Track Formations: Why Neither A Global Flood Nor Slow Gradual Processes Are Adequate Explanations

It is widely believed and taught, as propagated by evolutionists and proponents of old earth philosophy that the preservation of ancient dinosaur track ways and human footprints took millions of years to form; young earth creationists purport that the preservation of a footprint does not need a vast amount of time to form and could be formed quite rapidly under the right conditions; the formation of discovered track ways they credit to the catastrophic flood in the days of forefather Noah (Gen. 6-8). But both explanations fail to adequately explain the preservation of tracks.

Young earth creationists are right in that a long amount is not needed to preserve a foot print in stone, but all that is needed are the right conditions.  Have you ever made a hand print or written your initials in wet cement?  The cement dried very quickly and the impression you made in that cement left a permanent mark to remain for an indefinite period of time.  It did not take a long time for your impression or initials to be preserved; just the right conditions.

A foot print left in the sand along a beach, will eventually be washed away by the waves that come upon the beach, and upon a sand dune, will be eroded away by the wind.  Even tracks made in wet dirt or mud after a rainfall will not last for an indefinite period of time, but would be eroded away in a very short time by the elements, so a slow gradual process is not sufficient to explain track formations.

Therefore, the only reasonable explanation for the preservation of fossilized track ways is that they were formed and preserved very quickly due to a catastrophic event, but the global flood as described in the book of Genesis is insufficient to account for their preservation as well.  According to the Genesis, the manner in which the flood covered the earth and the amount of time that everything remained under water would have obliterated any tracks left by any men or animals attempting to escape the rapidly rising waters.

The flood can easily account for the countless other fossil formations found around the world since fossils require a rapid burial process to form, but as far as fossilized tracks are concerned, the only sensible explanation is one that few, if any, may have considered:

 That the fossilized tracks we are so familiar with resulted from post-flood localized events that would have created the conditions for footprints to be formed and preserved, which could only have happened if the tracks were made in those places that had been very recently covered in water and then dried before being eroded away by the elements.  It is possible that the tracks may have been formed by creatures attempting to escape a local flood or flash flood, but perhaps the most likely scenario, at least in some cases, is that they were left by creatures passing through the area shortly afterwards before the ground dried.

If in a certain area that had experienced flooding, tracks had been formed by passing creatures shortly after the recession of flood waters, conditions might have surely been ripe for the preservation of the track ways and fossil footprints we now see, as the ground in which the tracks were made would have dried and hardened before the tracks could be eroded by the elements.

Biblical references:

Genesis chapters 6 thru 8.