1

. This Hebrew word for “deep” is tehom, which according to the 1973 Strong’s Concordance, means “a surging mass of water, especially from the main sea or the subterranean water supply.” [Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (New York: Abingdon Press, 1973), Hebrew Word 8415]

2

. Psalm 104:1–4 is a celebration of the first and second creation days. [See C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes, Vol. 5 (reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1980), p. 128.]

3

. See page 369.

4

. The same Hebrew word, baqa ((qapf), is used for “burst open” and “broken up” in Genesis 7:11 and Proverbs 3:20, respectively. Baqa describes a violent and complete splitting, sometimes of the earth’s crust (Numbers 16:31, Micah 1:4, Zechariah 14:4). Isaiah 34:15 and 59:5 use baqa to describe the breaking of an egg shell by internal pressure as a baby bird exits. This aptly describes events of the hydroplate theory—the globe encircling rupture (splitting) of the earth’s crust by internal pressure.  [See Figures 40 and 55 on pages 101 and 116.]

5

. The “floodgate terminology” shows that the water fell in a violent and concentrated manner. Imagine the overwhelming force you would feel if you stood under floodgates that suddenly opened—floodgates that had 40 days’ worth of water behind them.  The word for violent rain, M#e$g@E (transliterated geshem), was used instead of the word for normal rain. Geshem rain is sometimes accompanied by high winds and huge hailstones that can destroy mortared walls (Ezekiel 13:11–13). Normal rain (matar rain) is formed by condensation, a relatively slow process, because heat must be transferred away from condensing droplets.  Rain formed by condensation does not correspond to the dramatic release of power suggested by the “floodgate terminology” and the bursting forth of water in Genesis 7:11.

The Hebrew word for “floodgates” is arubbah (hpfru)j).  In Isaiah 24:18, its opening was associated with the shaking of the foundations of the earth (as in the hydroplate theory). In Malachi 3:10, II Kings 7:2, and 7:19, arubbah describes an almost miraculous opening of the sky. In Hosea 13:3, it means chimney and describes smoke pouring from a chimney, much like muddy water jetted into the sky in the hydroplate theory.

6

. These events—the bursting open of the fountains of the great deep, opening of the floodgates of the sky, and falling rain—are in the cause-and-effect order of the hydroplate theory.  This is also true in Genesis 8:2 and Proverbs 3:20.

7

. This insight was brought to my attention by Don J. McIlrath on 23 January 2002.

8

. After 40 days and 40 nights, “geshem rain” stopped. However, the flood water rose until the 150th day when it covered all preflood mountains, and the floodgates were closed (Genesis 8:2). The hydroplate theory helps us understand this. After 40 days, the layer of water rising on the earth blanketed and suppressed the high jetting of the fountains of the great deep. Nevertheless, high-pressure subterranean water continued to gush out and add to the rising flood water until the 150th day. On that day, the fountains were closed (Genesis 8:2) by the settling hydroplates pinching shut the outward flowing water.

9

. The Hebrew word gabar is usually translated in this verse as “prevailed.” It carries the idea of a mighty opposition of forces, in which one force overwhelms (or prevails over) another.  It is as if the flood waters were fighting to overcome forces that would have drained the water from the earth. As described on pages 104–135, it was the high-pressure, jetting action that drove subterranean water up onto the earth’s surface. As long as those forces acted, the flood waters “prevailed” over the gravitational forces that would have drained the water back into the deep, ruptured, and eroded zone. On the 150th day, as the hydroplates settled onto the floor of the subterranean chamber, that “prevailing” ceased. The flood waters then began to drain into deep basins, such as the newly opened Atlantic.

10

. God promised never to send another global flood (Genesis 9:15). Psalm 104:6b–9 tells why water would “not return to cover the earth.” The mountains rose, and the valleys sank down, so a boundary was set for the water.

The hydroplate theory provides further understanding. During the compression event, continents were crushed and thickened; mountains buckled up. Water drained into the low spots as the land rose out of the water. Imagine the violent sounds, or “the sound of Thy thunder,” during the compression event. After the hydroplates settled onto the floor of the subterranean chamber, water could no longer be forced up onto the continents. In this way, surface water was contained in basins—“ a boundary that they may not pass over; that they may not return to cover the earth.” It is now clear why there will never be another global flood.

After the flood, some water remained (1) between the irregularities in the chamber floor and the settling hydroplates, and (2) in cracks in the crushed hydroplates. This trapped water seems to explain mysteries associated with shallow earthquakes, salt water under the Tibetan Plateau, and why deep drilling has intersected “hot flowing water” that is too deep to have seeped down from the earth’s surface.  [See pages 108 and 120.] Exodus 20:4 may refer to this water.