(see chapter 15).

Genesis 6–7 is explicit, however, in declaring that all humans and all their animals except those aboard Noah’s ark were wiped out by Noah’s flood. The words “all,” “every,” and “everything” appear more than 40 times in Genesis 6–8. This repetition seems counter to the idea that Noah’s flood impacted only a fraction, rather than the totality, of

Evidence shows that five such cycles have occurred in Earth’s history.

not even the most fleet-footed and fit of humanity’s

None of these melt events would have been sufficiently catastrophic to wipe out all humans and their animals living at that time.

Another ice melt event occurred 8,500 years ago.

The present warm Holocene era began 12,000 years ago. Evidence shows that on several occasions during the previous ice age, huge amounts of continental ice sheets melted. A few of these episodes caused sea levels to rise, in a spatially variable manner, by as much as 100 meters (330 feet) within the time span of just several millennia. Each of

The latest glacial maximum (when glaciers and ice sheets reached their largest extent) ended a mere 18,000 years ago. Interglacial temperate conditions began 16,000–15,000 years ago.

Ice Age Floods Since the beginning of the human era, the most dramatic flooding of Earth would have occurred during the last ice age, which lasted from 120,000 to 12,000 years ago.