Is Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat?

Of all the famous “lost” artifacts yet to be found, Noah’s Ark
tops the list in many people’s minds.

From Hong Kong to Holland, the world is fascinated by
Noah and the Ark. This isn’t surprising because so many
cultures have ancient Flood stories. Though distorted in
the details, many of these stories seem to reflect the true
account in Genesis 6–9.

This fascination is also bringing people in droves from
around the globe to the life-sized Ark replica at the Ark
Encounter in northern Kentucky.

At the same time, several teams have continued searching
for the real Ark. Most of them have focused on Mount
Ararat in northeastern Turkey, where eyewitness accounts
of a wooden structure have spurred interest for centuries.
With such a large vessel and so much interest, why hasn’t it
been found?

Perhaps we need to look again at the account in God’s
Word. It says that the Ark landed on the “mountains of Ararat”
on the 150th day of the Flood (Genesis 8:4). This was a
region, not a single mountain.

Furthermore, explorers have overlooked the geological
makeup of this region in their age-old quest for Noah’s Ark.
How were the rocks and strata in this region formed and
changed during the Flood and in the years afterward?

The biblical reference to “mountains of Ararat” as the landing
site of the Ark suggests those mountains formed well
before the Flood ended. The Flood was a global catastrophe
that totally reshaped the earth’s geology, and the earth’s surface
has continued to change since then. Perhaps the geology
of the modern Mount Ararat region sheds light on whether
we should be looking for Noah’s Ark on that mountain.

Mount Ararat—The Volcano and Its Geology

Mount Ararat is technically known as a stratovolcano.
That’s a cone-shaped volcano which builds progressively
from a central vent that erupts many times and deposits
successive layers of lavas and volcanic ash on the flanks of
the growing edifice.

Modern Mount Ararat actually consists of
two stratovolcanoes—Greater Ararat and Lesser Ararat—that rise
above a high plain which is itself over 5,000 feet (1500 m)
above sea level. The summit of Greater Ararat is 16,854 feet
(5137 m) above sea level, while Lesser Ararat, just 8 miles
(13 km) to the east of it, is only 12,782 feet (3896 m) high.
Together they cover a massive area of 420 square miles
(1090 km²), and have been estimated to consist of a whopping
280 cubic miles (1170 km³) of lavas and volcanic ash.
When did this monstrosity form?

It is a dormant volcano today, but it was active until recently.
A steam-blast eruption and volcanic ash flow opened on the
upper north flank of Greater Ararat on July 2, 1840, accompanied
by an earthquake of estimated magnitude 7.4. The cloud
of steam and ash, and a humongous landslide, utterly devastated
a monastery and villages in their path.

Earlier Ararat eruptions are known from oral history and
archaeological excavations. These occurred in AD 1783 and
1450, around 550 BC, and another time even earlier.

Glaciers and avalanches have eroded canyons in the
flanks of the volcano, exposing its internal layers and
enabling geologists to do detailed field work to establish
when and how Mount Ararat formed.

The volcano grew in four major stages: the pre-cone,
cone-building, climactic, and flank eruption phases.
At its base is a 2,300-foot-thick (700 m) sequence of volcanic ash
layers deposited by violent eruptions during the pre-cone
phase. Then eruptions from two central vents—spewing
some 1,800 feet (550 m) of lava and volcanic ash flows—built
the two cones. In the climactic phase, lava flowed copiously
to add another 2,700 feet (820 m) to the cones. Finally, lavas
and volcanic ash erupted from cracks in the flanks.

The Geology Underneath Mount Ararat

But what rocks are underneath the Ararat volcanoes?
Again, careful field work has demonstrated that many layers
of earlier volcanic rocks spread right across the whole
Erzurum-Kars Plateau of eastern Turkey (see map, below).
Many violent eruptions had to take place before Mount
Ararat was built on top of this plateau.

Under the Volcano

Mount Ararat is a
young volcano located
in a very unstable
region. Underneath and
surrounding it is a huge
plateau that formed
when colliding tectonic
plates caused massive
lava flows to cover more
than 20,000 square
miles (50,000 km²).
Ararat is only one-fiftieth of
this area, a dot
in comparison, which
arose later. Could Noah’s
Ark really be here?

• Flood Sediments, at least 13,800 feet (4200 m)
  Deep under Mount Ararat are
  thousands of feet of Flood
  sediments, filled primarily with
  marine fossils from the destruction
  of life in the ocean and on land.
  These are similar to Flood layers
  we find all over the earth.
• Lava Flows, about 650 to 2,600 feet (200–800 m)
  Above the Flood layers are thick
  lava flows. These covered the region
  sometime after the Floodwaters
  drained off the earth. They built
  up over a few years, and included
  between the flows are thin deposits
  of localized lake sediments with
  fossils of buried freshwater fish.
• Young Volcano
  Mount Ararat is a stratovolcano,
  which arose some time after
  lavas had covered the region.
  It grew as lava flowed out of two
  vents, progressively building
  layers of lavas and ash on their
  slopes, spreading on top of the
  plateau’s lava layers.

Beneath these volcanic layers is a thick sequence of rocks
that formed when ocean waters flooded the area and laid
down sediments filled with billions of ocean creatures, such
as brachiopods (lamp shells), corals, clams, and ammonites.

These marine invertebrate fossils appear in the same relative
order we find in other places around the world. The
lower section of this sequence of sedimentary layers has
fossils similar to other Devonian-Permian (Paleozoic) layers,
which creationists believe were deposited globally early
in the Flood. Above them are Triassic-Cretaceous (Mesozoic)
layers, which were deposited later in the Flood, at the
same time as the dinosaur fossils. Then at the top of this
sequence, Eocene-Lower Miocene (or Cenozoic) layers were
deposited before the ocean waters fully receded.

After Noah’s ark had landed and
the floodwaters had retreated, volcanic eruptions spread lava across
the region and then built Mount Ararat on top.

The lavas of the Erzurum-Kars Plateau were deposited
on top of these sedimentary layers and are more recent.1
Confirming that this plateau was formed post-Flood are
the minor localized sediment layers containing continental
(land) fossils deposited by local freshwater rivers and
lakes. These sediment layers were deposited between the
many lava flows that formed the plateau. Deposition had
almost finished before Mount Ararat began to grow above
the plateau.

Mount Ararat was thus not built under water. The volcanic
eruptions that spread lava across the Erzurum-Kars Plateau
and then built Mount Ararat began after the Flood deposited
all the ocean sediments. That means the ocean waters had
already retreated from off eastern Turkey (and Noah’s Ark
had landed) before Mount Ararat was built.

Mount Ararat in the Biblical Chronology

All these details are vital for placing the formation of
Mount Ararat within the biblical chronology. This in turn
answers whether Noah’s Ark is on Mount Ararat.

God’s Word clearly says that the Ark landed on the “mountains
of Ararat” on the 150th day of the Flood (Genesis 8:4).
By that stage, the waters had prevailed to cover the whole
earth (Genesis 7:19–24). The ocean (Flood) waters did not
retreat until after the Ark landed safely.

However, the volcano now called Mount Ararat did not
grow until well after the ocean (Flood) waters had retreated.
Furthermore, the lavas and ash layers of Mount Ararat date
to the time of the post-Flood Ice Age. This is consistent with
Mount Ararat being built after the Flood on top of a dry
plateau. Mount Ararat is thus a post-Flood volcano, which
continued to erupt, most recently less than 200 years ago.

Modern Mount Ararat consists of
two stratovolcanos, Lesser Ararat
and Greater Ararat. Both were
built up by volcanic eruptions
after the Ark had already landed.

Thus, from my perspective as a biblical geologist, I do
not expect to find Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat. Instead, it
must have landed on another high mountain in the region
at that time.

Does this shake my faith in God’s Word as a reliable
account of the historic global Flood cataclysm? Absolutely
not! The Bible clearly states the “mountains of” Ararat, not
“Mount Ararat” itself. So I’m even more confident in its
trustworthiness, not less so. Also, we should not need remnants
of Noah’s Ark to justify or bolster our faith.

God’s Word is absolutely true in every detail because God
is its author. “The entirety of Your word is truth”
(Psalm 119:160). Even without finding the Ark, there is overwhelming
geologic evidence that the Flood occurred, just as God’s Word
describes. The field of geology is just one of many tools that
God gave us to explore His handiwork and to show others
why our faith is so reasonable and exciting.

Noah’s Ark Found

Or has it been? Take
a brief look at popular
claims of discovery.

Ark-Like Outcrop

This satellite image from 2003
shows an Ark-shaped object
jutting out of the side of Ararat.
Investigators were hoping to get a
better image of an original grainy
photograph, taken by a plane in 1949.
That photograph showed a large
structure jutting out of the ice and
snow, known as the Ararat Anomaly.
It is difficult to determine the
object’s size or whether the images
were taken at the same site.

Some Ark hunters hope this might be
their next big break, but geologists
say the object simply looks like a
rock outcropping that only appears
ark-like when snow and ice melt in
the right spots. To date, the Turkish
government has not permitted an
expedition to explore the site.

Beam from the Ark

A 1993 CBS program, The Incredible
Discovery of Noah’s Ark, featured a
Frenchman who reported he found a
wooden beam in a crevasse on Ararat
and saw a large, dark object under
the ice in 1955. Fernand Navarra’s son
shot black-and-white film footage of
his father carrying the beam down
the mountain.

The program described the wood’s
radiocarbon age as 5,000 years, but
testing by six labs concluded the
wood was less than 2,000 years old.
Also, members of the expedition said
that Navarra purchased the wood in
town and carried it up the mountain
before he “discovered” it.

Ark-Shaped Formation

Earthquakes and heavy rain exposed
a large Ark-shaped formation in
1948. The site, named Durupinar,
was designated a national park in
Turkey and is easier to get to than
all the other main Ark locations.
Ron Wyatt claimed to have found
multiple artifacts in the area to
bolster his assertion that the object
is indeed the Ark.

However, geologists and
archaeologists have studied the
site and rejected it, concluding it is
merely one of many similar geologic
formations in the region. Many of
these researchers were Christians
who would love to find the Ark, but
the evidence was lacking.

Interior of the Ark

After a Turkish guide claimed to
discover interior compartments
of the Ark, a Hong Kong ministry,
NAMI, sent a team to the site. In
2010 the team announced that they
had recovered wooden specimens,
which they believe were part of
the Ark. They produced a video
and shared several photos of team
members inside the structure.

Evidence of possible fraud was
rife. The Kurdish man who led
the team did not allow the
team’s experts to visit the site,
and the research and reports
had numerous inconsistencies.
Further reports of visits to this site,
including claims of the discovery
of archaeological artifacts there,
are vague. Radiocarbon dating of
wood claimed to come from this site
yielded ages that are far too recent
to be from the Ark. Some pieces are
even dated as modern wood, and
some have machining marks that
appear to be from modern wood
planers (visible in the photograph).

Beam-Shaped Rocks

In 2006, Bob Cornuke led a team
of 14 Americans to visit a region in
Iran where a World War II veteran
claimed he saw the Ark. At Mount
Suleiman the team claimed to
have visited an object 13,000 feet
above sea level, which had the
appearance of blackened petrified
wood. Cornuke’s organization, the
BASE (Bible Archeology Search and
Exploration) Institute, identifies this
site as the one the veteran saw.

Despite these assertions, geologists
say the beam has all the
appearances of a common geologic
formation—when fine layers of rock
are upended and eroded. But BASE
did not do any lab testing.

Will Noah’s Ark Ever Be Found?

Based on the fact that Mount
Ararat rests upon volcanic strata
on top of sediments laid down
by the Flood, we can be rather
confident that the Ark will never
be found on this mountain. But
should we expect to find Noah’s
vessel elsewhere? As amazing as it
would be to find the famous Ark,
the following details make such a
scenario highly unlikely.

Repurposed Lumber

The Ark may have been
repurposed after the Flood.
Immediately following the Flood,
wood for construction and fires
might not have been readily
available for several years. Noah’s
family may have torn down
much of the structure for these
purposes.

Decay Over Time

Wooden structures do not
generally last for centuries even
if treated with pitch. Consider the
condition of barns built 100–200
years ago. Without regular upkeep,
they eventually collapse and then
disappear because of decay and
harsh conditions.

Glacial Movement

Freezing has its share of problems.
Some have proposed that the
Ark is trapped in a glacier, thus
preserving the wood from decay.
However, glaciers advance and
recede. Such movement would
tear the Ark to shreds.

Dr. Andrew A. Snelling holds a PhD in geology from the University of Sydney and has
worked as a consultant research geologist in both Australia and America. Author of numerous
scientific articles, Dr. Snelling is now director of research at Answers in Genesis–US.