The Pathway Papers are here

Tracks and Raindrop, Hail and Ice Impressions Demonstrates Slow Deposition

Copyright 2004 G.R. Morton  This can be freely distributed so long as no changes are made and no charges are made.

http://home.entouch.net/dmd/tracks.htm

Free Web Counter
Free Hit Counter Visitors to these pages since 12-29-97

600,000 years of not sweeping the floor-The Soils of Beijing
NEW:An Analysis of John Matthews' "The Origin of Oil—A Creationist Answer"
Carbonate Hardgrounds Disprove Global Flood
Time Sequence in Pebbles-Conglomerates in Conglomerates
Time in the Flood--Seismic and the Great Stone Dome
While the Flood Rages, Termites dig, Dinosaurs Dance and Cicadas Sing
It Sure Was Hot in the Global Flood
Wilcox Coals and the Floating Forest/VeggieMat Young-earth Theories
Igneous History of British Isles Won't Fit Into Global Flood
Texas Ellenburger Caves Show Global Flood is Impossible
Difunta Group Argues Against Global Flood
North Sea Rocks Refute Young-Earth Arguments
Haymond Formation with Thousands of Burrows
How Long Ago was the Flood?
Runaway Subduction is a Sham
Delicate Insects Not Destroyed by Turbulent Global Flood
Amber and the Flood
Going to the Bathroom in the Global Flood
How fossilization occurs
Steve Austin's Grand Canyon Argument:Methematical Sleight of Hand
Unconformities and the Global Flood
How Overthrusts occur
Desert Varnish--evidence of 300 Years in the Geologic Column
Pollen Order in Varves Presents Problems for Global Flood
Flood articles
Buried River Channels in the Geologic Column
Rock Physical Properties Vary With Age of Fossils They Contain
Why Carbon 14 Dating Works
The Appalachian Mountains Show the Need for Much Time
Canyons Buried in the Fossil Record show Global Flood Impossible
Ten years of Plant Growth found 7000 Feet Down in Colorado
Mercury Poisoning in the Global Flood
Misguided Erosion argument
Too Many Fossils Found on Earth for Global Flood
Meteoritic Dust Found in Salt--Proves Slow Deposition
Oil Well Cores and the Global Flood
Castile Formation Shows Waters Were Calm During Global Flood
Too Many Meteors in the Flood Year.
Limestone Shows Slow Deposition
Burrows Show Slow Deposition
Canadian Coal not Formed Catastrophically
Why Clastic Dykes don't indicate a Global Flood
The Multiple Droughts in the Global Flood
Creationist Misuse of the Green River Formation
Jonathan Clarke's Discussion of Paleosols
The Real Poop on the Global Flood
Tracks and Raindrop, Hail and Ice Impressions Demonstrates Slow Deposition
The Letter the Creation Research Society Quarterly Didn't Want You to See
Theology articles

One of the fascinating aspects of the geologic and paleontologic record involves the capturing in stone of slow processes which are incompatible with the young-earth creationist idea of a global flood.  Below is a modern slab of hardened mud taken from the Bay of Fundy.  It shows that when the mud was soft, a bird walked across it.  The bird feet sank into the mud.  But then at a later time, after the bird took his stroll, it rained and a few drop imprints were left in the mud, which then hardened.  This preservation took place about 60 years ago.  The slab of hardened mud was pried up from the sediments around the Bay of Fundy and moved to a museum.

From this, we know that such features can form today, that they don't require exceptionally catastrophic conditions for their formation, and thus when we see such things in the fossil record, we are not free to claim that such features need a global flood.  Besides, several things are very clear from this type of deposit.

1. The water depth was no deeper than the bird's legs.

2. When the rain happened, there was no water covering the layer at all. If there had been, the water would have absorbed the drops impact rather than the mud.  

From this we know that this modern feature was formed without any water covering at all.

Just for completeness sake, here is another modern example of raindrop imprint preservation.

Now, we find similar things in the fossil record. Below is one from the Triassic of Massachusetts.

One can see two animals walked across this slab, one (NE-SW) while the mud was very wet, the other (E-W) while the mud was a bit dryer.  At the last, you can see tiny circular raindrop impressions all over the slab.  Like the modern examples above, we don't have to appeal to a global flood to form such slabs.  And such slabs show that there was a period of time while various animals walked on the mud, and while the mud slowly dried out allowing a firmer track impression on the east west track.  

One of my favorite track photos is from Raymond Moore's 1933 Historical Geology. It shows a shoreline with a dinosaur walking into the water (not fleeing from the water). The slab above the waterline is rainpitted, below the waterline, there are no raindrop impressions because the water absorbed the impact.  

This simply doesn't look like a global flood deposit.

 

But it just isn't raindrops which are found in the fossil record. Hail impressions are preserved as well.

Below we can also see modern vs. ancient ice crystal imprints.  Remember that to form ice crystals, the mud must freeze, and this takes several hours, which is inconsistent with a one-year global flood which deposits 50-100 feet per day.

Here are the modern ice crystal imprints.

This example is from the Devonian.

The features discussed above clearly don't require a global flood to form.  Indeed, quite the opposite, they indicate a slow rate of deposition.

 

 

Back to DMD Publishing Home Page