Decay of Long Half-Life Isotopes

Old Age

(4.5 billion?) [2]

F   1.  The age of the earth by long half-life radioisotope dating methods disagree with dozens of physical processes such as the current rates of disposition of various chemicals into the ocean, and of the wearing away of the continental crust.  [3][4]

F   2.  The whole rock ages by different radioisotope methods often vary greatly. [5]

F   3.  Minerals known to be very recent in origin are often dated millions of years old by radioisotope methods.  [6]
F   4.  The Allende meteorite thought to be 4.567 billion years old [7] by selective radioisotope dating was used to date the earth.  Actual results for five radioisotope dating methods on this meteorite are inconsistent and ranged from 4.48 to 10.4 billion years. [8]

A   1.  The earth is extremely old based on the requirements of the general evolutionary hypothesis.

A   2.  The rate of radioisotope decay is constant for billions of years. This assumption is logically impossible to prove because continuous decay measurements have not been taken from the earth’s beginning. It may be disproved by evidence to the contrary.

A   3.  The amount of original daughter material present at mineral formation under certain conditions can be determined with some certainty.

A   4.  Earth was formed at about the same time as meteorites and the age of meteorites must agree with “an unproved and unprovable idea about solar-system formation.” [9]

Young Age

(Thousands?)

F   Accelerated isotope decay has occurred in the past based on the following RATE [10] project results:

(a) Zircon crystals with an alleged 1.5-billion-year age based on radioisotope dating were recovered from Precambrian granitic rock in New Mexico. [11] Yet, tests indicate they contain huge concentrations of helium from uranium decay that should have diffused thousands of years ago. [12] [13] [14] This provides strong evidence for one or more periods of accelerated nuclear decay in the past and a young age for the earth. [15]

(b)   The abundance of fission tracks and radiohalos give evidence of accelerated decay because they should have been erased from the mineral due to heating by tectonic and volcanic activity if the earth was not young. [16]

A  1.  The earth is young based on the Bible.

A   2.  Isotopes matching daughter products may have been present at formation.

A   3.  Accelerated radioisotope decay is thought to have occurred during creation and/or the flood. [17]

Earth’s Magnetic Field

Old Age

(Greater than 3.5 billion?)

F   1.  Earth’s magnetic field is generally thought by old universe age adherents “to be associated with electrical currents produced by the coupling of convective effects and the rotation in the spinning liquid metallic outer core of iron and nickel. This mechanism is termed the dynamo effect.” [18][19]

F  2.  The Earth’s magnetic field dipole moment has decayed from 1835 to 2005. See item 3 under Creation below.

F   3. The Moon and Mars had strong magnetic fields in the past, but none now. [20] [21] [22]

F   4.  Earth magnetic field reversals have occurred in the past. [23]

F   5.  A reversal “is but one detail of the magnetic field that is not well understood.” [24]

F   6.  The dynamo hypothesis has no real predictive power.  Examples:

(a)  Magnetic field dipole moments of planets Mercury and Uranus were not close to zero or very little predictions by the dynamo model.  [25][26]

(b) It does not predict when a reversal will take place or how long the reversal will be. [27][28]

A   1.  Only planetary magnetic field generation theories that support the evolutionary hypothesis requiring the universe to be billions of years old are acceptable.

A   2.  The Earth’s magnetic field is prevented from decaying by constantly being replenished by electrical currents created by convection in the outer core. [29]

A   3.  Both the Moon and Mars are thought to have had dynamos that stopped. [30] [31]

A   4.  The earth’s magnetic field reversals are thought to be evidence against the creationist’s magnetic field decay hypothesis and for the dynamo hypothesis. [32] [33]

A   5.  Reversals in the earth’s magnetic field are dated using long radioisotope half-life assumptions. [34] Last reversal is thought to be 780,000 years ago. [35]

A  6.  Reversals last thousands of years. [36][37]

A   7.  Supercomputer models have or can prove the dynamo theory.[38]

A   8.  Earth’s magnetic field is 3.5 billion years old. [39][40] This age is based on a lot of unproved assumptions including the rate of radioisotope decay is constant for billions of years.

Young Age

(Less than 10,000 Maximum?)

F  1.  Since the 1970’s, the hypothesis popular with young earth believers in the scientific community attributes the earth’s magnetic field to “freely decaying electric currents in the earth’s core.” [41] [42]

F   2.  The earth’s magnetic field is induced by electrical currents in the earth’s core.

F   3.  The earth’s (dipole [43]) magnetic field moment has been measured continually since 1835 and has decreased by 7% since then to 2005. This is equivalent to an approximate half-life of 1400 years. [44]

F  4.  From 1970 to 2000, the net loss of all energy from all parts of the magnetic field (dipole and non-dipole) “was 1.41 +or - 0.16%.  At that rate, the field would lose half its energy every 1465 +or– 166 years.” [45]

F   5.  A half-life of 1400 years means that the field would be twice as strong as 2800 years ago, four times 4200 years ago, and so on.  At this rate, about 10000 years ago the heat generated would cause the planet earth to disintegrate. The age of the earth is therefore thought to be limited to 10,000 years. [46]

F   6.  Evidence of a rapid magnetic field reversal has been found in a thin lava flow in the Steens Mountain in Oregon, USA with 45 degrees change in less than 15 days. [47]

F   7. “The present magnetic field strengths of the Earth, Sun, Moon, and planets agree very well with the values produced by this theory and a 6000-year age for the solar system.” [48]

F   8.  Magnetic field predictions by this model for Mercury, Mars, Uranus, and Neptune have been right on as verified by spacecraft. [49]

A   1.  Only planetary magnetic field generation theories that support a young age for the universe are acceptable.

A   2.  Earth’s magnetic field generation and decay follow the established laws of electronics.

A   3.  The earth at creation about 6000 years ago had a large electrical current that immediately began to steadily decay.

A   4.  The electrical resistance of the earth’s core will steadily dissipate the field’s energy as heat. [50][51]

A   5.  Uses the uniformitarian assumption to calculate the half-life.

A   6.  Magnetic field reversals occurred within days and weeks during the yearlong worldwide Flood recorded in the Bible due to massive disturbances within the earth. [52][53]

A   7.  The earth was made from water. [54] This view is not held by all creationists.

A  8.  Factors important in calculating the magnetic fields of planets, the moon and sun are their mass, core radius, core electrical conductivity, approximate 6000-year age of the solar system, and whether they were originally formed from water. [55][56]

A  9.  Radioactive decay has not been constant for billions of years.