Discussion
I have highlighted reef trends that developed in 5 different periods in my particular study area. All of these are from intervals considered by at least some YEC authors as part of Noah’s flood. The oldest intervals are considered as flood deposits by all of the authors that I have read. Genesis records that Noah’s flood took place over a one-year period, such that if any of these rocks were deposited as a reef then they could not have been deposited by this flood. Much literature is available in the public domain on each of these, so it is not difficult to find data on each. Geologists use many different terminologies for carbonate buildups, but I used four criteria to recognize reefs that formed as organic in-place buildups. By these criteria, each of these are conclusively reefs.
Some YEC consider the intervals in which the last two examples were deposited as part of the post-flood interval. These younger examples also are problems for this interpretation. The Bible doesn’t give us any warrant to consider exceptional rates of growth before and certainly not after the flood. There is no reason to expect the growth of reefs after Noah’s flood to have been dramatically different than what we see today. Thus, when we see thick reefs to have grown in the Mesozoic or Cenozoic then we should expect that they took thousands of years to grow. We also see evidence that in each case, reef growth was interrupted periodically and the reefs exposed to fresh water that leached them and dissolved caves and porosity through them. The combination of reef growth and exposure reflects millions of years of activity. The Arun field in Indonesia show a reef that grew and was leached over millions of years and then buried by ten thousand feet of normal sediment. Many YEC are saying that this all took place after the flood, but if the earth is 6000 to 10,000 years old, then a maximum of 4500 years is available to deposit all of this, plus a lot more. I will expand on this aspect of the problem more in coming posts.
God did not attempt to deceive us with nature, including the rock record. The young earth creationist positions that: 1) the earth was created 6 to 10,000 years ago and that 2) much of the rock record was deposited as a result of Noah’s flood just do not fit the evidence. This does not mean that the Bible is untrue but that the YEC interpretation does not fit the evidence. I argue that an interpretation that fits both the Biblical record and the data from nature is more likely to be correct. I believe this is consistent with a careful reading of Genesis 1 and have outlined this in other posts. The record of nature is that God prepared earth for mankind over millions of years. Earth over this time period had a fascinating and beautiful variety of life, some of which grew as reefs. The sheer diversity of life in them is a valuable treasure for earth. Today, we appreciate the beauty and enjoy food from animal life. God seems to really enjoy both beauty and life.
Here is an updated figure showing how key reefs around the world fit into the models proposed by Dr. Tim Clarey with ICR and Dr. Andrew Snelling with AIG. It is important to recognize that Wise and Snelling in 2005 published an article arguing that stromatolitic reefs in the Proterozoic could not have formed during global flood. YEC geologist, Dr. Ken Coulson argued the same for reefs in the Cambrian in Utah.
References Cited
Abdullah, M., and Jordan, C. J. 1987. Geology of the Arun Field Miocene Reef Complex. in Proceedings Indonesian Petroleum Assoc., Sixteenth Annual Convention, October 1987 (pp. 65–96). Jakarta: IPA.
Ahr, W. M. 1971. “Paleoenvironment, Algal Structures, and Fossil Algae in the Upper Cambrian of Central Texas.” Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 205–215.
Burnside, R. 1959. Geology of Part of the Horseshoe Atoll in Borden and Howard Counties, Texas. Washington: USGS Professional Paper325-B.
Gischler, E., Droxler, A., and Webster, J. 2011. “Facies and Diagenesis of Older Pleistocene Coral Reefs, Great Barrier Reef, Australia (IODP 325).” Retrieved March 08, 2014, from AAPG Datapages: http://www.searchanddiscovery.com/pdfz/documents/2011/50433gischler/ndx_gischler.pdf.html
Chafetz, H. 1973. “Morphological Evolution of Cambrian Algal Mounds in Response to a Change in Depositional Environment.” Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 435–446.
Chivas, A., Torgersen, T., and Polach, H. (1990). “Growth Rates and Holocene Development of Stromatolites from Shark Bay, Western Australia.” Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 113–121.
Damman, A. 2011. A Comparison of the Cretaceous (Albian) Edwards Limestone Bioherms of Central Texas with the Holocene Coral Reefs of Bermuda. Waco, TX: MS Thesis, Baylor University.
Eckhardt, G. 1995–2013. The Edwards Aquifer Web site. Retrieved April 06, 2013, from The Edwards Aquifer Web site: http://www.edwardsaquifer.net/geology.html
Fagerstrom, J., and Weidlich, O. 1999. “Strengths and weaknesses of the reef guild concepts and quantitative data: Application to the upper Capitan-massive community (Permian), Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico-Texas.” Facies, 131–156.
Frost, S., and Schafersman, S. 1978. “Oligocene Reef Community Succession, Damon Mound, Texas.” Transactions–Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies, 143–160.
Jordan Jr, C., and Abdullah, M. 1985. “Lithofacies Analysis of the Arun Reservoir, North Sumatra, Indonesia.” Retrieved 2014, from SEPM Online: http://notes.sepmonline.org/content/sepswgog/1/SEC3.body.pdf
Kendall, C. 2005. “Permian Basin Reef and Basin Fill West Texas and New Mexico: Explained Using a Framework of Genetically Related Carbonate, Clastic and Evaporitic Facies Geometries and Their Bounding Surfaces. Retrieved from http://www.powershow.com/view/15654b-NTU3Y/Permian_Basin_Reef_and_Basin_Fill_West_Texas_and_New_Mexico_powerpoint_ppt_Presentation
King, P.B. 1948. Geology of the Southern Guadalupe Mountain, Texas. Washington, DC: USGS Professional Paper 215.
Moore, C., and Bebout, D. 1989. Carbonate Rock Sequences from the Cretaceous of Texas, Field Trip Guidebook T376. Washington, DC: American Geophysical Union.
Nevins, S. (1972). “Is the Capitan Limestone a fossil reef?” Creation Research Society Quarterly 231–248.
Nielson, R., and Barker, C. 2013. Geology of the Western Llano Uplift, Fredericksburg to Mason, Texas March 2, 2013. Western Llano Uplift TAS 2013 Field Trip, (pp. 1–36). Nacogdoches, TX.
Numbers, R. 1993. The Creationists: The Evolution of Scientific Creationism. Berkley: University of California Press.
Petryshyn, V. 2013. Stromatolites in the ancient and modern; New methods for solving old problems. Dissertation, University of Southern California.
Snelling, A. 2009. Earth’s Catastrophic Past, Vol. 1 and 2. Dallas: Institute for Creation Research.
Whitcomb, J., and Morris, H. 1961. The Genesis Flood. Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co.
Widarmayana, I.W.A, 2007. “The Giant Arun Gas Field (North Sumatra) – Gas from Beneath the Earth to LNG Export – A 30 Year Success Story.” Proceedings, Indonesian Petroleum Association, Thirty-First Annual Convention and Exhibition
Wilson, J. 1975. Carbonate Facies in Geologic History. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Recent Comments