I have decided to post a series of essays on problems with the global flood.
Most young earth creationists rely on the global flood to account for the
sediments and the global flood is a major support for a belief in a young
earth. Since the young-earth creationist leaders will never tell the flock
what the real problems are, I will. If any young-earth creationists wish to
explain how this can fit into the flood year, I would be interested in
discussing it.
Today's essay concerns the incompatibility of the meteorite record with the
sediments being deposited in a single year.
According to modern young-earth creationist theory, the vast majority of the
geologic column was deposited during the one year, global flood. Henry
Morris wrote last year,
"Therefore, it is now becoming a cause for concern that a
growing number of young-earth creationists are seemingly about to
repeat the mistakes and compromises of the past, arguing that the
Biblical Flood cannot really explain the geological record after
all. Some are concluding thjat the Tertiary formations are to be
attributed to a number of post-Flood geological catastrophes, and
some are even alleging that the Flood can only account for the
Paleozoic rocks, or maybe not even all of these. Some are also
suggesting that at least a portion of the fossiliferous
Proterozoic rocks, were laid down by episodic events of some kind
before the Flood.
"If such equivocations continue, the Flood itself will
eventually be used only to account for the marine strata of the
Cambrian and Ordovician 'periods.' Sooner or later difficulties
will be found even in these, and the Flood will once again (as so
often in the past) be explained away as only a tranquil flood or
a local flood. Some (e.g. Davis Young, Glen Morton) have already
gone this whole route, starting out not too many years ago as
full-fledged Flood geologists but then allowing supposed
geological difficulties gradually to relegate the Flood to only a
trivial part , if any, of the geologic column."~Henry M. Morris,
"The Geologic Column and the Flood of Genesis", Creation Research
Society Quarterly 33:1(June, 1996), p. 50
There are reasons for Young's and my rejection of the Global Flood. If the
geologic column was deposited in one year, there should not be very much
evidence for meteors found in the fossil record. Sunderland writes:
"A geological fact which is perhaps the greatest problem for
those who choose to believe that the geologic column was deposited
uniformly over millions of years is the lack of meteoric evidence
in all but the surface rocks. This is another well-guarded trade
secret that has not leaked out, but knowledgeable geologists will
admit it if questioned directly on the subject. In a personal
correspondence with the author, a former president of The
Geological Society of Britain wrote, 'I do not know of any record
of metoeritic material back in the stratigraphical column unless
you accept Alvarez et al's evidence of iridium levels at the
Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary.' Many scientists, of course, dispute
the contention that the presence of a high amount of iridium at
several isloated locations indicates necessarily that it came from
a meteor. But even if it is accepted as evidence of a meteor, that
leaves billions of years of geologic deposits without evidences of
meteors. When we examine the moon and Mars it is obvious that they
were subjected to much meteoric bombardment. If the sedimentary
rocks were deposited uniformly over a billion years, why do they
not contain evidence of meteor strikes including huge craters below
the surface? That question deserves a serious answer, but
believers in uniformitarianism are notably silent on the matter.
There have been some suggestions that several basins like Hudson
Bay were the sites of giant meteor strikes, but, if strikes
actually occurred there, it must have been before the sedimentary
rocks were deposited since the evidence is not distinct."~Luther D.
Sunderland, Darwin's Enigma (Santee, California: Master Books,
1988), p. 157-158
Sunderland writing in 1988 clearly shows his lack of research on the topic
upon which he is writing. And I can't help it if the president of that
geological society didn't know the literature. (Having dealt with such
organizations, being president means you are willing to volunteer, not that
you actually know anything)
There is plenty of evidence for buried meteor craters. In 1979 R. A. F.
Grieve and P. B. Robertson listed the known meteorite craters at that time..
(Grieve, R.A.F. and P.B. Robertson. 1979. "The Terrestrial Cratering
Record" Icarus, Vol.38, No.2 (May 1979), pp.212-229) Since then many
other craters have been found. Here is the list.
Precambrian ...Vredefort, South Africa.........1.97 billion years
Precambrian .....Sudbury, Ontario, Canada......1.84 billion years
Precambrian......Janisjarvi, Russia............0.70 billion years
Cambrian ........Kelly West, N.T., Australia... 550 million years
Cambrian.........Holleford, Ontario, Canada... .550 million years
Cambrian ........Kjardla, Estonia...............500 million years
Ordovician.......Saaksjarvi, Finland............490 million years
Ordovician.......Carswell, Saskatchewan, Canada.485 million years
Ordovician.......Brent, Ontario, Canada.........450 million years
Silurian.........Lac Couture, Quebec, Canada....420 million years
Silurian.........Lac La Moinerie, Quebec, Canada400 million years
Devonian.........Siljan, Sweden.................365 million years
Devonian.........Charlevoix, Quebec, Canada.....360 million years
Devonian.........Flynn Creek, Tennessee, USA....360 million years
Carboniferous....Crooked Creek, Missouri, USA...320 million years
Carboniferous....Middlesboro, Kentucky, USA.....300 million years
Carboniferous....Serpent Mound, Ohio, USA.......300 million years
Permian..........Kursk, Russia..................250 million years
Permian..........Dellen, Sweden.................230 million years
Permian..........St. Martin, Manitoba, Canada...225 million years
Triassic.........Manicouagan, Quebec, Canada....210 million years
Triassic.........Redwing Creek,North Dakota,USA.200 million years
Jurassic.........Vepriaj, Lithuania.............160 million years
Jurassic.........Rochechouart, France...........160 million years
Jurassic.........Strangways, N.T., Australia....150 million years
Cretaceous.......Sierra Madre, Texas, USA.......100 million years
Cretaceous.......Rotmistrovka, Ukraine...........70 million years
Cretaceous.......Chicxulub, Yucatan, Mexico......65 million years
Paleocene........Kara, Russia....................57 million years
Oligocene........Mistastin, Labrador, Canada.....38 million years
Oligocene........Wanapitei L., Ontario, Canada...38 million years
Miocene..........Haughton Dome, N.W.T., Canada...15 million years
Miocene..........Karla, Russia...................10 million years
Pliocene...New Quebec Crater, New Quebec, Canada..5 m.y.
Pliocene.........Aouelloul, Mauritania............3.1 m.y.
Pleistocene......Bosumtwi, Ghana..................1.3 m.y.
Pleistocene......Lonar, India.....................0.05 m.y.
One can date when the meteor struck the rock by observing the rocks at the
rim of the crater. If the normal order of rock layers is,from top to bottom:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
then a crater in the record will look like:
.......CC..........CCC
......CBBB........BBBCC.
.....CBBAAA......AABBCCC
AAAAAAAAAAA......AAAAAAAAAAAAAA
BBBBBBBBBBBB....BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
CCCCCCCCCCCCC..CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
At the crater edges the rocks, which were excavated, are rubblized and lie
in an inverted order on top of the normal order. This can be seen at the
365 myr Siljan Crater in Sweden. Tiny tektites (debris formed when a meteor
hit the earth) are found in rocks of the same age throughout Europe (P.
Claeys, "Microtektite-like Impact Glass associated with the
Fransnia-Famennian Boundary Mass Extinction," Earth Planetary Sci. Lett.
122:3-4 April 1994, p 303-315).
during the flood year (because the Siljan crater is formed in
Devonian-Cambrian strata) and the debris was spread out over Europe. But
then every other crater in the list above represents a meteor impact. They
too must have all struck in the middle of the flood. That single year must
have created all the known meteor craters. Could that be the cause of the
flood? No. The ark would not have been able to survive the massive waves
caused by such a bombardment. And young earthers want to use the lack of
meteorites as evidence that the rocks were deposited rapidly.
Several buried meteor craters produce oil. Because of this cores have been
taken to try to examine ancient meteor impacts. The Redwing Creek crater of
North Dakota (mentioned above) has been a prolific oil producer. The meteor
rubblized the rock and created a porous rubble which contains oil. There are
two other recognized impact features in the Williston Basin of North Dakota
and Southern Canada. These are the Viewfield Crater (Saskatchewan 1.5 mile
diameter buried 2200 feet below sealevel and produces oil) and the Hartney
Crater (Manitoba 18 mile diameter). All of these are Jurassic-Triassic in
age. (SeeH. B. Sawatzky, "Astroblemes in Williston Basin," Bull. Amer.
Assoc. Petroleum Geologists, April 1975, p. 694-710)
The Lyles Ranch field in South Texas is producing oil from the Eocene
Carrizo rocks which were rubblized by an impact. The impact was post Eocene
which would have been late in the Flood. (See Donn Levie Jr., "Lyles Ranch
Field, South Texas Production from an Astrobleme?" Bull. Amer. Assoc.
Petroleum Geologists, Sept. 1985, p 1426)
Over the past few years, near Ames, Oklahoma an Ordovician meteor crater (20
mi diameter) has produced oil. (See B.N. Carpenter and Rick Carlson, "The
Ames Astrobleme" Bull. Amer. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists, Sept. 1993, p. 1572)
One of the most recent astroblemes to be discovered in the geologic column
comes from Chad, Africa.vincent and Beauvilain write:
"The minimum diameter of Gweni-Fada astrobleme is 14 km. It lies
entirely within lower Paleozoic sandstones. Its main
characteristics are its asymmetry and the size of the central
uplift. The peripheral depression has a crescent form. The
central zone forms a disrupted structural dome whose summit is
higher than the ramparts and displaced toward the south. Several
sets of characteristic planar deformation features are present in
the quartz grains of the central zone. Gweni-Fada is the fourth
largest impact crater in Africa.""P. M. Vincent, and A.
Beauvilain, "The Circular Structure of Gweni-Fada, Ennedi: A New
Meteorite Impact Crater in Northern Chad," Compt. Rend. Ser. 2,
Sect. A. v. 323(1996):12:987-997
Another is found recently just outside Washington DC. An 85 km wide,
1.5-2.0 km deep ring was found buried under Eocene strata in Chesapeake Bay.
(see Pag et al, "Meteoroid Mayhem in Ole Virginny," Geology, 22:691-694,
August 1994)
This is not all, there are several cases of actual meteorites found in the
fossil record First there are some examples of meteorites actually buried in
the geologic column. There is an interesting meteor found at Brunflo, Sweden.
"The Brunflo chondrite was found in the Rodbrottet quarry near
Brunflo, central Sweden (Lat. 63o 5' N, long. 14o 53' E). The
meteorite (ca. 11 cm x 9.5 cm) occurs in a polished slab of
Middle Ordovician limestone which, based on its content of
conodonts, belongs to the Aserian Seyerstad Limestone. The
meteorite fell in the Japetus Ocean, close to its eastern
coastline. The original minerals, except chromite, are replaced
by secondary minerals, mainly calcite. Remarkably, even minute
details of textures and structures are preserved in some areas.
The various types of chondrules and their frequencies could
therefore be studied. They are similar to present falls of
ordinary chondrites of petrologic types 3 and 4."~P. Thorslund,
F. E. Wickman and J. O. Nystrom, "The Ordovician Chondrite from
Brunflo, Central Sweden, I, General Description and Primary
Minerals," Lithos, 17(1984), p. 87.
Thorslund et al write of other buried meteors found in the geologic record:
"The following meteorites appear to be known. Sardis, an
extremely weathered octahedrite, probably fell in Middle Miocene
according to Henderson and Cooke (1942). Another iron, in all
liklihood also an octahedrite, was found during the drilling of
an oil well in Texas (Lovering, 1959). The sediments in which
the iron was found were probably Eocene. The specimen has
unfortunately been lost. Yudin (1971) described fragments of
ferruginous bauxite which contain what evidently are remnants of
barred chondrules."~P. Thorslund, F. E. Wickman and J. O.
Nystrom, "The Ordovician Chondrite from Brunflo, Central Sweden,
I, General Description and Primary Minerals," Lithos, 17(1984),
p. 87.
There is even one example from the fossil record of a meteorite embedded in
the body of a Nautiloid. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Earth Science, (p.
66) states:
"A meteorite embedded in the shell of a straight shelled nautiloid
(Mollusca) in a 463-million-year-old Ordovician limestone. It seems likely
that the meteorite was the cause of death."
They show the picture.
Several evidences for micrometeorites are found in the geologic column, in
addition to that mentioned above in Europe. Wei writes:
"Upper Eocene microspherules (microtektites and
microkrystites) have been found in deep-sea sediments from the
western N. Atlantic, Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, equatorial
Pacific, and eastern equatorial Indian Ocean. Recent studies
proposed that there are 3 or 4 microspherule layers: the North
American microtektite and microkrystite couplet in chron C15, and
one (or 2) significantly older layers(s) in chron C16 in DSDP
sites 216, 292 and 612. Based on calcareous nannofossil
biochronologic and morphometric data, it is suggested that the
microspherules in the latter sites correlate with the North
American microtektite-microkrystite couplet. Results as well as
previously published data are all compatible with the model of
one couplet of microtektites-microkrystites. the inference of 3
or 4 microspherule layers in the upper Eocene is shown to be an
artifact of interpretation."~W. Wei, "How Many Impact-Generated
Microspherule Layers in the Upper Eocene?" Palaeogeogr.
Palaeoclimatol., Palaeoeco., 114:1, pp 101-110.
March, 1995.
Tektites formed by the Chixulub impact, the meteor which killed the
dinosaurs, are found all over the Gulf of Mexico region. (see Jan Smit et
al, "Tektite-bearing, deep-water clastic unit at the Cretaceous-Tertiary
Boundary in Northeastern Mexico." Geolgoy, 20:99-103, Feb 1992) The
Chixulub crater is buried 3000 feet deep in the sedimentary column.
One can measure the rate of influx of meteoric dust to the earth (which is
much slower than the very outdated 1957 work often cited by Creationists).
water deposited 'flood sediments') was deposited. James Barnett in his
masters thesis, "Sedimentation Rate of Salt Determied by Micrometeorite
Analysis, Western Michigan University, 1983, found a rather normal level of
micrometeorites in salt as would be expected from observed, present day
rates of influx 1 x 10^4 tons of meteor dust per year. The A-1 salt of the
Michigan basin (a Silurian deposit) was accumulated at rates of 10 to 400
centimeters per thousand years. The salt is as much as 152 meters thick
meaning that the A-1 salt would take from 38,000 to 1.5 million years to be
deposited.
Young earth creationists need to account for such data within their model.
They should cease their erroneous claim that there is no evidence of meteors
in the fossil record.
glenn
Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm