The light-brown sandstone was deposited rapidly in the first part of Noah’s Flood, about 4,500 years ago as the waters were rising. Shortly afterwards, the sediments were uplifted and folded, and the rising waters of the catastrophic Flood continued to deposit kilometres of other sediments in deepening, continent-wide basins on top.
In the second half of the Flood as the land was then rising, the floodwaters receded in wide, fast-flowing sheets from the continent into the ocean, eroding the overlying sediment from the area—a depth of kilometres—depositing it on the continental shelves.
As the receding floodwaters waned, a huge shield volcano erupted about 40 km to the south-west, spewing thick flows of basaltic lava around the region. The black basalt contrasts with the tan sandstone. The shield volcano was partly eroded as the remaining floodwaters continued to recede, leaving the prominent central core, known as Mount Warning. The beach sand around the rocks is a post-Flood deposit and quite recent.
For an overview of the biblical geological history of the area and how it compares with the conventional geological explanation see: Geological history of Brisbane, Australia.
Franklin Hall
Thanks. Beautiful photography of such a significant formation!
KEITH BASTIAN
Re: Greenmount formations. Further down the coast @ Diggers Camp [between Minnie Water and Wooli in the Yuragir National Park] are similar rocks to those pictured, but with other types interposed and folded with synclines etc all very visible. There are hardened ‘coffee rock’ layers with white ‘quartz’ seams running thru them from 2-7cm thick, and there are cliffs of a soft grey fragile soft slaty clay which has some striking red/pink areas in it. Yet on the foot of the cliffs and on the beaches are multi-coloured basaltic type stones, ranging from white, through yellows, ochers, various browns and reds, through to black. Some are half and half, and some are multi-coloured -speckled, streaked etc. Significant geological variety in a very small area, with other volcanic rock close by.
Tas Walker
Yes, Keith, similar types of rocks. Part of the New England Fold Belt as illustrated here.
Hennie Mouton
The Drakensberg mountain region in South Africa also contains many places where basaltic lava flowed over sandstone, I guess events similar to your explanation occurred there.
Denis Towers
Tas,
If you don’t mind me asking, how do you fit into the picture??
Are you OZ answer to AIG?
Denis
Tas Walker
Denis, I’m a scientist, writer and speaker with Creation Ministries International (wewbsite Creation.com) and my background is here. This BiblicalGeology site is a small hobby I keep in my spare time.
Elfrieda Fleischmann
Tas and Hennie,
Would like to make contact with you from a South African perspective. Tas, do you or Hennie, have more info regarding South African geology. Some more interesting features?
kind regards
Elfrieda
Bruce Budd
Dear Tas,
What a wonderful surprise! I spent many happy hours on and around this beach as a child. What a pity that I didn’t know then what I know now, I would have appreciated it so much more. I lived in the shadow of Mount Warning for 10 years and in that time never heard any reference to the size of the volcano. It wasn’t until the late 50s that photo was taken from a high-flying Vampire out at sea which showed the true extent of the crater now known as the Tweed Valley.
Tas Walker
Elfrieda. Hennie sent this note about interesting features in South Africa:
Hi Tas and Elfrieda,
I’m no geologist but do have a keen interest in geology, as well as in all other creation issues. What I can do is to refer to some similar geological features that Tas describes in his blog, that can be seen in Southern Africa, for example:
1. Basaltic lava on top of sandstone in the Drakensberge (berg = mountain). These can best be seen at the mountains themselves, but is already visible in the mountain at Harrismith.
2. Conglomerates in South Africa, quite similar to those at Kata Tjuta, can be found on the Oudtshoorn side of Meiringspoort, and very interesting, some of it can be seen at the first stop when entering Meiringspoort, although the very small river is flowing in the opposite direction. I once followed these outcrops to the side of Graaff-Reinet and they are widespread over a hundred kilometres or more.
3. Conglomerates can also be seen at the RCI resort “Little Eden”, close to the town of Cullinan. The ravine at Little Eden, where to separate layers of conglomerates can be seen is also interesting in the sense that it could not have been carved by the small river flowing down the ravine, because the top plateau is angling in the opposite direction.
4. Meiringspoort itself I believe is an example of a watergap such as has been described previously in the Creation magazine.
5. Magnificent folded rock structures can of course be seen in Meiringspoort, that is part of the Swartberge, and rock layers tilted at almost 90° can be seen there as well as in the Swartbergpas.
Regards,
Hennie
Gordon
There is an extinct volcano up near york penn. ( i can remember the name) but its eruption is recorded in Aboriginal oral history this was (i know u dont believe in this but)something like 11000 years ago (again, I cant rem exactly) There are extinct volcanoes absolutly everywhere(eg almost every island in the pacific!- thousands and thousands of volcanos.) if they all have all erupted sice 6000 years ago there would be mention of volcano disasters everywhere! actually I doubt humans could live through a time if there were thousands of eruptions all over the world. Eruptions would have a much much more significant role in history. Not to mention that the atmosphere would be so poisoned nothing could live and the sun perpetually blocked out like a nuclear winter.
Tas Walker
Hi Gordon:
I think you may be referring to the Undara Lava Tubes inland from Townsville. These and most of the other extinct volcanoes you mention would be post-Flood eruptions and as such would be less than 4,500 years old. The problem is that the dating methods you quote are giving ages that are too old. See my article on this blog about the fatal flaw with radioactive dating, which shows that all dating methods rely on assumptions.
These problems are common. Check Creation.com for many examples of radiometric dates that are too old for rocks of known age, and others that give conflicting results using different methods. Do a search using the search box on such keywords as “Mt Ngauruhoe”, “Mt St Helens dacite”, “Crinum wood”, “dating failure”, “Hawkesbury sandstone”, “Mungo man” “carbon-14 diamonds” and “The pigs took it all” to find a few of them.
Yes, there are lots of volcanoes in the world but I don’t think there would be a problem with people surviving with them erupting in the 4,500 years post-Flood. People live in Hawaii and Java where there are active volcanoes and I can recall quite a few eruptions in my time that have not disrupted life around the world very much.
Gordon
Isotope dating is only used for dating relatively recent things- a few thousand years. etc etc blah oh forget it, why did i bother? ..
Charles Mannington
Researchers in Northern NSW found some human artifacts embedded in the coffee rock in Broadwater National Park last year. There were some stone tools and a couple of metallic tools with illegible markings.
Tas Walker
Hi Charles: I have not seen any reports on those artifacts. Do you have a link or reference?
moshe
Nice theory and it should be easy to prove the flood everywhere you look- But wait- they have sediment cores from Artic lakes that go back 10-20,000 years- no sign of a global flood. Prehistoric cave painings of extinct ice-age mammals in France- over 20,000 years old that never got washed away in a flood. Glacial Ice cores over 100,000 years old. Oetzi the iceman mummy found in 1991- frozen in ice 5300 years ago- his body never touched by the flood of Noah. I guess Jesus didn’t know about Oetzi- a real son of god would have known about that.
Tas Walker
Hi Moshe: Yes, you should be able to see evidence for the Flood, and you can—provided you know what to look for. You have to ignore the dates that are given to these things. Remember that all dates quoted are subjective, having been developed to fit in with the evolutionary meta-narrative. Read The fatal flaw in radio dating.
Concerning your specific examples:
I would encourage you to explore the Biblical Geology site. Use the search engine for keywords such as “varve chronologies”, “ice cores”, “carbon dating”. Search also Creation.com for those keywords. Creation.com has thousands of articles dealing with the questions you raise.
moshe
So you are saying these prehistoric cave paintings in France, that contain many long extinct ice-age animals, like cave bears, whooly rhinos and mammoths, we done by modern humans after the flood? And these wooly-coated animals just happened to have be on the Ark too? Just goes to show how foolish a Christian is- they stop at nothing to reinvent the facts to fit their religious needs.
Tas Walker
Hello Moshe. Yes, those cave paintings were done by modern humans descended from Noah and his family after the Flood. This article puts cavemen into context.
And yes, these animals were descended from animals that came off Noah’s Ark in the Middle East after the Flood. This article deals with some of the logistics of Noah’s Ark.
We are not “reinventing” the facts. We agree with all that is observed, such as the existence of the cave paintings, the remains of the animals, the evidence for ice cover. We are reinterpreting the facts. And note that the dates you see quoted are not facts. All dates are chosen to fit within the long-age secular worldview. Did you read the article The fatal flaw in radioactive dating?
You mentioned “religious needs” but do not seem to realize that the secular worldview is a “religious” worldview. It starts with beliefs about the nature of God, what He does, the nature of man, etc. So your statement, “they stop at nothing to reinvent the facts to fit their religious needs” could be equally applied to the secular worldview. We need to acknowledge that these are two competing worldviews. See Evolution & creation, science & religion, facts & bias.
I’m encouraged because your questions show that you are applying the biblical worldview. Most people think it is ridiculous when they first encounter it but as you investigate you will see that the worldview makes sense.
Moshe
Your caveman story has nothing to to with these French cave paintings- you are acting like a Jehovah’s Witness, now.
At least you see that the cave paintings would have been washed away by Noah’s flood, so they would to have been done after the flood. Now you just have to use miracles to explain how extinct animals were in those paintings. Lets, see- A regular rhino came off the Ark, then in a few years when they the migrated to the brand new ice age regions where food was scare and life was harsh, they grew long furry coats almost overnight and became a separate sub-species, too. Cave bears and Cave lions? No problemo- same thing for them, I guess. See how easy it is to explain away unpleasant paintings of wholly mammoths and other extinct ice-age animals? They can’t be 20,000 years old, no way- Because Jesus is God and truthful,too, because he told us so, almost 2000 years ago.
Ice cores 100,000 years old-Nah-sediment cores 20,000 years old- nah- all, flawed science. But, hey, I love those scientists that created those miracle drugs who keep us alive, just not the ones who contradict the Bible.
Tas Walker
Hi Moshe,
That article I cited explains how you can understand caves within the biblical framework. You can simply apply the same ideas to the French cave.
Yes, caves are a post-Flood geological feature.
I don’t know where you got the idea that I appealed to miracles. I didn’t. It would help if you could understand the Ice Age and how the biblical framework explains it easily. Go to Creation.com and type “ice age” in the search box. The Ice Age explains the presence of warm-climate animals in places like France, UK and Siberia. Do a bit of reading.
What you don’t seem to realize is how subjective the dates are. If you want to believe them, that is fine. But they are massaged, adjusted, modified and interpreted (i.e. made up) to agree with the predetermined evolutionary story. And they are just as quickly discarded when they are no longer useful. This speculation about the past is not the same as the experimental science that is done on drugs in the present. Read the Q&A on Creation.com about “radiometric dating”.
All the best,
Tas Walker
courses gold coast
I think you’re referring to the Undara Lava Tubes inland from Townsville.