How much energy did it take for God to part the Red Sea?
EDIT
Why this is a world-building query. If I had framed this as, "In my world where magic requires the expenditure of energy, a powerful wizard decides to open a path through a large lake,etc. The world I am supposing is that God himself can create and destroy energy (or has an infinite supply) but still uses energy to do his miracles and acts of creation. This is different from simply magicking things in and out of existence as the Bible perhaps implies.
The Red Sea has a surface area of roughly 438,000 km2 (169,100 mi2),1 is about 2250 km (1398 mi) long and, at its widest point, 355 km (220.6 mi) wide. It has a maximum depth of 3,040 m (9,970 ft) in the central Suakin Trough,[3] and an average depth of 490 m (1,608 ft).
Assumptions for the purposes of this question
We cross where the sea is 100km wide, the depth is 500m at its maximum, the seabed is an arc of a circle.
The density of Red Sea Brine is 1100 kg/m3
The corridor for the Israelites is 10m wide. They can walk at a steady pace of 4kph regardless of slope.
Question
If we simplify by saying they all leave and arrive at the same time:
(a) How long will God have to hold the waters apart and
(b) What will be his total energy expenditure both for opening the corridor and then holding it open?
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/131518. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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