Evidence of the flood

Then what column do they cover? Or do you think they float up into the sky?

Then what makes a layer continuous?

In that case, it appears you are saying that the Mississippi River stopped flowing for a significant period of time.I mean, we are attributing a certain set of sediments to the river and they are sequential, ostensibly deposited in the same way, so the river must have stopped.I have to say that I was actually surprised at the age of these sediments when I read the paper, but yes, they do have oil wells to support the conclusions.When the Appalachians began to erode, some of the rivers flowed out to the south and another system appears to have flowed west to form, ultimately, the great erg deposits of the Mesozoic. If you were serious, I'd do some more research and try to tie it all together, but I'm just concerned that you will simply dismiss my efforts.

Well, yes.And that is what we call an unconformity. There are thousands of them in the geological record around the world.

My impression is that we are not communicating at all, I don't know what you are saying that relates to anything I'm saying and vice versa.What I would like to see is a cross section of any place where strata are depositing on top of say the "Holocene" that follow the same pattern as all the strata beneath. Or something like that.

All sedimentary deposits are part of the stratigraphic column, by definition. Beneath the varves are just more sedimentary deposits (with the occasional other types of deposits like volcanic and ash) until below a certain depth there are no more sedimentary deposits, just mantle.You seem to think that the top of the stratigraphic column lies buried beneath the surface somewhere. It's not. The stratigraphic column continues right up to the surface you walk on. The deeper parts of the stratigraphic column are rock strata, but the topmost strata are unconsolidated soils and clays and so forth. The stratigraphic column *is* continuous from top to bottom.--Percy

Except where there are erosional gaps, sure it is! That's just the nature of things.And geologists are pretty good at identifying all of these things. That's what they do for a living.

Okay, took me one minute.The lowest sediments in this section are upper Triassic and there is a continuous depositional sequence through the Pleistocene.

Hmmm. I'm reading and posting through this thread more slowly than posts are accumulating. Maybe I should start posting one-liners. Nah. It's tempting, but it might encourage people who seem to think this is Twitter and not a discussion board. The problem isn't that you don't have examples, because you do. Everywhere there is net-deposition throughout the world the stratigraphic column is growing. As I keep saying, the world's oceans cover 3/4 of the planet, and almost that entire realm is one of net deposition where the stratigraphic column is growing. And Edge provided the particularly deep examples of the Mississippi Delta and the Bahamas Banks as recent sedimentary deposits atop the stratigraphic column.The problem is one of definitions. You've defined stratigraphic column (you're using the term geologic column, but close enough) to be the layers deposited by the mythical Flood. That is not the definition of the stratigraphic column. The stratigraphic column rises right up to ground level. It isn't something that is buried beneath the ground. It isn't something that starts only after you've dug down to rock. In geology the covering layer of soils and clays and so forth are the least interesting and so receive the least attention, but they are part of the stratigraphic column nonetheless.I can't say I'm certain in my terminology, so if Edge or someone wants to jump in then please feel free.--Percy

Here is another example of continuous sedimentation through the Mesozoic and into the Tertiary. I hope it's not too much of a stretch to imagine that sedimentation is continuing in the present.

Well, that's a lie. You've been abandoning threads since you began participating in earnest here in 2004. When the problem is with everyone's attitude but yourself, it might be wise to consider the possibility that it is your own attitude that is at the root of the problem. You've made up an evolving (how ironic) story out of thin air that follows your eclectic Biblical interpretations, and then instead of finding evidence to support it you just repeat the story over and over again and ignore all rebuttals. I'm just recounting history. The entire forum history is here for you to peruse. If you think I'm wrong it will be very easy for you to prove. That's right, blame everyone but yourself. You're the only one behaving badly, but it's everyone else's attitude that's at fault. Yeah, sure.--Percy

Has it perhaps occurred to you that your many one-liner replies like this do nothing to support your monotonous claims of substantive posts?Anyway, you quote nothing from Edge's Message 535, but I'm guessing you want him to prove that dust and ash layers are found throughout the geologic column. This is incredibly odd thing to ask given how common ash is in the geologic column. Why you insist on displaying your ignorance so prominently and so frequently is beyond me. You can find the details at the Wikipedia article on Tephra. Ash is the smallest classification of tephra.--Percy

Well, geological terminology is not something that one just jumps into after reading a few websites. The science is old and has a lot of terms that are overused and misunderstood even by people with degrees.Hence, the therm geological column becomes kind of a vague idea. Speaking precisely, I would prefer the term stratigraphic column. This would emphasize the fact that it is the rocks themselves that determine its composition and that each location on earth is different to some degree from other locations.The geological timescale is something different and simply denotes different time intervals in which the rocks were deposited. These are based on life patterns, or the types of fossils found during each interval. For instance "Mesozoic" means 'middle life', and Paleozoic means old life and so on.Now, of course, we are seeing the advent of the term 'Anthropocene' with an obvious meaning. I have yet to accept that since it seems a bit arrogant to assume that we will have a very long tenure on the planet. WE are not even a pixel on the screen yet.So the time scale is like a tape on which certain life patterns are recorded. Depending on where you are, you get different recordings, and in some places there is nothing to record while in others it has been erased by erosion.Consquently, there is really no such thing as THE geological column.Faith seems to think that the Grand Canyon geological column is essentially representative of the entire world, while, realistically, it isn't even representative of Arizona.

I see no deposits on top of the Holocene there.

Yes it is too much of a stretch. I see nothing being deposited on top of the Holocene.