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In Noah's Ark myth God sent 40 days of rain to flood the Earth. Are any such long periods of persistent rain recorded? What kind of disaster could happen to cover all continents with water?

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Or at least one whole continent? – Egle Mar 24 '11 at 16:24
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I suggest changing the title to "Could a Great Flood of happened?", flood myths are common among many religions. – rjstelling Mar 24 '11 at 16:27
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@rjstelling: for example there is an earlier myth in the Saga of Gilgameš – Sklivvz♦ Mar 24 '11 at 16:44
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If it were to happen today:John Cusack would lead the survivors to live with Santa Claus at the North Pole, since the polar ice floats and would therefore continue to rise, no matter how long it rains. I mean it's not technically a continent, but unless it melts, it ain't flooding. That is unless this god warms things up enough to melt them. Wait a minute, Uh oh........... – Monkey Tuesday Mar 29 '11 at 9:04
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Relevant question: If the earth were flat how deep would the water covering it be? – JoeHobbit Oct 14 '11 at 6:02
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4 Answers

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The talk.origins archive documents an extensive list of claims about the flood. It also includes sections discussing the Ark and the various problems that aspect of story has. There's also a separate article dedicated to the flood.

Are any such long periods of persistent rain recorded?

I don't know about persistent rain, but Seattle has had 30 days of measurable rainfall twice in the past 60 years. It isn't unreasonable to believe that other locations could have had a longer, more aggressive chain of storms, and it's also not unreasonable to expect that there'd be problems with local waterways flooding as a result.

What kind of disaster could happen to cover all continents with water?

There are a few frequently suggested sources of the water. They all fail simple tests. If there was supernatural involvement, we'd also expect to see global evidence of a great flood, but this is absent.

The most logical explanation given the lack of evidence is that the story is mythical.

As @Sklivvz posted in the comments the flood story probably originates from part of the Epic of Gilgamesh which follows the same general plot. The resident deity is upset with humanity and selects one righteous man to be saved. Instructions are given to build a large boat to save all of the animals and the man's family. It rained, though only for six days. Birds are sent out, one doesn't come back, a mountain is found, a sacrifice is made, the resident deity is pleased / remorseful and promises not to do that again.

The talk.origins site hasn't been updated in a while. There was some evidence uncovered somewhat recently that suggested that the myth may have originated when the Black Sea grew rapidly after an influx of water from the Mediterranean in ~5600 BCE. In 2009, National Geographic published a follow-up that suggested the growth in the Black Sea was not as catastrophic as first thought, and might not really be the origin of the myth.

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The Gilgamesh myth is probably the most well known origin of the biblical myth. One "CYA" attempt by bible literalists is to point out that nearly all mythologies have a flood myth or story of one sort or another. The fact that most human cultures live near seas, rivers, and other bodies of water seems to escape them... – Larian LeQuella♦ Mar 25 '11 at 1:38
Yep. Arizona and Colorado flood a lot. – mmyers Mar 25 '11 at 13:32
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I should have said "traditionally". And if you look at those two locations, there are actually quite a few flash floods. Having lived in both locations, those things are not to be laughed at. – Larian LeQuella♦ Mar 25 '11 at 14:13
up vote 13 down vote

Given the time this was written, how would anyone know that all the continents were flooded? Let's just assume that the World was flooded, and that the World was considerably smaller. Horizon-to-horizon flooding happens, and if that's all you can see, that means the whole World's flooded.

Although unrelated, the same applies to pairs of "every single animal". This could well be just goats, sheep, chickens and dogs.

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up vote 7 down vote

I observe 4 questions here:

  • Could a Great Flood have happened?
  • Are 40-day-periods of rain recorded?
  • What kind of disaster could happen to cover all continents with water?
  • Can the Noah's Ark myth be correct? (implicit)

Answers:

  1. The smaller your universe is, the bigger a flood is. If you don't know that Africa, Europe, Asia, America and Antarctic exist, it's impossible to know that the whole earth is covered.
  2. I'm sure so; see Charles about Seattle. Investigate weather stations in regions of rain periods.
  3. To cover Himalaya, Alpen, Anden, Appalachen, Rocky Mountains and so on: Not enogh water. But from rain apart, tsunamis, smelting ice, river outbreaks (rain elsewhere) cause dramatique floods.
  4. If you know 500 species, most of them small, you can imagine them to fit into a big ship. Today, we know how many different animals there are, and that you need much bigger groups, to have enough genetic diversity to let one survive. But of cause predators need other animals as meal as well. To put all of them, and enough food on a ship, the ship would need to be multiple times the size of the Maracana stadium. So it's just a story.
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1 and 3 are kind of same thing. And I never asked 4. Used Noah's Ark just as example (and as answers show - not best one). Other than that - good answer :) – Egle Mar 25 '11 at 7:54
Shouldn't Great Flood, with capitals, be spelled great flood then? I'm sorry - while in many aspects my own English is pretty poor, I allow myself to give hints ... . – user unknown Mar 25 '11 at 8:04
I noted the same thing: many questions, of which #2 seems quite unrelated to others IMO. – dancek Mar 25 '11 at 9:31
up vote 6 down vote

A point often missed about the Noah myth is that it doesn't claim the flooding was all due to rain. It says "the fountains of the deep were opened". Still, this CYA attempt fails, because there isn't enough water on the planet to cover all the land. Even if all the ice on the South Pole melted it would only raise sea level about 60 meters (200 feet).

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And for a people that survive by trade over seas, even a fraction of that 200 feet would mean the utter removal of their entire world. A reasonable thing for some lone primitive family that survived a truly great flood, would be to say it covered the world. – DampeS8N Mar 24 '11 at 17:54
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"There isn't enough water on the planet to cover all the land" -- Sure there is. It only depends on how high the continents are at the time, and we already know that e.g. Mount Everest was once part of an ocean floor. – mmyers Mar 24 '11 at 19:11
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@mmyers, the reason that the Himalayans were part of the ocean floor is because of plate tectonics. NOW there is no way that all the water on the planet could flood even a modest mountain. – Larian LeQuella♦ Mar 25 '11 at 14:14
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That's correct. But who's talking about NOW? – mmyers Mar 30 '11 at 20:08
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The difference between today and the time the Noah myth supposedly happened is, in geological terms, negligible. So Noah still counts as "now". – clgood Mar 30 '11 at 22:34

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