The Genesis Agendum
Spring Lecture

Coventry, 24 March 2012
(Lower Ford Street Baptist Church, Coventry CV1 5QJ)

Desert or Deluge?

Recent Research Confirms the Global Flood

Paul Garner

Many thick layers of sandstone are interpreted by geologists as “eolian” or windblown in origin under desert conditions. They occur throughout the stratigraphic record and are widely distributed geographically. They are particularly well represented in the geological system known as the Permian, with examples described from north-western Europe , including England and Scotland , the western and south-western USA and South America .

The classic textbook example is the Coconino Sandstone of central and northern Arizona , which forms a prominent rock layer in the Grand Canyon . This rock unit is said to be composed of well sorted, well rounded, fine to medium quartz grains with minor feldspars and no mica, and to display large-scale cross-bedding with high-angle dips. The Coconino is also characterised by the occurrence of well-defined animal tracks on bedding surfaces. These features are regarded as evidence of an eolian environment of deposition by comparison with what is observed in modern coastal and inland deserts.

Critics have suggested that sandstones of this type simply could not have formed during the global Flood described in the Bible. In their book-length critique of Flood geology, geologists Davis Young and Ralph Stearley state: “Mainstream sedimentologists feel that the eolian, that is, wind-blown, nature of such sand accumulations is well founded. ... Abundant evidences support the mainstream view that these sandstone layers were deposited as part of large ergs [deserts] adjacent to the seacoast.” (The Bible, Rocks and Time: Geological Evidence for the Age of the Earth, IVP, 2008, pp. 305, 308)

However, new and ongoing field and laboratory studies by a UK/US/Canadian team, including the lecturer, cast doubt upon these claims. This talk will present the very latest data challenging the “eolian” origin of the Coconino Sandstone and suggesting instead that it was rapidly deposited in a subaqueous environment.

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Paul Garner graduated in geology and biology and is a Fellow of the Geological Society. Currently Lecturer and Researcher with Biblical Creation Ministries, he was previously Senior Information Scientist for a Cambridge-based pharmaceutical company. A trustee of The Genesis Agendum, he is the author of The New Creationism (EP, 2009) and has published a number of research papers in national and international creationist journals.