Earth History Research and News

In a paper in the latest edition of Origins, published by the Geoscience Research Institute, Kurt Wise and Andrew Snelling interpret a stromatolite-rich horizon in Proterozoic sediments of Grand Canyon as the partial remains of an extensive hydrothermal biome that existed around the margins of the North American continent in pre-Flood times. Here is the abstract of their paper – but follow the link for the full-text version.

Wise KP, Snelling AA, ‘A note on the pre-Flood/Flood boundary in the Grand Canyon’, Origins (Geoscience Research Institute) 2005;(58):7-29.
http://www.grisda.org/origins/58007.pdf

Abstract: The most extensive stromatolite horizon known in Grand Canyon sediments is found in the base of the Awatubi Member of the Kwagunt Formation of the Chuar Group. It is suggested that the greater functionality of growing, compared with fossil, stromatolites indicates that they were formed by secondary process and not directly created by God. The top-heavy upright orientation of the stromatolites in the Awatubi bed suggests they were formed in situ, which in turn suggests that they predate the Genesis Flood and postdate the Day Three Regression, contra earlier suggestions by the authors (Snelling 1991, Wise 1992). On the other hand, it is consistent with Austin and Wise’s (1994) suggestion that the base of the Sixtymile Formation (overlying the Kwagunt Formation) represents the pre-Flood/Flood boundary in Grand Canyon and Austin’s (1994) suggestion that the Chuar Group was formed in antediluvian times. Good preservation of organics and no preservation of higher organisms suggests that Wise’s (2003) hydrothermal fringing reef model for sediments near Death Valley also applies to Grand Canyon’s correlative Chuar Group sediments and contained Awatubi stromatolites. The Awatubi stromatolites thus formed an intertidal “forest” about hot springs in an intertidal region at the edge of the pre-Flood continent, hundreds of kilometers from land.


The accompanying photograph shows stromatolitic laminations in Proterozoic sediments of Grand Canyon.