Geological Model in Brief

Any discussion regarding geology must first deal with something called the Geologic Column. The Geologic Column is the name given to the series of strata which makes up the earth’s crust. The fact that there are strata in the earth’s crust is not argued.  What is argued is their meaning.

  1. The standard model taught in most schools and universities, and referred to in most journals and other writings, says that the various strata were laid down slowly through the ages, in terms of the processes we see today.  There are some catastrophic indications where changes occurred rapidly, but for the most part, it is considered that the ten miles of the earth’s crust are the result of about four billion years of layering. 
  2. The American and Australian creation models consider the vast majority of the earth’s crust to have been layered during the time of Noah’s Flood.
  3. The data seem to disagree with both the above models and that third option will be discussed here.

First of all, here is the geologic column as it is normally presented. On the left is the basic column. On the right is an example of part of the Mesozoic and the whole Cenozoic in more detail. Actually, each of the stages on the right of the detailed chart are divided up into even more detailed strata per location:

geologic column
geologic column detail

American and Australian creationist organizations have taught that the geologic column is a false concept, as it cannot be found in completion anywhere in the world.  There are three major problems with this declaration:

  1. There are places in the world where the complete geologic column as shown above on the left is present.  Two can be found in the Williston Basin in the northern United States and Canada and the Bonaparte Gulf Basin in Australia.
  2. The four major divisions shown above: Archaeozoic (preCambrian), Paleozoic, Mesazoic and Cenozoic are everywhere around the world and in that order, with Cenozoic on top. What can be missing or inverted are the small stages or strata within any of the eras.
  3. The four different eras contain distinct and separate rock and fossil types.

The problem with the standard model is that there is much evidence of rapid deposition and a number of catastrophic processes at work throughout the column, indicating that it very probably did not get laid down as slowly as they say

There is a third geological model which emerges from a consideration of the action of a Zero Point Energy (ZPE).  The ZPE is a form of energy which is present at absolute zero of temperature and is present at an enormous strength throughout the universe.  There is a simple explanation of the ZPE in The Plasma Model and a more detailed, scientific one in ”A Plasma Universe with Changing Zero Point Energy.”  The Zero Point Energy increased rapidly as the universe expanded then more and more slowly until about 2500 BC when it appears to have leveled off. The data allow the mathematical form of that increase to be clearly delineated back to the origin of the cosmos. Because the strength of the ZPE determines atomic behavior, the rate of ticking of atomic clocks slowed as the ZPE strength increased. Since we know the form of that increase, we also know how the rate of ticking of atomic clocks has slowed over the age of the cosmos. In contrast, the rate of ticking of orbital clocks (such as the time it takes the earth to go once around the sun-- our year) is constant. These clock rates are important in this geological discussion.

The standard geological column is divided up into 4 Eras which are separated by 3 distinct catastrophic layers. These Eras, starting from the oldest and working up to the most recent, are the Archaeozoic (ancient life), the Paleozoic (early life), the Mesozoic (middle life) and the Cenozoic (recent life). Each Era has specific rock and fossil types that are characteristic of the Era. These Eras can be traced sequentially in all continents when the rock strata over a wide area are considered. The strata that formed at the three catastrophes are also diagnostic of the event that caused them. After each catastrophe, there is evidence that different climatic and ecological conditions prevailed. This was due in part to the nature of each catastrophe. The rocks and fossils laid down in the period of time between the catastrophes reflect this.

The atomic clock in its various forms (of which radiometric dating is one) has yielded some specific dates for each catastrophe. The Archaeozoic Era effectively ended with what has been called the “Snowball Earth” catastrophe starting about 720 million atomic years ago. The Paleozoic Era ended with the Permian Extinction about 251 million atomic years ago. The Mesozoic Era ended with the Cretaceous-Tertiary or K/T Extinction 65 million atomic years ago, and the Cenozoic Era has been divided by an ice-age.

It is of interest to note we can here look to astronomy for some relevant information. Between Mars and Jupiter is the asteroid belt, a massive number of broken pieces of material that evidently came from a planet and its moon that used to be there. Atomic dating of this material that has hit Earth as asteroids gives us the dates of the explosive break-up of the original asteroid planet and its moon. The evidence tells us that the planet itself had a two-fold breakup; its mantle around 750 million atomic years ago, and its core about 255 million. Its moon broke up about 70 million atomic years ago.  If we consider atomic dating to be the same as orbital dating, which is a common presumption, then we do not see a strong correlation:  720 million years and 750 million years; 251 million years and 255 million years; and 65 million years and 70 million years when we compare the three breaks in the geologic column with the years indicating the breakup of the planet and its moon.

However, there is a strong amount of evidence, often ignored or simply dismissed, that atomic dating is not the same as our manner of figuring years, which is based on gravitation – how long it takes the earth to go around the sun.  Gravity has stayed constant through time while atomic processes have not.  “A Basic Summary," a layman’s explanation with links to the research papers involved, gives a good explanation of this.  In the long run, when the atomic dates have been corrected to orbital dates using mathematics derived from the Zero Point Energy curve, the explosions of the planet and its moon correspond almost exactly (just a few years before in each case) to not only the three major breaks in the geologic column, but to the dates the Bible gives us for Noah’s Flood (corresponding to “Snowball Earth”), the Tower of Babel catastrophe (the Permian Extinction) and the time of the splitting of the continents in Peleg’s time (the K/T Extinction).  The “coincidence” between these explosive break-up times and the catastrophes recorded in Earth geology is remarkable. Since the craters on the inner planets and outer planet moons also accord time-wise with these events, it appears that the whole solar system was involved, and not just the geology of the earth.

Why did that planet and its moon explode?  For the same reason Venus, Earth and Mars flooded:  internal heating due to very rapid early radio decay drove water out of the mantles of each resulting in enormous pressure under each crust.  Venus, Earth and Mars survived that increased pressure; the other planet didn’t.  And when it exploded, and some of its pieces hit Venus, Earth, and Mars, each reacted like a pricked balloon, releasing enormous amounts of water from under the crust which flooded the surface.  Asteroids also left their marks on Mercury and the moons of the larger planets.  The second occasion, when the planet finished breaking up, came just before the Tower of Babel catastrophe, which was worldwide and not at all a local event.  This resulted in the Permian Extinction.  Finally the moon broke up, and once again some of its pieces impacted earth, leaving a number of known craters, the largest of which is in the Yucatan.  Because the internal heating of the Earth had not stopped, rocks had been melting in the mantle. When rocks melt, they gain about 10% in volume.  Again this resulted in building pressure under the crust.  The impacts which are associated with the K/T Extinction cracked the earth enough to allow the Atlantic Rift to open, causing the western and eastern hemispheres to start moving apart.  This resulted in a series of catastrophes which probably lasted about 200 years and involved giant tsunamis, the uplifting of the younger mountain ranges along the western coastlines of the Western Hemisphere, the Himalayas, the Alps, and resulting, as well, in the massive Ring of Fire as the earth’s crust literally wrinkled along the Pacific boundaries. 

Because each of the catastrophes impacted the earth differently, each catastrophe can be shown to have its own unique characteristics.  In the same way, the strata these three catastrophes separate are unique in their characteristics and could not, in any way, have been the result of one massive Flood.  Noah’s Flood was massive, and there is evidence of that which is quite dramatic, but it did not result in even most of the layering of strata we see in the Earth’s crust.

Two final notes must be added:

  1. The dating, Biblically, is according to the most ancient of available texts, and corresponds with the years recorded by the early church fathers.  It is NOT the dating we find in our modern Old Testament texts, which is based on a much abbreviated Masoretic text version.
  2. The earth’s axis tilt has changed several  times in history.  The Bible records the first time:  Noah’s Flood.  Afterward the rainbow was ‘in the clouds,’ which was a new thing.  This indicates that the earth’s axis had not been tilted before.  The tilt initiated the jet streams and cells which drove rain clouds over land during the day, thus causing rain over land during the day for the first time (please note that the Bible does NOT say it never rained before the Flood, only that it did not rain early on the third day, before there were shrubs growing and before man had been created.  This is interesting because it indicates that radioactive heating was already taking place in the earth’s interior, driving water up through the crust.)  A further tilt in the axis happened at the time of the division of the continents, resulting in the Ice Age.  This Ice Age is referred to a couple of times in the book of Job when mention is made of the waters in the Middle East being frozen over.  Lastly, research by George Dodwell shows there was a slight correction of the axis tilt about 2345 BC, not only stopping the ice age, but resulting in a massive melt which inundated a number of coastal cities and disrupted cultures worldwide.  This is the time of the end of Egypt’s Old Kingdom,  the destruction of the Indus River culture, the collapse of Early Dynastic III in Mesopotamia, Early Helladic in Greece, and so on. For more information regarding this see "Reviewing a Possible World-wide Event c. 2400 BC."

In conclusion, when we take an honest look at all the data, it is extremely difficult to avoid the understanding that the Earth has been through three major catastrophes as recorded in the geologic record and also referred to in the Bible.
A closer look at this biblically can be found in our study on Genesis 1-11.