ABSTRACTS
by Michael J. Oard
Dolomite conservatively makes up 10% of all sedimentary rocks and is mostly stoichiometric and ordered, mainly older than the Cenozoic. It can be thick and widespread, especially in the Precambrian and Paleozoic. Although dolomite is forming today, the great mystery is that it is of small scale and not stoichiometric and ordered. Dolomite today is likely formed by the aid of microorganisms that act as catalysts to overcome strong kinetic effects. The “dolomite problem” has been a uniformitarian mystery for over 200 years. Many uniformitarian scientists predominantly believe in replacement of limestone and not the primary precipitation of dolomite. However, replacement, or dolomitization, required tremendous fluid flow from a ‘pumping mechanism’ with an unlimited amount of Mg available. Evidence does exist for replacement, mainly from hydrothermal fluids associated with faults, but the fluid has to have been very hot. Numerous experiments studying the origin of dolomite use temperatures over 100°C for primary precipitation. In contrast, the short time scale of the Flood would require that most dolomite is primary formed from widespread hot water, especially very early in the Flood when the Precambrian and Paleozoic rocks were being deposited, mostly in basins and rifts. In addition, dolomites may be helpful as a criterion for determining the pre-Flood/Flood boundary.