Changes

[[Young earth creationists]] believe that most coal was formed during the [[Great Flood]] <ref>http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/read/the_record_buried_in_coal</ref>.

[[Young earth creationists]] believe that most coal was formed during the [[Great Flood]] <ref>http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/read/the_record_buried_in_coal</ref>.

Laboratory experiments show that coal can be formed in a matter of months, and with temperatures as low as 100 to 150 degrees Celsius for brown coal and 400 degrees Celsius for black coal.<ref>Quoted by Walker, Tas, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/328 Coal: memorial to the Flood] ''Creation'' 23(2):22–27, March 2001.</ref>

They make a number of arguments in support of this theory:

* The time required to turn plant material into coal is small enough that the biblical timescale is quite sufficient. The vast amounts of time suggested by uniformitarian geologists is not actually required.

* [[Polystrate fossils]] indicate that successive layers have formed quickly.

* There is often no evidence of the soil that the plant material grew in, suggesting that the plant material was washed into place.

Recent finds such as the world's largest fossil forest in the [[Illinois]] Herrin coal bed, a 6-foot-thick strip mined by a subsidiary of Peabody Coal, would seem to cast doubt on this theory, as two other actively mined Illinois coal seams, the Danville and the Springfield, which sit above and below the Herrin, respectively, appear to be separated by about a half-million years of geological time. <ref>http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/sciencemedicine/story/6E9003B041B59699862572C7000F4E02?OpenDocument</ref>

Recent finds such as the world's largest fossil forest in the [[Illinois]] Herrin coal bed, a 6-foot-thick strip mined by a subsidiary of Peabody Coal, would seem to cast doubt on this theory, as two other actively mined Illinois coal seams, the Danville and the Springfield, which sit above and below the Herrin, respectively, appear to be separated by about a half-million years of geological time. <ref>http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/sciencemedicine/story/6E9003B041B59699862572C7000F4E02?OpenDocument</ref>