Re: Green River varves
David Campbell (bivalve@mailserv0.isis.unc.edu)
Thu, 15 Jan 1998 20:07:27 -0400>2. There could not be a better example of a global catastrophe than the
>so-called Terminal Cretaceous Event". So what are they waiting for? Most
>geologists I know give lip service to catastrophism so long as it is on
>someone else's turf. The particular deposit they have spent their life
>studying doesn't show anything except slow aggradation, etc. We are facing
>this full force on our Tapeats work right now. "Oh, maybe the water was
>deep in that little region you have studied in the bottom of Grand Canyon,
>but it can't be true where I have studied, a few miles south (or north,
>etc.) of there." To me this indicates a general unwillingness on the part
>of these geologists to rethink the ideas they learned in school. I think
>that problem extends not just to geologists but of many academicians in
>every discipline.
Some of the folks in the K/T (end Cretaceous) debate certainly don't fit
this mold-they see catastrophes everywhere. If the earth is quite old, a
lot of catastrophes have probably happened. On a fine temporal scale, most
sediment is deposited by small "catastrophes"-local storms, floods, etc.
David C.