Average soil depth is consistent with young earth (Talk.Origins)

Claim CD620:


 * Only 300 to 1,000 years are required to build an inch of topsoil. The average depth of topsoil is about eight inches, indicating an earth less than about 8,000 years old.

Source: Pathlights, n.d. The age of the earth.

CreationWiki response:

Talk.Origins is correct on this point, but that says more about their cited source than it does about Creation science. The fact is, they did not select a particularly good one.

What this data actually shows is that average topsoil depth is consistent with a young Earth; it is not sufficent to prove a young Earth.

Such long estimates of soil formation time are based on uniformitarian assumptions. In this case, the article is dealing with Paleoalterites and Paleosols, which are interpreted by uniformitarian geologists as fossilized soil. However this interpretation is based entirely on uniformitarian assumptions, so using this as an argument against creationists is a case of "Your theory does not work under my theory, so your theory must be wrong".
 * Klevberg, P., Oard, M. J. and Bandy, R., 2003. Are Paleosols Really Ancient Soils? CRSQ 40(3): 134-149.

A profundidade média do solo é consistente com a terra jovem (Talk.Origins)