Tambora erupted in 1815 and threw 20 cubic kilometers into the air. IT also
threw 200 megatons of H2SO4 into the stratosphere. This is 10 megatons of
sulfuric acid for each cubic kilometer.
Huaynaputina erupted in 1604 and 1605 and threw up 19.2 cubic kilometers of
ash and rock and 50 megatons of sulfuric acid. This is 2.5 megatons of
acid per cubic kilometer.
Mt. Pinatubo in 1991 threw 10 cubic km of rock and 30 megatons into the
atmsophere. This is 3 megatons of acid per cubic kilometer.
We will not use an average but we will use the lower value of 2.5 megatons
of acid per cubic kilometer as the value for the following.
There are huge lava flows on earth which must have occurred during the
flood year because they lie on top of supposed flood deposited sedimentary
rock and beneath flood deposited sedimentary rock. Here are some of the
volumes of rock extruded to the earth's surface during such episodes:
Volcanics flood basalt flows
Ontong Java/Nauru 121-124 my 38-55 x 10^6 km^3
Kerguelen Plateau/
Broken Ridge 114-109.5 my 15-25 x 10^6 km^3
North Atlantic 57.5-54.5 my 6.6 x 10^6 km^3
Deccan Traps 65-69 my 8.2 x 10^6 km^3
Columbia River 6-17.5 my 1.74 x 10^5 km
Millard F. Coffin Olav Eldholm "Scratching the Surface: Estimating
Dimentions of Large Igneous Provinces." Geology, 21:515-18.
Basalt flows Volcanics flood basalt flows
Snake River Plain 16 my-present area .5 x 10^5 km^2
Parana Plateau Brazil 119-149my area 12 x 10^5 km^2
Karoo Basalts 166-206 my area >1.4 x 10^5 km^2
Siberian Platform 248-216 my area >15 x 10^5 km^2
~Paul C. Hess, Origins of Igneous Rocks, (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1989), p. 180
Ethiopian Traps 7.5 x 10^5 km^3 before erosion (estimated by me from the
data of. ~Paul Mohr and Bruno Zanettin, "The Ethiopian Flood Basalt
Province," in J. D. Macdougall (ed.), Continental Flood Basalts, (Kluwer
Academic Publisers, 1988),pp 63-110, p. 63)
All of this adds up to approximately 36 x 10^6 cubic kilometers.
Given a production of sulfuric acid of 2.5 megatons/cubic kilometer of
extruded material gives 90 x 10^6 megatons or 90 x 10^12 tons of sulfuric
acid that must have come out of the earth during that single year. A ton is
1016 kg so this represents 9.1 x 10^16 kg. This is 9.1 x 10^16 kg of acid!
The atmosphere has a mass of around 10^18 kg. This means that 1/100th of
the atmosphere would have been sulfuric acid at the end of the flood. This
level of acidity would destroy Noah and the ark occupants.
So, the next time any of you young-earth creationists state that all the
rocks were deposited in a single year, give a thought to the sulfurica acid
problem.
glenn
Adam, Apes and Anthropology
Foundation, Fall and Flood
& lots of creation/evolution information
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm