Polystrate fossil

An upright tree preserved in the cliffs at Joggins, Nova Scotia, Canada (printed 1868).

Polystrate or upright fossil describes fossils of single organisms (such as tree trunks) that run through several geological strata. Entire "fossil forests" have been discovered. They are found all over the world— they are very common in the Eastern United States, Eastern Canada, England, France, Germany, and Australia — but especially in areas where coal seams are present. Within Carboniferous coal-bearing strata, it is also very common to find what are called Stigmaria (root stocks) in this same stratum, some of which can be traced directly to standing trees.

Geologists' Position

In geology, such fossils are referred to as upright fossil, trunks or trees. Geologists explain their formation as being caused by episodes of rapid sedimentation within either an actively subsiding coastal plain or rift basin or by the rapid accumulation of volcanic material on the flanks and around the bases of stratovolcanoes as the result of periodic eruptions. Geologists have long accepted that a layer or set of layers containing polystrate fossils was created by a brief period of rapid sedimentation. Typically, this period of rapid sedimentation was followed by a period of time, decades to thousands of years long, characterized by very slow or no accumulation of sediments. In river deltas and other coastal plain settings, rapid sedimentation is often the end result of a brief period of accelerated subsidence of an area of coastal plain relative to sea level caused by salt tectonics, global sea level rise, growth faulting, continental margin collapse, or some combination of these factors (Gastaldo et al. 2004). For example, geologists such as Dr. John W. F. Waldron and Dr. Michael C. Rygel have argued that the rapid burial and preservation of polystrate fossil trees found at Joggins, Nova Scotia was the direct result of rapid subsidence, caused by salt tectonics within an already subsiding pull-apart basin,^[1] and resulting rapid accumulation of sediments (Waldron and Rygel 2005).^[2] In case of the polystrate trees of the Yellowstone petrified forest, which occur buried within the lahar and other volcanic deposits comprising the Lamar River Formation, the periods of rapid sedimentation are regarded by them to be the result of explosive volcanism. This type of volcanism generates and deposits large quantities of loose volcanic material as a blanket over the slope of a volcano as happened during the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo. Both during and for years after a period of volcanism occurs, lahars and normal stream activity wash this loose volcanic material downslope. These processes result in the rapid burial of large areas of the surrounding countryside beneath several meters of sediment as directly observed during the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo (Newhall and Punongbayan 1996).

Geologists have recognized innumerable fossil soils, called "paleosols", throughout the strata containing polystrate fossils at Joggins, Nova Scotia, Yellowstone petrified forests, coal mines of the Black Warrior Basin of Alabama, and many other locations. The layer immediately underlying coal seams, often called "seatearth", typically either consists of or contains a paleosol. Paleosols are soils which were formed by subaerial weathering during periods of very slow or no accumulation of sediments. Later, renewed sedimentation buried these soils to create paleosols. These paleosols are identified on the basis of the presence of structures and microstructures unique to soils; animal burrows and molds of plant roots of various sizes and types; recognizable soil profile development; and alteration of minerals by soil processes. In many cases, these paleosols are virtually identical to modern soils.

In sharp contrast to creationists i.e. Dr. Harold Coffin and Dr. N. A. Rupke, geologists, who have studied polystrate fossils found in sedimentary rocks exposed in various outcrops for the last 30 years, have described polystrate fossil trees as being deeply rooted in place and typically rooted in recognizable paleosols. Geologists, i.e. Falcon (2003a, 2003b, 2005, 2006a, 2006b) and Rygel et al. (2004), have published detailed field sketches and pictures of polystrate tree fossils with intact root systems, which are rooted within recognizable paleosols. In case of polystrate fossil trees of the Yellowstone petrified forests, geologists, again in sharp disagreement with creationists, i.e. Dr. Harold Coffin, found that the polystrate fossil trees, except for relatively short stumps, are rooted in place within the underlying sediments. Typically, the sediments within which polystrate trees are rooted have paleosols developed within them (Amidon 1997; Retallack 1981, 1997)). Either pictures or diagrams of the Yellowstone polystrate fossil trees having intact root systems developed within paleosols found within these strata have been published in Retallack (1981, 1997). ^[3]

Geologists have also found that some of the larger polystrate trees found within Carboniferous coal-bearing strata show evidence of regeneration after being partially buried by sediments. In the case of these polystrate trees, they were clearly alive when partially buried by sediments. Because of their size, the sediment, which accumulated around them, was insufficient to kill the trees. As a result, they developed a new set of roots from their trunks just below the new ground surface and grew higher to compensate for the part of the trunk buried by sediment (Gastaldo et al. 2004). Until they either died or were overwhelmed by the accumulating sediments, these polystrate would likely continue to regenerate by adding height and new roots with each increment of sediment, eventually leaving several of meters of former "trunk" buried underground as sediments accumulated

Geologists find nothing anomalous about polystrate trees found in Carboniferous coal-bearing strata being associated with marine or brackish water fossils. Because they lived on subsiding coastal plains or pull-apart basins open to the coast, it was quite frequent for subsidence to periodically outpace the accumulation of sediments such that adjacent shallow marine waters would periodically inundate coastal plains in which the polsytrate trees were buried. As a result, sediments, containing marine fossils, would periodically accumulate within these areas before being replaced by coastal swamps as sediments either filled in the shallow sea or sea level fell. Also, according to ecological reconstructions by geologists, specific assemblages of the types of trees found as polystrate fossils occupied brackish water, even saline coastal swamps much like modern mangrove swamps. Thus, finding marine and brackish water fossils associated with these polystrate trees is no different than finding brackish water or marine animals living in modern mangrove swamps (Falcon 2005, 2006).

A detailed study of the microstructure of fossils, which have been traditionally identified as “Spirorbis” in the geological literature, by Taylor and Vin (2006) revealed that they consist of the remains of at least two completely different animals. They discovered that the “Spirorbis” fossils found in sedimentary strata, including the Joggins and other Carboniferous coal measures, deposited from the Ordovician to Triassic periods are the remains of an extinct order of lophophorates totally unrelated to modern marine tube worms (Annelids) to which the genera Spirorbis belong. Thus, the arguments by Dr. Harold Coffin and other creationists that the presence of "Spirorbis" fossils within strata containing polystrate fossils indicate their deposition in a marine environment are invalid because these fossils are actually the remains of extinct fresh and brackish water lophophorates instead of the remains of the marine genera Spirorbis as they have been misidentified in the geologic literature.

Thus, according to scientists, polystrate fossils are just fossils which were buried in a relatively short time span either by one large depositional event or by several smaller ones. Geologists see no need to invoke a global flood to explain upright fossils.

This position of geologists is supported by numerous examples, which have been found at numerous locations, of polystrate, upright, trees completely buried within either late Holocene or historic sediments. These polystrate trees demonstrate that conventional geologic processes are capable of burying and preserving trees in an upright position such that in time, they will become fossilized.

At this time, the best documented occurrences of unfossilized polystrate trees are found within historic and late Holocene volcanic deposits of Mount St. Helens, Skamania County, Washington, and Mount Pinatubo, Philippines. At Mount St. Helens, both unfossilized and partially fossilized polystrate trees were observed in many outcrops of volcanic debris and mud flows (lahars) and pyroclastic flow deposits, which date from 1885 to over 30,000 BP., along the South Toutle and other rivers. Late Holocene forests of polystrate trees have also been observed as occurring within the volcanic deposits of other Cascade Range volcanoes(Karowe1987, Yamaguchi1995). In a few years after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991, the erosion of loose pyroclastic deposits covering its slopes created a series of volcanic lahars, which ultimately buried large parts of the countryside along major streams draining these slopes beneath several meters of volcanic sediments. The repeated deposition of sediments by volcanic lahars and sediment filled rivers not only created innumerable polystrate trees, but also “polystrate” telephone poles, churches, and houses, over a period a few years (Newhall and Punongbayan 1996).

Within excavations for Interstate Highway 10, borrow pits, landfills, and archaeological surveys, unfossilized polystrate trees have also been found buried within late Holocene, even historic, fluvial and deltaic sediments underlying the surface of the Mississippi River Delta and the Atchafalaya Basin of Louisiana. In one case, borrow pits dug in the natural levees of Bayou Teche near Patterson, Louisiana, have exposed completely buried, 4 to 6-foot (1.2 to 1.8 meters) high, upright trunks of cypress trees. Northeast of Donaldsonville, Louisiana, a borrow pit excavated for fill used to maintain nearby artificial levees, exposed three levels of rooted upright tree trunks stacked on top of each other lying completely buried beneath the surface of Point Houmas, a patch of floodplain lying within a meander loop of the current course of the Mississippi River (Heinrich 2002, 2005). While searching for buried archaeological sites, archaeologists excavated a 12 ft (3.6 meter) high upright rooted cypress tree completely buried within a natural levee of the Atchafalaya River within the Indian Bayou Wildlife Management Area just south of Krotz Springs, Louisiana. Radiocarbon dates and historic documents collected for this archaeological survey, during which this and other polystrate trees were found, of the Indian Bayou Wildlife Management demonstrated that these polystrate trees were buried sometime during the 1800s (Godzinski 2005).

Unfossilized, late Pleistocene polystrate trees have been found buried beneath glacial deposits within North America along the southern edge of the Laurentide ice sheet. These polystrate forests were created when the southern edge of the Laurentide ice sheet locally dammed valleys. As a result, meltwater lakes filled these valleys and submerged forests within them. Sediments released by the melting of the adjacent ice sheet rapidly filled these lakes with sediments, which quickly buried and preserved the submerged forests lying within them. One forest of in situ, 24,000 year-old unfossilized polystrate trees was exposed by excavations for a quarry near Charleston, Illinois (Hansel et al. 1999). Excavations for a tailings pond about Marquette, Michigan, exposed an in situ forest of unfossilized polystrate trees, which are about 10,000 years old, buried in glacial lake and stream sediments (Pregitzer et al. 2000).^[4]

Citations for Geologists' Position

• Amidon, L., 1997, Paleoclimate Study of Eocene Fossil Woods and Associated Paleosols from the Gallatin Petrified Forest, Gallatin National Forest, SW Montana. unpublished Master's thesis, University of Montana.
• Falcon-Lang, H.J., 2003a, Late Carboniferous dryland tropical vegetation, Joggins, Nova Scotia, Canada, Palaios 18:197– 211.
• Falcon-Lang, H.J., 2003b, Early Mississippian lycopsid forests in a delta-plain setting at Norton, near Sussex, New Brunswick, Canada, Journal of the Geological Society, London 161:969–981.
• Falcon-Lang, H.J., 2005, Small cordaitalean trees in a marine-influenced coastal habitat in the Pennsylvanian Joggins Formation, Nova Scotia, Journal of the Geological Society 162(3): 485-500.
• Falcon-Lang, H.J., 2006, Latest Mid-Pennsylvanian tree-fern forests in retrograding coastal plain deposits, Sydney Mines Formation, Nova Scotia, Canada, Journal of the Geological Society 163(1): 81-93.
• Falcon-Lang, H.J., 2006, Vegetation ecology of Early Pennsylvanian alluvial fan and piedmont environments in southern New Brunswick, Canada, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 233(1-2): 34-50.
• Gastaldo, R.A., I. Stevanovic-Walls, and W.N. Ware, 2004, Erect forests are evidence for coseismic base-level changes in Pennsylvanian cyclothems of the Black Warrior Basin, U.S.A in Pashin, J.C., and Gastaldo, R.A., eds., Sequence Stratigraphy, Paleoclimate, and Tectonics of Coal-Bearing Strata. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Studies in Geology. 51:219–238.
• Godzinski, M., R. Smith, B. Maygarden, E. Landrum, J. Lorenzo, J.-K, Yakubik, and M.E. Weed, 2005, Cultural Resources Investigations of Public Access Lands in the Atchafalaya Basin Floodway, Indian Bayou South Project Area, St. Landry and St. Martin Parishes, Louisiana. Report submitted by Earth Search, Inc., New Orleans to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under contract number DACW29-02-D-0005, Delivery Order 05^[5]
• Hansel, A.K., R.C. Berg, A.C. Phillips, and V. Gutowski, 1999, Glacial Sediments, Landforms, Paleosols, and a 20,000-Year-Old Forest Bed in East-Central Illinois, Guidebook 26. Illinois State Geological Survey.
• Heinrich, P.V., 2002, Buried forest provide clues to the past, Louisiana Geological Survey News 12(2):1
• Heinrich, P.V., 2005, Significance of buried forests exposed in the Lemannville cutoff road pit, St. James Parish, Louisiana, Louisiana Geological Survey NewsInsights 15(2):8-9.
• Karowe, A.L. and T.H. Jefferson, 1987, Burial of trees by eruptions of Mount St. Helens, Washington: Implications for the interpretation of fossil forests, Geological Magazine 124(3):191-204.
• Newhall, C.G., and R.S. Punongbayan, 1996, Fire and Mud: Eruptions and Lahars of Mount Pinatubo, Philippines, University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-97585-7
• Pregitzer, K.S., D.D. Reed, T.J., Bornhorst, D.R. Foster, G.D. Mroz, J.S. Mclachlan, P.E. Laks, D.D. Stokke, P.E. Martin, and S.E. Brown, 2000, A buried spruce forest provides evidence at the stand and landscape scale for the effects of environment on vegetation at the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary". Journal Of Ecology 88(1):45-53
• Retallack, G.J., 1981, Reinterpretation of the depositional environment of Yellowstone fossil forest: Comment, Geology 9:52-53.
• Retallack, G.J., 1997, A Colour Guide to Paleosols. John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 0-471-96711-4
• Rygel, M.C., M.R. Gibling, and J.H. Calder, 2004, Vegetation-induced sedimentary structures from fossil forests in the Pennsylvanian Joggins Formation, Nova Scotia, Sedimentology 51:531– 552.
• Taylor, P.D. and O. Vinn, 2006, Convergent morphology in small spiral worm tubes ('Spirorbis') and its palaeoenvironmental implications. Journal of the Geological Society, London 163:225–228.
• Waldron, J.W.F., and M.C. Rygel, 2005, Role of evaporite withdrawal in the preservation of a unique coal-bearing succession: Pennsylvanian Joggins Formation, Nova Scotia, Geology 33(5):37-340.
• Yamaguchi, D.K., and R.P. Hoblitt, 1995, Tree-ring dating of pre-1980 volcanic flowage deposits at Mount St. Helens, Washington, Geological Society of America Bulletin 107(9):1077-1093.

Notes for Geologists' Position

^ 1. Pull-apart basins, also called strike-slip basins, are regional topographic depressions created by lateral movement at a bend or discontinuity within in strike slip fault.

^ 2. For popular articles on their findings go read (1.) Sedimentology: Fossil forests sunk by salt by Sara Pratt, July 2005 Geotimes and (2.) Geologists probe mystery behind Nova Scotia’s fossil forests by Scott Lingley, ExpressNews,December 20, 2005

^ 3. Geologists, at this time, agree with Dr. Harold Coffin that his "organic levels" are not paleosols. The layers, which geologists currently recognize as being paleosols, are discussed by neither Dr. Harold Coffin nor other creationists in their papers about the Yellowstone petrified forests. Geologists, i.e. Amidon (1997), have documented the presence of structures, microstructures, profile development, and mineralogical alteration either characteristic or of consistent with a buried soil profile within numerous thin layers, which are identified as paleosols, found within the strata containing Yellowstone petrified forests.

^ 4. Illustrated articles about unfossilized polystrate trees found within glacial deposits of North America are (1.) How Do We Know?:Buried Forests; (2.) Researchers Study 10,000-Year-Old Buried Forest; and (3.) Glacial Lake Chippewa and Stanley.

^ 5. Godzinski (2005) is on file with and can be consulted at the Louisiana Division of Archaeology in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Creationist Position

The position of creationists is that rock strata were laid down in rapid succession, rather than millions of years apart. They believe this for various reasons, one of which is the occurrence of polystrate fossil trees. Creationists use this as evidence against strict Uniformitarianism (which they frequently use as a caricature of geology) and the geologic timescale. The settling of billions of tons of material during the Biblical flood described in Genesis is often presented as an explanation for polystrate fossils.

One of the main reasons for this conclusion is the absence of any visible sign of roots in the majority of these upright trees, and the trees that do possess roots are almost always truncated. It is also a fact that the stigmaria roots are very commonly missing rootlets: which is also how they got their name. In fact, the stigmaria roots themselves are also quite commonly fragmentated. In addition, most of the rootlets found in this strata are buried individually, (i.e. apart from being attached to larger roots or trees).

Also in this regard, it has been claimed that only 1 out of 50 such fossil trees possesses both roots and rootlets. This strongly suggests that the trees have been uprooted prior to their burial in this strata. For these and various other reasons creationists argue that virtually none of the upright trees that are buried in the coal strata are in situ.

Note also that Guy Berthault has conducted much research on how spontaneous sorting of layers takes place during floods. Some of his research can be found at the Link below on the Answers in Genesis website.

Note also that the 1 out of 50 actually comes from Part One of The Fossil Forests of Nova Scotia, by R. Berg. See the section on Extensive Root Systems Or Roots Extensively Missing?

Citations for Creationist Position

• Rupke, N.A., "A Study of Cataclysmic Sedimentation," Creation Research Soc. Quarterly., Vol. 3, 1966, pp. 21-23.
• Bolsche, W., 1918, Im Steinkohlenwald, Stuttgart, Franckh’sche Verlagshandlung, 16th impr. pp. 34-35.
• Nelson, B.C., (1931), The Deluge Story in Stone, Minneapolis, Augsburg, 1962, 16th impr. p. 111.
• Helder, Margaret, Ph.D., "At Joggins: Look What The Sea Uncovered", Creation Science Dialogue, Vol. 19, No.3, 10/92; pp. 4-5.
• Coffin, Harold, Origin by Design, 1983, Review and Herald Publ. Assn., Hagerstown, MD 21740, pp. 117-133.
• Berg, Randy, S. Appendix A. of the "'Fossil Forests' of Nova Scotia", see below for Link to online article. Note: Appendix A is a bed by bed analysis of the fossil trees, roots, rootlets, and the types of strata in Coal Groups 1-12 of the Joggins area. It is based on the very detailed writings of Dawson and Logan.
• Nöggerath, Jakob: Ueber aufrecht im Gebirgsgestein eingeschlossene fossile Baumstämme und andere Vegetabilien. Bonn: Weber, 1819, 65 pp.
• Scheven, Joachim, 1986, Karbon-studien: Neues Licht auf das Alter der Erde; Hänssler Verlag, 94 pp.
• Rupke, N.A., Creation Research Society Quarterly, Vol. 3, 1966, p. 25.
• Guy Berthault has also conducted numerous experiments in spontaneous sorting of sediments and rapid deposition of strata. One of his papers can be found at:

http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/magazines/tj/docs/v11n1_sedexp_reply.asp. .

• Fauth, Ph. 1913, Hörbigers Glacial-Kosmoganie. Eine Neue Entwickelungs - geschichte des Weltalls und des Sonnensystems, Kaiserslautern, Kayser, p. 445.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/Home/Area/Magazines/docs/cen_v18n1_forests.asp

• Austin, Steve, 1986, "Mount St. Helens and Catastrophism," ICR Impact Article 175.
• Morris, John D., The Young Earth, 1994, p. 103.
• Coffin, Harold G., 1968, "A Paleoecological Misinterpretation". Note that this is only a summary of Coffins article that was published in Creation Res. Soc. Quart., Vol. 5, pp. 85-87. See also "The Spirorbis Problem" -- also by Coffin.
• Binney, E. W., 1844, The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Phil. Mag., Vol. XXIV, p. 173. See also Binney, E. W., 1848, "On the Origin of Coal," Mem. Literary and Philosophical. Soc. of Manchester; AKA: Mem. of the Manch. Lit. and Phil. Soc.; Vol. VIII, pp. 148-193.
• Wieland, Carl, "Forests that grew on water", Creation, Vol. 18, No.1, December 1995-February 96, pp. 20-24. This article is also online.
• Kunze, Otto, 1884, Die vorweltliche Entwicklung der Erdkruste und der Pflanzen. Phytogeogenesis.
• Lesquereux, Leo, 1880, "Description of the Coal Flora of the Carboniferous Formation in Pennsylvania and Throughout the United States," Vol. 1, pp. 510-513.

Numerous additional references could also be added from the works of Coffin, Rupke, Helder, Scheven, Austin, Morris and various other authors listed above. For more information on why these links were chosen, refer to the Creationist Links provided below.

External links

Geological

• talkorigins index to creationist claims
• various information about upright fossils
• detailed article about fossil trees
• discusses the importance of paleosols
• a virtual field trip to Joggins, Nova Scotia
• formation of polystrate trees
• Alluvial Sedimentology And Basin Analysis Of Carboniferous Strata Near Joggins, Nova Scotia

Creationist

• What are polystrate fossils? Institute for Creation Research
• icr.org: Discussion of various reasons why polystrate fossils are likely not "in situ" (i.e. in growth position) burials, but rather rapid, catastrophic ones.
• grisda.org: Recent Article on the "Forests" of Yellowstone
• earthage.org: The "Fossil Forests" of Nova Scotia: A Review of the Literature, and The "Fossil Forests" of Nova Scotia Part Two. Note also that Part Two discusses one of the (approx.) 2% of fossil trees that are found with their roots and rootlets still attached. The author believes it was not in situ because its interior was filled with different sediments than those that surrounded it, and because other trees in that same section were said to be buried obliquely to the horizontal bedding.
• An Appendix also looks at the so-called underclays of Coal Groups 1-12 of the Joggins Strata.
• earthage.org Upright Trees in Coal