Failed Cup of Coffee Shows Crucial Dynamic in Geology.

There was a time at work when I wanted to be able to make myself a coffee really quickly. (Obviously too busy! Supply Teaching. Science and Maths.) I figured I could mix the right proportions of sugar, coffee and milk powder in a jar that I carried with me, and just add several teaspoons of the mix to hot water. It didn’t work. No matter how much I shook or stirred the jar to mix the contents, they tended to settle into layers. Rather than drink coffee that wasn’t to my taste, I gave up.

What my coffee was demonstrating was the same principle that geologist Guy Berthault proved in his experiments: simply that any particles that are dumped together tend to stratify into layers, according to the size and density of the particles involved. This completely overturns the idea that stratified rocks are built up slowly, fine layer by fine layer. Such layering is actually instantaneous. The implications for the formation of rocks and the Age of the Earth are enormous.

See the Berthault experiments and some more explanation here.