----- Original Message -----
From: "Darryl Maddox" <dpmaddox@arn.net>
> I should not have said the "data" was what had to be ignored or bent. The
> data can neither be ignored nor bent. Rather, I should have said it is
> our interpretations of the data and the coherence between those
> interpretations and laboratory and field experiments + chemical and
> physical theories and data which have also been independently
> verified through laboratory work that get ignored or bent. As an
> example: There is substantial data on settling rates of particulate
> materials of various sizes. The no universal
> flood group infers from this data and the existence of deposits of small
> size (+ other data) that the material was deposited slowly. However, the
> universal flood group ignores this interpretation (they can not ignore the
> existence of the rocks) and offers alternative interpretations.
I did an experiment to see about this settling issue. I took three quart
canning jars (top of the line lab equipment!) and put different abount of
fine soil in each then filled up each jar to the same level with water. I
have not sieved the soil but I know it is much finer than sand. When wet it
forms a sticky, gooey mud which sticks to your shoes and you gain in height
as you walk though it. It is a clayey silt.
Jar 1 has about 1 cm of soil and about 12 cm of water making a total of 13
cm.
Jar 2 has about 3.5 cm of soil and about 9.5 cm of water making a total of
13 cm.
Jar 3 has about 7 cm of soil and about 6 cm of water making a total of 13
cm.
If the above data about settlement rate of particulate is correct then Jar 2
should take about 3.5 times longer to settle out than Jar 1. And Jar 3
should take about 7 times longer to settle out as Jar 1.
I take the Jars, shaken them up and set them down and measure how long they take to settle back to their original height. Here is a table showing the results from last nights redoing of the experiment.
Jar 1 2 3
Height in cm
@ time 0 1.1 3.5 7.0
Jars shaken ( not stir red)
5 min 1.2 7.0 12.0
10 min 1.2 5.0 11.5
15 min 1.2
20 min 1.3 4.3 10.5
25 min
30 min 1.3 4.0 9.6
35 min 1.3 4.0 8.5
40 min 1.3 4.0 8.4
45 min 1.3 3.7 8.2
50 min 1.3 3.8 8.1
55 min 1.3 3.8 7.9
60 min
65 min 1.3 3.7 7.8
145 min 1.2 3.7 7.3
As you can see for Jar 1 with the 12/1 ratio, nearly all the sediment is in place in 5 minutes. One cannot see through the water because of the suspended particles even after 145 minutes. The water was still cloudy but transparent, now about 12 hours later.
For Jar 2, after 5 minutes, 7 cm of mud sits on the bottom of the jar with 6 cm of non-transparent water sits above the mud (compared to the original ratio of 9.5/3.5). As you can see over the next 140 minutes the mud on the bottom slowly shrinks in size as water seeps upward ( you can watch this happen). After 12 hours the water is transparent.
Jar 3 does the same as jar 2, the water seeps upward from the muddy mass and
the mass slowly shrinks down to the original size in about 145 minutes. The water is transparent but still has some praticulates after 12 hours.
As you can see here is a definite difference between Jar 1 and Jars 2 & 3. The ratio of water to soil seems to make a difference in settling. With a ratio of 12/1 the soils seems to settle out in the "normal" fashion. However with a ratio of 9.5/3.5 or less -- 6/7, the mixture acts differently -- It acts as a muddy mass. A deposition from these mixture ratios would not occur at the same rate as "normal" deposition even though made up of the same soil. Are not these smaller ratios what we find in a turbidite mixture (or even a tsunami mixture)?
What is apparent here is that deposition of the sediment in all three jars is basically done in 5 minutes. The only thing that happens after that is the compaction of the deposition which is mostly complete in 145 minutes.
It may be that my soil sample partiulates (gotten from by back yard) are larger than what is found in some of the shalely and fine layers in Grand Canyon. I would be interested to see what happens at the small ratios of water to soil similar to that used above.
Allen
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jun 26 2000 - 14:49:37 EDT