​At some point during the period of the Golus Mitzraim, or roughly 40 years after the Exodus, the peak of the Ice Age occurred. As mentioned in the previous article, Baal HaTurim held a tradition that the rain of the Mabul ended when the Mishkan was erected, which occurred in the year 2449 from creation.
As volcanic eruptions slowed and fewer aerosols were released into the atmosphere, the sky began to clear. Rays of sunlight penetrated the clouds and met the dark surface of the ice. The ice appeared dark due to the mix of volcanic ash that had fallen alongside the snow, and as the snow compacted, it formed alternating layers of light and dark ice. Because of the ice's darkness, the melting process accelerated.

​Lakes formed along the edges of the ever-shrinking ice masses, reshaping the landscape. This was not just a creative process of remaking some parts of the Earth again, but also a destructive force. Water and mud washed away vast swaths of land, killing countless animals and perhaps even humans. Many of the flood legends preserved by various cultures may reflect these catastrophic floods rather than the one of Noah’s time

​In North America, the meltwater filled up basins, creating enormous lakes, some of which are comparable in size to today’s Great Lakes. These lakes themselves were covered with ice during the Ice Age. The Great Lakes, in fact, were likely either devoid of water or at a much lower level between the end of Noah’s Mabul and the onset of the Ice Age. Archaeological findings in the bottom of Lake Michigan (still debated) and below the present levels of the Black Sea, Mediterranean, Doggerland, and the western coast of India suggest that human settlements spread across vast areas of Earth during this period. I hope to revisit these fascinating topics in the future.

Many pluvial lakes filled to the brim, eventually reaching the lowest surrounding edges. When rapid ice melt caused these lakes to overflow, catastrophic flooding occurred, carving out new canyons. These canyons, unlike those formed at the end of the Mabul when water receded toward the oceans, appear much fresher. The sharp, rugged edges of canyons such as the Grand Canyon, Canyonlands, Royal Gorge, Malad Gorge, Bruneau Canyon, and even Columbia Gorge do not show signs of the centuries of erosion that would have smoothed their contours after heavy precipitation following the Mabul. Certainly, the deep cracks and nearly vertical walls in these canyons do not appear to have been shaped by millions of years of erosion. 

​It’s worth noting that Columbia Gorge is a unique case. It was carved through basalt rocks around 10,000 years ago, according to evolutionists, meaning it is relatively recent in geological terms. The Columbia Gorge is also a prominent example of Bretz’s hypothesis, which, for over 50 years, was dismissed by the dogmatic views of his contemporaries. It wasn’t until the 1970s that Bretz's theory was acknowledged, but even then, the Missoula Flood was placed within the broader framework of evolutionary geology. Further research revealed that Willamette Valley and Columbia Gorge contain deposits from multiple floods. This led to the formation of a rather far-fetched hypothesis that Lake Missoula formed multiple times after a catastrophic breach of its ice dam each time.

​Little attention has been paid to the fact that the enormous Bonneville Lake, whose remnants are now the Great Salt Lake in Utah, also drained through Hells Canyon and Columbia Gorge toward the ocean. Additionally, parts of Lake Lahontan, in present-day Nevada, likely used this same channel. There was also a vast lake filling the Idaho Valley, which drained through Hells Canyon and Columbia Gorge. In the Idaho Basin, several horse and camel skeletons have been found in Hagerman State Park on the edge of the Snake River. (See pictures above)
Interestingly, American geologists appear to have overlooked the northern regions. There are several large basins in Canada that may have filled temporarily with melting glacial water, only to overflow through Columbia Gorge. These catastrophic events could explain the varied deposits found in the basins along the Columbia River and within the Gorge itself.

These are just a few examples of the major bodies of water that once existed on the American continent as a result of the Mabul and later refilled due to the deglaciation of North America. There were also large lakes in southern Utah and Arizona responsible for the formation of the Grand Canyon. White Sands in New Mexico was once the bottom of a lake, and numerous basins across the western and even eastern parts of North America were filled with water. While vegetation and further erosion over the past 3,000 years have made these basins harder to observe, they were once prominent features of the landscape. The largest of these lakes was Lake Agassiz, which covered a large portion of Canada at the very end of the Glacial period. I hope to revisit the topic of pluvial lakes in the future, BeEzrat Hashem.

In Northern Africa, there were also many lakes, some of which were still present in Roman times and are depicted on ancient maps. Today, these areas are desert.
The Ice Age likely began to end sometime in the decades following the Exodus. As the ice caps melted, the cold water raised ocean levels by about 400 feet to the levels we recognize today. The Mediterranean basin was filled through the Zanclean flood, probably creating the largest waterfall in Earth's history. The features of this waterfall are still visible under the waters of Gibraltar. Unfortunately Google Earth blurred out this area recently for some reason.

​As the ice on the continents melted, the temperature of the oceans began to cool, causing another drastic climate event, and the ice in the Arctic Ocean began to form.
This quandary cannot be explained by any evolutionary model, as they lack a coherent explanation for why the Arctic Ocean remained ice-free during the Ice Age. Our creationist model, however, offers a reasonable scenario.
It is impossible at this point to establish an exact timeline for the cooling of the Arctic Ocean, as most of the research in this area is conducted by evolutionary geologists and climatologists working within an Old Earth framework. All discovered data is interpreted within this context. I suspect that the cooling of the Arctic Ocean was a gradual process that took place over millennia following the deglaciation of the continents.

​We know that the Vikings were able to settle in Greenland only about a thousand years ago. Erik the Red and his settlers established a colony there, living for about 500 years. They raised cattle and cultivated crops, including trees that no longer grow in Greenland today. Perhaps the glaciation of the island occurred as the surrounding waters cooled and froze.
Oceanic currents, both warm and cold, developed and disappeared over centuries, influencing the climate of vast regions. The Gulf Stream, for example, warms much of Europe, while El Niño affects weather patterns in the Americas. These two currents are well known, but measurements of climatic changes have only been taken for the past 200 years. This is a relatively short period, especially in comparison to the 4,100 years since the Mabul.
There is still much to explore regarding the Ice Age, which is just a small part of the broader history of the Mabul and its aftermath.
Hashem should bless this work with health, time, and resources to continue.

​On the 17th day of Cheshvan, in the year 1656 from creation, the supercontinent Pangea began to split apart in multiple places. Large portions of it started drifting away from one another. After detaching from Africa, the Indian subcontinent collided with Asia. Meanwhile, the Americas also came into contact with Asia, but from the opposite side—where Alaska met Chukotka, the eastern end of Siberia. As the continents gradually slowed their movement, they began to fracture and fold, leading to the formation of towering mountain ranges. However, this tectonic activity likely continued for some time, perhaps even after the year of the Mabul.
In the early days of the Mabul, the gaps between the departing portions of Pangea were filled with water, creating the impression that the water was emerging from below rather than from above, as would soon be the case. As the oceanic water began to evaporate, the mix of steam and volcanic ash covered the sky, causing the planet to cool. Precipitation of unprecedented scale followed, with rivers of water falling from the sky, washing away much of the life in their path, and flowing toward lower elevations. The rapid movement of the continents caused oceanic water to overflow onto the landmasses, dumping vast layers of mud. Most of these mud layers solidified into rock due to the presence of cementing agents, while others, with lower cementing content, remained as sands or semi-solidified strata.

​The deposits left behind were often distinct layers, each containing different ecosystems. In some places, these layers mixed sporadically. Rather than decomposing, many living organisms fossilized. Their cellular content was replaced with silica, leaving behind an abundance of fossils embedded in the rock layers. These "dead things" found within the rocks may very well serve as some of the most profound evidence of the global catastrophe that was the Mabul.

​Some creationists speculate that, as the continents drifted apart, they may have sunk into the Earth's mantle, allowing more sediment to accumulate on the surface of the continents. Indeed, in some areas, we find sedimentary layers several miles thick. However, it is also possible that many sedimentary deposits resulted from the creation process itself. When the original continent was formed by gathering material from the bottom of the ocean, which Earth was covered with in its early days, some of the mother rocks may have been crushed by the forces of water and other processes. It is, in my opinion, impossible to fully describe or even imagine these processes, as we must acknowledge that not only matter was being created, but also the very laws of nature that we observe today.

This chart shows the general agreement among geologists regarding strata designation and naming. The dates provided are based on the framework of evolutionary geology. Since the age of rocks is often determined by the "index fossils" they contain—fossils that are dated according to the evolutionary progression of life on Earth, as outlined by this widely accepted paradigm—the dates should be dismissed. It’s important to note that no column like this exists anywhere on Earth where the superposition of rocks can be observed continuously. Instead, this column is constructed from fragments of strata from various locations around the world. Nevertheless, creationists continue to use this nomenclature within their own paradigm. We hope to dedicate a special article to further analyze and discuss this column.

​Generally, Precambrian rocks are free of fossils, as these rocks were likely formed before life emerged on Earth. Following the so-called Cambrian explosion, we begin to see the fossilized remains of multiple ecosystems encased in rock. The impact of the Mabul during the time of Enosh, along with the erosion that occurred over the first 1,500 years, remains a topic for further research.
After 40 days of intense rainfall during the Mabul, the precipitation gradually slowed. However, the rain did not cease until the construction of the Mishkan, according to Baal HaTurim—nearly 800 years after the beginning of the Mabul. Parshas Vayekel (Exodus 35:1).
The continents continued to drift for another 110 to 160 days after the initial split, with new waves of mud covering the newly formed landmasses. The Earth's surface was wet and muddy. Only after more than a year did Noah and his family exit the Ark. As the mountains rose, massive amounts of water and unsolidified material washed down, carving valleys, canyons, and depositing new sediments—often consisting of more mixed materials than those originally deposited. We can observe such unsorted material in many valleys, including those in Utah, Nevada, and other regions, where further erosion has exposed these layers.

The aftermath of this cataclysm lasted for centuries. In fact, many climatic changes recorded throughout history may have been the result of this total planetary remodeling. After the relative stabilization of the continents, when the Earth’s map resembled its current configuration, the cataclysm continued, but at a much slower pace.
The oceans were still warm, possibly covered with mats of organic material that may have aided the repopulation of the continents. Australia, in particular, likely benefitted, while other continents maintained some terrestrial connections. Thick clouds continued to shroud the sky due to the evaporation of the warm oceans, and volcanic ash further contributed to this cover. As a result, little solar energy penetrated the Earth's surface. However, life began to flourish again, especially near the oceans and large bodies of water trapped on the continents. Precipitation continued on a much larger scale than what we experience today.

​As the oceans cooled due to the lack of warmth from the sun, regions farther from the water began to experience snowfall instead of rain. This snow accumulated over hundreds of years, compacting under its own weight to form ice. In some areas, evaporation outpaced precipitation, leading to the emptying of the Mediterranean basin.

The Ice Age had begun. While we may find some indications of its timing in Divrei Chazal, the evidence remains unclear. Midrash Rabbah suggests that each famine during the times of the Avos was a result of a major climate event. There are indications of human settlements in regions where the ice cap later formed, allowing for a few hundred years of development before the onset of the Ice Age. The Midrash also mentions the disappearance of over 20 nations due to floods and other catastrophes following the Tower of Babel, around the year 1996 from creation.
As the ice level rose on the continents, the ocean level dropped by approximately 400 feet, reconnecting many lands and islands to the continents and enabling migration of animals and people. One such major connection was Beringia, which was not a small bridge as often imagined, but rather a vast expanse of land between Alaska and Siberia.

In regions closer to the oceans, vegetation exploded, and fauna repopulated. Horses, camels, and giant sloths roamed the American continent, alongside bison, which survived the Ice Age. However, many species perished. Why did some species survive while others did not? I am not familiar with any plausible hypothesis for this, but rapid climate changes may have played a role. Entire herds of mammals, including potentially millions of mammoths, may have died from dust storms or been frozen alive while attempting to endure violent storms that swept across the tundra. Evidence supports this theory, with mammoths and other species found preserved in permafrost, some appearing as if they were awaiting discovery in a giant freezer. Mammoth tusks are still being commercially explored for ivory, which is highly valued for sculptural art.
Be'ezrat Hashem, we will continue exploring the further progression of the Mabul in the next installment of this topic.

                                                                                           B-H
In his commentary on the Chumash (the Torah), Rashi explains that the waters of the Flood were not merely ordinary water but were hot—boiling and scalding. This interpretation comes from a Midrashic teaching, found in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 108b) and the Midrash (Bereishis Rabbah 31:5), which suggests that the intensity of the water served as a form of Divine punishment for the wickedness of humanity, making the Flood’s impact even more severe.
While this homiletic aspect of the story of the Flood (Mabul) is important, it raises additional questions: How did the waters of the Flood become hot? And how did this affect the post-Flood climate and geography?
In my primary work posted on the other page of this website, “Chazal on Mabul,” I have broadly outlined the events that took place in the year 1656 after Creation, using the Torah and the teachings of our Sages to build a sequence of events leading up to and during the Flood. While I did not focus on the conditions after the Flood, I hope to dedicate time to researching and building a clearer picture of the world after the Mabul, based on historical material from the Midrash and commentaries.
BeEzras Hashem, I have begun collecting this material, but more time and effort are needed to complete this research. For this current discussion, we will rely on observable phenomena that can be studied scientifically, particularly in the areas of glaciation, the Ice Age, and deglaciation.
I will summarize the events of the Mabul to provide context for the astonishing conclusions we can draw about the Ice Age.

Before the Flood, there was a single landmass surrounded by ocean—what modern geology refers to as "Pangea." Evolutionary geologists recognize this fact through their analysis, and even without scientific expertise, it’s easy to see how the coastlines of Europe, Africa, and the Americas align. The only difference, of course, is the timeline.

​In the timeline presented here, the single supercontinent was inundated by water during the time of Enosh, when a third of the land was flooded, leaving perhaps behind sedimentary deposits. It is also possible that this flooding created internal seas, isolated from the main ocean. The existence of stromatolite fossils in places like Nevada, Wyoming, Texas, and Upstate New York indicates such a scenario. Stromatolites are bacterial colonies that grow in shallow parts of the sea and require significant time to form. I’ve been researching these fascinating organisms for some years, but it’s still too early for me to share definitive conclusions.

For several hundred years before Noah’s Flood, Earth was in a relatively stable condition. Then, in the year 1656, on the 17th of Cheshvan, the continent split apart.
The following map of the oceanic floors shows the grooves carved by the continents as they drifted apart. These grooves can be found on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, as well as in the western part of the Americas, on the Pacific oceanic floor. This may seem surprising, as the Americas were drifting westward, but the hypothesis shared by both creationists and evolutionary geologists is that the old oceanic floor was subducted beneath the American continents, sinking into the Earth's mantle and core.

Evolutionary geologists believe this process took millions of years, while many creationists, including myself, believe the subduction happened rapidly—what is known as the Conveyor Belt Hypothesis. Both groups face challenges with dating methods. For example, instruments used by evolutionists date the oceanic floors as only a few million years old, when they should be hundreds of millions of years old, according to their worldview. From our perspective, however, we see the chain of events occurring much more rapidly.
Recently, oceanic floors have been mapped in great detail, revealing that the ridges and valleys created by the moving continents are still sharp and rugged. If these processes took place over millions of years, one would expect the ocean currents to have eroded and smoothed these features. But that’s not what we observe. This is significant, as water is a powerful eroding agent—not only on the surface of the planet, but also on the ocean floor.
Putting aside the dating methods for now, though this topic certainly deserves its own chapter, there’s compelling recent research that supports the Conveyor Belt Hypothesis proposed by creationists. Seismologists, measuring the frequency of seismic waves passing through the Earth, have discovered chunks of solid material inside the planet’s liquid core. These chunks should have dissolved over millions of years, but they remain intact. This evidence suggests that parts of the old oceanic floor sunk into the core, rapidly subducting along what we know as the subduction zone.

​I suspect that these chunks of antediluvian oceanic floor, twisted and buckled beneath the continents, are responsible for many of the mountain chains, plateaus, and uplifts we see today. As these oceanic floors tumbled beneath the Earth’s crust, they likely caused some mountains to rise, and volcanic areas to develop, at the end and soon after the Mabul. Large extinct volcanoes, found in places like Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho, appear to have formed relatively recently. These areas are home to massive calderas and lava fields that look as though they cooled very quickly, and lack of vegetation suggest that it happened rather recently. 

​While this digression may seem off-topic, it helps to understand the general dynamics of the Mabul and the post-Flood period.
But let’s go back to the beginning of the Mabul.
As the continents split, exposing the hot mantle beneath, massive volcanic activity likely ensued. Rav Miller theorizes that volcanoes erupted. However, compared to the giant fractures created during the Mabul, volcanic eruptions are relatively small. I’d like to draw attention to the Atlantic Ocean, which is particularly relevant to our discussion. It clearly shows the contours of the gigantic split that began along what we now call the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, forming an "S" shape halfway between the Americas, Europe, and Africa.

When the oceanic waters began to flow into these massive fractures, an unprecedented amount of evaporation occurred. It’s not unreasonable to propose that the sky became opaque due to volcanic ash, shrouding the Earth and cooling the atmosphere. (Please see the Chazal page for more on this.) Obviously, the steam and aerosols in the atmosphere didn’t escape Earth’s gravity, as life on the planet was clearly restored after the Mabul. But the changes to the atmosphere, although difficult to pinpoint, could be significant.
As per the words of Chazal, the waters of Mabul were hot. We can begin to understand how this occurred by analyzing the scenario provided here. But how hot were the waters, and what was the temperature of the mantle at the time? While I cannot offer precise calculations, scientists with more expertise in this area would need to create models to address these questions.
What we can understand, however, is why the Arctic Ocean was not frozen, while parts of North America and Eurasia were covered in ice. We can also explain why regions closer to the oceans never froze, while ice formed over the interiors of continents. This also helps us understand why we find fossils and skeletal remains of warm-climate animals in places like Great Britain, or why large herds of grass-eating animals, including multiple species of elephants, once roamed Alaska, northern Canada, and Siberia.

​This is an expert from simple google search:
Mammal fossils found in Great Britain 

• Hippopotamus: A lower jaw fossil from the Pleistocene era was found in Norfolk
• Giant armadillo: A scute fossil from the Pleistocene era was found in the UK
• Llama: A tooth fossil from the Pleistocene era was found in the UK
• Tapir: A tooth fossil from the Pleistocene era was found in the UK
• Mammal foot bones: Foot bones from the Pleistocene era were found in the UK

Pleistocene era in evolutionist period is aligned with few hundred years after the Noah’s Mabul.

Additionally, it sheds light on how camels and horses arrived on the American continent long before Europeans brought them back after they had become extinct during the interceding time. This also explains why the Sahara was lush and full of vegetation after the Mabul, why human settlements thrived in places like Doggerland (now submerged beneath the North Sea), and why the Mediterranean Sea was lower in elevation before filling up sometime after the Mabul, most likely around the time of the Exodus from Egypt

​I hope that, with Hashem help, I will be able to share more material on these facts in future essays, as I still have much research to process and organize into something truly enlightening.

                                                                                        B-H
​​While growing up in communist-run Poland, I attended public school. Private schools were nonexistent, but the level of education was surprisingly high, especially when compared to contemporary American public schools. This isn't the place for a political discussion—that's reserved for a different blog. For those familiar with my writings there, it’s clear that I despise totalitarian regimes, including communism. However, I want to give credit where credit is due.
The curriculum was designed in such a way that there was no doubt in our minds that the Earth had existed for millions of years. In subjects like physics and chemistry, the Big Bang theory was already being taught in the 1970s, and the spontaneous assembly of atoms into complex compounds was considered an established fact. (Subatomic particle physics, however, hadn’t yet emerged as a field of study at the time.)
In biology, we learned about the spontaneous emergence of life from inorganic compounds, with some “magic” amino acids evolving into living organisms. Life then progressed naturally into more sophisticated forms, ultimately culminating in the evolution of primates into Homo sapiens. History lessons painted the story of humanity as the final chapter of this process.
We were presented with images of early Homo sapiens hunting mammoths, with their families processing the animals' meat, bones, and skin while surrounded by ice. It all made sense to us. It created a comprehensive picture of human origins, and no one questioned the finer details of this process.

The presence of ice was something we understood intuitively. Although central Europe has a moderate climate, the evidence of past glaciation was clear in the 1970s. Erratic boulders were scattered everywhere, especially in the northern parts of Poland. Huge stones sat on flat land, near lakes, ponds, and swamps. There were no mountains around to explain where these boulders had come from. Yet, by looking at the pictures of the Scandinavian mountains, it seemed obvious that the boulders had traveled from there, across the Baltic Sea, transported by glaciers from hundreds of kilometers to the north.

​Interestingly, we have similar erratic boulders here in the U.S. and Canada, including in New York State. Perhaps the most well-known among my readers is the Indian Rock in Ramapo, NY, located along Route 59 between Monsey and Suffern. 

Reflecting on my earlier life, I must admit that I firmly believed in the concept of evolution—so much so that even after I became a Hasidic Jew, I tried to reconcile the evolutionary narrative with the Biblical account of creation. How I managed to do this is a subject for another time. Those of us who attempt such reconciliations often find creative ways to merge seemingly disparate views in our minds.
However, it wasn’t until I began traveling through the American West—visiting the Rockies, Sierra Nevada, Cascades, and deserts between these mountain ranges—that my perspective shifted. I began to see that our planet is far younger than I had been led to believe. I no longer felt the need to engage in intellectual gymnastics to harmonize science with my belief system. I found that belief in evolution is more a religious worldview than a scientific one.

Visiting the Grand Canyon, the deserts of Utah, Nevada, and Wyoming, and the exposed rock layers in nearby mountain ranges, I saw clear evidence of a massive catastrophe. The layers of rock seemed to tell the story of mud and debris deposited in rapid succession. The number of dead animals and plants encased in those rocks brought to mind the biblical description of Noah's Flood. The uplift of these rock layers and the formation of mountains also reminded me of the verse from Psalms that describes such events occurring as a result of a global catastrophe.
For some time, however, I struggled to fit the Ice Age into this timeline. The changes the Earth underwent since its creation seemed not long enough, and I couldn’t immediately reconcile these two events - Mabul and Ice Age.

​The erratic boulders, lakes, ponds, and swamps left behind by glaciers, as well as the visible glacial scratches on rocks near my location, like those in Minnewaska State Park and Bear Mountain—were undeniable evidence of the Ice Age.
Traveling through Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota, and even New York, I observed significant differences in the topography. In certain areas, rugged hills and rock formations gave way to gentler slopes. It was as if something had crushed, smashed, and smoothed the rocks, creating rolling hills instead of sharp rock edges.

​Other evidence, such as Scabland channels in Washington State and the Finger Lakes in New York, further confirmed the Ice Age's existence. Similar features could be found along the northern shores of the Great Lakes in Ontario, Canada. Then there are coastal lines in Missoula, Montana, and upstate New York. Niagara Falls and the massive whirlpools in Pennsylvania also fit into this puzzle.

​Another thing I noticed during my travels is that many canyons—like those I visited in the American West—showed giant basins upstream of the rivers that now flow through them. These canyons were clearly formed by the overflow of ancient lakes. At some point, these lakes swelled rapidly and broke through natural barriers, sometimes even trough uplifted plateaus (like the Kaibab Plateau). This surge of water must have been caused by an unprecedented series of precipitations or the rapid melting of glaciers. For a future article, I hope to explore this topic in more detail.

​At that point, there was no doubt in my mind that the Ice Age had occurred. But where did it fit into the 5,760-year timeline of creation?
BeEzras Hashem, I began to gather more information and conduct deeper research. Eventually, I pieced together a consistent and harmonious narrative that aligned with the insights our sages have left us in our collective memory.
The most surprising discovery came when I examined more contemporary maps of the Ice Age glaciers. These new maps were different from the ones I had studied in school or read about in books. While older maps showed glaciers descending from the north, covering much of the northern hemisphere, the newer maps depicted a different scenario. On these maps, parts of Siberia, Alaska, and even the Arctic Ocean were free of ice! (See maps.)
This new view initially didn’t make sense to me. 

​How could we determine which regions were covered by ice and which were not? I continued to analyze the evidence—erratic boulders, ice marks on rocks, and postglacial bodies of water—the answer became clear. More than that – Moraines, both terminal and lateral are strong indicators of glacial deposits, and we can recognize them in valleys carved by today’s glaciers.
In any place where we can identify these features, we can confidently assert that glaciers once existed there. Where such features are absent, it’s clear that no glaciation occurred.

​                                                                                                         B-H
​By Matys Weiser
I feel as though I am bursting with excitement over my discovery of marine fossils in what is purported to be a vast, fossilized desert of Navajo sandstone. However, the reality is that the shifting identification of the origins of this stone carries significant implications. There is no point in the timeline of creationist geology where such a desert could be situated. If it were indeed a desert, it would pose a serious problem for those of us who accept the Young Earth model of our planet's existence.
I must reiterate that this would not have any consequences for our faithful lives as Torah observants, as there could be various explanations for the existence of what appears to be a massive desert in prehistoric times. However, since this is not a theological article, I will refrain from elaborating further. The existence of such a desert in this geological layer, dating to the late Jurassic period, would present significant challenges for Young Earth Creationism, but not for Judaism.
If, however, it is demonstrated to evolutionists that they are mistaken in their worldview of old Earth, they would face serious difficulties in negating the concept of rapid creation. Proving that a one-year-long remodeling of our planet occurred during Noah’s Mabul would be detrimental to atheistic or agnostic ideologies.
The issue of Navajo Sandstone is not decisive but is very significant in this ideological struggle. Most geological layers recognized by evolutionary geologists are wet deposits, formed by some kind of sea, a massive river, a delta, a lagoon, or a sizable lake that, after drying, became cemented to varying degrees of hardness or sand layers. Only a few, like Navajo sandstone, are classified as aeolian deposits, meaning they originated as dry sand. Only later did this sand become wet, and after the addition of a cementing agent, it petrified into the stone we see today.
In my view, there is no doubt that Navajo Sandstone is, in fact, a wet deposit mixed with marine fossils, and the original material from which the stone is composed was neither dry nor a desert. There are other similar strata, such as Wingate sandstone and Entrada sandstone, also designated as aeolian. 
In our previous article on this topic, I discussed the location of Wingate sandstone, which is situated in the same stratigraphic position as the clearly wet deposit of Moenave Sandstone. Entrada sandstone remains a subject of ongoing research.
Personally, I am convinced that these strata deposits also have a wet origin; if proven as such, little evidence would remain to support the hypothetical millions of years of deserts conceived in evolutionary thought.
I will share some new pictographic and video material from the kelp fossil location within Navajo sandstone in Zion National Park, as well as other marine fossils from the same canyon, including sponges and various seaweeds I have discovered on many hikes since my initial visit several years ago.

Another theory posits that a lake existed where animals walked along the banks, leaving footprints. The question remains: where does the covering layer come from? Most readers have likely walked on a beach and know that even small waves can wash away footprints within minutes, and without waves, the shape of a footprint does not survive for more than a few hours. If those animals were indeed walking on a beach, and some unknown type of flash flood preserved the tracks, there must have been a significant number of those animals and many beaches, as we have numerous preserved footprints in Navajo and similar sandstones. I present only a few locations, often just a few miles apart, to illustrate my point.
Another significant issue with this hypothetical desert environment is the necessity of vegetation to sustain these creatures. If larger beasts consumed smaller ones, the smaller ones also needed sustenance. Unless the food chain was short and circular, there is simply no evidence of any type of food sufficient to support the entire ecosystem.

What I see in these tracks and locations suggests a very temporary environment. There is no land vegetation because it had no time to grow, and the vegetation from the original habitat of the animals was likely uprooted and deposited elsewhere, possibly where the waves of Mabul transported the material. Unlike animals, trees do not walk. The clumps of vegetation embedded in the Navajo sandstone resemble marine vegetation that has been uprooted, clumped, and deposited among the sands of mud waves coming from various directions, laden with volcanic material.
Another argument for the rapid deposition of mud is that the strata layers containing dinosaur footprints are usually not the same as those where their bones are found. I am aware of only partial skeleton remains of a sauropod found in Navajo sandstone; however, many species left their footprints, and the number of track sites is abundant.
“The Seitaad ruessi fossil is articulated, meaning that the bones had not moved from life positions, so they were probably held in place for some time by soft tissues during burial. But a few partially disassociated limb bones suggest the animal was dead before burial. The science of determining the details of fossilization is called taphonomy, and such study adds considerable depth to understanding the landscapes and lifestyles behind fossil remains.
Other previously described fragmentary sauropodomorph fossil remains were found in Northern Arizona’s Navajo Sandstone. One find, MNA 7233, included portions of tail vertebrae, remains of pubic bones, a partial right tibia, both articulated feet and several articulated belly ribs. Another partial sauropodomorph from the Navajo Sandstone, UCMP 82961, consists of two cervical vertebrae and cervical ribs, an articulated left hand, fragments of the right hand several foot bones, and fragments of the shoulder girdle. “
(Utah Friends of Paleontology website)

​It is important to note that reconstructions of complete skeletons of these animals typically do not originate from a single specimen. Skeletal remains are often collected from clumps of mixed bones, indicating that most of the animals from which the bones come were dead and dismembered when they became mixed with bones of other animals, whether of the same or different species. Paleontologists can often reconstruct entire skeletons from different animals of the same size or from remains of the same species but of varying sizes. If other bones were preserved, it is possible to reconstruct an entire skeleton by resizing the bones of another animal. In many museums, these skeletons are artificial copies of original bones. In the early days of paleontology, original bones were often part of reconstructions, with missing parts filled in with artificially created bones.
I have seen such an example in a museum in Bismarck, ND, where a dinosaur skeleton labeled Edmontosaurus was displayed. However, in Montana, it is referred to as Maiasaura, and I have seen it in Canada under yet another name. A simple Google search of both names will reveal no major discrepancies. Edmontosaurus is known to have walked on four limbs, yet it was reconstructed as bipedal—walking on two legs—because that was the prevailing trend at the time of reconstruction. When I inquired about this issue, the custodian informed me that the skeleton was largely composed of artificial bones, as only a portion of it was original. The bones were later painted to create a uniform appearance, and there is no documentation indicating which bones are original and which are not. Sorting real bones from artificial ones would be costly and potentially damaging to the original specimens, so Edmontosaurus will remain in its current pose for the foreseeable future.

​Neither I nor specialists in the field of Young Earth Creationism have a definitive answer regarding which geological strata represent the beginning of Mabul. One significant difference between Christian scientists and someone like me, who has access to Mesoira, a Jewish non-scriptural body of tradition, is their lack of crucial information on the topic.
The main issue is that we possess knowledge about the Flood of Enosh, which, after submerging a third of the original continent created in six days, likely left some deposits on the Earth's surface. I suspect that the Great Unconformity, clearly visible in the Grand Canyon, indicates the boundary between deposits from the first, partial Flood and the total catastrophe of Noah’s Mabul.

​If, as some agree, Mabul began during the Triassic deposits, the Jurassic period is significantly later—weeks, perhaps months, into Mabul. By this time, most life had already been annihilated and washed down to the lower basins of the Antediluvian continent (Rashi) or to the shores of oceans. Organic remains in many of these locations transformed under heat and pressure, forming fossil fuels—coal and crude oil. Some animals, however, like those that left their footprints in the late Jurassic wet sands, likely survived for a while, instinctively moving to higher elevations during the flood. 

I will mention a theory developed by some creationists that in North America, many of these animals migrated toward the center of the new landmass, known today as Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, the Dakotas, and central Canadian provinces, where dinosaur remains are predominantly found. The extensive boneyards of various species are being discovered across a range that extends from Dinosaur National Monument to northern Montana and Alberta.

​I am aware of dinosaur track sites in Texas, Oklahoma, Connecticut, California, and Yukon Territory—just from the locations I have personally documented. There is much more to research and many other topics to explore. May Hashem bless us with the time and resources to continue this work.