Bob Powell

Bob Powell is a geologist who has worked for the Tennessee State Division of Geology including five years as a Field Geologist. He published the Pilot Mountain Geologic Quadrangle (7.5 minute) and has undertaken private Geologic Consulting concentrating on Hydrogeologic studies at contaminated toxic waste sites with emphasis on the Fate and Transport of Contaminants in Groundwater. With the decline in mining in Tennessee Bob was moved to the Department of Environment and Conservation spending some 30 years as Project Manager/Geologist/Enforcement Manager in the Division of Remediation .

NOAH’S FLOOD? How can you recognize rocks that have been laid down by a flood?

Answer by Bob Powell One of the great debates in understanding the nature of earth’s geology is whether the huge volumes of sedimentary rocks covering some 70 percent of the planet’s surface formed fast or slow. This debate has often been portrayed as catastrophist vs uniformitarian, where the uniformitarian theorizers (based on Charles Lyell) are […]

COAL: If earth’s many coal seams formed slowly in swamps, isn’t the world too old for the Biblical record to be literal?

Answer by Bob Powell Conventional theory states that coal formation is associated with a swamp environment that was slowly covered by sediment and then compressed over millions of years. It is estimated that for 1 foot (30cm) of coal to form took 20 feet (6m) of vegetative swamp material, called peat, to be compacted by […]