How quickly do rock layers form?
The time scales that are put on the geological column diagram below are driven by two things:
1) Evolution. Evolution demands that there has got to be millions and millions of years for things to evolve. For example, to believe that single-celled creatures in the Precambian layer, have evolved into fish in the Devonian layer would have taken millions of years, therefore that is how long it has taken for those layers to have been formed. 2) Radiometric dating. The scientific measurements that are used in radiometric dating can be totally accurate, but the end result will be unreliable, because of the assumptions it is based on. That is how a 50 year old lava flow can be given an age by radiometric dating of 0.27 to 3.5 million years old! (See the article 'Accuracy of Fossil Dating' which is earlier in this series). Radiometric dating is also driven by the theory of Evolution.So we end up with the Cambrian period being dated to 543 million years.
(See a Period chart of evolution).
Transitional fossils:
Evolutionists say that there are many examples of transitional fossils - that is a succession of fossils that prove how one creature has evolved from one shape into another.
The examples that are given are how birds, whales, horses, etc have evolved.
The reality is that there isn't any succession of fossils that prove how one creature has evolved into another - none!
Take the evolution of the horse.
It has been given as popular evidence for a fairly complete series of transitional fossils.
Scientific American claims:
A sequence of fossils spans the evolution of modern horses from the tiny Eohippus. [SA 83]
The so-called Eohippus is properly called Hyracotherium, and has only a few things that could associate it with a horse at all. The others in the 'transition' show barely any more variations than horses today.
One fossil that isn't a horse, along with different varieties of horse does not make a sequence proving how the horse has evolved. [5]
Charles Darwin was concerned that the fossil record didn't prove his theory:
"Why is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links?
Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely-graduated organic chain;
and this is the most obvious and serious objection which can be urged against the theory." [6]
In 1977 S. J. Gould wrote in 'Evolutions Erratic Pace':
"The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology." [7]
Whales and birds are other examples that are quoted for showing transitional evidence, but they don't.
(See 'Refuting Evolution 2' by Jonathan Sarfati, with Mike Matthews Chapter 8
'The fossil record: prediction of evolution?' on http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/re2/chapter8.asp)
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So if we lay aside the theory of Evolution and start with a clean sheet, then some interesting things can be observed:
The layers - which have to be millions of years old for Evolution to be true - could be very young, because they can be formed very quickly indeed. Here are some examples below:
Example 1:
On 18 November 1929 the Grand Banks earthquake caused a huge mass of sediment to slide down the continental slope in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New England and Canada. As it travelled down the slope it snapped 13 transatlantic cables and this gave an accurate picture of it's speed and position. Scientists worked out that this huge mass of sediment was moving at up to 80 km/h (50 miles per hour) and travelled over 800 km (500 miles) in a little over 13 hours. It covered more than 260,000 square kilometres (100,000 square miles) and was 0.6 - 0.9 metres (2-3 feet) thick.
Geologists call these new layers of sediment which are formed like this; 'turbidites'.
It used to be thought that these thousands of layers had been laid down slowly in shallow water, but now they are recognized as turbidites which have been laid down very, very rapidly in deep water.
Example 2:
Layers of conglomerates and breccias are formed by very powerful water currents. These rocks are made up of pebbles and boulders that have been cemented together.
A conglomerate layer on the Welsh coast was estimated at taking 5 million years to be laid down, but it is now thought to be a storm deposit laid down in only a few hours. [1]
Geologists now think that many of these conglomerates and breccias have been laid down during hurricanes, typhoons, or storms, and have not taken millions of years to form.
Example 3:
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Cross-bedding in sandstone is formed by powerful water currents moving sand dunes across the sea floor. Cross-bedding can be seen as inclined layers within the sandstone layer.
Cross-beds in the Coconino Sandstone of the Colorado Plateau are up to 9 m (30 feet) thick, which would have required a water depth of about 90 m (300 feet). The water current's velocity to form this cross-bedding is estimated at 1 to 1.5 metres per second (3 to 5 feet per second).
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(The whole of the Coconino Sandstone of the Colorado Plateau averages about 96 m (315 feet) in thickness and covers an area of around 518,000 square kilometres, (200,000 square miles). [2]
Cross-beds still form today in the Mississippi River in less than one minute. [3]
Example 4:
Fossils are proof that the layers of sedimentary rocks are laid down very deeply and very quickly. An animal or plant has to be instantly buried so that it is preserved intact. Fish, for example, will decay and will be pulled to pieces by the water currents and scavengers in a few days or weeks, even in oxygen-poor conditions.
Fossilised fish in the Santana Formation of Brazil have perfectly preserved gills and muscles. Geologists believe that they were fossilized within five hours of death. Dr. David Martill called this 'the Medusa effect', because they were turned into stone so rapidly. [4]
Ichthyosaurs are huge, extinct marine reptiles which tend to be preserved in mud sediments. They have been fossilised so quickly that even their skin has been preserved as a black carbon film around their skeletons. To totally cover these very large reptiles quickly enough would take a lot of sediment.
An Ichthysaur.Back to the 'Blinded by unscientific science' menu.
Thanks to Paul Garner for his lecture delivered at the autumn meeting of The Genesis Agendum
at Baden-Powell House, London on Saturday, 30 November 1996.
© 2004 seeking-god.co.uk
[1] 'A reinterpretation of the basal 'Littoral Lias' of the Vale of Glamorgan', Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 97, 29-35
[2] Austin, S A (ed) (1994), 'Grand Canyon: Monument to Catastrophe', Institute for Creation Research, Santee, California.
[3] Nevins, S E (1971), 'Stratigraphic evidence of the Flood', in Patten, D W (ed), A Symposium on Creation III, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 33-65
[4] Martill, D M (1989), 'The Medusa effect: instantaneous fossilization', Geology Today 5, 201-5
[5] J. Sarfati, 'The non-evolution of the horse', Creation 21(3):28–31, June–August 1999.
[6] C. Darwin, 'Origin of Species', 6th ed. 1872 (London: John Murray, 1902), p. 413.
[7]. S.J. Gould, 'Evolution's Erratic Pace', Natural History 86(5):14, 1977.