Abstract
The Chinle formation in the Southwestern United States offers interesting opportunities to do research important to the interpretation of the past. The project reported here was first conceived during an institute for secondary biology teachers conducted by the Loma Linda University Biology Department in 1970. At that time Harold G. Coffin of the Geoscience Research Institute conducted a paleontological field trip and suggested that a study on fossil tree orientation may enhance a better understanding of the events associated with the deposition of the Chinle formation. The orientation of fossil trees and other fossils can provide information on the direction of flow of water during deposition. Such information should be useful in constructing models of geologic action during the Genesis flood and subsequent geologic events.