Corals Fit Catastrophism, Not Uniformitarianism
While upholding evolutionary timelines,
scientists find convincing evidence of
dramatic historical changes in sea-
level signals across the globe.
Corals Cry Catastrophe
Sudden Sea-Level Swings May Suggest Scriptural Scenarios
by Dr. Sarah Buckland-Reynolds
In an enlightening discovery, a June 2025 study published in Science Advances that cross-referenced Seychelles corals with polar ice sheet data provides new evidence of rapid sea-level rise signals across multiple continents.
Combining stratigraphic analysis and radiometric methods, the authors concluded that there was evidence for “…rapid, millennial-scale changes in sea level…”, with similar trends “point[ing] to times when the polar ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica — thousands of miles away from the Seychelles islands — were changing rapidly” (University of Wisconsin-Madison).
Never attempt evolutionary work without completing the required meditation exercises.
Although having the potential to capsize the consensus of uniformitarian evolutionary models, the researchers chose not to propose the examination of alternative catastrophic models. Rather, they chose to maintain the status quo of deep-time geological epochs.
A Surge of Speculation: The Default to Uniformitarian Dogma
Despite their conclusions counteracting the very tenets of uniformitarian theory, the authors base the entire context of their research on the assumed geological period of the Last Interglacial (LIG) – pointing to corals allegedly 123,000 years old. As with any historical reconstruction method without eyewitnesses, this estimate was not derived from the fossils themselves. It stems from uniformitarian assumptions baked into dating methods used in the study that rely on evolutionary timelines and deep time narratives.
Despite concluding that rapid environmental changes took place during the LIG, the researchers still assumed slow, gradual processes over hundreds of thousands of years (uniformitarianism) to date these corals. However, here is the problem: multiple sudden, sharp sea-level changes – three pulses in just 6,000 years, as estimated by the authors – sound more catastrophic than gradual.
Ironically, even though they relied on uniformitarian dating methods, based on their examination of Seychelles’ corals, the evidence for rapid environmental changes they found was so compelling that the authors were still forced to admit that unexpectedly rapid changes had taken place.
Flood Models Say Hello: Sudden Swings Make More Sense
According to Genesis, a global Flood violently restructured Earth’s surface—and models from young-earth creationists such as Dr. John Baumgardner suggest rapid tectonics and massive erosion could account for significant shifts in sea level, coral displacement, rapid burial and preservation. The idea that corals were “gently raised” by uniform changes over millennia is not nearly as compelling as a worldwide catastrophe that realigned continents and submerged coastlines. The authors reference “sharp pulses” in sea-level rise, which appear to align well with post-Flood ice sheet melting and isostatic adjustments – much more than with the calm, incremental nudges assumed in secular models.
Out-of-Phase Ice Sheets: A Problem for Uniformity, not for the Flood
Greenland (DFC, 2023)
Looking deeper into the findings, Karen Vyverberg and colleagues revealed a curious, complex pattern: the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets did not grow or shrink in phase with the sea levels estimated in Seychelles during the (purported) Last Interglacial (LIG). This asynchronous characteristic presents a glaring problem for the simplistic “steady climate-forcing” long-age models. These models assume single ‘global forcing’ mechanism that would have caused a peak global mean sea level (GMSL) during the LIG. These estimates are usually neatly reconstructed by summing ice sheet contributions based on the assumed gradual insolation changes from Milankovitch cycles. In these models, geologists extrapolate that solar forcing has gradually occurred in cycles of 100,000 years, 41,000 and 23,000 years respectively, impacting the globe in similar directions.* However, as this new study suggests, if ice sheets were melting out of phase with other parts of the globe, then the peak GMSL masks the actual full extent of the melt from each pole, placing questions on the assumed directions of the variables.
In contrast, if examined as part of the dynamic post-Flood Ice Age model, post-Flood warming, amplified by multiple forces of volcanism and warm oceans, may have triggered rapid ice sheet formation. Over time, climatic oscillations and shifting ocean currents could easily cause asynchronous melting patterns between hemispheres without needing to appeal to small and gradual insolation differences. Rapid tectonic shifts, residual post-Flood geophysical adjustments, and regional climate anomalies could drive differing glacial responses independent of orbital cycles. Asynchronous impacts suggested from the study therefore further place the validity of uniformitarian forcing mechanisms into question, while harmonizing well with the idea of an unstable, still-settling post-cataclysm Earth.
Walking on Thin Ice: Layered Assumptions Flawed to the Core
The asynchronous melts and rapid changes of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets reveal further flaws of common evolutionary methods used to reconstruct past climates. Scientists often rely on ‘annual layers’ within ice sheets to represent distinct historical periods. As Vyverberg and colleagues’ findings of accelerated period ice sheet melting inadvertently showed, deciphering ‘layers’ within ice sheets is not an accurate method to estimate distinct time periods, since the accumulation of these ‘layers’ is not uniform. Ironically, however, within the study itself, the authors cross-referenced ice-core timelines and coral data – applying circular reasoning within the same presuppositional framework.
The problem with this is that sharp sea-level oscillations reported in this study are not predicted by traditional interpretations of ice-core data. That contradiction is completely glossed over with speculative statements about “dynamic” polar behavior.
Corals as Clocks? More Questions Emerge
Reefs in the Rangiroa Atoll, French Polynesia (DFC)
The team dated the corals using uranium-thorium methods. This method is highly sensitive to assumptions about original isotope ratios and closed-system conditions. In dynamic marine environments, those assumptions are on even more shaky ground, because if even mild chemical leaching occurs, the assumptions are violated. Even more problematic is this consideration: in a rapidly changing scenario of historical sea-level rise (as suggested by the authors), the stratigraphic position of the reefs would not likely reflect uninterrupted growth, but violent relocation.
Evolutionary Timelines: The Default with No Debate
Despite predictive success of catastrophic frameworks in other geological observations (e.g., polystrate fossils), the authors anchored their research on evolutionary timeframes. In this case, this evolutionary orthodoxy is particularly ironic, given the emphasis on the outcomes of rapid change. But, instead of reconsidering these assumptions, the message from the rapid change conclusions is used to feed a political story of climate alarmism extrapolating into future projections.
While creationist models also acknowledge historical changes in climate, especially the post-Flood Ice Age and its residual effects, inconsistencies in evolutionary assumptions built into models should cause us to question the accuracy of projections built on this premise.
The Uniformitarian Empire senses a disturbance in the Farce. Click to watch this exciting episode!
Closing Wave: When Will the Framework be Flipped?
The findings by Vyverberg and her colleagues seem to record what could be compelling evidence – not of slow, evolutionary processes – but of a young, dynamic Earth shaped by catastrophic events. Rather than forcing the data into the straitjacket of uniformitarian timelines, scientists should be more open to consider frameworks that can more readily accommodate rapid shifts, global patterns, and observed inconsistencies without hand-waving.
*See our analysis, “Why Milankovich Cycle Theory Is Like Astrology,” 22 June 2018.
Here another study challenges the confidence of conventional reconstructions, yet evolutionary geology continues to be depicted in mainstream educational institutions and media as factual. The golden nugget to advance the knowledge of truth amongst the rubble of evolutionary thought is to equip the next generation of scientists to be able to decipher evidence from interpretation and to be open to actually follow the evidence where it leads.
Dr. Sarah Buckland-Reynolds is a Christian, Jamaican, Environmental Science researcher, and journal associate editor. She holds the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography from the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona with high commendation, and a postgraduate specialization in Geomatics at the Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia. The quality of her research activity in Environmental Science has been recognized by various awards including the 2024 Editor’s Award from the American Meteorological Society for her reviewing service in the Weather, Climate and Society Journal, the 2023 L’Oreal/UNESCO Women in Science Caribbean Award, the 2023 ICETEX International Experts Exchange Award for study in Colombia. and with her PhD research in drought management also being shortlisted in the top 10 globally for the 2023 Allianz Climate Risk Award by Munich Re Insurance, Germany. Motivated by her faith in God and zeal to positively influence society, Dr. Buckland-Reynolds is also the founder and Principal Director of Chosen to G.L.O.W. Ministries, a Jamaican charitable organization which seeks to amplify the Christian voice in the public sphere and equip more youths to know how to defend their faith.