The Qur'an Seas and Rivers |
Modern
Science has discovered that in the places where two different
seas meet, there is a barrier between them. This barrier divides
the two seas so that each sea has its own temperature, salinity,
and density.
(Principles of Oceanography - Davis, pp. 92-93) For
example, Mediterranean sea water is warm, saline and less dense,
compared to Atlantic ocean water. When Mediterranean sea water
enters the Atlantic over the Gibraltar sill, it moves several
hundred kilometers into the Atlantic at a depth of about 1,000
meters with its own warm, saline and less dense characteristics.
The Mediterranean water stabilizes at this depth |
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Although there
are large waves, strong currents, and tides in these seas, they
do not mix or transgress this barrier. But when the
Qur'an speaks about the divider between fresh and salt water,
it mentions the existence of "a forbidding partition"
with the barrier. On may ask, why did the Qur'an mention
the partition when speaking about the divider between fresh
and salt water, but did not mention it when speaking about the
divider between the two seas? This partition (zone of separation) has a different salinity from the fresh water and from the salt water (Oceanography p. 244 and Introductory Oceanography pp. 300-301) This information has been discovered only recently using advanced equipment to measure temperature, salinity, density, oxygen dissolubility, etc. The human eye cannot see the difference between the two seas that meet, rather the two seas appear to us as one homogeneous sea. Likewise the human eye cannot see the division of water in estuaries into the three kinds: the fresh water, the salt water, the partition (zone of separation). |