If I understand though so far, it sounds like you have a hypothesis of how the 'reefs' were formed, and it involves long time periods,
I'll bet that is what JM has in mind, too. Why don't you go to Guadelupe Mountains National Park, out west of Carlsbad Caverns, on your next vacation. Look at El Capitan for a while, and hike around on it. Take Walt with you, if you wish. Then propose a way to get a 1600-foot thick reef of shallow-water organisms that require clean water to grow in a year. Or a thousand years. And come back here and tell us about it.
And don't forget the Delaware Basin, just south of there. It has 7000+ feet of millimeter-thick layers, alternately windblown sand and organic-rich shale. Give us a catastrophic theory for that, too.
[This message has been edited by Coragyps, 02-09-2004]