The history of the earth is filled with transgressions and regressions of sea's over the continents. During high sea levels and long periods of time you can have a build up of limestone, expecially in warm shallow areas such as coral reefs. When sea level slowly drops it can leave behind shallow seas blocked from mixing with the main body of water and as the "inland" sea evaporates it becomes more briny. This briny sea can still percolate through the limestone and the Magnesium in this briny sea can start replacing some of the Calcium ions in the limestone. (as a side note, there is an area in Michigan iirc where such a large inland sea occured and we can see this in the rock record. Also in Texas, thus the high oil abundance there.) This chemical replacement of ions forms dolomite which is basically limestone, just that some of the calcium ions have been replaced with magnesium.
Except of course for the time factor, all such scenarios are quite consistent with what a Flood would likely have done -- left large inland seas for instance, which slowly evaporated or seeped into the ground. The flood would have left "shore lines" too in the process of receding. Also no doubt tides and wave action that covered a lot of distance across the continents as the flood receded.
This message has been edited by Faith, 03-22-2006 05:04 PM
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