North American Precambrian Geology: A Proposed Young Earth Biblical Model

Authors

Harry Dickens, Independent scholarFollow

Addresses of All Authors

Harry Dickens, 8 Werona Court, Willetton, Western Australia 6155, Australia.

Author's Biography

Harry Dickens (pseudonym) has more than 30 years’ experience in mineral and petroleum exploration. He has worked in industry, government and university institutions, and currently works for a Geological Survey. He has delivered presentations and done fieldwork in Australia, North America, Asia and the UK. He has university qualifications in geology and geophysics. With a biblical worldview in mind, he has written on rapid petroleum formation, the effects of Noah’s Flood (fountains, chemistry, erosion, and deposition) and on Precambrian geology (including banded iron formations). He has published in the Journal of Creation and the Answers Research Journal. He has contributed to secular publications such as petroleum conference proceedings and publications, as well as the Israel Geological Society Annual Meeting. In 2016 he formed a Bible Geoscience Group based in an Australian city, which provides ongoing opportunities for Christian geoscientists to discuss aspects of Young Earth geoscience.

Proposal

Precambrian geology, especially of the crystalline basement rocks, is complex. Consequently, understanding what appears to be its long and involved history is a challenge. This paper not only aims to help address this challenge, but also to interpret this history within a Young Earth biblical model. An overview of North America’s Precambrian province geology is described and a geological history model for the whole continent is developed that aims to be consistent with both mapped regional geology and the Biblical record.

Correlation of Precambrian geological history with the sequence of acts chronicled in the Bible is based on interpreting key subjects such as mapped stratigraphy, the relative order of radiometric “ages”, the role of water and regional heating events. Interpretation of radiometric date clusters, and thus thermal-tectonic events, was used to infer correlation with the biblical record. It is proposed that God instigated heating events and that with the heat of each event, radiometric “ages” were systematically reset to lower values. These “ages,” or isotopic ratios, provide information on the history of crystallization and cooling of rocks.

On the basis of these date clusters, the principal thermal-tectonic events in North America are as follows: 1. Kenoran (late Archean) – associated with simultaneous cooling and convective heat dissipation of earlier hotter crust within individual Archean provinces, and the beginning of stable cratons. 2. Hudsonian (late Paleoproterozoic) - associated with internal deformation and further metamorphism of Archean provinces, as well as metasomatism. 3. Grenvillian (late Mesoproterozoic) - associated with huge thickening of continental crust and high mountain building. 4. Pan-African (late Neoproterozoic) – associated with massive rifting on the Cordilleran and Appalachian margins, as well as immense continental erosion and enormous water flows.

Biblical descriptions of Day One (initial global ocean and hovering over the waters), Day Two (the waters above and below), Day Three (dry land appears) and the early Noahic Flood (fountains bursting forth and rain) were respectively correlated with North America’s Archean, Paleoproterozoic, Mesoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic geology (including Kenoran, Hudsonian, Grenvillian and Pan-African thermal-tectonic events) respectively. Some specific locations of pre-Flood geography were inferred in relation to today’s Precambrian areas.

Keywords

Creation days, Flood, thermal-tectonic event, North America, Precambrian provinces, Archean, Paleoproterozoic, Mesoproterozoic, Neoproterozoic

DOI

https://doi.org/10.15385/jpicc.2018.8.1.34

Print Reference

Pages 389-403

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Recommended Citation

Dickens, H. 2018. North American Precambrian geology–A proposed young earth biblical model. In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism, ed. J.H. Whitmore, pp. 389–403. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Creation Science Fellowship.