{"id":7751,"date":"2021-03-01T16:08:27","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T21:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=7751"},"modified":"2021-03-01T16:09:11","modified_gmt":"2021-03-01T21:09:11","slug":"episode-270-why-are-there-fossils-on-top-of-the-rocky-mountains-skeoch-family-climbed-to-discover-wy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=7751","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 270 WHY ARE THERE FOSSILS ON TOP OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS? SKEOCH FAMILY CLIMBED TO DISCOVER WY"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 270   WHY ARE THERE FOSSILS ON TOP OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS?   SKEOCH FAMILY CLIMBED TO DISCOVER WHY<\/p>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
march 2021<\/div>\n

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IN 1981 WE CLIMBED THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS\u2026AND FOUND A MYSTERY<\/div>\n

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In the year of our Lord, 1981, Marjorie and I packed up a second hand pop up trailer and drove west so that our<\/div>\n
boys would get to know the magnificent country in which they lived.    The previous summer we drove east to Newfoundland.<\/div>\n
In those two summer trips the boys got to know Canada.  Sometimes they asked  bewildering questions.  <\/div>\n

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\u201cDad, why are these fossils up here on top of the Rocky Mountains?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSeems strange\u2026did  someone carry them up here for us to find?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t be silly.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cEasier to believe that than to believe the other story.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat \u2018other story\u2019?<\/div>\n
\u201cThe tectonic plates story\u2026idea that we are floating on huge plates of<\/div>\n
rock sitting on top of a molten mass of stuff called magma..  And that millions of years ago<\/div>\n
two of the big plates collided with each other\u2026hit so hard and for<\/div>\n
such a long time that the edges were pushed up to form the Rocky Mountains. like a big<\/div>\n
 accident when two transport trucks hit dead on \u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNow who in their right mind would believe that floating rock idea\u2026pure poppycock.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYes, must be nonsense.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThat Plate Tectonics thesis even goes further to offer proof\u2026uses the<\/div>\n
fossils as evidence.  The collsioins of plates of rock theory says that the fossils are proof<\/div>\n
of the collision.\u201d\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cGet away with you.  More nonsense.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cRight.  Imagine saying that these fossils were once the bottom of a great<\/div>\n
shallow sea that was full of life some 500 million years ago\u2026and that the collision<\/div>\n
of the Tectonic plates pushed that sea thousands of feet into the air.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNonsense I still say.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cEven worse.  The stupid idea of the tectonic plates came from T. Tuzo Wilson, a Canadian<\/div>\n
geophysicist.   Idea  has been accepted by scientists around the world.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cJust goes to show you about scientists\u2026they are guessers\u2026and your guess is<\/div>\n
as good as mine.  I prefer authorities.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAuthorities?  What authority?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWell, for a start I would like to know what Donald Trump thinks about the Tectonic Plate<\/div>\n
theory.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNow there\u2019s a well informed man\u2026a deep reader\u2026.a thinker even though some call him<\/div>\n
a stinker and  worse.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHe knows something about the collision of fact and fiction and how that can stir up<\/div>\n
humanity.  Maybe he understands the collision of huge plates of  rock floating on<\/div>\n
a sea of molten magma.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNot sure he\u2019s thought that deeply.  <\/div>\n
\u201cHow would he explain the presence of these fossils on top of the Rocky Mountains?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI think he  would prefer the idea  that someone carried them up here just to<\/div>\n
make fools of scientists\u2026and make fools of us.\u201d<\/div>\n

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QUESTION:   Does  anyone reading this dialogue know what these fossils  may have<\/div>\n
been 500 million years ago.?   Crinoids?  Not sure.   I really  do not know.  As for<\/div>\n
the conversation you have just read,  I  think the collision theory is better than<\/div>\n
the \u201cI carried the fossils up the Rocky Mountains just to fool the Skeoch family\u201d theory.<\/div>\n
Where do you stand?<\/div>\n

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HONEST QUESTION:   What living things were these fossils?<\/div>\n
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\u201cDaddy, can you explain how fossils at the bottom of the sea became the tops of the Rocky Mountains?\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cYes, I can boys.  Two ideas.  First idea is that two gigantic floating continents on a sea of molten lava<\/div>\n
collided so hard that they pushed the bottom of the sea to the top of the Rockies.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cSounds a little far fetched , Dad, what\u2019s the other idea?\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cFar simpeler.  Somebody carried the fossils up here.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhy would  someone do that?\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cThere are lots of strange people in the world boys.  I  do not know what motivates them all.”<\/div>\n

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Here we are in the summer of 1981, climbing the Rocky Mountains.<\/div>\n

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All kinds of loose rock…<\/div>\n

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Then we eventually reached the line where snow and rock meet.  Great to slide down a mountain clad in snow<\/div>\n
that never melts.<\/div>\n

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Among the high altitude flowers and the snow were great chunks of ancient fossils.  <\/div>\n

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With a false step we could slide down the mountain along with these chunks of sedimentary rock<\/div>\n
heading down to the valley below.<\/div>\n

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\u201cDad, tell me that stupid story again about the big dinner plates colliding and making the rocky Mountains.”<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
March 2021<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPISODE 270   WHY ARE THERE FOSSILS ON TOP OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS?   SKEOCH FAMILY CLIMBED TO DISCOVER WHY alan skeoch march 2021 IN 1981 WE CLIMBED THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS\u2026AND FOUND A MYSTERY In the year of our Lord, 1981, Marjorie and I packed up a second hand pop up trailer and drove west […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7751\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}