Claim CD102.1:
At the Lewis Overthrust in Alberta and Montana, Precambrian limestone
rests on top of Cretaceous shales, which conventionally are dated much
later. The evidence, and common sense, does not support the explanation
that the discontinuity is caused by a thrust fault.
Source:
Price, George McCready, 1913. The Fundamentals of Geology. Mountain
View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Assoc., pp. 7-8, 86-101.
Whitcomb, John C. Jr. and Henry M. Morris. 1961. The Genesis
Flood. Philadelphia, PA: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., pp.
185-195.
Response:
- Contrary to the claim, geologists do find convincing evidence of a
thrust fault between the strata (Strahler 1987, chap. 40). This is
true even of young-earth creationists with geology training. For
example, Kurt Wise (1986, 136) said that "[a] close examination of the
contact between the Cretaceous and Precambrian rocks leaves no doubt
that the contact is a fault contact."
- The strata on either side of the discontinuity are well ordered and
have the order one would expect from a thrust fault.
- The photo in Whitcomb and Morris's (1961) book The Genesis Flood
showing the "Lewis Overthrust contact line" (Figure 17, p. 190) is not
really a photo of the contact line, but of rocks 200 feet above it.
The photographs that Whitcomb and Morris used were taken by Walter
Lammerts, a botanist and geneticist, on his vacation (Numbers 1992,
216-219).
- Whitcomb and Morris (1961, 187) quoted a description of the Lewis
Overthrust out of context to give the impression that rocks along the
fault are undisturbed. They quoted Ross and Rezak (1959),
Most visitors, especially those who stay on the roads, get the
impression that the Belt strata are undisturbed and lie almost as flat
today as they did when deposited in the sea which vanished so many
[million] years ago.
Whitcomb and Morris silently omit the word "million," and the original
paper (Ross and Rezak 1959, 420) continues:
Actually, they are folded, and in certain zones they are intensely
so. From points on and near the trails in the park it is possible to
observe places where the beds of the Belt series, as revealed in
outcrops on ridges, cliffs, and canyon walls, are folded and crumpled
almost as intricately as the soft younger strata in the mountains
south of the park and in the Great Plains adjoining the park to the
east.
Links:
Hanes, Joel. n.d. Geology in error? The Lewis Thrust.
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/lewis-overthrust.html
Solum, John G. 2001. Thrust faults.
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/lewis/
References:
- Numbers, Ronald L., 1992. The Creationists. New York: Knopf.
- Ross, C. P. and Richard Rezak, 1959. The rocks and fossils of Glacier
National Park: The story of their origin and history. U. S.
Geological Survey Professional Paper 294-K.
- Strahler, Arthur N., 1987. Science and Earth History: The
Evolution/Creation Controversy. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books.
- Weber, C. G., 1980. Common creationist attacks on
geology. Creation/Evolution 2: 10-25.
- Whitcomb, John C. Jr. and Henry M. Morris. 1961. The Genesis Flood.
Philadelphia, PA: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co..
- Wise, K. P., 1986. The way geologists date! In: Proceedings of the
First International Conference on Creationism, R. E. Walsh,
C. L. Brooks and R. S. Crowell (eds.), Pittsburgh, PA: Creation
Science Fellowship, 1: 135-138.
Further Reading:
Weber, Christopher Gregory, 1980. Common creationist attacks on
geology. Creation/Evolution 2: 10-25.
created 2001-2-18, modified 2005-10-3