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Index to Creationist Claims,  edited by Mark Isaak,    Copyright © 2004
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Claim CC332:

The Specimen Creek fossil forests in Yellowstone National Park show up to fifty layers of fossil forests with upright trees. The conventional explanation is that each new forest grew atop the previous ones as the previous forests were buried in volcanic ash. This explanation fails; instead, the fossil forests result from the deposition of trees uprooted from elsewhere.

Source:

Sarfati, Jonathan, 1999. The Yellowstone petrified forests: Evidence of catastrophe. Creation Ex Nihilo 21(2): 18-21 (March-May). http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/4109.asp

Response:

  1. Specimen Creek and the surrounding area show evidence of some trees transported and others buried in place. The rock layers include conglomerates from meandering and braided streams, conglomerates from mud flows, and tuffaceous sandstones composed mostly of water-transported volcanic ash. In the Eocene, the area would have been between two volcanic chains. Occasional mud flows from the slopes of the mountains would have uprooted and transported trees from the slopes and buried lowland trees in place (Fritz 1980; 1984).

    Evidence that some of the trees, especially those on Specimen Ridge, were buried in place, includes the following (Retallack 1981; Yuretich 1984a; 1984b):
    Most of the horizontal logs and some stumps (up to 15 percent of the upright stumps, according to Fritz 1984) were transported, but most of the upright Specimen Ridge fossil trees were buried in place.

  2. Upright stumps and trees on Specimen Ridge cannot be explained as floating stumps settling out of standing water, as proposed by Coffin (1983) based on observations of trees washed into Spirit Lake.

References:

  1. Coffin, H. G., 1983. Erect floating stumps in Spirit Lake, Washington. Geology 11: 298-299.
  2. Fritz, W. J., 1980. Reinterpretation of the depositional environment of the Yellowstone "fossil forests". Geology 8: 309-313.
  3. Fritz, W. J., 1983. Comment and reply on "Erect floating stumps in Spirit Lake, Washington." Geology 11: 733-734.
  4. Fritz, W. J., 1984. Comment and reply on "Yellowstone fossil forests: New evidence for burial in place." Geology 12: 638-639.
  5. Retallack, G., 1981. Comment and reply on "Reinterpretation of the depositional environment of the Yellowstone fossil forests". Geology 9: 52-53.
  6. Yuretich, R. F., 1984a. Yellowstone fossil forests: New evidence for burial in place. Geology 12: 159-162.
  7. Yuretich, R. F., 1984b. Comment and reply on "Yellowstone fossil forests: New evidence for burial in place." Geology 12: 639.

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created 2003-8-27