In early issues of SIS Workshop there were several references in Monitor, and a letter from Jill Abery, concerning the Mid to Late Miocene geological period, where uniformitarianism assumptions were used to describe what could better be explained by catastrophism. These are due to go up on the web site in full, as an SIS resource that anyone can tap into, and as a lasting legacy. The problem is that they are still at it – go to http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/04/new-high-resolution-record-of-midd… … In other words, evidence of catastrophism is being interpreted as evidence of uniformitarian processes by means of extending the timescales involved. Climate palaeo records are used to create a long chronology when a short chronology would just as easily suffice.
The Miocene climate record is said to be fairly stable – until it cooled. We have no ice cores to tell us it cooled suddenly and so it is assumed it cooled gradually (as that is what fits the gradualist mainstream drama). The evidence is derived from that suspicious source, foraminifera remains in ocean sediments (and their oxygen isotopes). This time the foraminifera remains come from the western Pacific and are said to have been laid down over 13 to 9 million years (the precsie dates are difficult to pin down so they are suitably spread out to fit the theory). This, it is further claimed, shows that the climate cooled in a series of steps – rather than in a sudden freezing event associated with catastrophism. It is said to have cooled over 4 million or so years – an incredible period of time that is obviously outfoxing the limited data – but that is assumed to be rock solid evidence (until someone else proves otherwise). You can't argue with that approach – no matter if it has the appearance of being illogical. A warming period within the 4 million years appears to indicate something else was going on behind the scenery, dated 10.8 to 10.7 million years ago. This is attributed, and corresponding to theory over science, that eccentricity of the Earth's orbit caused a temporary warming at the surface of the Earth. In cocntrast to the bowl of roses we may note there was a significant drop in sea levels at 10.5 million years ago – just prior to the warming.