Later, yes; but not before the Permian deposition. The Permian may be only
a few days or weeks into the Flood, before the major land areas were eroded
(most truely land-plant fossils and land animals are in Mesozoic and higher
strata).
>B. managed to avoid dying in the astounding turmoil of that much water flowing
>to and fro;
Many died, to be sure. Most bottom dwelling life (trilobites, brachiopods,
etc.) was already buried, even extinct.
>C. managed not to be buried while several thousand feet of sediment was laid
>down in the canyon (in alternating layers of sandstone, limestone, and shale -
>another enormous problem to explain) at a rate measured in feet per hour; and
Interesting that the order of these vast layers is: sandstone (Tapeats),
shale (Bright Angel), limestone (Muav, Redwall), then sand (Supai), shale
(Hermit), then sand (Coconino), with limestone (Kaibab) on top -- three
mega-pulses of coarse to fine sediments, now eroded and exposed in the
Canyon.
>D. managed to breathe and find food while all of this is going on.
>
Water cushions shear forces. Whatever energetic deposition was going on
beneath those that could float could be safe as a boat.
>How did spiders of all things manage to live through that?
Spiders probably couldn't, at all! But without body fossils, the
interpretation of the invertebrate tracks as representing spiders is very
insecure.
And if the sediment
>was being laid down so incredibly fast, why are there no body fossils
>trapped in
>the sandstone?
The depositional conditions were apparently optimal for a small range of
particle sizes, that of the sand grains.
This is, of course, in addition to the clear evidence of
>terrestrial deposition in the Coconino - the composition of the sand
>particles,
>the sorting, the angle of the sand, etc.
Have you seen the line graphs comparing grain size distributions (grain
size vs cumulative frequency percent) for desert sand dune, offshore
estuary sand, estuary sandwaves, and the Coconino sandstone? The coconino
profile most closely matches the profile of the estuary sandwaves (Altamaha
Estuary in Georgia), with larger grainsize in the Coconino.
I don't see any way that someone can
>make the argument that the Coconino was deposited underwater and treat the
>evidence honestly.
>
There are lots of things that we don't see. None of us have seen all that
data. It will be very interesting to see the truth of this if we are ever
so priviliged as to see it. I hope all of us can stay humble though it all!
Karen