Drama in the Rocks part 2/4 - Sedimentology

DRAMA IN THE ROCKS! (with Dutch subtitles) This is part 2 of 4 of a documentary of 31 minutes. Please watch FIRST part 1. Rocks seem innocent enough until one realises that, since the days of geologist James Hutton in 1795, the rock strata have been used to date the history of life on earth. The ages of all the fossilised remains of animals and plants featured in Natural History museums and school text books have been based on their positions in the strata. But now recent laboratory experiments have invalidated the basic principles upon which the geological time scale is founded, so putting these ages under threat. The 30 min. episode Drama in the Rocks, included in full in this latest video, brings to the screen both the scientists and the experiments involved. Evidence is shown that the strata in which creatures were buried form sideways, and not one on top of the other as had always been thought. Fossils in lower strata could, therefore, be younger than fossils in higher strata. The level at which fossils are found is the result of wave direction, speed of current and other factors at the time of burial. These experiments also confirm field evidence that burial must have been very rapid, as would be consistent with a great flood. Fossil sequences in successive strata are therefore more apparent than real, and cannot be used to infer evolutionary relationships. This section also incorporates the technical film Fundamental Experiments in Stratification presented to the Lille National, and Recife International, Congresses of Sedimentology in 1993, which has received worldwide acclaim by scientists. This video presents one of the most dramatic situations ever to confront man's thinking. It triggers off questions such as Is the earth really old? Could the supposed millions of years ages ascribed to the fossils be completely wrong ? Did dinosaurs become extinct 65 million years ago, or might they have been contemporary with mankind?