Torch, Fall/Winter 2009

10 TORCH | Fall–Winter 2009 Marine Strata on Land The Flood account says that “all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered” and the “mountains were covered” (Gen. 7:19–20), so we should expect to find evidence of marine strata on top of the Great Unconformity. And we do. In fact, 75 percent of the continents are covered with thousands of feet of marine strata (Figure 2). Marine strata and fossils can be found in abundance in places like Ohio and Kansas. The rocks at the rim of the Grand Canyon, 7,000 feet above sea level, contain fossil corals and sponges. Obviously, the continents were covered with oceans at some point in history. Thin, Widespread Deposits Sedimentary rocks have a flat, layered appearance, making them easy to spot along highway cuts and canyon exposures. The Grand Canyon is an excellent example of marine sedimentary rocks exposed high on the continents. Many of these rock layers are relatively thin, with measured thicknesses of only hundreds of feet. For example, the Redwall Limestone (Figure 3), exposed as a thick, red cliff about halfway down into the canyon, shows up as a similar layer in Wyoming, South Dakota, the Canadian Rockies, Alaska, Asia, and Europe. Similar processes happening in a global ocean during the Flood can easily explain these deposits. Evidence of Catastrophe Consider Hurricane Katrina, the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, massive earthquakes, and volcanic catastrophes. The Flood had components of all these events and happened worldwide. Fossils are evidence of these catastrophic processes. Unless buried and protected, animals and plants decay rapidly and have no chance of being fossilized Figure 2: Marine fossils from Ohio. Like many states, Ohio has an abundance of these fossils in its rocks. Fossils of brachiopods commonly occur in the rocks near Cedarville, evidence that an ocean once occupied the area. Figure 3. Thin, widespread rock layers of the Grand Canyon, with thicknesses measured in hundreds of feet. The widespread nature of these relatively thin rock layers proves they were deposited catastrophically. Mather Point, Grand Canyon. Figure 4: Dinosaur bones in the rock at Dinosaur National Monument (Utah). In this impressive outcrop, thousands of dinosaur bones are buried in a coarse sandstone rich in volcanic debris. Also contained in the deposit are thousands of small clam shells, testifying to its water-laid origin. PHOTOS BY JOHNWHITMORE