There are numerous geological features that bring into question the standard view of geochronology and these have been thoroughly reviewed by Ariel Roth.37 Evidence for rapid washouts is widespread on earth and these can provide insights into the geological past. One of the best areas of the world to view a sec- tion through the Paleozoic portion of the geological column is the Grand Canyon. Here it can be seen that the various layers lie like vast flat sheets one on top of each other, and each flat layer covers thousands of square kilometers. If these layers represent periods in the earth’s history, then, by implication, they must have formed the surface of the earth at some stage, and one would expect to find evidence for this in the form of river channels, valleys, and erosional features between them, but these are lacking.
In the Grand Canyon series, rocks of the Ordovician and Silurian periods are missing (this is known as an unconformity), and standard geology accepts that their layers were removed from the record by erosion. Since geologists have assumed vast ages for the formation of the various layers found in the column, the layers are obviously linked to time. If a layer were missing, this would imply that the relevant time was missing, and this is, of course,
impossible in terms of the evolutionary model. They, therefore, speculate that in strata where unconformities occur, these layers must have been there in the past, but had been eroded away in those areas before the subsequent overlying strata had been deposited.
The Ordovician layer in the Grand Canyon series, that was supposedly eroded away, represents some 100 million years, which in itself presents a further problem. Standard geological publica- tions put current erosion rates at between 6 and 1900 cm per 1000 years. Most of the eroded material is carried away by rivers and ends up as sediment in the oceans. Even at the lower figure of 6 cm per 1000 years, it would take a mere 10.2 million years for the continents to be eroded down to sea level (the continents would have eroded down to sea-level 340 times in the time period that they supposedly existed). As Lindale put it in his article on the survival of paleoforms:
Even if it is accepted that estimates of the contemporary rate of degradation of the land surface are several orders too high to provide an accurate yardstick of erosion in the geological past, there has surely been ample time for the very ancient features preserved in the present landscape to have been eradicated several times over. Yet the silcreted land surface of central Australia has survived perhaps 20 million years of weathering and erosion under varied climatic conditions, as has the laterite surface of the northern areas of the continent. The laterite surface of the Gulf region of South Australia is even more remarkable, for it has persisted, through some 200 million years of epigene attack…The survival of the paleoforms is in some degree an embarrassment to all the commonly accepted models of landscape development.38
A feature of the column, as represented in the Grand Canyon series, is that it is graded coarse to fine – the lower por- tion consisting largely of residual gravels, followed by lime and shale deposits.39 This cannot be easily reconciled with the uniformitarian model, but is precisely what one would expect if the various layers came into existence catastrophically. It seems as if the Cambrian deposits worldwide can be ascribed to one major sedimentological episode that caused graded beds. One possible mechanism of formation is through turbidimetric deposi- tion. Turbidites are underwater mudflows set off by catastrophic events such as earthquakes, and would be expected in a diluvial event as described in Genesis. The various layers of such mud- flows have flat contact zones, and missing layers can be readily explained without invoking periods of erosion. The quantity of source material would determine the thickness and the area cov- ered. The absence of a layer would simply mean that there was not enough source material to cover the same areas as the under and overlying strata (Fig. 2.3).
Turbidity currents could account for many of the layers found in the geological column. The abundance of sedimentary layers in the stratigraphic record speaks of extensive underwater activity in the past. Such a phenomenon was fully documented when, on November 18, 1929, a turbidity current was set off by an earthquake that shook the New England coast. The speed of this flow could be recorded as it broke a series of undersea telegraphic cables. This flow covered some 200 miles in the first 59 minutes and 500 miles in 13 hours 17 minutes. This means that the flow was traveling at speeds in excess of 100 kilometers per hour, even reaching speeds of 160 kilometers per hour. Obviously, any living organisms in the way of the flow would have been instantly buried and, being cut off from oxygen, would eventually fossilize. It is obvious that a short chronology for the formation of the geological column would destroy the very pillars on which the evolutionary paradigm rests and the evidence needs to be carefully weighed.