> Two weeks ago in response to my assertion that there was no case of a
> polystrate tree beginning in a coal seam, going through a coal seam and
> ending in a coal seam, I had asked,
>
> >Can you provide a reference for the polystrate tree through several strata of
> > coal?
>
I am wondering if you understood the meaning of polystrate?
>
> At 03:34 PM 1/29/97 , Randy Landrum wrote:
>
> >As I stated earlier this is not at all an unusual phemomenon, but is quite
> >common. N.A. Rupke, of Princeton, has given numerous examples.
> >
> >N.A. Rupke, "Prolegomena to a Study of Cataclysmal Sedimentation,"
> >Quarterly of the Creation REsearch Society, Vol. 3. (May 1966), pp. 16-37
> >
> >Also try F.M. Broadhurst, "Some Aspects of the Paleoecology of Non-Marine
> >Faunas and Rates of Sedimentation in the Lancashire Coal Measures,"
> >American Journal of Science, Vol 262 p.865
>
> The only reason I am opening an old topic is that I just finally got the two
> articles mentioned above. What I found in those two articles was that not
> one example of a polystrate tree as proposed above is given.
>
"In 1959 Broadhurst and Magraw described a fossilized tree, in position of
growth, from the Coal measures at Blackrod near Wigan in Lancashire. This
tree was preserved as a cast, and the evidence available suggested that
the cast was at least 38 feet in height. The original tree must have been
surrounded and buried by sediment which was compacted before the bulk of
the tree decomposed so that the cavity vacated by the trunk could be
occupied by new sediment which formed the cast. this implies a rapid rate
of sedimentation around the original tree."
F.M. Broadhurst, "Some Aspects of the Paleoecology of Non-Marine Faunas
and Rates of Sedimentation in the Lancashire Coal Measures," American
Journal of Science, Vol. 262 (Summer 1964),p.865
"It is clear that trees in position of growth are far from being rare in
Lancashire (Teichmuller, 1956, reaches the same conclusion for similar
trees in the RheinWestfalen Coal Measures), and presumably in all cases
there must have been a rapid rate of sedimentation."
F.M. Broadhurst
There are many other evidences that coal seams were formed rapidly,
probably by transportation of massed plant accumulations by flooding
waters, interspersed by alternative flows of sand or silt or lime mud from
other directions. These are listed as follows, without comment or
documentation although such could be procvided, if needed see Stuart E.
Nevins, "Stratigraphic Evidence of the Flood," in Symposium on Creation
#III (Grand Rapids, Baker Book House, 1971)p. 44-46 59
a. Fossil trees are sometimes found standing on an angle and even upside
down in the coal seams.
b. Coal seams occasionally split into two seams separated by transported
marine sediments.
c. Marine fossils - tubeworms, sponges, corals, mollusks, etc., - are
often found in coal beds.
d. Many coal seams have no sign of a fossil soil under them. Th
"underclays" sometimes cited are not true soils, with a soil profile, and
most authorities now believe they are transported materials.
e. Large boulders are often found in coal beds.
f. The so-called stigmaria, sometimes cited as roots of the coal-seams
trees, have been shown by Rupke to be fragments unattached to specific
trees and actually transported into place by water currents.
N.A. Rupke, "Sedimentary Evidence for the Allochthonous Origin of
Stigmaria, Carboniferous, Nova Scotia," Bulletin, Geological Society of
America, Vol.80(1969),pp.2109-2114.
-Randy