Published in: Creation Research Society Quarterly, volume 33, number 3, pp. 191–198, 1996.

© 1996 Creation Research Society, St. Joseph, Missouri, USA. All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

Modern evolutionism requires that the earth be very old. One line of evidence cited is the length of time required to deposit the observed thickness of sea-floor sediments far from any direct continental source. Using the low current depositional rates results in a minimum age of tens of millions of years. The model of deposition presented in this paper differs from the conventional model primarily in the rate of deposition, which is asserted to have peaked at an enormous level during and after the biblical Flood and is presumed to have fallen at an exponential rate to the present low level. Because biblical evidence strongly supports a short historical period between the Flood and the present, the shape of the decay curve is very steep. Data from the Deep-Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) were reinterpreted for this paper. By estimating the thickness of sediment corresponding to this interval and asserting a set of boundary conditions, an analytical model is presented that estimates the age of sediment from a particular depth at a given borehole.

If the modern evolutionary model of deposition is correct, the water temperature evidenced by fossils would show only small, random variations. If a catastrophic event such as the Flood occurred, temporary warming of the water immediately after the catastrophe should have occurred and may be detectable. Fossil evidence of water temperature at the time of deposition is believed by some researchers to correlate with the ratio of oxygen isotopes of mass 16 and 18. Because foraminifera are common in both present-day and ancient sediments and contain oxygen in their carbonate skeletal remains, they are often analyzed for the oxygen isotope ratio and an inferred water temperature is calculated. Based on DSDP data from selected boreholes, and plotted on a timescale modified by the analytical model derived in this paper, a general cooling trend appears plausible from the limited dataset.

Keywords

Sea-Floor Sediments, Depositional Rates, Deep-Sea Drilling Project Data, Sediment Thicknesses, Boundary Conditions, Analytical Models, Water Temperatures, Foraminifera, Oxygen Isotopes, Cooling Trend, Age Estimates

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