>Can you provide a reference for the polystrate tree through several strata of
> coal?
At 03:34 PM 1/29/97 , Randy Landrum wrote:
>As I stated earlier this is not at all an unusual phemomenon, but is quite
>common. N.A. Rupke, of Princeton, has given numerous examples.
>
>N.A. Rupke, "Prolegomena to a Study of Cataclysmal Sedimentation,"
>Quarterly of the Creation REsearch Society, Vol. 3. (May 1966), pp. 16-37
>
>Also try F.M. Broadhurst, "Some Aspects of the Paleoecology of Non-Marine
>Faunas and Rates of Sedimentation in the Lancashire Coal Measures,"
>American Journal of Science, Vol 262 p.865
The only reason I am opening an old topic is that I just finally got the two
articles mentioned above. What I found in those two articles was that not
one example of a polystrate tree as proposed above is given.
Rupke, who has since become an old-earther, does not give a single location
for this phenomenon.
The Broadhurst article discusses the fact that pelecypod fossils in the
Lancashire coal measures are buried where they live. this does not support
a global flood view. It says this:
"The non-marine faunas of the Coal Measures include pelecypods
belonging to such genera as Carbonicola, Anthracosia, and Anthraconaia, and
detailed examination of a number of assemblages leads to the conclusion that
the majority of these pelecypods are found fossilized still associated with
the sediments in which they once lived, that is, they are non-drifted
shells. The evidence pointing to this conclusion is (1) the shells are
found mostly with their valves still articulated, (2) there is a general
absence of damage that would result from transportation by water currents,
(3) within many assemblages there is a wide range of shells which suggests
an absence of any sorting effect resulting from transportation, and (4) the
shells are enclosed by fine-grained sediments which probably accumulated
under conditions of quiet sedimentation and not under conditions of
turbulence which would be necessary to move shells."~F.M. Broadhurst, "Some
Aspects of the Paleoecology of Non-Marine Faunas and Rates of Sedimentation
in the Lancashire Coal Measures," American Journal of Science, Vol 262 p.
858-869, p.859-860
"Since this particular tree at Blackrod was described more than fifty trees
fossilized in position of growth have been observed in Lancashire, mmostly
on opencast coal workings. These trees are found at various horizons
between coal seams, and they occur, also in partings within coal seams.
Where trees occur in the roof beds of a coal seam the root system is
developed in the beds above the top of the coal; in no case has a tree been
observed to pass from the roof into the coal itself. In most of the trees
examined the only part of the original tree to be preserved as a fossil is
the outermost region of the trunk which is preserved as a thin layer of
coal. Occasionally, however, the original inner cylinder of woody tissue
has also been presuerved. Identification of many of the trees is difficult,
partly on account of the rarity of woody structures preserved fossil and
partly because in the Carboniferous Lycopsida the characteristic forms of
the leaf bases were lost on the lower part of the trunk due to the
production of large amounts of periderm."~F.M. Broadhurst, "Some Aspects of
the Paleoecology of Non-Marine Faunas and Rates of Sedimentation in the
Lancashire Coal Measures," American Journal of Science, Vol 262 p. 858-869,
p.865
The interesting thing is that the fossil trees are not found in the slowly
deposited, fine grained, organic rocks . The trees are found in
coarse-grained rapidly deposited sediments,
"The significance of the upright trees in Lancashire, so far as this study
is concerened, is that they were all found enclosed by fine sandstones,
siltstones, and coarse-grained mudstones but not by the fine-grained
sediments, including those containing shells. The most liekly explanation
of the apparent absence of such trees from these sediments is that the
latter accumulated too slowly; any trees decayed and collapsed before they
could be enclosed by sediment.
"Although the upright trees occu in coarser grained sediments than
do the shell beds there is, nevertheless, a complete gradation from the
finest to the coarsest-grained sediment. The scheme set out below
summarizes the situation:
Shells present Upright trees
present.
Shales-Shaly mudstones-Fine mudstones-Coarse mudstones-Siltstones-Sandstones
(fissile)(fissil or non-fissile)
(-----------Non-fissile----------------------------------------------------- )
"Provided the apparent absence of trees from the finer grained
sediment is due to slow rates of sedimentation, then it is probable that the
sequence of sedimentary types as shown above is associated with a systematic
change in the rate of sedimentation; slowest at the shale end of the
sequence, fastest at the sandstone end. Rate of sedimentation (and
associated degree of bottom turbulence) thus becomes a possible factor in
the control of the form of the size-frequency distributions of the
shells."~F.M. Broadhurst, "Some Aspects of the Paleoecology of Non-Marine
Faunas and Rates of Sedimentation in the Lancashire Coal Measures," American
Journal of Science, Vol 262 p.858-869 p. 866
glenn
Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm