From: Glenn Morton (glennmorton@entouch.net)
Date: Tue Oct 07 2003 - 19:49:43 EDT
You wrote:
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Craig Rusbult [mailto:craig@chem.wisc.edu]
>Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2003 10:19 AM
>
> In Impact #364, John Baumgardner says, re: correlations between
>geological context and isotopic ratios:
>
>>In view of the profound significance of these AMS 14C
>measurements, the ICR
>>Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth (RATE) team has undertaken its own
>>AMS 14C analyses of such fossil material.2 The first set of samples
>>consisted of ten coals obtained from the U. S. Department of Energy Coal
>>Sample Bank maintained at the Pennsylvania State University. The
>ten samples
>>include three coals from the Eocene part of the geological record, three
>>from the Cretaceous, and four from the Pennsylvanian. These samples were
>>analyzed by one of the foremost AMS laboratories in the world. Figure 1
>>below shows in histogram form the results of these analyses.
>>These values fall squarely within the range already established in the
>>peer-reviewed radiocarbon literature. When we average our results
>over each
>>geological interval, we obtain remarkably similar values of 0.26 percent
>>modern carbon (pmc) for Eocene, 0.21 pmc for Cretaceous, and 0.27 pmc for
>>Pennsylvanian. Although the number of samples is small, we observe little
>>difference in 14C level as a function of position in the
>geological record.
>>This is consistent with the young-earth view that the entire macrofossil
>>record up to the upper Cenozoic is the product of the Genesis Flood and
>>therefore such fossils should share a common 14C age.
>
> Is this data accurate? Is there an old-earth explanation for it?
>Are there web-pages with good old-earth analyses of this?
>
Hi Craig,
there are two possibilities for this, but the one I think is most likely is
the bacterial hypothesis. Fungi and bacteria have been shown to be living
deep underground. When a sample of coal is brought to the surface and
exposed to modern C14 laden atmosphere, some of the C14 diffuses into the
coal and is incorporated into the bacterial chemical reactions, adding
modern C14 which can be measured. Only samples stored in inert atmospheres
would cause a problem under this theory. There are those who believe that
C14 is generated by either in situ radionuclide decay or by cosmic rays when
brought to the surface.
See http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/c14.html
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