Earth’s Evidence & Geologic Clues
What is a stratum?
A single horizontal layer of rock.
What is continental drift?
The idea that continents were once joined and gradually moved apart over time.
What does the Nebular Hypothesis say the solar system formed from?
A collapsing cloud of gas and dust (nebula).
According to young-earth geology, what major event formed most sedimentary rock layers?
The global Flood.
What is an Ice Age?
A period when global temperatures dropped and glaciers expanded over large areas.
What is the geologic column and how do scientists create it?
It is a compiled sequence of rock layers gathered from many places to model Earth’s history.
What key discovery during WWII helped confirm plate tectonics?
Magnetic striping and mid-ocean ridges on the sea floor showing patterns of sea-floor spreading.
In the Nebular Hypothesis, what formed first — the Sun or the planets?
The Sun formed first at the center of the collapsing disk.
Why do creationists believe fossils formed rapidly?
Many fossils show sudden burial, such as soft tissue or food in their mouths.
According to secular scientists, what causes Ice Ages?
Slow changes in Earth’s orbit, tilt, and greenhouse gas levels.
Why is the geologic column considered incomplete in real life?
No single location on Earth shows every layer stacked together.
Describe subduction in your own words.
It is when one tectonic plate slides beneath another.
What is one challenge or problem with the Nebular Hypothesis?
The nebula may not provide enough gravity alone to form stars and planets.
In Taz Walker’s model, why do pre-Flood rocks contain no fossils?
They formed during Creation Week before any death existed.
According to young-earth scientists, why were oceans warm right after the Flood?
Intense underwater volcanic activity heated ocean water.
Why do secular and creationist scientists reach different conclusions even when studying the same rock layers?
They begin with different starting assumptions or worldviews, which affects interpretation.
How does sea-floor spreading form new ocean crust?
Magma rises at mid-ocean ridges, cools, and pushes older crust outward.
How does the presence of certain exoplanets challenge the Nebular Hypothesis?
Some exoplanets have unexpected orbits and compositions that do not fit the model’s predictions.
What is runaway subduction in catastrophic plate tectonics?
Rapid ocean-plate sinking that caused extreme plate movement during the Flood.
Why would warm oceans and cooler land lead to an Ice Age in the young-earth model?
Warm oceans create massive evaporation → snowfall; cooler land allows snow to build into glaciers.
Explain how radiometric dating is used to determine the age of a rock.
Scientists measure the ratio of parent isotopes to daughter isotopes and calculate age based on known decay rates (half-lives).
Compare the old-earth plate tectonic model with the catastrophic plate tectonic (young-earth) model.
The old-earth model proposes slow movement over millions of years; catastrophic plate tectonics proposes rapid plate movement during the Genesis Flood.
Explain how the Young-Earth creation model describes the origin of the Sun, Moon, and stars.
God created them supernaturally on Day 4 of Creation, not through natural processes.
How does the young-earth model explain the order of fossils in the geologic column?
Simpler organisms were buried earlier by rising Flood waters, while more complex organisms escaped longer and were buried later.
Explain how the discovery of frozen mammoths supports a rapid-change Ice Age model.
Their preserved organs and food in mouths show sudden freezing, suggesting fast climate shifts.