The Secret of the Desert Varnish!

Published: Tue, 07/27/21

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth!

Hi ,

The American Southwest is full of amazing sights. But, often more "minor" aspects are overlooked simply because they just appear as part of the general background.

One feature that is found in the rock formations all over the region is the dark patches found on the surface in many places. This is called desert glaze, or varnish. Here, they appear dark grey, or even dark blue. What is it? Some people think they're just water stains. Others think it's simply a different type of rock.

Actually, it's neither. It's been discovered that tiny microbes that live in the rocks use manganese from the surrounding areas to make a type of sunscreen to protect themselves from the harsh heat of the desert environment. As this sunscreen oxidizes and ages, it gets darker as older cells are replaced by newer ones. In this way, the varnish gets thicker over time. The thickest seems to be around 1/127", or .008 of an inch. And, man cannot duplicate it, so it can't be faked.

When native Americans carved images into it hundreds of years ago (called petroglyphs), the lighter rock beneath the glaze was revealed, making the image clear.

However, some petroglyphs appear darker, like the one in the lower left portion of this photo. It's not as light as the ones in the upper right portion. That's because there's more desert glaze on the one to the left. That means that it's older.

It takes quite a while to form, relatively speaking. but it's also somewhat measurable since these petroglyphs prove differences in age.

Now, put 2+2 together. If the growth rate is measurable, at least to a reasonable degree, then the total thickness of the glaze anywhere can't be more than just a few thousand years old. That would be consistent with it beginning to form after the global flood - roughly 4,500 years ago. If the glaze started growing a million years ago, there should be at least half an inch in most places. If it started growing 100 million years ago, --- well, you do the math!

Which view is more reasonable? If the varnish is millions of years old, then all petroglyphs, regardless of when they were carved (whether hundreds or even 1,000+ years ago) should have the same appearance! The fact that some are definitely darker than others proves empirically that there is a measurable rate that is much faster than millions of years!

The Bible clearly teaches that the earth is measurable in thousands of years, not millions or billions. This is more evidence of that.

In Christ,

PS - The hidden animal from last week is the butterfly that looks EXACTLY like a leaf! Astounding!