Hello CTD,
Came across some varve info - not that it's needed. Even some evolutionists have been slow/reluctant to accept the annual interpretation "hypothesis".
Yet this doesn't have a single thing to do with the varves in Lake Suigetsu, which alternate layers of diatoms (summer) and clay (winter):
(1) the diatoms only reproduce in the summer so they bloom and die in great numbers in the summer months, their shells are denser than the clay sediment in the water and settle fast, forming a layer in the summer.
(2) the clay settles slowly in water, and no matter how you may wish to misrepresent things, you just cannot make it settle faster -- this is the physical reality of clay sedimentation -- and only during the winter when diatom grown is non-existent is there enough time for the clay to settle and form a layer that covers the diatoms.
You can experiment with this yourself: get some clay and some diatomaceous earth, mix in a jar of water, and shake and wait for it to settle into multiple bands. Let me know how you make out.
The Mount St. Helens eruption in Washington State produced eight metres (25 feet) of finely layered sediment in a single afternoon!
Which (1) has nothing to do with Lake Suigetsu, (2) is not sediment but ash, and yes real geologists know the difference, and (3) this says nothing about sorting the layers into fine and coarse bands alternating one after the other as exists in the green river varves.
This is just another example of creationist hand waving and attempted distraction from the real evidence: Lake Suigetsu shows annual layers, over 35
thousand of them.
Much is often made of the Green River varves,9 in Wyoming, USA. But these bands cannot possibly be annual deposits because well-preserved fish and birds are found all through the sediments.
Another bit of poor creationist thinking, on the lines of "polystrata" fossils. At first blush this seems an interesting issue, but the scientific approach is to look and see if:
(1) is it possible for multiple layers to be deposited around a dead body
(2) is it possible that significant time could pass between layers
(3) is their evidence of these conditions for the fossil in question
The answer is yes. Bodies can be deposited in anaerobic conditions where they do not decay: this has been observed in many places and many different conditions. When this happens sediment will continue to build up in layers around the body until it is covered. Sediment can also surround a body until it mummifies, then erode away and be replaced by fresh layers.
In this way whales have been covered by many fine layers of sediment, and trees have been buried uncovered and buried again (google "ghost forest michigan")
[qs]Fossils are in indicator of rapid burial, if I may connect the dots without insulting those capable of doing it on their own.[/qs]The question is whether you can connect the rest of the dots.
Meanwhile the issue of Lake Suigetsu having annual layers of alternating diatoms and clay goes unrefuted, leaving the question of when those 35,000 years of deposition occurred ...
That's the real story.
Enjoy.
