Summations Only

The Coconino is too huge to be any part of a foreset bed.

I guess God is waiting for everybody to check in on how their own opinion is right and His is wrong, then we'll get to find out what He really thinks. You might want to duck under the bed or something.

I have to jump on this one.

quote:

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Holocene - The Holocene is a geological epoch which began at the end of the Pleistocene (at 11,700 calendar years BP) and continues to the present.

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The Holocene end is the present. Right now, the division between the past and the future. As time passes, we are always getting a new right now.The recent end of the geologic time scale ("geologic column"} is the most recent end of the Holocene (aka "NOW").New sediments are not being added ON top of the Holocene (as in, there is no more recent geologic time period). New sediments are being added TO the Holocene, or to be more precise, added to whatever is the current geologic material surface.Anything that now happens, happens during the Holocene. The Holocene is a period of time. Things geologic (including sedimentation) has happened and will continue happening during the Holocene.Now geologist do refer to sedimention etc. that happened during the Holocene time period as being "the Holocene". But that use of "the Holocene" is just a shorthand way of saying "happened in the Holocene time period". I guess you could call that misuse of the term to be "geologist slang". But be it in the context of geologic time, or in the context of geologic materials, geologist know and understand the meaning of the "geologist slang".One last time - The Holocene is a time period. In geo-slang usage it is also materials of that time period. But in strict usage of the term, "the Holocene" does not refer to any physical material.Likewise, in the bigger picture, the geologic time scale does not refer to any physical material. Especially in casual use, geologists may use the term "geologic column" as being synonymous to "geologic time scale". Or they may using "geologic column" to refer to A SPECIFIC rock column (stratagraphic section). And depending on the context, they know which is which.There is only one geologic time scale (aka "geologic column"). But there are an infinite number of specific rock columns/stratagraphic sections (also aka "geologic columns").To be absolutely clear, when talking about geologic time, use the term "geologic time scale". When talking about a pile of rocks, use the term "geologic section" or "the geology of the location".Thus ends the sermon, and instead of "amen", I must say, "or something like that".Further questions welcome.Moose

You're right. What that means is there won't be a time period after the Holocene reflected as part of the Geologic Column because it DOES have to be represented by a layer on top of the Holocene. .Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

What is your reasoning for claiming this?

The Holocene is a time period, just like seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, and centuries, only a lot longer and not having a pre-determined ending.Imagine that we were having this conversation during what turned out to be the final part of the Pleistocene. Then you would be saying "There won't be a time period after the Pleistocene reflected as part of the Geologic Column because it DOES have to be represented by a layer on top of the Pleistocene."Yet the Holocene happened, and eventually there will be an epoch that happens after the Holocene. We won't live to see it. Maybe humanity won't live to see it, as its beginning may be defined by the human extinction. And sedimentation etc. will go on, as part of the postHolocene "geologic column".Anyway, what exactly to YOU mean by the term "geologic column"? Is it "geologic time scale" or is it "stratagraphic section"? Are you talking the sum of the time periods of the Earth's history, or are you talking about the rocks?Moose

I know it's a time period.All the time periods in the Geo Time Table, the CLASSIC Geo Time Table, that follow the strata of the Geo Column up up up and up through time, DO follow the strata, DO follow th physical ascent of the strata. It's only now that we're in the Holocene that it's OK for some reason for it NOT to follow the physical ascent of the strata because the physical ascent of the strata has in fact stopped. I say that's as good as declaring an end to the Geo time Table.Enjoy your ulcer, EvC does that to me too.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : a large collection of typos

What the EFFFF?Maybe it's because i'm drinking, but that was the most idiotic think I've read all day. Edited by Adminnemooseus, : Off-topic banner.

Just a day? Edited by Adminnemooseus, : Off-topic banner.

I just got here!!!haha Edited by Adminnemooseus, : Off-topic banner.

But it does continue upward. Just in a different place. Happens all the time in the geologic record.So, as sedimentation continues (upward), what geological age is it going to fall into?However, I am pleased that you accept the principle of superposition. You are making progress.

Actually, erosion is always occurring in eolian sand deposits and it would not be a stretch to have the foreset beds preserved under a planar surface. Another scenario would be a transgression that tops the sand dunes. I'm pretty sure that groundwater would play a part also. So, yeah, the truncated tops of the cross-beds indicate erosion.ETA: yes, erosion in the middle of a flood...Edited by edge, : No reason given.

Faith, this is drivel.Apart from anything else, the Holocene strata are, in fact, on top.I can't see what can be going through your head when you write stuff like this.

Hi Faith,There's been a lot of discussion since my last visit, so I'll just address points that are still under discussion. Yet time continues to march forward. Look at it mathematically. Today we say that the end of the Cretaceous when the dinosaurs went extinct was 65 million years ago. Ten million years from now we'll say that the end of the Cretaceous was 75 million years ago. By mathematical necessity, geologic time has not come to an end.Geological processes are very slow and long time periods are just a tick of the geologic clock. Once one looks further back in time than a million years the shortest tick of the geologic clock might be around 10,000 years. A human being lives only about 1% of a single tick of the geologic clock, and it can make geologic time seem unreal in the here and now, but nonetheless it still exists today and marches on into the future. Sediments are being deposited today atop sediments that are already present, and time marches forward, which is what I assume you mean when you say the time table "ASCENDS, CLIMBS." In other words, sediments are being deposited today as geologic time continues to march slowly forward. Erosion never came to an end in any world-wide sense. Uplifted regions will always erode, and low lying regions will always receive the sediments eroded from uplifted regions. The only thing that's obvious is the complete lack of any evidence that erosion ever came to an end, plus the simple impossibility of it. All elevated regions are exposed to weathering which will erode them. Only a suspension of the laws of nature could bring erosion of an elevated region to an end.--Percy

The geology of the entire world is measured by the geologic time scale. This includes the elevated Claron Formation and it includes deeply submerged sedimentary layers beneath the sea.And each little region of the world contains its own unique geologic column containing a record of the sediments deposited there, and of the life that lived within and upon it when each layer took its turn at the surface. Just for completeness let me mention that tectonic forces can cause faults which *will* interrupt the horizontal continuity of stratigraphic layers, but the simple case I have in mind is simple uplift and subsidence with no faults to interrupt the horizontal continuity beyond introducing a slope and changes in elevation. And so we end up with something like this (keep in mind that the vertical scale is greatly exaggerated): Click on "peek" to see how it is done.The elevated portion erodes and sediments from it are deposited on the subsided portion: And you now ask: A fine example is where the layers beneath Texas extend out into the Gulf of Mexico. The border between Oklahoma and Texas is on the left, the Gulf of Mexico coastline is on the right. The layers become more and more deeply buried as one moves toward and into the Gulf of Mexico. Sediments are being deposited today atop the layers already present in the Gulf of Mexico: Erosion will be uneven and will include contributions from different sedimentary layers. At the coastal margin between land and sea the runoff from land will be sorted a la Walther's Law into sand, silt, mud, clay, and further out to sea carbonates (eventually limestone) and mid-ocean ooze. They are very likely continuous horizontally for thousands of miles up until the sea's margins and oceanic ridges, and they are continuous with the vertical stack of layers beneath them. Seafloor sedimentary layers will not be horizontally continuous with terrestrial layers because there can be no oceanic sedimentation where there is no ocean. Exceptions occur for periods when seas encroach onto land, as we see increasingly happening today, and when sea floor is uplifted so that part of it becomes terrestrial.--PercyEdited by Percy, : Minor clarification.