Thursday, December 21, 2023

Read it like a book

So few creationists will look at geological features and just read it like a book.

   So I'll try to give a reading lesson starting simple with a tree ring cross-section. 

 

 Let Us Read Tree Rings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  There is much to meet the eye.


Read the Early Growth rings. They are mixed but mostly wide and regularly spaced. That is healthy. 
 
Two big changes happen about 30 years on. Drought, and Fire. The fire scars are obvious. The drought is seen mostly by the strong reduction in the growth ring width.

Between the second and third fires beetles start to infest the tree. That promoted the high resin production seen as a red stain to the wood. There are several infestations.

The resin makes the tree more fire vulnerable as we see in fire scars  #4 through #7.

The fires actually helped against the beetles, with no new burrows, and no high resin production after Fire #7. 
 
And, the growth rings are getting wider again after decades.

Not long after Fire #8 the tree was dropped as part of a road widening project, and the record was preserved.  The nearly 300 years of this tree's existence are studied in greater detail by; 

"Fire regimes of kipuka forests in El Malpais
National Monument, New Mexico"
Daniel B. Lewis, Master's Thesis, University of
Tennessee, 2003, Pg 72.
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/268811082.pdf

Now Let Us Read Rocks 


Why I particularly like this is that it is from the base of the Grand Canyon. Better yet, it eliminates any Noah's Flood claims.

  There is much to meet the eye.



What an interesting read.

We have a build of sedimentary layers with many kinds of size, and composition changes.

That takes time.

Then there is a large stream that cut a deep channel through to older deposits. This channel is deep rather than wide. This teaches that the cut was made in firm sediment. 
 
That takes time.

The stream then fills with two major sediment changes. The first is coarse layers. The top fill is fine grains. Those are low energy deposits. More like a drought than a flood.

That takes time.

Then there are thousands of feet of later soild sedimentary layers. Thousands.

That takes a lot of time.

Now we see those thousands of feet of rock are down cut and eroded by the Colorado River enabled by Ice Ages, and Continental Shaping.

That takes a lot of time.
 
That takes MILLIONS OF YEARS


I have often recommend readers to,


Carol Hill, Gregg Davidson, Wayne Ranney, Tim Helble
2016 "The Grand Canyon, Monument to an Ancient Earth: Can Noah's Flood Explain the Grand Canyon?" Kregel Publications.

I do again.