Ute Pass Fault: Sand Injectites and Rapid Deformation Fit the Flood (article)

Institute for Creation Research ^ | Nov. 2013 | John D. Morris, Ph.D.

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Ute Pass Fault: Sand Injectites and Rapid Deformation Fit the Flood

by John D. Morris, Ph.D. *

In last month’s edition of Acts & Facts, I mentioned studies that Dr. Steve Austin and I presented in a technical paper demonstrating that the deformations in sedimentary strata at two sites better fit with the biblical Flood than with evolution’s long ages of deposition.1 We featured the first project site, the Split Mountain Formation in southern California, in that issue. Now we will examine geological evidence from the second site, the Ute Pass Fault in Colorado.

Location and General Features

The Rocky Mountains of Colorado were formed by “large reverse” faults, with some having over 20,000 feet of vertical slip. A reverse fault generally places older rocks on top of or adjacent to younger rocks. The very abrupt Front Range is caused by the Ute Pass Fault, a prominent north-trending reverse fault more than 40 miles in length.2 On the western side of the fault are the upthrown Pikes Peak granite and associated Precambrian metamorphic rocks (pre-Flood rocks), showing all sedimentary strata (Flood rocks) removed by erosion. On the eastern side of the Ute Pass Fault are flat-lying strata thousands of feet thick that are typical of the plains in eastern Colorado.

A generalized cross-section of the Ute Pass Fault is shown in Figure 1. According to a 1965 field study conducted by Geologist J. C. Harms, the Ute Pass Fault dips steeply westward near the surface then becomes nearly vertical with increasing depth.3 About 12,000 feet of Phanerozoic strata (Flood rocks) underlie Colorado Springs, with Precambrian basement rocks (pre-Flood) occurring at an elevation of about 6,000 feet below sea level. Because the adjacent Precambrian basement rocks on the western side of the Ute Pass Fault occur up to 14,000 feet above sea level (i.e., Pike’s Peak), over 20,000 feet of vertical displacement occurred southwest of Colorado Springs!

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ICR article image.

[johnny reb]

http://archaeology.about.com/od/climatechange/a/masse_king_4.htm

[alexander_busek]

[...] I mentioned studies that Dr. Steve Austin and I presented in a technical paper demonstrating that the deformations in sedimentary strata at two sites better fit with the biblical Flood than with evolution’s long ages of deposition.

How about simply with "a" flood? (As in "one of many thousands which have taken place in the course of Earth's 4.5 billion years of existence?")

Regards,