The main cause of the fossil record
What evidence would one expect from a global watery cataclysm that drowned the animals, birds and people? All around the world, in rock layer after rock layer, we find billions of dead things that have been buried in water-carried mud and sand. Their state of preservation frequently tells of rapid burial and fossilisation, just like one would expect in such a flood.
There is abundant evidence that many of the rock strata were laid down quickly, one after the other, without significant time breaks between them. Preservation of animal tracks, ripple marks and even raindrop marks, testifies to rapid covering of these features to enable their preservation. Polystrate fossils (ones which traverse many strata) speak of very quick deposition of the strata. The scarcity of erosion, soil formation, animal burrows and roots between layers also shows they must have been deposited in quick succession. The radical deformation of thick layers of sediment without evidence of cracking or melting also shows how all the layers must have been still soft when they were bent. Dykes (walls) and pipes (cylinders) of sandstone which connect with the same material many layers beneath show that the layers beneath must have been still soft and contained much water. That the sandstone could be squeezed up through the cracks above to form the ‘classic’ dykes and pipes, again shows rapid deposition of many strata.
The world-wide distribution of many geological features and rock types is also consistent with a global flood. The Morrison Formation is a layer of sedimentary rock that extends from Texas to Canada, clearly showing the fallacy of the still popular belief that ‘the present is the key to the past’ – there are no processes occurring on Earth today that are laying down such large areas of sedimentary layers.
The limited geographic extent of unconformities (clear breaks in the sequence of deposition with different tilting of layers, etc.), is also consistent with the reality of the global Flood. And there are many other evidences for the Flood.1,2
Batten D., Ham K., Sarfati J., Wieland C., The Answer Book Pg 144 – 146.
1. Morris, J.D. 1994. The Young Earth, Master Books, Colorado Springs.
2. Austin, S. (Es.), 1994. Grand Canyon: Monument to catastrophe, Institute for Creation Research, Santee, CA, USA
More World-wide evidence of the flood
The problem is not the evidence but the mind-set of those looking at the evidence. One geologist testified how he never saw any evidence for the Flood – until, as a Christian, he was convinced from the Bible that the Flood must have been a global cataclysm. Now he sees the evidence everywhere. It’s a case of ‘I would not have seen it if I had not believed it!’
Dr E. K. Victor Pearce, Evidence for Truth volume 1 Science Pg 246.