Radiometric Dating Confirms a Young Age for the Earth
Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2006 2:49 pm
Radiometric Dating Confirms a Young Age for the Earth
By Allen J. Dunckley, Th.D. (C)-NOvember 2005
Because of media hype, many people are under the assumption that radiometric dating has confirmed that the earth is very old - 4.6 billion years old to be exact. However, what is not well known by the public is the glaring weaknesses with which isotopic dating is entangled.
When a rock is formed and hardened, some of the elements in the rock begin to decay, that is breakdown into lesser “daughter” elements. If the parent element is Uranium 238, it decays into Thorium 234 but it does not stop there; it continues its entropic trek down to lead. If the rate at which this process takes place is known (and could be proven that it has never varied), one allegedly might be able to determine the age of a rock specimen by the ratio between the parent element, U and its daughter element, Th or Pb. However, there are some problems with this method for “deep-timers” that actually go against the billions of years scenario and point to a very young earth instead.
Firstly: Not enough Helium in the Atmosphere
The type of decay that is most talked about is called alpha-decay where the parent element decays down the periodic table to the daughter element. The glaring problem here is the chemical equation. Chemical equations must be balanced; what is on the right of the yield sign (the arrow) must equal what is on the left side.
U ---> Th
This equation is not balanced. This is usually what is presented and discussed publically. It is usually stated something like, “Uranium, when it decays to thorium then to lead takes several billion years. Therefore if one calculates what the amount of lead is in the specimen and divides it by its half life; then an age for the specimen can be determined.” There is rarely if ever any mention of the additional product produced, that of helium. The equation should look something like this:
U ---> Th + He
This equation is balanced: Uranium, as it decays, turns into a thorium element plus two helium elements. To demonstrate this, let's assign the numeric value of 238 to Uranium, 234 to Thorium, and 2 to Helium. What we see then is 238 is equal to 234 plus 2 plus 2. These numbers are the mass numbers of each of these elements. What is produced is not only the “daughter” element, thorium, but also two elements of Helium. Like all equations, nuclear equations must be balanced, according to both atomic number and atomic mass. As uranium treks down the periodic table until it becomes lead, it leaves behind it a wake of helium atoms.
Scientists have calculated that 67 grams of helium comes into the atmosphere every second through the radio-active, alpha decay process. If the decay process has been going on for billions of years, as the uniformitarian, evolutionary model alleges; then the prediction follows that the amount of helium in the atmosphere should be extremely high. However, scientific fact shows that the amount of helium in our atmosphere is not very high at all; this presents a problem for long age assumptions.
Some have tried to counter with the argument that since helium is so light it just rises up through the atmosphere and escapes into space. This is simply not so because (1) helium only rises when confined in a very light weight container due to the external pressure pushing on it from the heavier gasses around it. However, when it is not confined; helium simply mixes with the other gasses in the atmosphere. (2) Some helium molecules do manage to escape into space and this is called “Jean's escape” but this escape does not take place at the rate necessary to account for its lack in the atmosphere. Science has determined that the Jean's escape rate for helium is only 1/40th of that which is coming into the atmosphere. Therefore a net gain of 65.4 grams of helium is building up in the atmosphere per second. If this build up has been taking place for as long as the “old-ager's” claim that it has; then we all should be sounding like Donald Duck when we talk, as excessive helium shrinks the larynx causing a rise in voice pitch. Yet science (not a philosophical paradigm) shows us that the necessary amount of helium build up is not there for an old earth scenario. This is a problem for the evolutionary, uniformitarian model, but not for the creation model as noted by scientist Melvin Cook in Nature magazine in an article entitled, “Where is the earth's radiogenic helium?” This question has yet to be answered by the uniformitarian sector. The amount of helium in the atmosphere that scientists have measured is excessively little for the earth to be millions upon millions of years old, but within the range of tolerance for the Biblical, Creation model of approximately 6,000 years.
Secondly, Too Much Helium in the Earth
Late in the 1970's in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico Geoscientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory drilled down several miles into the hot, dry granite. They wanted to determine how suitable it would be as a geothermal energy source. Drill core samples were sent to the National Laboratory at Oak Ridge for analysis. There a physicist ground up the rock extracting microscopic crystals called zircons. These are radioactive due to containing uranium and thorium isotopes. Zircons are scattered widely throughout the granitic rocks that make up the crust of the earth.
The zircons with uranium are a good source to study radio decay since unstable uranium decays into thorium through what is called alpha decay. This radioactivity makes the element helium. As pointed out above, helium is not in the earth's atmosphere but is still in the zircon crystals. Using the uniformitarian model of 1.5 billion years worth of decay for the zircons, scientists used the amount of lead to calculate the amount of helium would have been generated during that period. Then they measured how much helium was still in the zircons. Not surprised, they found that 58% of the radiogenic helium was still in the zircons. Dr. Humphreys notes:
“The 'Evolution' model assumed the time was 1.5 billion years, with continuous production of helium during the whole period. The 'Creation model assumed the time was 6,000 years, with most of the helium produced in one or more bursts of accelerated nuclear decay near the beginning of that time. . . . Our experiments showed that we need to account for both diffusion from zircon and biotite, but zircon is more important. . . .Our zircon data agree with recently published data from [Reiners, Farley, and Hickes, “He diffusion and (U-th)/He thermochronometry of zircon: Initial results from Fish Canyon Tuff and Gold Butte, Nevada,” Tectonophysics 349 (1-4:297-308, 2002], and both agree with our Creation model. The data allow us to calculate how long diffusion has been taking place — between 4,000 and 14,000 years! The diffusion rates are nearly 100,000 times higher than the maximum rates the 'Evolutionary' model could allow. That leaves no hope for the 1.5 billion years. For most of that alleged time, the zircons would have had to have been as cold as liquid nitrogen … to retain the observed amount of helium.” (Humphries, “Nuclear Decay: Evidence for a Young World.” Impact 352, pp 2-3)
Conclusion
Due to radiometric activity in the earth, what real science shows is a big problem in using it to verify the uniformitarian conjecture of “deep-time.” In scientific contrast, the more study being done on the radiological decay of rock, the more it points to a young earth rather than an old earth. No wonder Evolutionist William Stansfield has admitted:
“It is obvious that radiometric methods may not be the reliable dating methods they are often claimed to be. . . .There is no absolutely reliable long-term radiological clock.” — The Science of Evolution (New York: Macmillian, 1977) P 614.As one scientist observes:
“The amount of helium in the air and in rocks is not consistent with the earth's being billions of years old, as believed by evolutionists and progressive creationists. Rather it is good scientific evidence for a short age, as taught by a straightforward reading of Genesis.” (Dr. Johathan Sarfati, “Blowing Old Earth Belief Away,” Creation, 1998)
As the facts produced through scientific investigation keep coming in from biology, microbiology, genetics, astronomy, physics, geology, etc. the more they underscore the standing Truth that the Bible is the revealed truth from the one and only Creator God, Who in the beginning created the heaven and the earth and all that is in them. Since both nature and the Bible are the products of the same Being called GOD then what is observed in one will not contradict what is revealed in the other. This is what we see more and more as scientific data are properly understood. There is no conflict between the facts of science and the Word of God. The conflict comes only when an interpretation of scientific data is advanced that is at variance with God's Word and one's interpretation is neither science nor scientific fact; it is only human opinion. And the Word of God is clear on this point, “Let God be true and every man a liar.” One will never go wrong being in line with God's Word the Bible.
By Allen J. Dunckley, Th.D. (C)-NOvember 2005
Because of media hype, many people are under the assumption that radiometric dating has confirmed that the earth is very old - 4.6 billion years old to be exact. However, what is not well known by the public is the glaring weaknesses with which isotopic dating is entangled.
When a rock is formed and hardened, some of the elements in the rock begin to decay, that is breakdown into lesser “daughter” elements. If the parent element is Uranium 238, it decays into Thorium 234 but it does not stop there; it continues its entropic trek down to lead. If the rate at which this process takes place is known (and could be proven that it has never varied), one allegedly might be able to determine the age of a rock specimen by the ratio between the parent element, U and its daughter element, Th or Pb. However, there are some problems with this method for “deep-timers” that actually go against the billions of years scenario and point to a very young earth instead.
Firstly: Not enough Helium in the Atmosphere
The type of decay that is most talked about is called alpha-decay where the parent element decays down the periodic table to the daughter element. The glaring problem here is the chemical equation. Chemical equations must be balanced; what is on the right of the yield sign (the arrow) must equal what is on the left side.
U ---> Th
This equation is not balanced. This is usually what is presented and discussed publically. It is usually stated something like, “Uranium, when it decays to thorium then to lead takes several billion years. Therefore if one calculates what the amount of lead is in the specimen and divides it by its half life; then an age for the specimen can be determined.” There is rarely if ever any mention of the additional product produced, that of helium. The equation should look something like this:
U ---> Th + He
This equation is balanced: Uranium, as it decays, turns into a thorium element plus two helium elements. To demonstrate this, let's assign the numeric value of 238 to Uranium, 234 to Thorium, and 2 to Helium. What we see then is 238 is equal to 234 plus 2 plus 2. These numbers are the mass numbers of each of these elements. What is produced is not only the “daughter” element, thorium, but also two elements of Helium. Like all equations, nuclear equations must be balanced, according to both atomic number and atomic mass. As uranium treks down the periodic table until it becomes lead, it leaves behind it a wake of helium atoms.
Scientists have calculated that 67 grams of helium comes into the atmosphere every second through the radio-active, alpha decay process. If the decay process has been going on for billions of years, as the uniformitarian, evolutionary model alleges; then the prediction follows that the amount of helium in the atmosphere should be extremely high. However, scientific fact shows that the amount of helium in our atmosphere is not very high at all; this presents a problem for long age assumptions.
Some have tried to counter with the argument that since helium is so light it just rises up through the atmosphere and escapes into space. This is simply not so because (1) helium only rises when confined in a very light weight container due to the external pressure pushing on it from the heavier gasses around it. However, when it is not confined; helium simply mixes with the other gasses in the atmosphere. (2) Some helium molecules do manage to escape into space and this is called “Jean's escape” but this escape does not take place at the rate necessary to account for its lack in the atmosphere. Science has determined that the Jean's escape rate for helium is only 1/40th of that which is coming into the atmosphere. Therefore a net gain of 65.4 grams of helium is building up in the atmosphere per second. If this build up has been taking place for as long as the “old-ager's” claim that it has; then we all should be sounding like Donald Duck when we talk, as excessive helium shrinks the larynx causing a rise in voice pitch. Yet science (not a philosophical paradigm) shows us that the necessary amount of helium build up is not there for an old earth scenario. This is a problem for the evolutionary, uniformitarian model, but not for the creation model as noted by scientist Melvin Cook in Nature magazine in an article entitled, “Where is the earth's radiogenic helium?” This question has yet to be answered by the uniformitarian sector. The amount of helium in the atmosphere that scientists have measured is excessively little for the earth to be millions upon millions of years old, but within the range of tolerance for the Biblical, Creation model of approximately 6,000 years.
Secondly, Too Much Helium in the Earth
Late in the 1970's in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico Geoscientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory drilled down several miles into the hot, dry granite. They wanted to determine how suitable it would be as a geothermal energy source. Drill core samples were sent to the National Laboratory at Oak Ridge for analysis. There a physicist ground up the rock extracting microscopic crystals called zircons. These are radioactive due to containing uranium and thorium isotopes. Zircons are scattered widely throughout the granitic rocks that make up the crust of the earth.
The zircons with uranium are a good source to study radio decay since unstable uranium decays into thorium through what is called alpha decay. This radioactivity makes the element helium. As pointed out above, helium is not in the earth's atmosphere but is still in the zircon crystals. Using the uniformitarian model of 1.5 billion years worth of decay for the zircons, scientists used the amount of lead to calculate the amount of helium would have been generated during that period. Then they measured how much helium was still in the zircons. Not surprised, they found that 58% of the radiogenic helium was still in the zircons. Dr. Humphreys notes:
“The 'Evolution' model assumed the time was 1.5 billion years, with continuous production of helium during the whole period. The 'Creation model assumed the time was 6,000 years, with most of the helium produced in one or more bursts of accelerated nuclear decay near the beginning of that time. . . . Our experiments showed that we need to account for both diffusion from zircon and biotite, but zircon is more important. . . .Our zircon data agree with recently published data from [Reiners, Farley, and Hickes, “He diffusion and (U-th)/He thermochronometry of zircon: Initial results from Fish Canyon Tuff and Gold Butte, Nevada,” Tectonophysics 349 (1-4:297-308, 2002], and both agree with our Creation model. The data allow us to calculate how long diffusion has been taking place — between 4,000 and 14,000 years! The diffusion rates are nearly 100,000 times higher than the maximum rates the 'Evolutionary' model could allow. That leaves no hope for the 1.5 billion years. For most of that alleged time, the zircons would have had to have been as cold as liquid nitrogen … to retain the observed amount of helium.” (Humphries, “Nuclear Decay: Evidence for a Young World.” Impact 352, pp 2-3)
Conclusion
Due to radiometric activity in the earth, what real science shows is a big problem in using it to verify the uniformitarian conjecture of “deep-time.” In scientific contrast, the more study being done on the radiological decay of rock, the more it points to a young earth rather than an old earth. No wonder Evolutionist William Stansfield has admitted:
“It is obvious that radiometric methods may not be the reliable dating methods they are often claimed to be. . . .There is no absolutely reliable long-term radiological clock.” — The Science of Evolution (New York: Macmillian, 1977) P 614.As one scientist observes:
“The amount of helium in the air and in rocks is not consistent with the earth's being billions of years old, as believed by evolutionists and progressive creationists. Rather it is good scientific evidence for a short age, as taught by a straightforward reading of Genesis.” (Dr. Johathan Sarfati, “Blowing Old Earth Belief Away,” Creation, 1998)
As the facts produced through scientific investigation keep coming in from biology, microbiology, genetics, astronomy, physics, geology, etc. the more they underscore the standing Truth that the Bible is the revealed truth from the one and only Creator God, Who in the beginning created the heaven and the earth and all that is in them. Since both nature and the Bible are the products of the same Being called GOD then what is observed in one will not contradict what is revealed in the other. This is what we see more and more as scientific data are properly understood. There is no conflict between the facts of science and the Word of God. The conflict comes only when an interpretation of scientific data is advanced that is at variance with God's Word and one's interpretation is neither science nor scientific fact; it is only human opinion. And the Word of God is clear on this point, “Let God be true and every man a liar.” One will never go wrong being in line with God's Word the Bible.
