Cyclothems: Evidence for the FloodBy Kurt Howard, MS, and Jon Covey, BA, MT (ASCP)
Evolutionists think creationists have little or no evidence in support of the worldwide Flood revealed in Genesis. However, they refuse to acknowledge the possibility that it is the Flood's results seen in the vast geological structures all around them. Ever since Scottish geologist James Hutton (1726-1797) and English attorney Charles Lyell (1797-1875) popularized the concept of uniformitarianism, uniformitarian geologists have believed that the geologic record can be explained by present geological processes and rates. Recently, more and more geologists admit that major parts of the geologic record are the result of immense catastrophic floods, occurring intermittently over long periods of time. They have postulated a world-inundating tidal wave caused by an asteroid impact as an explanation for the extinction of dinosaurs. The Bible, however, tells us that they perished in the Flood. We assume their survivors from Noah's ark did not flourish well in the post-Flood climate and became extinct along with a growing number of other animals. When Immanuel Velikovsky wrote Worlds in Collision (1950), and Earth in Upheaval (1955), he went against the conventional uniformitarian wisdom of the day. Although he was not a creationist, he believed strongly that our solar system and our planet were shaped by cataclysmic events. Two German evolutionary geologists, Werner Tollmann and Edith Tollman, defended their belief that there was a mountain-covering world flood about 10,000 years ago. According to them, a massive comet broke into seven pieces and slammed into the world's oceans. [Tollman] The Tollman's have already identified five marine impact craters and are looking for two more because some ancient flood accounts (non-Biblical) mention seven glowing objects in the sky. The creationist family magazine, Creation ex nihilo, had an article on this (16:1, pp. 46-47). One line of evidence in favor of the Flood comes from the preponderance of turbidites, which the Flood would have generated. Kurt wrote an excellent article on turbidites which revealed that 30-50% of all the world's strata are turbidites. Turbidites, also known as graded beds, are quickly deposited from rapidly moving, widespread, sediment-laden turbidity currents. A turbidity current is an underwater landslide of sorts. Turbidity currents occur when huge, underwater piles of unconsolidated sediments break loose and begin rushing down the slopes of ocean floors and lake beds. Turbidites are called graded beds because there is a continuum of particle sizes within a turbidite layer going from bottom to top, gradually decreasing in size. Before geologists recognized the true nature of turbidites, it was assumed that they were formed by gradual deposition over thousands or millions of years. This faulty assumption is the fruit of uniformitarian thinking. If this were true, no appreciable fossilization could take place, because animal remains must be quickly buried before scavengers, decay, and chemical decomposition can destroy them. For instance, what happened to all the buffalo bones on the Great Plains of the United States? A second line of evidence pointing to the Flood is the presence of the widespread conglomerates which cover as much as a million square miles with an almost uniformly thick layer of sediment. The constituents making up a conglomerate "may range in size from large boulders to particles as small as garden peas...More often than not conglomerates are poorly sorted because the openings between the large gravel particles contain sand or mud." [Tarbuck, p. 137] Large boulders require large floods to move them and dump them unsorted with smaller gravels. We covered conglomerates in Footprints in Stone. These conglomerates represent another major part of the geologic record which must be interpreted as the result of catastrophic flood conditions. A third line of evidence for the Flood comes from an important article written by John Woodmorappe on which this article is based. [Woodmorappe] Cyclothems are the result of major flood conditions. Because of this, the study of cyclothems is important to us who believe in the Flood. Evolutionists and creationists believe almost all sedimentary rock come from water. Evolutionists tend to interpret the facts to favor evolution and discredit creation. Contrary to the insistence of many evolutionists, there is no line of evidence which rules out the Flood, only lines of reasoning blinded to alternative explanations by a dogmatic evolutionary philosophy. A cyclothem is a series of beds deposited during a sedimentary cycle of the type that prevailed in what is called the Pennsylvanian Period. Non-marine sediments containing bituminous coal commonly occur in the lower half of a cyclothem, marine sediments in the upper half. Put another way, a cyclothem is made up of many thin layers of different sedimentary rock types such as shale, limestone, sandstone, siltstone, and one layer of coal as seen in our diagram which represents one tectonic pulse--a major upheaval or subsidence in the earth's crust. Woodmorappe says that cyclothems lie one on top of another and repeat in a regular sequence. Much of the world's coal is in cyclothems. [Woodmorappe, p. 190] We modified Woodmorappe's original diagram of an ideal or complete cyclothem found in Illinois to simplify things. Pennsylvanian stratigraphers do not agree about where one cyclothem ends and another begins. Some say they begin with the channel sandstone, others use the coal layer as the line of demarcation. It probably doesn't matter, although the coal layer is the essential ingredient of a cyclothem. Cyclothems are not always exactly in the order depicted in the diagram, and the thickness of layers varies from one cyclothem to the next. According to Weller, "The average thickness of a cyclothem in the central states is less than 50 feet..." [Weller] Properties of cyclothems are better explained in terms of catastrophic sedimentation rather than the slow and gradual buildup of sediment from encroaching, shallow seas explained by uniformitarianism. To summarize the evidence for this, cyclothems:
Now, let's look at each point in more detail: 1. Worldwide distribution. Many types of cyclothems exist. On the one hand, carbonate-evaporite cyclothems may have formed during early Flood action. Evaporites, according to uniformitarian principles, are deposits of salts which formed when shallow, inland seas having only narrow connections with the ocean evaporated, leaving their salts behind. During evaporation, the salts became more concentrated and precipitated out of solution according to their solubility. Covey suggests that most of these evaporites probably weren't from evaporation at all, but rather, the result of either chemically induced precipitation or precipitation by sudden cooling of hot, supersaturated water released by the fountains of the deep into cool oceans, or a combination of both. Such evaporites would have to have been rapidly buried by Flood sediments in order to be preserved, otherwise they would have dissolved in the Flood waters. On the other hand, Woodmorappe says that the coal-bearing cyclothems formed during the recessional stages of the Flood. We suggest the possibility that the worldwide Flood produced similar results worldwide. For instance, cyclothems have been traced over 400 miles along outcrops [Moore], and possibly as much as 1000 miles because members of cyclothems in different basins seem to correlate, although this cannot be proven. "Nevertheless," says Woodmorappe, cyclothems in North American and Europe, from Texas to the Donetz coal basin in Russia are extremely similar." [Woodmorappe, p. 195] He says that although Pennsylvanian-Permian (about 300 m.y.a. to 225 m.y.a) cyclothems are the most widespread, there are cyclothems of "ages" between Devonian (395 m.y.a.) and Miocene (20-25 m.y.a) or even more recent on the evolutionary time scale. Flood geologists don't have to follow these uniformitarian age designations. From our perspective, all coal-bearing cyclothems were deposited at the end stage of the Flood as the Flood waters receded. Thus, the cyclothems of the eastern states could be contemporary with the cyclothems of the Philippines and the Rocky Mountain States. Steve Austin's doctoral thesis on coal formation fits in well with this scenario. Austin supposed that floating log mats made huge amounts of coal-producing peat as the bark was rubbed off the floating logs and sank to the bottom of the Flood-swollen ocean. Although the floating log mats of Flood-devastated forests would have been enormous, the bark fallout in a turbulent ocean might be diluted. However, log mats in trapped inland sea basins could serve to concentrate coal production within the basins. Austin was able to observe this sort of thing in Spirit Lake at Mount St. Helens after the 1980 eruption. When the landslide material from the north slope of Mount St. Helens fell away, part of it fell into Spirit Lake creating a huge wave which scoured the surrounding mountains up to about 900 feet above the level of the lake. As the water returned to the lake's basin, it carried millions of uprooted trees and debris into the lake. His Mount St. Helens video is available through Master Books (800) 999-3777. His observations at Mount St. Helens also gave him an answer to the evolutionary geologists' objection to creation and Flood geology when they cite the 27 successive forests preserved at Yellowstone Park. One sign at the park's fossil forests says: Across the valley rise the slopes of Specimen Ridge, but the forest you see there today is only the latest chapter in a remarkable story. Buried within the volcanic rocks that compose the mountain are twenty-seven distinct layers of fossil forests that flourished 50 million years ago. The sign to the right of this sign says: Sporadic volcanic eruptions occurring over a period of about 20 thousand years buried many successive forests under blankets of ash and volcanic debris...Many stumps still stand upright in the same sites where they grew millions of years ago. The petrified trunks stand upright at 27 different levels. Evolutionists had always interpreted this arrangement to mean 27 ancient forests which grew one after another, chiding creationists for their belief in a worldwide Flood because they assume their interpretation that the 27 levels of strata show no evidence of such a Flood. However, Steve has shown that the tree stumps' roots in the fossil forests rarely taper to a point and often terminate abruptly about three feet from the trunks' bases. This is what Austin has observed at Spirit Lake among the sunken logs. Furthermore, some are buried several feet, some only a foot or two, and others barely touch bottom. The clear message at Spirit Lake is that something similar might have happened in Yellowstone and the 27 successive forests are probably the devastated remains of forests surrounding an ancient lake basin. We believe in a literal, global Flood, and our discussion on cyclothems is intended to raise the scientific credibility of the Flood to a higher level. We do not mean that the latest scientific discoveries will prove the Bible, but they will not contradict it. For instance, Darwin's The Origin of Species has many factual inaccuracies. Our knowledge has come a long way since then, and it still has a long way to go.< This short series will not fully defend the reality of the Flood, but we want you to gain confidence that your faith in the Scriptures does not have to bow to the knowledge of men. Indeed, history has shown that many ideas, held by great minds, have not stood the test of time. Let us not forget that past events are not accessible to scientific scrutiny. The big bang, the chemical origin of life, and the formation of the earth cannot be verified by the scientific method. Remember that past occurrences cannot be known without some kind of record or observer. God was there, and the record of His observations is the Bible which we deem the most reliable documentation of events no one else witnessed. If you are a high school or college student, notice how many times the authors of your textbooks couch their erudite proclamations in phrases expressing uncertainty such as, "We assume," "We suspect," "It is assumed," "It has been suggested," "Undoubtedly there are other factors involved, but...," "Many investigators think," and many other such words. Watch also for unfounded dogmatic statements. Be especially wary when an author or professor cites a known, observable phenomenon and applies it to the unobservable or untestable, making generalizations and stating principles about seemingly related subjects. For instance, the recent Northridge earthquake caused some mountains to grow a few inches. Geologists might infer from this that mountain building takes place in sudden, but small, increments over long periods of time. However, erosional studies of those mountains might reveal that mountains are eroded faster than they are uplifted. According to the Bible, mountain building after the Flood was very rapid: Thou didst cover [the earth] with the deep as with a garment; the waters were standing above the mountains. At Thy rebuke they fled; at the sound of Thy thunder they hurried away. The mountains rose; the valleys sank down to the place which Thou didst establish for them. Thou didst set a boundary that they may not pass over; that they may not return to cover the earth. [Psalm 104:6-9 NAS] The psalmist says, "The mountains rose," possibly indicating that the mountains were not as high before the Flood. Jesus referred to the Flood. His reliability as a teacher of truth depends upon the truth of the Flood. He said, "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be." [Matthew 24:37-39 NAS] If Jesus did not mean a literal Flood, perhaps He did not mean His literal return either. Likewise, of what value were Peter's remarks? He wrote, "For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water." [I Peter 3:18-20 NAS] At which point do we take the words literally, or should we take any of it at face value? Why an allegorical Flood so closely on the heels of something as important as Christ having died for sins once for all? Studies in Flood Geology by John Woodmorappe contains our present study, and we recommend it highly. Call Master Books at 1 (800) 999-3777 for a copy. Woodmorappe writes too technically at times, but it is worth struggling through because it contains so much good information. Chip away and get some good nuggets for yourself! 2. Cyclothems exhibit Age transcendence Last month we briefly explained one important property of cyclothems: their worldwide distribution. If there were a worldwide Flood, we would expect it to produce similar effects worldwide. This is the case from Texan plains to Russian Donetz. Next is the fact that cyclothems exhibit "age" transcendence, meaning that their beds extend through sedimentary rocks of different ages. While uniformitarians ascribe vast ages to coal-bearing rocks, the continuous nature of cyclothems belies that theory. Before we can understand age transcendence, we need to know something of the ages assigned to rocks from the different geologic periods. Have you ever looked at one of those geologic period diagrams and wondered how anyone could keep those periods in the correct order without having to memorize? Here's a mnemonic to help you remember. Comics Only Seem Dumb. Many People Pay Them Jumbo Checks To Quack. The capital letter stands for the beginning letter of each period in reverse order as reflected in the table below. The European Carboniferous period is equivalent to the American Mississippian and Pennsylvanian periods. The Carboniferous period is the alleged time when most of the great coal beds were formed, but the differences which exist between "younger" and "older" cyclothems of different regions can be explained in another way. [Woodmorappe, p. 196] The differences could be the result of variations in the steepness of the basin slope on which the cyclothem material was deposited (the depositional surface). [Beerbower, p. 1073] If cyclothems formed contemporaneously as the Flood waters receded, then the geologic periods uniformitarian geologists have assigned to various cyclothems are meaningless. As Woodmorappe explains it, the uniformitarians sense the unity and universality of cyclothems, but they cannot relate these to the universality of the Flood and its contemporaneous sedimentary and tectonic effects during its recession. This is because they believe so strongly in the geologic ages they are blind to the possibility that much of the geologic column is the product of a global Flood. A.J. Wells recognized the unity and universality of cyclothems and wrote, ...it is held that comparison of the different types of cyclothems developed in rocks of many different ages strongly suggests a common cause. [Wells] While Wells admits this, a statement by Trueman reveals the reasoning behind the denial that the cyclothems had a common cause. He says, The occurrence of some coal-bearing sediments in all Systems from the Devonian to the Late Tertiary might be held to suggest that the pulsations causing the cyclic deposition were continuous or nearly so (and not in themselves periodic) giving rise to rhythmic deposits wherever other conditions were favourable. But the time-distribution of important carbonaceous deposits appears to be too irregular to support this suggestion. [Trueman] If the geologic ages are accepted, then the time distribution of cyclothems in the geologic column will seem irregular. However, Flood geologists (Diluvialists) reject the geologic ages and suggest that the cyclothems from all ages formed essentially at the same time all over the world. If the Flood happened, you would expect to see cyclothems buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth. 3. Cyclothems deposited in shallow seas Historical geology textbooks (those books that make "educated" guesses about the past based on present observations, inferences, and extrapolations) say that most Paleozoic sedimentation (see table for time span) and cyclothems of all periods were deposited in shallow, inland seas. It is generally agreed...that the seas in which thin fossiliferous black shales and limestones formed were very shallow and resulted from short-lived inundations of large areas. [Wanless] This is not consistent with uniformitarian theory. On the one hand, the uniformitarian says that the past can be explained by present processes; on the other hand, they often plead special cases to explain their observations. Where in today's world is there a broad, shallow, inland sea which geologists call an epicontinental or epeiric sea? Hudson Bay has been proposed. However, Irwin says something interesting: The present is the key to the past' may be a misleading [statement] when considering epeiric sedimentation. There simply is no existing model of epeiric sedimentation to guide our investigations, and although it is true that many similarities do pertain between the past and the present, it is equally true that many differences exist as well.[Irwin] Woodmorappe says, "This fact can be used to raise questions as to whether the 'epeiric seas' were seas at all. In other words, instead of the present time being considered unusual because of the virtual absence of extensive shallow seas, the past sedimentation can be considered the unusual situation of extensive flooding of all the continents. Hence, when properly understood, the Paleozoic and some Mesozoic 'shallow marine' sedimentary blankets covering major portions of all the continents can be seen as the direct result of the Universal Deluge. The absence of such sedimentation today reflects the fact that Noah's flood is ended and no longer will oceanic waters transgress over continents." He also states that the blanketing of continents with extremely shallow water (about 5 to 180 feet) is precisely in accord with the Flood. [Woodmorappe, p. 196] Another example of attempting to explain the past by present processes comes from Boggs. He says that modern continental shelves may not provide a good analog for ancient marginal seas, because the rapid rise of sea level following the final episode of glaciation stranded coarse sediment in deeper parts of the shelves showing disequilibrium between sediment and water characteristics. The sediment grain size is not consistent with present water depth, energy conditions, and sedimentation processes on the shelves. [Boggs] We wouldn't have any trouble explaining this in terms of Flood action. As the last of the Flood water poured off the continents, coarse sediment could have been transported and dropped farther out on the shelves. 4. Cyclothems have vertical gradations Vertical gradations of cyclothems indicate rapid sedimentation due to major flood conditions such as the Flood. Uniformitarians used to say it took 20,000 to 350,000 years for a cyclothem to form. [McDuff] Some uniformitarians now acknowledge that "average rates of sedimentation are meaningless" for cyclothems. [Carss] If continuous deposition from one geologic period to another is evident, the uniformitarian concept is dead. While this may seem elementary to some evolutionists who have long since abandoned uniformitarianism and think we are beating a dead horse by continuing the attack on uniformitarianism, the moribund ideas of uniformitarians still dominate, especially in the popular media. The uniformitarian concept and evolution are intimately associated in the hearts of millions, and it is uniformitarianism that keeps evolution afloat for them. There is no universal stoppage of sedimentation and subsequent erosion, called an unconformity, that points to a significant cessation of cyclothem deposition. Rather, localized unconformities indicate that regions were covered by Flood water, exposed as the water receded, and then reinundated. Certain colloids aggregate very rapidly which means that some non-gradations where there is no continuum in particle size or particle type of sediment can be accounted for by rapid lithification [rockification] and later erosion. [Woodmorappe, p. 194] What Woodmorappe says about continuous gradation between one geologic period and another is most significant. The entire 130-odd mile thick, 600 million year geologic rock-time continuum collapses because the superposed rock beds of widely different "ages" have continuous gradation between them with no evidence of any buried erosional surface and consequent hiatus (stoppage) of deposition. Erosional surfaces, or unconformities, definitely exist but are not as widespread as uniformitarians would have them be. This absence of worldwide erosional surfaces, and the gradation of every formation somewhere into another strongly argue for the Flood. [Woodmorappe, p. 193] In other words, not only is the long ages interpretation invalidated for the uniformitarian but also for the evolutionary catastrophist who agrees with us that enormous catastrophic events produced the geologic record. The evolutionary catastrophist, such as Stephen Jay Gould, would like it believed that the history of our planet and life was mainly a long, boring daily sameness punctuated by short periods of unimaginable terror from catastrophes of stupendous proportions, such as an asteroid impact or other event. This explanation does not square with observation, because it implies that between each major depositional period there was a hiatus in which there was no sedimentation and no erosion. They do, however, include exceptions to this in their explanations. Woodmorappe says that uniformitarians have come around to recognizing gradation and intertonguing (interlacing) of different "aged" rocks. That is to say the material (sand, clay, etc.) making up the rock composition of an earlier deposition grades gradually into rocks above them. This kind of gradation strongly supports the idea that vertical sequences of rock were quickly laid down on top of one another as one Flood Mass Movement (FMM) after another unloaded its burden of sediments, creating thick, widespread deposits that hardened to rock. Milic states that the unconformity concept is largely subjective and is based to some degree upon preconceptions concerning modes of origin. [Milic] According to Woodmorappe, the uniformitarians have come up with a new explanation for the gradation-intertonguing of different "aged" rocks. They call it a "time-transgressive relation." Sounds impressive, doesn't it? What it means is that a sedimentary basin is filled in a time spanning geologic periods or from sedimentation of continuous sedimentary environments. That doesn't seem too clear, but maybe that's the way they want it. Thinking up new names and definitions cannot hide the fact that these ages never existed. Intertonguing and gradation in massive sedimentary rock beds is excellent evidence for the Flood. Woodmorappe documents this continuous deposition from the Silurian period right on up to the Tertiary period. He states: In summary, the de facto gradation, in some (most) locations of Silurian into Devonian, Devonian into Mississippian, in turn into Pennsylvanian, in turn into Permian, all suggests that this span represents a continuously deposited sequence of rock. The artificial geologic age designations collapse in futility, some 190 million years of nonexistent time evaporates, and the rocks give powerful testimony to the fact that the Flood caused them. [Woodmorappe, p. 194] Note: we must apologize that some of the unique terminology and concepts Woodmorappe used in his book are difficult to understand and we might not fully represent his ideas. We thought it would be helpful to change his term "Floodwater Mass Movement (FMM)" to Floodwater Mass and add the appropriate adjective. We list the following evidences for rapid sedimentation and formation of coal-bearing cyclothems (please refer to the diagram at the beginning of the article). A. The universal presence of broken fragments of preexisting rock (called clastic inclusions), plant, tree, and coal debris in cyclothem sandstones. If cyclothems were produced in widespread, shallow inland seas, we wouldn't expect to see these elements distributed within them. Uniformitarian theory would not predict this because it is not happening at the present time. Log casts, carbonized plant debris and shale fragments also are abundant in some sandstones. [Beutner] These kinds of fossil remains are the result of sudden, catastrophic burial. P.M. Kranz says that "it is generally accepted that rapid burial in a protective medium is necessary for fossil formation." [Kranz] B. Poorly consolidated cyclothem sandstone sediments. "Many sandstones must have accumulated with considerable rapidity." [Trueman] Sediments will not always consolidate to rock properly if they are formed before cementing materials can fill the matrix of the grains. C. The shale to sandstone transition. The change takes place over the span of a few inches of sediment. [McDuff] This kind of rapid change is unexpected within the uniformitarian framework. D. Polystrate fossils, i.e., fossil remains which traverse two or more strata. Biological remains, from trilobites to trees, tend to decay and dissolve within a few days to a few weeks. Dead tree and woody plant remains persist longer, but even they eventually rot and crumble away. The remains of upright plants and animals wouldn't have survived long enough for several layers to build up around them if the strata containing these fossils had been deposited over a period of many years. Tree casts are not rare in coal-bearing rocks. [Broadhurst] E. Transported rocks have been found interbedded with coal deposits all over the world, including Russia, as Zaritsky reports in his paper. [Zaritsky] Transporting boulders over any distance can be done only by powerful currents of rapidly moving water. The Genesis Flood by Dr. Henry Morris contains a photo of an extremely large bolder well within the San Fernando Valley which had been transported there during a flash flood. If coal formed in swamps over long periods of time as uniformitarians suppose, how could rocks have been transported and dispersed throughoutthe coal? F. Precambrian rock pebbles in Illinois limestone are from a source 250 miles away This is not something a merry stream or babbling brook would be able to do. How does limestone form? Tarbuck and Lutgens describe the organic and inorganic types of limestone. [Tarbuck] According to them, limestone comprises about 10 percent of all sedimentary rock and is the most abundant chemical sedimentary rock. Calcium carbonate (also called calcite), chemically denoted as CaCO3, is technically called aragonite when the source is organic and calcite when the source is inorganic. Creatures from which the aragonite is derived are calcareous. Important producers are coralline algae (corals), foraminiferans, green algae, and coccoliths. [Boggs, p. 477] Boggs says that aragonite dominates modern carbonate sediments while it is rarely found in ancient carbonate rocks. He also says that simple inorganic precipitation of calcium carbonate in the modern ocean seems to be relatively unimportant. [Boggs, p. 221, 478 respectively] In other words, he either means that in the past there was massive precipitation of calcium carbonate which formed ancient limestones and dolomites, but which is not happening today to any great degree, or else ancient limestones were actually aragonitic types which have since undergone structural transformation. We postulate the following scenario based on simple chemistry. Violent Floodwater Mass Movement during the Flood could have caused an upwelling of marine invertebrates and their ancestors' remains with subsequent grinding of these materials. Sea water is supersaturated with calcite which precipitates when the pH reaches 8.4. The eruption of seamounts (undersea volcanoes) could cause a sudden increase in pH (increase in alkalinity) of surrounding ocean waters. This could cause massive, instantaneous precipitation of calcite. If invertebrate remains were numerous in the places where this occurred, they would be caught in the matrix of the precipitate, giving the impression that they were the source of the matrix material. The actual source was sea water supersaturated with calcite and whatever was added from the fountains of the great deep, possibly the seamounts. Pillow lavas which are the product of submarine lava flows are the most abundant volcanic rock on earth. [Moore] This lends credence to the idea that massive volcanic activity during the Flood played a major role in the formation of limestone. Some limestones have calcareous fragments of animal remains, and it is generally assumed that limestone containing these organisms derived most of its carbonate from living organisms but that may not have been the case at all. Woodmorappe says the cyclothemic limestone layers formed from stagnant Floodwater Masses. These masses lost the rocks they carried when their velocity dropped. After the limestone was deposited, the underclay and coal layers developed. He states that limestone formation would also have been prominent as a result of chemical reactions between colliding Floodwater Mass Movements. Zeller says: If carbonate ions are continuously added to a solution containing several metallic ions, the pH of the solution will rise and the metallic ions will precipitate in the order in which the solubility products of their carbonates are exceeded. [Zeller] In strong contrast, the uniformitarians claim that limestone formation is by lime-secreting organisms inhabiting the bottoms of shallow seas over immense periods of time, but Zeller says the chemical aspects of limestone formation have been given "little or no attention." [Zeller, p. 150] We plan on doing further research on the rapid formation of limestone (Howard is especially interested in dolomite in which half the calcium is replaced by magnesium), but we are certain that immense volumes of limestone can form rapidly. The variability of certain widespread, sharply delineated limestone beds mixed with rocks has weakened the claim that they were formed by slow deposition during incursions of shallow seas. Some Pennsylvanian limestones vary greatly in composition, while others are very pure and dense. Some limestone strata are massive, blocky structures, others are thin and wavy. Blind to Flood effects, uniformitarians admit that they don't understand the significance of this variability. Woodmorappe says that the observed limestone variations are much better explained in terms of locally variable, chemical reactions between colliding Floodwater Masses rather than monotonous, tranquil, ancient seas. Hold on to your hats: "The gradation of limestones into clastics and common intraformational conglomerates and sandstone lenses within them further confirms their Floodwater Mass origin (because of definitely transported clastic lenses in them)." [Woodmorappe, p. 204] A lens is a rock unit that terminates on all sides within a formation. [Boggs, p. 546] A lens is a curiosity because it is like a dollop of whipped cream imbedded within a layer of lime jello. How did the dollop get inside limestone formed in a tranquil, inland sea? What is seen in the field are limestone layers grading into clastics such as sandstones. Within these structures are blobs of conglomerate material and sandstones consisting of foreign materials. G. Pyrite concretions form as a result of high concentrations of reduced organic matter in the coal, clay, and gray shale strata. "This may occur as a result of rapid burial..." [Shabica] Boggs says that this process occurs in the presence of organic carbon compounds because they contribute electrons to reduce ferric ions (Fe3+) to the ferrous state (Fe2+). Ferrous ions react with sulfur to form pyrite, FeS2. [Boggs, p. 273] H. The presence of bivalve escape tunnels in shale. [Shabica, p. 27] As we discovered in Crossfire Nov '93, burrowing creatures will produce horizontal burrows to live in. Vertical burrows could represent escape from rapid sediment burial rather than habitats. Clams, such as the northwest ugly clam, burrow into sand or mud and extend their mantles into long muscular incurrent and excurrent siphons to bring in food and oxygen and expel waste and debris. [Hickman] What do you suppose these expert burrowers would do if they were suddenly buried under a thick layer of silt? They would burrow out as quickly as they could so they could continue to breath, eat, and excrete! When bivalved organisms such as clams, mussels, oysters, and scallops die, the adductor muscles relax and the shells open, the contents are scavenged and the shells are scattered and destroyed. The shells of fossil bivalves are very frequently "clammed shut!" We interpret this to mean that these organisms were buried rapidly and quickly killed by Flood sediments. Buried in this fashion, the shells would not be able to open and they would fossilize closed. As geologists pointed out in the video Evidences: The Record and the Flood by the Geoscience Research Institute of Loma Linda University, there are more marine sediments than land sediments on the land. What would cause this unusual situation? When the fountains of the great deep erupted and the earth's crust was shattered, great tectonic reverberations rumbled through the earth. These tectonic upheavals were partly responsible for the turbulent ocean water and for mountain genesis. The continents sank and the ocean waters swept over the land, depositing thick layers of oceanic sediments. When Ian Taylor was here last year, he pointed out that when the Flood water had finally leveled out above the highest mountains, there was no opposing land mass to impede the movement of water resulting from the tidal effect of the moon. Imagine tidal waves racing around the world at hundreds of miles an hour, trying to keep up with their lunar attractor. Did they severely erode the mountains and high plains or did they only add to the complex pattern of Floodwater Mass Movements? Long, narrow sandstone known as a fluvial deposit which uniformitarians have attributed to ancient river deposits, may actually have been laid down when a swift, longitudinal Floodwater Mass movement began to slow down and torrentially deposited sandstone particles. "Ancient alluvial plains" which may have "wide lateral extent," as G.V. Padgett suggests, could actually have been laid down by a wide, swiftly moving Floodwater Mass Movement. [Woodmorappe, p. 199] Do you remember our discussion about shallow, Paleozoic seas? The kind of deposition attributed to those seas could really have been due to an extremely widespread Floodwater Mass Movement which became stagnant. Woodmorappe feels that cyclothems were formed in transitory depositional environments when the front of a Floodwater Mass Movement collided with a stagnant Floodwater Mass, producing a torrential sediment deposition. In our next installment of this series, we will focus on tectonic upheavals rampant during the Flood and what part basins played in the deposition of cyclothems. Plate tectonics–this theory teaches that the earth's outer shell consists of plates which interact with each other and produce earthquakes, volcanoes, mountains, and the crust. [Tarbuck, 579] PROPOSITION: Cyclothems were generated by irregular tectonic activity superposed upon steadily retreating Flood waters. [Woodmorappe, p. 200] "The earth strives for gravitational equilibrium, or in other words for a minimum of free potential energy of the rotating globe...." [Van Bemmelen] The Flood would have upset the world's isostatic equilibrium or isostasy–"The concept that the earth's crust is 'floating' in gravitational balance with the material of the mantle." [Tarbuck] The earth might still be in the process of reestablishing its equilibrium after the terrible damage done to the crust. In its original condition, the earth was probably in perfect balance after the continents were brought up out of the ocean on the third day of creation. When the continents arose, the enormous water run-off probably generated much sediment. That sediment includes at least the Precambrian rock. [Snelling] The Flood did not generate all the earth's major, widespread sediments.
The above drawing [after Woodmorappe, p. 201] is a cross-sectional view from the Appalachians to Kansas. The drawing below is a bird's eye view of the same area. Tectonic activity, that is the mountain building and the basin subsidence, controlled the cyclothem deposition during the Flood.1. The mountains were uplifted during the Flood and they are the source of the rock fragments (clastics) found within the cyclothems.2. Thresholds of activation caused irregular uplifting of the Appalachians. Some plates require more energy to move. This uplifting caused Floodwater Mass Movements to blanket the basin and form cyclothems I, II, III, and IV (actually there are five).3. Irregular subsidence throughout the area formed basinettes. P, Q, and R, above and below, represent areas in which themany basinette cyclothems formed between I, II, III, and IV.4. Basin and basinette cyclothems formed as follows: the Floodwater Mass Movements gradually increased in load-bearing competence, laying down first finer particles (fining down) and progressing to coarse particles, pebbles, rocks, and boulders. As the Mass' energy was spent, the load-bearing competency decreased and the particles became finer (fining up). See diagram in Part I for details of cyclothem constituents ("A" is tangled masses of vegetation). We have been emphasizing the continent-spanning, worldwide distribution of cyclothems, and last month we included some details about limestone. If the Flood were true, what would we predict about the extent of limestone and other rocks? The larger the flood the more widespread its effects. If a flood was worldwide, its consequences to be universal and this is what we see. Derek Ager, author of The Nature of the Stratigraphic Record, gives creationists a backhanded compliment for realizing this. After explaining the widespread nature of limestone, sandstone, chalk, and other rock formations which he terms "persistence of facies," he begins to describe the persistence of particular fossils and the abruptness of major changes in the history of life. "Several very eminent living palaeontologists frequently emphasise the abruptness of some of the major changes that have occurred, and seek for an external cause. This is heady wine and has intoxicated palaeontologists since the days when they could blame it all on Noah's flood. In fact, books are still being published by the lunatic fringe with the same explanation. In case this book should be read by some fundamentalist searching for straws to prop up his prejudices, let me state categorically...." [Ager] He then explains his undying loyalty to his evolutionary prejudices, perhaps not realizing he has admitted that the obvious and logical interpretation of the persistence of facies or strata around theworld, the persistence of particular fossils in the geological record, and the abruptness of the major changes in the history of life is that the Flood is responsible. One example is the explosion of life seen in the Cambrian strata, while the Precambrian has only a few significant fossils which seem to have no close descendants among the Cambrian flora and fauna. One of the eminent paleontologists Ager referred to is Niles Eldredge who wrote: "Then there was something of an explosion about six hundred million years ago, and continuing for about ten to fifteen million years; the earliest known representatives of the major kinds of animals still populating today's seas made a rather abrupt appearance. This rather protracted 'event' shows up graphically in the rock record: all over the world, at roughly the same time, thick sequences of rocks, barren of any easily detected fossils, are overlain by sediments containing a gorgeous array of shelly invertebrates: trilobites (extinct relatives of crabs and insects), brachiopods, and mollusks. All of the typical forms of hard shelled animals we see in the modern oceans appeared, albeit in primitive, prototypical form, in the seas of six hundred million years ago." "Creationists have made much of this sudden development of a rich and varied fossil record where, just before, there was none...." "Indeed, the sudden appearance of a varied, well-preserved array of fossils, which geologists have used to mark the beginnings of the Cambrian Period (the oldest division of the Paleozoic Era) does pose a fascinating intellectual challenge," [Eldredge, p.44] We creationists do not have to prop up our prejudices; they are encouraged by the geological and paleontological data. Evolutionary uniformitarians are so afraid of the obvious conclusions that could be drawn from viewing the major geological features as a result of catastrophe that they are actually the "lunatic fringe" seeking straws to prop up their prejudices. As an aside, if such ephemeral things as footprints and raindrop imprints are left in the strata, why not fossils of the soft-bodied organisms that are said to have dominated the Precambrian–those "barren," thick sequences of rock? The explanation is always made that the transitional ancestors of the Cambrian organisms had no hard parts and could not leave a fossil record. "We don't see much evidence of intermediates in the Early Cambrian because the intermediates had to have been soft-bodied, and thus extremely unlikely to become fossilized." [Eldredge, p. 130] Basins and BasinettesOnly a basin can collect and preserve sediments, protecting them from erosion. [Dickinson] The Illinois basin filled with cyclothemic material and subsided or sank irregularly, while tectonic pulses or pulsatory diastrophisms pushed up mountains [Woodmorappe, p. 200]. A diastrophism is a general term for all movement of the earth's crust produced by tectonic processes or "tectonic hiccups." These processes form ocean basins, continents, plateaus, and mountain ranges. Triggered by Flood events, such as the eruptions of the fountains of the great deep and catastrophic cracking of the earth's crust, isostatic disequilibrium initiated mountain building in pulses. These pulses also set off Floodwater Mass Movements which created the cyclothems and basin downwarping or subsidence. Geophysical studies have shown that basins subside when mantle material flows into the adjacent, newly-uplifted mountains. [Bott] "Recent studies on the strength of the crust suggest that subsidence to form basins commonly takes place in sudden steps along fault lines. Repeated movement along fault lines bordering a basin or shelf region is the primary cause of intermittent subsidence and the formation of sedimentary cycles." [Bott & Johnson] They suggest that the stratigraphic evidence requires rapid subsidence between cyclothems. [ibid., p.440] The Bible says that the mountains skipped like calves during the Flood. [Psalm 29:6] There was much movement of the earth's crust during the Flood. Woodmorappe says that cyclothems were most probably formed during the recessional phase of the Flood. Mountains were uplifted while water receded. For every basin cyclothem, there are many local, short or partial cyclothems in basinettes. These local cyclothems wedge into or sometimes grade into the basin cyclothem as shown in the drawing which is a profile of basin coals I, II, III, IV with local (basinette) cyclothem coals splintering downward. These local cyclothems complicate cyclothem classification; appearing to be a typical cyclothem in one area, they can be reclassified into two or more in other areas. This is especially true in mountain regions where there is more tectonism and basin subsidence. [Wanless] Woodmorappe's theory that cyclothems probably formed as the Flood waters receded fits in well with Steve Austin's doctoral thesis and observations at Mount St. Helens. The basins provided collecting areas to concentrate the bark fallout from billions of trees uprooted at the beginning of the Flood. Enormous log mats floated within these basins, the individual trees rubbing against each other and scraping off bark which formed peat after sinking to the basin floors. This peat subsequently changed to coal. Flood Tectonism and MetamorphismHow could metamorphic rocks be generated by the Flood? Metamorphic rock is preexisting rock that has been altered by heat, pressure, chemically active fluids or all three. [Tarbuck, p. 578] This is a question which stumped one of us and also a geologist from the Geoscience Research Institute. We say this to point out the value of studying creationist literature and supporting creationist research because the answer was given 14 years ago in Creation Research Society Quarterly article by Woodmorappe. Sawkins, et al wrote: Geologists who study metamorphic rocks have long realized that enormous amounts of thermal energy are required to convert sediments and volcanics of regional extent from their original condition into high-grade metamorphic assemblages. Clearly, the requisite heat must be supplied from below, but by what physical means was it delivered to the site of metamorphism? The conduction of heat through rock is so slow that the thermal conduction of heat from deeper regions is simply inadequate to account for the geometry of many metamorphic belts. Comment: These authors are proposing that heat from plutonism helped cause metamorphic belts, having noted that geothermal heating is insufficient. Metamorphic rocks find an easy explanation in a Diluviological context. Mountains being built in months instead of tens of millions of years would have trapped tremendous amounts of heat from tectonomagentism. The heat would have metamorphosed the rocks, having been incapable of dissipating quickly because so much was generated in such a short time." [Woodmorappe, Report I] Where the Ice Age Fits InWhen the fountains of the great deep erupted, they released enormous quantities of water from aquifers within the earth's crust. No doubt this water was either very warm or superheated and it raised the temperature of the ocean, creating a condition within the world's oceans that has not existed before or since. We estimate that ocean temperature was elevated to about 30oC. This increased the evaporation rate of oceanic water and set the stage for the ice age. Interested readers should get a copy of Michael Oard's excellent book on the ice age, An Ice Age Caused by the Genesis Flood, available through Master Books at (800) 999-3777. A review of this book can be found by clicking here. Apart from the Flood, there is no sufficient reason or explanation for the onset and sustained development of an ice age. Neither cooling the earth nor slightly raising the temperature of the ocean will do. Footprints On Wide Open PlainsThe origin of animal tracks in rocks was covered in Crossfire Nov '93. One reader, Dave Matson, wanted to know how animals managed to leave tracks at the height of the Flood in the middle of plains far from mountain refuges. No one was there, so no one can say anything for sure. It is reasonable to assume that many animals found refuge from the Flood by climbing onto trees felled by local floods during the heavy rains at the Flood's onset. We see this kind of thing happening today wherever flooding occurs. In Southern California, it's a little different. We get on top of our cars or climb telephone poles. When the giant tidal waves finally swept over continental areas and deposited sediments in the existing basins, the animals riding on floating trees and other debris were transported to these low lying areas. When the water flowed out of these areas, the trees and animals were left stranded in the middle of the new basin floors. This gave the animals a perfect opportunity to leave their tracks in the mud before ultimate inundation. Later Flood surges and local flooding would bring new sediments and quickly cover the freshly made tracks. MudcracksSome people think mud cracks develop only when surface mud dries out, but mud cracks develop underwater by the process of syneresis. Boggs says, "Syneresis cracks are subaqueous shrinkage cracks that form in clayey sediment by loss of pore water from clays that have flocculated rapidly or that have undergone shrinkage of swelling-clay mineral lattices owing to changes in salinity of surrounding water. They are known in ancient sedimentary rocks from both marine and nonmarine environments. They may be confused with mudcracks and even some trace fossils." [Boggs] We have seen the mudcrack argument used against the Flood and thought some of you would appreciate this. In this final installment on cyclothems, we want to give you a sense for the overall dynamics of Floodwater Mass Movements. Woodmorappe develops a scenario of what may have taken place during the Flood providing a modus operandi for the Flood's cyclothemic sedimentation. (Please refer to the figures that appeared in the last issue of Crossfire.) The receding Floodwaters flowed into the "basinettes" or else inundated the entire plains areas, producing the five basin cyclothems that covered so much of the United States. The surge of Floodwater which resulted increased in velocity as the Appalachians rose in tectonic pulses. He says that at first there was no clastic deposition (rock fragments), only the widespread "marine limestone" formed as chemicals of the advancing Floodwater Mass Movements reacted with those of the stagnant Floodwater Masses. The advancing Floodwater Mass Movements steadily displaced the stagnant Floodwater Masses while the Floodwater Mass Movements increased in momentum. He then refers to a table which tabulates the main sedimentary structures of certain members of a cyclothem, their associated hydrologic characteristics, their associated uniformitarian interpretation of the layers, and their associated Diluvian interpretation of these layers. In the initial stages of increasing momentum, the Floodwater Mass Movements deposit progressively coarser material. If you look in the January issue of the diagram showing the basic cyclothem, you will see that these deposits are first gray shale, usually sandy in the upper parts with ironstone nodules, then sandy or silty shale, and finally the siltstone which grades into the underlying silty layer. Woodmorappe labels this sequence as "fining-down," because the finer material makes up the lowest layer and the cyclothem material becomes progressively coarser as the water velocity increases, not an unusual feature. Eventually, the velocity of the Floodwater Mass became too great to deposit anything and began eroding the characteristic gullies depicted in the first diagram, cutting through the cyclothem members just mentioned. As the Floodwater Mass spent its momentum the velocity decreased and progressively finer sediments fell out ("fining-up"). The stagnant water became shallow and limestone precipitated, followed by plant and tree debris which settled out and blanketed the terrain. Woodmorappe says that percolating waters emanating from the rotting debris created reducing conditions for the initial shale deposits of subsequent Floodwater Mass Movements and the transition members of black, fissile shale with brackish or restricted marine fauna and gray shale. The missing members of cyclothems were probably caused by variable local conditions. The lack of a limestone member might have been due to chemical conditions not favoring precipitation. Variations in the source areas contributing to the sediments would have changed the composition of the fining-upward and fining-downward members. The amount of coal and its purity would depend on the amount of floating plant and tree debris and minerals present in the water. Regional tectonic activity would have been variable and so would the cyclothems they generated. Woodmorappe reminds his readers that every cyclothem is the product of increasing Floodwater Mass Movement velocity followed by decreasing load-bearing competence and ending with sediments characteristic of stagnant Floodwater. He explains that the sandstones in separated basinettes from Missouri to Pennsylvania are homogenous due to the mixing properties of Floodwater Mass Movements. In addition to their homogeneity, cyclothem sandstones also exhibit similar sorting of the grain size throughout these basins because of Flood action. This is generally true for the mineral sediments which are very sensitive to Floodwater velocity, but this is not true for plant and tree debris because they float and are not subject to water flow in the same way as suspended sediments. They are the least dependent upon Floodwater velocities. [Woodmorappe, p. 202] While Woodmorappe postulates that the cyclothems were deposited during the Flood's recession, he could probably be persuaded that some of them were formed earlier. We suggested that in the initial stages of the Flood gigantic tidal waves (tsunamis) swept over the continents, depositing widespread conglomerates in preexisting basins, generating some of the sediment that would later break loose in turbidity currents that would deposit layers many hundreds of meters thick. From what Derek Ager says in his book, The Nature of the Stratigraphical Record. even the layers in Grand Canyon must have been deposited within a basin (We'll save this thought for future remarks). These monster tsunamis also carried marine creatures with them and their fossils are mingled with the coal beds, which partly rules out the uniformitarian explanation that coal formed from peat deposits in ancient swamps over long periods of time. What is germane to Woodmorappe's contention here is that in the sandstones lying above or between the coal seams are animal tracks, and in Western areas tracks of dinosaurs protrude into coal seams. [Coffin, pp. 43-44] What this means to us is that not all the cyclothems were formed in the receding stages of the Flood as Woodmorappe says. Coffin presents an alternative approach to Flood geology, which somewhat conflicts with Woodmorappe. It would be nice if everyone had the subject all neatly wrapped up, but since none of us were there to observe what happened, no one can recount the exact sequence of events for the Flood. Response to a Reader's RemarksThere is so much we didn't cover that would have improved understanding and clarified different subjects as they were brought up, and we wish we didn't have to be so technical. One reader, Dave Matson [an atheist and proud of it] has the impression that in the course of this series we proposed that the Flood never got very deep. How he got that impression is unclear, since complete inundation was mentioned several times in this series. In an earlier issue Ian Taylor's idea that when the Flood was at its height and there were no land masses above the surface of the water, the unopposed tide might have raced around the world at hundreds of miles an hour following the gravitational pull of the moon. Of course, Mr. Matson has some paradoxical beliefs, just as do other "catastrophic uniformitarians," who cannot fully embrace uniformitarian doctrine, acknowledging that the earth experienced catastrophes, but do not want to find themselves agreeing with us too frequently. Matson believes in catastrophism, yet strongly rejects the catastrophic mountain building we mentioned last month. If he and other evolutionary catastrophists propose that the major geological features are the result of rapid, catastrophic events (and many of them certainly had to be), why should they protest catastrophic orogenesis (mountain building)? Catastrophic orogenesis is consistent with catastrophism generally. Coffin gives good evidence for rapid mountain building in his book. Why should anyone except uniformitarians be surprised by or object to such an idea? The Creation Research Society Quarterly issues of June, Sep and Dec '87 carried a mini-symposium on orogenesis which included a lively set of questions and answers by the authors and interested readers (back issues are available). We have all seen extremely folded sedimentary rocks, or pictures of them. Harold Coffin comments: "The Alps of Switzerland and adjacent countries and the Himalayan Mountains, perhaps more than any other mountain areas, originated by dynamic and sometimes almost incredible movements. Geologists have studied the mountains of Switzerland for many years, but the riddle represented by the fantastically folded and contorted strata, the lack of relationship of some deposits to any surrounding source, and the general scarcity of fossils has been difficult to solve." [Coffin, p. 157] |
