Laminae in Shales and Flood Deposits

As the article linked below will demonstrate, geologists have their own specialized lingo. Rocks, sediments, silt, shale, laminae, and more. Laminae are fine layers found in sedimentary rocks, but uniformitarian geologists are hard pressed to explain them. Creationists have some work to do in this area as well.

Oil shale lamination image credit: Wikimedia Commons / Gretarsson (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Scientists will get an idea and see if the data support it. Uniformitarian geologists expect that slow and gradual processes over long periods of time explain what is seen, and biblical creationists bring their catastrophic processes to the dinner party. Experiments indicate that laminae can form in moving water (which is not what secular geologists expect) and supports Genesis Flood geology, which in turn indicates a young earth. However, there is still work ahead for creationists regarding thick layers of shale spread all over in the rock record, but progress is being made.

Fine-grained sedimentary rocks, generally called mudrocks or mudstones, make up about 50% of all sedimentary rocks, although estimates vary. These represent various proportions of silt- and clay-sized particles, and are mostly composed of silicate minerals. Mudstones come in great variety, but generally can be broken down into massive mudstone, siltstone, and claystone with a variety of textures. . . When the mudstone is laminated it is called shale. . . Shales can be quite thick, sometimes up to hundreds of metres, and are usually widespread. Shales are commonly believed to have been deposited in distal locations from their source in quiescent, often anoxic conditions. Of course, under uniformitarian assumptions, any significant mudstone deposit would have taken a long period of time.

To read the full article and learn some new vocabulary, click on "The origin of laminae in shales".