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Chapter 15 - Rocks and Fossils
o 15A Introduction to Rocks
How should a Christian look at the fossils and rock layers that we find?
o God’s power
o God’s Judgment
o __________________________
o God’s mercy
o Reminds us we desperately need God
15A Introduction to Rocks
What is a Rock?
o __________________________________ formed from one or more minerals or organic
materials
Petrology
o Study of _________________
3 Main Types of Rocks
o Sedimentary
o ______________________
o Metamorphic
Sedimentary Rocks
o Rocks consisting of particles of sediment that have been bonded together by natural
cements, solids that have precipitated from water solutions
Igneous Rocks
o Any of several kinds of rock that appear to have _________________________
Metamorphic
o Rock that has been altered in its basic characteristics by heat, pressure, and/or by
hydrothermal chemical action since it was formed or created
What are some cyclic processes we have talked about?
There are many cyclic processes God produced in the earth
Water cycle / ____________________
Nutrient Cycle
Day / night
_______________
Uniformitarinanists
o See the Rock Cycle as something you would expect to take millions and billions of years
to occur
Creationists
o Restricted to few locations
o Insufficient time to complete most of cycle
o _______________________________
15 B Sedimentary Rocks
Creation – Turbulent waters of Genesis Flood responsible for most strata
Can contain fossils
Strata
o Sedimentary rock layers
2 Classifications
o Clastic - ___________________
o Nonclastic - chemical
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15 B Sedimentary Rocks
Clastic Rocks
o Formed from ________________________
o Assorted sized particles
o May contain fossils or fragments of fossils
Conglomerate
o Pebbles and gravel sized particles cemented together
o “________________________”
o 2mm or greater in diameter
Breccia
o Similar to Conglomerate but it’s fragments are angular
o ______________________
o Not the movie
 Material in which something else is embedded in or _________________
Breccia and Conglomerate
o Deposited by ________________ flowing waters or winds
o Slow flow cannot support large particles
Sandstone
o Between 2mm and .0625mm particle size
o Typically have air spaces in between particles
o High ________________
o Usually form a permeable layer
Siltstone and Shale(flagstone)
o .0625mm or less in particle size
o Smaller spaces in between particles
o Most layers of this rock are _______________________
Non-clastic sediments
o From minerals dissolved in water
Precipitate
o Minerals crystalize out of a solution
Evaporite
o Evaporating water leaves behind minerals
o Limestone – ______________
o Precipitates directly out of salt water
 Extensive limestone deposits on all continents
o Good evidence for continents under water
o During the Flood
 Volcanic activity and high level of ____________________________________
 Large amounts of Carbonate precipitates
Halite – Rock Salt
o Formed by
o Evaporation and ____________________
o During
o ___________
o Or Created that way
o We find extensive beds
From 1m to over 60m thick
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15 B Sedimentary Rocks
Salt Domes
o Cylindrical masses of Halite
o Forced upward by great pressure
 Usually collect oil and gas
 Gulf of __________________
 Remember the BP oil spill?
Fossils
o Any trace or remains of a living creature that has been preserved by natural means
o From micro fossils to dinosaurs
Paleontology
o Study of fossils
Is this what we see today?
o No, we do not see fish on the sea floor waiting to be buried by sediment
o Nor any other animal….
Fossils and Evolution – Where are the Missing Links?
o Evolutionists and Creationists all have the same evidence
o ________________ are different
o _______________ are different
o Evolution – biological organism went through gradual changes from one kind to another
Fossils don’t have ____________ on them
o Soft tissue fossilization
o Animals giving birth while being fossilized
o Animals eating lunch while being fossilized
 Good indication of_____________ burial
Ichthyosaur giving birth
Darwin—soft creature preservation
Hoaxes
o “__________________”
o People have been searching for them for years
o People have also made a lot of false claims, only to be proved wrong later!
Nebraska man
o Only evidence was a _______________
o Ended up being a ____________ tooth
o Yet they put him in the succession of “primate evolution” (had to take him out later)
Neanderthals
o Are just really old people
o Fossilized from flood
o 500+ year old humans
o As we age our skulls
 Deforms
What about Dinosaurs!
I could do a whole chapter just on them!
6 F’s of Dinosaurs
_____________Created on day 6
_____________Fall of Man – Fall of Animals
_____________Not on the boat – you die
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_____________Truth becomes Legends
_____________Dinosaur – Modern Word
_____________Made up stories – lures Children
How do you fit dinosaurs?
o In the Ark
 Creationist think about ____________ biblical Kinds of dinosaurs
 Most dinosaurs are the size of turkeys
 All dinosaurs were small at one point
 Young and ______________ dinosaurs
o In the Bible?
 You don’t
 “Dinosaur” is a modern word, not in scripture
 “______________” Job 40:15-24
 “_______________” Job 41
 Most Bibles have men’s opinions at the bottom, not Scripture!
 15 B Sedimentary Rocks
 The Geologic Column
o Layers of strata _________ through history
 Superposition principle
o Lower layers of strata were deposited before the layers in the strata above.
o Lower layers older than the above layers
 15 B Sedimentary Rocks
 Attempt to use fossils to link layers of strata
o Index fossils
o Same fossil in layer a and layer b, both must be the same age…
 Circular reasoning
o How old is the rock layer?
 As old as the __________
o How old is the fossil?
 As old as the ____________
 15 B Sedimentary Rocks
 Geologic Column
Sequence of rock units and layers
Supposedly extends through time
Earliest rock, Earliest______________ – till today
 15 B Sedimentary Rocks
 Assumptions
o #1 The ______________ of fossils of a creature in a particular geological formation is
evidence of the non-existence of that creature when the sedimentary layer was
deposited
o No fossil evidence
 Living Fossils – 1938 coelacanth – “_____________”
 Wollemi pine – 150 mya 1994 living in Australia
 Rock rat –____________ – meat market in SE Asia
 Slit shell – 500 mya discovered 1855
 Horseshoe crab – 190 mya and 445 mya
“The Fossil record of the very earliest plants is very poor. Fossils of mosses, generally considered the
most primitive of the living land plants, have been found from the Devonian period, but surely they
existed earlier but did not fossilize.” Ernst Mayr, What Evolution is (New York: Basic Books, 2001), p.63.
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15 B Sedimentary Rocks
Assumption #2
- Fossil deposits represent _________________________
- Cumberland Bone Cave, Maryland
 Australia – muskrat and whale ________________
 Polystrate fossils
o Fossilized trees extending ______________ layers
o Good contrary evidence for layers taking ‘millions’ of years
o Polystrate coal seams
 What else we find in sedimentary Rocks
o Fossil fuels
o Coal
o __________
o Natural Gas
 15C Igneous Rocks
 Molten in the _____________
 Magma
o Molten rock found anywhere beneath the earth’s surface
 Lava
o Molten rock that flows out onto earth’s surface
15C Igneous Rocks
 Extrusive Rocks
o Lava solidifies ________________ earth’s surface
 Intrusive Rocks
o Lava squeezes into another rock, intruding the rock layer
 Pluton – intrusive rock formation
 Batholith – largest intrusive structure – ___________ of square km2
15C Igneous Rocks
 Granite – intrusive ____________ rock
 Mixture of ___________, feldspars, and quartz
 Extrusive rocks
o Lava plateau
o Thick rock formation from a _____________
o Magma
 Volcanic neck
o Eroded volcano
 15C Igneous Rocks
 Obsidian – “_____________”
 Pumice
 Basalt – ocean floor
15D Metamorphic Rocks
 Rocks that appear to have changed in their structure or chemical composition since their
creation
 Magma ________________ the rock, then it is solidified
 2 kinds of metamorphic processes
o Local metamorphism
 Intrusive or extrusive magma heats and compresses _________________ rocks
o ______________l Metamorphism
o Pushing of Continental Plates over large areas effecting large volumes of rock
 Usually previous rock was sedimentary
 Classified into 2 types of Rocks
o Foliated
 Flattened mineral crystals aligned in parallel layers
 Looks ________________
 Slate(__________), Schist(slate), Gneiss(schist)
o Nonfoliated rocks
 No banding
 Layers or will break in sharp angular pieces
 _____________ – metamorphosed limestone