Claim CH550:
The Flood deposited the geologic column.
Response:
- Varves within the geologic column show seasonal layers over many, many
years. In many cases, such as the Green River formation, these layers
are too fine to have settled out in less than several weeks per layer.
Varves in New England show evidence of climate change 17,500 to 13,500
years ago, which matches climate patterns in other parts of the world
(Rittenour et al. 2000). These layers prove that the geological record
was not produced in just one event.
- There are many different kinds of surface features
preserved in the middle of the geological column. These features
include soils, mud cracks, evaporite deposits, footprints, raindrop
impressions, meteor craters, worm burrows, wind-blown sediments, stream
channels, and many others. For example:
- The Loess Plateau in China has a layer of loess more than 300
m thick. Loess is wind-blown sediment that would not occur during a
global flood. The Loess Plateau occurs around the downwind edges of
the Ordos Desert, its source of sediments, and the grain size of the
loess decreases the further one gets from the desert (Vandenberghe et
al. 1997).
- The Loess Plateau includes paleosols within it. These are buried
fossil soils, some of which would require tens of thousands of years to
form (Kukla and An 1989; Liu et al. 1985).
Links:
Isaak, Mark, 1998. Problems with a global flood, 2nd ed.
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-noahs-ark.html
References:
- Kukla, G. and Z. An, 1989. Loess stratigraphy in Central
China. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
72(1): 203-225.
- Liu, T., Z. An, B. Yaun and J. Han, 1985. Loess-paleosol sequence in
China and climatic history. Episodes 8: 21-28.
- Rittenour, T. M., J. Brigham-Grette and M. E. Mann, 2000. El
Nino-like climate teleconnections in New England during the late
Pleistocene. Science 288: 1039-1042. See also Kerr, R.A., 2000.
Viable but variable ancient El Nino spied. Science 288: 945.
- Vandenberghe, J., A. Zhisheng, G. Nugteren et al., 1997. New
absolute time scale for the Quaternary climate in the Chinese loess
region by grain-size analysis. Geology 25(1): 35-38.
Further Reading:
Harding, Ken, 1999. What would we expect to find if the world had flooded?
http://www.creationism.ws/what_if_flood.htm
[or Harding, Ken, 1999
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Temple/9917/flood.html
via
http://www.archive.org . The text is
white so you may have to reset your
browswer's colors.]
Miller, Hugh, 1857. The Testimony of the Rocks. Or, Geology in Its
Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed.
Edinburgh: Shepherd & Elliot.
See also MacRae, Andrew, n.d. Hugh Miller -- 19th-century
creationist geologist.
http://home.tiac.net/~cri/1998/miller.html
Strahler, Arthur N., 1987. Science and Earth History, Buffalo, NY:
Prometheus Books.
created 2003-5-21, modified 2003-9-6