Exciting progress has been made in reinterpreting the Coconino Sandstone of Grand Canyon as a deposit laid down by the global Flood, rather than a desert deposit as conventionally thought.

For over a year, BCM’s Paul Garner has been working with his colleagues, Dr John Whitmore (Cedarville University) and Ray Strom (Calgary Rock and Materials), on the origin of the Coconino Sandstone for the Flood-Activated Sedimentation and Tectonics (FAST) project. FAST is being sponsored by our friends at the Institute for Creation Research.

In late July, Paul was back in the USA, undertaking further field and laboratory research for the project.

The first part of his trip involved fieldwork in the Sand Hills of central Nebraska. The Sand Hills are the largest wind blown dune field in the western hemisphere. The sand dunes were extensively sampled and photographed for comparison with the Coconino Sandstone of the Colorado Plateau.

The second week of his visit was spent in the geological laboratory at Cedarville University in Ohio, processing the sand samples collected in Nebraska and studying thin sections of the Coconino Sandstone under the microscope, prepared from samples collected over the last year.

One significant discovery is that the Coconino Sandstone contains grains of a mineral called mica. Mica is quite soft and flaky and would not be expected to survive for long in a harsh desert environment. It is surprising to find so many mica flakes in the interior of the Coconino formation. This seems easier to explain if the Coconino was deposited rapidly by water and not by the slow accumulation of sand in an ancient desert.

Another interesting feature that the team has been able to document is that the Coconino Sandstone is everywhere surrounded (above, below and to the sides) by sedimentary rocks clearly laid down by water. In fact, many of these water-laid sediments interfinger with or grade into the Coconino formation. In one place, there are even bedded limestones within the Coconino itself! This is further evidence of its water-laid origin.

More progress is anticipated in the coming months. It is hoped that the project findings will eventually be published in appropriate scientific journals.

(Click on photographs for larger versions).