How were fossil coal deposits formed?
If there is a geological phenomenon that reminds us of the Great Flood, it is the coal.
Coal form only when enormous masses of trees and plants are transported by the flood waters, which arrived impetuously, and are immediately covered by layers of mud and debris!
The only way in which the layers of fossil coal could have formed is when large quantities of plants were suddenly swept away by the waters, deposited in one place and then rapidly covered by heavy layers of mud and sand which COMPRESSED the enormous masses of plant remains in order to transform them into coal.
Those who have the opportunity to travel the world know well that coal is NOT currently being formed in the jungles of the earth. The current process is that dead plant life rots and finally breaks down into humus. If the theory of evolution was true, the process of coal formation would continue to this day. But it is clear that today there is no coal formation.
For coal to form, the remains of plants must not only be rapidly covered to prevent their decomposition, but also "deeply" covered so that the total weight of millions of tons of sediments transforms the carbon-atoms contained in the plants into coal.
This was the only possible means to form the solid coal found today.
The coal deposits bear witness to a global catastrophe, since enormous quantities of vegetation have been uprooted, transported and buried by the waters, under a large volume of sediments almost everywhere in the world.
Coal doesn't need thousands of years to form, just a few weeks.
We know that the most important factor is temperature. The higher the temperature, the higher the degree of carbonization.
The duration is not important, and the pressure in fact slightly delays the chemical reactions. It is surprising to note that relatively mild temperatures (from 100° to 150°) are sufficient to eradicate oil and gas and produce coal: this has been tested in the laboratory. For example, wood and acid clay were heated to just 150° in a sealed container to produce lignite (brown coal) in just a few months. A higher temperature (400°) produces anthracite (black carbon).
The biblical account seems therefore entirely reliable.
