Claim CD211:
The size of the Mississippi River delta divided by the sediment
accumulation rate gives an age of less than 30,000 years, indicating a
young earth.
Source:
Response:
- The age of the Mississippi delta only gives a lower limit for the age
of the earth.
- The Mississippi delta is seven miles thick at the Gulf of Mexico. This
is too thick to have formed suddenly by a single flood, as such a flood
would have spread the sediments out, not compacted them all in one
place.
- The claimed size of the Mississippi delta considers only its current
delta. The location of the delta has changed every so often due to
changes in sea level and changes in the course of the Mississippi
River. In the early Cenozoic, the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi
delta extended as far north as Illinois [Weber 1980].
Links:
Matson, Dave E. 1994. How good are those young-earth arguments? A close
look at Dr. Hovind's list of young-earth arguments and other claims.
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/hovind/howgood-yea2.html#proof19
References:
- Weber, C. G. 1980. Common creationist attacks on geology.
Creation/Evolution 2: 10-25.
created 2003-4-20, modified 2004-9-9