Hi all,
A common ploy taken by Young Earthers is to postulate some catastrophic event in the (recent) past that caused those planetary features which seem to have required long periods of time to form.
The Grand Canyon for instance, is often argued to have been formed by the great flood. Same goes for most ancient fossils and the sediments they are buried in.
Ignoring, for a moment, the inadequacy of a recent catastrophy to explain geological features like the Grand Canyon, let's turn our gaze to space to consider the features of other planets. Mars, for instance, is home to the valles marineris. A vast system of canyons spanning 4000km in length, 200km in width, and up to 7 or 8km in depth (wikipedia). This makes it the largest known canyon in the solar system.
My limited research on Valles Marineris (mostly wikipedia) has not provided me with a definite answer to how it formed. If we have any experts on martian geology (areology) here, I'd be interested to hear their suggestions. The theories wikipedia mentions include erosion by thermokarst, wind, and tectonic activity.
But surely, it would take some pretty massive catastrophe to produce a canyon of this scale on a timespan of 6000 years, on a planet where tectonic activity has stopped, and liquid water does not exist (at least not on a large scale). If YECs who believe the Grand Canyon was formed in one flood event want to stay consistent in their avoidance of omphalism, should they not try to explain the existence of Valles Marineris in a similar fashion?
Are there any young-earth hypotheses to explain the seemingly ancient geological features of Mars?
Respectfully,
-Meldinoor
ABE: We can discuss more examples of Martian geology if need be (there are plenty that could not possibly have formed within the last 6000yrs). Think it may be a good idea to start with one example though.
Edited by Meldinoor, : See ABE
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