Below is the online edition of In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood,
by Dr. Walt Brown.
Copyright © Center for Scientific Creation. All rights reserved.
Click here to order the hardbound 8th edition (2008) and other material.
1. “Immediately after lightning crackled through the atmosphere, the detectors would register a burst of gamma rays, followed about 15 minutes later by an extended shower of gamma rays that peaked after 70 minutes and then tapered off with a distinctive 50-minute half-life.” Kim Krieger, “Lightning Strikes and Gammas Follow?” Science, Vol. 304, 2 April 2004, p. 43.
u “It will be shown that the observations of near-ground AGR [atmospheric gamma radiation] following lightning are consistent with the production and subsequent decay of a combination of atmospheric radioisotopes with 10–100 minute half-lives produced via nuclear reactions on the more abundant elements in the atmosphere.” Mark B. Greenfield et al., “Near-Ground Detection of Atmospheric Rays Associated with Lightning,” Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 93, 1 February 2003, p. 1840.
2. In just 70 billionths of a second, 80 times more electrical current passes through the Z-pinch machine than is consumed in all the world during that same brief time interval. However, that energy is only enough to provide electricity to about five or six houses for an hour. What is important for the reader to note is (a) the shortness and (b) intensity of a (c) linear discharge of electrical current.
Similar experiments have been successfully conducted at Texas A & M University.
3. While the physics of the process is well understood, several decades of engineering challenges must be solved before fusion reactors can become an economic reality.
4. Briefer, but more intense, compressive stresses and electrical discharges also occurred as the hydroplates crashed near the end of the flood. Because this compression event may be harder to visualize, we will focus primarily on the broader and lengthier events at the beginning of the flood.
5. “No complete theory exists which fully describes the structure and behavior of complex nuclei based solely on a knowledge of the force acting between nucleons [protons and neutrons].” J. S. Lilley, Nuclear Physics (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2001), p. 35.
Various models of the atom are debated. Each explains some things, but each has problems. For example, the popular planetary model visualizes electrons orbiting a nucleus, much as planets orbit the Sun. However, a consequence of Ampere’s Law and Faraday’s Law is that a charged particle, such as an electron, moving in an orbit should radiate energy as electromagnetic waves. Electrons should lose energy and quickly fall into the nucleus. Stated another way:
The “planetary” model assumed that light, negatively charged electrons orbit a heavy, positively charged nucleus. The problem with this model was that the electrons would be constantly accelerating and should radiate energy as electromagnetic waves, causing the atom to collapse. Ibid., p. 4.
Because this does not happen, either electrons do not orbit nuclei, or the above laws must be modified.
Contrary to popular belief, atoms and their components (protons, neutrons, electrons, etc.) are not spheres or mathematical points. This is another example of how we sometimes unknowingly distort reality in order to simplify.
6. Six of the 94 naturally occurring chemical elements have no stable isotopes. Four of the six—Technetium (43), Promethium (61), Astatine (85), and Francium (87)—are formed by cosmic rays and nuclear tests, but soon disappear. Two—Neptunium (93) and Plutonium (94)—are produced by the absorption of neutrons released by the fission of other isotopes. (Atomic numbers—the number of protons in the element’s nucleus—are in blue italics above.) All elements above bismuth (83) are unstable and undergo radioactive decay. As of 2011, 118 elements have been observed, some very briefly in experiments.
7. A few will raise some respectable objections. They say that stars, including our Sun, derive their energy by electrical and magnetic phenomena, not by fusing hydrogen into helium. [See Donald E. Scott, The Electric Sky (Portland, Oregon: Mikamar Publishing, 2006).] We will bypass this fascinating possibility, because the electrical explanation does not address the origin of earth’s radioactivity.
8. What must happen for fusion or fission to produce nuclei that have less binding energy? Energy must be put into the process, as is being demonstrated at the Proton-21 Electrodynamics Research Laboratory in the Ukraine. [See page 341.] Fluttering hydroplates at the beginning of the flood and the piezoelectric effect were a similar trigger. This origin of earth’s radioactivity also accounts for other effects, including accelerated radioactive decay and the false belief that the earth is billions of years old.
9. The instability index is a purely arbitrary number that I used to map half-lives of 0 – · years into an easily visualized 100 – 0 scale. The arbitrary formula was:
where C = 10-7 years. For example, a radioisotope with a half-life of 10-7 years (or 3 seconds) would have an instability index of 50. That isotope would be represented by a tall, thin bar that rose halfway up the side of the valley of stability. The data used in constructing this figure were taken from Nuclides and Isotopes: Chart of the Nuclides, 16th edition (Schenectady, NY: Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, 2002) by Edward M. Baum et al.
10. Why does the valley of stability curve? It is a direct result of “the strong force,” described briefly on page 339. For details, consult a good textbook on nuclear physics.
11. In decay, a nucleus is changed spontaneously, usually because a tiny subatomic particle leaves (as in alpha, beta, or gamma decay) or enters (as in electron capture). In fission, a very large nucleus splits into two large nuclei of similar size. Fissions occur in two ways. Either the large nucleus splits after being bombarded by another particle, such as a neutron, or the nucleus splits spontaneously, without bombardment. Spontaneous fissions are considered decays. Decays are not nuclear reactions. Nuclear reactions occur when nuclei are bombarded by particles that change the nuclei. A Z-pinch is a type of nuclear reaction whereby increasing magnetic forces squeeze two nuclei so close that the strong force merges them.
Some isotopes, such as 238U, can change in multiple ways: by alpha decay or by fissioning (spontaneously or by bombardment). When 238U fissions spontaneously, it releases four times more energy than when it decays all the way to lead by emitting eight alpha particles and six beta particles. For 238U, alpha decays are 1.8 million times more frequent than spontaneous fissions.
12. “In addition to a particle decay, certain heavy mass nuclei have been observed to decay by emitting 12C, 14C, 20O, 24Ne, 28Mg, or 32Si at extremely low rates. This form of decay has been designated ‘Cluster Radioactivity,’ and was first observed in the emission of 14C from 223Ra. Since 1984, Cluster Radioactivity has been observed in 22 nuclides.” Baum et al., p. 31.
u H. J. Rose and G. A. Jones, “A New Kind of Natural Radioactivity,” Nature, Vol. 307, 19 January 1984, p. 245–247.
u The isotopes that are now known to decay by emitting a carbon-14 nucleus (plus other particles) include: francium-221, radium-221, radium-222, radium-223, actinium-223, radium-224, actinium-225, and radium-226.
13. For example, hydrogen-6 has a half-life of 3 × 10-22 seconds, and tellurium-128 has the longest known half-life: 2.2 × 1024 years. Other isotopes may have more extreme decay rates, but their half-lives are more difficult to measure.
14. H. P. Hahn et al., “Survey on the Rate Perturbation of Nuclear Decay,” Radiochimica Acta, Vol. 23, 1976, pp. 23–37.
A few decay rates increase by 0.2% at a static pressure of about 2,000 atmospheres, the pressure existing 4.3 miles below the earth’s surface. [See G. T. Emery, “Perturbation of Nuclear Decay Rates,” Annual Review of Nuclear Science, Vol. 22, 1972, pp. 165–202.]
In another static experiment, decay rates increased by 1.0% at pressures corresponding to 930-mile depths inside the earth. [See Lin-gun Liu and Chih-An Huh, “Effect of Pressure on the Decay Rate of 7Be,” Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 180, 2000, pp. 163–167.] Obviously, static pressures do not significantly accelerate radioactive decay.
15. K. Makariunas et al., “Effect of Chemical Structure on the Radioactive Decay Rate of 71Ge,” Hyperfine Interactions, Vol. 7, March 1979, pp. 201–205.
u T. Ohtsuki et al., “Enhanced Electron-Capture Decay Rate of 7Be Encapsulated in C60 Cages,” Physical Review Letters, Vol. 93, 10 September 2004, pp. 112501-1 – 112501-4.
16. Richard A. Kerr, “Tweaking the Clock of Radioactive Decay,” Science, Vol. 286, 29 October 1999, p. 882.
17. “The rhenium-187 aeon [billion-year] clock is an example which brings to light—in a rather spectacular manner—the influence of the atomic charge state [electrical charge] on nuclear and astrophysical properties. It has long been recognized that the number and configuration of electrons bound in the atom can significantly alter beta decay lifetimes. However, none of these effects could be investigated until very recently, while only [electrically] neutral atoms were available in the laboratories.” Fritz Bosch, “Setting a Cosmic Clock with Highly Charged Ions,” Physica Scripta, Vol. T80, 1999, p. 34.
u “... a half-life of 32.9 ± 2.0 yr for bare 187Re nuclei could be determined, to be compared with 42 Gyr for neutral 187Re atoms.” Fritz Bosch et al., “Observation of Bound-State b- Decay of Fully Ionized 187Re,” Physical Review Letters, Vol. 77, 23 December 1996, p. 5190.
18. “Unexplained periodic fluctuations in the decay rates of 32Si and 226Ra have been reported by groups at Brookhaven National Laboratory (32Si) and at the Physikalisch-Technische-Bundesandstalt in Germany (226Ra). We show from an analysis of the raw data in these experiments that the observed fluctuations are strongly correlated in time, not only with each other, but also with the distance between the Earth and the Sun.” Jere H. Jenkins et al., “Evidence for Correlations Between Nuclear Decay Rates and Earth-Sun Distance,” arXiv:0808.3283v1 [astro-ph], 25 August 2008, p. 1.
u Davide Castelvecchi, “Half-life (More or Less),” Science News, Vol. 174, 22 November 2008, pp. 20-22.
19. Neutrinos are subatomic particles that have an extremely low mass, travel at nearly the speed of light, carry no electrical charge, and have great ability to pass through matter (without harm). Billions of neutrinos from the Sun pass harmlessly through each person every second.
20. See United States Patent 5076971, “Method for Enhancing Alpha Decay in Radioactive Materials,” awarded on 28 August 1989 to William A. Barker. Assignee: Altran Corporation (Sunnyvale, California).
21. Stanislav Adamenko et al., Controlled Nucleosynthesis: Breakthroughs in Experiment and Theory (Dordrecht, The Netherlands, Springer Verlag, 2007), pp. 1–773.
Those who wish to critically study the claims of Adamenko and his laboratory should carefully examine the evidence detailed in his book. One review of the book can be found at
www.newenergytimes.com/v2/books/Reviews/AdamenkoByDolan.pdf
22. “The products released from the central area of the target [that was] destroyed by an extremely powerful explosion from inside in every case of the successful operation of the coherent beam driver created in the Electrodynamics Laboratory ‘Proton-21,’ with the total energy reserve of 100 to 300 J, contain significant quantities (the integral quantity being up to 10-4 g and more) of all known chemical elements, including the rarest ones.” [emphasis in original] Adamenko et al., p. 49.
In other words, an extremely powerful, but tiny, Z-pinched-induced explosion occurred inside various targets, each consisting of a single chemical element. All experiments combined have produced at least 10-4 gram of every common chemical element.
u In these revolutionary experiments, the isotope ratios for a particular chemical element resembled those found today for natural isotopes. However, those ratios were different enough to show that they were not natural isotopes that somehow contaminated the electrode or experiment.
23. Stanislav Adamenko, “The New Fusion,” ExtraOrdinary Technology, Vol. 4, October-December, 2006, p. 6.
24. “The number of formed superheavy nuclei increases when a target is made of heavy atoms (e.g., Pb) is used. Most frequently superheavy nuclei with A=271, 272, 330, 341, 343, 394, 433 are found. The same superheavy nuclei were found in the same samples when repeated measurements were made at intervals of a few months.” Adamenko et al., “Full-Range Nucleosynthesis in the Laboratory,” Infinite Energy, Issue 54, 2004, p. 4.
25. “The energy of a coherent driver [the electron beam] is equal to only a small part of the total energy released in the process of transformation of nuclei of the target [electrode] into nuclei of the synthesized isotopes. In fact, in the zone of the self-organized collapse, we are faced with the process of a distinctive “cold repacking” of nucleons which initially belonged to nuclei of the target. This process terminates in the final configuration which corresponds to newly synthesized isotopes. ... the process is adiabatic.” Ibid., p. 3.
26. Stanislav Adamenko, “Results of Experiments on Collective Nuclear Reactions in Superdense Substance,” Proton-21 Electrodynamics Laboratory, 2004, pp. 1–26. For details see
www.proton21.com.ua/articles/Booklet_en.pdf.
u “Frequently Asked Questions,” Proton-21 Electrodynamics Laboratory. See: www.proton21.com.ua/faq_en.html.
u Stanislav Adamenko, Personal communication, 13 April 2010.
27. Z-pinch (or a self-focusing plasma flow) only occurs if the current exceeds a critical threshold.
Streams of fast electrons which can accumulate positive ions in sufficient quantity to have a linear density of positives about equal to the linear density of electrons, along the stream, become magnetically self-focussing when the current exceeds a value which can be calculated from the initial stream conditions. Willard H. Bennett, “Magnetically Self-Focussing Streams,” Physical Review, Vol. 45, June 1934, p. 890.
That current, according to Bennett [p. 896], turns out to be very small when the voltage is extremely large, as it was in the case of fluttering hydroplates. That current is 
where T is in kelvins and V is in volts.
If the plasma’s temperature, T, is 10,000 K and the voltage, V, is 40,000 × 106 volts (as explained in Figure 192), then the current required for a Z-pinch is 0.001 amp—a trivial amount.
With such high voltages, electron velocities become relativistic (become a large fraction of the speed of light). Indeed, One of the key components in the Ukrainian experiments is a relativistic electron beam.
28. “... the nuclei of elements Li, Be, and B are easily destroyed in thermonuclear reactions due to the insufficiently high binding energy.” Adamenko et al., p. 458.
u “Specifically, the rare and fragile light nuclei Lithium, Beryllium and Boron are not generated in the normal course of stellar nucleosynthesis (except 7Li) and are, in fact, destroyed in stellar interiors.” E. Vangioni-Flam and M. Cassé, “Cosmic Lithium-Beryllium-Boron Story,” Astrophysics and Space Science, Vol. 265, 1999, p. 77.
u “Thus the net result is always to convert these elements [deuterium, Li, Be, and B] into helium through proton bombardment, and the rates of the reactions are such that in all conditions before a star evolves off the main sequence all of the deuterium, lithium, beryllium, and boron in the volume which contains the vast majority of the mass will be destroyed.” E. Margaret Burbidge et al., “Synthesis of the Elements in Stars,” Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 29, October 1957, p. 618.
29. One might wonder how a star composed of only neutrons could exist if neutrons must be surrounded by protons and electrons to be stable. Yes, neutrons at the surface of a neutron star will tend to decay into a proton, electron, and an antineutrino, but the extreme gravity of a neutron star would probably prevent electrons from permanently escaping from neutrons. [See Lloyd Earnest Busch, “The Paradox of Neutron Decay in Neutron Stars,” Journal of Theoretics, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2003, pp. 10–11.]
30. Paul Giem, “Carbon-14 Content of Fossil Carbon,” Origins, Vol. 51, 2001, pp. 6–30.
u John R. Baumgardner et al., “Measurable 14C in Fossilized Organic Materials,” Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Creationism (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Creation Science Fellowship, Inc., 2003), pp. 127–142.
31. Melvin A. Cook, Prehistory and Earth Models (London: Max Parrish, 1966), pp. 66 –67.
32. “The K-Ar method, which is based on the decay of 40K to 40Ar, is probably the most commonly used radiometric dating technique available to geologists.” G. Brent Dalrymple, The Age of the Earth (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1991), p. 90.
33. J. H. Waite Jr. et al., “Liquid Water on Enceladus from Observations of Ammonia and 40Ar in the Plume,” Nature, Vol. 460, 23 July 2009, pp. 487–490.
34. “The D/H ratio is close to the cometary value of 3 × 10-4, nearly twice the terrestrial ocean water value (1.56 × 10-4), and more than ten times the value of the D/H ratio in the protosolar nebula (2.1 × 10-5).” Ibid.
35. Cook, pp. 66–67.
u “... almost all of the 40Ar and 4He were produced in the earth.” Frank D. Stacey, Physics of the Earth, 3rd edition (Brisbane, Australia: Brookfield Press, 1992), p. 63.
36. “The textbook view that the earth spent its first half a billion years drenched in magma could be wrong.” John W. Valley, “A Cool Early Earth?” Scientific American, Vol. 294, October 2005, p. 59.
u “The first 700 million years of Earth’s 4.5-billion-year existence are known as the Hadean period, after Hades, or, to shed the ancient Greek name, Hell. That name seemed to fit with the common perception that the young Earth was a hot, dry, desolate landscape interspersed with seas of magma and inhospitable for life.” Kenneth Chang, The New York Times, 2 December 2008, p. D1.
u “The Hadean is the geologic eon before the Archean. It started at Earth's formation about 4.6 billion years ago (4,600 Ma), and ended roughly 3.8 billion years ago, though the latter date varies according to different sources. The name ‘Hadean’ derives from Hades, Greek for ‘Underworld’, referring to the conditions on Earth at ... the period before the earliest-known rocks. ... Recent (September 2008) studies of zircons found in Australian Hadean rock hold minerals that point to the existence of plate tectonics as early as 4 billion years ago. If this holds true, the previous beliefs about the Hadean period are far from correct. That is, rather than a hot, molten surface and atmosphere full of carbon dioxide, the earth's surface would be very much like it is today.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadean.
37. Michelle Hopkins et al., “Low Heat Flow Inferred from >4 Gyr Zircons Suggest Hadean Plate Boundary Interactions,” Nature, Vol. 456, 27 November 2008, pp. 493–496.
38. “The origin of the carbon and the nature of the carbon reservoir, as well as the process by which microdiamonds can be incorporated in zircon together with ‘granitic’ inclusions, present problems fundamental to understanding processes active in the early history of the Earth. ... The observed large variations in [carbon isotope ratios] inclusions hosted in the same zircon grain suggest that the carbon inclusions formed from different material and/or under different geological conditions before they were eventually included in the zircon. ... Therefore, the simplest explanation, and the one which is supported by most observations, is that the diamond formation must pre-date zircon crystallization and, most probably, is not related to zircon formation.” Alexander A. Nemchin et al., “A Light Carbon Reservoir Recorded in Zircon-Hosted Diamond from the Jack Hills,” Nature, Vol. 454, 3 July 2008, pp. 92–93.
39. “In fact, considering the Precambrian age of the granite cores [containing zircons], our results show an almost phenomenal amount of He has been retained at higher temperatures, and the reason for this certainly needs further investigation ...” Robert V. Gentry et al., “Differential Helium Retention in Zircons,” Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 9, October 1982, p. 1130.
u D. Russell Humphreys, “Young Helium Diffusion Age of Zircons Supports Accelerated Nuclear Decay,” Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth, editors Larry Vardiman et al., (El Cajon, California: Institute for Creation Research, 2005), pp. 25–100.
40. William R. Corliss has cataloged many books and reports of electrical activity associated with earthquakes. My brief extracts, slightly edited, are taken from his Strange Phenomena (Glen Arm, Maryland: The Sourcebook Project, 1974), Vol. G1, pp. 183–204 and Vol. G2, pp. 135–151.
41. Myron L. Fuller, The New Madrid Earthquake (Washington, D.C.: USGS Bulletin 494, 1912), p. 46.
42. Nuclear reactions first produce 3H (tritium), often as a rare fission product, or in one of the following ways:
Then a beta decay (with a half-life, today, of 12.32 years) converts 3H into 3He. [See L. T. Aldrich and Alfred O. Nier, “The Occurrence of He3 in Natural Sources of Helium,” Physical Review, Vol. 74, 1 December 1948, pp. 1590–1594.]
43. “They found [in Siberian flood basalts] that the ratio of helium 3 to helium 4 was not just 8 times greater than the atmospheric ratio, as it is at midocean ridges, but 13 times greater.” Marc Zabludoff, “Breakthroughs, Geology,” Discover, Vol. 16, December 1995, p. 122.
u The ratio of 3He to 4He varies widely in rocks near oceanic trenches, among deposits of natural gas, and within the Hawaiian Islands.
44. H. S. Carslaw and J. C. Jaeger, Conduction of Heat in Solids, 2nd edition (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1959), p. 87.
R. J. Strutt (son of the famous Lord Rayleigh who made many scientific discoveries, including the discovery of argon) first explained this in 1906, ten years after Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity. Strutt measured radioactivity in various rocks and found that granite contained more than enough radioactivity to explain all geothermal heat. Of course, Strutt assumed the earth is very old.
45. “... the molten rock oozing from midocean ridges lacks much of the uranium, thorium, and other trace elements that spew from some aboveground volcanoes.” Sid Perkins, “New Mantle Model Gets the Water Out,” Science News, Vol. 164, 13 September 2003, p. 174.
46. “... 90% of uranium and thorium are concentrated in the continents. In general, the heat production rate must decrease with depth. Otherwise, surface values would imply zero or negative mantle heat flow.” Dan F. C. Pribnow, “Radiogenic Heat Production in the Upper Third of Continental Crust from KTB,” Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 24, 1 February 1997, p. 349.
47. “The measured temperature gradient of 27.5 K km-1 in the upper 9.1 km [5.7 miles] cannot continue to the Moho, otherwise a boundary condition derived from seismic interpretations is violated.” Ibid., pp. 351–352.
In other words, the rocks directly below the Moho would have melted—an easily detected condition. Decades ago, students were taught that the mantle was a liquid. Even today, some textbooks make this erroneous claim. If the mantle had only a thin, continuous shell of liquid at any depth, certain seismic waves (shear waves, also called secondary waves) could not pass through that shell. However, seismometers all over the world measure those waves daily.
48. Robert F. Roy et al., “Heat Generation of Plutonic Rocks and Continental Heat Flow Provinces,” Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 5, 1968, pp. 1–12.
49. For example, did you know that a person’s foot size correlates with writing ability? Does this mean that the bigger your feet, the better you write? No. It means that babies don’t write well.
Although correlations may suggest a cause and effect relationship, they do not demonstrate cause and effect. For that, mechanisms and experimental results are needed.
50. So far, 16 zones have been discovered; some are now known to be connected.
51. If 100 neutrons were somehow produced in the first generation, and x neutrons were produced in the second generation, the reactor’s efficiency would be x percent. If 
the total number of neutrons produced would be
If k = 0.6, a total of 250 neutrons would be produced for every 100 initial neutrons. With an efficiency of 99%, 10,000 neutrons would be produced. If a trillion neutrons were produced in the first generation, and the efficiency were 99%, 100 trillion neutrons would be produced.
52. “Reactors 7 to 9 [discovered in 1978] ... appear as small uranium-rich pockets where the core of the reactor is always very thin (a few centimeters) ... .” F. Gauthier-Lafaye et al., “Natural Fission Reactors in the Franceville Basin, Gabon: A Review of the Conditions and Results of a ‘Critical Event’ in a Geologic System,” Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 60, No. 23, 1996, p. 4838.
53. “The anomalous behavior at the reactor zone borders should be further investigated to determine if it is a general phenomenon capable of a common explanation such as the ‘reflux’ hypothesis presented in this paper.” G. A. Cowan et al., “Some United States Studies of the Oklo Phenomenon,” The Oklo Phenomenon (Vienna: Vienne International Atomic Energy Agency, 1975), p. 355.
In a later paper, Cowan acknowledged that the “reflux hypothesis” did not explain the problem and that “puzzling anomalies” remained at the borders. [See George A. Cowan, “A Natural Fission Reactor,” Scientific American, Vol. 235, July 1976, p. 44.]
54. S. Hishita and A. Masuda, “Thousandfold Variation in 235U/238U Ratios Observed in a Uranium Sample from Oklo,” Naturwissenschaften, Vol. 74, May 1987, pp. 241–242.
55. A. A. Harms, “Reaction Dynamics and 235U/238U Ratios for the Oklo Phenomenon,” Naturwissenschaften, Vol. 75, January 1988, pp. 47–49.
56. Radiohalos have been found in more than 40 minerals. [See Robert V. Gentry, “Radioactive Halos,” Annual Review of Nuclear Science, Vol. 23, 1973, p. 350.]
57. Actually, almost all (9,998 out of 10,000) 218Po isotopes decay by emitting an alpha particle. A few emit a beta particle.
58. G. H. Henderson and F. W. Sparks, “A Quantitative Study of Pleochroic Halos, p. 243.
59. Robert V. Gentry, Creation’s Tiny Mystery, 2nd edition (Knoxville, Tennessee: Earth Sciences Associates, 1988).
Robert Gentry, in several dozen papers in leading scientific journals, has reported important discoveries concerning these mysteries. He may be the one person most responsible for showing that the earth’s crust was never molten and, therefore, did not evolve. The importance of Gentry’s work is shown by the intensity of the opposition he has received; yet, many of his opponents admit in published writings that they cannot explain isolated polonium halos. To minimize that admission, opponents often refer to this major problem as “a tiny mystery.” No, only the halos are tiny; the mystery to evolutionists is great. Moreover, the dilemma this presents to those who believe in a 4.6-billion-year-old earth is even greater.
60. “[Polonium halos] will result from the initial presence of about 109 atoms of either Po-218, Bi-218, or Pb-218 in the central inclusion.” Robert V. Gentry, “Cosmological Implications of Extinct Radioactivity from Pleochroic Halos,” Creation Research Society Quarterly, Vol. 3, July 1966, p. 18. [This article was reprinted in Why Not Creation? editor Walter E. Lammerts (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1970), pp. 106–113.]
61. If a billion polonium-218 ( 218Po) atoms had ever been concentrated in a tiny inclusion in dry rock, the heat generated within one half-life (3.1 minutes) would melt an isolated sphere of radius 0.0033 cm. This is 40% larger than the final 218Po halo radius of 0.0023 cm. Since polonium halos never melted, as explained in Endnote 62, we can conclude that a billion 218Po atoms were never concentrated at any tiny inclusion in dry rock at the same time. This includes the time of the rock’s creation. The actual melting would begin at the instant of creation (t=0) and rapidly advance outward from the center to a distance of 0.0033 cm in 3.1 minutes.
Assume that a billion 218Po atoms are concentrated in a tiny inclusion. Half would eject an alpha particle within 3.1 minutes—each alpha particle releasing 6.0 MeV of energy. (1 MeV = 3.83 × 10-14 cal) Of those 500,000,000 alpha particles, the first 375,000,000 would raise the sphere’s temperature up to the rock’s melting point. The remaining 125,000,000 alpha particles would melt the entire sphere.
To verify the above statements, the following properties of the rock will be used:
and the following two heat-balance equations can be easily and quickly checked. First, raising the sphere’s temperature to its melting point:
Then, melting the rock:
So why do we see unmelted polonium halos?
i. The billion 218Po atoms were electrically attracted to each tiny inclusion over a period of time, perhaps many weeks. This allowed time for the heat to transfer away as the halo slowly formed.
ii. The halos were cooled by considerable subsurface water and by the “evaporation” of the volatile OH-.
For details, see pages 361–363.
62. Had melting occurred, the ionization damage produced by all the alpha decays would have been erased. Furthermore, Gentry conducted tests that confirmed that melting did not occur. [See Robert V. Gentry, “Radiohalos in a Radiochronological and Cosmological Perspective,” Science, Vol. 184, 5 April 1974, pp. 62–66.]
63. Gentry never observed this concentration of halo centers in specific sheets. Personal communication, 7 August 2009.
64. Henderson and Sparks, “A Quantitative Study of Pleochroic Halos, IV,” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series A, Vol. 173, 1939, pp. 238–249.
u G. H. Henderson, “A Quantitative Study of Pleochroic Halos, V,” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series A, Vol. 173, 1939, pp. 250–263.
65. More specifically, the mine’s intrusions were “calcite vein dikes (rocks containing mostly the mineral calcite and other minerals, such as mica) that are small in length and width and cut metasedimentary rocks which still retain bedding planes.” [See J. Richard Wakefield, “Gentry’s Tiny Mystery,” Creation/Evolution, Vol. 22, Winter 1987–1988, p. 17.]
u Gentry discusses this trip on pages 325–327 of Creation’s Tiny Mystery. Wakefield discusses it in the reference above.
66. “... the existence of polonium halos in the biotite at the Fission and Silver Crater Mines [near Bancroft, Ontario] serves to identify the host ‘vein dikes’ as also being created rocks, ...” Robert V. Gentry, “Response to Wise,” Creation Research Society Quarterly, Vol. 25, March 1989, p. 177.
u “... [Wakefield] implies that certain ‘intrusive,’ crystalline rocks discount a creation origin for those rocks, but the fact is, my creation model includes these among the rock types that were created [as solids].” Robert V. Gentry, “Response to Wakefield’s Remarks,” Creation’s Tiny Mystery, p. 325.
67. Kurt P. Wise, “Radioactive Halos: Geologic Concerns,” Creation Research Society Quarterly, Vol. 25, March 1989, pp. 171–176.
68. Lorence G. Collins, “Polonium Halos and Myrmekite in Pegmatite and Granite,” Expanding Geospheres, Energy and Mass Transfers from Earth’s Interior, editor C. Warren Hunt (Calgary: Polar Publishing Company, 1992), p. 132.
Obviously, Collins overstates his case, because he could not have checked “all of the granites in which Gentry found polonium halos.” Nevertheless, myrmekites were found in many of those granites.
69. Feldspars are a class of minerals that constitute almost 60% of the earth’s crust. The subgroup, plagioclase feldspars, comes in two varieties: calcium-rich and sodium-rich. Myrmekite contains the sodium variety. Sodium feldspars form when sodium (Na1+) and silicon (Si4+) replace calcium (Ca2+) and aluminum (Al3+) in calcium feldspars.
An alert reader may wonder (1) where all the calcium went, and (2) what provided the silicon for the replacement. The chapter "The Origin of Limestone" on pages 236–241 answers the first question. Pages 120–122, which explain the extreme solubility of quartz (SiO2) in supercritical water (SCW), answer the second.
What accounts for the replacement of aluminum (Al) with sodium (Na) in the sodium feldspars? Answer: SCW readily dissolves aluminum (which opened up slots in calcium feldspars). Salt (NaCl) was dissolved in SCW as Na+ and Cl-. The Na+ then entered those slots.
70. “... several ‘puzzles’ that still challenge the geologic profession: ... Why are Po halos in biotite and fluorite associated with myrmekite-bearing granites?” Lorence G. Collins, Hydrothermal Differentiation and Myrmekite—A Clue to Many Geologic Puzzles (Athens, Greece: Theophrastus Publications, S.A., 1988), p. 5.
71. “The Po halos are observed to occur primarily in biotite and fluorite in pegmatites and in biotite in granite in terranes where the granite is myrmekitic.” Ibid., p. 232.
72. “Thus, polonium was deposited in new crystals that grew from voluminous hydrothermal flushing of sheared and fractured, formerly-solid, mafic rock. ... Rapid entry of radon and precipitation of polonium could occur if a gabbro or diorite site were made porous and depressurized by tectonism.” Collins, “Polonium Halos and Myrmekite in Pegmatite and Granite,” pp. 135, 136.
73. Collins’ explanation is a more detailed refinement of the explanation by Canadian physicist G. H. Henderson in 1939, one of the earliest radiohalo researchers. [See Endnote 58.] Others have proposed less-successful variations of Henderson’s basic insight or have repackaged Collins’ explanation without proper credit.
74. Collins’ vague explanation lacks specifics and a mechanism.
The creeping rock-movements associated with seismically-active terranes open avenues for radon-bearing water to move into lower-pressured pore space, and to the surface. Collins, “Polonium Halos and Myrmekite in Pegmatite and Granite,” p. 134.
“Creeping”? Why “seismically-active”? What “opened ‘avenues’ inside rock for radon-bearing water” and when? What provided the necessary energy and forces?
75. Photographs of these elliptical halos can be seen in Plate 5 of Gentry’s Radiohalo Catalogue in Creation’s Tiny Mystery.
76. Bryan C. Chakoumakos et al., “Alpha-Decay Induced Fracturing in Zircon: The Transition from the Crystalline to the Metamict State,” Science, Vol. 236, 19 June 1987, pp. 1556–1559.
77. “Fractures pay not the least attention to the cohesion minimums and not even to grain boundaries, where slip would take place so easily under stresses, but evidently occur quite suddenly in the form of an explosive fracture and not a slow expansion. The evidently simultaneous effect on various other constituents including those of rather different hardness and tenacity are proof of the above. The sudden released energy must be enormous in individual cases. The author observed fracture circles about orthite in quartz of about 1 meter diameter in the Iveland district in southern Norway!” Paul A. Ramdohr, “New Observations on Radioactive Halos and Radioactive Fracturing,” Oak Ridge National Laboratory Translation (ORNL-tr-755), 26 August 1965, p. 19.
78. “One of the major problems in determining the origin of batholiths of granite composition is to explain what happened to the country rock [the older rock] that was displaced by the invading magma.” [See Arthur N. Strahler, Physical Geology (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1981), p. 912.]
u “A second problem involves the great volume [hundreds of cubic miles in some cases] of pre-existing country rock which must be removed to provide space for an invading batholith—the eliminated country rock must be accounted for somehow.” [See W. G. Ernst, Earth Materials (Los Angeles: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1969), p. 108.]
79. A cyclic load on granite will produce a cyclic voltage. However, a static load on granite would not produce a sustainable voltage, because the minerals adjacent to each quartz crystal would slowly realign and neutralize the voltage. Also, once the temperature of quartz exceeds about 1,063°F (573°C), its atoms become mobile enough to neutralize any voltage.
80. “In some parts of the world, earthquakes are often accompanied by ball lighting, stroke lightning and sheet lightning. ... We propose that the piezoelectric effect in the Earth’s crust causes the electrical field. ... In rock with a mean piezoelectric coefficient several percent that of x cut single crystal quartz, and with typical seismic stress changes [of only] 30–300 bars, an earthquake makes an average electrical field of 500–5,000 V cm-1. For distances of the order of half the seismic wavelength, the generated voltage is 5 × 107 to 5 × 108 V, which is comparable with the voltage responsible for lightning in storms.” David Finkelstein and James Powell, “Earthquake Lightning,” Nature, Vol. 228, 21 November 1970, p. 759.
81. Quartz crystals, which occupied 27% of the granite hydroplate’s volume, generated about 0.0625 volt (V) per meter for each N/m2 (newton per square meter) of compression. [See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectric.] Granite’s compressive strength is about 2 × 108 N/m2. The crushing seen within the granite crust tells us that such compressive stresses have been exceeded in the past, and the observed electrical activity during modern earthquakes shows that breakdown thresholds are being reached today. [See "Earthquakes and Electricity" on page 343.] Certainly stresses exceeded this during the compression event and as the fluttering crust pounded pillars. Therefore, electric fields of at least 12.5 × 106 V/m were reached in the extreme top and bottom of the hydroplate.
Notice in Figure 192 how this exceeds the breakdown voltage of dry granite: 9 × 106 V/m. [See Smithsonian Physical Tables, 9th revised edition (Norwich, N.Y., Knovel, 2003), p. 423.]
Rock is weak in tension, so when the top half of the hydroplate was in the tension half of its flutter cycle, these high voltages were not reached (as they were in the compression half cycle). However, in the bottom half of the hydroplate, tension only means that the large compressive stresses due to the weight of the overlying rock was reduced by the amount of tension. Therefore, cyclic changes in stress in the bottom half, during both the tension and compression half cycle, produced these extreme voltages.
Temperature is another important variable. The above properties were measured at room temperatures. As temperatures increase up to the limit of 1,063°F (573°C) mentioned in Endnote 79, the piezoelectric coefficient increases and breakdown voltages decrease—both contributing to more extensive and powerful plasma production.
82. “All quartz-rich rocks (quartzites, granites, gneisses, mylonites) did show [statistically significant] piezoelectric effects when stressed.” J. R. Bishop, “Piezoelectric Effects in Quartz-Rich Rocks,” Technophysics, Vol. 77, 20 August 1981, p. 297.
u “... frequently in quartzite, the quartz occurs as grains with isometric form but shows a preferential orientation in terms of internal crystal structure, that is, in terms of the axes of crystallization.” E. I. Parkhomenko, Electrical Properties of Rocks (New York: Plenum Press, 1967), p. 6.
83. N. E. Ipe, “Radiological Considerations in the Design of Synchrotron Radiation Facilities,” Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, SLAC-PUB-7916, January 1999, p. 6.
This report briefly describes the three mechanisms by which bremsstrahlung radiation releases neutrons from nuclei.
84. Electrons accelerated in a plasma by high-energy lasers will produce neutrons, positrons, and fission fragments by bremsstrahlung radiation. [See P. L. Shkolnikov and A. E. Kaplan, “Laser-Induced Particle Production and Nuclear Reactions,” Journal of Nonlinear Optical Physics and Materials, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1997, pp. 161–167.]The photo of this lightning rod can be seen at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_pinch.
After the owner of this photograph gave permission to use his image of the lightning rod, he withdrew permission, because he did not want his photo “used for such non-scientific purposes” as this book. (No one should think that all scientists are unbiased and freely exchange data and information. Some even suppress information.) In three other instances involving different topics, evolutionists denied permission to use photographs for this book, even though copyright fees were offered.
85. Bennett, pp. 890–897.
86. Josh Dean, “This Machine Might Save the World,” Popular Science, January 2009, pp. 64–71.
87. “The spatial variation in d18O (Fig. 1) can most easily be explained by the upward migration along the flank of the [salt] dome of diagenetically altered waters enriched in heavy oxygen ... .” Jeffrey S. Hanor, “Kilometre-Scale Thermohaline Overturn of Pore Waters in the Louisiana Gulf Coast,” Nature, Vol. 327, 11 June 1987, p. 501.
u “Sulfate ions in saline lakes and brines have oxygen-18 enrichment of from 7 to 23 per mille relative to mean ocean water;” A. Longinelle and H. Craig, “Oxygen-18 Variations in Sulfate Ions in Sea Water and Saline Lakes,” Science, Vol. 156, 7 April 1967, p. 56.
u “Results indicate both higher enrichments of heavier isotopes [of 2H and 18O] and higher chloride concentrations in water samples from salt pans than in water samples from other sources.” H. Chandrasekharan et al., “Deuterium and Oxygen-18 Isotopes on Groundwater Salinization of Adjoining Salt Pans in Porbandar Coast, Gujarat, India,” Hydrochemistry, IAHS Publication No. 244, April 1997, p. 207.
88. The following definitions pertain to the sidebar "How Much Energy?" on page 354:
u Avogadro’s number: the number (6.022 × 1023) of atoms or molecules in one mole. For example, 12 grams of carbon contain 6.022 × 1023 carbon atoms.
u erg: a unit of energy or work done by a force of 1 dyne acting through a distance of 1 centimeter. For example, a 1-pound brick falling through 1 foot releases 13,600,000 ergs of energy.
u fast neutron: a free neutron with a kinetic energy of at least 1MeV (14,000 km/sec). Nuclear reactions (fission and fusion) produce fast neutrons.
u MeV: a unit of energy—a million electron volts. It is the energy gained by an electron accelerated through one million volts. A snowflake striking the concrete pavement releases about 4 MeV.
u mole: the amount of a pure substance whose mass, in grams, equals the number of nucleons in each atom or molecule. For example, 12 grams of carbon-12 is a mole. A mole of the molecule water (H2O or 1H + 1H +16O) is 18 grams of water.
u thermalize: to slow the effective speed of a subatomic particle (usually a neutron) until it corresponds to the speeds of like particles at the local temperature.
89. This huge energy release (1.8 × 1015 hydrogen bombs’ worth of energy, or 7.72 × 1037 ergs) must first be seen from the perspectives of two calculations. From the first, this energy will appear small, but from the second, it will seem too large. Then, to help resolve both in your mind, you will need to consider carefully the remarkable properties of supercritical water.
u If 7.72 × 1037 ergs of energy were released uniformly in the earth’s crust over 40 days, how many watts of power would be emitted in every cubic centimeter?
Earth has a surface area of 5.1 × 1018 cm2. Assuming that the crust is 16 × 105 cm thick (about 10 miles), the average cubic centimeter of rock would generate only 0.27 watts. 
where a watt-day = 8.64 × 1011 ergs. (A 100-watt light bulb releases energy 370 times faster. Also, some 20-watt light bulbs are less than a cubic centimeter.)
u If 7.72 × 1037 ergs of thermal energy were evenly distributed throughout the earth at one time, the entire earth would melt! The earth’s mass is 5.976 × 1027 grams. Let’s assume that a rise in earth’s temperature of 1,784 K throughout would melt the earth. Using the outer core’s specific heat and heat of fusion given in Table 32 on page 519, and neglecting the variation of these properties with pressure and temperature, the energy needed to melt the entire earth is
90. J. R. Rygg et al., “Dual Nuclear Product Observations of Shock Collapse in Inertial Confinement Fusion,” LLE Review, Vol. 111, pp. 148–153.
91. “Elevated emanations of hydrogen, radon, helium, and other gases were detected over some of the lineaments, thus indicating anomalous permeability of these zones in comparison with adjacent areas.” O. V. Anisimova and N. V. Koronovsky, “Lineaments in the Central Part of the Moscow Syneclise and Their Relations to Faults in the Basement,” Geotectonics, Vol. 41, No. 4, 2007, p. 315.
92. “... many lineaments are zones of seismic activity ... .” Ibid.
u “... the main seismic activity is concentrated on the first and second rank lineaments, and some of [the] important epicenters are located near the lineament intersections. Stich et al., (2001) obtained from the analysis of 721 earthquakes with magnitude between 1.5 and 5.0 mb [body-wave magnitude] that the epicenters draw [lie along] well-defined lineaments and show two dominant strike directions N120–130°E and N60–70°E, which are coincident with known fault systems in the area and with the source parameters of three of the largest events.” A. Arellano Baeza et al., “Changes in Geological Faults Associated with Earthquakes Detected by the Lineament Analysis of the Aster (TERRA) Satellite Data,” Pagina Web De Geofisica, December 2004, p. 1.
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Figure 193: Paris Gun. German engineers in World War I recognized that longer gun tubes would, with enough propellant (energy), accelerate artillery rounds for a longer duration and fire them farther—and even strike Paris from Germany. In 1918, this 92-foot-long gun, launching 210-pound rounds at a mile per second, could strike a target 81 miles away in 3 minutes. Parisians thought they were being bombed by quiet, high altitude zeppelins (dirigibles). If a 92-foot-long gun could launch material at a mile per second, how fast might a 10-mile-long gun tube launch material? In principle, if a gun tube is long enough and enough energy is available, a projectile could escape earth’s gravity and enter cometlike orbits. (Nuclear reactions provided more than enough energy to launch water and rocks into space.) Would the tremendous velocities in the fountains of the great deep harm or remove the atmosphere? Not by much if the launch velocity were great enough. As children, we all have had a bandage that we were afraid to rip off, because it would hurt. Even though our parents told us that a quick jerk would rip the bandage off with less pain, most of us didn’t believe them. It was counterintuitive, because we didn’t understand the role that inertia played in tending to keep our skin stationary. The same applies to the friction the fountains applied to the atmosphere. The greater the fountain’s velocity, the less kinetic energy the fountains could transfer to the atmosphere per pound of jetting water. Also, seconds after the rupture, the fountains (and rupture) were many miles wide,94 and then they grew even wider. Therefore, relatively little water made contact with the atmosphere. Furthermore, the fountains pulsated, so the jetting slowed at regular intervals, allowing most of the entrained air to fall back toward the earth. |
93. While all the crust was not obliterated, at least two large areas were. You will recall the discussion on page 115 (and Endnote 23 on page 134) of the vast “mother salt layer” about 20,000 feet below sea level under the Gulf of Mexico and under the Mediterranean Sea. As explained earlier, salt precipitated out of the SCW and formed a thick salt layer on the chamber floor before the flood. (This phenomenon in supercritical fluids, first reported in 1879, is called out-salting.) During the flood, so much nuclear energy was released that the resulting high pressures pulverized and blew away that portion of the crust, allowing the floor below to rise. Much less of the escaping subterranean waters could sweep over those salt layers to transport them up to the earth’s surface.
Even without this understanding, doesn’t it appear, if one looks at a globe, that a circular region of the Americas’ plate was removed to form the Gulf of Mexico and part of the Europe /Africa/Asia plate was removed to form the Mediterranean Sea? What about the Caribbean Sea and the Black Sea?
94. Granite typically has a tensile strength of 1,850 psi and a modulus of elasticity of 7,300,000 psi. The earth’s crust has a mean circumference of 24,875 miles. Therefore, the strain just before the rupture was about
Although other factors were involved, this might be, within an order of magnitude, the initial width of the rupture.
95. See the technical note, "Frequency of the Fluttering Crust" on page 522.
96. Other examples are more physically meaningful, at least to me. As a boy, I would buy bags of dried peas and put a dozen or so in my mouth. Then I would place one end of a plastic straw in my mouth, insert a pea in the straw with my tongue, and sneak around the corner of a house where I could blow peas out the other end and zap my friends who were trying to shoot me. (Fortunately, no one lost his eyesight.) With a longer straw and a bigger breath, I could shoot farther. Cannons, guns, rifles, mortars, and howitzers use the same principle. [See Figure 193.]
97. George Gamow, “Expanding Universe and the Origin of Elements,” Physical Review, Vol. 70, October 1946, pp. 572–573.
98. “However, it was soon realized that the building up of heavy nuclei during the Big Bang could not have continued very far, because collisions between nuclei became less frequent as the universe cooled [and expanded], and the thermal energy of the nuclei became too low to overcome the electrostatic repulsion of their positive charges.” Edward M. Baum et al., Nuclides and Isotopes: Chart of the Nuclides, 16th edition (Schenectady, NY: Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, 2002), p. 34.
99. Ralph A. Alpher, Hans Bethe, and George Gamow, “The Origin of Chemical Elements,” Physical Review, Vol. 73, April 1948, pp. 803–804.
100. “As already mentioned, there is no stable nucleus with five or eight nuclear particles [nucleons], so it is not possible to build nuclei heavier than helium by adding neutrons or protons to helium (4He) nuclei, or by fusing pairs of helium nuclei. (This obstacle was first noted by Enrico Fermi and Anthony Tukevich.)” Steven Weinberg, The First Three Minutes (New York: Bantam Books, Inc., 1977), p. 119.
u The barrier at 5 nucleons causes almost instantaneous decays, with half-lives of less than 7.6 × 10-22 seconds.
101. “It seems probable that the elements all evolved from hydrogen, since the proton is stable while the neutron is not. Moreover, hydrogen is the most abundant element, and helium, which is the immediate product of hydrogen burning by the pp chain and the CN cycle, is the next most abundant element.” Burbidge et al., p. 549.
102. Joseph Silk, The Big Bang (San Francisco: W. H. Freeman and Co., 1980), p. 79.
103. “But the stellar theory of nucleosynthesis also had its problems. It is difficult to see how stars could build up anything like a 25–30 percent helium abundance—indeed, the energy that would be released in this fusion would be much greater than stars seem to emit over their whole lifetime.” Weinberg, p. 120.
104. See Endnote 28 on page 134.
105. Charles Seife, “Accelerator Aims to Find the Source of All Elements,” Science, Vol. 298, 22 November 2002, p. 1544.
106. “... the temperatures in the interior of stars are measured in tens of millions of degrees, whereas several billion degrees are needed to ‘cook’ radioactive nuclei from the nuclei of lighter elements.” George Gamow, One Two Three ... Infinity, Bantam Science and Mathematics edition (New York: The Viking Press, Inc., 1961), p. 329.
Notice that researchers at the Proton-21 Electrodynamics Research Laboratory in the Ukraine, using a Z-pinch, are overcoming Coulomb forces and producing heavy elements by fusion at close to these billion degree temperatures. [See page 341.] However, it happens briefly (in 10-8 second) in a “hot dot” that is less than 10-7 millimeter in diameter. Supernovas are not needed, only a focused and concentrated plasma.
107. “The simplest interpretation of this linear relation is that the radioactivity measured at the surface is constant from the surface to depth b.” Roy et al., p. 1.
Roy then calculates that throughout the eastern United States, b = 4.68 miles, but increases slightly for other regions, such as the western United States and parts of Australia.
108. If the base of a semi-infinite, 4.68-mile-thick slab of rock is heated from below by a steady heat source, half that heat flux will pass through the top of the slab in 1.5 million years. After 40 million years, 90% of the heat flux entering from below would reach the surface. For each doubling of the slab’s thickness, the time required for a given fraction of the heat flux to reach the surface increases by a factor of four.
109. Arthur H. Lachenbruch, “Crustal Temperature and Heat Production: Implications of the Linear Heat-Flow Relation,” Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 75, No. 17, 10 June 1970, pp. 3291–3300.
110. “Heat production rate is well correlated to lithology; no significant variation with depth, neither strictly linear nor exponential, is observed over the entire depths of the [two German holes].” Christoph Clauser et al., “The Thermal Regime of the Crystalline Continental Crust: Implications from the KTB,” Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 102, No. B8, 10 August 1997, p. 18,418.
111. Frank D. Stacey, Physics of the Earth (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1969), p. 244.
112. Frank D. Stacey, Physics of the Earth, 3rd edition (Brisbane, Australia: Brookfield Press, 1992), pp. 62–65.
113. “Even larger amounts of neutrons can be generated [by bremsstrahlung radiation in heavy chemical elements], in particular in natural uranium.” Shkolnikov and Kaplan, p. 165.
114. “[At the Oklo reactor] most of the fission-product elements and the neutron capture products have remained partially or wholly in place.” George A. Cowan et al., “The Oklo Phenomenon,” p. 342.
115. Frank D. Stacey, Physics of the Earth (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1969), p. 240.
116. After etching mica sheets with acid, Robert Gentry could see tiny pits where heavy, recoiling atoms had impacted after ejecting an alpha particle. He assumed those pits were made by recoiling polonium. Pit densities near isolated polonium halos were no greater than the pit densities far from halos. Therefore, he concluded that diffusion or slow movement did not transport polonium (an alpha emitter) into the halo centers. If that had happened, some polonium would have decayed as the polonium converged on those centers, so pit densities would have been greater near polonium halos. [See Robert V. Gentry, “Fossil Alpha-Recoil Analysis of Certain Variant Radioactive Halos,” Science, Vol. 160, 14 June 1968, pp. 1228–1230.] This led to his eventual conclusion that the hundreds of millions of polonium isotopes must have been clustered at specific points since the instant of creation.
However, Gentry overlooked the powerful positive electrical charges at certain impact points and the rapid transport of 222Rn in flowing water along channels between growing sheets of mica. A flowing 222Rn atom that emitted an alpha particle instantly became 218Po with a -2 electrical charge. That new polonium was pulled into the nearest point of positive charge in seconds. Then when the anchored polonium decayed minutes later, heat from its recoil evaporated more negatively charged hydroxide particles, so those points became even more positively charged and attracted more polonium even faster from greater distances. Almost all the uniformly distributed recoil pits Gentry saw were produced by decaying 222Rn, not decaying polonium.
117. “Dehydroxylation” is the removal of hydroxide ions (OH-) from a mineral’s crystalline structure by the application of heat and high pressures. Usually the heat and pressure are applied to a large mass of the mineral. However, in the case at hand, a 218Po atom impacting a mineral containing hydroxide would concentrate tremendous heat and pressure near the impact point, release thousands of OH- ions from their crystalline structure, form water (HOH), and result in dehydroxylation. The reaction is of the type
[See Douglas Yeskis et al., “The Dehydroxylation of Kaolinite,” American Mineralogist, Vol. 70, 1985, pp. 159–164.] Flowing water then dissolves and removes the O 2– ion.
To get a feel for the large number of particles that might be removed by the impact of just one 218Po atom—or the decay of an embedded 218Po atom—consider the following. At 100°C and atmospheric pressure, 539 calories of heat will evaporate 1 gram of liquid water. (1 MeV = 3.83 × 10 -14 cal) Eighteen grams of water (1 mole) contains 6.022 × 10 23 molecules. Therefore, the kinetic energy of one recoiling 218Po (2% of the 5.49 MeV of energy released by the decay of 222Rn) could, if concentrated, evaporate up to
118. Ejaz ur Rehman et al., “Mass Spectrometric Determination of 234U/238U Ratio with Improved Precision,” Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 77, 1 November 2005, pp. 7098–7099.
119. This is a major problem for evolutionists who visualize chondrules being formed at the extremely low pressures and temperatures of outer space. (At low pressures, volatiles bubble out quickly—like gas escaping from the sudden opening of a carbonated beverage.) However, the hydroplate theory explains the retention of volatiles, because they formed under the high confining pressures inside rocks in the subterranean chamber. Also, they froze seconds after escaping from the hot, high-pressure, subterranean chamber. [See “Rocket Science” on pages 504–505.]
120. Naoyuki Fujii and Masamichi Miyamoto, “Constraints on the Heating and Cooling Processes of Chondrule Formation,” Chondrules and Their Origins, editor Elbert A. King (Houston: Lunar and Planetary Institute, 1983), pp. 53–60.
u Impact melting would not duplicate characteristics in and around chondrules. [See J. A. Wood and H. Y. McSween Jr., “Chondrules as Condensation Products,” Comets, Asteroids, Meteorites, editor A. H. Delsemme (Toledo, Ohio: The University of Toledo, 1977), pp. 365–373. Also see T. J. Wdowiak, “Experimental Investigation of Electrical Discharge Formation of Chondrules,” Chondrules and Their Origins, pp. 279–283.] Donald E. Brownlee et al. give seven other reasons why impact melting did not produce chondrules. [See “Meteor Ablation Spherules as Chondrule Analogs,” Chondrules and Their Origins, p. 23.]
121. T. D. Swindle et al., “Radiometric Ages of Chondrules,” Chondrules and Their Origins (Houston: Lunar and Planetary Institute, 1983), pp. 246–261.
u “CAIs [calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions] are believed to have formed about two million years before the chondrules. Here we report the discovery of a chondrule fragment embedded in a CAI.” Shoichi Itoh and Hisayashi Yurimoto, “Contemporaneous Formation of Chondrules and Refractory Inclusions in the Early Solar System,” Nature, Vol. 423, 12 June 2003, p. 728. [See also “Mixed-Up Meteorites” on page ix and “A Question of Timing” on page 691.]
122. Richard Ash, “Small Spheres of Influence,” Nature, Vol. 372, 17 November 1994, p. 219.
123. “As already described, the separated chondrules in the polished mount frequently grade into material similar to the matrix around their peripheries. ... boundaries between chondrules and matrix are frequently very gradational.” R. M. Housley and E. H. Cirlin, “On the Alteration of Allende Chondrules and the Formation of Matrix,” Chondrules and Their Origins, p. 152.
124. “Clear evidence of [former] 60Fe in chondrites was first found in troilite (FeS) and magnetite (Fe3O4).” Shogo Tachibana et al., “60Fe in Chondrites: Debris from a Nearby Supernova in the Early Solar System?” The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 639, 10 March 2006, pp. L87–L90.
u “[Researchers] analyzed two primitive meteorites that are thought to be almost pristine leftovers of solar system formation. They detected nickel 60, the product of the radioactive decay of iron 60, in chemical compounds where, by rights iron should be found.” Simon F. Portegies Zwart, “The Long-Lost Siblings of the Sun,” Scientific American, Vol. 301, November 2009, p. 42.
u “Recent studies of meteorites confirm the presence of live 60Fe in the early solar system.” J. Jeff Hester et al., “The Cradle of the Solar System,” Science, Vol. 304, 21 May 2004, p. 1116.
125. What is meant by “quickly”? Supernovas are the hottest and most violent explosions observed in the universe. If mineral grains are somehow to form from a supernova, the gas/plasma debris from the supernova must first merge into microscopic particles. That is quite a trick, because the expanding gas/plasma moves radially outward, steadily increasing the distances between most of its atomic and subatomic particles. Martin Harwit calculates that to grow a grain to only 10-5 centimeter would require 3 billion years—assuming no expansion and that every particle that strikes a growing grain would stick. Sir Fred Hoyle put it more bluntly; “... there is no reasonable astronomical scenario in which mineral grains can condense.” [See “Interstellar Gas” on page 93.]
Second, these tiny grains (drifting weightlessly in space) must gravitationally collect into small bodies. Then those bodies must somehow merge into asteroid-size bodies, massive enough to compress and heat (in a supercold, nearly absolute zero, environment) the grains into uniform crystals. At that point, enough 60Fe atoms might be concentrated to form minerals such as troilite (FeS) and magnetite (Fe3O4). How long would this second step take? No one can say for sure, but probably most astronomers have an opinion. If they were candid, I suspect many would say that this second step couldn’t happen in 10,000,000 years. But almost all the 60Fe (half-life 1,500,000 years) would have decayed before then. In other words, neither the first nor the second step could happen quickly enough to form detectable crystals containing 60Fe.
126. “The supernova was stunningly close; much closer to the sun than any star is today.” Brian D. Fields as quoted by the University of Illinois News Bureau, 10 April 2006.
http://news.illinois.edu/NEWS/06/1004solar.html
u Leslie W. Looney, John J. Tobin, and Brian D. Fields, “Radioactive Probes of the Supernova-Contaminated Solar Nebula,” The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 652, 1 December 2006, pp. 1755–1762.
127. George Cooper et al., “Carbonaceous Meteorites As a Source of Sugar-Related Organic Compounds for the Early Earth,” Nature, Vol. 414, 20/27 December 2001, pp. 879–883.
128. John W. Harbaugh et al., “Reconstructing Late Cenozoic Stream Gradients from High-Level Chert Gravels in Central Eastern Kansas,” Current Research in Earth Sciences, Bulletin 253, 2007, p. 14.
129. “The observation that Mars’ northern polar cap barely deforms [from season to season] implies that its planetary interior is colder than expected.” Matthias Grott, “Is Mars Geodynamically Dead?” Science, Vol. 320, 30 May 2008, p. 1171.
“This result is surprising. First, the temperatures in the interior of terrestrial planets should be proportional to their radius if they started with the same amount and distribution of radioactive, heat-producing elements and then cooled through surface losses. In this case, [the surface heat loss from] Mars would be expected to plot between Earth and the Moon. However, the new estimates imply that the martian heat flow, a measure for the temperatures in the planetary interior, is below that of the Moon, even though Mars is about twice the diameter.” Ibid.
u “Mars probably has subchondritic heat sources” [that is, less heat-generating radioactive material than is contained in the meteoritic material from which it supposedly formed]. Roger J. Phillips et al., “Mars North Polar Deposits: Stratigraphy, Age, and Geodynamical Response,” Science, Vol. 320, 30 May 2008, p. 118585.
130. Peter R. Briere and Kathryn M. Scanlon, “Lineaments and Lithology Derived from a Side-Looking Airborne Radar Image of Puerto Rico,” U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 00-006, 2000, pp. 1–5.
131. Paul M. Myrow et al., “Extraordinary Transport and Mixing of Sediment across Himalayan Central Gondwana during the Cambrian-Ordovician,” Geological Society of America Bulletin, Vol. 122, September/October 2010, p. 1660.
132. Myrow et al., p. 1660.
133. Burbidge et al., pp. 547–650.
134. “Optical measurements of the beryllium and boron abundances in halo stars have been achieved by the 10 meter KECK telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope. These observations indicate a quasi linear correlation between Be and B vs. Fe, at least at low metallicity, which, at first sight, is contrary to a dominating GCR [Galactic Cosmic Ray] origin of the light elements which predicts a quadratic relationship. As a consequence, the theory of the origin and evolution of LiBeB nuclei has to be refined.” E. Vangioni-Flam and M. Cassé, p. 77.
135. A blind test requires that the people making the measurements not know (be “blind” to) which of several specimens is the one of interest. For example, to measure a rock’s age by some radiometric technique, similar rocks—of different, but known, ages—must accompany the rock of interest. Only after the measurements are announced are the technicians making the measurements told the history of any specimen. Subtle biases can enter the experimental procedure if individuals with vested interests in the test’s outcome make the measurement or influence those who do. Blind tests ensure objectivity.
A special type of blind test commonly used in medicine is a “double-blind test.” Neither doctors nor patients know who receives the special treatment being tested. A random selection determines which patients receive the special treatment and which receive a placebo—something obviously ineffective, such as a sugar pill. Experienced medical researchers give little credibility to any medicine or treatment that has not demonstrated its effectiveness in a well-designed and rigorously executed double-blind test.
The Shroud of Turin, claimed to be the burial cloth of Christ, was supposedly dated by a blind test. Actually, the technicians at all three laboratories making the measurements could tell which specimen was from the Shroud. [Personal communication on 19 July 1989 with Dr. Austin Long, who participated in the measurements.] The test would have been blind if the specimens had been reduced to unidentified carbon powder before they were given to the testing laboratories.
Radiometric dates that do not fit a desired theory are often thrown out by alleging contamination. Few ever hear about such tests. If those who object to a blind radiometric date have not identified the contamination before the test, their claims of contamination should carry little weight. Therefore, careful researchers should first objectively evaluate the possibility of contamination.
Humans are naturally biased. We tend to see what we want to see and explain away unwanted data. This applies especially to those proposing theories, myself included. Scientists are not immune to this human shortcoming. Many popular ideas within geology would probably never have survived had a critical age measurement been subjected to a blind test.
136. John Woodmorappe, “Radiometric Geochronology Reappraised,” Creation Research Society Quarterly, Vol. 16, September 1979, pp. 102–129.
u Robert H. Brown, “Graveyard Clocks: Do They Tell Real Time?” Signs of the Times, June 1982, pp. 8–9.
u “It is obvious that radiometric techniques may not be the absolute dating methods that they are claimed to be. Age estimates on a given geological stratum by different radiometric methods are often quite different (sometimes by hundreds of millions of years). There is no absolutely reliable long-term radiological ‘clock.’ ” William D. Stansfield, Science of Evolution (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1977), p. 84.
137. “Chemical and physical processes such as mantle convection, tectonic-plate recycling and magma generation through partial melting should have scrambled, if not obliterated, any coherent geochemical signature of the primordial material. Even if a vestige of such material remained, it seems unlikely that it would be found in any samples from Earth’s surface or the shallow subsurface that are available to geologists. Yet that is what [this] new evidence suggests.” David Graham, “Relict Mantle from Earth’s Birth,” Nature, Vol. 466, 12 August 2010, p. 822.
u “Cenozoic-Era Baffin Island and West Greenland lavas, previously found to host the highest terrestrial-mantle 3He/4He ratios, exhibit primitive lead-isotope ratios that are consistent with an ancient mantle source age of 4.55–4.45 Gyr [billion years]. The Baffin Island and West Greenland lavas also exhibit 143Nd/144Nd ratios similar to values recently proposed for an early-formed (roughly 4.5 Gyr ago) terrestrial mantle reservoir.” Matthew G. Jackson et al., “Evidence for the Survival of the Oldest Terrestrial Mantle Reservoir,” Nature, Vol. 466, 12 August 2010, p. 853.
138. “Beyond its Fe deficiency, the singular feature of HE0107–5240 is that its measured abundance of C, relative to Fe, is about 10,000 times the observed ratio of these elements in the Sun, the largest such ‘over-abundance’ ratio ever seen. The N abundance ratio is also greatly enhanced, though only by a factor of 200.” Timothy C. Beers, “Telling the Tale of the First Stars,” Nature, Vol. 422, 24 April 2003, p. 825.
139. Silk, p. 124.
140. Baum et al., p. 34.