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Three Hundred Years in the Middle of the Flood--Evidence of Time in the
Geologic Record
By Glenn R. Morton
Copyright 2001 G. R. Morton
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One of the things that young-earth creationists miss is the activities of
biological organisms in the fossil record. Desert varnish is an iron
manganese
oxide coating that is found on rocks in arid regions. For years this coating was
thought to be an abiologic chemical reaction. This has been shown to be
false. Desert varnish is now known to be the result of bacteria which live
on the surface of the rocks and through their biologic activity deposit a
manganese rich coating on the rock surface. Living in nearly a waterless environment,
these microbes protect themselves from ultraviolet light by oxidizing the
manganese in the rock. (Wills and Bada 2000, p. 165-166)
When
European priests first entered the arid southwestern US, they found vast tracks
of land with cobbles dark on the top and light on the undersides. They turned
the stones over making huge, light-colored crosses in the desert. In
the intervening 300 years, the crosses are still visible but are now beginning
to fade. It has taken 300 years for the microbes to cover the stones' upper
surfaces with varnish.
With
this as a background, what is one to conclude when we find this same type of
varnish coating Permian sand grains in the Zechstein of the North Sea? The
Permian rocks are from the very middle of the supposedly flood deposited
rocks. This should be the time of the maximal flooding of the earth, yet
here we find desert varnish which requires at least 300 years to form. Not only
this, the sand grains which are coated with this slow-forming film, are found in
shape of sand dunes like those found in arid regions today. (Ruffell and
Shelton, p. 305)
Clearly
this evidence shows that there was at least a 300 year interval in the middle of
the flood. This is something that the young-earth creationists never tell
you!
References
A.
H. Ruffell and R. G. Shelton, “Permian to Late Triassic Post-Orogenic
Collapse, and Early Atlantic Rifting, Deserts, evaporating Seas and Mass
Extinctions,” in Nigel Woodcock and Rob Strachan, editors,
Geological History of Britain and Ireland, (London: Blackwell
Science, 2000), p. 305)
Christopher Wills
and Jeffrey Bada, The Spark of Life, (Cambridge MA: Perseus Publishing, 2001), p. 165-166).
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