And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth;
Genesis 7:18
"A world-destroying Flood must have left a mark on the earth. The following ten truth-claims are brief generalizations that refer primarily to the 4,000-foot-thick section of strata in Grand Canyon, from the base of the Tapeats Sandstone to the top of the Kaibab Limestone. Each is significant, but collectively they offer a compelling testimony for the Flood. In Grand Canyon is:- …a record of death, not life. Grand Canyon fossils are mostly a jumbled hash of broken and transported shellfish debris. Evidence for in-situ “fossil communities” of organisms is not strong. Animal tracks and prints preserved as trace-fossils are no proof of “normal” life conditions but may have been marks left by creatures in the process of being buried alive if not in their final death throes. Dead animals are not entering the fossil record in any widespread fashion today; why was the past so different?
- …a record of ocean above continent. Ocean-derived sediment of the Sauk mega-sequence rests blanket-like on Grand Canyon basement rocks. The buoyancy of continental crust relative to oceanic crust makes such flooding a difficult if not an extraordinary task, yet it has clearly happened in the past. Nothing comparable to the Sauk mega-sequence is found in the modern or recent sedimentary record.
- …an extraordinarily widespread Sedimentary Record. Individual rock bodies such as the Tapeats Sandstone and Redwall Limestone are each hundreds of feet thick, water-deposited, and rich in marine fossils. They extend as sheet-like deposits across most of North America and beyond. In fact, they show only minor variation in texture, composition, and fossil content across major portions of other continents as well. Such a worldwide phenomenon demands a sufficiently global cause.
- …a catastrophic sedimentary record. Rapid burial is indicated in the fossils, bedding, and sedimentology of Grand Canyon strata. Exceptional fossil preservation, especially in the absence of obvious anoxic indicators, implies rapid burial. Cross-laminated bedding in marine and non-marine strata alike implies rapid sand accumulation. Even in the “tranquil” Redwall Limestone there is at least one six-foot-thick bed with billions of nautiloids trapped in a (subsea) sandy debris flow of regional extent. Evidence demanding a “slow and gradual” origin for Grand Canyon strata is hard to find. All appears catastrophic.
- …a singular record of global-scale erosion. At the base of the Tapeats Sandstone is an erosion-surface without parallel in the entire rock record. Called the Great Unconformity, it also marks the advance of ocean on top of continent on a global scale. An agent of tsunami-like intensity apparently scoured the earth to a flat surface before the marine Tapeats Sandstone came to rest on it.
- …a record of long-distance sediment transport. The bulk of the sand comprising the upper 2,000 feet of Grand Canyon strata is derived from sources in the Appalachian region, implying trans-continental transport of tens-of-thousands of cubic miles of sand. This is completely without precedent in the modern world.
- …a timeless rock record. In Grand Canyon are multiple, dateable rock bodies that are ideally suited for testing of radioisotope dating techniques. When rocks dated by different methods yield discordant age-dates, and when rocks of radically different relative-age yield numeric ages that are roughly comparable, skepticism is justified. The question of whether any Grand Canyon rock has been successfully dated remains a valid one. A deliberate neglect of data is required to believe in “deep time.”
- …a record of relentless sedimentation. Breaks in sedimentation (unconformities) of enormous duration are interpreted not measured in the 4,000-foot-thick Paleozoic section of Grand Canyon. Among the ten or more breaks that are each alleged to be a million or more years are some that are as flat as a billiard table for 270 miles. Why such meager relief on these surfaces? Grand Canyon strata give every appearance of having accumulated in succession and without major interruption.
- …a singular sedimentary record. For the Cambrian Tapeats Sandstone to be bent vertically an alleged 400 million years after first being deposited suggests a less-than-fully lithified condition for the entire 4,000-foot-thick succession. This is incongruent with so long a timescale, yet would be expected if these strata were the product of a recent world-covering flood.
- …a remarkable linguistic record of a global flood. Native American tribes of the region, with few exceptions, have flood accounts as part of their cultural tradition. Is there a historical reason?" CEH
