semi-technical Geology

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Flood Evidence number THREE

Transcontinental
Rock Layers by Andrew A. Snelling

Every continent contains layers of sedimentary

rocks that span vast areas. Many of these layers
can even be traced across continents.
80 A n s w e r s M AG A ZI N E .C O M July – Sept. 2008
 semi-technical Geology

Six main geologic evidences for the Genesis Flood

Evidence #1. Fossils of sea creatures high above sea level
Evidence #2. Rapid burial of plants and animals
Evidence #3. Rapidly deposited sediment layers spread across vast areas
Evidence #4. Sediment transported long distances
Evidence #5. Rapid or no erosion between strata
Evidence #6. Many strata laid down in rapid succession

W
hat evidence do we have rock layers) that can be traced right remarkable, the same Carboniferous
that the Genesis Flood, as across North America.1 limestone beds also appear thousands
described in Genesis 7 and The lowermost sedimentary layers in of miles east in England, containing
8, really occurred? This article is the Grand Canyon are the Tapeats Sand- the same fossils and other features.
next installment in a series of the six stone, belonging to the Sauk Mega-
main geologic evidences that testify to sequence. It and its equivalents (those Chalk Beds
the Genesis Flood (listed above). layers comprised of the same materials) The Cretaceous chalk beds of south-
Genesis 7 explains that water cov- cover much of the USA (Figure 3). We ern England are well known because
ered all the high hills and the moun- can hardly imagine what forces were they appear as spectacular white cliffs
tains, and that all air-breathing life necessary to deposit such a vast, conti- along the coast (Figure 1). These chalk
on the land was swept away and per- nent-wide series of deposits. Yet at the beds can be traced westward across
ished. As part of the evidence of the base of this sequence are huge boulders England and appear again in North-
Flood, we would expect to find rock (Figure 4) and sand beds deposited by ern Ireland. In the opposite direction,
layers all over the earth filled with bil- storms (Figure 5). Both are evidence these same chalk beds can be traced
lions of dead animals and plants that that massive forces deposited these across France, the Netherlands, Ger-
were rapidly buried and fossilized in sediment layers rapidly and violently many, Poland, southern Scandinavia,
sand, mud, and lime. And that’s ex- right across the entire USA. Slow-and- and other parts of Europe to Turkey,
actly what we find. gradual (present-day uniformitarian) then to Israel and Egypt in the Middle
processes cannot account for this evi- East, and even as far as Kazakhstan.2
Rapidly Deposited dence, but the global catastrophic Gen- Remarkably, the same chalk beds
Sediment Layers Spread esis Flood surely can. with the same fossils and the same dis-
Across Vast Areas Another layer in Grand Canyon is the tinctive strata above and below them
On every continent are found layers Lower Carboniferous (Mississippian) are also found in the Midwest USA,
of sedimentary rocks over vast areas. Redwall Limestone. This belongs to from Nebraska in the north to Texas
Many of these sediment layers can be the Kaskaskia Megasequence of North in the south. They also appear in the
traced all the way across continents, America. So the same limestones appear Perth Basin of Western Australia.
and even between continents. Further- in many places across North America,
more, when geologists look closely at as far as Tennessee and Pennsylvania.
these rocks, they find evidence that These limestones also appear in the ex-
the sediments were deposited rapidly. act same position in the strata sequenc-
Consider the sedimentary rock lay- es, and they have the exact same fossils
ers exposed in the walls of the Grand and other features in them.
Canyon in northern Arizona (Fig- Unfortunately, these limestones have
ure 2). This sequence of layers is not been given different names in other lo-
unique to that region of the USA. For cations because the geologists saw only
more than 50 years geologists have what they were working on locally and FIGURE 1
recognized that these strata belong didn’t realize that other geologists were
The chalk beds of southern England (above)
to six megasequences (very thick, studying essentially the same lime- can be traced across France, Germany, and
distinctive sequences of sedimentary stone beds in other places. Even more Poland, all the way to the Middle East.

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 semi-technical Geology

Coal Beds ing states.4 So the volume of sand in under the surrounding desert sands, is
Consider another feature—coal the Coconino Sandstone layer is at 18,000–20,000 feet (5,500–6,100 m).6
beds. In the northern hemisphere, the least 10,000 cubic miles (41,682 km3). The minerals in the sand grains are dis-
Upper Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) This layer also contains physical tinctive, and the closest source of them
coal beds of the eastern and Midwest features called cross beds. While the is at least 63 miles (101 km) away.
USA are the same coal beds, with the overall layer of sandstone is horizontal, Under the microscope the sand
same plant fossils, as those in Brit- these cross beds are clearly visible as grains appear jagged and are of dif-
ain and Europe. They stretch halfway sloped beds (Figure 6). These beds are ferent sizes (Figure 9). One of the
around the globe, from Texas to the remnants of the sand waves produced minerals is called feldspar, and it ap-
Donetz Basin north of the Caspian Sea by the water currents that deposited pears to be still unusually fresh in the
in the former USSR.3 In the southern the sand (like sand dunes, but under- sandstone. These features imply rapid
hemisphere, the same Permian coal water) (Figure 7). So it can be demon- transport and deposition of all this
beds are found in Australia, Antarcti- strated that water, flowing at 3–5 miles sand, before the feldspar grains could
ca, India, South Africa, and even South per hour (4.8–8 km/h), deposited the disintegrate or the sand grains could
America! These beds share the same Coconino Sandstone as massive sheets be worn down into round pebbles or
kind of plant fossils across the region of sand, with sand waves up to 60 feet sorted by size.7
(but they are different from those in (18 m) high.5 At this rate, the whole So soup-like slurries of sediment,
the Pennsylvanian coal beds). Coconino Sandstone layer (all 10,000 known as turbidity currents, which
cubic miles of sand) would have been travel at speeds of up to 70 miles per
Evidence of Rapid Deposition deposited in just a few days! hour (113 km/h), must have transport-
The buff-colored Coconino Sand- Ayers Rock (or Uluru) in central ed all this sand, 18,000–20,000 feet
stone is very distinctive in the walls of Australia consists of coarse-grained thick, a distance of at least 63 miles
Grand Canyon. It has an average thick- sandstone beds that are almost vertical, and deposited it as the Uluru Sand-
ness of 315 feet (96 m) and covers an tilted at about 80° (Figure 8). The to- stone beds in a matter of hours! This
area of at least 200,000 square miles tal thickness of these sandstone beds, defies evolution ideology but fits with
(518,000 km2) eastward across adjoin- outcropping in Ayers Rock and found the Creation/Flood history of Genesis.

sediment layers spread across vast areas (Figures 2-5)

FIGURE 2 FIGURE 4 FIGURE 5

The sedimentary rock layers exposed in the walls of Grand Canyon

(Figure 2) belong to six megasequences that can be traced across
North America (Figure 3). At the base of these layers are huge boulders
(Figure 4) and sand beds (Figure 5) that are evidences of sediments
being laid down rapidly across the entire USA.
FIGURE 3

photos courtesy Dr. Andrew Snelling

82 A n s w e r s M AG A ZI N E .C O M July – Sept. 2008

 semi-technical Geology

God’s Judgment “Clearly Seen”

evidence of rapid deposition (Figures 6-9)
Sediment layers that spread across
vast continents are evidence that wa- FIGURE 6
ter covered the continents in the past. Sloped Beds
Even more dramatic are the fossil-bear- of Sandstone
ing sediment layers that were depos- The Coconino Sandstone layer
in Grand Canyon (Figure 6)
ited rapidly right across many or most
contains sloped layers of
of the continents at the same time. To sandstone called cross beds.
catastrophically deposit such extensive These beds are remnants of the
sediment layers implies global flooding sand waves produced by water
currents during Noah’s Flood.
of the continents. This brief article de-
scribes just a few of the many examples
of rapidly deposited sediment layers FIGURE 7a
spread across vast areas.8
water flow sand grains
As Noah’s Flood catastrophically
swept over all the continents to form
a global ocean (described in Genesis
7–8), we would expect the waters to
Strong, fast-flowing water currents move sands across the ocean floor as sand
deposit fossil-bearing sediment lay-
waves or dunes (Figure 7a). As the sand grains are swept over the dune crests,
ers rapidly across vast areas around they fall on the advancing dune faces to produce sloping sand beds, and on top of
the globe. And that is exactly what we the trailing edges of the dunes in front. The dunes thus advance over one another,
find—further evidence that the global resulting in stacked sand layers (Figure 7b) with internal sloping beds (cross beds).

cataclysmic Genesis Flood was an ac- water flow

tual event in history, just as God has
told us in His eyewitness account of
earth’s history.
3 meters

Notes
1
L. L. Sloss, “Sequences in the Cratonic Interior of North Ameri-
ca,” Geological Society of America Bulletin no. 74 (1963): 93–114.
2
D. V. Ager, The Nature of the Stratigraphical Record (London:
Macmillan, 1973), pp. 1–2.
FIGURE 7b
3
Ibid., pp. 6–7.
4
D. L. Baars, “Permian System of Colorado Plateau,” American
Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin no. 46 (1962): 200–

Distinctive & Jagged Minerals Within Sandstone

201; J. M. Hills and F. E. Kottlowski, Correlation of Stratigraphic
Units of North America-Southwest/Southwest Mid-Continent
Region, American Association of Petroleum Geologists (Tulsa,
Oklahoma, 1983); R. C. Blakey and R. Knepp, “Pennsylvanian Ayers Rock in central Australia (Figure 8) consists of coarse-grained sandstone beds
and Permian Geology of Arizona,” in J. P. Jenney, and S. J.
Reynolds, eds., Geologic Evolution of Arizona: Arizona Geological that are almost vertical, tilted at about 80°. The distinctive minerals in the sand grains
Society Digest, vol. 17 (1989): 313–347. appear jagged and are different sizes (Figure 9) when viewed under the microscope.
5
A. A. Snelling and S. A. Austin, “Startling Evidence of Noah’s
Flood,” Creation Ex Nihilo 15, no. 1 (1992): 46–50; S. A. Austin,
These features imply rapid transportation and deposition of all this sand before it had
ed., Grand Canyon: Monument to Catastrophe (Santee, Califor- time to be worn smooth.
nia: Institute for Creation Research, 1994), pp. 28–36.
6
C. R. Twidale, “On the Origin of Ayers Rock, Central Australia,”
Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie Neue Folge Supplement no. 31
(1978): 177–206; J. Selby, “Ayers Rock,” Geology Today 5, no.6 FIGURE 8
(1989): 206–209; I. P. Sweet and I. H. Crick, Uluru and Kata Tjuta
(Canberra: Australian Geological Survey Organisation, 1992).
7
A. A. Snelling, “The Origin of Ayers Rock,” Ex Nihilo 7, no. 1 FIGURE 9
(1984): 6–9; A. A. Snelling, “Uluru and Kata Tjuta: Testimony to
the Flood,” Creation 20, no. 2 (1998): 36–40.
8
Ager, pp. 1–13.

Dr. Andrew Snelling holds a PhD in geology

from the University of Sydney and has
worked as a consultant research geologist to
organizations in both Australia and America.
Author of numerous scientific articles, Dr.
Snelling is now the head of the Research
Division at Answers in Genesis–USA.
photos courtesy Dr. Andrew Snelling

July – Sept. 2008 A n s w e r s M AG A ZI N E .C O M 83