Lost Millions

Genesis 1:9-10

“And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.”

By the side of the Old Columbia Highway, and next to the Sandy River, is a large rocky outcrop, where  can be seen an interesting geological formation called the Troutdale Formation. We see 15 feet thickness of a conglomerate, consisting of rounded stones, set about a small, four feet thick rock layer. Above the conglomerate is another thin rock layer and another thick layer of rounded, cemented stones.

The stones in the conglomerate are rounded. This indicates that they have been polished by being ground together. This process is indicative of flowing water. The water movement batters the stones together and polishes them, rounding them down. But there is another interesting issue about the shape of these stones. Not only are they rounded, but they are flattened. If these were found by a river, lake, or beach today, you would want to skim the stones, bouncing them on the water. This flattening, while rounding, suggests that the large mass of stones, 15 feet thick, was moved together by high energy water. Now, this fact is problematic for old earth geologists because it means that the water movement could not simply be a river ancestral to the Sandy River, but must have been an altogether bigger current. The formation is said to be 13 million years old, but the 15 feet thickness must have been formed at one time. So the 13 million years must be contained in the four feet of rock. Or the millions of years are lost. Or the whole formation was made quickly during the worldwide Flood.      Author: Paul F. Taylor

Prayer: All around us, Lord, we see things that can really only be understood when we start by believing Your word. Thank You for giving us these important evidences of Your faithfulness. Amen.

Ref: Hergenrather, J., Noah’s Long-Distance Travelers, Creation 28(3):30–32—June 2006. Image: Troutdale Formation, photographed by author.