Re: Flood Coal (No. 2)

Arthur V. Chadwick (chadwicka@swac.edu)
Sun, 26 Oct 1997 09:46:22 -0700

At 07:26 PM 10/25/97 -0500, Glenn wrote:
>In a global flood where deposition was supposed to be instantaneous, how did
>the trees decay to allow the sediment from above to infill their moulds in
>the coal?
>
Two types of "trees" predominate in the Nova Scotia flora. The calamites,
several feet in diameter and up to 100' in height, were hollow, supported
by a very fibrous vascular cylinder (like modern horsetails, the only
living relative). The other type, Lepidodendron, often had a hollow pith,
almost no wood, well developed cortical layers, and a thick periderm (bark
stuff), which provided much of the support to the trunk. Since they
probably lived only one or two years (maybe one reproductive season), and
they grew up to 150 feet tall, they would be comparable to asparagus in
terms of resistance to decay. The ground under these giant forests was
doubtless littered with the decaying remains of these fallen forms.
Art
http://chadwicka.swau.edu