Time range of radiocarbon dating

Likewise, on November 12, 2012, the author of the Naturalis Historia blog posted a lengthy article on Lake Suigetsu (https://thenaturalhistorian.com/creationism/) which included a reproduction of Figure 7 from the Davidson and Wolgemuth (2010) paper. Alternating patterns of distinct laminae are commonly identified within glacial lake deposits and are generally interpreted in the following way: during the summer months as meltwaters increase flow to the lakes, layers of more coarse sediment are formed, whereas the decreased meltwater in winter results in thinner, more clay-rich layers. A varve is defined as “A sedimentary bed or sequence of laminae deposited in a body of still water within one year’s time . The net result, in theory, is an “annual” varve consisting of a summer and winter depositional couplet layer.

Yet bat, bird, fish, plant and many other fossils within the Green River Formation strongly suggest rapid, rather than slow and gradual, deposition of these fine laminae (Grande 1984). This occurs because particles of different sizes have a tendency to spontaneously segregate and stratify themselves. Berthault’s research was published in two papers published by the French Academy of Sciences (Berthault 1986, 1988a), and English translations of these papers were subsequently published in a prominent creation research journal (Berthault 1988b, 1990). In the past, uniformitarian philosophy taught that clay-rich mudrocks formed by slow settling out of nearly stagnant water. It also held that thick deposits of clay-rich rocks needed thousands and even millions of years of slow, stagnant clay deposition, as is observed in parts of the deep ocean today. “Spontaneous Stratification in Granular Mixtures.” Nature 386 (6623): 379–382.