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JB: Noah’s Flood: The Key to Correct Interpretation of Earth His
tory
By: Admin Date: January 23, 2017, 12:17 pm
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Noah’s Flood: The Key to Correct Interpretation of Earth History
HTML https://www.socalsem.edu/noahs-flood-the-key-to-correct-interpretation-of-earth-history
Aug 9, 2015
by John Baumgardner, Ph.D. | Sep 18, 2013
John Baumgardner, Ph.D
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Retired
Presented at the International Noah and Judi Mountain Symposium
Şirnak University, Şirnak, Turkey
September 27-29, 2013
Abstract
One of the main reasons that people trained in the sciences
today ignore the account in the Torah of a recent global Flood
cataclysm is that they are persuaded that the standard
geological timescale is in large measure correct. This paper
reviews research that shows that the key assumption underpinning
that timescale, namely, the time invariance of nuclear decay
processes is false. That conclusion is being affirmed by
increasing numbers of publications reporting soft tissue
preservation in animal fossils from deep in the geological
record. With the barrier of the timescale removed, spectacular
physical evidence for a global catastrophic Flood of the sort
described in the Torah and Quran becomes obvious. The complete
destruction of all land-dwelling, air-breathing life on earth,
except that preserved on the ark of Noah, as described in these
accounts, immediately suggests that the fossils preserved in the
sediment record must represent plants and animals destroyed in
the Flood. The logical place in the rock record for the onset of
this cataclysm therefore must be where five striking
global-scale geological discontinuities—a mechanical-erosional
discontinuity, a time/age discontinuity, a tectonic
discontinuity, a sedimentary discontinuity, and a
paleontological discontinuity coincide (Snelling 2009, 707-711).
This unique boundary lies at the base of the Ediacaran in the
late Neoproterozoic part of the geological record. Where
Ediacaran sediments are missing, it coincides with the
Precambrian-Cambrian boundary where Cambrian sediments are
present. The identification of this boundary with the onset of
the Flood implies that a staggering amount of tectonic
catastrophism also must have accompanied the large amount of
erosion and sedimentation involved. This paper summarizes some
of the work done over the past thirty years to apply numerical
modeling to investigate various aspects of this year-long event
that dramatically refashioned the face of the earth.
Introduction
The account of Noah’s Flood in the Torah, when interpreted
according to the normal sense of the words, speaks of a global
scale cataclysm that destroyed all the air-breathing terrestrial
life on earth within the span of a single year. Indeed, the
Flood is the only event mentioned in the Torah since the
creation of the earth itself up to the present capable of
producing global-scale geological change. Certainly an event of
this magnitude should have left an abundance of physical
evidence across the face of the earth. Many well-trained people
today claim there is no such evidence. What is behind such a
conclusion?
A crucial assumption underlying the conclusion of no evidence is
that the standard geological timescale is generally correct.
Under this assumption, as one surveys the evidence, it is
unambiguously clear that there was no global-scale event that
destroyed the earth’s air-breathing life on a massive scale
sometime the third millennium BC. The issue is plain. Either the
standard time scale is correct and there was no Flood as
described in the Torah, or the time scale is incorrect in a
profound way and a global Flood cataclysm is a genuine
possibility. I and several of my colleagues have come to the
conclusion that the latter choice is the one that corresponds to
reality.
In this paper I review briefly the results of the Radioisotopes
and the Age of the Earth (RATE) research effort completed in
2005 that found several independent lines of radioisotope
evidence that the earth itself is only thousands, not billions,
of years old. The clearest line of evidence is that zircons in
granite with U-Pb ages of more than a billion years retain as
much as 80% of their radiogenic helium. The carefully measured
diffusion rate of helium in zircon limits significant He
retention to only a few thousand years. A second line of
evidence are an abundance of damage patterns known as radiohalos
caused by alpha particle radiation from radioisotopes of
polonium whose half-lives vary between 164 microseconds to 138
days. Extremely rapid radioactive decay of uranium in the close
proximity seems logically required to account for the high
concentrations of polonium required to generate these Po
radiohalos in the short time window available.
A third line of evidence is the consistent presence of readily
measurable levels of 14C in plants and animals fossilized and
buried deep within the geological record. Due to the short 14C
half-life, 14C from living things, with the best technology
available today, ought to be undetectable beyond 100,000 years
(17.5 half-lives). Yet accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)
technology routinely reveals significant levels of 14C in
organic samples from the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Tertiary
portions of the geological record. If the standard time scale is
valid, how can Paleozoic samples contain levels of 14C that
imply ages in the range of only thousands of years? All three
lines of evidence point strongly to the conclusion that nuclear
decay rates have been much higher during episodes in the earth’s
past than they are today. The erroneous assumption on which
radioisotope methods have relied, namely, that decay rates have
been constant in the past, is the reason for the huge
discrepancy between the standard geological time scale and the
Torah’s time line for the earth’s physical history.
With the radioisotope time scale removed as a mental barrier,
then it becomes almost obvious that the fossil-bearing
sedimentary rocks must correspond to sediments which were
suspended, transported, and deposited during Noah’s Flood. These
rocks commonly contain internal evidence for high-energy
processes and display large lateral transport scales. Six
global-scale erosional unconformities partition this
fossil-bearing sediment record vertically into six global
mega-sequences. In addition, a vast amount of lateral plate
motion, seafloor spreading, and subduction accompanied the
formation of the sediment record. Most of the second part of
this paper describes work done since the mid-1980’s relating to
the concept of catastrophic plate tectonics. Based on the
experimentally measured deformation behavior of silicate
minerals, this research reveals how under realistic stress
conditions mantle rock can weaken by many orders of magnitude,
accompanied by runaway mantle avalanching and overturn. This
work argues that the Flood of Noah was not only a hydrological
cataclysm also a tectonic one that moved continental blocks by
thousands of kilometers across the face of the earth and renewed
the entire ocean floor. Within this logical framework, the Flood
of Noah therefore becomes the centerpiece to a correct
understanding of the earth’s true physical history.
Radioisotope dating—why the time scale cannot be absolute
Radioisotope dating methods rely critically on the assumption
that nuclear decay rates have remained constant over the entire
course of earth history. Without this assumption a true absolute
chronology is not possible from these methods. In 1997 a team of
seven researchers, with expertise in physics, geophysics, and
geology, began a project specifically to explore why
radioisotope methods yield an age for the earth of some 4.6
billion years, while the age of the earth according to a
straightforward reading of the Torah is less than ten thousand
years. This eight-year research effort known as RATE, for
Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth, yielded several
independent lines of radioisotope evidence which argue
forcefully that the assumption of time-invariant nuclear decay
rates since the earth has been in existence is false. The final
technical report for this project is Radioisotopes and the Age
of the Earth: Results of a Young-Earth Creationist Research
Initiative, Volume II, edited by L. Vardiman, A. Snelling, and
E. Chaffin and published in 2005. This report is available
online, with each of the ten chapters available as a separate
PDF file, at
HTML http://www.icr.org/rate2/.
Figure 1 is a photo of
the RATE team.
Noah's Flood - The RATE team included seven research scientists
Figure 1. The RATE team included seven research scientists.
Middle row, L-R: Andrew Snelling, Ph.D., geology; Steven Austin,
Ph.D., geology; Donald DeYoung, Ph.D., physics. Front row, L-R:
John Baumgardner, Ph.D., geophysics, Larry Vardiman, Ph.D.,
geophysics; Russell Humphreys, Ph.D., physics; Eugene Chaffin,
Ph.D., physics. Back row, L-R: John Morris, Ph.D., President of
the Institute for Creation Research; Kenneth Cumming, Ph.D.,
Dean, Institute for Creation Research Graduate School; William
Hoesch, M.S., laboratory technician; Steven Boyd, Ph.D.,
professor of Biblical Hebrew.
High levels of He retention in zircons
The clearest and simplest line of evidence undergirding this
conclusion involves the high levels of helium retention in
zircon crystals from Proterozoic crustal basement rock of
mid-continent North America. Zircon, ZrSiO4, is a common
auxiliary mineral in granitic rocks and typically contains from
10 ppm to 1 weight percent uranium. Because of its hardness, its
high melting temperature, and the fact that essentially no Pb is
included in its structure when it crystallizes, zircon has been
used widely for dating crustal igneous and metamorphic rocks.
The samples used in this study was from core recovered from a
4.3 km deep research well designated as GT-2 near Fenton Hill,
New Mexico, drilled by researchers at Los Alamos National
Laboratory in the 1970’s to explore the feasibility of hot dry
rock geothermal energy extraction. The radioisotope age
determined for this core, based on the U, Th, and Pb levels
measured in its zircons was 1.50±0.02 Ga (Zartman 1979). Samples
of this core were also sent to Oak Ridge National Laboratory in
the late 1970’s for additional analysis. Researchers there found
extraordinary levels of radiogenic helium in the zircons. For
example, in a sample from a depth of 960 m, 58% of the He
arising via alpha decay of U and Th decay over the rock’s
history was still present (Gentry et al., 1982). RATE analysis
of rock from this same core found 80% retention from a sample at
750 m depth and 42% retention from a sample at 1490 m depth
(Vardiman et al. 2005, 29). Table 1 below provides the helium
retention measurements data for five samples (numbered 1-5)
reported by Gentry et al. (1982), plus the two (2002 and 2003)
analyzed by the RATE team. Temperatures logged during the
drilling process for the sample depths ranged from 96°C at 750 m
to 313°C at 4310 m depth. The varying helium retention ratios
are consistent with the fact that gaseous diffusion rates
increase with temperature.
Table 1. Helium retention in zircons from core from drill hole
GT-2, Fenton Hill, New Mexico. Q/Q0 is the ratio of the measured
helium concentration in the zircons to the amount generated by U
and Th decay based on the measured amount of radiogenic Pb
present. Samples 1-5 are from Gentry et al. (1982). Samples 2002
and 2003 are from the RATE study reported in Vardiman et al.
(2005).
Noah's flood - Helium retention in zircons
Even before the RATE study, it was clear that the retention
levels reported by Gentry et al. (1982) were nearly impossible
to reconcile with the U-Pb age of the samples. Published
diffusion rates for helium in other solids suggested that the
radiogenic helium in the zircons ought to be undetectable.
Because the helium diffusivity in zircon had never been
measured, the RATE team considered it of high priority to obtain
that experimental information. The RATE team therefore
contracted with what they deemed the best laboratory in the
world to measure zircon He diffusivity. The laboratory was
provided with 1200 zircons, 50-75 µm in length, separated from
core from borehole GT-2 at a depth of 1490 m, some of which are
shown in Figure 2. The laboratory procedure involved measuring
the amount of helium that escaped from the zircons as they were
maintained at carefully controlled temperatures under vacuum
conditions for one-hour intervals. Escaped helium was measured
for each of 28 separate temperature values as the temperature
was stepped multiple times over the range 200-500°C. A total of
1356 x 10-9 cm3 helium at STP was collected from 216 mg of
zircon. These values are the basis for the entries in Table 1 of
6.3x10-9 cm3/mg helium and 42% helium retention shown for sample
2003.
Creation Science Photo of zircons used in the He diffusivity
analysis
Figure 2. Photo of zircons used in the He diffusivity analysis.
These were separated from core extracted from borehole GT-2 at
Fenton Hill, New Mexico, from a depth of 1490 m.
Figure 3 displays the zircon He diffusivity values provided by
these laboratory measurements. It also highlights the fact that
the helium retention values shown in Table 1 are indeed
dramatically higher than one should expect if indeed the actual
rock crystallization age is 1.5 Ga. These data suggest a much
briefer history for this crustal rock, on the order of only 6000
years. The zircons provide two almost entirely independent
clocks for determining rock age, one based on the rate of
nuclear decay of U and Th to Pb and He in the zircons, and the
second based on the rate of diffusion of He through zircon into
the much more diffusive biotite that hosts the zircons in the
polycrystalline granitic rock. There is a discrepancy of a
factor of approximately 250,000 in the elapsed time the two
clocks provide. The obvious question is what is the source of
this huge discrepancy?
creation science Helium diffusivity in zircon from direct
experimental measurement
Figure 3. Helium diffusivity in zircon from direct experimental
measurement compared with diffusivities implied by helium
retention values from Table 1 for two different values of
elapsed time since zircon formation. Error bars represent 95%
confidence intervals. Note that there is approximately a factor
of 105 between the diffusivities implied by the two elapsed
times.
Much more detail on the experimental procedures, assumptions
involved in the translation of the measurements into diffusivity
values, and discussion of many possible alternative explanations
of the results is included Chapter 2 of Vardiman et al. (2005)
[also available as (Humphreys 2005)].
Polonium radiohalos—from where does the Po arise?
A second major study undertaken by the RATE team focused on the
phenomenon of polonium radiohalos. Radiohalos are microscopic
spherical shells of damage in minerals such as biotite produced
by alpha particles emitted by radioactive elements which are
localized at the center of the spherical pattern. These features
were first reported in the 1880’s, but their cause remained a
mystery until after the discovery of radioactivity in the
1890’s. In the following decade Joly (1907) and Mügge (1907)
independently suggested that the patterns of darkening observed
around small inclusions in minerals such as biotite was due to
alpha particles emitted by radioactive species within central
mineral inclusions. Subsequently, it has been confirmed that
commonly it is a tiny crystal of zircon which hosts U or a
crystal of monazite that hosts Th at the center of a radiohalo.
For the case of 238U, there are eight alpha-emitting species,
238U, 234U, 230Th, 226Ra, 222Rn, 218Po, 214Po, and 210Po, in the
decay chain which culminates with 206Pb, which is stable. Each
alpha-emitting species has a distinctive alpha particle energy.
Because the radius of the shell of damage is related to the
alpha energy, a mature 238U radiohalo ideally has eight distinct
shells. However, because the alpha energies of some of the
species are so similar, often it is difficult under the
microscope to distinguish some of the shells from others that
have similar energies. In biotite these shells vary in radius
from about 13 to 35 µm. About 500 million to a billion 238U
decays are required to generate a mature halo. Zircons 1 µm in
diameter typically have sufficient U to produce mature halos. A
photograph of a 238U halo is displayed in Figure 4. For the case
of radiohalos produced by 232Th, there are seven rings
corresponding to the seven alpha-emitting species in the 232Th
decay chain which culminates with stable 208Pb.
creation science radiohalo in biotite
Figure 4. 238U radiohalo in biotite. Alpha particles consisting
of two protons and two neutrons from the eight alpha emitting
radioisotopes in the 238U decay chain which are localized within
a central zircon crystal generate eight spherical zones of
damage in the surrounding lattice of a larger host biotite
crystal. Each radioisotope has its own characteristic alpha
particle energy. Penetration distance in the biotite depends on
alpha particle energy. The radius of the 238U ring is about 13
mm, while that of the 214Po ring is about 35 mm. (Photograph
courtesy of Mark Armitage)
Biotite, a common mica mineral in crustal crystalline rocks, has
been the mineral of choice in the study of radiohalos. This is
because biotite is the majority mineral in which U and Th
radiohalos occur. It is also because of the ease of thin section
preparation and the clarity of the halos in these thin sections.
Biotite is a sheet silicate, with the sheets weakly bound
together by potassium atoms. The sheets cleave easily, exposing
radiohalos in cross-section when halos are present. Using clear
Scotch™ tape, biotite flakes can readily be cleaved and dozens
of individual biotite sheets transferred to a single microscope
slide for inspection. Of particular interest are sheets that
intersect mid-planes of a spherical radiohalo. When viewed under
a microscope, such sheets display the halo in cross-section with
concentric circular rings, as Figure 4 illustrates.
Some unusual radiohalo types have been discovered besides those
formed by 238U and 232Th. The most notable ones are those formed
by polonium. There are three Po isotopes in the 238U decay
chain, 218Po with a half-life of 3.1 minutes, 214Po with a
half-life of 164 ms, and 210Po with a half-life of 138 days. Po
radiohalos with rings produced exclusively by one or more of
these Po alpha-emitting isotopes have been recognized for more
than 90 years. Joly (1917, 1924) was probably the first to
identify 210Po radiohalos and was unable to account for their
origin. Schilling (1926) found Po halos along cracks in fluorite
and proposed that they originated from preferential deposition
of Po from U-bearing solutions. Henderson (1939) and Henderson
and Sparks (1939) advanced a similar hypothesis to explain Po
radiohalos along conduits in biotite. The reason for invoking
secondary processes to explain the origin of Po radiohalos is
simple—the half-lives of the Po isotopes are far too short to be
explained by their original presence in the granitic magma that
cooled and crystallized to yield the rocks in which Po halos are
presently found. For example, the half-life of 218Po is only 3.1
minutes. Moreover, there are no crystalline inclusions at the
centers of the Po radiohalos similar to the zircons that are
typically at the centers of 238U radiohalos. Instead there are
voids. Figure 5 displays a 218Po halo.
flood6
Figure 5. 218Po radiohalo in biotite. This halo is overexposed
in terms of the amount of alpha radiation that has formed it.
This overexposure has caused its rings to be reversed, that is,
to be light in color instead of being dark. Note the lack of a
crystal at the center.
Yet accounting for these radiohalos by secondary processes is
also fraught with difficulty. First, if the Po is derived from
238U, then there is the need to separate the Po isotopes and/or
their beta-decay precursors from the parent 238U, since evidence
in these halos for prior presence of alpha-emitting precursors
is missing. Second, the number of Po atoms needed to produce a
mature 218Po, for example, at the center of the halo is vast.
Gentry (1974) estimated that as many as 5x109 atoms, or greater
that 50% of the volume of the radiocenter, are required. It has
been difficult to imagine what sort of physical process might
yield such high localized concentrations of Po atoms within a
very short time available, especially if these atoms had to
migrate or diffuse from their source into the biotite crystals
where the radiohalos are now found. A third problem is that if
rock temperature exceeds 150°C the damage caused by the alpha
particles is annealed and the radiohalo disappears. Hence,
whatever the secondary process might have been for transporting
the Po from its source to the radiocenter, temperatures must
have been modest.
The restrictions on Po radiohalo formation are so extreme that
it seems that highly extraordinary circumstances were in play
for radiohalos derived from Po to exist at all. In its beginning
attempts to understand how Po halos might have formed, the RATE
team reasoned that almost certainly that, because of the short
isotope half-lives, the Po could not be associated with the
primary crystallization of the rocks in which Po halos are
found. This implies, as the early investigators surmised, that
the Po had to be transported to the Po radiocenters by some
secondary process. Moreover, the RATE team concluded that one
almost indispensable requirement was an adequate nearby source
of Po atoms. 238U in close proximity seemed to be the most
likely Po source. Further, the RATE team reasoned that the lack
of alpha-emitting precursors to Po in the radiocenters and the
constraint of low temperatures in the preservation of the halos
pointed to aqueous fluid as the likely transport agent.
Because the RATE team realized keenly that further investigation
of the phenomenon of Po radiohalos could possibly shed important
light of the history of nuclear decay in the earth, a campaign
was launched to sample granitic bodies at many localities around
the world and to search for the presence of radiohalos,
especially Po halos. Fairly early in this campaign a major
discovery was made. It was found that Po halos, especially 210Po
halos, were spectacularly abundant in Paleozoic and Mesozoic
granitic plutons. They seemed to be most abundant near the
pluton axis, where the final vestiges of hydrothermal fluids
would have been retained as the plutons cooled and crystallized.
Amazingly, in the majority of the 32 different
Paleozoic/Mesozoic granite bodies studied, 210Po radiohalos
outnumbered all other radiohalo types, including those of 238U.
Sums over all 32 granite bodies yielded 14,384 210Po halos,
1,331 214Po halos, 390 218Po halos, 10,917 238U halos, and 264
232Th halos. Radiohalos of all types were significantly less
abundant in the 19 different granite bodies studied of
Precambrian age. Sums over these 19 granite bodies yielded 1,736
210Po halos, 23 214Po halos, two 218Po halos, 508 238U halos,
and three 232Th halos. In the seven granites of Tertiary age
investigated, radiohalos were found in only one of them, in
which nine 210Po halos and two 238U halos were identified. The
obvious reason for the near absence of radiohalos of Tertiary
age is that not enough nuclear decay has elapsed since the
beginning of that point in the rock record to generate mature
radiohalos. A plausible reason for fewer radiohalos in
Precambrian rocks is that heating from metamorphic activity and
burial likely annealed many of the halos which earlier may have
been present.
The discovery and documentation of such an astonishing number Po
radiohalos in Phanerozoic rocks, hundreds to thousands in some
individual samples, makes the enigma of their origin all the
more acute. The finding that the Po halos were generally most
abundant in the cores of granitic plutons where convective
cooling of the plutonic bodies by aqueous fluids was the most
prolonged strongly suggested that such hydrothermal fluids
played a key role in their formation. Snelling (2000) pointed
out that there are reports of 210Po as a detectable species in
present-day volcanic gases, in hydrothermal fluids associated
with subaerial volcanoes and fumaroles as well as in
hydrothermal fluids from mid-ocean ridge vents and in associated
chimney deposits [LeCloarec et al. 1994; Hussain et al. 1995;
Rubin 1997]. 210Po has also been well documented in groundwater
[Harada et al. 1989; LaRock et al. 1996]. The distances involved
in this fluid transport of the Po in some cases are several
kilometers.
Despite the fact that Po isotopes are usually present in
hydrothermal fluids in crustal magmatic contexts today, their
concentrations are so minute that it is difficult to conceive
how such water-borne Po could possibly form a radiohalo in
biotite in a granitic rock. The constraint that halo formation
must occur at temperatures below 150°C implies that the plutonic
bodies had already crystalized and were in the final stages of
cooling when the Po halos that exist today actually formed. The
time window for cooling from 150°C until the temperature drops
below what is needed to sustain convective flow is brief. How
could there be sufficient Po generated, presumably from 238U in
the close proximity, to produce these halos? The RATE team
concluded, similar to their conclusion relative to the cause for
the high He retention in zircons in granite, that dramatically
increased rates of 238U decay during the interval of halo
formation is close to a logical necessity.
An issue still unsolved is, even if high concentrations of Po
were present in the fluids in the final-stage cooling of a
granitic pluton, what might trigger localized precipitation of
Po from solution to emplace a billion or so Po atoms in a
spherical volume a fraction of a mm in diameter within the
stacked leaves of a biotite crystal. The RATE team speculated
that some sort of positive feedback mechanism involving Po and
Pb and likely some other chemical species might have played a
role. Precipitation of a few atoms of Po out of solution at the
site of a crystalline defect in the biotite could have initiated
the process. If the chemical presence of Pb resulted in
increased scavenging of Po from solution, then the decay of Po
to Pb could conceivably accelerate the Po accumulation at the
local site to a point of runaway. Further research is clearly
appropriate.
14C still present in Paleozoic and Mesozoic fossils
A remarkable discovery that accompanied the introduction in the
early 1980’s of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) for
measuring radiocarbon levels was the finding that organic
samples from every part of the Phanerozoic portion of the
geological record displayed significant and reproducible levels
of 14C. This finding was entirely unexpected because the
half-life of 14C, 5730 years, is so brief relative to the span
of time conventionally assigned to the Phanerozoic portion of
earth history. Indeed, 14C decays to levels undetectable by any
technology available today after only 100,000 years (17.5
half-lives). After one million years (175 half-lives) the amount
of 14C remaining is only 3x10-53 of the starting concentration.
So investigators were puzzled to find 14C/C ratios of 0.1-0.5%
of the modern value (percent modern carbon, or pMC) in samples
they assumed would be entirely 14C-free because of their
location in the geological record. At first the anomalous 14C
was assumed to be a result of faulty laboratory procedures that
somehow allowed the samples to be contaminated with a modest
amount of modern carbon. Because this phenomenon was being
observed at most of not all of the AMS 14C laboratories around
the world, it generated a significant number of professional
papers in the peer-reviewed radiocarbon literature. A few minor
sources of contamination were identified in the laboratory
procedures. However, after these were corrected, the bulk of the
14C signal still remained.
Table 1 on pp. 596-597 in Vardiman et al. (2005) [also available
as (Baumgardner 2005a)] lists over 40 examples from these
professional papers of fossil materials, such as wood, coal,
bone, and shell, from fossilized organisms that, based on their
location in the geological record, ought to be entirely
14C-free. Each of these samples, however, displayed a 14C value
in the range of 0.1-0.65 pMC. A specific example was that of
anthracite coal described by Vogel et al. (1987). In this study,
designed to look for sources of contamination in their AMS
procedures, the researchers varied the sample size over a range
of 2000, from 10µg to 20mg. Samples 500µg and larger yielded a
14C level of 0.44±0.13 pMC, independent of sample size. The
smaller sample sizes indicated a constant level of
contamination, independent of sample size, which the researchers
were able to identify and eliminate. After making corrections to
their laboratory procedures, they concluded that the remaining
14C they were measuring was intrinsic to the coal itself. They
chose to refer to it as “contamination of the sample in situ,”
“not [to be] discussed further.” This example is representative
of the others listed in that table.
The range of 0.1-0.5 pMC so routinely measured in organic
Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Tertiary samples corresponds to 14C
ages between 57,000 and 44,000 years. In recent times it has
become standard policy for AMS labs not to assign an ‘age’ to
samples that otherwise would date older than 50,000 years. For
example, the AMS laboratory at the University of Arizona states
on their home page, “The maximum radiocarbon age which can be
measured at the facility is about 48,000 B.P.” This policy is
employed to hide this embarrassing state of affairs as much as
possible. Yet the AMS hardware is technically able to resolve
14C/C ratios as low as 0.001 pMC, corresponding to 95,000
years—more than two orders of magnitude smaller than the 0.24
pMC that corresponds to 50,000 years. The excuse the AMS
laboratories give for not reporting ages for samples greater
than 50,000 years is that the 14C levels in older samples fall
below the laboratory’s ‘standard background’ value. Yet the
peer-reviewed radiocarbon literature of the 1980’s and 1990’s
reveals that standards such as natural gas were then commonly
used by major AMS laboratories as their ‘standard background,
with 14C/C ratios below 0.1 pMC (e.g., Beukens 1990). The
present practice of choosing a high ‘standard background’ value
has nothing to do with the technical capabilities of the AMS
hardware or with the current state-of-the-art in sample
processing methods. The high value is employed solely to allow a
laboratory not to be asked to explain the high pMC value in a
sample that ought to be entirely 14C-free by virtue of its
location in the geological record.
Because significant 14C levels in fossils from Paleozoic and
Mesozoic strata conflict so profoundly with the standard time
scale, the RATE team decided to see if it could reproduce these
findings. The team obtained ten coal samples from the U.S.
Department of Energy Coal Sample Bank that is maintained at
Pennsylvania State University for the purpose of coal research.
Samples in this repository are from the economically most
important coalfields of the United States. Theses samples were
collected originally in 180 kg quantities from recently exposed
areas in active coal mines and quickly sealed under argon in 115
liter steel drums. As soon as feasible after collection, these
large samples were processed to obtain representative 300 g
samples with a 0.85 mm particle size (20 mesh). The smaller 300
g samples were sealed under argon in multi-laminate foil bags
and have since been kept in refrigerated storage at 3°C. The
RATE team selected a set of ten of the 33 coals available with
the objectives of good coverage geographically and with respect
to depth in the geological record. The set contained three
Eocene, three Cretaceous, and four Pennsylvanian coals.
The RATE team sent samples from these ten coals to what it
deemed to be the best AMS 14C laboratory in the world and
requested the highest precision analysis that the laboratory
offered. High precision was achieved by generating four separate
AMS targets for each sample, analyzing 16 separate spots on each
of the targets, and performing a variance test on the 16 spots,
eliminating any of the 16 that fail the variance test. The
laboratory’s standard background standard was 0.077±0.005 pMC,
one of the lowest in the world at that time. This background was
subtracted from the actual measured values. The results for the
ten samples are summarized in Figure 6. The mean value across
the ten samples was 0.247 pMC. There was no significant
difference statistically in 14C levels among the samples grouped
according to position in the geological record. The results from
these RATE samples agree closely with what was already well
established in the radiocarbon literature, namely, that organic
remains from the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Tertiary routinely
yield 14C/C ratios in the range 0.1-0.5 pMC. Again, these
results are in stark conflict with what should be expected if
the standard geological time scale is correct. The four RATE
samples from the Pennsylvanian Period, with conventional ages of
about 300 million years, for example, yielded 14C ages of 44,500
years, 54,900 years, 51,800 years, and 48,300 years.
Histogram of 14C results for the ten RATE coal samples
Figure 6. Histogram of 14C results for the ten RATE coal
samples. Translating percent modern carbon to 14C age gives a
range for these samples between 44,500 years and 57,100 years
and an average of 49,600 years. (From Vardiman et al. 2005, 606)
How does the RATE team account for this huge discrepancy? What
is the source of the 14C? If one is inclined to view the Torah
as a trustworthy account of history, one that includes a
world-destroying Flood in the third millennium B.C., and also
infers that the fossil-bearing sediment layers are a physical
record of that cataclysm, then the time scale is brief enough
for some of the 14C present in the organisms alive before the
Flood to still exist in their fossilized remains today. The RATE
team also noted that the 14C/C ratio in organisms that lived
before the Flood might well have been perhaps a hundred times
lower than the present atmospheric 14C/C ratio due the very
large amount of plant and animal life alive at the time of the
Flood as implied by the vast stores of coal and oil in the
fossil-bearing rock record. If the total amount of 14C was
roughly the same as today, then the 14C/C ratio would be
significantly smaller in the atmosphere and in living organisms
before the Flood. Taking this possibility into account could
explain how organisms alive at the time of the Flood, perhaps
only 5,000 years ago, actually yield 14C ages today in the range
of 50,000 years.
However, the large variance in the 14C/C ratios in the remains
of the fossilized plants and animals indicates the full
explanation is more complex. The RATE team also noted that
accelerated nuclear decay of U and Th during the Flood must have
generated high fluxes of neutrons in the continental crust,
including its sediment layers. Section 7 in Chapter 8 in
Vardiman et al. (2005) provides a survey of measurement data for
the thermal neutron flux levels in granitic environments today.
It also provides an estimate of the amount of 14C generation
that would occur in carbon-bearing materials in crustal
environments, if accelerated nuclear decay occurred during the
Flood, as thermal neutrons interacted both with 14N and 13C to
form 14C. The levels of 14C generated in this manner can readily
account for the variance in 14C levels measured in fossil
material in Flood deposited sediments. The variance arises
mostly from the large variations from place to place in crustal
environments in the concentrations of U and Th.
Although the high levels of 14C in fossilized organisms from
Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Tertiary portions of the rock record do
not directly demonstrate that accelerated nuclear decay in
radioactive species with long half-lives such as 238U, 232Th,
40K, and 87Rb occurred, the high 14C levels are highly
consistent with that inference. They are consistent, first,
because accelerated decay of the long half-life species
collapses the time scale of the portion of the rock record
associated with the Flood from roughly 600 million years to a
single year a few thousand years ago. This means that 14C in
organisms alive at the onset of the Flood should still be
detectable today. Second, 14C produced from neutrons generated
by accelerated decay in crustal rocks seems to be able to
account for the large variance in 14C levels in the organisms
buried by the Flood and preserved today as carbon-bearing
fossils. Thirdly, 14C produced in this manner also seems to
account for the rapid rise in atmospheric 14C levels after the
Flood cataclysm, as indicated by increasing 14C levels occurring
during the lifetimes of individual Pleistocene organisms (Nadeau
et al. 2001; Vardiman et al. 2005, 598-600) as CO2 containing
high levels of 14C outgassed from crustal rocks into the
atmosphere.
It is noteworthy to point out that the quantum transitions
involved with beta decay of 40K, 87Rb, 187Re, and 176Lu are,
what are referred to as ‘forbidden’, and result in long
half-lives. By contrast, beta decay of 14C to 14N involves an
‘allowed’ nuclear transition and results in a short half-life.
There is reason to suspect that, whatever the cause for the
accelerated decay of the long half-life species whose decay
involved a ‘forbidden’ nuclear quantum transition, the cause did
not affect radioactive species whose decay involved an ‘allowed’
transition. These issues are discussed in Chapter 7 of Vardiman,
et al. (2005).
A radically revised time scale
To summarize this long section describing the work of the RATE
team, this research identified three largely independent lines
of radioisotope evidence that each supports the conclusion that
nuclear decay rates for the long half-life species commonly used
for radioisotope dating have not been constant over the earth’s
physical history. The retention of large fractions of the
radiogenic helium in Proterozoic crustal zircons points directly
to this conclusion. The frequent occurrence of Po radiohalos in
Phanerozoic granitic plutons logically seems to require
accelerated decay during the Flood to account for the extreme
concentrations of Po needed to generate Po radiohalos in Flood
age rocks. Finally, the high levels of 14C in fossilized
organisms that were living before the Flood seem logically to
require an episode of accelerated nuclear decay during the Flood
to collapse of the standard Phanerozoic time scale accordingly.
The 14C formed in crustal rocks for neutrons resulting from such
an episode of rapid nuclear decay also explains the large
variance in 14C levels in the fossilized samples as well as the
required rapid increase in atmospheric 14C levels after the
Flood to yield near modern levels by about 3500 years ago.
Finally, the high levels of He retention in zircons that had a
U-Pb age of 1.5 Ga in the RATE study also seems to require an
episode of accelerated decay prior to the one during the Flood
to account for all its decay products within the 6,000 year
limit implied by the measured zircon He diffusivity. The RATE
team conjectured that the very rapid formation of the earth as
described in the Torah was accompanied by approximately 4x109
years’ worth of accelerated nuclear decay during that brief time
interval of the earth’s formation. The resulting time scale
constrained by the Torah as it relates to the eons, eras,
periods, and epochs of the standard geological time scale is
summarized in Figure 7.
Geological time scale based on the Torah’s account of Creation
Figure 7. Geological time scale based on the Torah’s account of
Creation, the Flood, and the genealogical data of the
patriarchs.
Original tissue preservation in fossils affirms the RATE
conclusions
Not only does the RATE research strongly point to the conclusion
that the assumption of time-invariant nuclear decay rates causes
the standard radioisotope time scale to be seriously in error,
other recent findings confirm that the fossil record was formed,
not over a span of a half billion years, but quite recently over
a brief interval of time. One example is the finding of
well-preserved soft tissue in bone from a T. rex recovered from
the Hell Creek Formation in Montana, U.S.A. The soft tissue
included flexible blood vessels containing red blood cells. This
astonishing result was reported in the March 25, 2005, issue of
the journal Science, volume 307, pages 1852 and 1952-1955.
Figure 8 are photographs from this report. More recently,
preserved original tissue has been documented in horn of a
Triceratops also recovered from the Hell Creek Formation as
reported in Armitage and Anderson (2013). It is unimaginable
that such soft tissue could be preserved for the 65 million
years as asserted by the standard geological time scale.
Images of flexible blood vessels (left) and red blood cells
within them (right)
Figure 8. Images of flexible blood vessels (left) and red blood
cells within them (right) extracted from a hind limb of a T. rex
dinosaur found in the Hell Creek Formation in Montana as
reported in Mary H. Schweitzer et al., 2005, “Soft-tissue
vessels and cellular preservation in Tyrannosaurus rex,” Science
307:1952-1955.
Prominent Physical Aspects of Noah’s Flood
When the barrier of the radioisotope timescale is removed,
spectacular physical evidence for a global catastrophic Flood of
the sort described in the Torah becomes obvious. The complete
destruction of all land-dwelling, air-breathing life on earth,
except that preserved on the ark of Noah, as described in these
accounts, immediately suggests that the fossils preserved in the
sediment record must represent plants and animals destroyed in
the Flood. The logical place in the rock record for the onset of
this cataclysm therefore must be where five striking
global-scale geological discontinuities—a mechanical-erosional
discontinuity, a time/age discontinuity, a tectonic
discontinuity, a sedimentary discontinuity, and a
paleontological discontinuity all coincide (Snelling 2009,
707-711). This unique boundary lies at the base of the Ediacaran
in the late Neoproterozoic part of the geological record. Where
Ediacaran sediments are missing, it coincides with the
Precambrian-Cambrian boundary, where Cambrian sediments are
present. Although the paleontological discontinuity is commonly
referred to as the ‘Cambrian explosion’ because of the sudden
appearance of almost every modern animal phylum in the lower
Cambrian strata, it is now clear that the organisms fossilized
in the Ediacaran sediments also are part of this explosion,
because the Ediacaran sediments lie above the global scale
erosional discontinuity.
The Great Unconformity
This striking erosional unconformity, which simultaneously
corresponds to time/age, tectonic, sedimentary, and
paleontological discontinuities, is indeed of global extent
(Ager 1973, 10-11). In much of North America, the sedimentary
layer just above this discontinuity is the Tapeats Sandstone and
its equivalents. The violence of the erosion at this
discontinuity is revealed by huge quartzite boulders in the
basal portion of the Tapeats Sandstone in the Grand Canyon.
Figure 9 is a photograph of one of these boulders that is 4.5 m
in diameter and weighs 200 tons. Figure 10 is a map showing the
lateral extent of the Cambrian Tapeats Sandstone and its
equivalents across North America. This prominent erosional
discontinuity, here beneath the Tapeats Sandstone but worldwide
in its distribution, has become known as the Great Unconformity.
The fact that it is also represents the abrupt first appearance
of so many animal phyla makes it the logical choice for the
location in the rock record for the onset of the catastrophic
Flood that occurred during the lifetime of Noah as described in
the Torah. In fact, this seems to be only reasonable choice that
aligns with the Torah’s account of the history of the world.
Large boulder of Shinumo Quartzite
Figure 9. Large boulder of Shinumo Quartzite 4.5 m in diameter
near the base of the lower Cambrian Tapeats Sandstone in the
Grand Canyon that illustrates the intensity of the catastrophism
that deposited this extensive sandstone layer. (From Austin
1994, 46)
Map showing the distribution of the lower Cambrian Tapeats
Sandstone
Figure 10. Map showing the distribution of the lower Cambrian
Tapeats Sandstone and its equivalents across North America.
(From Morris 2012, 149)
Megasequences
The Tapeats Sandstone corresponds to the base of what is known
as the Sauk Megasequence, the lowest of six sediment
megasequences, originally identified and described by Sloss
(1963) in North America, that are separated from one another by
global-scale erosional unconformities (Snelling 2009, 528-530,
740-741). Figure 11 is a simplified representation of how these
six large packages of sediment are distributed in an east-west
direction across the North American continent. What is striking
is that separating each megasequence from the next is a
craton-wide erosional unconformity. The six erosional
unconformities essentially beveled the continental surface flat
before the deposition of the next thick sequence of sedimentary
layers. As just mentioned, the Tapeats Sandstone and its
equivalents lie just above the first of these six erosional
unconformities. It is also useful to note here that where
Neoproterozoic Ediacaran sediments are present, this first
erosional unconformity occurs just beneath these sediments. The
basal formation of the next megasequence, known as the
Tippecanoe Megasequence, is the widely distributed St. Peter
Sandstone. Figure 12 displays the lateral distribution for this
distinctive sandstone formation.
Diagram showing the six Phanerozoic megasequences described
originally by Sloss
Figure 11. Diagram showing the six Phanerozoic megasequences
described originally by Sloss (1963) for the North American
craton. These six huge packages of sediment are thickest near
the craton margins and thinnest near the craton center. They are
separated from one another by craton-wide erosional
unconformities. The Tapeats sandstone and its equivalents are
the basal unit of the Sauk megasequence in North America.
Distribution of the St. Peter Sandstone and its equivalents in
North America
Figure 12. Distribution of the St. Peter Sandstone and its
equivalents in North America. This formation is the basal unit
of the Tippecanoe Megasequence. (From Morris 2012, 111)
Global-scale numerical modeling of Flood erosion and
sedimentation
In the context of the global Flood described in the Torah, what
could possibly have been the mechanism that resulted in such a
large-scale pattern of erosion and sedimentation? Recently
Baumgardner (2013) has developed a numerical model designed to
explore this issue. The numerical approach applies the equations
of open channel turbulent flow to model sediment transport and
deposition within the framework of a scheme that solves the
shallow water equations on a rotating sphere. The treatment of
erosion is restricted to cavitation. Up to this point the
continental geometry has been restricted to a single circular
supercontinent that covers 38% of the spherical surface.
Numerical experiments so far suggest that large tidal pulses are
required to drive the water strongly enough to erode, transport,
and deposit the required volumes of sediment.
Figure 13 contains snapshots of the solution from this model at
a time of only one day after the onset of a tidal pulse of
amplitude 2500 m centered at 30° latitude and 90° longitude
relative to the center of the continent. The circular continent
initially is slightly domed, with a height of 150 m above sea
level at its center and 24 m below sea level about its
perimeter. The surrounding ocean has a uniform depth of 4000 m.
Snapshots at time of one day after the onset of a 2500 m high
tidal pulse
Figure 13. Snapshots at time of one day after the onset of a
2500 m high tidal pulse of (a.) suspended sediment load, (b.)
cumulative bedrock erosion, (c.) net cumulative sedimentation,
and (d.) topographic height relative to sea level in a global
erosion/sedimentation model.
The velocities indicated are the velocities near the top of the
moving water layer. The vertical water velocity profile
decreases to zero in a logarithmic manner at the land surface
according to standard turbulence theory. Cavitation erosion of
crystalline bedrock is assumed to produce sediment that is 70%
fine sand with a mean grain size of 0.063 mm, 20% medium sand
with a mean grain size of 0.50 mm, and 10% coarse sand with a
mean grain size of 1.0 mm. A modest amount of isostatic
compensation is folded into the topography calculation. Bottom
friction and turbulent eddy viscosity are included in the
momentum equation and cause the water velocities to diminish
with time. Nevertheless, moderate erosion and sedimentation
continues for several weeks after the tidal pulse. A significant
amount of erosion occurs at the continent margin.
The experiments conducted thus far indicate that six such pulses
spaced about 30 days apart are adequate to erode, transport, and
deposit, on average, the 1,800 m of sediment observed to blanket
the continental surface today. The strong, global-scale
tsunami-like waves these pulses initially generate do indeed
result in erosional unconformities that affect most of the
continent surface. Much work, of course, remains to include more
realism into the model and to explore the parameter space more
fully. Nevertheless, this initial reconnaissance effort has
provided at least some idea what is required to account for some
of the largest scale aspects of the sediment record. For more
details of the model and a more complete description of this
specific case, see Baumgardner (2013).
General characteristics of the sediment record consistent with a
global-scale Flood
Already discussed is clear physical evidence associated with the
Tapeats Sandstone and its equivalents of global-scale
catastrophic process at the Flood’s onset. Equally clear
indicators of high-energy laterally-extensive processes are also
abundant throughout the subsequent geological record. There is
space here to highlight only a few examples. Figure 14 provides
a summary glimpse into some of the general characteristics of
this record. One feature is the thickness of the sequence,
originally some 5000 m in this Colorado Plateau region before
later erosion removed a significant fraction. What physical
process would lower the surface of the normally high-standing
continents so that they could receive so much sedimentary
deposition? Why is there so little erosional channeling at
formation boundaries within the thick layer-cake like succession
of layers, as illustrated in Figure 15 (Snelling 2009, 591-592)?
These features of the record are sufficient by themselves to
falsify the claim that “the present is the key to the past” as
far as the sediment record is concerned. Nowhere on earth is
there currently such a sequence of layers, mostly of marine
affinity, with such vast lateral extent being deposited within
continent interiors.
Illustrative north-south cross section of the western Colorado
Plateau region of North America
Figure 14. Illustrative north-south cross section of the western
Colorado Plateau region of North America. Note the generally
smooth contacts at formation boundaries, in contrast with the
channelized topography of the continental surface today. Most of
the formations shown here are laterally continuous over hundreds
of thousands of square km. Some with their equivalents are
global in lateral extent.
View of the contact between the Coconino Sandstone (above) and
the Hermit Shale (below) in the Grand Canyon
Figure 15. View of the contact between the Coconino Sandstone
(above) and the Hermit Shale (below) in the Grand Canyon along
the Bright Angel Trail. Note the lack of erosional channeling
along this contact. This is not uncommon for contacts between
successive formations across the geological record. (From Austin
1994, 49)
Evidences of catastrophic process internal to the sediment
layers
Moreover, many formations throughout the Phanerozoic sedimentary
record display persuasive internal evidence for rapid, even
catastrophic, deposition. This is true for many of the
formations in the Colorado Plateau shown in Figure 14,
especially several of the strongly cross-bedded sandstone
formations, beginning with the Cambrian Tapeats Sandstone
(Snelling 2009, 506, 508, 528-530), but also including the
Permian Coconino Sandstone (Snelling 2009, 501-510, the Triassic
Shinarump Conglomerate (Snelling 2009, 519-520), and the
Jurassic Navajo Sandstone (Morris, 2012, 163). The Permian
Coconino Sandstone is easy to recognize in the Grand Canyon.
Figure 16 is a photograph taken by the author from the Hance
Trail that begins on the south canyon rim. Well-developed
cross-bedding is evident in this photo.
Exposure of the Permian Coconino Sandstone near the south rim of
the Grand Canyon
Figure 16. Exposure of the Permian Coconino Sandstone near the
south rim of the Grand Canyon (foreground). Note the evident
cross-bedding. The formation is also easy to identify on the
opposite side of the canyon.
Although the Coconino crossbeds are interpreted in the
conventional literature as eolian, there are several compelling
reasons to reject that interpretation and instead conclude that
they must be the product of water action. The first reason is
the grain size distribution. The Coconino sand is poorly sorted
with a bimodal distribution consisting of two populations of
grain sizes, each of which is log-normal distributed. By
contrast, wind-borne sand in a desert environment is almost
always well-sorted with a unimodal grain size distribution. The
second reason concerns the crossbed angle relative to the
horizontal. In desert dunes, the bedding angle is close to the
angle of repose of dry sand, which is 31°. By contrast the
crossbed angle observed in modern marine environments is 20-25°,
which is what is observed for the Coconino. A third reason
involves mineralogical composition. The Coconino sand includes
biotite, a type of mica, at approximately the 1% level. Because
biotite grains are so fragile, there are quickly destroyed under
desert wind conditions. A fourth reason is the presence of
recumbent folding observed within the Coconino crossbeds. This
phenomenon is common today in alluvial settings where
gravity-induced shear occurs at the base of sand waves as grains
are able to rotate in water-supported sand, and the sand wave
partially collapses. Such a process does not occur, however, in
dry sand. A fifth reason is the abundance of well-preserved
animal trackways on many crossbed surfaces in the Coconino. Wet
sand is essential for such preservation. It is difficult to
conceive how trackways could possibly be a common feature in
desert dunes. Finally, the Coconino has inter-tonguing layers of
water-deposited dolomite near its boundary with the overlying
Toroweap Formation, which itself is clearly marine.
A key line of evidence supporting a catastrophic,
world-destroying Flood is the huge lateral extent of so many of
the sedimentary formations and the staggering volumes of
sediment they represent. This is certainly true of the Coconino
Sandstone. Figure 17 is an isopach map of a portion of the
Coconino Sandstone and its equivalents, corresponding to an area
of than 500,000 km2 and a volume of more than 40,000 km3.
Isopach map of the Coconino Sandstone and its equivalents
Figure 17. Isopach map of the Coconino Sandstone and its
equivalents. The area displayed for the Coconino is more than
500,000 km2 and the volume is more than 40,000 km3. Contour
lines are in feet (0.305 m/ft). (From Austin 1994, 36)
The uniformity of a formation as laterally extensive as the
Coconino suggests a coherent rapidly moving water column
capable, by virtue of its turbulence, of suspending a
considerable thickness of sediment and transporting it a
considerable distance before deposition finally takes place.
Under such conditions it is not surprising that sand waves could
result in the deposition zone. Figure 18 shows how crossbeds can
form in response to sustained water flow with a sustained supply
of sand falling from suspension. Indeed, to deposit the average
amount of Phanerozoic sediment observed to be present of the
continents today, 1800 m, during the 150 day interval the Torah
indicates for the main phase of the Flood unmistakably
requires—on average—tens of m of sediment in suspension in a
tsunami-like column of water which is thick enough to support
such a sediment load, moving with a speed of at least tens of
m/s (Baumgardner 2013). The presence of many layers in the
sediment record that require such conditions for their formation
testify to the reasonableness of such conclusions.
Diagrams illustrating the formation of cross beds on a sandy bed
in response to sustained water flow
Figure 18. Diagrams illustrating the formation of cross beds on
a sandy bed in response to sustained water flow. Top: Diagram
showing the formation of tabular cross beds by down-current
migration of sand waves beneath sustained water flow. Bottom:
Cross-sectional diagram showing how sand waves migrate and form
inclined beds on the down-current side of the sand wave where
the flow direction is reversed. For clarity, the bottom diagram
is drawn with a large vertical exaggeration. (From Austin 1994,
33)
Fossil graveyards
Another related line of evidence for the reality of catastrophic
conditions is fossil graveyards (Snelling 2009, 537-548 and
569-575). To preserve a fossil generally requires
catastrophically rapid burial. Otherwise, scavengers, insects,
and bacteria will quickly degrade the organism such that little
is left. Throughout the record well-preserved fossils are
abundant. The standard community currently is astonished by the
rapidly increasing number of reports of original tissue
preservation, including, as mentioned above, still elastic blood
vessels containing red blood cell from dinosaur bone. Even apart
from the issue of original tissue preservation, there is clear
evidence in many cases for catastrophic conditions associated
with the burial of the organisms. One example is the dinosaur
graveyard preserved at Dinosaur National Monument near the
Colorado-Utah border just east of Vernal, Utah. At this site
there are several dozens of dinosaurs which were buried together
under violently catastrophic conditions. Most of the dinosaurs
were torn apart, with burial was so rapid that, within
individual portions of the dinosaur carcasses, the bones
remained articulated, as displayed in Figure 19. The fossils at
Dinosaur National Monument are in the Morrison Formation, which
has yielded more dinosaur fossils than any other formation in
North America (Snelling 2009, 571).
Dinosaur bones in the Jurassic Morrison Formation at Dinosaur
National Monument on the border between Colorado and Utah
Figure 19. Dinosaur bones in the Jurassic Morrison Formation at
Dinosaur National Monument on the border between Colorado and
Utah. Bones from a large number of dinosaurs are here found
jumbled together, yet in several cases, vertebrae are still
articulated in sections of spinal column, suggestive of violent
conditions of death and burial. (Photo from U. S. Park Service)
The vast lateral extent of the Morrison Formation of more than
1.5 million km2 is shown in Figure 20. Noteworthy is the
astonishing amount of volcanic ash this formation contains
throughout its range, probably from catastrophic,
subduction-related volcanic activity to the southwest in what is
now California.
Lateral distribution of the Jurassic Morrison Formation,
covering an area of more than 1.5 million km2
Figure 20. Lateral distribution of the Jurassic Morrison
Formation, covering an area of more than 1.5 million km2. (From
Morris 2012, 112)
Coal deposits point to catastrophic process
The sediment record also displays widespread evidence for
transport and burial of staggering volumes of plant material
(Snelling 2009, 549-568). The Powder River Basin in northeastern
Wyoming and southeastern Montana is a spectacular example.
Containing the largest coal deposit in North America, it
supplies the United States with 40% of its coal. With its low
sulfur content, much of it is exported abroad. The coal bed,
shown in Figure 21, locally reaches 30 m in thickness and covers
an area of more than 50,000 km2. Structural indicators within
the coal itself reveal that the majority of the plant material
was originally conifer trees that grew elsewhere and were
transported to their present location. The volume of plant
material required to form such thick, laterally extensive layers
of coal testifies unmistakably to catastrophic circumstances.
Strip mining of the Paleocene Powder River Basin coal in
northeastern Wyoming
Figure 21. Strip mining of the Paleocene Powder River Basin coal
in northeastern Wyoming. Seam is up to 27 m in thickness at this
location. This is the largest coal deposit in the United States
and supplies 40% of the nation’s coal. Evidence is compelling
that the plant material from which the coal formed was
transported from elsewhere and buried here.
Massive removal of sediment from continent interiors during
final stages of the Flood
Not only were catastrophic processes involved in the creation of
the thick accumulation of sediment layers on the continents, but
observations reveal that a significant fraction of this
deposited sediment was subsequently stripped away in a rapid
manner near the end of the cataclysm. This shown in a relatively
clear way in the Colorado Plateau region of North America as
indicted in Figure 22. Massive sheet erosion seems to be
required to remove huge volume of sediment once present but now
missing from much of the Colorado Plateau region (Snelling 2009,
595-596). This suggests that a rapid increase in the volume of
the oceans and a consequent rapid lowering of the global sea
level may be responsible a rapid runoff of water from the
continent interiors that removed a notable fraction of the upper
layers of sediment that had not yet been cemented and lithified.
Figure 23 shows the global distribution of sediment today. It is
clear from this map that the thickest accumulations of sediment
are along the continent margins, mostly on the continental
shelves.
Diagram illustrating the huge volumes of sediment stripped away
from continent interiors in the latter stages of the Flood
cataclysm
Figure 22. Diagram illustrating the huge volumes of sediment
stripped away from continent interiors in the latter stages of
the Flood cataclysm.
Global map of sediment thickness
Figure 23. Global map of sediment thickness. Thickness scale is
in km. Sediment thickness averaged over the continents today is
1800 m. Thickest accumulations are on the continental shelves,
presumably the result of runoff during the final stages of the
Flood. (From Laske and Masters 1997)
Rapid uplift of today’s high mountain ranges and an Ice Age
after the Flood
A major enigma in continental geology today is why a major
portion of the uplift of the earth’s major mountain belts
occurred so recently, during the Pliocene and Pleistocene
(Ollier and Pain 2000), while, presumably, most of the crustal
thickening required to support such elevated topographical
features had taken place millions or even tens of millions of
years earlier. The Flood, involving catastrophic tectonic
processes to be described later in this paper as well as a
dramatically compressed timescale, readily solves this enigma
(Baumgardner 2005b). The Flood also nicely accounts for an Ice
Age afterward. The warming of the oceans during the Flood caused
higher evaporation rates over the oceans and significantly
increased precipitation rates, especially at high latitudes,
following the Flood. This resulted in more snowfall at high
latitudes and at high mountain elevations during the winters
than could melt in the summers, resulting in rapidly growing ice
sheets and mountain glaciers (Austin et al. 1994; Snelling 2009,
769-786).
New insights concerning the Flood from the ocean bottom
Thus far, the focus has been on the evidence for the rapid,
catastrophic formation of the fossil-bearing sediment record on
the continents during the Flood. What occurred in the ocean
basins? A major development following World War II, as the sonar
technology developed to find and track submarines was applied to
mapping the topography of the seafloor, was the discovery of the
mid-ocean ridge system that winds around the sea bottom like the
seam of a baseball. Figure 24 shows the segment known as the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge of this global feature that bisects the North
and South Atlantic Ocean basins. The subsequent quest to
understand this remarkable global feature led to the development
and acceptance of the concepts of plate tectonics in the 1960’s
(Snelling 2009, 365-415).
Topographical map of the Atlantic Ocean Floor
Figure 24. Topographical map of the Atlantic Ocean Floor. (From
National Geographic Society, 1968) All the basaltic ocean crust
on the earth today is of Mesozoic age or younger.
As rocks and sediment cores from the ocean floor were recovered
and analyzed, it was discovered that today’s ocean floor is all
younger than early Mesozoic. All ocean floor from earlier in the
earth’s past has been subducted into the earth’s interior,
except for tiny fragments that have been thrust onto the
continents and preserved as ophiolites. Figure 25 shows the
point in the continental record below which no ocean floor
exists at the earth’s surface. In other words, all the igneous
ocean crust on earth today cooled from a molten state at a
mid-ocean ridge as shown in Figure 26 since that point in the
continental record.
Diagram marking the point in the continental stratigraphic
record where the history of the current ocean floor begins
Figure 25. Diagram marking the point in the continental
stratigraphic record where the history of the current ocean
floor begins.
Diagram illustrating the structure of the mid-ocean ridge system
Figure 26. Diagram illustrating the structure of the mid-ocean
ridge system, formed as adjacent plates of oceanic lithosphere
diverge. Partial melting of upper mantle rock occurs beneath the
ridge axis to generate molten basalt that rises, cools, and
crystallizes to form new ocean crust between the spreading
plates.
Catastrophic plate tectonics—a logical necessity
What does this imply about mechanics of the Flood cataclysm? It
implies that a vast amount of subduction and seafloor spreading
must have unfolded during the Flood and that subduction and
seafloor spreading must have been a major aspect of the overall
Flood cataclysm (Baumgardner 1986; Austin et al. 1994; Snelling
2009, 691). Because none of the pre-Flood or Paleozoic ocean
floor is to be found at the earth’s surface today, all of this
ocean lithosphere must have been cycled into the earth’s
interior during the year of the Flood. The logic is just that
tight. The author reached this conclusion in the spring of 1978
and recognized the crucial importance of including the tectonics
aspects of the Flood in defending the Torah’s account of earth
history. The basic idea is that, instead of subduction and
seafloor spreading speeds of only cm/yr as is currently observed
for the earth, during the Flood speeds must have been on the
order of m/s, some 108 to 109 times higher. Figure 27 shows a
cross section of the earth with a slab of ocean lithosphere
subducting beneath South America. For sake of illustration of
the rates of subduction that occurred during the Flood, the
downgoing slab is shown moving at m/s speed. Such speeds turn
out to be possible because silicate minerals, based on
laboratory experiments, can weaken by factors of 109 under the
stress and temperature conditions that can arise within the
mantle. With this sort of weakening, cold gravitationally
unstable ocean lithosphere can sink to the bottom of the mantle
in the span of a few weeks’ time. This concept, involving
runaway sinking of the ocean lithosphere, has come to be known
as catastrophic plate tectonics (Austin et al. 1994; Snelling
2009, 683-706). Catastrophic plate tectonics is similar to
conventional plate tectonics except that the spectacular
weakening throughout the mantle associated with the runaway
physics yields dramatically higher plate speeds as well as
dramatically more rapid motions within the mantle itself.
Cross section of the earth showing the core, mantle,
asthenosphere, and lithosphere
Figure 27. Cross section of the earth showing the core, mantle,
asthenosphere, and lithosphere. In catastrophic plate tectonics,
the cold dense ocean lithosphere is recycled into the mantle at
m/s speeds because of an instability that arises due to stress
weakening inherent in silicate rheology.
My own journey
Driven by the awareness that something like catastrophic plate
tectonics almost certainly must have accompanied the Flood, I
began a Ph.D. program in earth science at UCLA to acquire the
training and credentials to investigate this topic at a
professional level. As part of my thesis research, I
collaborated with a mathematician at Los Alamos National
Laboratory to develop a 3D spherical finite element code for
modeling the flow inside the mantles of terrestrial planets like
the earth (Baumgardner 1985). This code became known as TERRA.
The code is still used by several solid earth geophysics
research groups around the world.
After completing my Ph.D. in geophysics from UCLA in 1983, I
accepted a staff scientist position in a computational fluid
dynamics group at Los Alamos where I worked for the next 20
years. During that time I was able to explore in considerable
depth the physics associated with catastrophic plate tectonics.
I was keenly aware of the laboratory experiments that show that,
under the stress and temperature conditions that can exist in
the mantle of a planet with the mass and gravity field of the
earth, mantle minerals can weaken by a billion-fold or more.
However, from a numerical standpoint it was a daunting challenge
to find a numerical method that could handle the extreme
gradients which arise under these runaway conditions
(Baumgardner 1994a). It was not until the late 1990’s, that a
graduate student I helped to advise at the University of
Illinois found a solver scheme that was able to overcome this
computational barrier (Yang and Baumgardner 2000). Applied in
2D, this newly discovered solver method demonstrated spectacular
runaway solutions (Baumgardner 2003) using experimental data
published for the rheological behavior of the mineral olivine
(Kirby 1983).
Application of advanced material models developed for metals to
study rock deformation
With the numerical issues largely in hand, a next important task
was to gain deeper insight into the physics responsible for such
dramatic weakening behavior. From research activities in my
computational fluid dynamics group at Los Alamos, I became aware
of models being developed for predicting the deformational
behavior of metals under extreme conditions. I began
collaborating with Mark Horstemeyer, then with Sandia National
Laboratories, to apply these advanced material models to rock
(Horstemeyer 1998; Horstemeyer and Baumgardner 2003). Since both
metals and rock are polycrystalline solids, the same basic
physics applies to both. A crucial advantage of these advanced
models is their ability to represent and track important
features of the deformational history of the crystalline
material the lattice level, including the history of dislocation
density. This tracking of the deformational history is
accomplished my means of auxiliary variables known as internal
state variables.
Application of an internal state variable model to silicate rock
with the additional parameters fit to experimental data has
provided important insight into the physical mechanism
responsible for the weakening associated with runaway in the
mantle. The chief mechanism appears to be what is known as
dislocation glide (Sherburn et al. 2013). Figure 28 provides a
series of snapshots from a 2D calculation from Sherburn et al.
(2013) in which runaway occurs. The initial width of the cold
anomaly is 300 km. In a companion case with all conditions
identical except that the cold anomaly width is 100 km, no
runaway occurs. From these investigations we believe that our
conclusion that cold lithospheric material can indeed undergo
runaway avalanching behavior to the base of the mantle is indeed
on a secure experimental and theoretical footing.
Snapshots from a 2D finite element calculation that includes a
material model with internal state variables
Figure 28. Snapshots from a 2D finite element calculation that
includes a material model with internal state variables that
track features of the material’s stress-strain history,
including its dislocation density. Snapshots are at times of
(a.) 0 days, (b.) 2 days, (c.) 45 days, and (d.) 80 days. Height
of the computational domain is 2890 km, the thickness of the
earth’s mantle. In the hardening-recovery format of this model,
it is the dynamic recovery resulting from dislocation glide that
causes dramatic weakening and enables the cold, gravitationally
unstable material at the top boundary to plunge to the bottom of
the domain in only a few weeks’ time. (From Sherburn et al.
2013)
Seismic tomography support for a recent episode of catastrophic
plate tectonics
In terms of observational support for an episode of runaway
subduction in the earth’s recent past, a prominent feature in
all seismic tomography models for the mantle since the
mid-1980’s is the ring of material at the base of the mantle
roughly below the circum-Pacific subduction zones that displays
astonishingly high seismic wave speed (Baumgardner 2003). At the
center of this ring, on either side of the earth, are two blobs
of material in the lower mantle with surprisingly low seismic
wave speeds. The latter two features, one beneath the south
central Pacific and the other beneath Africa, are often referred
to as ‘superplumes’. These features are displayed in Figure 29,
with blue isosurfaces bounding regions with high seismic wave
speeds and the red isosurfaces bounding the regions with low
seismic wave speeds. The difference in seismic wave speed
between the blue and red isosurfaces—if due solely to
temperature—implies a temperature difference of at least 3000°C.
This represents a major problem for the conventional earth
science community, since at present subduction speeds, it
requires some 50-100 million years for subducted material from
the earth’s surface to reach the base of the mantle. During such
a time interval the subducted rock would lose most of its
temperature contrast with the surrounding mantle. Therefore,
there has been a concerted effort to account for most of the
seismic wave speed difference in terms of difference in chemical
composition (for example, Kellogg et al. 1999). However, in my
opinion all these attempts are highly contrived. The most
straightforward explanation is that the contrast in seismic wave
speeds reflects a temperature difference. If indeed that is
correct, it represents powerful support for a recent episode of
catastrophic plate tectonics involving runaway transport of
large amounts of cold rock from the earth’s surface and upper
mantle to the base of the lower mantle.
Two isosurfaces of seismic wave speed from global seismic
tomography
Figure 29. Two isosurfaces of seismic wave speed from global
seismic tomography. The blue isosurface surrounds regions of
high seismic wave speed, while the red isosurface surrounds
regions of low seismic wave speed. The left panel is a view
along the zero longitude meridian above Europe and Africa, while
the right panel is a view along the 180° longitude meridian
above the Pacific. If the contrast in seismic wave speed is due
solely to temperature differences, the temperature contrast
between red and blue regions is at least 3000°C.
Numerical modeling of Flood tectonics in 3D spherical geometry
In regard to modeling the runaway tectonics associated with the
Flood in 3D, I have applied what is sometimes known as the
Newtonian analog method for scaling the rock strength in 3D to
mimic the runaway conditions actually demonstrated in 2D. With
this approach the effects of a highly nonlinear stress-dependent
rheology realized in 2D are partially accounted for by using a
linear Newtonian deformation law and reducing the value of the
viscosity in 3D. This approach led to papers in 1986, 1990, and
1994 with increasing levels of realism in the 3D models
(Baumgardner 1986, 1990, 1994b). The 1994b paper used particles
to track the motions of plates at the earth’s surface and
modeled the breakup of a Pangean-like supercontinent with
runaway motion of the ocean lithosphere. Increased spatial
resolution and the addition of a yield criterion for the surface
layer in the deformation law yielded even better realism
(Baumgardner 2003).
Snapshots from an illustrative 3D calculation are provided in
Figure 30. The case is initialized with plates covering the
entire surface. Portions of these plates are defined to have a
layer of continental crust that gives them buoyancy. The initial
distribution of continental crust is intended to approximate, in
a rough sense, that of late Paleozoic Pangea. Particles are used
to track the plates as they move across the surface. Each plate,
with its own Euler rotation pole, moves as a rigid unit over the
surface of the spherical domain. On each time step, an iterative
Newton-method procedure is used to find the Euler rotation for
each plate that yields zero net torque on that plate. In zones
of divergence between oceanic portions of plates, new plate is
added to each of the diverging ones. In zones of convergence, if
one or both of the plates is oceanic, plate area is removed to
represent subduction. When two continental sections of plate
collide, edge forces are applied to both plates that resist the
convergence, affect their Euler rotations, and prevent
significant overlap.
The TERRA code uses an iterative multigrid technique on each
time step to solve for velocity at each grid point from a
balance of forces on each cell. In conjunction with this
velocity calculation is an iterative scheme for solving for
pressure that enforces mass conservation. The energy equation is
also advanced in time in an energy conserving manner. These
calculations are performed relative to a reference model for the
earth matched to the Preliminary Reference Earth Model (PREM) of
Dziewonski and Anderson (1981) using the Birch-Murnaghan
equation of state (Birch 1947). This calculation includes
viscosity variation within the mantle using a
temperature-dependent power-law formulation, much simpler than
that of the 2D calculation of Figure 28, combined with the
Newtonian analog method mentioned above to mimic runaway
conditions. More details of the numerical approach are provided
in Baumgardner (1994).
The 3D case of Figure 30 applies a relatively simple initial
temperature perturbation of a zone of cold rock around much of
the margin of the supercontinent, with an additional zone
through what is now southeastern Asia, Indonesia, and Australia.
Advancing the conservation and force balance equations in time
yields a solution in which Pangea pulls apart and the resulting
continental blocks move approximately toward their present
locations. Utilizing the reduced viscosity which the 2D
calculation displays during runaway, the plate motion in 3D
unfolds over the short span of a few months. By the third
snapshot in time in Figure 30, much of the cold rock that
initially had been at the surface is now spread out over the
bottom boundary.
One of the major difficulties to this sort of forward modeling
approach is the lack of knowledge of the initial conditions. It
is surprising that initial conditions as simple as the ones used
in this example could yield as realistic a result as they do.
However, hundreds to trial cases were run to obtain even this
level of realism. It would be exciting to be able to start the
calculation even further back in time to reproduce some of the
Paleozoic plate motions. But that will require an even more
extensive exploration of the possible starting mantle
temperature distributions. Including plumes at appropriate
locations almost certainly will yield improved results. I am
hopeful that a graduate student who currently is eager to apply
and modify TERRA for his thesis research in the process will be
able to discover some starting conditions that result in
realistic plate motions for at least some of the Paleozoic part
of earth history.
The insights gained thus far by the application of numerical
modeling tools to investigate various physical aspect of the
Flood hopefully will encourage others to join this enterprise.
There is a veritable wealth of new understanding about the true
history of the earth just waiting to be discovered. I encourage
anyone with the skills and motivation to join this exciting
quest.
Snapshots from a 3D finite element calculation using the
planetary mantle dynamics code TERRA
Figure 30. Snapshots from a 3D finite element calculation using
the planetary mantle dynamics code TERRA. Calculation is
initialized with a Pangean-like distribution of plates and
continental blocks with insipient subduction in narrow zones as
indicated in panels a. and d. Snapshots at 75 days are shown in
panels b. and e. and at 125 days in panels c. and f.
Conclusions
We have seen that one of the main reasons that people trained in
the sciences today ignore the account in the Torah of a recent
global Flood cataclysm is that they are persuaded that the
standard geological time scale is in large measure correct.
Several generations of scientists now have come and gone with no
serious challenge to this nearly universal conclusion. Recently,
however, there have emerged diverse lines of evidence that call
this long-held conclusion into question. Probably the easiest
one for most people to grasp is the discovery of well-preserved
original tissue in all sorts of organisms from deep in the
geological record. One of the best examples is that published in
2005 by Mary Schweitzer of flexible blood vessels still
containing red blood cells from a T. rex femur. However, it is
radioisotope dating of rocks that undergirds the conviction of
most scientists that the earth truly is billions of years old
and that some 65 million years have elapsed since dinosaurs were
alive. It is this radioisotope data that causes most scientists
to remain steadfast in their convictions regarding the age of
the earth’s rocks despite the soft tissue discoveries.
To me this is why the research results of the RATE team are so
important. The RATE results identify the root cause of the
conflict. They reveal the precise reason why the radioisotope
data consistently indicate the earth is billions of years old
while, by contrast, the Torah reveals that it is only thousands.
The reason is, quite plainly, that the assumption of the
constancy of nuclear decay rates is wrong. The high retention
levels of radiogenic helium in zircons are a direct affirmation
of this conclusion. Although not quite as direct, the widespread
presence of polonium halos in granitic rocks and the ubiquitous
presence of C-14 from deep in the geological record, also RATE
findings, likewise affirm that nuclear decay rates must have
been considerably higher during episodes in the past than they
are today.
Therefore, if one is inclined to accept the Torah as truly being
revelation from God to Moses, there no longer remains any good
reason for not accepting at face value the Torah’s time line for
the earth’s physical history. The only major event with
geological consequences mentioned in the Torah after God’s
creation of the heavens and the earth and His filling the newly
formed earth with living creatures is the Flood in the days of
Noah. Therefore, the logic seems simple that the portion of the
rock record filled with fossils must be the portion of the rock
record generated by the Flood. The implication is that the Flood
was a cataclysm of a magnitude and intensity that is almost
beyond the human mind to imagine. In some regions kilometers of
crystalline rock was eroded away by turbulent water, while in
others kilometers of sediment was deposited in laterally
extensive layers, many covering hundreds of thousands of square
kilometers. Below the oceans, all the seafloor from before the
Flood was rapidly subducted into the mantle at ocean trenches
while entirely new seafloor was created by seafloor spreading at
mid-ocean ridges. The rapid plate motion rifted apart the
pre-Flood continent, moving the resulting continent blocks
thousands of kilometers across the face of the earth.
This paper summarizes a few of the physical aspects of this
cataclysm that have been investigated by numerical modeling.
Included is a beginning attempt to model the erosion, sediment
transport, and sediment deposition of the Flood at the global
scale. One objective is gain insight into the mechanisms
responsible for the megasequences that are a prominent aspect of
the fossil-bearing sediment record across the world, including
the erosional unconformities that separate them from one
another. The paper also summarizes efforts to investigate some
of the large-scale tectonics aspects of the cataclysm. Some
progress seems to have been made to understand how ocean
lithosphere from near the earth’s surface could possibly plunge
through some 2800 km of solid rock to reach the core-mantle
boundary within only a few weeks’ time. Some progress also
appears to have been made in modeling surface plate motions
during the cataclysm.
Pulling all these threads together, the Flood of Noah comes into
view as the essential key to a correct understanding of earth
history. Especially important in putting the puzzle together
correctly is the recognition that the Flood is responsible for
the fossil-bearing sediment record, from the Ediacaran to the
early Piocene. Since so few professional earth scientists have
ever considered this even as a possibility, there is currently
no shortage of exciting research issues to explore. The field is
wide open for new discoveries and research contributions.
Dr John Baumgardner - Noah's Flood
About Dr. John Baumgardner Ph.D.
Professor
Southern California Seminary
Dr. Baumgardner has a B.S. in electrical engineering from Texas
Tech University, a M.S. in electrical engineering from Princeton
University, and a Ph.D. in geophysics and space physics from
UCLA. His Ph.D. research included the development of a 3D finite
element model of the earth’s interior, now known as TERRA,
specifically to investigate the physical aspects of the Genesis
Flood. He is generally credited with providing the primary
original research undergirding the concept of catastrophic plate
tectonics in connection with Noah’s Flood.
For 20 years John served as a staff scientist in the Theoretical
Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory engaged in a variety
of research projects in computational physics, including runaway
subduction in the earth’s mantle as a key aspect of the Flood.
Between 1997 and 2005 he served on the Radioisotopes and the Age
of the Earth (RATE) team that documented multiple independent
lines of radioisotope evidence that the earth is thousands, not
billions, of years old. Between 2005 and 2010 he was part of a
small team that developed Mendel’s Accountant, a computer model
for exploring key topics population genetics relating to the
origin and history of life. He is currently a senior research
associate and vice-president of Logos Research Associates based
in Santa Ana, California and an adjunct professor at Southern
California Seminary where he teaches creation apologetics
courses.
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