The Floating Forest Theory Sinks
One explanation used by young-earth proponents to explain that all coal seams formed during the Flood is the concept of the floating forest, which can be found on the Answers in Genesis website, written by Carl Wieland. There are actually four articles on the web that we will consider when discussing the floating forest. The other three are:
“Too Much Coal for a Young Earth,” by Gerhard Schönknecht and Siegfried Scherer
“Coal Beds and Noah’s Flood,” by Andrew Snelling
“Patterns of Ocean Circulation Over the Continents During Noah’s Flood,” by John Baumgardner and Daniel Barnette
Please see the footnotes for the web addresses to these articles. First let’s look at the possibility of floating forests existence. From the evidence presented, I can see no reason why they can’t exist. It is certainly plausible that there may have been water-borne forests in the past. That’s not to say there are not logical problems with this theory. One is the claim that all plants with a radial root pattern are water-borne plants. One only needs to look at the Sequoia tree of California to dispense with this statement. The tallest of trees in the world (up to 300 feet) has a radial root pattern. In fact, its roots only go into the ground vertically a distance of 6 feet!
However, let’s be nice for the time being and agree that the floating forest idea is possible.
This floating forest idea is used to explain that the 230+ coal beds in the Ruhr district of Germany, scattered throughout 4,000 meters of strata, came to exist during the 375 days of Noah’s flood. The geological explanation put forward by old-earth creationists is that these beds formed over millions of years, as the sea levels fluctuated, causing the land to be covered, then uncovered with water repetitively. However, the young-earth explanation is with the floating forests, which in the cataclysmic event of the Flood, were rapidly buried, and covered with sediment. (See "Too Much Coal…) Unfortunately, this theory does not wash.
Think about the model. The Flood starts, and the floating forest over Germany is sank by the turbulent waters. Give it a day, in which the material that covers the flooded trees is deposited, and then another floating forest has been brought into place by the currents, and it sinks in the same spot the next day! This is repeated 230 times, up to a thickness of 4,000 meters! So imagine this picture…you have 230 floating forests, all lined up in a row, awaiting their chance to sink in the exact same spot, and then be rapidly covered over with sediment before the next forest sinks. This process all happens in about 375 days! Even assuming it happened, where did the sediment come from?
This is explained on the Answers in Genesis website by John Baumgardner and Daniel Barnette in their article referenced above. They show that based on their calculations, the waters of the flood covering a sphere (earth) would move with a velocity (current) of 70 meters per second, which they claim is more than enough to cause erosion to create these beds. I cannot confirm their calculations, but it introduces two obvious errors that don’t require a rocket scientist to figure out.
What are the errors? First, if you have the water turbulence they calculated, then all the floating forests would have immediately sank! You no longer have the neat and orderly progression of 230 forests into the area of Germany to create the coal fields. In fact, by their model, if you look at the coal fields of the world, they should all be only one coal seam thick, and not multiple seams like we actually see. And while their theory would account for thin seams, it does nothing to explain a 100-foot thick coal seam, which would require many forests together!
