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Making logical sense of earth’s geological column.

Carla Estell 2017

Secular geologist claim that earth’s sedimentary layers required millions of years to form. During those millions of years there were at least 5 extinction events. Each of which nearly wiped out all of earth’s living organisms. Some of these events are explained by asteroids, volcanism, and more recently climate change and man, however some still remain an unsolved mystery.

The remains of the organisms were buried in a new set of sedimentary layers which gradually  accumulated into the geological column.  After each extinction event, the few survivors evolved into new life forms that fit the new environment. This simplified narrative may sound scientific and logical, but are there are some major problems, a few of them being:

• Where did the material come from which makes each sedimentary layer?
• How were these sediments spread evenly over such large areas?
• Why are there sea life fossils mixed throughout all the strata? (sharks teeth were even found in the dirt surrounding the Sue T Rex bone.)
• Why does one layer blend into the next? If it took millions of years for the layers to acummulate, where is the erosion?
• How did new DNA arise? For one organism to change into another requires adding new DNA instructions. 

The Bible, on the other hand, tells of one great extinction – the Flood of Noah’s day, which wiped out all land animals, birds and man, except those safe on the ark. If we start with the details in the Bible, then do some field study at Mt. St. Helens, the mysteries of the sedimentary strata and fossils they contain can be logically explained.

Genesis 6:17 and 7:11 states that God opened the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven releasing the water that flooded the earth. This rushing water would have: uprooted trees, pulverized earth’s foundation into sediment, and drowned all terrestrial organisms. As the sediment was laid in horizontal layers beneath the raging, global sea, it quickly buried the remains of both plants and animals.

The lowest layers (strata) would naturally contain the non-floating, seafloor dwelling invertebrates. Those fish unable to out swim the mudflows, would be buried next.  The higher layers would contain the animals and plants which were buried as they sank.  Invertebrate sea life would have been reestablished on top of the Flood sediment during the global sea phase of the Flood.   (see the crinoid article for more details)

Psalm 104:6-9 uses poetic form to describe how God raised the land and lowered the sea so that the flood waters drained off the land. As water rushed into the newly formed oceans, it eroded and relayed much of the sediment forming new strata and burying aquatic life that had been trapped on the raising land.

 Once the foundation is established by using the facts outlined in the Bible, field studies such as the floating logs, mudflows, and carved canyons at Mt St Helens can then be used to explain the particulars of earth’s features.

The May 18, 1980 eruption triggered many geological changes providing a miniature picture of the Flood.

• The earthquake triggered landslide rushed into the V shaped Tuttle Valley filling it with hummock hills, raising its floor by 600 ft, and transforming it into a U shaped valley – in a matter of hours.
• The trees, uprooted by huge waves on Spirit Lake, became a lake-covering, floating log mat. Over time, as the trees became water logged, they sank to the lake floor. Some sank upright, appearing as if that is where they grew.
• The heat of the eruption caused the mountain’s snow to quickly melt. The resulting mudflows raced down the mountain and across the land: uprooting trees, scouring canyons and leaving behind boulder fields of huge, rounded rock which had previously been part of the mountain – all in a matter of minutes.

Likewise, during the Flood, uprooted trees and dead animals would have become floating mats on the rising Flood waters. Vegetation, tree trunks, and animals would have became buried within the accumulating layers. Not giving evidence as to where they had once lived, nor even the biomes in which they had lived, but where and when they had eventually sunk. 

Mt St Helens erupted 40 years ago, yet still today there is a huge floating log mat on Spirit Lake.  Likewise, during the Flood many trees and some animals could have remained floating until beached on the newly risen continents. These could have decomposed into fertile soil and bogs or have been buried by the ash and mudflows so prevalent during and after the runoff stage of the flood.

Two years after Mount St Helen’s 1980 eruption, changes continued. A small eruption melted the crater’s accumulated snow. The meltwater rushed over the lip of the crater, pulverized the side of the volcano, carved two huge canyons and became a mudflow. The mudflow then rushed through the Tuttle Valley laying a new layer of dirt and carving canyons through the volcanic material deposited in the Tuttle Valley two years earlier during the 1980 eruption. This event clearly demonstrated the erosive power of fast flowing mud and how quickly a canyon system could be carved.

Likewise, the rushing Flood waters would have pulverized the pre-flood continents into sediment. Globe circling currents deposited the sediment into vast layers resulting in the “Paleozoic Era” or the primary flood layers. some of which would have been eroded and relayed during the runoff stage. The relayed sediment along with precipitated minerals, new sediment formed from the erosion of newly raised mountains, and volcanic material formed the strata of the “Mesozoic and Cenzoic Eras”. By beginning with a Biblical foundation and using Mount St. Helens as the framework, we can make logical sense of earth’s geological column.