Inverted valleys formed from lava "rivers" and ancient stream beds are one of many unusual geological phenomena found in Utah. The rocks speak in Utah and they speak very clearly because they readily reveal so many clues about their origins since they are so visible to us. Some of the most powerful testimonies of... Continue Reading →
How does a hill get a flat top? The picture below is a Google Maps satellite image of St. George Utah. To the left you can see an airport. This airport is on top of a long hill whose top is well over 100 feet above the city below. The airport was built here because... Continue Reading →
Everything has an origin.* Some stories of origins are relatively simple (eg. Niagara Falls) while others are much more complex (eg. the Grand Canyon). The study of origins is the study and reconstruction of past events. We have eyewitness accounts of some events from the past but mostly we use circumstantial evidence left behind as... Continue Reading →
We all learned from an early age that earthworms are God's good gift to gardeners. They rework the soil and help to degrade leaf litter thus helping to make nutrients and water available to plant roots. Our appreciation of earthworms can be traced back to Charles Darwin who spent more than 40 years... Continue Reading →
There is a strange circular scar on the earth found amongst the meandering incised canyons of southeastern Utah. Called upheaval dome because it was originally thought to be the result of the slowing rising of a massive salt dome from below, this highly eroded structure has long been an oddity among the many spectacular sandstone... Continue Reading →
What museum can you go to where you can see real dinosaur bones, you don't pay any fees, you can touch all the exhibits and there are no security cameras watching your every move (at least I don't think there are:-)? The answer is The Mill Canyon Dinosaur Trail near Moab, Utah. This outdoor "museum"... Continue Reading →
Southeastern Utah has an astounding amount of sedimentary rock on full display. Between our stays in Silverton Colorado and Moab Utah we made a trek through this area. One day hardly does this area justice but what we were able to see was amazing. The sedimentary layers are best seen in the gorge of the... Continue Reading →
Image you are living in 200 BC in the Middle East region and you come by the skull to the right as you plow your field or when you explore the local cave complex. What if you are wandering the desert in Egypt and happen upon the bones in the second figure. Or what about... Continue Reading →
In 2013 a remarkable DNA sequence was revealed by geneticists studying ancient DNA. It was the nearly complete genome extracted and decoded from the remains of a tooth from a horse preserved in permafrost sediments buried in the Yukon region in Alaska. This partially fossilized bone was estimated to be more than 500,000 years old. ... Continue Reading →
Yep, dinosaurs are known by more than just their bones. I have been reading quite a few research papers about dinosaurs as I prepare to write a long set of posts about Dr. Schweitzer and the significance of soft-tissue preservation in dinosaur bones. During this reading I got distracted by a discussion about dinosaur coprolites... Continue Reading →
Around Moab UT you can run down sand dunes and you can hike on rocks that were sand dunes in the past. You can take a face-plant on one, as my son did, and not get hurt but you better be very careful not to fall on the other. I recently spent a... Continue Reading →
Evaluating the state of creationism in the evangelical church today is a difficult task. Gallop polls suggest little changes among Americans regarding their views of origins but the generic nature of the questions make these results challenging to interpret. I have looked at web site traffic, publication records and other metrics of the reach... Continue Reading →
Dr. Jason Lisle of the Institute of Creation Research (ICR) gave a seminar entitled “Astronomy Reveals Creation” at this year’s PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) General Assembly. Some billed this as the young-earth follow-up to a seminar given at previous year's PCA assembly by Dr. Greg Davidson who presented evidence supportive of an ancient earth.... Continue Reading →
I’m sitting in the Boston Airport on my way to a conference at Gordon College but I have enough time for a natural history note while I wait for a colleague to arrive. On my flight from Ohio I read the last chapter of the Peter Harrison’s “The Fall of Man and the Foundations of... Continue Reading →
Family vacation with the Duffs always includes some geological sights. In 2007 we visited Prince Edward Island and had a wonderful time but the there just wasn't enough geology there to satisfy my curiosity so I took us on a 2 hour detour in Nova Scotia. After a lot of "are we there yets" and... Continue Reading →
Naturalis Historia 