The process of fossilization is itself an evidence of abnormal deposition. Today, when an animal dies, whether on land or sea, the body immediately begins to rot. Then scavengers, such as vultures, usually eat the carcass. These two agencies, bacteria and scavengers, are very efficient at recycling the material contained in the body. The bones of the animal will dissolve in the sea or be weathered away on land, so not even the bones are sure to be preserved. Thus, there are two agencies which tend to prevent the fossilization of any animal biological scavengers and weather. "¹

The only manner in which a carcass can be preserved is to remove it from these two agencies. This means that for an animal to be preserved, it must be buried deep enough so scavengers can't get to it and deep enough so oxygen, which bacteria need, is excluded. This implies, however, that the animal must be buried shortly after its death or there will be nothing left to preserve. As Beerbower states,

"In general, the more rapidly an organism is buried and the tighter the seal of its sedimentary tomb, the better the chance of preservation."²

Modern sediments do not seem to satisfy the conditions for preservation of fossils. It is very difficult to find creatures currently in the process of being fossilized. Robert J. Cordell notes,

"Modern sediments average only about 1 percent organic matter…”³

Most of that organic matter is composed of chemicals, not recognizable proto-fossils. Most geologists hold to a view that generally excludes large-scale catastrophes. Their position is that by slow uniform processes, the sedimentary rocks have been deposited and the fossils preserved in them. Their estimates of the rates at which depositional processes occur explain why modern sediments contain such a small percentage of organic material.

J.B. Birdsell estimates that during the last geologic epoch (the Pleistocene), the average rate of deposition was only .024 inches per year.⁴ If depositional rates like this had prevailed throughout geologic history, and Birdsell contends that they did, then how can there be any fossils at all? As we saw earlier, to preserve an organism, one must bury it deeply-.024 inches cannot be classified as deep.

Thus it can be seen that the mere presence of a fossil indicates deposition of sediments had to have been thousands of times faster than the normal estimated rates of deposition in order for a fossil to be preserved. If you wished to cover a dead fish with two and one-half inches of sediment, hoping that would be enough to preserve him, you would need a 100-year supply of sediment. And it is uncertain whether two and one-half inches would be deep enough since worms can easily reach that depth and bring the bacteria and oxygen which causes decay. When you look at the major fossil deposits in the world, it becomes obvious that tremendous quantities of sediment were required to preserve them.

"Robert Broom, the South African paleontologist, estimated that there are eight hundred million skeletons of Vertebrate animals in the Karro formation."⁵

Try to preserve that number of dead animals with only .024 inches of sediment and you will utterly fail. Yet that is the average one-year depositional rate.

Other places with fossils-like the Karroo formation-are easily found. The Monterrey shale contains more than a billion fossil fish over 4 square miles.⁶ The Mission Canyon formation of the northwestern states and the Williston Basin are estimated to represent at least 10,000 cubic miles of broken crinoid plates. A crinoid is a deep-sea creature. Clark and Stearn conclude '

"How many millions, billions, trillions of crinoids would be required to provide such a deposit? The number staggers the imagination."⁷

With these and other examples, is it really reasonable to believe slow deposition preserved these fossils7 How much more reasonable to assume they were deposited rapidly in a worldwide flood such as described by the Bible.

NOTES

1. Charles Schuchert and Carl O. Dunbar, Textbook of Geology, Pt. 2, and New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1933, p. 13.
2. James R. Beerbower, Search for the Past, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968, p. 39.
3. Robert J. Cordell, "Depths of Oil Origin and Primary Migration: A Critique and Review," Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Vol. 56, p. 2035.
4. J.B. Birdsell, Human Evolution, Chicago: Rand McNally, 1972, p. 141.
5. N.C. Newell, "Adequacy of the Fossil Record," Journal of Paleontology, Vol. 33, May 1959, p. 492, cited by John C. Whitcomb and Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Flood, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1961, p. 160.
6. Ibid., footnote,
7. Thomas H. Clark and Colin W. Stearn, The Geological Evolution of North America, New York: The Ronald Press Co., 1960, p. 88.