Browse Search Feedback Other Links Home Home The Talk.Origins Archive: Exploring the Creation/Evolution Controversy

Index to Creationist Claims,  edited by Mark Isaak,    Copyright © 2004
Previous Claim: CD202   |   List of Claims   |   Next Claim: CD210

Claim CD203:

The occurrence of limestone deposits that are so great and so uniform defies explanation except by massive precipitation from chemical-rich waters, consistent with catastrophism, not uniformitarianism. Dolomite sediments are not being formed at all today; they also require an exceptional explanation.

Source:

Morris, Henry M., 1974. Scientific Creationism, Green Forest, AR: Master Books, p. 104.

Response:

  1. Uniformitarian processes explain limestone formations far better than catastrophism does:
    Dolomites require no exceptional explanation. They form via diagenesis (a sort of chemical rearrangement in the deep subsurface) from calcite, the main ingredient of limestone. Creationism does not explain the origin of dolomite.

  2. Limestone could not have formed quickly from massive precipitation, because the formation of calcite releases heat. If only 10 percent of the world's limestone were formed during the Flood, the 5.6 x 1026 joules of heat released would be enough to boil the flood waters (Isaak 1998).

References:

  1. Isaak, Mark, 1998. Problems with a global flood, 2nd ed. http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-noahs-ark.html#georecord

Previous Claim: CD202   |   List of Claims   |   Next Claim: CD210

created 2003-8-18