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_Is the Earth Young?_

A Response to the _No Fossil Meteorites_ Argument

_4. There have been no authenticated reports of the discovery of
meteorites in sedimentary material. If the sediments, which have an
average depth of 1½ miles, were laid down over hundreds of millions
of years, any of these steadily falling meteorites should have been
discovered. Therefore, the sediments appear to have been deposited
rapidly; furthermore, since there have been no reports of
meteorites beneath the sediments, they appear to have been
deposited recently.
a) Peter A. Steveson, "Meteoric Evidence or a Young Earth,"
Creation Research Quarterly, Vol. 12, June, 1975, pp. 23-25. _

In the book _Christianity and the Age of the Earth_ (1988; Artisan
Sales, Thousand Oaks CA), geologist Davis Young says "The chances of
finding a fossil meteorite in sedimentary rocks are remote. It is not
to be expected." Even before Steveson's article, in the book
_Meteorites and Their Origin_ (1973), G.J. McCall says "The lack of
fossil record of true meteorites is puzzling, but can be explained by
the lack of very diagnostic shapes and the chemical nature of
meteorites, which allows rapid decay..." This tells us that geologists
knew, before steveson suggested otherwise, that there should not be
many fossilized meteorites, and for good reasons.

However, the statement that there are no confirmed sedimentary
meteorites is false. See, for instance, "_Against All Odds_";
Christopher Spratt & Sally Stephens; Mercury 21(2): 50-56 (Mar/Apr
1992) [[1]Mercury is the quarterly popular publication of the
[2]Astronomical Society of the Pacific]. They report the later
discovery that an object found in Swedish limestone in 1952 was in
fact a stoney meteorite. An Iron meteorite was found in Georgia in
1940, in miocene age sediments. There are, despite Steveson, confirmed
meteorites in sedimentary strata.

However, it isn't the meteorites that are so important - it's the
impacts. The earth is littered with impact features, some relatively
young (such as [3]Barringer Crater in Arizona, aka "meteor crater"),
some ancient (like the enormous [4]Chixulub impact feature in the
Yucutan, so thoroughly eroded that many geologists walked around on it
for years without even noticing what it was). Dave Matson lists 130
"[5] fossilized meteor craters", found in sediments all over the
earth.

While big meteorites are hard to find, meteorite dust is not that
hard; it is found buried in sediments the world over. [6]Here is one
example.

First conclusion is that there are indeed fossilized meteorites in
sedimentary rocks. But the real story is that the small number is not
relevant, because it is the impact feature that counts. The earth is
covered with meteor craters, and if you want to, you can go and look
there for fragments of the impactor, fossilized in the target rocks.
The number of impact basins, and their state of erosion, is not at all
incompatible with an old earth, and do not provide positive evidence
for a young earth.

[7]Database of Terrestrial Impact Structures
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[8]Back

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References

1. http://www.aspsky.org/subpages/merc.html
2. http://www.aspsky.org/
3. http://www.barringercrater.com/
4. http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960604.html
5. http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/dave_matson/young-earth/specific_arguments/meteor.html
6. http://www-class.unl.edu/geol109/sediment.htm#cosmo
7. http://gdcinfo.agg.emr.ca/toc.html?/crater/world_craters.html
8. file://localhost/www/sat/files/tim_thompson/young-earth.html#4