Young earth evidence

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Image came from a single remote-sensing device-NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or (MODIS)

Many arguments have been put forth that draw upon scientific evidence to support the a belief in a recent creation or young earth.

Some arguments simply put an upper limit on the age of the Earth, solar system, or universe, which are inconsistent with an ancient creation. For example, Russell Humphreys' argument based on the amount of salt in the ocean is designed to show the maximum possible age of the oceans based on uniformitarian assumptions, and thus shows that the oceans could not be as old as claimed; it is not designed to show the actual age of the oceans, and as such the resulting age, although far too great for the young Earth view, is not inconsistent with it.

Other arguments attempt to verify the Biblical account, which has its basis primarily in genealogies (Genesis 5 ), lengths of reign of various kings, and the lengths of two key intervals in the history of the people of Israel.

Geomagnetic field decay

Main Article: Geomagnetic field decay

Dr. Thomas G. Barnes, a physics teacher at the University of Texas, has authored a widely used college textbook on electricity and magnetism. His examination of the data of 135 years shows that the earth's magnetic field is decaying exponentially, according to a decay law similar to that observed in radioactive decay.

In 1835 the German physicist Karl Friedrich Gauss made the first measurement of the earth’s magnetic dipole moment. Additional evaluations have been carried out every decade or so since then. Since 1835, global magnetism has decreased 14 percent. The record of measurements from 1835 to 1965 shows a magnetic half-life of 1,420.03 years1,420 a
518,655 da. Thus even 7,000 years ago, the earth would have had a magnetic field 32 times stronger than it now has. 20,000 years ago, this field would have generated enough Joule heat to liquefy the earth. One million years ago the earth would have had greater magnetism than all objects in the universe, and would have vaporized. Thus the earth could not be over 6,000 or 7,000 years old.^[1][2]

This magnetic decay process is not a local process, such as one would find in uranium, but is global. It has been accurately measured for over 150 years, and is not subject to environmental changes since it is generated deep in the earth’s interior. If any fundamental planetary process ought to be a reliable indicator of the earth’s age, it should be our earth’s magnetic field–and that field indicates an upper limit significantly less than 10,000 years for the age of the earth.

Pleochroic halos

Main Article: Pleochroic halos

Radioactive inclusions in rock often cause concentric spheres of discoloration due to the damage caused by alpha particles as they are emitted by the radioactive substance. Pleochroic halos are the scars of radioactive decay, particularly alpha decay. These scars appear as spheres (rings when views in cross-section) in the rock surrounding a crystal rich with decaying radioactive atoms. The size of the halo is a signature of the energy of the emission and therefore the element and isotope involved. Creationists use these halos in several ways to suggest problems with the standard uniformitarian model.

Zircon Elemental Ratios

This and the next discovery were made by R. V. Gentry; both are discussed in detail in chapter 3, Origin of the Earth, and in his book, Nature’s Tiny Mystery.^[5]

Zircon lead ratios

Zircon crystals were taken in core samples from five levels of a 15,000-foot (45,720 dm) shaft in New Mexico, with temperatures always above 313 °C (595.4 °F). The sea-level boiling point of water is, of course, defined at 100 °C.

Radiogenic lead gradually diffuses out of zircon crystals, and does so more rapidly at increased temperatures. But careful examination revealed that essentially none of the radiogenic lead had diffused out of the examined zircon samples.

Zircon helium ratios

Main Article: Helium diffusion

Uranium and thorium are subject to alpha decay, i.e. they emit alpha particles, which are actually nuclei of helium. Analysis of the helium content of those same zircon samples revealed strikingly high helium retention in those crystals. The helium should have diffused out of the zircon samples even more rapidly than the lead would have, if the earth were more than several thousands of years old. Thus if the zircons were really 1.5 billion years old, as conventionally assumed, then nearly all the helium should have dissipated from the samples. Furthermore, accelerated decay appears to have produced a billion years worth of helium within not more than 6000 years, give or take 2000.

Helioseismology

Main Article: Helioseismology

The core of the sun produces deuterium from hydrogen fusion at 5 million degrees K. The heat is transferred from the core by convection currents so it could reach surface in days, not a million years. It also leads to an age for the sun based on the deuterium/hydrogen ratio of the local interstellar medium of 6,000-12,857 years.

Accelerated Nuclear Decay

Main Article: Accelerated Nuclear Decay

The main assumption of radiometric dating is that the decay rates are constant with time. If the decay rate has varied significantly over time then any date based on radioactive decay is worthless. However, if radioactive decay has been happening for Billions of years then there is insufficient argon diffusion, insufficient lead diffusion, insufficient helium in the air, and too much Helium in Rocks. Recent experiments commissioned by the RATE group indicate that "1.5 billion years" worth of nuclear decay has taken place, but in one or more short periods 4000 - 8000 years ago. This would shrink the alleged 4.5 billion year radioisotope age of the earth to only a few thousand years.

Lunar samples

Project Apollo is the most successful and extensive sample-return project to date. Six two-man teams landed on the moon and returned various samples. The project was curtailed before it could achieve its ultimate objectives, after many began to question the value of repeated sample collections and the other stated mission objectives.

However, two rather striking findings from the study of these samples are seldom mentioned.

Short-lived isotopes

One of these findings is the presence in those samples of the short-lived isotopes Uranium-236 and Thorium-230. Short-term radioactive isotopes decay quickly into lead. If the moon were even 50,000 years old, these short-lived radioisotopes would not be present, but indeed they are abundant in the collected samples. The moon therefore cannot be older than several thousand years.^[1]

Paleomagnetic signatures

In addition, many of the lunar samples were magnetic. This in itself is remarkable, because the magnetic dipole moment of the moon is very low (1.3e+15 N-m/T). Magnetic lunar samples are of two types: basalt and brecchia. A magnetic basalt sample returned by the crew of Apollo 16 had formed in a magnetic field of flux density 0.12 mT, corresponding to a magnetic dipole moment of 6.3 * 10²¹N-m/T. A magnetic brecchia sample returned by the crew of Apollo 15 had formed in a field of flux density 2100 nT, corresponding to a magnetic dipole moment of 1.1 * 10²⁰N-m/T.

The problem for old-earth theories is evident and considerable. How could the moon have had a magnetic field as strong as it must have been when either of the two lunar samples formed, and not have nearly as strong a magnetic field today? By uniformitarian theories, any celestial body either has a magnetic field or it doesn't—and if it doesn't, then it never did. And so, while some evolutionist scientists insist that the moon had an internal dynamo that later ran down (and cannot explain how that happened), others insist that the moon never had a dynamo, and never had a magnetic field, and therefore the magnetism in the two lunar samples resulted from a magnetic field outside the moon (and, like the first group, cannot explain where this external field came from or where it went).^[6]

Russell Humphreys calculates that the moon's magnetic dipole moment at creation was 1.73e+22 N-m/T, with a half-life of 252.305 years252.3 a
92,152.575 da. Given that the radius of the lunar core is 350 km, the conductivity of the lunar core is 75 percent of that of the Earth's core. Thus the earth and the moon could have cores of similar composition. He then suggests that the basalt, a remnant of the lava flows that created the lunar maria, formed about 370 years after creation, and that the moon then suffered a meteoric bombardment less than two centuries following the global flood.^[6]

Meteorites

Meteors of various types fall to earth continually; some reach the surface and are then called meteorites. Nearly all the rocky bodies in the solar system have suffered similar bombardment, which according to uniformitarian theories occurred at least 3.5 billion years ago. Yet all the meteorites discovered on earth, without exception, are present in the most superficial stratum. No meteorites have ever been found in the deeper ("older") sedimentary strata. This finding shows that the sedimentary strata were laid down rather quickly and far more recently than is conventionally supposed.

Isaac Asimov has propounded a theory that "crustal mixing" has removed all trace of the meteorites. But the constituent elements, especially nickel, from those meteorites should still be present and would not have been removed. The lack of nickel bears further witness against this theory.^[1]

Earth's Rotation

The rotational speed of the earth (about 1,040.421 mph0.465 km/s
1,674.396 km/h
0.289 mi/s) is gradually slowing down on account of the gravitational drag forces of the sun and moon along with other factors. If the earth were really billions of years old, as claimed, it should already be in tidal lock with the sun.

Lord Kelvin (the 19th-century physicist who introduced the Kelvin temperature scale) used this slowing rotation as a reason why the earth could not be very old. He calculated that had the earth existed for 7.2 billion years, its rotational speed would have been twice the present speed. This would have produced a difference of 86 kilometers between the equatorial and polar radii of the earth. The actual equatorial radius is 6,378.135 km3,963.189 mi, and its polar radius 6,356.75 km3,949.901 mi, a difference of 21 km, not 86.^[9]

The decline in rotation rate is now known to be greater than previously thought. If the earth had existed for 5 billion years, then the difference between polar and equatorial radii would still have been significantly greater (64 km) than it actually is. Furthermore, the continents would have been distributed in the tropical regions, and the world's oceans would have collected in the temperate and polar regions. This is a distribution that Kelvin also would have predicted, and he cited the lack of such a finding as a falsification of a great age of the earth.^[9] Thus by either Lord Kelvin's original calculation or a more modern one, the earth cannot be more than a few thousand years old.^[1]

Soil/Water Ratio

The soil beneath our feet is still in a partially water-soaked condition that dates from the global flood. This is shown by water table levels, which today are rapidly draining.^[5]

Sea Ooze

As fish and plants in the ocean die, they drop to the bottom and gradually form an ooze, or very soft mud, that is built up on the ocean floors. This occurs at the rate of about 1 inch (2.54 cm) every 1,500 years. This ooze is far more shallow than it would be if the earth were as old as is conventionally claimed.^[5]

Tree Rings

The giant sequoias of California have no known enemies except man. They are not subject to attack by any known insect pest and are nearly impervious to fire. These giant redwoods appear to be the original trees that existed in their timber stands. Sequoia gigantea, in their groves in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, never have any dead trees ("snags") among them. Yet no sequoia has ever been found to be older than about 4,000 years.^[5]

Civilizations

No truly verified archaeological datings predate about 3000 BC. When larger dates are cited, they come from radiocarbon dating, from methods other than written human records, or from Manetho's Egyptian king-list, which is highly suspect.^[5]

Indeed, modern Egyptian chronology now shows that ancient Egypt most likely has existed only since the global flood, and does not predate the flood. The suspicion that Egyptian civilization was older than the flood was one of the key causes of the initial decline in the acceptance of flood geology and the rise of uniformitarianism.

The finding of out-of-place artifacts provide confirmation, not so much of a young earth per se as of an advanced antediluvian civilization that might have existed before the global flood and was destroyed by it.

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References

External links

• Evolution Handbook, Chapter 4: The Age of the Earth
• Young age of the Earth & Universe Q&A by Answers in Genesis
• Young age of the Earth & Universe Q&A by Creation Ministries International
• Humphreys, R., June 2005, Evidence for a Young World, Ph.D. ICR IMPACT No. 384
• Sarfati, J., 2004, Refuting Compromise
• Evidence Supporting a Recent Creation by the Northwest Creation Network

See Also

• Young earth creationism
• Young solar system
• Young universe
• Geochronology
• Cosmic chronology

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