Do Millions of Laminae in the Green River Shales Document
Millions of Years? by John D. Morris, Ph.D. The Green River oil
shales have provided one of the very strongest arguments for
millions of years, or at least one of the most used. Take a
specimen of the shale and slice it open perpendicular to the
normal bedding, so that you look at the rock's internal
characteristics from the side. You will see a multitude of tiny
laminations, like pages in a book, but alternating light and
dark. Each pair is called a varve usually interpreted as
representing a yearly cycle of deposition, with the darker,
coarser layer the summer deposit, and the lighter, finer layer
from the winter. In the Green River shale deposits up to 6
million varves are found. Does this prove 6 million years?
Actually, in no location do all the varves exist. The total is
derived by correlating sequences from several locations,
arranging the partial records in consecutive order. Obviously,
conclusions are subjective. The real question is, does eac