The role of media in a culture, especially in our modern world, is difficult to overstate. Quite frankly, it is huge and, I believe, it is THE MOST influential element in our society, bar none. Although it has become a tired cliché in Christian circles to complain about the media, this should not fool us into dismissing the reality of the incredible weight and sway that it carries. And, ...
I am in the state of Washington to film part of a 90-minute documentary that we are nominally calling “Is Genesis History?”
We already filmed one of numerous segments in the dinosaur digs at Hanson Ranch in Wyoming and now we are looking at the incredible destruction and geological formations created rapidly by the volcanic eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980.
On May 18 at 8:32...
I took this picture from Johnson Ridge. It is named after the geologist who was killed in the Mt. St. Helen’s eruption. He was alternating every other day with another geologist taking turns being flown in by helicopter to monitor the mountain. On May 18, 1980, it was his turn and it was to be his last. When the mountain erupted, he radioed his final words: “…this is it.&rdqu...
This is a picture from inside “Little Grand Canyon” at the base of Mt. St. Helens. The obvious is the film crew, Tom, Michael, Thomas, and Ian. Dr. Steven Austin, an incredibly smart geologist, is there as well (in blue).
The other obvious things are the layered canyon walls and the stream.
Here’s what is not obvious.
Even though it might look really old, like a lot o...
This is a picture of “Step Canyon”. It is just below the current dome of Mt. St. Helens.
In March of 1982, another explosive eruption melted a thick snow and ice pack that had built up in the crater since the 1980 events. The resulting water and mudflow cut through the bedrock at the edge of the crater. In a matter of hours, as if it were a hot knife going through butter, the mud...
This is a picture of Spirit Lake. It may not look like a lake, but it is. What you see in most of the foreground is a huge log mass that has been floating for over 35 years. But there are several things that you don’t see. One is that before the 1980 eruption Spirit Lake was 800 feet lower. Another is the scoured condition of the mountain slopes around the lake and, most importantly, what...
Sounds like an old Western headline, doesn’t it?
Actually, we just finished at short week of the Genesis filming in South Dakota and the first half was dedicated to examining the geological layers called the Deadwood Formation that extends from the Dakotas and Montana up into Canada. It is named after the town Deadwood, where we spent our first night.
Dr. Marcus Ross, a paleontologi...
I have to tell you…I was stunned at the beauty here. Pictures don’t do it justice.
We are now about a mile above the “basement rocks” and the “Deadwood Formation” that we were examining earlier. It is amazing to think that there could be that much sedimentary material, but this is actually not as deep as we might find in other places where it can be 17,00...
I have rafted down the Grand Canyon twice and been to the rim numerous times, but it still takes my breath away. This is our third day here and we finally made it up to the eastern end of the South Rim. Tom is manning one camera out on the point. We are with Dr. Steve Austin, an incredibly smart geologist who has spent years below the rim studying nautiloid fossils and other features in this am...
We are on a special permit many miles deep into the Hualapai Reservation (pronounced wal-a-pie) along Diamond Creek. The formation we are looking at is called “The Great Unconformity”. It is the boundary between the metamorphic “basement” rocks below and the sedimentary layers that extend, in some places, three miles up. The purple looking rock is granite. The khaki loo...
