I agree with your statements. However, we are talking about two different situations -- a macro situation versus a micro one. The Discovery channel refers to a local situation which takes place in a limited amount of time. I'm assuming it was during one's lifetime, but it could be more. What's used in these situations to tell how old something organic is is a form of radiometric dating -- carbon dating or Carbon-14 dating.
Carbon-14 dating is a method for comparing the ages of organic materials such as bones or artifacts made from anything that once lived. Unlike many other radiometric dating methods, carbon dating has been calibrated for historical periods and within that range can give reliable results. There are limitations to this form of dating, as with radiometric dating methods, because it requires certain assumptions that cannot be scientifically proved. These include the starting conditions, the constancy of the rate of decay, and that no material has left or entered the sample.
If a correct reading of how old some deceased remains can be read assuming the limitations above, then it can be concluded that what occurred was within a limited amount of time and that layers occurred the way you describe.
However, in the case of a body being buried in a catastrophic event such as with Mt. St. Helens volcano, then the layer it was found would be different and have its own case. For one, it was a catastrophic event, so it happened in a short period of time. The Mt. St. Helens volcano happened within our lifetime, so we know what time period it occurred. We may have problems taking a C14-reading because volcanoes would add excess C-14. If one looks at the kind of stratification or layers of molten lava and rock occurred, then we get a different picture.
The Mt. St. Helens volcano is regarded by people today as the most significant geologic event of the 20th century because of its extraordinary documentation and scientific study. It may not be the largest natural explosion during the 1900s, but we learned much from it.
To cut to chase and what we're talking about, it shows rapid formation of stratification, rapid erosion and rapid formation of fossil deposits, rapid formation of peat layer and catastrophism.
"Rapid Formation of Stratification
Figure 2. Deposits exposed by mudflow erosion on the North Fork of the Toutle River. The laminated and bedded pyroclastic flow deposit of June 12, 1980, is 25 feet thick in the middle of the cliff. That three-hour deposit is underlain by the pyroclastic flow deposit of May 18, 1980, and overlain by the mudflow deposit of March 19, 1982. (Photo by Steven A. Austin)
Up to 600 feet thickness of new strata have formed since 1980 at Mount St. Helens. These deposits accumulated from primary air blast, landslide, water wave on Spirit lake, pyroclastic flows, mudflows, air fall, and stream water...
Figure 2 shows 25 feet of the stratified deposit accumulated within three hours during the evening of June 12, 1980. It was deposited from pyroclastic flows generated by collapse of the eruption plume of debris over the volcano. The strata are very extensive and even contain thin laminae and crossbedding. Within the pyroclastic flow deposits are very thin laminae. It staggers the mind to think how the finest stratification has formed in an event of the violence of a hurricane. Coarse and fine sediment were separated into distinct strata by the catastrophic flow process from a slurry moving at freeway speed. Conventionally, sedimentary laminae and beds are assumed to represent longer seasonal variations—or annual changes—as the layers accumulated very slowly. That is the typical uniformitarian interpretation. Furthermore, our natural way of thinking about catastrophic sedimentary process is that it homogenizes materials depositing coarse and fine together without obvious stratification. Mount St. Helens teaches us that stratification does form very rapidly by flow processes."
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Rapid Erosion
What is exceptional at Mount St. Helens is the variety of new erosion features and their concentration within a limited and intensely studied area.
If we reason from our everyday experience concerning the way rivers and creeks erode, we might assume that great time periods are needed to form deep canyons. At Mount St. Helens, however, very rapid erosion has occurred since the 1980 eruptions. These erosion features challenge our way of thinking about how landscapes form. What is exceptional at Mount St. Helens is the variety of new erosion features and their concentration within a limited and intensely studied area."
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Rapid Formation of Fossil Deposits
One million logs floated on Spirit Lake on the late afternoon of May 18, 1980, after they were uprooted and washed into the basin by the 860-foot-high water waves. Careful observation of the floating conifer logs in the lake indicates that such logs show a strong tendency to float upright, best seen from the eastern shore of the lake (see “Logs” in figure 1). Many upright deposited logs possess roots attached to the log, but many have no root ball, and those without roots also show strong tendency to float upright. It appears that the root end of these logs is denser wood and perhaps floods with water more easily, allowing the root ends to sink before the top of the log. All six of the common conifer species were observed to float in an upright position.
Hundreds of upright, fully submerged logs were located by sidescan sonar, and scuba divers verified that they were indeed trunks of trees that the sonar detected. It was estimated that 20,000 upright stumps existed on the floor of the lake in August 1985. It would appear that about ten percent of the deposited logs were in an upright position. If Spirit Lake were drained, the bottom would look like a forest of trees. These, however, did not grow where they are now, but have been replanted"
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Rapid Formation of Peat Layer
The enormous log mat floating on Spirit Lake has lost its bark and branches by the abrasive action of wind and waves. Scuba investigations of the lake bottom showed that water-saturated sheets of conifer bark are especially abundant intermingled with volcanic sediment added from the lake shore, forming a layer of peat many inches thick. The peat shows coarse texture. The primary component is sheets of tree bark, which comprise about 25 percent, by volume, of the peat. Scuba divers recovered sheets of tree bark having lengths of greater than eight feet from the peat bed. Together with broken branch and root material, bark sheets impart the peat’s noteworthy coarse texture and dominantly layered appearance.
The “Spirit Lake peat” contrasts strongly with peats that have accumulated in swamps. Typical swamp peats are very finely macerated by organic degradation processes. They are “coffee grounds to mashed potatoes” in general texture. Furthermore, swamp peats possess a homogeneous appearance because of the intense penetration of roots which dominate swamps. Root material is the dominant coarse component of modern swamp peats while bark sheets are extremely rare"
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Conclusion
Mount St. Helens provides a rare opportunity to study transient geologic processes which, produced within a few months, changes what geologists might otherwise assume required many thousands of years. The volcano challenges our way of thinking about how the earth works, how it changes, and the time scale attached. These processes and their effects allow Mount St. Helens to serve as a miniature laboratory for catastrophism.
Mount St. Helens “speaks” directly to issues of our day. Catastrophism is documented as a viable theory of geologic change and may have far-reaching implications on other scientific disciplines and philosophical inquiries. Many scientists recognize that Darwin’s theory (which assumed slow evolutionary change) may be in error. Darwin built his theory of the evolution of living things on the notion that earth has slowly evolved. With catastrophism, we have tools to interpret the stratigraphic record including the geologic evidence of the Genesis Flood. Mount St. Helens “speaks” directly to issues of our day."
Next, Mt. St. Helens shows that stratification on the macro level occurs as with the experiment I posted a youtube on. The layers occur in a top down fashion where the top or younger levels to the bottom and the older levels end up on top. The reverse of what the evolution geologists claim.
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Sedimentation at Mt. St. Helens
On June 12, 1980 a 25 foot (7.6 m) thick stratified pyroclastic layer accumulated within a few hours below the Mt St Helens volcano (Washington, USA) as a result of pyroclastic flow deposits amassed from ground-hugging, fluidised, turbulent slurries of volcanic debris which moved at high velocities off the flank of the volcano when an eruption plume collapsed (see Figure 2). Close examination of this layer revealed that it consisted of thin laminae of fine and coarse pumice ash, usually alternating, and sometimes cross-bedded. That such a laminated deposit could form catastrophically has been confirmed by Berthault’s sedimentation experiments and applied to a creationist understanding of the Flood-deposition of thinly laminated shale strata of the Grand Canyon sequence."
Figure 2: Fine layering was produced within hours at Mt St Helens on June 12, 1980 by hurricane velocity surging flows from the crater of the volcano. The 25-foot thick (7.6 m), June 12 deposit is exposed in the middle of the cliff. It is overlain by the massive, but thinner, March 19,1982 mudflow deposit, and is underlain by the air-fall debris from the last hours of the May 18, 1980, nine-hour eruption.
Sorry, this was long, but the experiments and actual evidence from Mt. St. Helens backs up the creation position versus that of evolutionist. Younger skeletons and remains can end up in the bottom and the older ones end up on top. Also, the trees are scattered going through the different layers as we witness from examining other stratified rock layers.
Polystrate fossils are fossils which occupy or span through more than one strata of rock. They are usually trees, and whole polystrate fossil forests have been found in various places. Rarely, they are fossilized bones. They are used by young Earth creationists as evidence against the uniformitarian timescale.
