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_THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF QUANTAVOLUTION AND CATASTROPHISM_

_Ager, Derek__ British geologist at Swansea College, in 27 he wrote
the "Nature of the Stratigraphic Record" in which he is an exponent of
abrupt transforms as major medium of geomorphological change. Ager
holds generally, however, to a macrochronal position ("the history of
any one part of the Earth, like the life of a soldier, consists of
long periods of boredom and short periods of terror"). He writes: "the
periodic catastrophic event may have more effect than vast periods of
gradual evolution," a phenomenon he calls "quantum sedimentation."
Guardedly he suggests that geologists, "must face the possibility of
[an] extraterrestrial cause" for common findings. Ager confronts the
(c) mindset of Earthscientists molded by 150 years of ignoring
catastrophism and especially astralcatastrophism but stops short of
considering exoterrestrial influences thoroughly in his written work.
He defends the longtimescale of (c) scientists while recognizing the
value of (q) events as, "an easy and incontrovertible solution for
everything that I have found remarkable in the stratigraphical
record." He resorts to plate tectonics as a possible alternative
mechanism (presuming these are internally propelled)._

_He points out storm deposits from several widely spaced periods of
the geological record; hard to discover, they are nevertheless
influential in landscaping; the storm rock debris he labels
"tempestites," following Gilbert Kelling who discovered them profusely
across the Atlas Mountains. Enormously widespread ash layers covered
quickly by sediments are also found. Whereas geologists generally
believe that "the stratigraphical column in any one place is a long
record of sedimentation with occasional gaps...I maintain that a far
more accurate picture of the stratigraphical record is of one long gap
with only very occasional sedimentation...The gaps predominate...,the
lithologies are all diachronous and the fossils migrate into the area
from elsewhere and then migrate out again." In his work are a wide
range of examples from numerous eras, of the worldwide distribution of
various rocktypes and fossils. Ager accepts the sense of the
supposition that there existed a global ecumene of animate and
inanimate forms. The fossil record indicates large numbers of species
which never reached their potential limits. Ager illustrates the
bizarre differences in depth of the deposits of the same age in
separate regions both near and distant, pointing out, for example, the
30cm of Jurassic sediment in Sicily in contrast to the 4.5km of one
Jurassic zone or sediment in Oregon. Since sediments accumulate in
basins rather than on mountain tops the 20km thick deposits found in
places would have been below sea level had the oceans existed while
they accumulated. He alludes to wide differences in rates of
sedimentation: an 11.6m tree stands amidst the late Carboniferous Coal
Measures of Lancaster; but for the flow of sediments from rivers he
quotes Holmes' measure of only one centimeter per millennium. He
estimates the age of the Grand Canyon at under 10M; its gorge provides
a case of rapid erosion. Other empirical scientists and scholars of
Earth's history can be cited reiterating points Ager made. A few of
them go far beyond him in that they are severely critical of long
timescales._