gabriel
2010-05-16 12:41:31 UTC
If your world-view is "I am not ashamed of the Word of God, and I
believe God did exactly what He said He did - what even Jesus
Christ said" then we continue to find observations that match the
accuracy of the Bible.
Psalms 90:1-2 Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in
all generations. [2] Before the mountains were brought
forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the
world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art
God.
Creation Model and Sea Floor Studies Agree: Past Volcanism Heated
Ancient Oceans
by Brian Thomas, M.S. *
Earth's surface shows features that clearly testify to some kind
of catastrophic event, or series of events, that operated on a
vastly larger scale than today's geologic processes. Whatever
happened had a devastating impact on living creatures large and
small, terrestrial and marine. But the event's cause, effect,
timing, and extent remain uncertain for researchers who rely only
on what the bare rocks have to tell.
New research into Paleocene strata has unfolded dramatic events
that occurred in earth's past. It is clear that mass extinctions
left scores of animals fossilized in the strata. Publishing in
the Journal of the Geological Society, researchers investigated
drill core data from the Norwegian Sea showing that the sea floor
was once littered with massive craters. As reported in
ScienceNOW, "The area experienced volcanic upheaval on a scale
dwarfing anything in human history."1
A detailed history of this event was difficult to pin down
because researchers were restricted to the sparse and equivocal
geologic data, but the general findings fit well with the Genesis
Flood model of earth's history. This massive upheaval is what one
would expect as the after-effect of a global flood that was
accompanied by extensive tectonic activity.
In particular, creation research has emphasized the role of
mantle material heating the earth's sea surface during and after
that year-long event.2 Also, the likelihood of volcanic gases and
debris having flooded the atmosphere for perhaps several hundred
years following the Flood has been an integral part of the
creation/Flood model, and evidence that this occurred is a
constant enigma for those who choose to ignore the biblical
account.3
In keeping with these contentions, the researchers found that the
undersea craters they studied are associated with massive caches
of methane. As a result, they postulated that an
extinction-causing catastrophe was initiated when methane was
ejected into earth's atmosphere by "a series of massive undersea
eruptions"1 that heated the planet by 5C for 170,000 years.
These Paleocene undersea deposits contain records of just the
sort of catastrophic features that biblical creation researchers
have been describing for decades. The volcanism, mass
extinctions, and disrupted atmosphere are all consistent with the
creation/Flood model. But the ages assigned to these events by
the evolutionary researchers are not.
The scientists measured isotope ratios from zircon crystals taken
from the drill cores. Uranium-lead dating gave an "age" for the
crystals--and therefore their host sediments--of 55 million
years. However, although the uranium-lead ratios would indicate
millions of years' worth of decay at the present rates, zircons
contain a different but just as valid internal clock that clearly
shows that the decay rate of uranium was at some point
accelerated dramatically. This accelerated decay inflated the
apparent ages by several orders of magnitude.
Helium atoms are "slippery" because of their small size, and as
such are easily able to diffuse out of the tiny spaces within the
lattice structure of zircon crystals. After millions of years,
these crystals ought to contain very little helium, which is
produced as a byproduct of uranium decay. Studies that are
available online show that zircon crystals have ample helium
trapped inside--so much, in fact, that they look to be only
thousands of years old.4
Geochemist Alan Jay Kaufman of the University of Maryland offered
a caution to the scientists' speculative reconstruction of
long-lasting global warming from overactive undersea volcanoes.
He told ScienceNOW, "Their assertion that the one caused the
other remains untested."1
Without a time machine or the ability to control earth's
volcanoes, tests will never be conclusive. The evolution-inspired
scenario presented with this research only opens another question
about what sub-crustal process could have caused these volcanoes
to continuously produce just the right amounts of methane for
just that amount of time.
Fortunately, reconstructions of the earth's past have a much more
solid foundation if one willingly includes valid, recorded
eyewitness information such as that found in the book of Genesis.
References
1.Berardelli, P. Did Monster Eruptions Warm the World?
ScienceNOW. Posted on sciencemag.org April 23, 2010, accessed May
3, 2010, reporting on research published in Svensen, H., S.
Planke and F. Corfu. 2010. Zircon dating ties NE Atlantic sill
emplacement to initial Eocene global warming. Journal of the
Geological Society. 167 (3): 433-436.
2.Vardiman, L. 2003. Hypercanes Following the Genesis Flood. In
Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Creationism.
R. L. Ivey, Jr., ed. Pittsburgh, PA: Creation Science Fellowship,
17-28.
3.Oard, M. 1987. The Ice Age and the Genesis Flood. Acts & Facts.
16 (6).
4.Humphreys, D. R. 2005. Young Helium Diffusion Age of Zircons
Supports Accelerated Nuclear Decay. In Radioisotopes and the Age
of the Earth: Results of a Young-Earth Creationist Research
Initiative, Vol. 2. Vardiman, L., A. Snelling and E. Chaffin,
eds. El Cajon, CA: Institute for Creation Research and Chino
Valley, AZ: Creation Research Society.
believe God did exactly what He said He did - what even Jesus
Christ said" then we continue to find observations that match the
accuracy of the Bible.
Psalms 90:1-2 Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in
all generations. [2] Before the mountains were brought
forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the
world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art
God.
Creation Model and Sea Floor Studies Agree: Past Volcanism Heated
Ancient Oceans
by Brian Thomas, M.S. *
Earth's surface shows features that clearly testify to some kind
of catastrophic event, or series of events, that operated on a
vastly larger scale than today's geologic processes. Whatever
happened had a devastating impact on living creatures large and
small, terrestrial and marine. But the event's cause, effect,
timing, and extent remain uncertain for researchers who rely only
on what the bare rocks have to tell.
New research into Paleocene strata has unfolded dramatic events
that occurred in earth's past. It is clear that mass extinctions
left scores of animals fossilized in the strata. Publishing in
the Journal of the Geological Society, researchers investigated
drill core data from the Norwegian Sea showing that the sea floor
was once littered with massive craters. As reported in
ScienceNOW, "The area experienced volcanic upheaval on a scale
dwarfing anything in human history."1
A detailed history of this event was difficult to pin down
because researchers were restricted to the sparse and equivocal
geologic data, but the general findings fit well with the Genesis
Flood model of earth's history. This massive upheaval is what one
would expect as the after-effect of a global flood that was
accompanied by extensive tectonic activity.
In particular, creation research has emphasized the role of
mantle material heating the earth's sea surface during and after
that year-long event.2 Also, the likelihood of volcanic gases and
debris having flooded the atmosphere for perhaps several hundred
years following the Flood has been an integral part of the
creation/Flood model, and evidence that this occurred is a
constant enigma for those who choose to ignore the biblical
account.3
In keeping with these contentions, the researchers found that the
undersea craters they studied are associated with massive caches
of methane. As a result, they postulated that an
extinction-causing catastrophe was initiated when methane was
ejected into earth's atmosphere by "a series of massive undersea
eruptions"1 that heated the planet by 5C for 170,000 years.
These Paleocene undersea deposits contain records of just the
sort of catastrophic features that biblical creation researchers
have been describing for decades. The volcanism, mass
extinctions, and disrupted atmosphere are all consistent with the
creation/Flood model. But the ages assigned to these events by
the evolutionary researchers are not.
The scientists measured isotope ratios from zircon crystals taken
from the drill cores. Uranium-lead dating gave an "age" for the
crystals--and therefore their host sediments--of 55 million
years. However, although the uranium-lead ratios would indicate
millions of years' worth of decay at the present rates, zircons
contain a different but just as valid internal clock that clearly
shows that the decay rate of uranium was at some point
accelerated dramatically. This accelerated decay inflated the
apparent ages by several orders of magnitude.
Helium atoms are "slippery" because of their small size, and as
such are easily able to diffuse out of the tiny spaces within the
lattice structure of zircon crystals. After millions of years,
these crystals ought to contain very little helium, which is
produced as a byproduct of uranium decay. Studies that are
available online show that zircon crystals have ample helium
trapped inside--so much, in fact, that they look to be only
thousands of years old.4
Geochemist Alan Jay Kaufman of the University of Maryland offered
a caution to the scientists' speculative reconstruction of
long-lasting global warming from overactive undersea volcanoes.
He told ScienceNOW, "Their assertion that the one caused the
other remains untested."1
Without a time machine or the ability to control earth's
volcanoes, tests will never be conclusive. The evolution-inspired
scenario presented with this research only opens another question
about what sub-crustal process could have caused these volcanoes
to continuously produce just the right amounts of methane for
just that amount of time.
Fortunately, reconstructions of the earth's past have a much more
solid foundation if one willingly includes valid, recorded
eyewitness information such as that found in the book of Genesis.
References
1.Berardelli, P. Did Monster Eruptions Warm the World?
ScienceNOW. Posted on sciencemag.org April 23, 2010, accessed May
3, 2010, reporting on research published in Svensen, H., S.
Planke and F. Corfu. 2010. Zircon dating ties NE Atlantic sill
emplacement to initial Eocene global warming. Journal of the
Geological Society. 167 (3): 433-436.
2.Vardiman, L. 2003. Hypercanes Following the Genesis Flood. In
Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Creationism.
R. L. Ivey, Jr., ed. Pittsburgh, PA: Creation Science Fellowship,
17-28.
3.Oard, M. 1987. The Ice Age and the Genesis Flood. Acts & Facts.
16 (6).
4.Humphreys, D. R. 2005. Young Helium Diffusion Age of Zircons
Supports Accelerated Nuclear Decay. In Radioisotopes and the Age
of the Earth: Results of a Young-Earth Creationist Research
Initiative, Vol. 2. Vardiman, L., A. Snelling and E. Chaffin,
eds. El Cajon, CA: Institute for Creation Research and Chino
Valley, AZ: Creation Research Society.