[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

It might be if we actually knew how much plant life had been on the planet up until that point, but we dont’, so it is pure speculation.

It had been accepted by scientists that the great gorges of the American West were created by rivers cutting their way through the strata for millennia. But now there is strong evidence that at least some of those gorges were cut almost instantly by massive flash floods when glaciers holding back seas of water broke. All this to say, when you are standing at your place on the railroad tracks and looking down the tracks, it is very difficult to estimate distance, the closeness of objects, the densities and clusters of objects. I find it highly improbably that so much plant life would have died and decomposed in such vast quantities and all in the perfect conditions for decomposition (all around the globe) that would so uniformly result in so much of the sludge that we so cherish.

[headsonpikes]

“But now there is strong evidence that at least some of those gorges were cut almost instantly by massive flash floods when glaciers holding back seas of water broke.”

You betcha. I’ve always been impressed by this place close by H’way 97:

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/chasm.html

Check out the photo gallery!