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Author Topic:   Peanut Gallery for the Faith/Jazzns Great Debate
roxrkool
Member (Idle past 989 days)
Posts: 1497
From: Nevada
Joined: 03-23-2003


Message 1 of 37 (197423)
04-07-2005 10:26 AM


Don't we usuallly have a peanut gallery for Great Debates?
Reading that thread is driving me nuts and I need to get some stuff off my chest.
lol
This message has been edited by Admin, 04-24-2005 04:17 PM

Replies to this message:
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Percy
Member
Posts: 22392
From: New Hampshire
Joined: 12-23-2000
Member Rating: 5.3


Message 2 of 37 (197425)
04-07-2005 10:32 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by roxrkool
04-07-2005 10:26 AM


I'm all in favor. People don't usually sit on their hands during debates.
--Percy

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by roxrkool, posted 04-07-2005 10:26 AM roxrkool has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 3 by JonF, posted 04-07-2005 10:55 AM Percy has not replied

  
JonF
Member (Idle past 168 days)
Posts: 6174
Joined: 06-23-2003


Message 3 of 37 (197437)
04-07-2005 10:55 AM
Reply to: Message 2 by Percy
04-07-2005 10:32 AM


Oh, carp, I just posted a comment at Message 214.
{ABE: I'll re-post it here}
This message has been edited by JonF, 04-07-2005 09:59 AM

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JonF
Member (Idle past 168 days)
Posts: 6174
Joined: 06-23-2003


Message 4 of 37 (197439)
04-07-2005 10:57 AM
Reply to: Message 3 by JonF
04-07-2005 10:55 AM


Buried erosion
In Message 101 Admin posted Faith's image. I guess she (is that settled?) is asking why we don't see that sort of thing. The answer is that we do see that sort of thing, in radar images and seismic images and satellite images and borehole chains and what-not ... and these observations are obviously incompatible with a global flood. Faith's just tremendously overestimating the likelyhood of such features breaking through to view in a place like the Grand Canyon.
From River Channels Buried deep in the Geologic Column, a picture of channels in Pleistocene rock:
From We've Done Rivers, Let's Do Canyons, an Eocene canyon buried a mile under the ocean floor:
(Lots more pictures and discussion at the above URLs).
From Space radar image of Wadi Kufra, Libya, another buried river:
From South Africa, Namibia Diamond Deposits a look at the ancient course of the Orange River, where diamonds might be found:
From SUBSURFACE MORPHOLOGY AND GEOARCHAEOLOGY REVEALED BY SPACEBORNE AND AIRBORNE RADAR one of the first SIR-A pictures of channels just beneath the Sahara desert:
From Salt water timebombs buried terrain in eastern Australia:
Finally, from Komex Geophysics: Seismic Refraction and Reflection, another seismic of a buried channel:

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AdminJar
Inactive Member


Message 5 of 37 (197444)
04-07-2005 11:11 AM
Reply to: Message 4 by JonF
04-07-2005 10:57 AM


I would hope that we would refrain
If we start commenting on the thread it's very likely that it will lead Faith over here to respond, which can only increase the stress level.
Please, everyone. Consider Faith. She has embarked on a major voyage. Let's try to keep it as smooth a journey as possible. Please don't add to the confusion. Please don't make it more difficult.

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 Message 7 by Arkansas Banana Boy, posted 04-07-2005 11:53 AM AdminJar has not replied

  
Percy
Member
Posts: 22392
From: New Hampshire
Joined: 12-23-2000
Member Rating: 5.3


Message 6 of 37 (197447)
04-07-2005 11:38 AM
Reply to: Message 5 by AdminJar
04-07-2005 11:11 AM


Re: I would hope that we would refrain
One of the rules of a Great Debate should be that the participants have to remain on stage, they can't go out and mingle with the audience.
Added by Edit: And moderators should maintain order in the peanut gallery. This isn't a place for cheap shots. Any Great Debater who feels they're being unfairly abused in the peanut gallery should appeal to the moderators.
--Percy
This message has been edited by Percy, 04-07-2005 10:42 AM

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Arkansas Banana Boy
Inactive Member


Message 7 of 37 (197450)
04-07-2005 11:53 AM
Reply to: Message 5 by AdminJar
04-07-2005 11:11 AM


Strap in for a long ride
From this post http://EvC Forum: Deposition and Erosion of Sediments -->EvC Forum: Deposition and Erosion of Sediments it seems that a gallery was initially used and then later held back until the GD is complete. If so its 200 posts to go.
I agree that any distraction at this point where Faith is focused on strata formation won't help, even if the info pertains. Perhaps if the thread stagnates in the next few dozen posts then a side thread with additional evidence for old age geologic strata formation can be made if both parties think it needed.
ABB

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 Message 8 by roxrkool, posted 04-07-2005 11:58 AM Arkansas Banana Boy has replied

  
roxrkool
Member (Idle past 989 days)
Posts: 1497
From: Nevada
Joined: 03-23-2003


Message 8 of 37 (197453)
04-07-2005 11:58 AM
Reply to: Message 7 by Arkansas Banana Boy
04-07-2005 11:53 AM


Re: Strap in for a long ride
The way I look at is Faith can come over to the peanut gallery after she's done with the Great Debate. Also, Jazz and Faith might find some of our comments useful.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 7 by Arkansas Banana Boy, posted 04-07-2005 11:53 AM Arkansas Banana Boy has replied

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 Message 9 by Arkansas Banana Boy, posted 04-07-2005 12:20 PM roxrkool has not replied

  
Arkansas Banana Boy
Inactive Member


Message 9 of 37 (197456)
04-07-2005 12:20 PM
Reply to: Message 8 by roxrkool
04-07-2005 11:58 AM


Agreed
I agree to a peanut gallery in theory too... why wait weeks for a 300 post thread to close when you have info that is relevent. The practice of it is that there may be a precident for not having a concurrent PG, and that Faith can easily get distracted from strata formation by multiple poster inputs. She is apt to answer all posters and the arguments get muddled. Let Jazzns have at it awhile.
Thanks to JonF and that ground imaging stuff...that will refine my searches as to finding erosional features in strata that I was having little luck with previously on google.
ABB

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Percy
Member
Posts: 22392
From: New Hampshire
Joined: 12-23-2000
Member Rating: 5.3


Message 10 of 37 (197488)
04-07-2005 2:57 PM


Jazzns has just posted a response at Message 102, and I wanted to offer a clarification for this part:
Jaxxns writes:
When erosion happens that causes sediment to go away, that environment will not produce a sedimentary layer. This is what I meant when I said that in order to make a sedimentary rock you need the net effect to be deposition rather than erosion.
An example might make clear what Jazzns means by "erosion that causes sediment to go away." A mountainous region drained by rivers will be an area of net erosion. The mountains are worn down by weathering. The products of erosion accumulate in the valleys and eventually make it to the rivers and are carried downstream and out of the region. Mountainous regions are areas of net erosion.
When erosion happens that does not cause sediment to go away, that environment will produce a sedimentary layer. Environments where this will happen are low places like a basin. A canyon is not going to form at the bottom of a basin because rivers and other runoff do not go uphill.
In this case Jazzns explains "erosion that does not cause sediment to go away" with the example of a basin, but a little more can be said. On land, a basin is a local low-lying area. A basin from which all exits require going uphill could only accumulate sediments, excepting wind-borne mechanisms. All the products of weathering from surrounding higher areas would eventually find their way to the basin where they'll accumulate.
In reality, there is rarely anything like a perfect basin. Perfect basins are frequently lakes and ponds, since water cannot escape uphill. If the area is very dry then lakes and ponds won't form and there will more likely be sand. But most land basins are not perfect. They usually have sediments being both deposited and carried away.
A mountain valley is an excellent example of a local basin where sediments are both being deposited and carried away. Erosion carries the effects of weathering on the mountains into the valley where they deposit on the soil, gradually building up after millenia. If you could peer through the soil to the underlying rock you would find that in most cases the area between mountains is as jagged as the mountains themselves, but we can't see this because it is all covered over by soil and other deposits. Material has accumulated in the valleys between mountains because erosion is gradually carrying the mountains, particle by particle, onto the valley floor.
But most mountain valleys are drained by rivers, and so the ground and soil of the valley is gradually being carried downstream and eventually out to sea. If the river drainage carries sediments away faster than erosion of the mountains deposits them, the valley floor is gradually diminished (lowered, and of course narrowed as it lowers). If the reverse is the case then the valley floor will climb the mountain sides and become wider.
But feedback is built into this process. As the valley floor rises, the river flows from a higher height and therefore more vigorously carries sediments away. As the valley floor lowers, the river flows more slowly and carries fewer sediments away. The system is balanced between sedimentary inputs and outputs until the mountains are finally weathered and eroded away to the point where their input to the sedimentary process declines so much that the entire region begins to erode to lower and lower elevations.
Jazzns writes:
Faith writes:
You betcha. Water is the ONLY thing that will give us the horizontal layers.
No, low places where sediment accumulates gives us horizontal layers. We see this today. We also see this in the geologic column in sediments that cannot have been deposited by water. This is the reason I brought up the issue of sediments that are very much land deposits which has yet to be addressed.
It is important that anyone reading this explanation from Jazzns keep in mind his earlier very careful explanation that it is much more rare for land to be an area of net deposition. There can be areas of land which are true basins and from which all exits lead uphill, but this is merely local. The reality for most land throughout the world is that there is always someplace lower where the sediments will eventually end up: bodies of water. Almost all land deposits are temporary - their eventual fate is lining the bottoms of bodies of water. Back when the Coconino layer of the Grand Canyon was still above ground, had the area not subsided beneath the waves where it was covered and protected by sediments but had instead remained above sea level and exposed to weathering and erosion, the Coconino layer would eventually have eroded away and off into the sea, leaving nothing behind. Except a disconformity.
My compliments to both Faith and Jazzns for a debate refreshingly free of accusations and recriminations.
--Percy

Replies to this message:
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 Message 25 by edge, posted 04-24-2005 9:48 PM Percy has replied

  
Jazzns
Member (Idle past 3912 days)
Posts: 2657
From: A Better America
Joined: 07-23-2004


Message 11 of 37 (197538)
04-07-2005 6:38 PM
Reply to: Message 10 by Percy
04-07-2005 2:57 PM


Commentary
Thats for the commentary Percy. Also thanks to JonF for all the good examples of non-flat disconformities. I knew they existed but just didn't know what magic words to type into Google to make them appear.
With regards to some of my over simplifications. I feel that both as a novice as geology as well as being in a discussion with someone who admits to having little geology knowledge my purpose is to keep it as simple as possible. Hence the basin as a bowl in your backyard example. Even though in reality the situations are much more complicated, I feel that conceptually it it necessary to proceed at that level in the discussion.
As for the peanut gallery. I was very interested in starting a thread like this to discuss the GD and primarily how accurate my descriptions of classical geology are. I was also very cautious to try to start it up prior to GD being finished for the same reasons as mentioned above. I may be far too early to make predictions about progress but Faith does seem to do her best work when she is not bombarded with responses.
I would only ask that if this thread is going to continue in parallel that it be very carefully moderated to be ONLY a commentary and not a "safe place" to post rebuttals to Faith.
It can also be discussed between Faith, myself, and other posters if there is a desire to hand the torch off to another opponent after a few more posts or so.

FOX has a pretty good system they have cooked up. 10 mil people watch the show on the network, FOX. Then 5 mil, different people, tune into FOX News to get outraged by it. I just hope that those good, God fearing people at FOX continue to battle those morally bankrupt people at FOX.
-- Lewis Black, The Daily Show

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Replies to this message:
 Message 12 by Adminnemooseus, posted 04-07-2005 7:09 PM Jazzns has not replied

  
Adminnemooseus
Administrator
Posts: 3974
Joined: 09-26-2002


Message 12 of 37 (197551)
04-07-2005 7:09 PM
Reply to: Message 11 by Jazzns
04-07-2005 6:38 PM


Adminnemooseus still says "No" to having a "Peanut Gallery" right now
In the context of , I think it is impossible to isolate the "Great Debate" from the "Peanut Gallery". Are we to expect that neither Jazzns or Faith will read the topic?
Coming from the evolution side, and more specificly having a geology degree, I've had to supress my urges to comment on some of Jazzns statements. But, in the context of a "GD", it is not for other members to do such, but for Faith to do such.
Painful as it may be, I still strongly feel that the "PG" needs to wait until the "GD" is closed. After it is closed, then we can start the "post mortum" examination. I would certainly find it interesting, to later have a "The evolution side picks on Jazzns 'Great Debate' statements" topic.
Adminnemooseus

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 Message 13 by Percy, posted 04-07-2005 7:27 PM Adminnemooseus has replied

  
Percy
Member
Posts: 22392
From: New Hampshire
Joined: 12-23-2000
Member Rating: 5.3


Message 13 of 37 (197553)
04-07-2005 7:27 PM
Reply to: Message 12 by Adminnemooseus
04-07-2005 7:09 PM


Re: Adminnemooseus still says "No" to having a "Peanut Gallery" right now
Adminnemooseus writes:
In the context of , I think it is impossible to isolate the "Great Debate" from the "Peanut Gallery". Are we to expect that neither Jazzns or Faith will read the topic?
Is there a downside to their reading a Peanut Gallery topic for their debate? I think of it like an audience viewing a live debate. The reactions of the audience are apparent to the debaters. Having to refrain from commenting seems stilted and unnatural, like pretending nothing's going on when something really is. Great Debates take place infrequently, and it feels like they should be a happening kind of thing of great excitement and interest.
I agree with Jazzns's comment that contributions here should be circumspect. This isn't a place for people to take free potshots. And as I said earlier, I don't think Jazzns or Faith should post to this thread as it would distract their attention from the Great Debate.
--Percy

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 Message 14 by Adminnemooseus, posted 04-07-2005 7:42 PM Percy has replied

  
Adminnemooseus
Administrator
Posts: 3974
Joined: 09-26-2002


Message 14 of 37 (197556)
04-07-2005 7:42 PM
Reply to: Message 13 by Percy
04-07-2005 7:27 PM


Re: Adminnemooseus still says "No" to having a "Peanut Gallery" right now
The reactions of the audience are apparent to the debaters.
While a "real world" debate might have an audience, that audiences responses to statements would be limited to such as cheers and groans. They would not be shouting debate content up to the podiums.
Input of content in the "Peanut Gallery" would still be defacto input of content into the "Great Debate".
Would a "Cheers and Groans" peanut gallery topic be a useful thing? I don't think so.
All that said, Faith seems to now wish the "Great Debate" be terminated. Perhaps the post mortum is soon to come anyway.
Adminnemooseus

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Percy
Member
Posts: 22392
From: New Hampshire
Joined: 12-23-2000
Member Rating: 5.3


Message 15 of 37 (197560)
04-07-2005 8:16 PM


Jazzns recently posted a couple replies to Faith (Message 104 and Message 105) that expressed uncertainty about how to answer. Understandng is often improved when things are explained in different ways, and I think I know what Faith is getting at.
In Faith's Message 105 in the first paragraph she provides her understanding of what Jazzns has been saying:
Faith writes:
Look, I have been talking about this for some time and you have been mostly addressing topics peripheral to it. Leave the Coconino for now and please address the formation of the other layers, as you and others have said that while they were formed as oceanic sea deposits there were also MANY risings and fallings of sea level and SOME of the layers had SOME length of time above water in which they were exposed to weather in an aerial environment, AND, if I got this right, that these periods out of water explain the erosion that IS seen between certain layers.
Just so there's no uncertainty, Faith is correct, in general that's what we believe the evidence indicates has happened.
Here's the first half of Faith's next paragraph:
Faith writes:
Please let's stick to this topic. This has to be established first. I've been guessing that those that were exposed to air after having been laid down as marine deposits would have been so exposed for AT LEAST a very conservative million years out of the 20 or 50 million given for the total formation of a given layer, and unless I missed it you haven't said one word about this guess. Was it a million or ten million and which layers were so exposed to the air?
I think Jazzns has answered this, but it doesn't hurt saying it again. In the absence of other evidence, it is impossible to say how much has been eroded away. A disconformity tells us that somewhere between a little and a whole bunch was eroded away. Determining exactly how much was eroded away by looking only at the disconformity would be like trying to tell the size of the original granite rock from which a statue was carved.
But there is evidence we can look at beyond the disconformity. The layers that were eroded away at the Grand Canyon because that region was pushed temporarily above the waves may not have been eroded away at some other location that wasn't pushed above sea level. The disconformity tells us that the bed of the ancient sea that used to exist at what is now the Grand Canyon was above sea level during some periods of time, but that doesn't mean all parts of that ancient sea were pushed above sea level at the same time. Some of the layers missing at the Grand Canyon site may still exist in other areas of the region, can we only find them.
Another more remote possibility for evidence is that the eroded layers may be redeposited elsewhere in a way that indicates their origin. For example, one way we know that the Appalachians used to be an enormous mountain range is because the products of erosion of these mountains are found in enormous amounts in adjacent regions.
But another possibility is that there may be no evidence to tell us how much was eroded away, and therefore nothing to tell us how long the region was exposed to the forces of weathering. All the disconformity tells us is that it happened. It doesn't tell us for how long it happened.
Faith writes:
What about the disconformities where it is believed that entire layers were eroded away? I've been mostly focused on this and have been claiming that during whatever time period it was, these layers would have been subjected to greater erosion than is present in any of them. This is what both my illustrations were designed to show. (As a matter of fact MANY things would have been different with such a scenario than what is actually observed but that's another subject).
I'm guessing that this is the part that most puzzled Jazzns about how to reply, but his replies indicate he believes Faith still misunderstands what effects weathering and erosion have on a landscape, and I think he's right.
I can't think of a better analogy than my earlier one of sandpaper. Sandpaper takes down the highest irregularities of wood first. In the same way, weathering affects to a greater degree the most exposed portions of a landscape, like mountains. The products of weathering are carried to the lowest points, like valleys. It would be as if the sawdust of sandpapering the highest points of rough wood became deposited firmly in the lower places in between. As Jazzns says, erosion tends to erode things flat, and deposition tends to pile things up flat.
There's another way in addition to erosion that mountains descend to the valleys. Anyone who lives in a hilly region has probably seen the occasional row of telephone poles climbing a grassy hillside. If the telephone poles have been there for a while then they're usually tilted downslope. That's because the topmost layers of earth are descending the mountain faster than the more compressed layers a few feet down. It's simple gravity. Gravity is the great leveler - everything seeks the lowest point. Any point that somehow builds up higher will gradually and eventually be dragged down level with the surrounding landscape through weathering and erosive processes.
But as Faith mentions, there *are* processes that can cut a landscape in irregular ways, and they're called rivers and streams. A river running across a landscape is like taking a saw to wood - it can make a deep cut, and unlike a saw, it can be very irregular. JonF has posted a number of images of rivers and canyons embedded in geological layers. Faith's deductions are correct, because the features she thinks should be found in geological layers *are* found in geological layers.
--Percy

  
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