Re: How deep the flood?

Arthur V. Chadwick (chadwicka@swac.edu)
Mon, 12 Jan 1998 13:15:02 -0800

At 10:07 AM 1/12/98 -0800, Greg wrote:
>Art wrote:
>
>[...]
>
>> >further from the ground's surface than the length of its legs. An animal
>> >cannot leave footprints if it is floating in 1000 feet of water. Also,
>> >airbreathing animals cannot remain submerged very long in order to
leave a
>> >continuous sequence of tracks.
>>
>> Brand has shown that all of these assumptions are falsified in his research
>> on the Coconino Sandstone.
>
>Which assumptions? Surely not the bit about leaving tracks while floating
>in 1000 feet of water! :-) :-) (That would be an interesting bit of
>research to read ;-))

Yeah, O.K. I asked for that, didn't I? Maybe next time I will take time
to read the statement before responding...but that would really cramp my
style!

Animals can and do make abundant and long trackways underwater. That makes
it neccessary to demonstrate by independent criteria that the tracks were
made in desert dunes. Brand's work on the Coconino Sandstone, assumed to
be a aeolian deposit by McKee and others, demonstrates clearly (as clearly
as anything can be demonstrated about a completed experiment) that the
trackways and thus the sands were deposited in water of undetermined depth.
Interestingly, since the Coconino was a classic type for aeolian sands,
this also calls into question all of the other supposed aeolian sands of
the Mesozoic, at least those with footprints.
Art
http://chadwicka.swau.edu