Speleothems and the Young Earth

Have you ever been in a big, deep cave? I have vague memories of being in Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, which was given its name because it is mammothly huge, not because of the extinct elephant-like thing. Another famous system is Carlsbad Caverns down New Mexico way.

It gets mighty dark in deep caves, but light dispels darkness (John 1:5, 8:12). Good thing they provide lighting for tour groups, making it possible to see speleothems. That expensive word includes the common stalactites and stalagmites.

Doll's Theater at Carlsbad, National Park Service / Peter Jones
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Rain falls, goes through the soil, picks up carbon dioxide, then it becomes weak carbonic acid. This goes through the limestone, dissolving some calcium along the way. Upon reaching the cave, the carbon dioxide is free at last, and the calcium is deposited. This process is what causes stalactites (sticking tight and hanging down), stalagmites (the other ones), and some additional speleothems. Helictites seem confused because they grow every which way.

Uniformitarian geologists believe that the slow processes for speleothems takes a very long time. They are very slow today, except when they are not. F'rinstance, stalactites in a pub cellar, the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, and other interesting ways that defy deep-time dogmas. Let's take a look at how Carlsbad Caverns fits into creation science Genesis Flood geology, which answers questions secular scientists and Batman cannot handle.

Have you ever toured a cave? There is something especially intriguing about exploring the deep, dark underground and its mysterious animals and rock formations. Tour guides at Carlsbad Caverns and at caves around the world repeat the mantra that it takes a thousand years of slow drips to build just a centimeter of these formations, called speleothems. Two observations about speleothems show they can form much faster than that. These observations help explain why we would expect caves and their speleothems to have formed within the Bible’s timeline of only several thousand years.

To finish reading, click on "Carlsbad Caverns National Park: Fast Formations."