Young-earth "proof" #16: Topsoil takes only a few thousand years to form. The present thickness of topsoil indicates a young earth.

16. Those "scientific" creationists must be delirious to trot this plum out! Do they really believe that we should wind up with x miles of topsoil (or some such nonsense) after billions of years? Geologically speaking, any given patch of land is seldom in equilibrium for long. Either it is collecting sediments or being eroded away, usually the latter. If it collects sediments then the old topsoil, now compressed and deeply buried, is no longer turned over by earthworms or small animals. It is deprived of oxygen and fresh organic inputs such as rotting leaves. What organic material it did have is slowly lost in most cases by decay and slow oxidation. Peat bogs and coal-forming swamps are an exception, but we would not count them as topsoils. Under unusual conditions a layer of topsoil can be "fossilized," even to the point of preserving the three-dimensional shape of tree leaves, as is the case at Yellowstone National Park. Most likely, depending on the kind of soil and environment, topsoil, if buried by slow accumulation, would become clay-like or sandy. Thus, one does not accumulate topsoil in the way that material might be accumulated in a bog.

In the case of erosion the topsoil, of course, is removed. However, in most cases plant growth, burrowing creatures, and weathering will produce a new layer of topsoil.

Where sediments are neither being collected nor eroded the accumulating humus in the soil will reach an equilibrium point. The new material will balance that lost by decay and oxidation. Keep in mind that topsoil is full of microbes that love to munch away on organic material.

In all cases topsoil formation is a renewing process, and there is a limit to how deep it can get. Furthermore, a given layer of topsoil, say in the Great Plains, may take 4000 (or whatever) years to built up, but it might also remain in a state of equilibrium for much longer periods. Just because a patch of topsoil takes 1000 (or whatever) years to build up doesn't mean that it is only 1000 years old. It could be much, much older! But, in time, it gets buried or eroded, allowing the process to begin anew.

Thus, we're dealing with a dynamic and continuing cycle of topsoil formation and destruction, not a one-way accumulation of topsoil. Is that so difficult to figure out?

The whole idea of using topsoil formation rates to prove that the earth is young is just totally insane! It shows how desperate young- earth creationists are. They're grabbing at straws! No, ghosts of straws!