As usual, you are ankle-biting. I really don't know enough about that area, and Clarey's paper is the only one that addresses it from a global flood perspective; and his paper was focused on the possibilities of the floating forest being the source of coal seams. This is part of what he wrote:
"According to secular geologists, and many creation geologists who advocate CPT, there was a pre-Flood ocean along the East Coast of the US called the Iapetus Ocean, separating North America from Baltica (another continental mass). Early in the Flood, ocean lithosphere began to be consumed by runaway subduction along the US East coast, marked by the Taconic orogeny, while Ordovician system rocks (Tippecanoe Megasequence) were being deposited. The destruction of the Iapetus Ocean presumably continued through the Caledonian and Acadian orogenies as Laurentia (North America) collided with Baltica and Avalonia, finally placing continental crust against continental crust from Newfoundland to Pennsylvania. This three-part process completely consumed the Iapetus Ocean lithosphere by the time Upper Devonian system rocks were deposited (Kaskaskia). Later, during deposition of the Mississippian system rocks (Lower Carboniferous), Laurasia (including North America) again collided with the Galatian Superterrane and Gondwana as part of the Hercynian–Alleghenian orogeny, completing the destruction of another segment of ocean (Rheic Ocean) lithosphere, and the formation of Pangaea.This scenario suggests that at least two significant segments of the pre-Flood ocean were completely destroyed through subduction, to the point of placing continent against continent, and all prior to the deposition of the most significant coal deposits. What happened to the presumed floating forests in these oceans?" [Timothy L. Clarey, "Examining the floating forest hypothesis: a geological perspective." Journal of Creation, 2015]
When, and if other creation geologists address Clarey's concerns, I will let you know. In the meantime, please address some of the more universal anomalies, such as, where did all that sand, carbonate, mud, etc. come from to form all of those continent-wide layers? How do you explain paleocurrents? How about flat coal seams (top and bottom) separated by flat, thin mud benches? And so forth . . .
Dan