Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Fury & Energy of the Flood

"Marine fossils, including sharks, bivalves, and gastropods, are
prevalent throughout the Hell Creek, not just in isolated lenses as many have claimed. 
Patterns of dinosaur occurrences in the uppermost Hell Creek show less dinosaur fossils toward the top of the formation and a 2–3 m gap at the very top that is devoid of dinosaur fossils
Dinosaur fossils found in the overlying lowermost Paleocene Fort
Union Formation, may indicate some dinosaurs survived
until the end of the Zuni Megasequence, slightly above the K-Pg. All geological data observed in the Hell Creek Formation are interpreted as occurring during a worldwide Flood event. Stratigraphic data, such as ripples and cross-bedded sandstones, demonstrate water transport. Marine fossils found throughout the formation imply a strong marine influence during deposition of the entire unit.
 
In addition, it is claimed the formation provides the most detailed history of continental biotic changes across the K-Pg (Cretaceous- Paleogene) boundary in the world (Clemens, 2002; Clemens and Hartman, 2014). Yet, the top of the Hell Creek also contains the famous “3 m gap,” where no dinosaur specimens have been dis- covered (Johnson et al., 2002).

The Hell Creek Formation is one of the last deposits of the Zuni mega-sequence across the northern Great Plains region. Megasequences are de- fined as packages of sedimentary rock bounded top and bottom by erosional surfaces, 
--with coarse sandstone layers at the bottom (deposited first), --followed by shales, and then limestone at the top (deposited last) (Sloss, 1963).
 
One of the great secular mysteries of all time concerns the extinction
of
dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous System, of which the Hell Creek Formation plays a major part.

Every sandstone unit within the Hell Creek Formation shows evidence of water transport and deposition (Hartman et al., 2014).
 
The Fox Hills Formation directly
below the Hell Creek is interpreted as a marine deposit (Hartman, 2002), and the Cannonball Member of the Fort Union Formation above the Hell Creek is thought by secular geologists to be a marine deposit along the eastern side of the Williston Basin. Finally, most geologists admit that the Breien Member, near the base of the Hell Creek in south-central North Dakota, is a marine deposit
 
However, the marine influence seen in the Hell Creek Formation is not limited just to North Dakota. Studies in eastern Montana, and even into the equivalent rock units (Lance Formation) in Wyoming, have shown similar results (Archibald, 1996). Other authors have been studying the fauna of the Hell Creek since the 1950s (Lucas, 2007), seeing the same marine and
nonmarine
faunal mixing. As Hartman and Kirkland (2002, p. 272) have stated, “Although previously reported, knowledge of the continuation of marine conditions above the Fox Hills Formation is not well or widely known.” The Fox Hills directly underlies the Hell Creek.
 
*After the early stages of the Flood, and after the deposition of the first three megasequences (Sauk, Tippecanoe, and Kaskaskia), the Flood seems to have increased its fury and energy level, depositing nearly two-thirds of its sediment load onto the North American continent.And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.
And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were
covered” (Genesis 7:18–19). It was at this point in the Flood, during deposition of the Absaroka and Zuni Megasequences, that the tectonic plates seem to have undergone their most extensive episode of movement and an entirely new ocean crust began to form globally. The new ocean crust would likely have been hotter and less dense than the old, pre-Flood oceanic crust. This would have raised the level of the ocean floor, especially near the ocean ridges, similar to the way hot air causes a balloon to rise (Austin et al., 1994). 
 
First, many marine fossils are found throughout the formation, often
mixed with terrestrial fossils.
The extent of these occurrences has been largely ignored by secular scientists.
Second, sedimentary structures indicative of water transport are ubiquitous to the sandstone layers. 
Rippled layers and cross-bedded sandstones demonstrate active transport was occurring during deposition of each sandstone bed. Standard models cannot account
for both
the mixed fossil assemblages and the evidence of water transport. 
 
Only a Flood model involving ocean-transported, tsunami-like waves can account for the observed mixing of terrestrial and marine
environments in the Hell Creek." ICR