"To some thoughtful stratigraphers this amazing discovery [Great Age] presented a dilemma, for if the known stratified rocks have been accumulating throughout this vast span of time the average rate of deposition must have been extremely slow, yet there is very good evidence that individual beds accumulated rapidly." (Principles Of Stratigraphy, p 128)

Rapid Formation of Layers & Coal

Dunbar & Rogers continued... "Internal evidence in the strata, however, belies these estimates. In the Coal Measures of Nova Scotia, for example, the stumps and trunks of many trees are preserved standing upright as they grew, clearly having been buried before they had time to fall or rot away. Here sediment certainly accumulated to a depth of many feet within a few years." (Dunbar & Rogers, Principles Of Stratigraphy, p 128, Standard geology textbook used in universities)

Articulated fossils
Dunbar & Rogers continued... "In other formations where articulated skeletons of large animals are preserved, the sediment must have covered them within a few days at the most." (Dunbar & Rogers, Principles Of Stratigraphy, p 128, Standard geology textbook used in universities)

Pearlized Sea Shells: Ammonite
Dunbar & Rogers continued... "Abundant fossil shells likewise indicate rapid burial, for if shells are long exposed on the sea floor they suffer abrasion or corrosion and are overgrown by sessile organisms or perforated by boring animals. At the rate of deposition postulated by Schuchert, 1000 years, more or less, would have been required to bury a shell 5 inches in diameter. With very local exceptions fossil shells show no evidence of such long exposure." (Dunbar & Rogers, Principles Of Stratigraphy, p 128, Standard geology textbook used in universities)

Rapidly Perishing Detail Preserved
Our experience teaches us that soft tissues degenerate rapidly. How long would a dead shrimp maintain this detail washed up on a beach? The rock must have formed more rapidly than the deterioration of minute features.

Rapid Petrifaction
The cowboy leg inside this boot is fossilized. This dramatic example demonstrates that it does not take millions, thousands or even hundreds of years to form fossils.

Speleotherms: stalagmites and stalactites

Some geology textbooks tell us that stalagmites and stalactites form at a rate of thousands of years per cubic inch. Here is a speleotherm over 10 feet high formed in less than 40 years!