Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Caspian Basin and a late Cenozoic Flood boundary

And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; Genesis 7:18

"An examination of the rocks in the South Caspian Basin provides additional confirmation of a late Cenozoic Flood boundary

This area also shows continuous marine strata from the Cretaceous
level upwards through the Miocene, and even as high as the Lower Pliocene in the
Middle Caspian Basin just to the north. 
Indeed, the Miocene marine rocks in the South Caspian Basin are the source rocks for much of the oil produced in the vicinity. These rocks have been studied by oil and gas companies and found to contain tremendous volumes of buried marine algae. 
The primary source rocks in the South Caspian Basin are the Oligocene to Lower Miocene Maykop Series and the overlying Middle-Upper Miocene Diatomaceous Suite, which collectively are
several kilometres thick. These strata were buried by upwards of 8 km (5 mi) of additional
Cenozoic deposits, placing them in the oil generation window. Devlin et al. made special note of the maturity level of these sediments, stating:

The ubiquitous nature of this source facies throughout much of the coastal and offshore regions of the South Caspian Basin is evidenced by prolific seepage of black oil.”

If we assume all of the Tertiary rocks deposited here were post-Flood, then the bulk of these strata would have had to have been emplaced without any Flood influence and in a limited window of time prior to the onset of the Pleistocene Ice Age
Recall, the conditions for the Ice Age would have only been in place
for a limited number of years after the
Flood. The warm oceans from the creation of a new seafloor would have cooled and the prolific volcanic eruptions of ash-rich volcanoes would have begun to wane within a few centuries of the Flood cessation. 
As a consequence, the beginning of the Ice Age limits the window of time available for most of the Tertiary deposits to about 100 years, or at most 200 years. If we assume a thickness of 15 km, then an average of 150 m of sediment per year must have been continually deposited across the South Caspian Basin in the timespan of 100 years. This equates to 12.5 m (41 ft) per month across an area of 181,000 km2. This is no trivial volume in that short window of time. And even if we stretch the timeframe to 200 years, we still get an average of 6.25 m (20.5 ft) per month.

---It is difficult to imagine local catastrophes creating this volume of sediment across such a vast area in such a limited amount of time. Also, how could anything survive in an area with this much active deposition?

Stratigraphic data is not as biased as fossil data and is much less
subjective. It is a directly observable record of what has been deposited. Although some of the rock record has obviously been destroyed by erosion, what has been preserved is still telling. Indeed, the overwhelming strength of the global rock record needs to be acknowledged in any interpretation of the
Flood/post-Flood boundary.

The sheer volume and global extent of marine rocks deposited during the Tertiary is what tips the scale in Favour of an upper Cenozoic post-Flood boundary. We suggest that this data set is so vast and complete that it is nearly inconceivable to argue otherwise." 
ICR