Earth's catastrophic history

Earth's catastrophic history:

Many professional geologists are now thinking along the lines of catastrophism, where the Earth has undergone a number of catastrophic events. (Most of them still believe that this happened over billions of years).

But as we've seen, the rock layers can be laid down very quickly. (See the previous article: 'How quickly do rock layers form'.)

And for fossils to form, it requires a very rapid burial of the creature or plant.

To show that this happens suddenly, here are some examples:

[1] In 1971, in Mongolia, two amazing dinosaur fossils were found. A Velociraptor on top of a Protoceratops, either both animals were suddenly buried and fossilized, or the two corpses had been dumped together by the flood waters. But either way, to cover two dinosaurs quickly enough for them to get fossilised would have taken a catastrophic event. [1]

[2] An extinct group of marine arthropods, called trilobites, were able to roll themselves up for protection - rather like woodlice. Many trilobites are fossilized in this 'danger' position, showing that they were buried alive while trying to protect themselves.

[3] Sea-lilies, known as crinoids, are made up of small calcium carbonate plates which are held together by soft tissue. When it dies, the soft tissues quickly decay and the sea-lily falls apart in a few days - even in still water.

When fossilised sea-lilies are found in a well preserved and intact state, (ie in Jurassic rocks in Dorset), it means that they were buried in sediment very quickly - before they had started to decay. [2]

There is an extraordinarily, widespread erosion surface

between the Precambrian and the Cambrian layers,

which is known as:

'The Great Unconformity'.

This picture shows rock layers at Frenchman Mountain, near the Grand Canyon.

The two red lines indicate the position and direction of the Great Unconformity, which was originally horizontal, but has been tilted by rock movements.

To the right of this and below, is the older Precambrian layer of Granite and Schist.

To the left and above, is the younger Cambrian layer of Sandstone.

Throughout the world, immediately above this erosion surface - in the Cambrian layer - there are often sediments consisting of a basal conglomerate or boulder bed, then this is followed by sandstones, and then shales and limestones. (See diagram below ***)

These sediments point to them being laid down in deep water. [3]

Here is a quote from a geologist describing the violence at that time which left this erosion surface:

"The continental nuclei at that time were largely stripped down to the crystalline basement.

Ancient mountain systems were worn down to their roots

reducing the continents more nearly to a plain than they have ever been before or since." [4]

The resulting erosion surface - the socalled 'Great Unconformity' - marks the destructive power of the massive flood waters.

The Lower Palaeozoic period (Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian) was a time when the ocean waters swept over the continents, levelling the land as it went.

Remember that these layers could have been formed very quickly by the action of the water sweeping in. (See the previous article: 'How quickly do rock layers form?')

Also notice that these sediments are marine deposits, (see diagram below).

		Layer characteristics:	Eustatic sea levels:
CENOZOIC	Holocene		~ ~ ~
	Pleistocene		~~ ~~~ ~~~
	Pliocene		~~ ~~ ~~
	Miocene		~ ~ ~~
	Ollgocene		~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~
	Eocene		~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~
	Palaeocene		~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~
MESOZOIC	Cretaceous	Chalk, sandstones, clays, marls, ironstones.	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
	Jurassic	Limestones including oolitic, clays, marls, shales, ironstones.	~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~
	Triassic	Conglomerates, sandstones, mudstones, evaporites.	~~~~ ~~~ ~
PALAEOZOIC	Permian	Conglomerates, red breccias, red siltstones, desert sandstones, evaporites, dolomitic limestones.	~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~
	Carboniferous	Deltaic shales, mudstones, ironstones, siltstones, sandstones, seatearths, coal. Marine shales, limestones, turbidites.	~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~
	Devonian	Cornstones, conglomerates, red sandstones, red marls.	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~
	Silurian	Marine, shelly, graptolitic and calcareous, shelly rocks, reefs, greywackes.	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	Ordovician	Mainly marine, grits, greywackes, conglomerates, sandstones, shales (slates), mudstones, cherts.	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	Cambrian	***Marine conglomerates, sandstones, shales (slates), flags, greywackes, limestones.	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
	Erosion surface	'Great Unconformity'
PRECAMBRIAN	Vendian (Proterozoic)

Eustatic sea levels:

The belief that the continents were under water during the Early Palaeozoic period is reinforced by Eustatic sea levels.

The Eustatic sea levels are marked on the diagram above. Each ~ represents approximately 25 metres above current sea level, as an average. [5]

'Eustatics' is the study of [uniform world-wide] sea level changes.

Eustatic graphs represent “global ocean volume” which has a major control on sea levels.

(There are other things that affect sea levels).

So one conclusion from these things, is that there was catastrophic flooding at the end of the Precambrian, which rapidly laid down the Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian sediments - say up to 100 years.

Then there must have been other catastrophic events after that period of massive flooding.

This is all possible - it's not the stuff of fantasy.

But we need to look at some more evidence.

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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.

[1] Calais R (1989), 'Duelling dinosaurs die in diluvial disaster', Creation Ex Nihilo 11(3), 44-5

Halstead, L B (1975), The Evolution and Ecology of the Dinosaurs, Peter Lowe

[2] Liddell, W D (1975), 'Recent crinoid biostratinomy', Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 7, 1169

Meyer, D L (1971), 'Post mortem disarticulation of recent crinoids and ophiuroids under natural conditions', Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 3, 645-6

[3] Ager, D V (1981), The Nature of the Stratigraphical Record, Second Edition, Macmillan.

[4] Olson, W S (1966), 'Origin of the Cambrian-Precambrian unconformity', American Scientist 54, 458-64

[5] Adapted from Hallam, A (1984), 'Pre-Quaternary sea-level changes', Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Science Letters 12, 205-43