Below is the online edition of In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood,
by Dr. Walt Brown. Copyright © Center for Scientific Creation. All rights reserved.
Click here to order the hardbound 8th edition (2008) and other materials.
The same side of the Moon, throughout its orbit, faces the Earth. That is, the Moon spins once on its axis each time it orbits Earth. That spin axis is nearly perpendicular to the line connecting the Sun and Moon.
In 1998, an instrumented satellite orbiting the Moon found two craters that show every indication that they contain large amounts of water ice mixed with dirt.1 Surprisingly, the craters are on exactly opposite sides of the Moon; each crater is 6 degrees from a lunar pole.
Water exposed to direct sunlight on the Moon will end up as 240°F steam. Those water molecules then bounce off the hot surface like ping-pong balls, but with the Moon’s weak gravity and lack of atmosphere, each bounce covers several miles. Eventually, most of the water molecules will hit a cold spot, stick, and become frost. Today, the Moon’s primary water traps are the floors of its permanently-shadowed, polar craters. Those floors are colder than the average temperature on Pluto. But why is ice in craters that are shifted 6 degrees from today’s lunar poles, but not in craters at the poles, and why has ice remained in craters that periodically receive sunlight and are continually pounded by meteorites? The ice should have evaporated (sublimated) over millions of years.2
Let’s look at two possible explanations; both are consistent with what would happen if a large mass were placed on or removed from the Moon. In both cases, the Moon’s spin axis would remain fixed, but the Moon would roll so the maximum amount of mass is as far as possible from its spin axis. As the Moon rolled, its north and south poles (the points where the Moon’s fixed spin axis penetrates its rolling surface) would shift. [This phenomenon is explained in Figures 81 and 82 on page 147.] Also, both theories can explain the presence of radioactive gases (radon) recently detected in two craters on the leading (western) face of the Moon’s near side.3
Hydroplate Theory. Astronautics Professor R. Brown explains on pages 603–609 why (about 5 days after the flood began) 1.22% of the water and rocks launched by the fountains of the great deep began striking primarily the leading face on the near side of the Moon. Over time, more water and solid debris, following less direct routes, hit many other places around the Moon. Much of the water that hit the Moon became trapped within months on the cold floors of the early craters that formed at the lunar poles.
Some rocks that hit the Moon were radioactive. [See "The Origin of Earth’s Radioactivity" on pages 387–441.] Within decades after the flood, larger rocky bodies—especially asteroids—began impacting the Moon. [See pages 303–385.] In 1968, the largest lunar impactors, called mascons (or mass concentrations), were discovered on the Moon. [See Figure 178 on page 322, and notice that they are located near the Moon’s equator. This implies that they were the unbalanced masses that rolled the Moon and shifted its ice-filled craters.] All of this occurred only about 5,000 years ago. [See "When Was the Flood, the Exodus, and Creation?" on pages 493–496.]
Volcanic Theory.4 Over billions of years, comets and asteroids brought water to the Moon. Eventually most of that water became concentrated in the bottoms of craters at the lunar poles. The radioactive gases recently detected coming from two craters on the leading face of the near side of the Moon suggest that volcanic activity expelled radioactive rocks from inside the Moon.3 That would have shifted internal mass and altered the Moon’s balance, causing it to roll relative to its spin axis and shift the ice-filled craters that were initially located at the Moon’s north and south poles.
Questions. The volcanic theory raises nine questions. How did radioactivity develop inside the Moon? Why has ice, which periodically receives sunlight because it is no longer at the lunar poles, not sublimated into the vacuum of space?2 Was it because the Moon’s roll happened recently, such as in the last 5,000 years? If ice built up over millions of years at the lunar poles, shouldn’t there be a trail of ice-filled craters, not just the two that are offset 125 miles from the poles? 5 Doesn’t this imply a rapid roll? Because mascons (buried asteroids) are all near the lunar equator, did they cause the Moon’s roll? How could asteroids hit the near side of the Moon? Isn’t it shielded by Earth? It is now acknowledged that comets and asteroids did not provide Earth’s water. [See "Earth: The Water Planet" on page 30.] Why then does the volcanic theory say comets and asteroids brought water to the Moon? The hydroplate theory answers these and other questions.