Claim CC335:
Near Lompoc, California, an eighty-foot whale fossil was found in a
diatomaceous earth quarry. It was oriented vertically (standing on its
tail), passing through millions of years of strata. Only a cataclysmic
deposition could account for this.
Source:
Ackerman, P. D., 1986. It's a Young World After All, Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Book House, pp. 81-83.
Response:
- The fossil was not vertical. It was 40 to 50 degrees off horizontal,
and the fossil was oriented parallel to the strata. In other words,
the whale was horizontal when buried. The strata were later uplifted
and folded into their present orientation.
- There is no evidence for catastrophic deposition. The strata show
laminations such as occur from slow accumulation onto an anoxic
bottom. A partially buried whale skeleton has been observed off
the coast of California; it exemplifies how such fossilization could
occur.
Links:
South, Darby, 1995. A whale of a tale.
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/polystrate/whale.html
created 2003-4-18
