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WB Footnotes
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[ The Fountains of the Great Deep > The Origin of Earth’s
Radioactivity > References and Notes ]
References and Notes
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 [and new chemical elements] 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.
u A.V. Agafonov et al., “Observation of Neutron Bursts Produced
by Laboratory High-Voltage Atmospheric Discharge,” Physical
Review Letters, Vol. 111, 12 September 2013, pp. 115003-1 –
115003-5.
These authors consider nuclear fusion as the likely mechanism
for these bursts of neutrons. [Thanks to Rick Keane for calling
these experiments to my attention on 5 December 2013.]
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. Notice the shortness and intensity of
a 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. For more than a century, stresses in the earth’s crust have
been known to produce powerful voltages and electrical surges.
Since 1970, a common explanation for this has been the
piezoelectric effect.
“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.
Other mechanisms may also produce electrical effects from
stressed rock, although a clear understanding of those
mechanisms is lacking.
All past attempts to identify a physical process that could
generate strong currents deep in the ground [by
non-piezoelectric mechanisms] have not produced convincing
results. Friedemann T. Freund et al., “Electric Currents
Streaming Out of Stressed Igneous Rocks—a Step Towards
Understanding Pre-Earthquake Low Frequency EM Emissions,”
Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Vol. 31, 2006, p. 390.
Also, other minerals in the crust besides quartz may be
piezoelectric. Nevertheless, it is undisputed that stresses in
the earth’s crust will produce powerful voltages and electrical
effects. Because the piezoelectric effect is easily explained,
well understood, and quantifiable, it will be the mechanism
described in this chapter.
5. 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.
6. “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. Actually, the nuclei of
some heavy elements are pear-shaped.
7. 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 2013, 118 elements have been observed,
some very briefly in experiments.
8. 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.
9. What must happen for the fusion of two nuclei heavier than 60
AMU? Energy must be absorbed. This is being demonstrated at the
Proton-21 Electrodynamics Research Laboratory in the Ukraine,
which, among other results, is producing superheavy elements.
[See page 381.] Fluttering hydroplates at the beginning of the
flood and the piezoelectric effect produced similar results.
This origin of earth’s radioactivity also accounts for
accelerated radioactive decay and corrects the false belief that
the earth is billions of years old.
10. 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:radioactivityzz-instability_index.jpg Image Thumbnail
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.
11. Why does the valley of stability curve? It is a direct
result of “the strong force,” described briefly on page 379. For
details, consult a good textbook on nuclear physics.
12. In decay, a nucleus is changed spontaneously (that is, by
seemingly random processes inside the vibrating nucleus).
Usually 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. A wide range of
products are possible. 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, but
most decays are not fissions. Nor are decays nuclear reactions.
A nuclear reaction occurs when a nucleus is changed by
bombardment. A Z-pinch is a type of nuclear reaction in which
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.
13. “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.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. Richard A. Kerr, “Tweaking the Clock of Radioactive Decay,”
Science, Vol. 286, 29 October 1999, p. 882.
18. “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.
19. “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
Bundesanstalt 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.
u “Proximity to the sun seemed to influence radioactivity, and
violent activity on the sun could also increase or decrease
decay rates.” Corey S. Powell, “Beware: Superflare,” Discover,
March 2013, p. 69.
20. 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). Trillions of neutrinos from the Sun pass harmlessly
through each person on earth every second.
21. 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).
22. Z-pinch (or a self-focusing plasma flow) occurs only 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 electrical current, according to Bennett [p. 896], turns
out to be very small when the voltage is extremely large, as it
would be for fluttering hydroplates. That current is
radioactivityzz-current_required_for_z-pinch.jpg Image Thumbnail
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 216), 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.
23. “... 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.
24. 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.]
25. 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.
26. Melvin A. Cook, Prehistory and Earth Models (London: Max
Parrish, 1966), pp. 66 –67.
27. “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.
28. “This amount of 40Ar is greater by three orders of magnitude
than would be expected for a chondritic abundance of potassium
in Enceladus’ rock fraction, thus requiring both an efficient
mechanism for the escape of 40Ar from the rock component and a
mechanism for concentrating it.” 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, p. 488.
29. “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.
30. 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.
31. 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
u “We present results of experiments using a pulsed power
facility to induce collective nuclear interactions producing
stable nuclei of virtually every element in the periodic table.”
Stanislav Adamenko et al., “Exploring New Frontiers in the
Pulsed Power Laboratory: Recent Progress,” Results in Physics,
Vol. 5, 2015, p. 62.
32. “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-pinch-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.
33. Stanislav Adamenko, “The New Fusion,” ExtraOrdinary
Technology, Vol. 4, October-December, 2006, p. 6.
34. “The number of formed superheavy nuclei increases when a
target 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.
35. “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.
36. 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.
37. “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.”
HTML http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadean.
38. 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.
39. “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.
40. “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.
41. How is 3He produced? Nuclear reactions first produce 3H
(tritium), often as a rare fission product, or in one of the
following ways:radioactivityzz-tritium_production_equations.jpg
Image Thumbnail
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.]
42. “But the questions of how gas from the solar nebula was
trapped in the solid parts of growing planets, and how the gas
was preserved through early accretionary events, will certainly
test our models of accretion.” Chris J. Ballentine, “A Dash of
Deep Nebula on the Rocks,” Nature, Vol. 486, 7 June 2012, p. 41.
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. “... the location or process that could prevent such a deep
reservoir [of 3He] from mixing into the convecting mantle and
disappearing completely have remained enigmatic.” Ballentine, p.
41.
45. H. S. Carslaw and J. C. Jaeger, Conduction of Heat in
Solids, 2nd edition (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1959), p.
87.
u 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. He concluded that
“Earth’s radioactivity was confined to the crust, a few tens of
kilometers thick.” [See Stacey, Physics of the Earth, 3rd
edition (1992), p. 45.]
u Each year on average, radioactive decay releases W calories of
heat per cubic centimeter of granite, and S calories of heat
escape into the atmosphere from each square centimeter of
continental (granitic) crust. A layer of granite only S/W thick
would account for all this heat, if steady state has been
reached. Here are some reported values of W and S:
Table 23. Radioactive Heat Production in Crust
Year
W
S
S/W
Reference
1959
17.0 × 10-6
41.0
24.1 km
Carslaw and Jaeger, pp. 83, 86
1969
23.0 × 10-6
45.1
19.6 km
Stacey, 1969, pp. 240, 245
1992
21.4 × 10-6
44.3
20.7 km
Stacey, 1992, pp. 292, 300
As explained on pages 155–190, other heat sources are generating
heat within the earth, so these thicknesses of granite would be
even thinner. The granite crust is generally estimated to be at
least 50 km (30 miles) thick. Therefore, steady state has not
been reached. In other words, radioactivity is concentrated in
the crust but has not been there long enough to reach steady
state.
u “Surface rocks show traces of radioactive materials, and while
the quantities thus found are very minute, the aggregate amount
is sufficient, if scattered with this density throughout the
earth, to supply, many times over, the present yearly loss of
heat. In fact, so much heat could be developed in this way that
it has been practically necessary to make the assumption that
the radioactive materials are limited in occurrence to a surface
shell only a few kilometers in thickness.” Leonard R. Ingersoll
et al., Heat Conduction: With Engineering, Geological and Other
Applications, revised edition (Madison, Wisconsin: University of
Wisconsin Press, 1954), p. 102.
u “Uranium, thorium and potassium are the main elements
contributing to natural terrestrial radioactivity. ... All three
of the radioactive elements are strongly partitioned into the
continental crust.” J. A. Plant and A. D. Saunders, “The
Radioactive Earth,” Radiation Protection Dosimetry, Vol. 68,
1996, p. 25.
46. “... 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.
47. “... 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.
Continents contain less than 1% of the earth’s mass (actually
0.35%), so why do they have 90% of earth’s uranium and thorium?
48. “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.
49. 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.
50. 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.
51. So far, 16 zones have been discovered; some are connected.
52. 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
radioactivityzz-reactors_efficiency_k.jpg Image Thumbnail
the total number of neutrons produced would be
radioactivityzz-neutrons_produced_infinite_series.jpg Image
Thumbnail
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%, a total of
100 trillion neutrons would be produced.
53. “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.
54. “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: Vienna 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.]
55. 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.
56. 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.
57. Myron L. Fuller, The New Madrid Earthquake (Washington,
D.C.: USGS Bulletin 494, 1912), p. 46.
58. A. A. Harms, “Reaction Dynamics and 235U/238U Ratios for the
Oklo Phenomenon,” Naturwissenschaften, Vol. 75, January 1988,
pp. 47–49.
59. 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.]
60. Actually, almost all (9,998 out of 10,000) 218Po isotopes
decay by emitting an alpha particle. A few emit a beta particle.
61. 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, and
the dilemma this presents to those who believe in a
4.5-billion-year-old earth is even greater.
62. “[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.]
63. 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 64, 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:radioactivityzz-halo_heat_to_reach_melting_point.jpg Image
Thumbnail
and the following two heat-balance equations can be easily and
quickly checked. First, raising the sphere’s temperature to
its melting point:radioactivityzz-halo_melting_check.jpg Image
Thumbnail
Then, melting the
rock:radioactivityzz-heat_that_melts_halos_rock.jpg Image
Thumbnail
So why do we see unmelted polonium halos?
i. Each 218Po ion was electrically attracted (within seconds to
minutes) to a tiny inclusion after it formed by the decay of
222Rn. [See "Rapid Attraction" on page 609.] With trillions of
222Rn transported in the flowing water flowing through the
spongelike channels in the crust, and many 218Po ions
simultaneously moving toward their destination, this could have
taken days or weeks, enough time for the heat to transfer away
as the halo slowly formed.
ii. The halos were cooled by considerable flowing subsurface
water and by the “evaporation” of the volatile OH-.
For details, see “Isolated Polonium Halos” on pages 403–405.
64. 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.]
65. G. H. Henderson and F. W. Sparks, “A Quantitative Study of
Pleochroic Halos, p. 243.
66. Gentry never observed this concentration of halo centers in
specific sheets. Personal communication, 7 August 2009.
67. 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.
68. 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.
69. “... 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.
70. Kurt P. Wise, “Radioactive Halos: Geologic Concerns,”
Creation Research Society Quarterly, Vol. 25, March 1989, pp.
171–176.
71. 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.
72. 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 only 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 257–262 answers the first
question. Pages 123–124, 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.
73. “... 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.
74. “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.
75. “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.
u 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 65.]
Others have proposed less-successful variations of Henderson’s
basic insight or have repackaged Collins’ explanation without
proper credit.
76. 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”? Why was there so much
“radon-bearing water”? The radon in question, 222Rn, has a
half-life of only 3.8 days. What “opened ‘avenues’ inside rock
for radon-bearing water” and when? What provided the necessary
energy and forces?
77. Photographs of these elliptical halos can be seen in Plate 5
of Gentry’s Radiohalo Catalogue in Creation’s Tiny Mystery.
78. 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.
79. “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.
80. “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.]
81. Each quartz crystal, when stressed, sets up an electrical
field which reinforces the electrical fields of all nearby
quartz crystals. Each field’s strength diminishes as the square
of the distance from the crystal source, and is also reduced by
about 80% by granite’s permittivity (resistance to the
electrical field). Nevertheless, so many crystals lie within
granite that their three-dimensional integrated effect amounts
to 7.4 times that of one quartz crystal alone.
In carrying out this integration, the granite hydroplate was
divided into tiny but equal cubic volumes, each containing a
quartz crystal occupying 27% of the granite cube (as found
typically in granite). Then, the effects of all quartz crystals
were summed from 1 to infinity in all three dimensions. This
uniformity assumption is conservative, since electrical
breakdown will occur on the path of least electrical resistance,
not the much harder paths that would exist if the quartz
crystals were of identical sizes and uniformly spaced within the
granite. Figure 216 shows that the entire hydroplate experienced
electrical breakdown and a huge flux of neutrons from
bremsstrahlung radiation.
Quartz crystals generate about 0.0625 volt (V) per meter for
each N/m2 (newton per square meter) of compression. [See
HTML 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 even being reached today.
[See "Earthquakes and Electricity" on page 383.] Certainly,
stresses exceeded this during the compression event and as the
fluttering crust pounded pillars. Therefore, electric fields of
at least 92.5 × 106 V/m were reached in the extreme top and
bottom of each hydroplate.
radioactivityzz-max_voltage.jpg Image Thumbnail
Notice in Figure 216 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.]
The total voltage generated in the fluttering crust is equal to
the area of a red triangle in Figure 216 (volts/meter times the
half-thickness of the crust in meters). This voltage (and
therefore the z-pinching) was orders of magnitude greater than a
brief 1-billion volt bolt of lightning is on our low-density
atmosphere today. Shock collapse (explained on page 389) also
contributed a powerful additional pinch as did the compression
event and the pounding pillars.
Rock is weak in tension, so when the top half of a hydroplate
was in the tension half of its flutter cycle, these high
voltages were not reached near the earth’s surface (as they were
in the compression half cycle). However, in the bottom half of a
hydroplate, tension only means that the large compressive
stresses due to the weight of the overlying rock were 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.
radioactivity-breakdown_voltage.jpg Image Thumbnail
Figure 216: Sea of Neutrons. Piezoelectric voltages were
produced by compressive and tensile stresses in the fluttering
crust acting on trillions upon trillions of quartz crystals.
Because those cyclic stresses varied from a maximum at the top
and bottom of the crust to zero at the neutral plane in the
middle, the piezoelectric voltages also decrease linearly to
zero at the neutral plane. Therefore, the total piezoelectric
voltages exceeded the breakdown voltage of 9 × 106 V/m
throughout almost all of the 60-mile thick hydroplate (shown in
red). However, the excess energy gained in accelerating
electrons in the top and bottom of the hydroplate produced
breakdown throughout the entire crust. This energy of almost
92.5 ×106 × 48,000 × 0.5 = 2.2 ×1012 = 2.2×106 MeV
was many orders of magnitude larger than the 10–19 MeV necessary
for bremsstrahlung radiation to release free neutrons.
Therefore, a sea of neutrons resulted which produced new
isotopes throughout the crust.
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 82, the
piezoelectric coefficient increases and breakdown voltages
decrease—both contributing to more extensive and powerful plasma
production.
82. A cyclic load on granite will temporarily produce a cyclic
voltage. Normally, free electrons in the earth will neutralize
the voltage in a few seconds. However, for the fluttering crust,
supercritical water (SCW), a strong and vast dielectric,
electrically insulated the crust from below, so free electrons
from the rest of the earth could not flow up to neutralize the
voltage. As cyclic voltages built up and suddenly discharged
within the fluttering crust, the electrical charges within the
ionized SCW shifted back and forth by induction.
Once the temperature of quartz exceeds about 1,063°F (573°C),
its atoms become mobile enough to reorient and neutralize any
voltage.
83. N. E. Ipe, “Radiological Considerations in the Design of
Synchrotron Radiation Facilities,” Stanford Linear Accelerator
Center, SLAC-PUB-7916, January 1999, p. 6.
84. To see why powerful bremsstrahlung radiation releases
neutrons, a review will be helpful. On page 379, we introduced
“the strong force” by asking, “Why do large nuclei not fly
apart, since like charges repel each other and all the positive
charges (protons) should repel each other?
In addition to the strong force that holds tightly packed
protons and neutrons together, neutrons inside a nucleus spread
the protons farther apart, thereby reducing their mutual
repulsion. That repelling force, like air pressure in a balloon,
gives the nucleus a spherical shape if no other force acts upon
it. However, if powerful piezoelectric voltages produce
electrical surges near these nuclei, the electrons will emit
bremsstrahlung radiation as they decelerate. The trillions of
cycles per second of alternating positive and negative charges
in that radiation will vibrate the protons in the nucleus, so
the nucleus takes on a different ellipsoid (or football) shapes
each cycle. The portions of the nucleus that are farthest from
the center of the nucleus (at the tips of the football shape)
will more nearly resemble smaller nuclei.
As explained on page 380 in discussing the valley of stability,
small stable nuclei usually have as many neutrons as protons.
For example, helium usually has two of each, carbon has three of
each, and oxygen has eight of each. For more massive nuclei to
be stable more neutrons than protons are needed to spread the
protons farther apart and reduce their mutual repulsion. (For
example, uranium has 92 protons and most uranium nuclei have 146
neutrons.) Therefore, a powerfully vibrating heavy nucleus
distorts into shapes where portions of the nucleus have too many
neutrons close together. To be stable at that instant, those
portions must expel a few neutrons. This is why the powerful
bremsstrahlung radiation during the compression event near the
end of the flood released “a sea” of neutrons.
For the same reason, when a neutron—acting as a bullet—splits
(fissions) a uranium-235 (235U) nucleus, the two smaller
fragments no longer need as many neutrons, so each typically
releases one or two neutrons.
If the neutrons released in each fission produce, on average,
exactly one more fission, the concentration of 235U is said to
be critical. If more than one fission occurs on average, there
is an explosion, as in an atomic bomb.
85. 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 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.
86. “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,” Tectonophysics, 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.
87. J. R. Rygg et al., “Dual Nuclear Product Observations of
Shock Collapse in Inertial Confinement Fusion,” LLE Review, Vol.
111, pp. 148–153.
88. The photo of this lightning rod can be seen at:
HTML 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 nonscientific 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, although copyright fees were offered.
89. Bennett, pp. 890–897.
90. The following definitions pertain to this calculation:
mole: the mass of a substance equal to its atomic or molecular
weight expressed in grams. For example, a mole of carbon-12
weighs 12 grams. A mole of water (H2O or 1H + 1H +16O) is 18
grams of water.
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.
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.
MeV: a million electron volts (a unit of energy). It is the
energy gained by an electron accelerated through one million
volts. A snowflake striking the concrete pavement releases about
4 MeV.
fast neutron: a free neutron with a kinetic energy of at least 1
MeV (14,000 km/sec). Nuclear reactions (fission and fusion)
produce fast neutrons.
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.
u Our oceans have 1.43 × 1024 grams of water. For every 18 grams
of water (1 mole) there are 6.022 × 1023 (Avogadro’s number)
water molecules—each with 2 hydrogen atoms. One out of every
6,400 hydrogen atoms in our oceans is heavy hydrogen (2H, called
deuterium). Each fast neutron thermalized by water produced at
least 1 MeV of heat energy. (1 MeV = 1.602 × 10-6 erg) A
hydrogen atom (1H) that absorbs a fast neutron releases 2.225
MeV of binding energy and becomes deuterium. So, assuming earth
had no unusual amount of deuterium before the flood, the amount
of nuclear energy that was added to the subterranean water over
several weeks, just in forming deuterium, was:
radioactivityzz-energy_released_in_fusing_deuterium.jpg Image
Thumbnail
This is the energy that would be released by 1,800 trillion
1-megaton hydrogen bombs! [See Endnote 3 on page 603.] The crust
became an earth-size nuclear engine during the several weeks
this nuclear energy was being generated. This is a conservative
estimate of the nuclear energy added to the subterranean water,
because other products of nuclear fission and decay would have
added additional energy, and some water was expelled permanently
from earth. Energy was also required to form radioisotopes and,
in effect, “lift” them high above the floor of the valley of
stability; energy was also absorbed in forming some elements
heavier than iron.
The above calculation shows why so much deuterium was in the
subterranean chamber. The solar system and stars contain little
deuterium (a fragile isotope), but comets and asteroids contain
large amounts of deuterium. (The comet chapter, pages –,
explains why the water in comets came from the subterranean
chamber.)
This huge energy release (7.72 × 1037 ergs) must first be seen
from the perspectives of two calculations: (a) and (b) below.
From the first, this energy will appear small, but from the
second, it will seem too large. Then, to help resolve both,
consider the remarkable ability of water—especially
supercritical water—to absorb and transfer heat and expel that
energy into outer space as kinetic energy in the fountains of
the great deep. Some of that energy is still being expelled from
what was the porous floor of the subterranean chamber. [See
Figure 56 on page 127.]
a . 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 the crust
is 97 × 105 cm thick (about 60 miles), the average cubic
centimeter of rock would generate only 0.05 watts.
radioactivityzz-watts_per_cubic_centimeter.jpg Image Thumbnail
where a watt-day = 8.64 × 1011 ergs. A 100-watt light bulb
releases energy almost 2,000 times faster. (Some 20-watt light
bulbs are less than a cubic centimeter.)
b . If 7.72 × 1037 ergs of thermal energy were evenly
distributed throughout the earth at one time, the earth would
melt! 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 44 on page 605, and neglecting the variation of
these properties with pressure and temperature, the energy
needed to melt the entire earth
isradioactivityzz-energy_to_melt_earth.jpg Image Thumbnail
91. No liquid, including water, boils at its “boiling point.”
The erroneous term arose before the mechanism of boiling was
understood. To boil, a liquid’s temperature must be somewhat
above its so-called boiling point.
I once demonstrated this to friends in our heat-transfer
laboratory at MIT, by showing how hard it was to boil from a
perfectly smooth metal surface, one that had no surface cracks
or valleys—liquid mercury. I placed liquid mercury in the bottom
of a very clean beaker and then poured pure water (doubly
distilled and highly degassesd) on top. As the beaker was heated
by radiation lamps, the water’s temperature rose to 247°F (35
degrees above water’s “boiling point” at atmospheric pressure).
Clouds of steam increasingly rolled out of the beaker, but no
boiling occurred. Then, a very large bubble suddenly grew from a
nucleation site (a little pit) in a microscopic dust particle
hidden from sight in my “clean” water. The bubble grew and rose
so fast that the water splashed off the ceiling. The highly
agitated water molecules in the liquid (with 35 degrees of
superheat) were frantically seeking a vapor pocket into which
they could jump. Probably there were millions of sub-microscopic
vapor pockets, but their effective radius was so small that the
surrounding water’s surface tension was so powerful that the
pressure inside was too high to attract water vapor.
A liquid’s so-called boiling point is the temperature at which
the vapor pressure of the liquid equals the pressure surrounding
the liquid.
92. Yes, as the temperature of the SCW slowly increases, the
average radius (r) of the microscopic liquid droplets becomes
even smaller, so the surface tension (the inter-molecular
forces) squeezing the droplets increases as 1/r. Therefore, the
pressure within the liquid droplets becomes much greater than
the surrounding vapor’s pressure. Simultaneously, as the average
liquid droplet becomes smaller through evaporation, the vapor’s
density increases, so more vapor molecules merge at a faster
rate to become microscopic liquid droplets, and more water
molecules are ionized.
93. While all the crust was not obliterated, at least two large
areas were. You will recall the discussion on page 119 (and
Endnote 30 on page 141) 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.
If one looks at a globe, doesn’t it appear 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. Earth’s crust has a mean
circumference of 24,875 miles. Therefore, the strain just before
the rupture was about
radioactivityzz-rupture_width.jpg Image Thumbnail
Although other factors were involved, this might be, within an
order of magnitude, the initial width of the rupture.
95. See "Frequency of the Fluttering Crust" on page 608.
96. In about 1982, I received a phone call from a scientist who,
in 1942, participated at one of the most significant and
dangerous experiments of all time. Enrico Fermi and his team had
built the first nuclear reactor under the south side of the
University of Chicago’s football stadium. It was a key step in
the development of the atomic bomb.
One of the fascinating details he shared was that they could
measure with a Geiger counter the radiation building up in the
room (a squash court), and knew that neutrons were buzzing all
around and through their bodies. He also said that the one thing
they knew about atoms was that their nuclei were continually
vibrating.
97. George F. Bertsch, “Vibrations of the Atomic Nucleus,”
Scientific American, Vol. 248, May 1983, p. 64.
98. Imagine that you are pushing a child in a swing. The swing
has a natural frequency, perhaps one cycle every two seconds. If
you push the child ten times per second or once every ten
seconds, you won’t get good results. It is best to push at the
natural vibrational frequency of the swing (once every two
seconds). But that is not enough. If each of your pushes at the
resonant frequency puts more energy (a force moving through a
distance) into the pendulum-like swing than is lost by various
types of friction, the swing’s amplitude steadily increases.
The same thing happens in a nucleus whose vibrations are driven
by streams of bremsstrahlung radiation, originating during the
compression event from trillions of locations in the suddenly
compressed hydroplates. Each stream contains some of the
resonant frequencies—about 5 × 1021 cycles (or “pushes”) per
second. Amplitudes steadily increase and nuclei are repeated
distorted into unstable shapes and unstable internal
configurations. Accelerated decay follows.
99. George Gamow, “Expanding Universe and the Origin of
Elements,” Physical Review, Vol. 70, October 1946, pp. 572–573.
100. “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.
101. Ralph A. Alpher, Hans Bethe, and George Gamow, “The Origin
of Chemical Elements,” Physical Review, Vol. 73, April 1948, pp.
803–804.
102. “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.
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. “A third alpha particle therefore has to be captured nearly
simultaneously with the collision of the original pair [of alpha
particles] for 12C to be formed. This process is known as the
triple-alpha reaction, and was first proposed in 1952. Oxygen is
then created when 12C captures a fourth alpha particle.” Sofia
Quaglioni, “Close Encounters of the Alpha Kind,” Nature, Vol.
528, 3 December 2015, p. 42.
105. Serdar Elhatisari et al., “Ab Initio Alpha—alpha
scattering,” Nature, Vol. 528, 3 December 2015, p. 111–114.
106. “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.
107. “... 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.
108. “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.
109. Joseph Silk, The Big Bang (San Francisco: W. H. Freeman and
Co., 1980), p. 79.
110. See Endnote 33 on page 141.
111. Charles Seife, “Accelerator Aims to Find the Source of All
Elements,” Science, Vol. 298, 22 November 2002, p. 1544.
u Other evolutionist journals also admit this.
Stars cook up nearly all of the approximately 60 atomic elements
in people’s bodies. But exactly how that works remains a
mystery. Dolly Setton, “The Cosmic Recipe for Earthlings,”
Discover, September 2013, p. 10.
112. “... 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 381.]
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.
113. If supernovas produced all the chemical elements that are
heavier than iron (and their isotopes), supernova debris should
show spectroscopically all those elements produced by the
r-process (rapid process) for the capture of neutrons. It should
be a simple matter to show thousands of heavy isotopes present
in the spectrographs of supernova remnants.
...we have no spectroscopic evidence that r-process elements
have truly been produced. Stephen Rosswog, “Radioactive Glow as
a Smoking Gun,” Nature, Vol. 500, 29 August 2013, p. 536.
Cobalt-56 and cobalt-57 are seen in supernova remnants, causing
some to claim that cobalt is produced by supernovas. The current
theoretical understanding of the events leading to a supernova
have nickel decaying into cobalt before the supernova, thereby
powering the supernovae. The cobalt was not produced by the
supernova.
The nickel decays radioactively into cobalt, which then decays
radioactively into iron, powering the supernova’s incandescence.
Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, “Death of a Star,” Science, Vol. 339, 4
January 2013, p. 23.
114. “Models indicate that supernovae do not create enough of
the elements heavier than iron to account for the amounts of
these elements found in the universe.” Neil F. Comins and
William J. Kaufmann, Discovering the Universe (New York: W. H.
Freeman and Co., 2009), p. 238.
115. “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.
116. 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.
117. 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.
118. “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.
119. Frank D. Stacey, Physics of the Earth (New York: John Wiley
& Sons, 1969), p. 244.
120. Frank D. Stacey, Physics of the Earth, 3rd edition
(Brisbane, Australia: Brookfield Press, 1992), pp. 62–65.
121. “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.
122. Josh Dean, “This Machine Might Save the World,” Popular
Science, January 2009, pp. 64–71.
123. “[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.
124. “Helium-3 occurs as a primordial nuclide, escaping from the
Earth’s crust into the atmosphere and into outer space over
millions of years.”
HTML http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3.
125. Frank D. Stacey, Physics of the Earth (New York: John Wiley
& Sons, 1969), p. 240.
126. 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
radioactivityzz-dehydroxylation_equation.jpg Image Thumbnail
[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 appreciate 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
radioactivityzz-molecules_released_per_recoil.jpg Image
Thumbnail
127. 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.[See "Frequency of the Fluttering Crust" on page 608.] 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.
128. 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.
129. Richard A. Kerr, “Meteorite Mystery Edges Closer to An
Answer—Or the End of a Field,” Science, Vol. 341, 12 July 2013,
p. 126.
130. 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 584–585.]
131. 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.]
132. T. D. Swindle et al., “Radiometric Ages of Chondrules,”
Chondrules and Their Origins, 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.]
133. Richard Ash, “Small Spheres of Influence,” Nature, Vol.
372, 17 November 1994, p. 219.
134. “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.
135. These researchers include: A.G. W. Cameron, E. Levy, S.
Love, J. Wasson, and Fred L. Whipple. Whipple specifically
refers to the Z-pinch as necessary to focus enough energy to
suddenly melt tiny chondrules. [See Fred L. Whipple,
“Chondrules: Suggestion Concerning the Origin,” Science, Vol.
153, 1 July 1966, pp. 54–56.]
136. Alan E. Rubin, “Secrets of Primitive Meteorites,”
Scientific American, Vol. 308, February 2013, p. 41.
137. “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.
138. 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 96.]
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 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. Neither the first nor the second step could happen quickly
enough to form detectable crystals containing 60Fe.
139. “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. See
HTML 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.
140. 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.
141. 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.
142. 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.
143. “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.
144. 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.
145. Ping Wang et al., “Tectonic Control of Yarlung Tsangpo
Gorge Revealed by a Buried Canyon in Southern Tibet,” Science,
Vol. 346, 21 November 2014, p. 979.
u “The constant river gradient strongly suggests a rapid uplift
event created the gorge, rather than the river incision as
previously believed.” Stella Hurtley, “Tibetan Gorge Avoids a
Tectonic Aneurysm,” Science, Vol. 346, 21 November 2014, p. 960.
146. Burbidge et al., pp. 547–650.
147. “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.
148. “The Rn-222 alpha particle map shows that radon gas was
emanating from the vicinity of craters Aristarchus and Kepler at
the time of Lunar Prospector.” Stefanie L. Lawson et al.,
“Recent Outgassing from the Lunar Surface: The Lunar Prospector
Alpha Particle Spectrometer,” Journal of Geophysical Research:
Planets, Vol. 110, September 2005. p. E09009.
149. 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
influence 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
radio-carbon dating.] The test would have been blind if the
specimens had been reduced to unidentified carbon powder before
they were given to the testing laboratories.
Actually, a more precise dating method for the Shroud had
already been discovered. A Roman coin (a Pontius Pilate lepton)
had been placed over the right eye of the man whose image was on
the Shroud. That coin was minted between 29 AD and 32 AD.
Discernible on the coin was a misspelled word, which further
identifies the coin, because “at least four other Pilate coins
currently exist that exhibit this misspelling.” Placing coins
over the eyes of the deceased was a common burial practice in
Jerusalem between the 1st Century BC through the 1st Century AD.
[See Mark Antonacci, Test the Shroud at the Atomic and Molecular
Levels (United States: LE Press, LLC, 2015), pp. 69-75.]
Radiometric dates that do not fit the favored 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.
150. 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.
151. “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.
152. “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.
153. Silk, p. 124.
154. Baum et al., p. 34.
155. Beth Geiger, “Relics of Earth’s Birth Still Linger,”
Science News, Vol. 189, 11 June, 2016, p. 13.
156. Hanika Rizo et al., “Preservation of Earth-Forming Events
in the Tungsten Isotopic Composition of Modern Flood Basalts,”
Science, Vol. 352, 13 May 2016, pp. 809–812.
157. “The ancient remnants somehow escaped being mixed by
convection currents in the mantle.” Geiger, p. 13.
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