This is not true. Waterlogged wood can last 100's of thousands of years.
There is a whole forest of tree stumps under the North Sea off the British
coast. These trees were buried when the sea rose 12,000 years ago. I see
the same thing in lakes in oklahoma where I scuba dived years ago. The
lakes at that time were 30 years old but the trees were well preserved. A
400,000 year old waterlogged wooden spear was found in Schoningen Germany.
(Robin Dennell, "The World's Oldest Spears," Nature 385(Feb. 27, 1997), p.
767)
So I don't have to agree that the trees would rot rapidly. Afterall a coal
swamp is a wet place and the tree stumps.
Based
>upon the frequent occurrence of polystrate tree fossils, a case may be
>made for the rapid deposition of much of the geologic record associated
>with coals.
Not if the trees were waterlogged. No case can be made.
Based upon the common occurrence of partings and the total
>lack of tree stumps/roots cross-cutting the coal (which is exactly what
>we would see if your Okefenokee model were correct), we can logically
>infer deposition from a floating mat similar to the peat deposit from the
>floating logs in Spirit Lake below Mt. St. Helens, which again is rapid
>deposition.
Which reminds me, Mt. St. Helens is now about 20 years old and the stumps
in spirit lake haven't rotted yet.
>
>These observations are not equivocal, and their implications are not
>discussed, AFAIk, in the literature.
Won't work Bill.
glenn
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