The great Flood of Noah's day accomplished a complete reworking of earth's surface and an alteration of all its hydrologic and meteorlogic systems. The Ice Age likely occurred soon after the Flood, perhaps in the days of Job, for references to ice and snow abound in his book (see, for example, Job 38:29). Job didn’t live in a glaciated area, but he evidently knew about icy conditions farther north. The key to the Ice Age was temperature - not cold, but warm. Ice comes from snow, and snow from moisture in the air, which in turn comes through evaporation, which comes from warm water. The Flood oceans were quite warm due to the introduction of huge volumes of superheated water from the “fountains of the great deep” (Genesis 7:11) and frictional heating by shifting continents, etc. Warmer water evaporates much more rapidly than cold. The immediate post-Flood time was marked by frequent major storms fed by excessive evaporation. Polar ice caps built up as water vapor condensed and fell as snow. Pressure packed it into ice, which spread as glaciers. The earth was not completely frozen, but the polar ice caps were much larger then. Large-scale volcanism in the Flood’s latter stages clouded the atmosphere with volcanic dust, reflecting solar radiation back into space. This prohibited snow and ice from melting. The Ice Age commenced and continued until the oceans gave up their excess heat and the atmosphere cleared. Water trapped as ice on the continents lowered the sea level by an estimated four to six hundred feet, no doubt exposing the continental shelves. During the Ice Age, all the continents were probably connected by land bridges. What happened when the Ice Age ended? The volume of ice returned to liquid form and reentered the ocean, raising sea level and drowning all areas near the ocean. Today, we find numerous remains of civilizations that evidently had been built in coastal areas soon after the Flood. As the great Flood of Noah’s day ended, God instructed the animals and man to multiply and occupy the entire planet. Man’s refusal was overcome at Babel as God enforced migration, graciously working through nature, for at this time the Ice Age connected all the land, facilitating travel. As the globe filled with occupants, the ice melted, dividing the continents and trapping the migrants in place. God made it possible for both animals and man to obey His command.
(Source: The Ice Age - Causes and Consequences, ICR, John D. Morris, Ph.D., http://www.icr.org/article/4788)
• When Was the Ice Age in Biblical History? The Bible doesn’t say, “And then there was an Ice Age.” Yet it does give us the big picture of human history - as well as some critical details - which help us narrow down when the ice built up and then melted away. Editor’s note: Biblical creationists have not reached a consensus on one Ice Age model. Differences between the models have no major bearing on the overall timescale of a straight forward reading of Scriptures, i.e., the Flood of Genesis 6, which occurred roughly 4300 years ago, brought on one major Ice Age that lasted a few hundred years.
(Source: When Was the Ice Age in Biblical History? AIG, Dr. Andrew A. Snelling and Mike Matthews
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/environmental-science/ice-age/when-was-the-ice-age-in-biblical-history)
• Where can I learn more about the Ice Age?
• Video - The Ice Age (2:03)
(Source: http://www.icr.org/content/taf45)
ICR, That's A Fact
• Video - Ice Age and the Flood (1:56)
(Source: http://store.icr.org/The-Ice-Age-and-the-Flood/productinfo/BIAF)
ICR, Dr. Jake Hebert
• Video - Last Ice Age and The Flood (2:49)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjqpy0JHfnk)
All About Creation, Randall Niles
• Video - Ice Age (3:36)
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/kids/videos/ice-age)
AIG, Michael Oard
• Video - The Ice Age and the Bible (28:27)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnaVUESgMsY)
CMI
• Was there an Ice Age? (PDF)
(Source: http://creation.com/images/pdfs/cabook/chapter16.pdf)
CMI
• The Global Flood Explains the Ice Age
(Source: http://www.icr.org/ice-age)
ICR
• What About the Ice Age?
(Source: https://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=9&article=1932)
Apologetics Press, Eric Lyons
• The Ice Age and the Flood (Booklet)
(Source: http://store.icr.org/The-Ice-Age-and-the-Flood/productinfo/BIAF)
ICR, Item Number: BIAF, Institute for Creation Research
P. O. Box 59029, Dallas, Texas 75229, 800-337-0375
• The Ice Age (DVD)
(Source: http://usstore.creation.com/catalog/bible-explains-p-1136.html)
CMI Product Code: 30-9-612, Creation Ministries International
PO Box 350, Powder Springs, GA 30127, (800) 616-1264
(Source: The Ice Age - Causes and Consequences, ICR, John D. Morris, Ph.D., http://www.icr.org/article/4788)
• When Was the Ice Age in Biblical History? The Bible doesn’t say, “And then there was an Ice Age.” Yet it does give us the big picture of human history - as well as some critical details - which help us narrow down when the ice built up and then melted away. Editor’s note: Biblical creationists have not reached a consensus on one Ice Age model. Differences between the models have no major bearing on the overall timescale of a straight forward reading of Scriptures, i.e., the Flood of Genesis 6, which occurred roughly 4300 years ago, brought on one major Ice Age that lasted a few hundred years.
(Source: When Was the Ice Age in Biblical History? AIG, Dr. Andrew A. Snelling and Mike Matthews
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/environmental-science/ice-age/when-was-the-ice-age-in-biblical-history)
• Where can I learn more about the Ice Age?
• Video - The Ice Age (2:03)
(Source: http://www.icr.org/content/taf45)
ICR, That's A Fact
• Video - Ice Age and the Flood (1:56)
(Source: http://store.icr.org/The-Ice-Age-and-the-Flood/productinfo/BIAF)
ICR, Dr. Jake Hebert
• Video - Last Ice Age and The Flood (2:49)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjqpy0JHfnk)
All About Creation, Randall Niles
• Video - Ice Age (3:36)
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/kids/videos/ice-age)
AIG, Michael Oard
• Video - The Ice Age and the Bible (28:27)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnaVUESgMsY)
CMI
• Was there an Ice Age? (PDF)
(Source: http://creation.com/images/pdfs/cabook/chapter16.pdf)
CMI
• The Global Flood Explains the Ice Age
(Source: http://www.icr.org/ice-age)
ICR
• What About the Ice Age?
(Source: https://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=9&article=1932)
Apologetics Press, Eric Lyons
• The Ice Age and the Flood (Booklet)
(Source: http://store.icr.org/The-Ice-Age-and-the-Flood/productinfo/BIAF)
ICR, Item Number: BIAF, Institute for Creation Research
P. O. Box 59029, Dallas, Texas 75229, 800-337-0375
• The Ice Age (DVD)
(Source: http://usstore.creation.com/catalog/bible-explains-p-1136.html)
CMI Product Code: 30-9-612, Creation Ministries International
PO Box 350, Powder Springs, GA 30127, (800) 616-1264