Daily Devotional – October 30

Geology

This headline caught my attention: “Gorge Rapidly Carved in Hard Granite Bedrock.” Using archived images and survey data of a Spanish dam built in the 1930s, Plymouth University researchers found that five small floods gouged a deep gorge through solid granite in less than six years.

Five times over a period of six years, water needed to be diverted into an overspill channel, and this spillway water carved out a gorge 880 feet long, 520 feet wide and 330 feet deep. One of the researchers studying the formation of this gorge noted that if someone saw this gorge today, he would say that erosion had taken place over a long period of time due to the effect of flowing water. Yet, the gorge was formed in only six years as a result of relatively small floods. Exceptional amounts of erosion can be caused by unexceptional flooding! Now, imagine the erosion that took place during the final stages of the Flood of Noah’s day; as the continents were being lifted, waters rushed across millions of square miles of recently deposited land sediments - eroding massive areas and carving out canyons and river valleys. It doesn’t take millions of years to form canyons and river valleys; it can happen quickly.

In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.

~ Psalm 95:4

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

References for this devotional.