In Mexico, Adventist Scientist Collects Rock Samples for Formation Analysis
October 7, 2021 | Montemorelos, Nuevo Leon, Mexico | Brenda Ceron, Laura Marrero and Inter-American Division News
A recent research trip to The Sierra Madre Occidental, a largely volcanic mountain range in the northwest of Mexico, saw Adventist scientist Luciano González, PhD, collecting samples of specific rocks to be analyzed in relation to the flood registered in Genesis 6.
Dr. González, who is the Geoscience Research Institute (GRI) director for the church in Inter-America based in Montemorelos University, Mexico, said the field trip was part of a bigger project that involves large portions of the North American Cordillera which ranges from Alaska in the United States to Chile in South America. The project, began in 2010, involves various geologists under the direction of Dr. Benjamin L. Clausen, a geologist based in Loma Linda, California.
Dr. Luciano González hammers on part of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountainous range in Tepoca, Sonora, Mexico, for a research trip, from July 21-Aug. 4, 2021. The research is part of a larger project to analyze rock formations that could be connected to the flood of Genesis 6. [Photo: Courtesy of Luciano González]
The rocks and their relation to the flood
“We believe that the flood was an event that we do not know its exact magnitude,” said Dr. González. “The energy of this event was capable of breaking the existing continents, moving continental masses and generating great water currents with tons of sediments which buried all types of animal organisms, vegetables, and the like. So the flood changed the land relief.”
The belief is that the mountain ranges existent today such as the Himalayas, Andes, La Sierra Madre Occidental and Sierra Madre Oriental, were largely the product of convulsions of the flood, said Gonzalez. “In these sinking processes we find fossilized organisms,” he added.
As a geologist of igneous rocks, Dr. González is interested in finding evidence in volcanic processes. “In the flood there wasn’t just water but also others tectonic and orogenic processes [or mountain formations] such as magmatism which generated igneous rocks,” said González. That is why it is important to collect igneous rocks for the study of the mountainous range and its relation to the flood.
Dr. Luciano González stands by a calcium mine close to Navojoa, Sonora, Mexico. [Photo: Courtesy of Luciano Gonzalez]
Dr. González explained that, for example, that the Gulf of California is an area with a lot of tectonic activity. “The bottom of this gulf is a center of separation of continents, which in the Rivera Plate and other nearby areas, generates processes of subduction of the earth’s crust,” he said. Once the oceanic crust sinks under the North American Plate, it produces magma that rises and generates granite mountains, he explained. Once samples of igneous rocks from the site are collected and their content analyzed, they can give some idea of when the rocks formed and/or when the rock stopped forming into a piece of thick or liquid magma before it hardened. “These studies on rock formation processes can also provide information on the type and content of water, which also offers data on the processes of mineralogical alteration,” explained González.
Dr. González was able to collect 60 kg of rocks in the mountainous range in Sonora. The rocks are in the process of being sent to research centers in the United States where they will be subject to geochemical and geochronological studies, he said. “The findings and interpretation will be very useful to learn more about the history of the great mountain range,” he said.
Diversity in the research
The project involves internationally recognized scientists, both Adventist and from other faiths, from the University of Southern California, California State University, Loma Linda University, and the University of Chile.
Dr. González wife Estela Clarke de González poses in front of an area of mafic dykes, near Tepoca, Sonora, Mexico. [Photo: Courtesy of Luciano González]
“One of the great controversies and research topics in this project is in terms of time,” he said. “The millions of years that secular geology postulates for life on the planet versus the 6,000 years that those of us who believe in creation postulate for life on earth is interesting,” said Dr. González. However, he added that the differences of worldviews among the researchers is not an obstacle to the development of the project, but it is based on the evidence gathered in the research.
To continue with the research, GRI scientists will soon travel to other regions of interest such as the Pacific Coast, specifically the areas of Mazatlán, Culiacán and Los Mochis, in Mexico as well as field trips to southern Mexico in the States of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas.
Academic background
Dr. Luciano González is a graduate of Montemorelos University, has a bachelor’s degree in mathematical physics as well as a master’s degree in business administration. He also obtained a master’s degree in applied mathematics from the Center of Mathematical Research (CIMAT) in Guanajuato, Mexico, and a doctorate degree in earth sciences with a specialty in geology from Loma Linda University.
Lisandra Vicente provided information for this piece.