Textbooks have taught for generations that the massive coal formations, which are found around the globe, have taken millions of years to form. Creation scientists have refuted this claim, citing multiple experimental evidences showing that coal can be produced in much less time under high pressure and temperature conditions. It has recently been shown that under certain conditions high pressure is not even necessary.
Scientists at the Argonne National Laboratory took ordinary wood fragments mixed with acid-activated clay and water, and heated it at 300 degrees F for 28 days in an air-free quartz tube. They obtained a high grade of black coal, even without the addition of pressure. This proved millions of years are not necessary to explain the formation of coal.
Sadly, the standard textbook model involving millions of years and gradual formation of coal by peat swamps remains the only model presented to students. One wonders why this is the only possibility presented. Why is the possibility of a worldwide flood and rapid formation ignored? Sound scientific practice requires the consideration of all theories of coal formation, rather than teaching a single possibility as if it were a fact.
From A Closer Look at the Evidence by Kleiss, March 11.
