Based on a new interpretation of the Biblical Fountains of the great Deep, this paper presents a new theory of the construction of the earth's original crust and the changes that have been wrought in it. It is proposed that in the beginning, a layer of water separated two layers of crust. That layer of water was the Deep. The ocean basin floated on that water, supplying the pressure to operate the fountains. To initiate the Flood, God personally produced the deep-sea trenches and the crevice in the crust down the middle of the mid-ocean ridge, in order to force the waters of the Deep to the surface.