Another falsification of a global flood within the last 10,000 years is the existence of varves. Here is a quick definition:
A varve is "a sedimentary lamina or sequence of laminae deposited in a body of still water within one year's time; specifically a pair of layers seasonally deposited in a glacial lake. A glacial varve normally includes a lower 'summer' layer consisting of light-colored sand or silt, which grades upward into a thinner 'winter' layer, consisting of clayey, often organic, dark sediment"
Now, there are many places on this earth in which there are these double layers of sediment in nice, regular formations going back for well over 10,000 years. This would be absolutely impossible if there had been a global flood during this time. These varves are like geologic clocks, like tree rings, if you will. Ever since we have been observing them for the last 100 years, they regularly deposit these double layers, one set each and every year. Never more than one set of double layers, never less. Now, we can simply count these layers back to see for how long this has been going on, UNINTERUPTED. The glacial lakes in Scandanavia show uninterupted yearly deposits going back to the last ice age, more than 10,000 years ago. If there had been a global flood, there is no way this sequence would look as it does. While some YEC organizations make an attempt to respond to the Green River varves, described below, since it is so dramatic, they tend to ignore the Scandanavian glacial lake varves.
We get an even more impressive history from the Green River varve sequences, since they go back about 20 million years. The only arguments that YEC's have attempted with these varves is to show that, at least with the Green River, since this sequence CAN be added to by occasional storms, etc, and thus they might be deposited more than once a year. This does not help them for a number of reasons. First of all, even if it could help avoid the obvious age of the earth problem, it would still run into a brick wall for a global flood. These layers would simply either not exist or look VERY different if there had been a global flood just a few thousand years ago. Competent geologists can tell the annual layers from the occasional storm layers in between and even tell you how big the storm was (again, think about tree rings here, which are more widely spaced during wet years) But even setting that aside, the problem is that to account for the sheer number of layers, they would have to laid down at a dizzying, and simply impossible, rate in order for them all to fit within their time frame. Even if you assume 1 layer per day, you still have 50,000 years! And, of course, one per day is not possible.
That is my analysis, here is what Lucaspa (another real scientist) has stated on this subject on the other forum:
"As you noted, varves falsify Flood geology. Again. There is no way a single, year long Flood (especially a violent one) could lay down 20 million layers in a single sediment. Particularly when deposits close by have none.
The uniformitarian principle can be checked independent of uniformitarianism by examining the individual layers and testing how they were laid down."
Also, "Varves in New England show evidence of climate change 17,500 to 13,500 years ago which matches climate patterns in other parts of the world [Rittenour et al. 2000]. These layers prove that the geological record was not produced in just one event."
Here is a site by geologists regarding the Green River varves:
http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2002AM/finalprogram/session_3276.htm
A varve is "a sedimentary lamina or sequence of laminae deposited in a body of still water within one year's time; specifically a pair of layers seasonally deposited in a glacial lake. A glacial varve normally includes a lower 'summer' layer consisting of light-colored sand or silt, which grades upward into a thinner 'winter' layer, consisting of clayey, often organic, dark sediment"
Now, there are many places on this earth in which there are these double layers of sediment in nice, regular formations going back for well over 10,000 years. This would be absolutely impossible if there had been a global flood during this time. These varves are like geologic clocks, like tree rings, if you will. Ever since we have been observing them for the last 100 years, they regularly deposit these double layers, one set each and every year. Never more than one set of double layers, never less. Now, we can simply count these layers back to see for how long this has been going on, UNINTERUPTED. The glacial lakes in Scandanavia show uninterupted yearly deposits going back to the last ice age, more than 10,000 years ago. If there had been a global flood, there is no way this sequence would look as it does. While some YEC organizations make an attempt to respond to the Green River varves, described below, since it is so dramatic, they tend to ignore the Scandanavian glacial lake varves.
We get an even more impressive history from the Green River varve sequences, since they go back about 20 million years. The only arguments that YEC's have attempted with these varves is to show that, at least with the Green River, since this sequence CAN be added to by occasional storms, etc, and thus they might be deposited more than once a year. This does not help them for a number of reasons. First of all, even if it could help avoid the obvious age of the earth problem, it would still run into a brick wall for a global flood. These layers would simply either not exist or look VERY different if there had been a global flood just a few thousand years ago. Competent geologists can tell the annual layers from the occasional storm layers in between and even tell you how big the storm was (again, think about tree rings here, which are more widely spaced during wet years) But even setting that aside, the problem is that to account for the sheer number of layers, they would have to laid down at a dizzying, and simply impossible, rate in order for them all to fit within their time frame. Even if you assume 1 layer per day, you still have 50,000 years! And, of course, one per day is not possible.
That is my analysis, here is what Lucaspa (another real scientist) has stated on this subject on the other forum:
"As you noted, varves falsify Flood geology. Again. There is no way a single, year long Flood (especially a violent one) could lay down 20 million layers in a single sediment. Particularly when deposits close by have none.
The uniformitarian principle can be checked independent of uniformitarianism by examining the individual layers and testing how they were laid down."
Also, "Varves in New England show evidence of climate change 17,500 to 13,500 years ago which matches climate patterns in other parts of the world [Rittenour et al. 2000]. These layers prove that the geological record was not produced in just one event."
Here is a site by geologists regarding the Green River varves:
http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2002AM/finalprogram/session_3276.htm
