The Floating Forest Theory Sinks
Author: Greg Neyman

One explanation used by young-earth proponents to explain that
all coal seams formed during the Flood is the concept of the
floating forest, which can be found on the Answers in Genesis
website, written by Carl Wieland. There are actually four
articles on the web that we will consider when discussing the
floating forest. The other three are:

"Too Much Coal for a Young Earth," by Gerhard Schönknecht and
Siegfried Scherer
"Coal Beds and Noah's Flood," by Andrew Snelling
"Patterns of Ocean Circulation Over the Continents During
Noah's Flood," by John Baumgardner and Daniel Barnette

Please see the footnotes for the web addresses to these
articles. First let's look at the possibility of floating
forests existence. From the evidence presented, I can see no
reason why they can't exist. It is certainly plausible that
there may have been water-borne forests in the past. That's not
to say there are not logical problems with this theory. One is
the claim that all plants with a radial root pattern are
water-borne plants. One only needs to look at the Sequoia tree
of California to dispense with this statement. The tallest of
trees in the world (up to 300 feet) has a radial root pattern.
In fact, its roots only go into the ground vertically a
distance of 6 feet!

However, let's be nice for the time being and agree that the
floating forest idea is possible.

This floating forest idea is used to explain that the 230+ coal
beds in the Ruhr district of Germany, scattered throughout 4,000
meters of strata, came to exist during the 375 days of Noah's
flood. The geological explanation put forward by old-earth
creationists is that these beds formed over millions of years,
as the sea levels fluctuated, causing the land to be covered,
then uncovered with water repetitively. However, the
young-earth explanation is with the floating forests, which in
the cataclysmic event of the Flood, were rapidly buried, and
covered with sediment. (See "Too Much Coal...) Unfortunately,
this theory does not wash.

Think about the model. The Flood starts, and the floating
forest over Germany is sank by the turbulent waters. Give it a
day, in which the material that covers the flooded trees is
deposited, and then another floating forest has been brought
into place by the currents, and it sinks in the same spot the
next day! This is repeated 230 times, up to a thickness of
4,000 meters! So imagine this picture...you have 230 floating
forests, all lined up in a row, awaiting their chance to sink
in the exact same spot, and then be rapidly covered over with
sediment before the next forest sinks. This process all happens
in about 375 days! Even assuming it happened, where did the
sediment come from?

This is explained on the Answers in Genesis website by John
Baumgardner and Daniel Barnette in their article referenced
above. They show that based on their calculations, the waters
of the flood covering a sphere (earth) would move with a
velocity (current) of 70 meters per second, which they claim is
more than enough to cause erosion to create these beds. I cannot
confirm their calculations, but it introduces two obvious errors
that don't require a rocket scientist to figure out.

What are the errors? First, if you have the water turbulence
they calculated, then all the floating forests would have
immediately sank! You no longer have the neat and orderly
progression of 230 forests into the area of Germany to create
the coal fields. In fact, by their model, if you look at the
coal fields of the world, they should all be only one coal seam
thick, and not multiple seams like we actually see. And while
their theory would account for thin seams, it does nothing to
explain a 100-foot thick coal seam, which would require many
forests together!

The second error...remember we have 70 meter per second
currents. At that speed, none of the fine rock materiel would
be able to settle on the ocean floor...it would stay in
suspension in the water. Yet when you look at the rock layers
between the coal seams, they are fine grained (sandstones and
limestones). So then, the only way this could happen is if God
sank a forest with the turbulent water, then calmed the water
and made it still for a day, so the sediment would sink to the
bottom, then re-start the current to bring in the next forest
to sink, sink it, stop the current, etc., etc. Sure, God could
have done it, but there's no logical reason to.

Furthermore, with rapid burial as they suggest, you would see
perfectly fossilized trees in the rock beds above the coal,
because the rapid burial would preserve the original state of
the trees. Of course, the current would have stripped away the
leaves and small branches, but there would still be many of
these petrified trees left.

OK, one final thought on the floating forest. They would have
to follow the ocean currents. They probably would not have
survived more than a few years, as the current took each one
into the Arctic or Antarctic to freeze. And, if they existed,
then some must have floated into the polar regions and been
frozen. Has any explorations of the earth's polar caps
discovered a floating forest frozen in the ice? Not that I know
of.

Some may try to explain this away by saying the forests were
anchored to shore, and thus did not circulate with the
currents. This however introduces two more problems. First, the
waves would occasionally break them free, and they would float
off...hence we would find some frozen ones in the polar
regions. Second, I seriously doubt that you could get a tree to
stand one-hundred feet vertically in the air, while being
pounded by the surf! You don't need a computer model to prove
it...its just not possible.

The article "Coal Beds and Noah's Flood" by Andrew Snelling
attempts to show that it is possible for all the world's coal
to have been produced from the plants which existed at the time
of Noah's flood? Even if he is correct, it doesn't matter,
because there is no model by which it can be laid down to
create 230+ separate coal beds in one 4,000 meter thick strata
of rock! Therefore, the calculations in this article are
meaningless, as are the coal volume calculations of the "Too
Much Coal" mentioned above.

Conclusion

There is no possible way that the coal beds of the Ruhr
district in Germany were created by the Flood of Noah. The
logical conclusion of the theory of young-earth creationists
says there should only be single layers of thin coal throughout
the world. However, there are many areas of the world with
multiple seams divided by other rock layers. Concerning
thickness, even being generous, a floating forest would yield
no thicker seams than 5 meters, yet there are many coal seams
exceeding this thickness.

Even assuming Wieland's discussion of the tree composition
(roots, appendages, etc) is correct, it doesn't amount to a
hill of beans. If you can't deposit them in the strata the way
they are seen today, his conclusions are meaningless.

The only logical conclusion is that coal seams were laid down
over millions of years, just like the geologists have told us
all along.

FOOTNOTES:
"Floating Forest"
(answersingenesis.org/home/area/Magazines/docs/cen_v18n1_forests.asp)

"Too Much Coal for a Young Earth,"
(answersingenesis.org/docs/1233.asp)
"Coal Beds and Noah's Flood,"
(answersingenesis.org/docs/1137.asp)
"Patterns of Ocean Circulation Over the Continents During
Noah's Flood,"
(icr.org/index.php?module=research&action=index&page=researchp_jb_patternsofcirculation)


About The Author: Greg Neyman is the founder of the website
ministry Answers In Creation
(http://www.answersincreation.org). The source article is
located at http://www.answersincreation.org/floating.htm.