Ancient Jigsaw Puzzle of Past Supercontinent Revealed

Scientific Computing ^ | Fri, 07/05/2013 - 3:28am | Royal Holloway, University of London

[null and void]

Colored polygons represent different geological units that have been mapped (and inferred) by geologists over many years. These geological units formed before the continents broke apart, so we can use their position to put the "jigsaw pieces" back together again. Many other reconstructions do not use the geological boundaries to match the continental "jigsaw pieces" back together - so they don't align properly. Courtesy of University of Royal Holloway London

A new study published in the journal Gondwana Research, has revealed the past position of the Australian, Antarctic and Indian tectonic plates, demonstrating how they formed the supercontinent Gondwana 165 million years ago.

Researchers from Royal Holloway University, The Australian National University and Geoscience Australia, have helped clear up previous uncertainties on how the plates evolved and where they should be positioned when drawing up a picture of the past.

Dr Lloyd White from the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway University said: "The Earth's tectonic plates move around through time. As these movements occur over many millions of years, it has previously been difficult to produce accurate maps of where the continents were in the past.

"We used a computer program to move geological maps of Australia, India and Antarctica back through time and built a 'jigsaw puzzle' of the supercontinent Gondwana. During the process, we found that many existing studies had positioned the plates in the wrong place because the geological units did not align on each plate."

The researchers adopted an old technique used by people who discovered the theories of continental drift and plate tectonics, but which had largely been ignored by many modern scientists.

"It was a simple technique, matching the geological boundaries on each plate. The geological units formed before the continents broke apart, so we used their position to put this ancient jigsaw puzzle back together again," Dr White added.

"It is important that we know where the plates existed many millions of years ago, and how they broke apart, as the regions where plates break are often where we find major oil and gas deposits, such as those that are found along Australia's southern margin."

[ApplegateRanch]

The Fall of the House of Usher:

“In the Beginning, God created the Heavens and the earth.” Gen 1:1

Then lots of things we don’t need to know about happened for unknown millions/billions of years.

Then Satan rebelled, and God wiped her clean: “And the earth was (became) without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Gen 1:2

Then the Six Days of Creation (of this world-age/Heaven-Age) began, cf Second Peter 3:4-6

[WVKayaker]

If you've ever watched documentaries like "One Million Years B.C." you would see that when the earthquakes occurred, the dinosaurs always fell into the resultant cracks.

[null and void]

That makes sense.

I'd also submit that a "day" of creation isn't necessarily a 24 hour period, although back in the day we all thought it was.

I further note that the description of every "day" ends with "And the evening and the morning were the [n^th] day"

Every day except one of them.

[ApplegateRanch]

“But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” 2 Peter 3:8

“For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.” Psalms 90:4

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At some point every culture has a number large enough that they just throw up their hands and count it as a rilly rilly big amount.

Well, maybe not every one of them, but zillions of cultures do...

[coconutt2000]

"the regions where plates break are often where we find major oil and gas deposits"

An argument for abiotic oil.