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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flood geology | 12/12 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_geology | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:19:57.530514+00:00 | kb-cron |
Modern geology, its sub-disciplines and other scientific disciplines use the scientific method to analyze the geology of the earth. The key tenets of flood geology are refuted by scientific analysis and do not have any standing in the scientific community. Modern geology relies on established principles, one of the most important of which is Charles Lyell's principle of uniformitarianism. In relation to geological forces it states that the shaping of the Earth has occurred by means of mostly slow-acting forces that can be seen in operation today. By applying these principles, geologists have determined that the Earth is approximately 4.54 billion years old. They study the lithosphere of the Earth to gain information on the history of the planet. Geologists divide Earth's history into eons, eras, periods, epochs, and faunal stages characterized by well-defined breaks in the fossil record (see Geologic time scale). In general, there is a lack of any evidence for any of the above effects proposed by flood geologists, and their claims of fossil layering are not taken seriously by scientists.
=== Geochronology ===
Geochronology is the science of determining the absolute age of rocks, fossils, and sediments by a variety of techniques. These methods indicate that the Earth as a whole is about 4.54 billion years old and that the strata that, according to creationist flood geology, were laid down during the biblical flood, were actually deposited gradually over many millions of years.
=== Paleontology === If the flood were responsible for fossilization, then all the animals now fossilized must have been living together on the Earth just before the flood. Based on estimates of the number of remains buried in the Karoo fossil formation in Africa, this would correspond to an abnormally high density of vertebrates worldwide, close to 2,100 per acre. Creationists argue that evidence for the geological column is fragmentary, and all the complex layers of chalk occurred in the approach to the 150th day of Noah's flood. However, the entire geologic column is found in several places and shows multiple features, including evidence of erosion and burrowing through older layers, which are inexplicable on a short timescale. Carbonate hardgrounds and the fossils associated with them show that the sediments include evidence of long hiatuses in deposition that are not consistent with flood dynamics or timing.
=== Geochemistry === Proponents of flood geology are unable to account for the alternation between calcite seas and aragonite seas through the Phanerozoic. The cyclical pattern of carbonate hardgrounds, calcitic and aragonitic ooids, and calcite-shelled fauna has apparently been controlled by seafloor spreading rates and the flushing of seawater through hydrothermal vents which changes its Mg/Ca ratio.
=== Sedimentary rock features === Phil Senter's 2011 article, "The Defeat of Flood Geology by Flood Geology", in the journal Reports of the National Center for Science Education, discusses "sedimentologic and other geologic features that Flood geologists have identified as evidence that particular strata cannot have been deposited during a time when the entire planet was under water...and distribution of strata that predate the existence of the Ararat mountain chain." These include continental basalts, terrestrial tracks of animals, and marine communities preserving multiple in-situ generations included in the rocks of most or all Phanerozoic periods, and the basalt even in the younger Precambrian rocks. Others, occurring in rocks of several geologic periods, include lake deposits and eolian (wind) deposits. Using their own words, flood geologists find evidence in every Paleozoic and Mesozoic period, and in every epoch of the Cenozoic period, indicating that a global flood could not have occurred during that interval. The global flood cannot explain geological formations such as angular unconformities, where sedimentary rocks have been tilted and eroded then more sedimentary layers deposited on top, needing long periods of time for these processes. There is also the time needed for the erosion of valleys in sedimentary rock mountains. Furthermore, the flood should have produced large-scale effects spread throughout the entire world. Erosion should be evenly distributed, yet the levels of erosion in, for example, the Appalachians and the Rocky Mountains differ significantly.
=== Physics === The engineer Jane Albright notes several scientific failings of the canopy theory, reasoning from first principles in physics. Among these are that enough water to create a flood of even 5 centimetres (2.0 in) of rain would form a vapor blanket thick enough to make the Earth too hot for life, since water vapor is a greenhouse gas; the same blanket would have an optical depth sufficient to effectively obscure all incoming starlight.
== See also == Baraminology Creation biology List of topics characterized as pseudoscience Polystrate fossil Pre-Adamite Searches for Noah's Ark
== Notes ==
== References == Books
Journals
Web
Other Baumgardner, JR (1986). "Numerical Simulation of the Large-Scale Tectonic Changes Accompanying the Flood" (PDF). First International Conference on Creationism. Retrieved 15 July 2014. Baumgardner, JR (2003). "Catastrophic Plate Tectonics: The Physics Behind the Genesis Flood". Fifth International Conference on Creationism. Archived from the original on 6 November 2016. Retrieved 29 March 2007. Humphreys, Russell (1986). "Reversals of the Earth's Magnetic Field During the Genesis Flood" (PDF). First International Conference on Creationism. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
== Further reading == Senter, Phil (May–June 2001). "The Defeat of Flood Geology by Flood Geology". Reports of the National Center for Science Education. 31 (3). Archived from the original on 18 February 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2011. H. Neuville, "On the Extinction of the Mammoth," Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, 1919. Patten, Donald W. The Biblical Flood and the Ice Epoch (Seattle: Pacific Meridian Publishing Company, 1966). Patten, Donald W. Catastrophism and the Old Testament (Seattle: Pacific Meridian Publishing Company, 1988). ISBN 0-88070-291-5