Coal
deposits: evidence for the Noah's Flood "model"?
last modified: 02/17/2002
Like most young-earth creationists, the folks at AiG promote the geologic theory that essentially all of the earth's fossiliferous sedimentary record originated ~2500BC as the result of a single, year-long global flood. One type of deposit that creationists believe confirm their "flood theory" is coal, which is found in the Devonian and subsequent geologic periods, and which is especially abundant in Carboniferous cyclothems. In a recent home-school "science lesson" (10/12/01), for instance, Ken Ham of AiG proclaims:
The only explanation that fits what we observe in coal deposits is that enormous quantities of plant material, including massive trees, were washed into place. This would require a lot of force and a lot of water. The event of Noah's Flood makes sense of this evidence - and gives us the real answers!
Far from being "the only explanation that fits what we observe," careful observation of coal and coal-bearing deposits show that flood geology is simply erroneous. Features of coal deposits at odds with flood geology include, among other things, fossil soils below or associated with coals, in situ trees below and and above many larger coal seams, and tidal rhythmites overlying many coals. Other inconvenient details, such as the bouyancy of trees, the stratigraphic and geographic distribution of plant types, and the great volume of coal in the geologic record, pose additional problems for diluvial "models" of coal formation. We also examine some of the arguments which have been made against coal 'autochthony' [on-site accumulation of vegetation, vrs. transport of vegetation, allochthony].
Coal and Coal-forming
environments: no modern analogues?
One class of arguments against autochthony asserts that there are
no modern peat-accumulating analogues for ancient coal-forming
environments. For instance, Ken Ham's homeschool email science
lesson (10/12/01) asserts:
Peat swamps that we observe today are totally different in composition and texture from coal deposits. In these swamps we find mainly roots and a texture like mashed potatoes. However, coal deposits have trees, bark and other material giving it a totally different texture.
Ham implies that all modern peats are the same, peats (and coals) in fact vary considerably in their texture and composition, both between and within individual peat accumulations. Some peats are fibric and preserve much recognizable plant material, whereas others are more humic and degraded.
AiG's Tas Walker (2001) suggests that autochthony cannot account for very-low ash coal, but that allochthony can. Referring to a brown coal in Australia, Walker writes:
When the brown coal burns, it leaves hardly any ash behind. The ash produced from most of these coals ranges from 1.5–5%, which is less than the 3–18% ash in typical peat. The low ash is consistent with the vegetation being transported and washed by water, not with lying in a swamp for tens of thousands of years.
Walker says that the "low ash is consistent with the vegetation being transported." In fact, the very opposite seems true: the transport and deposition of preflood vegetation by muddy floodwaters with high suspended loads of fine sediment would *introduce* significant amounts of mineral contaminants into the coal, and would do precisely nothing to account for exceptional "purity".
And contrary to Walker's assertion, autochthony can clearly account for very-low ash yield coal, since very-low ash yield autochthonous peats exist in the modern world. Low-ash peats have been documented in a variety of autochthonous depositional environments.
Studies of the inorganic geochemistry of modern domed peats in Indonesia and Malaysia show that they are very low in ash. For instance, Neuzil et al. (1993) studied three large domed peats (Siak, Bengkalis, and Keramat peats) from Indonesia, and showed that these possess an ash yield averaging only 1.1% (p. 23), demonstrating that "massive amounts of low-ash peat can develop close to marine conditions and above a marine substrate" (p. 42). 14C dating of these peats indicate accumulation rates about 5mm/yr or less (Diemont and Supardi 1987). Neuzil and Cecil (1984) and Cecil et al. (1985) "suggested that the domed peat deposits on the coastal lowlands of Indonesia and Malaysia are excellent modern analogues for the low-ash, low-sulpher coal beds of the Lower to mid-Middle Pennsylvanian of the Appalachian Basin. This comparison was based on the deposit geometry, the low-ash and low-sulpher contents of the peat, acid swamp conditions, and the woody and well-preserved nature of the peat" (ibid., p. 25). Grady et al. (1993) have also documented maceral distributions in these modern domed peats closely analogous to maceral distribution in Carboniferous coals (p. 63).
Low ash coals have also been documented in dendritic intermontane basins such as the Tasek Bera Basin in Western Malaysia, where 500cm of low ash (>5%) peats have accumulated in the past 4500 years (Wust and Bustin, 2001), and in swamps such as the Okefenokee (average 8.8%, 30% of samples <5%) (Cohen et al, 1984). Factors inhibiting sediment influx into the peat accumulation include sediment flocculation and vegetational baffling at the mire margins.
Coal: In Place or
Transported?
While modern geology recognizes both in place (autochthonous) and
transported (allochthonous) coals, the conclusion shared by all
diluvial "models" of coal formation is that all
coals originated from vegetation that was transported via
floodwaters from the place where it grew to the place where it
was buried. Obviously there is not enought time during the one
year-flood for peat to accumulate autochthonously, which in the
modern world happens at a rates of only a few mm/yr.
However, careful observation of the root systems and attached rootlets ('stigmaria') attached to upright lycopod trunks at the base of many Carboniferous (and later) coals show that they grew on site and were not "washed into place" from some other location (Gastaldo 1984, 1999). In situ trunks and deep root traces are known from the Devonian (Driese et al. 1997; Retallack 1997) and all subsequent geologic periods, but not from earlier periods. Several multi-level buried 'fossil forests' have been documented also, some of which are associated with coals and some which are not. Some examples include 3 sand-buried Eospermatopteris stump horizons with roots penetrating underlying mudstones documented in the Devonian Catskill 'delta' in eastern New York (Banks et al. 1985, p. 133), 10 successive conifer forests from the mid-Jurassic of Curio Bay New Zealand (Pole 2001) and several others from Kawhia Harbour (Thorn 2001), a buried Cretaceous conifer/angiosperm forest with roots penetrating underlying paleosols from Alexander Island, Antarctica (e.g. Cantrill and Lang 2001).
The root system of the lycopod
trees which are the dominant trees in most paleozoic coals
consisted of four main axes which departed the base of the trunk
and dichotomozed several times. These root systems intertwined
with the root systems of other trees, forming a giant network of
roots. The underground portion of the roots bear helically-arranged
"rootlets," giving stigmaria a bottle-brush-like 3-dimensional
structure. In many cases, these root systems can be seen
branching outward from upright trunks, and the delicate
appendages extend outward from these roots into the surrounding
sediments. Gastaldo (1984) states "The proximal axial
systems may depart the base at angles up to 30 degrees and the
more distal axes commonly cross-cut bedding at angles of 10
degrees or more. This provides for an intertwining of axes at
multiple levels, rather than the generally viewed concept of
intertwining along a single plane or adjacent planes. The
appendages ('rootlets') develop perpendicular to the main axial
system and also cross-cut bedding where bedding is preserved."
These lycopod trees in Carboniferous coals typically occur
alongside plants such as the sphenopsids (Calamites, for instace),
pteropsids (which includes true ferns and pteridosperms, an
extinct form of seed fern), and Cordaitales. In situ Calamites
have been documented in association with lycopods.
Gastaldo (1984) evaluated the "floating forest"
hypothesis favored by YECs such as Scheven, Wieland (1996), and
others, and found it wanting. For instance, their is no evidence
of soft-sediment deformation that would be expected if the root
systems sank into the freshly-deposited underlying sediment. The
delicate rootlets are spread outward in a radial pattern, cross-cutting
the encasing lithology and bedding (where preserved) rather than
deformed around the larger root axes. Nor are their any flame
casts or mud diapers in the base of the coal which would occur as
the floating mats sank onto the underlying sediments. Gastaldo's
(1984) review concluded:
"That the stigmarian axial systems embedded within the underclays (paleosols) of coals represent stands of lycopods in non-peat and peat accumulating environments is unquestionable. The assertion that these lycopods were abiotically, vertically emplaced from a floating habit cannot be supported by the disposition of the axial systems or the sedimentary structures accompanying them."
Gastaldo (1999) critiques other evidence offered in support of allochthony, and presents further evidence for autochthony :
"When evaluating both Mesozoic and Cenozoic coals, particularly lignites or brown coals, ample empirical evidence has been presented not only for root penetration within the weakly developed soil beneath the coal, but also for extensive, in situ, standing forests within the coals (e.g. Mossbrugger et al., 1994). The distribution of these trees (below, within and above coal seams) . . . is another criterion for recognizing autochthonous coals. Paleoecological studies from Carboniferous strata also have demonstrated that such assemblages conform to expected tree distributions in modern forests [refs omitted -ps]. In addition, the presence of multiple, stratified standing forests within coal-bearing sequences, one atop another, each with its own incipient soil horizon penetrated by underground stigmarian axes at the same site, provides unequivocal evidence for their autochthonous nature" (p. 148-149).
Paleosols: formed during Noah's Flood?
Soils are complex geologic/minerological structures formed by the physical, chemical and organic weathering of some parent material, which could be anything from crystalline igneous rocks to soft, unconsolidated sediments. Numerous studies of pedogenic (soil-forming) processes operating in natural environments show that well-developed soils require hundreds to thousands of years to form, depending upon climate, intensity of weathering, type of parent material and so on (Buol et al., 1989, pp. 175-188). Obviously soils could not form during a flood. However, numerous paleosols exist in the geologic record (e.g. Retallack 1990; Meyer 1997; Martini and Chesworth 1992; Reinhardt and Sigleo 1988), including, among other soil types, vertisols, calcisols, oxisols, spodosols, ultisols, argillosols, and gleysols.
In many sections numerous stacked soil horizons have been documented, each of which would require decades to centuries or more to form. For example, Allen (1986) documents several hundred pedogenic calcrete horizons within a 3km section of the Old Red Sandstone in the Anglo-Welsh area of southern Britain. Retallack (1977) documents at least 16 stacked paleosols from the Triassic age Upper Narrabeen Group of the Sydney Basin. Retallack (1983; 1992) documents 87 palaeosols in the Eocene-Oligocene Brule and Chadron Formations in South Dakota (see also Terry 2001). Kraus (e.g. 1997), Bown and Kraus (1981), and others have documented hundreds of paleosols within the Eocene Willwood Formation. Many other examples are known (e.g. Arndorff 1994; Bestland et al. 1996; Wright 1982).
Coals are often found directly
above fossil soils. Most paleosols underlying Carboniferous coals
are only weakly-developed, others are exceptionally "mature."
The most frequently observed variety of paleosol underlying coal
seams are so-called "underclays." These paleosols
typically lack strong horizonation and display pedogenic
characteristics similar those found today in peat-accumulating
environments. As an example, evidence of pedogenesis in the
underclay beneath the Upper Elkhorn Coal in eastern Kentucky
include features such as roots and/or root traces, downprofile
decrease in kaolinite/mica ratio, mica thickness, and vermiculite
content, up-profile decrease in chlorite, and the presence of
siderite nodules (Gardner et al. 1988). Jonathon Clarke describes
an early Carboniferous
paleosol from South
Wales, which occurs in association with thin coal seams.
Although most 'underclay' paleosols are only weakly to moderately
developed, some paleosols underlying coals are in fact very well-developed.
For instance, Gill and Yemane (1996, p. 905–908) describe an
exceptionally mature and complete Ultisol profile beneath the
lower Pennsylvanian Lykens Valley #2 coal in northeastern
Pennsylvania. The paleosol contains deep and abundant rooting,
strong base leaching, clay cutans, blocky peds, a distinctive Bt
horizon, and many other pedogenic features. The authors estimate
on the basis of modern analogues that the substrate may have
undergone up to 100,000 years worth of weathering and leaching,
requiring a hiatus in sedimentation at least that long (pedogenesis
probably began long before the coal began accumulating). They
write (p. 908):
Both bulk and clay mineralogy, as well as geochemical and petrographic analyses, indicate that the underclay beneath the Lykens Valley #2 coal is a complete and well-formed soil profile. However this soil profile does not exhibit characteristics typical of a water-logged Histosol (Levine and Slingerland, 1987), nor does it appear to have been a poorly formed Entisol or Inceptisol as might form on a flood-plain levee. Rather, the Lykens Valley profile shows evidence of substantial leaching and translocation of material, indicating a sustained period of soil formation. The Lykens Valley paleosol profile, with its albic horizon and well-developed Bt horizon, is consistent with that of an Ultisol. Ultisols are highly weathered, base-poor, oxidized soils of warm, humid forest regions (Brady, 1990; Retallack, 1990). Modern Ultisols are characterized by their low base status, the predominance of 1:1 clays such as kaolinite, and illuvial accumulation of clay in the B horizon (Brady, 1990).
The degree of weathering, the distribution of minerals, and the fabrics of the Lykens Valley underclay are consistent with that of a modern Ultisol. Ultisols typically take from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years to form in warm, moist tropical or subtropical environments (Retallack, 1990). The persistence of a stable environment over the period of time necessary for such a soil to form indicates that the Lykens Valley paleosol did not form in a rapidly changing flood-plain environment. Had deposition continued during soil formation, even at a slow pace, the soil profile would have remained immature with poorly expressed E and B horizons. The pedogenic formation of such a mature profile requires a hiatus in sedimentation.
While most paleosols within early and middle Pennsylvanian cyclothems are inferred to have formed in wet, poorly-drained environments, late Pennsylvanian and early Permian cyclothems contain paleosols which are indicative of dry or seasonal climate (calcisols, vertisols). Thick coal seams are not present in these cyclothems, nor would we expect them to be, since peat cannot accumulate in an arid environment (on the flood "model," it is not clear why coals are not found in association with arid "paleosols"). For instance, Miller et al. (1996) documents 5 paleosol-bearing intervals within the early Permian Council Grove Group and Chase Group of Kansas. The intervals commonly contain more than one paleosol. Pedogenic features present in one or more of the paleosols include well developed B, Bt, Bk and C horizons, clay cutans on blocky to fine peds, carbonate glabules and rhizocretions (up to 4cm in diameter and 60cm in length). The uppermost paleosol is classified as a vertisol, and displays well-developed pedogenic slickensides, pseudoanticlines and mukarra structure. These features are typical of soils formed under semi-arid conditions, which of course is inconsistent with the flood model. Tabor and Montanez (1999) describe a similar shift to semiarid/arid climate paleosols in late Pennsylvanian/early Permian of the Midland Basin, Texas.
Fossil soils are also found in cyclothems without associated coals. Some are these are well-developed and mature. Joeckel (1995) describes a prominent paleosol profile developed atop Upper Pennsylvanian limestones of the Shawnee Group in Nebraska and Iowa. The profile, which is up to 4m thick, displays well-developed horizonation (A, Bt, Btk horizons), clay cutans and other clay illuviation features, and many other soil structures. Small carbonate nodules are present within the Bt horizon (p. 166). The lowermost horizon contains large (up to 9cm) clasts of limestone weathered out of the underlying Ost Limestone. The Ost Limestone beneath the paleosol displays abundant karst weathering features extending to a depth of several meters. Joeckel notes:
By Midcontinent Pennsylvanian standards, the development of karstic features in the Ost is extreme . . . Karstic features in the Ost consist of: (1) a pervasive, three-dimensional network of fine microkarst veins (silt and clay-lined cracks), which occupy an estimated 10-25% of the rock volume; (2) regularly interspersed, vertically oriented solution pipes, locally occupying as much as 10-20% of the volume of the unit; and (3) a few, poorly-defined shallow depressions up to 50cm deep and 120cm in diameter (p. 167).
Tandon and Bird (1997) describe several prominent calcrete horizons up to 1 meter thick and tracable for more than 30km along strike present within coal-bearing cyclothems of the Sydney Basin of eastern Canada. The limestones beneath the calcretes preserves large polygonal dessication cracks up to 1m deep. Unlike the pedogenic features present in the underclays, which imply a submerged, humid climate, the nodular calcretes imply a relatively more arid climate during lowstands within the cyclothems. Tandon and Bird note that the "alteration of calcrete and coal is an unusual aspect of the cyclothems for, in modern landscapes, calcretes are generally developed in relatively arid settings and coals in relatively humid settings" (p. 44). The repeated alteration of these paleosols suggests that climate changed cyclicaly during deposition of the cyclothems. In other words, the eustatic cycles which created the cyclothems were linked to climate such that lowstands of the sea were associated with arid conditions, and highstands with humid conditions. Tandon and Gibling note that a similar lowstand-aridity correlation has been documented for the Australian interior during the past 300k years (e.g. Kershaw and Nanson 1993).
Vertical pedogenic trends, in conjunction with relative sea-level curves for the Sydney cyclothems, indicate that relatively arid, seasonal conditions prevailed during lowstand and early transgression. The relatively mature, nodular calcretes reflect prolonged periods of minimal sedimentation during lowstand. . . In contrast, relatively humid conditions prevailed during during late transgressin and highstand, with the formation of peat (coal) and hydromorphic paleosols. These observations are in accord with Quaternary climatic evidence, and suggest that climate and relative changes in sea level were linked (p. 64).
Roof shale rhythmites as a depositional chronometer
Many Carboniferous coals in the mid US (Illinois, Kansas, Indiana) are overlain by "roof shales" containing rhythmic laminae sequences interpreted as tidal rhythmites (e.g. Archer at al. 1995; Greb and Archer 1998). These roof shales often bury upright trees above coals. These sedimentary deposits are very distinctive in appearance. They usually consist of sand-mud couplets, each about 1mm-1cm thick. These couplets are usually flat (planar) to slightly wavy. The individual couplets are arranged in larger sequences of about 10-12 couplets, which progressively increase and then decrease in thickness. Seperating each sequence of couplets is a distinct dark band, which in modern examples represent bacterial colonization of the tidal flats during the period of neap emergence. Similar tidal rhythmites have been documented burying trees in Alaska, near the town of Portage, where coseismic subsidence in the year 1964 resulted in the aggradation of tidal flats over spruce groves near the coast (Atwater et al., 2001).
Precambrian tidal
rhythmites. The dark layers represent the neap emergence.
Linked from University of Adelaide
Tessier explains:
"Successive couplets are arranged into microsequences, a few cm to 15cm in thickness, seperated from each other by a dark layer. Each microsequence contains 10-12 couplets and the individual couplet thicknesses thicken and thin progressively from the bottom to the top of the sequence. These microsequences represent a vertical record of neap-spring tidal cycles.
"In a given microsequence, the number of couplets corresponds exactly to the number of tides able to reach the upper intertidal domain which only flooded during spring tides. Neap tides are characterized by extended periods of subarial emergence lasting at least several days. A couplet thus represents the depositional record of a single semi-diurnal cycle . . . In some cases, a very thin second couplet occurs at the top of the primary couplet, reflecting minor reactivation during the ebb retreat.
"Progressive thickening of the couplets is related to increasing tidal range from neap to spring, progressive thinning representing the descreasing tidal range from spring to neap. The neap emergence is manifested by a dark layer . . . At such times no tidally induced sedimentation occurs on the flats and extensive microbial activity develops a thin mucilaginous film" (p. 265-266).
Archer (1996) notes that "In well preserved examples, it is possible to extract synodic, tropical, and anomalistic periods. Yearly periods, which probably relate to sediment supply, have also been documented from several sites" (p. 6; see also Kvale et al. 1994).
It would be easy to dismiss such
an interpretation if not for the fact that identical tidal
rhythmite sequences are being deposited today in macrotidal
estuarine environments, such as the Bay of Fundy (Johnson et al
1996), and the Bay of Mont Saint Michel in France (Tessier at al.
1995), no global flood required. I highly recommend that
interested parties view the comparison photos in Tessier (1995).
If we assume that the earth's tidal phases had approximately the
same periods when the coals were deposited as they do today, and
there is no reason to suppose otherwise, then the rhythmites
would indicate that the roof shales were deposited over many
years. For instance, both the Carboniferous and modern rhythmites
pictured in Tessier (1995, p. 266) accumulated at roughly ~1cm
per month, locally even faster, which is relatively fast as far
as depositional rates go, but not nearly fast enough to be fit
into a deluge model which requires, among other geologic
miracles, dozens of stacked cyclothems to accumulate in mere
weeks or months during Noah's Flood.
Polystrate Trees: evidence for Noah's Flood?
Since rhythmites allow depositional rates to be estimated objectively, they can be used to clear up another misguided claim many creationists have made. Ken Ham, for instance, after stating that geologists "believe that most of the layers of sedimentary rock on the Earth’s surface were laid down slowly over millions of years," says:
There are a number of places on the Earth where fossils actually penetrate more than one layer of rock. These are called “polystrate fossils.” Genesis gives a better explanation – Noah’s Flood, which occurred a few thousand years ago. Just more evidence that fits with the Bible (Excerpt from Answers . . . with Ken Ham radio program #1203, December 23, 1998).
It is obviously an overgeneralization to state that "most layers of sedimentary rock" were deposited over millions of years. Some depositional environments in the modern world are characterized by slow deposition, and some are characterized by fairly rapid deposition. Likewise both slowly and rapidly-accumulated sediments are represented in the geologic record. In the case of most roof shale facies enclosing most polystrate trees, the rhythmite sequences (and other features of roof shales, such as frequent climbing-ripple stratification and the almost complete lack of bioturbation) show that the sediments were deposited relatively rapidly, independently of whether or not we find polystrate trees (see, for instance, Archer et al. 1994). And while the Paleozoic coal-bearing cyclothems are thought to represent about 200-400k years (not millions), there is no simple thickness-time relationship. Carl Wieland (1998) goes even further with this mythology, saying:
Creationists do not cite polystrate trees as a problem merely because they show rapid burial. ‘Polystrate’ means ‘many layers’. Let’s say the bottom part of a fossil tree is encased in geological layer A, the middle part surrounded by layer B, and the upper part by layer C. Assume that layers A and C are supposed, by standard evolutionary assignations of age based on index fossil dating, to be separated by millions of years. The issue is not one of whether layers A, B or C may each have formed in separate catastrophes (which is of course logically possible) but the real point is that the top of the tree could not have remained both unfossilized and intact for millions of years before being buried (and then preserved) by layer C. In other words, this is a problem for the whole ‘geological ages’ concept, whether one is a classical uniformitarianist, or a neo-catastrophist who believes that every layer was formed in a separate catastrophe.
Wieland's assertion that polystrate trees are "a problem for the whole ‘geological ages’ concept" is based on the implied but totally unsupported claim that polystrate trees exist penetrating sedimentary "layers" thought to have been deposited during seperate geological periods or stages, representing millions of years of geologic time. Note that Wieland does not offer a single example of this.
Unfortunately for Wieland, no such occurrence has ever been documented. The examples of polystrate trees which are cited by AiG and others, such as the those exposed in the Bay of Fundy, certainly do not cross-cut "layers" thought to represent "millions of years." Perhaps Wieland is lying, or simply assuming that such things must exist somewhere despite the fact that they have never been documented. Either way, his claim is nonsense.
Another factor that could contribute to the rapid burial of trees atop coal seams is the compressibility of peat. Once sediments begin to accumulate atop the peat, the peat body, especially if it were a domed peat, would begin to compress or deflate, creating up to several meters of accomodation space, depending upon the thickness of the peat body (Kvale and Archer, 1990, p. 572). This may also explain why tidal rhythmites are often best expressed immediately above coal seams.
The wonders of "flood sorting"
Many additional problems become evident when we attempt to explain the distribution of coals and their constituent vegetation in terms of flood "models." One obvious problem is buoyancy - simply getting the trees and vegetation to sink as quickly and in as orderly a manner as the flood model requires. It can take years for trees to become sufficiently waterlogged to sink in water. For instance, the bulk of the trees washed into Spirit Lake by the eruption of Mt St Helens still floated at the surface several years later (e.g. Coffin 1983). Observations of logjams on rivers illustrate the same point (Gastaldo, 1999).
Gastaldo (1999) illustrates another type of flood-sorting problem by comparing the Cretaceous-Paleocene lignites of the Wilcox trend in Texas and Louisiana with the early Pennsylvanian bituminous coals of the Black Warrior basin. The Wilcox trend contains several coal seams within a 3500ft thick section, and the Black Warrior basin contains about 40 seams within a 12,000ft section. Although these two coal groups are seperated by only about 200 miles of relatively flat-lying land in north central Alabama, both coal groups contain *entirely* different floral compositions throughout their lateral extent.
The Wilcox trend coals consist of conifers and coniferophyte wood, and angiosperm wood. These coals contain abundant angiosperm and coniferophyte pollen. The Black Warrior basin coals, on the other hand, consist entirely of typical Paleozoic flora, such as lycophytes, tree ferns, and so forth. "All spores and pollen recovered from these coals represent the lower vascular plant groups; there are no higher vascular plant group pollen, such as that from conifers and or angiosperms, in these coals" (p. 153). Gastaldo goes on to note that "the types of palynomorphs in each of these coal bearing sequences are absolutely dissimilar. None of the pollen or spores in the Wilcox coals can be found in the Black Warrior basin coals, and vice versa" (p. 154). Note also that the Illinois Basin coals to the north are also composed of Paleozoic flora. Of course, distributions like this are no mystery at all for mainstream geology - the Appalachian basin was accumulating sediments during the Carboniferous while the Wilcox basin was accumulating sediments during the Cretaceous-Paleocene.
Another problem is the absence of any evidence for vegetation in Precambrian and early Paleozoic strata. While Snelling (1986) postulates a densely forested preflood earth, with several times the vegetational biomass present on the earth today, there is no evidence whatsoever in the Precambrian-early Paleozoic sedimentary record for land plants of any kind. There are plenty of Precambrian-early Paleozoic paleosols (e.g. Feakes and Retallack 1988), but they contain no tree stumps, no roots or root traces, not even any spores or angiosperm pollen. For example, the Carboniferous age coals in the Appalachian, Michigan, and Illinois basins shown on the map above are underlain by hundreds to thousands of meters or more of early Paleozoic sediments, yet, again, no evidence for the existence of any vast and dense preflood forests are found in these preflood or basal flood sediments. How could the flood rapidly deposit a thick blanket of sand, shale and limestone over hundreds of thousands of square miles of dense preflood forests, and yet not bury and preserve a single tree stump, spore or pollen grain?
Conclusion
Diluvial models of coal formation are inconsistent with a wide variety of observations, and can be dismissed as untenable. Criticisms of autochthonous models made by AiG and other creationists are based largely on factual errors, misleading statements, and failure to consider all data. Moreover, given the strong evidence for autochthony and the slow pace of peat accumulation even under near ideal conditions (less than 1cm or so) (e.g. Diemont and Supardi 1987), the presence of numerous thick autochthonous coals in the geologic record is yet another indication that the earth is far older than young-earthers would like to believe.
Works cited
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Archer, Allen W., 1996. Some controls on ancient occurrences of cyclical tidal rhythmites: Tidalites '96, International Conference on Tidal Sedimentology, Savannah, Georgia, May 12, 1996, Abstracts Volume, p. 6-7.
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Buol, S.W., Hole, F.D., McCracken, R.J. 1989. Soil genesis and classification. Third Edition. The Iowa State Univ. Press.
Cantrill, D.J., and Falcon-Lang, H.J., 2001. Cretaceous (Late Albian) coniferales of Alexander Island, Antarctica. 2. Leaves, reproductive structures and roots. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 115:3-4, pp. 119-145.
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