Ocean Sediments Analyzed

Let us now examine the evidence as far as the ocean sediments

are concerned. In 1949 Maurice Ewing wrote in the National

Geographic Magazine concerning the exploration of the floor of the

Atlantic Ocean. His comments are as follows:

In more than 3,000 places over vast areas of the Atlantic

we have now measured with sound echoes the depth of the

sediment on top of the bed-rock of the ocean floor.

These measurements clearly indicate thousands of feet of

sediments on the foothills of the Ridge. Surprisingly,

however, we have found that in the great flat basins on

each side of the Ridge this sediment appears to be less

than 100 feet thick, a fact so startling that it needs

further checking.(15)

Much of the Pacific floor, too, is covered by sediments under

100 meters in depth,(16) with some areas as thin as 20 meters.(17)

The following statement relates to investigation of the East

Pacific Rise:

A deep-towed magnetometer profile made across the East

Pacific Rise crest shows sediment accumulation increases

from less than 2 meters at the rise crest axis to about

20 meters at the western end and 10 meters at the eastern

end of the profile.(18)

Evidence from the oceans, it seems, may not be used

automatically to support the view of a very old earth. In fact,

the opposite conclusion seems to be better supported. Patrick M.

Hurley wrote in the Scientific American:

The topography of the ocean floors has been rapidly

revealed in the past two decades by the depth recorder...

It became a great puzzle how in the total span of earth's

history only a thin veneer of sediment had been laid

down. The deposition rate measured today would extend

the process of sedimentation back to the Cretaceous

times, or 100 to 200 million years, compared with a

continental and oceanic history that goes back at least

3,000 million years. How could three-quarters of the

earth's surface be wiped clean of sediment in the last 5

per cent of terrestrial time? Furthermore, why were all

the oceanic islands and submerged volcanoes so young?(19)

Kuenen wrote:

Two great problems challenge earth sciences in this

domain. The huge wedge of terrace sediment underlying

the shelf off the east coast of the United States has

been built up in little more than 10^8 years, that is in

less than 2 or 3 per cent of geological time. What has

happened to the terraces that must have been produced

earlier? Have they subsided into the mantle and been

absorbed; have they been pushed under the continents; or

have they been incorporated into mountain chains? The

second problem is the discrepancy between the estimated

thickness on the deep sea floor, and the values actually

found. Various suggestions have been offered? (1) the

layers below the unconsolidated sediment are mainly

consolidated deposits; (2) the rate of sedimentation has

been much slower than in recent times, especially in

pre-tertiary times; (3) creep of the sea floor under the

continental blocks under the influence of convection

currents in the mantle; (4) the ocean floor is relatively

young; (5) the sedimentary carpet has been invaded from

below and metamorphosed so completely as to become basic

rock.(20)

Here, then, is a great enigma. If the oceans are only

hundreds of millions of years old, sediments averaging 600 or more

meters (2,000 ft.) should be found all over the ocean floor.

Instead, sediments are found normally to be far less than this,

and in many cases the ocean floor is almost bare of sediment. No

idea, other than that of a very young ocean, has thus far been set

forth that seems as plausible or direct; and if the age of the

earth were billions of years, then the puzzle of the missing ocean

sediments is increased enormously.