Shallow Meteorites

Meteorites are steadily falling onto Earth. This rate was probably
much greater in the past, because planets have swept from the solar
system much of the original meteoritic material. Therefore, experts
have expressed surprise that meteorites are almost always found in
young sediments, very near Earth's surface (a). Even meteoritic
particles in ocean sediments are concentrated in the topmost layers
(b). If Earth's sediments, which average about a mile in thickness on
the continents, were deposited over hundreds of millions of years, as
evolutionists believe, we would expect to find many deeply buried iron
meteorites. Because this is not the case, the sediments were probably
deposited rapidly, followed by "geologically recent" meteorite
impacts. Also, because no meteorites are found immediately above the
basement rocks on which these sediments rest, these basement rocks
were not exposed to meteoritic bombardment for any great length of
time.

Similar observations can be made concerning ancient rock slides. Rock
slides are frequently found on Earth's surface, but are generally
absent from supposedly old rock (c).

a. Fritz Heide, Meteorites (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1964), p. 119.

Peter A. Steveson, "Meteoritic Evidence for a Young Earth," Creation
Research Society Quarterly, Vol. 12, June 1975, pp. 23-25.

"... neither tektites nor other meteorites have been found in any of
the ancient geologic formations ..." Ralph Stair, "Tektites and the
Lost Planet," The Scientific Monthly, July 1956, p. 11.

"No meteorites have ever been found in the geologic column." William
Henry Twenhofel, Principles of Sedimentation, 2nd edition (New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1950), p. 144.

"... the astronomer Olbers had noticed: that there are no 'fossil'
meteorites known, from any period older than the middle of the
Quaternary. The quantity of coal mined during the last century
amounted to many billions of tons, and with it about a thousand
meteorites should have been dug out, if during the time the coal
deposits were formed the meteorite frequency had been the same as it
is today. Equally complete is the absence of meteorites in any other
geologically old material that has been excavated in the course of
technical operations." F. A. Paneth, "The Frequency of Meteorite Falls
throughout the Ages," Vistas in Astronomy, Vol. 2, editor Arthur Beer
(New York: Pergamon Press, 1956), p. 1681.

"I have interviewed the late Dr. G. P. Merrill, of the U.S. National
Museum, and Dr. G. T. Prior, of the British Natural History Museum,
both well-known students of meteorites, and neither man knew of a
single occurrence of a meteorite in sedimentary rocks." W. A. Tarr,
"Meteorites in Sedimentary Rocks?" Science, Vol. 75, 1 January 1932,
pp. 17-18.

"No meteorites have been found in the geological column." Stansfield,
p. 81.

"In view of the connection of comets, meteors, and meteorites, the
absence of meteorites in old deposits in the crust of the earth is
very significant. It has been estimated that at least 500 meteorites
should have been found in already worked coal seams, whereas none has
been identified in strata older than the Quaternary epoch (about 1
million years ago). This suggests a very recent origin of meteorites
and, by inference, of comets." N. T. Bobrovnikoff, "Comets,"
Astrophysics, editor J. A. Hynek (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co.,
1951), p. 352.

b. Hans Pettersson, "Cosmic Spherules and Meteoritic Dust," Scientific
American, Vol. 202, February 1960, pp. 123-129.

c. "Examples of ancient rock slides have been identified from the
geologic column in few instances." William Henry Twenhofel, Treatise
on Sedimentation, Vol. 1, 2nd edition (New York: Dover Publications,
1961), p. 102.

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