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Creation 44(1):56, January 2022

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Darwin’s Arch collapses … and joins a growing collection

by

Oliver Petschner © 123rf.comdarwins-arch

The famous Darwin’s Arch, a geological feature off the coast of the Galápagos Islands, has collapsed into the Pacific Ocean.1 The central bridge section succumbed to erosion in May 2021 and fell into the sea. It left only the two vertical rock pillars either side that supported it still standing. The arch (pictured here before the collapse) was a major tourist attraction.

Long age ‘icons’

The arch and nearby island are named after Charles Darwin, who studied finches on the Galápagos. He is of course most famous for his 1859 book promoting evolution, On the Origin of Species. This undermined and eroded faith in the Bible throughout the western world.

The structure is composed of natural rock and was a popular diving site due to the submerged rock platform underneath providing a natural haven for sea creatures. Fortunately, no one was harmed in the recent collapse.

Darwin’s Arch joins a growing number of natural structures that have collapsed. In Australia, no less than three popular tourist attractions did so along a 16 km (10 mile) stretch of coastline—within less than 20 years. In 1990 the London Bridge arch, then in 2005 one of the Twelve Apostles limestone stacks, and in 2009 the Island Archway in Loch Ard Gorge—all collapsed from ongoing erosion.2 In Malta, the Azure Window arch, another major tourist drawcard, collapsed in 2017. This undermines the dogma that these structures have been around for millions of years and would likely be around for many more.

True age of formations

In other words, the observable rapid rate of weathering and erosion in Darwin’s Arch and these other examples demonstrates that natural rock formations are not millions of years old but are much younger. This fits well with the biblical teaching that the world is only around 6,000 years old.

It’s said that the surviving columns of Darwin’s Arch are to be renamed ‘The Pillars of Evolution’. If so, the situation is not without a certain irony—given that the remains of the rickety-looking edifice are crumbling away, literally before people’s eyes. So much for the prevailing secularist assumption of an unassailable solidity and permanence.

Posted on homepage: 27 March 2023

References and notes

  1. Galapagos Islands: Erosion fells Darwin’s Arch, bbc.com, 18 May 2021; Galapagos Islands’ famous Darwin’s Arch collapses due to erosion, news.com.au, 19 May 2021. Return to text.
  2. Catchpoole, D., A dangerous view, Creation 37(2):12–15, 2015. Return to text.

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