If God flooded all of the earth with salt water how do we have spring and fresh water now?

Question

What i am saying if there was a great flood and it rained for 40 days and 40 nights the water from the oceans rose and caused all of the earth to be completly flooded by salt water right? So how is it that we have fresh water lakes and spring water lakes and river, how come they are not salt water mass?

Answer 1

God didn't make the sea salty!

The ocean—the seas—are made up of 96.5 percent pure water. The remaining 3.5 percent is made up of 75 other elements. Six elements are responsible for 99 percent of the sea's saltiness. They are: chloride, sodium, sulfur, magnesium, calcium, and potassium. Most of the saltiness comes from the compound sodium chloride (ordinary table salt).
Where do the elements come from? The wearing away of rocks on land. As rock erodes, rivers carry the salts and other minerals to the ocean. Volcanoes and undersea springs also release salts to the ocean.

• Some parts of the ocean are saltier than others. Hudson Bay has lower levels because of fresh water entering the ocean from lots of rivers and melting ice.

Answer 2

To this question, I have to answer that evaopration and precipitation could hypothetically have cleaned the inland lakes and rivers, because rain doesn't have salt in it (the salt doesn't evaoprate). Incidentally, some palces use this property to desalinize (de-salt) ocean water to get fresh water where fresh water is scarce.

However, I'm still not convinced the flood happened exactly as written - it was supposed to kill all animals except those on the ark (and I suppose sea-dwellers) but now there are millions of species, and if you also don't believe in evolution, then how did Noah fit so many millions of species on the ark?

So I don't think the saltwater challenge makes the flood story invalid, however there are a few questions left to answer.

Answer 3

OK, not that I'm saying you are right for one moment, please, but even were we to assume that you were . . .

First -- rain is *fresh* water, so 40 days and 40 nights of *fresh* water would cause a lot of *fresh* water flooding. Rivers and streams and lakes would rise along with oceans, but they would not vanish. Lots of the water for springs, rivers and such is held in underground aquifers and would remain safely there until the waters receded. (Please note, still don't think you can cover the earth with 40 days & 40 nights of water, but hey, this is your scenario, right?)

Second -- glaciers are *fresh* water and they would still be around too and melting and adding back fresh water.

Third -- and most important. Creation of *fresh* water is an on-going process. (Wikipedia: The water cycle — technically known as the hydrologic cycle — is the continuous circulation of water within the Earth's hydrosphere, and is driven by solar radiation. This includes the atmosphere, land, surface water and groundwater. As water moves through the cycle, it changes state between liquid, solid, and gas phases. Water moves from compartment to compartment, such as from river to ocean, by the physical processes of evaporation, precipitation, infiltration, runoff, and subsurface flow. Movement of water within the water cycle is the subject of the field of hydrology.) So, the evaporation of the ocean that you say was flooding the earth would simply start the fresh water cycle all over again and replenish the lakes and rivers, etc.

Answer 4

Because the amount of rain that it would take to flood the Earth is like 10 times the amount of water in the oceans. Since rain is fresh water, it would have turned all bodies of water into mostly fresh water (very low salinity levels).

If so, how did all the salt water fish survive in mostly fresh water?

Answer 5

Since when has rain turned to salt water? Because of the rain, the waters rose, And before the flood, the earth was not quite the same as we know it now.

Answer 6

Hmmm I believe it rained but the rain wasn't salt water. But to cover the whole earth you would get brackish water (weak salt water) and over time the salt would leech into the ground, or find salt flats like in Utah. When the water receded the source of fresh waters prior to the flood would continue to move the salt water in rivers probably into the ocean. But who really knows its all speculation.

Answer 7

I agree with the "never happened" theory. And chistopher, fine, but then why do we have salt water? And seraph, yeah, that would happen, but how could animals that depend on fresh water live until it did? See? There are animals that depend on salt water, and ones that depend on fresh water. Whichever the flood was, the other set of animals should be dead. It doesn't make sense. But then again, this is religion. They didn't know as much about how the world really worked, then, and tried to explain it. Badly. But hey, they tried. Admirable, but it's time to let it go and find the real answers.

Edit: I know your veiwpoint, Seraph ;) I just see it and I can't help myself, you understand.

Answer 8

God sent His legions of angels down to earth and each one picked up a grain of salt from the rivers and lakes and took it back to heaven. God was pleased because now he had enough salt to last a long time and the price of salt at that time was quite high. The angels were split into teams and put the salt into salt shakers to get heaven tidy because they were expecting guests and a lot of salt lying around the place wouldn't make a good impression. Everybody arriving at heaven (and this is still true today) gets a free salt shaker brim full of salt. It makes you proud to be a Christian, doesn't it!

Answer 9

whoever said it was salt water?

the oceans are salty, but the evapoprated water itself is not.

if you want to find the surplus fresh water, look at the glaciers and snow that cover parts of the earth.

the japanese harvest icebergs and sell it as is. some of the cleanest and freshest water on this earth.

besides, as the water runs through rivers and lakes, it's sediment is the hard minerals (salt and others). these sink to the bottom and do end up in fresh water areas.

you can see this effect by watching muddy water flow in a rivine, eventually it will become clearer and clearer.

-eagle

Answer 10

Yes, I know. It's pretty odd and I often wonder why and how does it work. I am no scientist. God is everything.

But did you know that salt water help heal small bleed wound? For some reasons, I think one other thing about salt water that helps us to be healed. While fresh water just for us to bath in it and or drink from spring waters.


Good question.