Geology- working up from basic principles.

Because things fall down?

Vashgun, do this little experiment for yourself: swipe a pint of sand from a sandbox, beach, or a construction site. Let it dry out well. Then see how steep of a cone you can make with it - say by pouring it through a funnel or even out of your fist.Then make a cone under water in a saucepan or a plastic tub. Compare its steepness to that of the dry cone.You'll see what The Matt is talking about for yourself.

Based on long-ago experiments of my own, sand has an "angle of repose" of maybe 30 degrees if dry (look at a sand dune) and perhaps 5 degrees if under water. These were the glass pie-plate and sandbox sand sort of experiments, you understand...But Googling "angle of repose" might bear fruit, LL. I'm going to bed rather than search, though.

Hello, Stewart, and welcome to EvC!You say: And I'm sure that such experiments have been done. But I don't think that you'll find many flumes supplied with sand-laden sediment out in nature. And, if I remember this thread right, we were specifically talking about the Coconino Sandstone, where other evidence, like animal tracks and etching of grains, points to being wind-laid.And don't accuse geologists of "assuming a mechanism" when they've communally spent the last 180 years or so elucidating mechanisms. Remember, those gentleman-geologist guys in England started out supporting a world flood. It was the observations and experiments that they themselves did that proved it to be mythical.Edited by Coragyps, : No reason given.Edited by Coragyps, : fix same tag twice

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"The wretched world lies now under the tyranny of foolishness; things are believed by Christians of such absurdity as no one ever could aforetime induce the heathen to believe." - Agobard of Lyons, ca. 830 AD

Geologists and oceanographers putting sediment traps in the bottom of bodies of water and actually measuring how sediment accumulates may have a lot to do with why they say that. And ferric chloride, or polyacrylamide, or polyDADMAC aren't really that abundant in natural waters, anyway.

Where? In the Haynesville? They sure seem to be getting back to busy in the Barnett, too.