Quran Confirms Recent Geological Discoveries from the Flood Narratives of Noah

TO SUMMARISE:

• For muslims, the Quran confirms science, and not vice versa.

• Watery minerals recently discovered have proven the existence of a distinct vast layer of water deep within the earth’s mantle – in the ‘transition zone’ – that could store the floodwater from the time of Noah

• The Quranic description of the rising floodwater level of the time of Noah is consistent and confirmatory with modern geological descriptions pertaining to the release and upwelling of boiling water from this continuous layer of ringwoodite minerals via seismic actions – as part of the ‘deep water cycle’

• The Quranic description of the falling floodwater level acknowledges the modern geological descriptions of ‘subduction’ and the various phase changes of water as it returns underground – including its bondage with pressurised ‘olivine’

• Old Testament language is vague and impartial regarding the rise and fall of the floodwater in relation to these new-found geological processes

Do you remember hearing the story of ‘Noah and the Flood’ back in school? Did you also have it told with a tone of fantastic imagination and doubt? From the building of the ark, to the enormity of the flood, to the preservation of each species, the flood narrative becomes increasingly mythical with every passing generation. Fortunately for our Jewish and Christian brothers and sisters, the Quran stands firm in maintaining the facts of the event, which it retells several times as history – not a ‘story’, as truth – not a ‘myth’, and from a God complete in knowledge and foresight. Once in a while however, be it through the unearthing of a mummy, or the observed dilation of outer space, we continue to discover traces and signs of Quranic events that renew our reverence of Allah’s power and authority over nature. Leaving aside the beauties of the language and practical lessons to take from the ‘story’ of Noah, let us analysis in this article how Allah has presented an acute understanding of modern geology in His final telling of the flood narrative to humanity.

QURANIC REFERENCES TO THE FLOOD NARRATIVE OF NOAH:

• [Surah Al-A’raf] 7:59-64

• [Surah Yunus] 10:71-73

• [Surah Hud] 11:25-49

• [Surah Al-Mu’minum] 23:23-30

• [Surah Al-Furqan] 25:37

• [Surah Ash-Shu’ara] 26:105-122

• [Surah Al-Ankabut] 29:14-15

• [Surah Al-Qamar] 54:9-16

• [Surah Nuh] 71:1-28

If you read through these verses quickly enough, you might only catch the idea that God simply caused the water level to increase and decrease, brushing over the strange allegories that the ‘oven‘ ‘boiled‘ it, or that the earth ‘swallowed’ it. But God speaks the truth, and if He commanded the water to come up from the ground, and thereby drain back down (and not just for it to evaporate), then maybe it still exists, beneath us. Well, a relevant geologic discovery made recently is best presented here in the headlines of reporters themselves:

Found! Hidden ocean Locked Up Deep in Earth’s Mantle

Live Science [June 12, 2014]

Earth may have underground ‘ocean’ three times that on surface

The Guardian [June 13, 2014]

Rare mineral points to vast ‘oceans’ beneath the Earth

University of Alberta [March 12, 2014]

Conventionally, the earth has been treated as 3 layers – the crust, the mantle, and the core. However, in 2014, the uncovering of a tiny water-locking crystal called ringwoodite has changed that – after having travelled from deep underground, via a Brazilian volcano, to the earth’s surface. This humble discovery by geologist Graham Pearson and his team has finally offered proof that a vast quantity of water exists beneath our feet, around 500km below the earth, between the mantle’s upper part and lower part, called the ‘transition zone.’ “Ringwoodite is like a sponge, soaking up water,” said geophysicist Steve Jacobson, who used readings of seismic activity to predict the existence of this underground oceanic layer before it was discovered. He estimated that if just 1% of the mineral as found in this part of the mantle is to be water, it would equate to almost three times the volume of all the world’s surface oceans combined!¹ This confirmation has once again changed our beliefs about the make-up of the earth, which now acknowledges a ‘deep water cycle‘ that exchanges surface ocean water with the mantle.

We must pause and remind ourselves that we do not contradict the Constant Quran with our ever-evolving science, though this discovery does present physical evidence for a direct understanding of the Quranic descriptions of the flood.

MAIN LAYERS OF THE EARTH:

1. Crust: 0 – 100km deep [≈ 350˚C]

2a. Upper mantle: 100km – 550km deep [≈ 1200˚C]

2b. Lower mantle: 550km – 2900km deep [≈ 2200˚C]

3a. Outer core: 2900km – 5100km deep [≈ 5300˚C]

3b. Inner core: 5100km – 6378km deep [≈ 7500˚C]

We begin with the arabic word tannúr ‘oven‘ (التَّنُّورُ) (yes, linked to the familiar South-Asian ‘tandoor’), which physically referred to a hollow muddy or brick structure, still in traditional use today, to bake flat breads. It is make-shift, usually open at the top, and classically likened to a channeled ‘fire-place‘.² Famous early Quran commentators, including the Hadith scholar al-Baghawi (d. 516/1122) and polymath al-Qurtubi (d. 671/1272), generally proposed the ‘oven’ to be in use in the verses of the Quran as a metaphor, referring to the surface of the earth as a whole, or atleast a particular region of it. This has lead to such translations as ‘ground‘ or even ‘valley‘ instead. In any case, it clearly indicates a continuous historical understanding that the flood started as a substructure event, which we can now understand took place deep under the ground – where it is incredibly hot. Indeed, the core of the earth is known today to be over 5,000 ˚C.

The associated verb ‘boiled up’ (فَارَ) becomes much more interesting. It can mean to ‘effervesce’ (release bubbles of gas) or ‘bubble up’, though carbonated drinks are a relatively modern invention. The more ancient usage was predominantly for the heating and upward activity of boiling water – in for example, a ‘cooking pot‘, as suggested by the famous Arab lexicographer Al-Azhari (d.980). The expression wafáro alttannúr (وَفَارَ ٱلتَّنُّور) thus challenges the translator, as the tannúr by contrast was not used to house water (it was not water-tight and used naked flames). Translators would also be aware however, Arabic, Hebrew, and other ancient languages recycled a relatively small vocabulary of verbs into many possible meanings, depending on the subject – or the ‘doer’ of the action. The word fara (فَارَ) itself for example, if said of ‘liquor’, would mean it ‘fermented’; if said of ‘cheeks’, would mean they ‘blushed’; and if said of ‘fountains’, would mean they ‘poured open’. It is even used in the Quran to described Hell itself – and it’s audible hot breathing as people enter it [Quran 67:6-7].

Given this scattered (though connected) semantic range, and the context of an imminent flood, many modern translations tell us that the ‘oven’ was the land of the earth, which had ‘overflowed‘ or ‘gushed‘ (though the famous American translator Arthur Arberry (d. 1969) does more faithfully render the verse with “and the Oven boiled“). On the other hand, this also contextualises some suggestions made by classical scholars, including the ‘Sultan of the Theologians’ Al-Razi (d. 606/1209), that the tannúr was a literal oven, whereby its ‘leaking’ was God’s symbolic communication to Noah to start boarding the ark. Yet, the thought of an actual oven of water still leaves us bewildered, and is not further elaborated on as such in any known authentic Hadith reports.

So if the translation ‘the oven overflowed’ literally does not make sense, and metaphorically is stretched from the normal range of meanings, how should the expression fáro alttannúr be understood?

Using the recent discovery of terrestrial ringwoodite, the answer would be both literally, and metaphorically. On the new theory of how mantle water reaches the surface oceans, Marcus Woo, writing for Quanta Magazine, tells us “This hydrous mineral isn’t wet. But when it melts, out spills water.”³ This melted – boiling – water is then driven up to the earth’s surface through geological activity that includes “volcanic eruptions“, and “hydrothermal vents” (or ‘very very hot underwater springs’ to you and me).⁴ If we were to explain these complex scientific processes clearly and succinctly – we could say that the earth is metaphorically an ‘oven’, that literally ‘boils up’ water – just as God had described.

It is also interesting here that the famous Quran exegete Ibn Kathir (d. 1373) commented that “water gushed forth from the Tananir, which are places of fire.” This means it was thoroughly acknowledged in Islamic history that water even boiled out from something of volcanoes.⁵

وَقِيلَ يَـٰٓأَرْضُ ٱبْلَعِى مَآءَكِ وَيَـٰسَمَآءُ أَقْلِعِى وَغِيضَ ٱلْمَآءُ وَقُضِىَ ٱلْأَمْرُ وَٱسْتَوَتْ عَلَى ٱلْجُودِىِّ ۖ وَقِيلَ بُعْدًۭا لِّلْقَوْمِ ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ

And it was said, “Earth, swallow your water, and sky, stop.” And the water stunted, the matter was decided, and she self-levelled onto [Mt.] Júdiee. And it was said, “Away with the wrongful people.”

[Quran 11:44]

The command given to the earth in Surah Hud, verse 44, is to “swallow“. This command could easily be regarded as figurative, as earths do not have digestive tracts… Yet, when we analyse this word, used uniquely in the Quran, together with our fresh knowledge of the deep water cycle, we find nothing short of remarkable accuracy. God did not order the earth to ishrobie ‘drink‘, or gúrie to ‘drain‘, the water for example. Rather, the arabic verb used, ibla’ie ‘swallow’ (ابْلَعِي), is more general, applicable not only to liquids, but also solids… and gases at that, and anything in between.

To see why this is significant, let us delve into how does sunken water gets absorbed into ringwoodite in the first place. It has been well understood that ocean water travels deep into the earth through a tectonic process called ‘subduction‘ – when an oceanic (underwater) plate slides under a continental (above-water) plate, letting water seep underground through the fracture line that is created.⁶ This water, and other soaked materials, travels down through the upper mantle, which is predominantly made up of a mineral called ‘olivine‘. This rock-like stuff (named so because of its colour) can hardly carry any water at all. Yet, as pressures and temperatures rapidly increase with depth, the water fuses with olivine to mature into solid ringwoodite. Now, “This water is not in a form familiar to us — it is not liquid, ice or vapor. This fourth form is water trapped inside the molecular structure of the minerals”.⁷

Referring back to the Quranic verse, we can realise, just as when we ‘swallow’ food, it eventually breaks down and absorbs into our blood stream, this layer of water is found absorbed within the earthy mineral, having gone through many phase changes – far beyond something one can simply drink – making the Quran indeed elegantly wise in using the ‘catch-all’ word ‘ابْلَعِي’, to ‘swallow’, this water after the flood. Also, with a closer look at the verse, you may have noticed that God tells the earth that this is “your water” as opposed to the portion belonging to the sky.

Here, we find that “…all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened” to mark the beginning of the cataclysmic event [Genesis 7:…11 (ESV)]) The operative word here is invariably translated as ‘fountains‘, or ‘springs‘, which rings familiar with one recount in the Quran where “We opened the gateways of the sky with pouring water, and burst up the earth’s springs…” [Quran 54:11-12…]. However, the natural ‘fountains’ evoked by such word choice typically have much shallower water sources – isolated aquifers – which are completely separate from the oceanic layer discovered 100s of kilometres deep within the earth’s mantle (and expelled from through volcanoes etc.). It is the Quran which further elucidates that these outlets were not only expelling water that had “boiled” hot, but also deep from a common heated source – the “oven” of the earth [Quran 11:…40…].

GENESIS 8:1-19 – THE FLOOD SUBSIDES (ESV):

8 But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. ² The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained,³ and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, ⁴ and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. ⁵ And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

⁶ At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made ⁷ and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. ⁸ Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. ⁹ But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. ¹⁰ He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark.¹¹ And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. ¹² Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.

¹³ In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. ¹⁴ In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. ¹⁵ Then God said to Noah, ¹⁶ “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁷ Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” ¹⁸ So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. ¹⁹ Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.

There is also no mention in the Bible of floodwater returning back through the soil. If we look beyond the frequent but vague wording that water simply subsided ‘from‘ the earth, we have two places of any explicit telling of a scientific process. Firstly, “God made a wind blow over the earth” [Genesis 8:13 (ESV)] (which I presume, as a junior architect, to imply thorough ventilation was provided – which increases the rate of evaporation). And resultantly, that “the waters were dried up from off the earth” [Genesis 8:13 (ESV)]. So according to the Bible, while additional floodwater may have came from underground as well as the sky, it evaporated thereafter, leaving no way to posit the existence of the underground water layer that we have with us still today.

Thus, while the vague biblical language allows for the modern understanding of the deep water cycle, it does not describe or suggest the theory, as does the language of the Quran.

We are once again reminded here of the potential consequences of altering an author’s original ideas even in the slightest, and why the idea of preservation is tantamount to one’s source of faith and respect for the Noble Quran.

TO SUMMARISE:

• For muslims, the Quran confirms science, and not vice versa.

• Watery minerals recently discovered have proven the existence of a distinct vast layer of water deep within the earth’s mantle – in the ‘transition zone’ – that could store the floodwater from the time of Noah

• The Quranic description of the rising floodwater level of the time of Noah is consistent and confirmatory with modern geological descriptions pertaining to the release and upwelling of boiling water from this continuous layer of ringwoodite minerals via seismic actions – as part of the ‘deep water cycle’

• The Quranic description of the falling floodwater level acknowledges the modern geological descriptions of ‘subduction’ and the various phase changes of water as it returns underground – including its bondage with pressurised ‘olivine’

• Old Testament language is vague and impartial regarding the rise and fall of the floodwater of Noah in relation to these new-found geological processes

Allah knows best.


Last updated:

1. Bnl.gov [June 13, 2014], New Evidence for Oceans of Water Deep in the Earth. ↩︎
2. Lexicon.quranic-research.net [Accessed September 16, 2023] تنر. ↩︎
3. Marcus Woo [July 11, 2018], The Hunt for Earth’s Deep Hidden Oceans. ↩︎
4. Theo Nicitopoulos [June 15, 2022], How the Ocean Inside the Mantle Affects the Habitability of the Earth. ↩︎
5. Myislam.org [Accessed September 16, 2023] SURAH HUD AYAT 40 (11:40 QURAN) WITH TAFSIR. ↩︎
6. New Evidence for Oceans of Water Deep in the Earth. ↩︎
7. Ibid. ↩︎

Jazak-Allah for reading. All knowledge, opinions, and translations expressed in our articles are the earnest study and reflections of the writer, prioritising honest interpretations of the Quran and authentic Hadith as evidence. Though the information contained does not necessarily represent the views of anyone other than the writer, the articles are cross-checked by brothers and sisters knowledgeable and experienced on the topic before being published on our site. We ask for forgiveness for presenting any information that comes to be incorrect or misleading, and accept that Allah is the Most-Knowing One.