Andrew Snelling

Andrew A. Snelling is a young-Earth creationist geologist who works for Answers in Genesis.

Snelling has a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Sydney from 1982, and has worked as a consulting geologist.

He was, for a decade, the geology spokesman for the Creation Science Foundation, the coordinating center for creationism in Australia. He started working for Answers in Genesis in 2007 and serves as AiG's director of research.

Snelling has been published in standard geological publications estimating the age of geological specimens in billions of years, but has also written articles for creationist journals in which he supports a young-earth creationism viewpoint. He worked in the RATE project.

Snelling, like other young-Earth creationists, believes the Grand Canyon formed after the Biblical flood; the rocks in Grand Canyon were formed billions of years ago and the Grand Canyon itself was formed millions of years ago. In 2013 Snelling applied for a permit to collect 50-60 half-pound rocks from the park. The application was denied because the National Park Service screens applications to take material from the Grand Canyon, in order to protect it. One of the three geologists who reviewed the proposal for the National Park Service stated that the type of rock Snelling was trying to test could be found outside the park, and all three reviewers made it clear they did not consider the proposal scientifically valid.

Snelling submitted a revised proposal in 2016. In a letter dated May 5, 2017, the NPS said it found the application acceptable and it was willing to grant it, if changes were made to locations and methods of collecting rocks; Snelling proposed to chisel away rocks and to do so from highly visible rock faces, to take samples from land that was not park land but rather was on an Indian reservation and also from another location that was likely to have archeological remains. The NPS had authorized a river trip for Snelling to survey locations but not to collect specimens; Snelling objected that this would take too much time and expense, and in response in the May 5 letter, the NPS offered to have staff work with Snelling to map locations in a meeting or conference call.

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