Coal Formation
Contact of a coal seam and the sandstone strata above the coal seam. There is no (or very little) mixing. The coal gives the appearance of having been compacted vegetation (in an aqueous fluid) that was rapidly covered by a thick aqueous sand layer. Heat, drying and pressure would have chemically rapidly changed the vegetation to coal. Photo by JGL in New Mexico.
HISTORICAL SURVEY OF THE FLOATING MAT MODEL FOR THE ORIGIN OF CARBONIFEROUS COAL BEDS
Steve Austin and Roger Sanders
“Three depositional models have been offered for the origin of coal: (1) peat swamp model, (2) drift model, and (3) floating mat model. Many paleobotany questions about lycopods and tree ferns had not been solved at the end of the Nineteenth Century, but the “floating mat model” offered a very robust path to direct research. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the Twentieth Century when the uniformitarian paradigm prevailed, the floating mat model was intentionally suppressed. Now new data from coal petrology indicate that Carboniferous coal is detrital having accumulated underwater, not as a terrestrial swamp deposit. New data and methodology from paleobotany (Sanders and Austin, 2018) show lycopsids and tree ferns were capable of forming living floating mats able to support the trunks. Paleobotany of coal plants should now be best understood as supporting a floating raft that deposited the detritus that now forms Carboniferous coal beds. We present here for the first time a three-hundred-year historical survey of the notion that coal accumulated from floating vegetation mats.” Online from International Creation Conference 2018. (see link below)
JGL note: The "floating mat" model has been considered consistent with the worldwide Noah Flood by Austin and others. Dr Steven Austin received his PhD in geology at Penn State. He studied coal formation.
Steve Austin and Roger Sanders
“Three depositional models have been offered for the origin of coal: (1) peat swamp model, (2) drift model, and (3) floating mat model. Many paleobotany questions about lycopods and tree ferns had not been solved at the end of the Nineteenth Century, but the “floating mat model” offered a very robust path to direct research. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the Twentieth Century when the uniformitarian paradigm prevailed, the floating mat model was intentionally suppressed. Now new data from coal petrology indicate that Carboniferous coal is detrital having accumulated underwater, not as a terrestrial swamp deposit. New data and methodology from paleobotany (Sanders and Austin, 2018) show lycopsids and tree ferns were capable of forming living floating mats able to support the trunks. Paleobotany of coal plants should now be best understood as supporting a floating raft that deposited the detritus that now forms Carboniferous coal beds. We present here for the first time a three-hundred-year historical survey of the notion that coal accumulated from floating vegetation mats.” Online from International Creation Conference 2018. (see link below)
JGL note: The "floating mat" model has been considered consistent with the worldwide Noah Flood by Austin and others. Dr Steven Austin received his PhD in geology at Penn State. He studied coal formation.
How Did We Get All This Coal? Dr. Andrew A. Snelling "It appears that lush vegetation might have covered up to 75 percent of the pre-Flood world, including the floating forests fringing the land. The Flood waters rose from the oceans and swept over the land, catastrophically destroying and burying all the vegetation in beds between other fossil-bearing sediments. The temperatures and pressures at these depths, aided by the presence of water and clay, converted these beds into coal within months.
Thus the huge coal deposits of today’s world can easily be explained. The coal formed quickly in the year-long Genesis Flood only about 4,300 years ago. This coal is a grim reminder that God judged the world because it had become filled with wickedness, corruption, and violence (Genesis 6:11–13). Yet God also shows His mercy. He used the Flood judgment to provide the huge coal resources so much of the world depends upon today." Article 2013. (See Link below.)
Dr. Andrew Snelling holds a PhD in geology from the University of Sydney and has worked as a consultant research geologist in both Australia and America. Author of numerous scientific articles, Dr. Snelling is now director of research at Answers in Genesis–USA.
Thus the huge coal deposits of today’s world can easily be explained. The coal formed quickly in the year-long Genesis Flood only about 4,300 years ago. This coal is a grim reminder that God judged the world because it had become filled with wickedness, corruption, and violence (Genesis 6:11–13). Yet God also shows His mercy. He used the Flood judgment to provide the huge coal resources so much of the world depends upon today." Article 2013. (See Link below.)
Dr. Andrew Snelling holds a PhD in geology from the University of Sydney and has worked as a consultant research geologist in both Australia and America. Author of numerous scientific articles, Dr. Snelling is now director of research at Answers in Genesis–USA.
Four Lessons from the Mount St. Helens Eruption
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on May 18, 2020
1) Coal beds do form rapidly by catastrophic destruction of forests, unlike the slow and gradual growth of peat from plants in swamps.
2) Sedimentary layering does form very rapidly by catastrophic flow processes.
3) Mount St. Helens demonstrates beyond debate that the sudden release of water cuts canyons rapidly, even carving through hard rock.
4) Radioactive dating methods are fraught with difficulties that generally render them seriously unreliable.
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on May 18, 2020
1) Coal beds do form rapidly by catastrophic destruction of forests, unlike the slow and gradual growth of peat from plants in swamps.
2) Sedimentary layering does form very rapidly by catastrophic flow processes.
3) Mount St. Helens demonstrates beyond debate that the sudden release of water cuts canyons rapidly, even carving through hard rock.
4) Radioactive dating methods are fraught with difficulties that generally render them seriously unreliable.
