pillow basalts and the flood

Glenn Morton (grmorton@waymark.net)
Mon, 23 Feb 1998 17:03:06 -0600

I ran into the following item in an old Creation Research Society Quarterly.
Some background is needed. Basalt when it comes out of the ground
underwater, the surface of the basalt is instantly cooled by the water. This
creates pillow shaped rock. But when the basalt comes out under the air,
like at Hawaii, the surface of the lava is not lumpy like a pillow but
relatively smooth over a large scale. (nothing is perfectly smooth in nature).

Now what we find with basalt which occurrs throughout the geologic column is
that most of it which is on the continents was NOT pillow lava. This means
that the lava came out when there was no water covering that place. Here is
what Steve Austin Plume-de nom Stuart Nevins, wrote:

"In a previous paper it was shown that most of the Cenozoic
strata (which were deposited after both the Paleozoic and Mesozoic
strata) could not have been depostied during the Flood and they were
interpreted to be post-Flood. This conclusion was based on the
observation that Cenozoic lava flows in the northwestern United
States are commonly subaerial."
"The Mesozoic strata also seem to be post-Flood as subaerial
laval flows are well documented. Thus, in the Meridian Formation
(Triassic) of central Connecticut, basalt strata iwth manifold
evidences of subaerial flow are up to 500 feet thick and are
continuous laterally over distances up to 30 miles. Sedimentary
strata bettween and above the Meridian flows contain abundant
dinosaur footprints.
"Also the enormous Triassic or Jurassic lava flows of the Parana
Basin of Brazil probably covered at least 375,000 square miles to a
depth of up to 2,000 feet. Similar flows to those in Brazil deposited
about the same time are found in South Africa.
"It is our opinion at the present time that the Late Paleozoic
strata are associated with the final stages of the Noachian Flood.
Thus, the Capitan Limestone, which is among the youngest ofthe late
Paleozoic strata, could be either deposited during or shortly
thereafter. If fossils such as Figure 14 can be well documented as
in situ occuring on several horizons, then the Capitan would have to
belong to our post-Flood era."Stuart Nevins, "Is the Capitan
Limestone a Fossil Reef?" Creation Research Society Quarterly, 8:231-
248, March, 1972, p. 246

This means that most of the geologic column cannot be deposited by the Flood
as Austin claims. There are several thousand feet of Triassic to Cretaceous
strata in the Gulf Coast and several tens of thousands of feet of Cenozoic
strata. None of this is from the flood according to this old Austin article.

glenn

Adam, Apes, and Anthropology: Finding the Soul of Fossil Man

and

Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm