WHOA! Thanks, Russ! I really did enjoy this video from Creation Science. Eric Hovind and partner are fantastic! This is a brief comparison of Mt.Helens and the Flood.

Yes, our God is Creator of the heavens and the earth. "Does not the God of all the earth do right?" AMEN!
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CONCLUSION

Mount St. Helens provides a rare opportunity to study transient geologic processes which produced, within a few months, changes which geologists might otherwise assume required many thousands of years. The volcano, therefore, challenges our way of thinking about how the earth works, how it changes, and the time scale we are accustomed to attaching to its formations. These processes and their effects allow Mount St. Helens to serve as a miniature laboratory for catastrophism. Mount St. Helens helps us to imagine what the Biblical Flood, of Noah's day, may have been like.

Noah's Ark / Mt. St. Helens likeness/ Rapid Erosion

Here is an article from the Institute for Creation Research: Mt. St. Helens and Catastrophism (http://www.icr.org/article/mt-st-helens-catastrophism/)

--Why Does ICR Study the Mount St. Helen's Eruption?
--By: John D. Morris, Ph.D. *

--Ever since the May 18, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens, ICR has made it a focus of intense research. From it we have learned a great deal about the origin of rocks and geologic features, and the processes needed to form them.

In general, ICR holds that most of earth's rocks were formed rapidly during the great Flood of Noah's day, not over the millions of years of supposed geologic history. But here's the problem. Geologists like to study modern rocks and the processes which form them, and infer past circumstances. Yet Noah's Flood was a totally unique event, unlike any in our experience. Those geologists who assume uniformity in history thus seem to have an advantage. But the rocks really do appear to have been formed by dramatic processes operating at rates, scales, and intensities far beyond those we experience. Only modern, local catastrophes, such as the eruption of Mount St. Helens, can give us a glimpse into earth's geologic power, particularly as we expand our thinking onto the worldwide scale of Noah's Flood. Thus the Mount St. Helens catastrophe becomes a scale model for the great Flood.

Keep in mind that most of the damage done by the eruption was water related. Mount St. Helens had been glacier-covered, and when it got hot, water raced down the mountain as a mighty flood, eroding soil, rocks, trees -- everything in its path -- eventually redepositing them at the foot of the mountain. Volcanic episodes added to the fury. When the eruption calmed, up to 600 feet of sediments had been deposited, full of plant and animal remains. Now the sediments have hardened into sedimentary rock and the dead things have fossilized. Furthermore, wood is petrifying. Peat (the precursor to coal) has formed. A deep canyon has been gouged out. Many features which geologists are taught take long ages to form, were seen to happen rapidly. Igneous rocks which formed since 1980 yield radioisotope dates of millions of years, but are obviously much younger in age.

A catchy slogan helps illustrate this. To form geologic features, it either takes a little bit of water and a long time, or a lot of water and a short time. Even though we didn't witness the Flood, we do see modern catastrophes, and they rapidly accomplish things the Flood did on a grander scale. In a short, Biblically compatible time scale, such a Flood can account for the features we see on earth, features which many geologists mistake for evidence of great age. Earth doesn't really look old, it looks flooded.

--ICR/JM

--THE ORIGIN OF COAL~~
--Institute of CREATION RESEARCH~ (ICR)

-Because I have seen and read several people referring back to the 'Origin of Coal'. The question is, "Does Coal take millions of years to form?"
--Below is an article regarding: "The Origin of Coal"~
--Check it out!

--On the Origin of Coal
---By: John D. Morris, Ph.D. *
-(Evidence for Creation)

--The term “fossil fuel” applies to organic material deposits that can burn, thus producing energy. One such fuel is coal, which is the solid altered remains of plant material, while oil and gas are the liquid and gaseous remains of various organic or inorganic sources. Standard thinking requires long ages for their origin.

For decades it has been taught that dead plants accumulate in the stagnant, oxygen-poor waters of a swamp, where they partially decay and eventually alter into combustible peat. Over time, the surrounding land may become submerged under the ocean, where other types of sediment can stack on top of the organic material, generating both heat and pressure, and driving off the water and gasses, leaving mostly carbon. Over vast ages under these conditions, the peat supposedly metamorphoses into coal.

But there are problems with this “story” about the unseen past. First, nowhere on earth today does peat spontaneously become coal. Second, while peats do accumulate in stagnant swamp waters, these appear nothing like coal. Today’s peats have a fine texture resembling “mashed potatoes” penetrated by tree roots, while coals are coarser, more like “coffee grounds,” and interspersed with sheets of altered bark. Swamp peats undulate in elevation, dissected by numerous streams. Coals, however, usually sport extremely flat surfaces above and below. Surely something other than a peat swamp was involved in the formation of coal seams.

As a matter of fact, the coalification process doesn’t even require much time. In recent years, several laboratory experiments have shown that coal can form quickly, in just hours or days. Extreme conditions can accomplish it even more quickly. Heat is required, but not necessarily pressure. The process is accelerated by the presence of a volcanic clay, such as montmorillinite or kaolinite, always abundantly intermingled with coal. This clay can be seen as thin “clay partings” in unburned coal or as “clinkers” that must be removed from coal furnaces after the coal has burned. If these conditions are met, organic plant material (peat) will rapidly become coal.

When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, phenomenal processes were set in motion that instantly produced geologic results mimicking those we are taught to think required millions of years. A highly energetic blast of superheated steam was released that traveled at great speeds and devastated the surrounding forest. A ring where the trees were removed was surrounded by the “blow-down zone,” with a scorched zone surrounding that. After the eruption, a charred log was found with wood on one end and material on the other that under microscopic analysis proved to be a rather high grade of coal, formed essentially instantly.

The blast uprooted millions of trees and washed them into nearby Spirit Lake, where they floated for years in an eerie mat of logs, moved around by incessant winds. As they moved, the bark abraded and sank to the bottom, where it collected as a thick layer of peat. In a matrix of volcanic ash and decaying leaves and wood, it took on a surprisingly layered appearance. This peat is not now becoming coal, but it has the required ingredients and geometry. If another volcanic event were to blanket the layer with hot ash, it might rapidly metamorphose into coal. All necessary conditions have been met.

The eruption of Mount St. Helens provided insight into processes operating during an even greater catastrophe, the great Flood of Noah’s day. Observations of the eruption’s aftermath have expanded our ability to understand the Flood. The results of ICR’s long research at Mount St. Helens remain a great encouragement to Bible-believing Christians. They also confront skeptics with the truth of God’s Word.
-References-
Morris, J. and S. Austin. 2003. Footprints in the Ash. Green Forest, AR: Master Books.
- Dr. Morris is President of the Institute for Creation Research.
[Cite this article: Morris, J. 2011. On the Origin of Coal. Acts & Facts. 40 (6): 18.
Evidence for Creation.