Re: fossilization rate

From: glenn morton (mortongr@flash.net)
Date: Fri Jan 21 2000 - 00:37:55 EST

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    At 03:10 PM 1/21/00 +0900, Wayne Dawson wrote:
    >
    >I remember reading that that YEC insists that fossilization can occur
    >"within 100 years". It seems a little toooooooo fast. What exactly
    >do they mean by "fossilization" in this context.
    >
    >Is this in reference to bone and other calcium based materials, as
    >opposed to say cartilage or other even softer materials?
    >
    >Would that correspond to the most "ideal" imagined conditions
    >(essentially only possible in a laboratory)?
    >
    >Are there any real facts at all behind this claim?

    I don't know of any specific cases of fossilization occurring in less than
    100 years, if you mean by that total molecular replacement. However, it
    does occur relatively fast geologically speaking. And if conditions are
    correct concretions can form around the dead animals ensuring their
    fossilization.

            "Among the most interesting occurrences of fish-bearing concretions are
    those that are being found in Recent or sub-Recent marine clays in various
    places along the coasts of Greenland and northern Canada. Figure 5 shows
    one of these specimens from the American Museum which Dr. Scaeffer kindly
    permitted the writer to have photographed. The concretions occur in marine
    clays which apparently were raised above sea level by the isostatic rebound
    that followed the melting of the Pleistocene ice cap. The fact that
    concretions have already been developed in these very young clays seems
    significant." ~ L. G. Weeks, "Environment and Mode of Origin and Facies
    Relationships of Carbonate Concretions in Shales," Journal of Sedimentary
    Petrology, 23(1953):3:162-173, p. 168
    **
    "Conversely, anything which lowers the alkalinity of the waters or even
    throws the environment into the acid range changes the balace in favor of
    holding the lime in solution. Sea waters are normally alkaline, with a pH
    ranging from about 7.5 to 8.5. A neutral solution has a pH of 7.0 and
    decreasingly lower values represent increasing acidity. Normally, calcium
    carbonate deposition requires a pH at least as high as 7.5." ~ L. G. Weeks,
    "Environment and Mode of Origin and Facies Relationships of Carbonate
    Concretions in Shales," Journal of Sedimentary Petrology,
    23(1953):3:162-173, p. 171
    **
            "There are probably few stagnant bottom environments where there is not
    some limited decomposition of organic matter, even if anaerobic.
    Bacteriologists and biochemists tell us that where there is anaerobic
    decompositoin there is a localized concentration of ammonia or amines.
    This would markedly increase the pH; it would be sufficient, no doubt, to
    precipitate the bicarbonate in solution as carbonate. One of the tests
    used by bacteriologists to determine if the bacterial process is
    progressing is to see if ammonia is evolving." ~ L. G. Weeks, "Environment
    and Mode of Origin and Facies Relationships of Carbonate Concretions in
    Shales," Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, 23(1953):3:162-173, p. 171

    "The preservation of soft tissue by mineralization depends on a critical
    balance between decay and precipitation. Some decay is required to drive
    the process; too much leads to a loss of information. Subcellular details
    of the most labile tissues can only be replicated with a high degree of
    fidelity where mineralization is rapid relative to decay (the rate
    depending on a range of controls including concentration and oxidation
    state of the mineral ions, size and type of organic substrate, and pH)." ~
    D. E. G. Briggs et al, "Phosphatization of soft-tissue in Experiments and
    Fossils," Journal of the Geological Society, London, 150(1993):1035-1038,
    p. 1035

    glenn

    Foundation, Fall and Flood
    Adam, Apes and Anthropology
    http://www.flash.net/~mortongr/dmd.htm

    Lots of information on creation/evolution



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