If sediments have been accumulating on the seafloor for three billion years,
the seafloor should be choked with sediments many miles deep.
Every year water and wind erode about 20 billion tons of dirt and rock debris
from the continents and deposit them on the seafloor.1 (Figure 1). Most of this
material accumulates as loose sediments near the continents. Yet the average
thickness of all these sediments globally over the whole seafloor is not even
1,300 feet (400 m).2
Some sediments appear to be removed as tectonic plates slide slowly (an inch
or two per year) beneath continents. An estimated 1 billion tons of sediments
are removed this way each year.3 The net gain is thus 19 billion tons per year.
At this rate, 1,300 feet of sediment would accumulate in less than 12 million
years, not billions of years.
This evidence makes sense within the context of the Genesis Flood cataclysm,
not the idea of slow and gradual geologic evolution. In the latter stages of
the year-long global Flood, water swiftly drained off the emerging land, dumping
its sediment-chocked loads offshore. Thus most seafloor sediments accumulated
rapidly about 4,300 years ago.4
Where Is All the Sediment?
Figure 1: Every year, 20 billion tons
of dirt and rock debris wash into the ocean and accumulate on the seafloor.
Only 1 billion tons (5%) are removed by tectonic plates. At this rate, the
current thickness of seafloor sediment would accumulate in less than 12 million
years. Such sediments are easily explained by water draining off the continents
towards the end of the Flood.
Rescuing Devices
Those who advocate an old earth insist that the seafloor sediments must have
accumulated at a much slower rate in the past. But this rescuing device doesn’t
“stack up”! Like the sediment layers on the continents, the sediments on the
continental shelves and margins (the majority of the seafloor sediments) have
features that unequivocally indicate they were deposited much faster than today’s
rates. For example, the layering and patterns of various grain sizes in these
sediments are the same as those produced by undersea landslides, when dense
debris-laden currents (called turbidity currents) flow rapidly across the continental
shelves and the sediments then settle in thick layers over vast areas. An additional
problem for the old-earth view is that no evidence exists of much sediment being
subducted and mixed into the mantle.
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.
SourceThis article originally appeared on answersingenesis.org
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