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This article is from
Creation 17(1):45, December 1994

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Editor’s note: As Creation magazine has been continuously published since 1978, we are publishing some of the articles from the archives for historical interest, such as this. For teaching and sharing purposes, readers are advised to supplement these historic articles with more up-to-date ones available by searching creation.com.

Keys to rapid rock formation

rockkeys
The car keys which are encased in rock.

If you know anyone who thinks rocks and fossils must take thousands or millions of years to form, here’s an example to show them they may need to revise their ideas.

The photo shows a set of car keys which was found in solid sandstone rock on the Pacific Coast of the United States. The keys are encrusted by rock, and were found on the coast of Oregon. They were given to college lecturer Richard Niessen in California, and are now displayed in the Museum of Creation and Earth History at the Institute for Creation Research in San Diego.

The keys, joined to a plastic-topped key chain, are thought to belong to an automobile from the early 1960s. ICR’s museum curator, John Rajca, says the rock-encrusted keys show that the commonly accepted idea of slow rock formation is clearly wrong in this case. The rock encasing the keys had to harden rapidly, so rock formation is not necessarily a slow process.

Next time you hear someone say that rock formation must take thousands or millions of years, tell them about these keys that were rapidly encased in rock!