Polystrate fossils indicate massive sudden deposition
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Claim
Polystrate fossil trees show tree trunks that pass through many layers and several meters of sediments. Obviously, the sediments must have been laid down suddenly, not at the gradual rates proposed by uniformitarian geology. This is especially true in cases where the tree is diagonal to the horizontal layering. In most instances the fossil trees show no evidence of having roots, nor roots with rootlets; or of having roots that are truncated. In about Or Root%20Systems%20Extensively%20Missing%20? 1 out of 50 instances it appears that they may have roots that are (or appear to be) complete (or somewhat complete). This number was also arrived at by counting the number of upright trees without roots in Dawson's Acadian Geology.Falcon-Lang has also confirmed a similar finding in his own paper on upright fossil trees.
Source
- Morris, Henry M., 1974. Scientific Creationism, Master Books, Arkansas, pp. 107-8.
- Berg, Randy S., The "Fossil Forests" of Nova Scotia: A Review of the Literature, Earthage.org [1].
- CreationWiki, Joggins, Nova Scotia [2]
- Institute for Creation Research [3]
- Harold G. Coffin, The Fossil Forests of Yellowstone National Park, Geoscience Research Institute [4] [5]
- Earthage.org, Upright Trees in Coal [6]
- Earthage.org, The Underclays of Joggins [7]
Responses
- Uniformitarianism simply means that scientists look at what goes on in the present to see what went on in the past, or said in another way the "present is the keys to the past". Scientists see examples of slow deposition in the present, as well as examples of quick deposition caused by volcanoes, flash floods and other similar events. They believe that the current occurrence of both types of deposition shows that both types of deposition occured in the past. Therefore, "polystrate" fossils do not contradict uniformitarianism, but simply show that similar things that happen now happened in the past as well. The exact same definition for Uniformitarianism. Creationists only believe that fast deposition occurred in the past, while they disagree that very large sediment layers were created by slow deposition, because this process would have taken millions of years.
- Many polystrate tree fossils form when a tree is subjected to rapid sedimentation, that is, when a tree is buried due to a flood, mudslide or volcanic ashfall (the three most common causes of rapid sedimentation). In other words, the strata that the tree passes through were laid down during the tree's lifetime, and or time of death. All of Yellowstone's upright petrified trees are rooted in place, having been buried alive during a prehistoric volcanic eruption. The Carboniferous fossil lycopod stumps show a series of roots that suggest that the trees were buried in floods, but continued to grow by producing more roots and adding more height to their trunks.
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Fallacies contained in this claim
External Links
- Matson, Dave E., 1994. How Good Are Those Young-Earth Arguments? [8]
- MacRae, Andrew, 1994. "Polystrate" Tree Fossils. [9]
- Wikipedia entry "Polystrate Fossil" [10]
Related claims
- Yellowstone's Specimen Creek fossil forests were evidently transported
- Specimen Creek fossil trees grew at the same time
- Orientations show Specimen Creek fossil trees were transported
- A fossil whale was found vertically through several strata
- Some fossils are out of place
