Re: trees through geologic strata

From: Bill Payne (bpayne15@juno.com)
Date: Mon Jan 24 2000 - 21:38:48 EST

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    In the citations below you have noted sporadic instances where polystrate
    trees do indeed come up out of the coal. The reason they were described
    is because they are so rare.

    On Sat, 22 Jan 2000 15:55:39 +0000 glenn morton <mortongr@flash.net>
    writes:

    >Harold Coffin states:
    >
    >"Coal is mined along the Bay of Fundy and in other Upper
    >Carboniferous
    >deposits of Nova Scotia. Petrified trees arise from the upper surfaces
    >of
    >some of the coal seams or are distributed in the strata between
    >seams."
    >Harold G. Coffin, "Research on the Classic Joggins Pe;trified Trees,"
    >Creation Research Society Quarterly 6(1969):1:35-44 in Speak to the
    >Earth
    >pp. 60-85.

    "some of the coal seams"? Why not _all_ of the coal seams, if they were
    all from swamps? OTOH, if the coals were transported, then the
    occasional floating stump settling out of the water to the bottom along
    with the finer organics would fit the observations you cite quite well.

    > At
    >that time Prof. Sahni also interpreted this and two other stumps as
    >being in situ. [snip]

    >A petrified trunk, essentially similar to the one which came from this
    >position, is shown in Figure 29, with Prof. Hoskins holding a 14 inch
    >long
    >hammer across the lower part as a scale. There are two other such
    >occurrences known from this vicinity, one of which was excavated by
    >Prof.
    >Arthur H. Blickle, Prof. Hoskins and me, in 1939, about twenty yards
    >upstream and the other which occurred about 25 yards downstream." A.
    >T.
    >Cross, "The Geology of Pittsburgh Coal," Second Conference on the
    >Origin
    >and Constitution of Coal, Crystal Cliffs, Nova Scotia, June 1952, pp
    >32-99,
    >p.76

    "There are two other such occurrences known from this vicinity..." Only
    two others??? That means a total of three or maybe four polystrates? A
    swamp with only four trees, Glenn? And the spacing between at least
    three of the trees was 20 and 25 yards?

    My statement still stands: There are virtually no polystrate trees
    rising out of coal seams. In fact, of all the coal seams I have observed
    in the southeast US, I have NEVER seen even one such polystrate. I've
    seen a number of polystrates, but never even one with the stump solidly
    buried in the coal.

    Isolated observations won't get it, Glenn. Swamp coal demands entire
    forests of polystrates. They are not there. After you get through
    laughing, you really need to think this through.

    Bill



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