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Dr. Andrew A.

Snelling
Education
PhD, Geology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, 1982
BSc, Applied Geology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney,
Australia, First Class Honours, 1975
Professional Experience

Field, mine, and research geologist, various mining companies,


Australia

, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation


(ANSTO), Consultant researcher and writer , Australia, 19831992

Geological consultant, Koongarra uranium project, Denison Australia PL, 19831992

Collaborative researcher and writer, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organisation


(CSIRO), Australia, 19811987

Professor of geology, Institute for Creation Research, San Diego, CA, 19982007

Staff member, Creation Science Foundation (later Answers in GenesisAustralia), Australia, 1983
1998

Founding editor, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal (now Journal of Creation), 19841998

Researcher and editor, Radioisotopes and the Age of The Earth (RATE), 19972005

Editor-in-chief, Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Creationism, 2008

Director of Research, Answers in Genesis, Petersburg, KY, 2007present

Professional Affiliations
Geological Society of Australia /Geological Society of America /Geological Association of Canada/
Mineralogical Society of America /Society of Economic Geologists /Society for Geology Applied to Mineral
Deposits / Creation Research Society /Creation Geology Society
Dr. Andrew A. Snelling is perhaps one of the world's leading researchers in flood geology.He worked for a
number of years in the mining industry throughout Australia undertaking mineral exploration surveys and field
research. He has also been a consultant research geologist for more than a decade to the Australian
Nuclear Science and Technology Organization and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for
internationally funded research on the geology and geochemistry of uranium ore deposits as analogues of
nuclear waste disposal sites..His primary research interests include radioisotopic methods for the dating of
rocks, formation of igneous and metamorphic rocks, and ore deposits. He is one of a controlled number
permitted to take rock samples from the Grand Canyon.He was also a founding member of the RATE group
(Radioisotopes and the Age of The Earth).
Andrew completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Geology with First Class Honours at The
University of New South Wales in Sydney, and graduated a Doctor of Philosophy (in geology) at The
University of Sydney, for his thesis entitled A geochemical study of the Koongarra uranium deposit,
Northern Territory, Australia. Between studies and since, Andrew worked for six years in the exploration
and mining industries in Tasmania, New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and the Northern
Territory variously as a field, mine and research geologist. Full-time with the Australian creation ministry from
1983 to 1998, he was during this time also called upon as a geological consultant to the Koongarra uranium
project (19831992).
Consequently, he was involved in research projects with various CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and
Industrial Research Organisation), ANSTO (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation)
and University scientists across Australia, and with scientists from the USA, Britain, Japan, Sweden and the
International Atomic Energy Agency. As a result of this research, Andrew was involved in writing scientific
papers that were published in international scientific journals.Andrew has been involved in extensive
creationist research in Australia and overseas, including the formation of all types of mineral deposits,
radioactivity in rocks and radioisotopic dating, and the formation of metamorphic and igneous rocks,
sedimentary strata and landscape features (e.g. Grand Canyon, USA, and Ayers Rock, Australia) within the
creation framework for earth history. As well as writing regularly and extensively in international creationist
publications, Andrew has travelled around Australia and widely overseas (USA, UK, New Zealand, South
Africa, Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China) speaking in schools, churches, colleges and universities,
particularly on the overwhelming scientific evidence consistent with the Global Flood and the Creation.

HOW OLD IS EARTH 10 BEST EVIDENCES THAT CONFIRM A YOUNG EARTH...4


EVIDENCES FROM THE RADIOHALOS

RadiohalosMysterious Bullet Holes in Rocks.11

RadiohalosThe Mysterious Vanishing Bullets12

RadiohalosSolving the Mystery of the Missing Bullets.15

Radiohalos in Multiple, Sequentially Intruded Phases of the Bathurst Batholith, NSW, Australia17

Radiohalos and Diamonds....38

Radiohalos in the Cooma Metamorphic Complex 43

Radiohalos in the Shap Granite, Lake District, England Evidence that Removes Objections to Flood Geology.. 52

RadiohalosA Tale of Three Granitic Plutons..62

Implications of Polonium Radiohalos in Nested Plutons of the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite, Yosemite, California73

Testing the Hydrothermal Fluid Transport Model for Polonium Radiohalo Formation84
EVIDENCES FROM THE MAGNETIC FIELD

More Evidence of Rapid Geomagnetic Reversals Confirms a Young Earth.89

The Principle of Least Astonishment!... ..93

The Earths Magnetic Field and the Age of the Earth..94

Fossil Magnetism Reveals Rapid Reversals of the Earth's Magnetic Field.96


***

Rocks Around the Clock: Do Zircons Contain Reliable Time Stamps and Early Earths Secrets?.......................98
Journey to the Center of the Earth101
Giants Causeway Northern Ireland.102
The Devils Marbles.104
Arches of Utah.104
Hawaiis Volcanic OriginsInstant Paradise..105
The Florida Sinkhole Tragedy . .108
VolcanoesWindows Into Earths Past. .... 110
Does Sand Prove Long Ages? 112
Thirtieth Anniversary of a Geologic Catastrophe113
The Cooling of Thick Igneous Bodies on a Young Earth...115
Catastrophic Granite Formation. ..123
Conflicting Ages of Tertiary Basalt and Contained Fossilised Wood.132

RAPID ROCKS

Granites They Didnt Need Millions of Years of Cooling...150

Rapid Granite Formation?....... ...152

Towards a Creationist Explanation of Regional Metamorphism...153

Australias Burning Mountain..166

When Was the Ice Age in Biblical History?... .169


ASTRO GEOLOY

Moon Dust and the Age of the Solar System .172

Solar NeutrinosThe Critical Shortfall Still Elusive...197

Galaxy-Quasar Connection Defies Explanation198

Saturns RingsShort-Lived and Young.198

That Matter of the Shrinking Sun...199


GOLD

A Little Bit of Heaven on Earth. 200

CRYSTALS

Shape-Shifting Silicon.202

Rubies & Sapphires.205

Microscopic Diamonds Confound Geologists.207

Creating Opals ....208

DiamondsEvidence of Explosive Geological Processes209

Growing OpalsAustralian Style. 211

HOW OLD IS EARTH 10 BEST EVIDENCES THAT CONFIRM A YOUNG EARTH


#1 Very Little Sediment on the Seafloor
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on October 1, 2012
If
sediments
have
been
accumulating on the seafloor for
three billion years, the seafloor
should be choked with sediments
many miles deep.Every year
water and wind erode about 20
billion tons of dirt and rock debris
from the continents and deposit
them on the seafloor.1 (Figure 1).
Most of this material accumulates
as loose sediments near the
continents. Yet the average thickness of all these sediments globally over the whole seafloor is not even 1,300 feet (400
m).2Some sediments appear to be removed as tectonic plates slide slowly (an inch or two per year) beneath continents.
An estimated 1 billion tons of sediments are removed this way each year.3 The net gain is thus 19 billion tons per year. At
this rate, 1,300 feet of sediment would accumulate in less than 12 million years, not billions of years.This evidence makes
sense within the context of the Flood cataclysm, not the idea of slow and gradual geologic evolution. In the latter stages of
the year-long global Flood, water swiftly drained off the emerging land, dumping its sediment-chocked loads offshore.
Thus most seafloor sediments accumulated rapidly about 4,300 years ago.4
Where Is All the Sediment?
Figure 1: Every year, 20
billion tons of dirt and rock
debris wash into the ocean
and accumulate on the
seafloor. Only 1 billion tons
(5%) are
removed
by
tectonic plates. At this rate,
the current thickness of
seafloor sediment would
accumulate in less than 12
million
years.
Such
sediments
are
easily
explained by water draining
off the continents towards
the end of the Flood.
Rescuing Devices
Those who advocate an old
earth insist that the seafloor
sediments
must
have
accumulated at a much slower rate in the past. But this rescuing device doesnt stack up! Like the sediment layers on
the continents, the sediments on the continental shelves and margins (the majority of the seafloor sediments) have
features that unequivocally indicate they were deposited much faster than todays rates. For example, the layering and
patterns of various grain sizes in these sediments are the same as those produced by undersea landslides, when dense
debris-laden currents (called turbidity currents) flow rapidly across the continental shelves and the sediments then settle in
thick layers over vast areas. An additional problem for the old-earth view is that no evidence exists of much sediment
being subducted and mixed into the mantle.
#2 Bent Rock Layers
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on October 1, 2012
In many mountainous areas,
rock layers thousands of feet
thick have been bent and folded
without fracturing. How can that
happen if they were laid down
separately over hundreds of
millions of years and already
hardened?Hardened
rock
layers are brittle. Try bending a
slab of concrete sometime to
see what happens! But if
concrete is still wet, it can easily
be shaped and molded before the cement sets. The same principle applies to sedimentary rock layers. They can be bent
and folded soon after the sediment is deposited, before the natural cements have a chance to bind the particles together
into hard, brittle rocks.1The region around Grand Canyon is a great example showing how most of the earths fossilbearing layers were laid down quickly and many were folded while still wet. Exposed in the canyons walls are about 4,500
feet (1,370 meters) of fossil-bearing layers, conventionally labelled Cambrian to Permian.2 They were supposedly
deposited over a period lasting from 520 to 250 million years ago. Then, amazingly, this whole sequence of layers rose
over a mile, around 60 million years ago. The plateau through which Grand Canyon runs is now 7,0008,000 feet (2,150
3,450 meters) above sea level.
Layers Laid Down Quickly and Bent While Soft

Figure 1: The Grand Canyon


now cuts through many rock
layers. Previously, all these
layers were raised to their current
elevation (a raised, flat region
known as the Kaibab Plateau).
Somehow this whole sequence
was bent and folded without
fracturing. Thats impossible if the
first
layer,
the
Tapeats
Sandstone, was deposited over
North America 460 million years
before being folded. But all the
layers would still be relatively soft
and pliable if it all happened
during the recent, global Flood.
Figure 2: This phenomenon was
not regional. The Tapeats Sandstone spans
the continent, and other layers span much
of the globe.
Think about it. The time between the first
deposits at Grand Canyon (520 million
years ago) and their bending (60 million
years ago) was 460 million years!
Look at the photos of some of these layers
at the edge of the plateau, just east of the
Grand Canyon. The whole sequence of
these hardened sedimentary rock layers
has been bent and folded, but without
fracturing (Figure 1).3 At the bottom of this
sequence is the Tapeats Sandstone, which
is 100325 feet (30100 meters) thick. It is
bent and folded 90 (Photo 1). The Muav
Limestone above it has similarly been bent
(Photo 2).
Photo courtesy Andrew A. Snelling
Photo 1: The whole sequence of
sedimentary layers through which Grand
Canyon cuts has been bent and folded
without fracturing. This includes the
Tapeats Sandstone, located at the
bottom of the sequence. (A 90 fold in
the eastern Grand Canyon is pictured
here.)
Photo courtesy Andrew A. Snelling
Photo 2: All the layers through which
Grand Canyon cutsincluding the Muav
Limestone shown herehave been bent
without fracturing.
However, it supposedly took 270 million
years to deposit these particular layers.
Surely in that time the Tapeats
Sandstone at the bottom would have
dried out and the sand grains cemented
together, especially with 4,000 feet
(1,220 m) of rock layers piled on top of it and pressing
down on it? The only viable scientific explanation is that
the whole sequence was deposited very quicklythe
young age model indicates that it took less than a year,
during the global Flood cataclysm. So the 520 million
years never happened, and the earth is young.
Rescuing Devices
What solution do old-earth advocates suggest? Heat
and pressure can make hard rock layers pliable, so they
claim this must be what happened in the eastern Grand
Canyon, as the sequence of many layers above
pressed down and heated up these rocks. Just one
problem. The heat and pressure would have
transformed these layers into quartzite, marble, and
other metamorphic rocks. Yet Tapeats Sandstone is still
sandstone, a sedimentary rock!
But this quandary is even worse for those who deny
recent creation and the Flood. The Tapeats Sandstone

and its equivalents can be traced right across North America (Figure 2),4 and beyond to right across northern Africa to
southern Israel.5 Indeed, the whole Grand Canyon sedimentary sequence is an integral part of six megasequences that
cover North America.6 Only a global Flood cataclysm could carry the sediments to deposit thick layers across several
continents one after the other in rapid succession in one event.7
#3 Soft Tissue in Fossils
by Dr. David Menton on October 1, 2012
Ask the average layperson how he
or she knows that the earth is
millions or billions of years old, and
that person will probably mention
the
dinosaurs,
which
nearly
everybody knows died off 65
million years ago. A recent
discovery by Dr. Mary Schweitzer,
however, has given reason for all
but committed evolutionists to
question
this
assumption.Bone
slices from the fossilized thigh bone (femur) of aTyrannosaurus rex found in the Hell Creek formation of Montana were
studied under the microscope by Schweitzer. To her amazement, the bone showed what appeared to be blood vessels of
the type seen in bone and marrow, and these contained what appeared to be red blood cells with nuclei, typical of reptiles
and birds (but not mammals). The vessels even appeared to be lined with specialized endothelial cells found in all blood
vessels.Amazingly, the bone marrow contained what appeared to be flexible tissue. Initially, some skeptical scientists
suggested that bacterial biofilms (dead bacteria aggregated in a slime) formed what only appear to be blood vessels and
bone cells. Recently Schweitzer and coworkers found biochemical evidence for intact fragments of the protein collagen,
which is the building block of connective tissue. This is important because collagen is a highly distinctive protein not made
by bacteria. (See Schweitzers review article in Scientific American [December 2010, pp. 6269] titled Blood from
Stone.)Some evolutionists have strongly criticized Schweitzers conclusions because they are understandably reluctant
to concede the existence of blood vessels, cells with nuclei, tissue elasticity, and intact protein fragments in a dinosaur
bone dated at 68 million years old. Other evolutionists, who find Schweitzers evidence too compelling to ignore, simply
conclude that there is some previously unrecognized form of fossilization that preserves cells and protein fragments over
tens of millions of years.1 Needless to say, no evolutionist has publically considered the possibility that dinosaur fossils
are not millions of years old.
Tyler Lyson, Associated Press
A Little Skin: A largely intact dinosaur mummy,
named Dakota, was found in the Hell Creek
Formation of the Western U.S. in 2007. Some soft
tissue from the long-necked hadrosaur was quickly
preserved as fossil, such as the scales from its
forearm shown here.An obvious question arises from
Schweitzers work: is it even remotely plausible that
blood vessels, cells, and protein fragments can exist
largely intact over 68 million years? While many
consider such long-term preservation of tissue and
cells to be very unlikely, the problem is that no human
or animal remains are known with certainty to be 68
million years old. But if creationists are right,
dinosaurs died off only 3,0004,000 years ago. So
would we expect the preservation of vessels, cells,
and complex molecules of the type that Schweitzer
reports for biological tissues historically known to be
3,0004,000 years old?The answer is yes. Many
studies of Egyptian mummies and other humans of
this old age (confirmed by historical evidence) show all the sorts of detail Schweitzer reported in her T. rex. In addition to
Egyptian mummies, the Tyrolean iceman, found in the Alps in 1991 and believed to be about 5,000 years old, shows such
incredible preservation of DNA and other microscopic detail.We conclude that the preservation of vessels, cells, and
complex molecules in dinosaurs is entirely consistent with a young-earth creationist perspective but is highly implausible
with the evolutionists perspective about dinosaurs that died off millions of years ago.
#4 Faint Sun Paradox
by Dr. Danny Faulkner on October 1, 2012
Evidence
now
supports
astronomers belief that the suns
power comes from the fusion of
hydrogen into helium deep in the
suns core, but there is a huge
problem. As the hydrogen fuses,
it should change the composition
of the suns core, gradually
increasing the suns temperature.
If true, this means that the earth
was colder in the past. In fact, the
earth would have been below freezing 3.5 billion years ago, when life supposedly evolved.The rate of nuclear fusion
depends upon the temperature. As the suns core temperatures increase, the suns energy output should also increase,
causing the sun to brighten over time. Calculations show that the sun would brighten by 25% after 3.5 billion years. This
means that an early sun would have been fainter, warming the earth 31F (17C) less than it does today. Thats below
freezing.

But evolutionists acknowledge that there is no evidence of this in the geologic record. They even call this problem the faint
young sun paradox. While this isnt a problem over many thousands of years, it is a problem if the world is billions of years
old.
Rescuing Devices
Over the years scientists have proposed several mechanisms to explain away this problem. These suggestions require
changes in the earths atmosphere. For instance, more greenhouse gases early in earths history would retain more heat,
but this means that the greenhouse gases had to decrease gradually to compensate for the brightening sun.
None of these proposals can be proved, for there is no evidence. Furthermore, it is difficult to believe that a mechanism
totally unrelated to the suns brightness could compensate for the suns changing emission so precisely for billions of
years.
#5 Rapidly Decaying Magnetic Field
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on October 1, 2012; last featured November 6, 2012
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The earth is surrounded by a
magnetic field that protects
living things from solar
radiation. Without it, life could
not
exist.
Thats
why
scientists were surprised to
discover that the field is
quickly wearing down. At the
current rate, the field and
thus the earth could be no
older than 20,000 years old.
Several measurements confirm this decay. Since measuring began in 1845, the total energy stored in the earths
magnetic field has been decaying at a rate of 5% per century.1Archaeological measurements show that the field was 40%
stronger in AD 1000.2 Recent records of the International Geomagnetic Reference Field, the most accurate ever taken,
show a net energy loss of 1.4% in just three decades (19702000).3 This means that the fields energy has halved every
1,465 years or so.Creationists have proposed that the earths magnetic field is caused by a freely-decaying electric
current in the earths core. This means that the electric current naturally loses energy, or decays, as it flows through the
metallic core. Though it differs from the most commonly accepted conventional model, it is consistent with our knowledge
of what makes up the earths core.4 Furthermore, based on what we know about the conductive properties of liquid iron,
this freely decaying current would have started when the earths outer core was formed. However, if the core were more
than 20,000 years old, then the starting energy would
have made the earth too hot to be covered by water.
Figure 1: Creationists have proposed that the earths
magnetic field is caused by a freely decaying electric
current in the earths core. (Old-earth scientists are
forced to adopt a theoretical, self-sustaining process
known as the dynamo model, which contradicts some
basic laws of physics.) Reliable, accurate, published
geological field data have emphatically confirmed this
young-earth model.
Reliable, accurate, published geological field data
have emphatically confirmed the young-earth model:
a freely-decaying electric current in the outer core is
generating the magnetic field.5 Although this field
reversed direction several times during the Flood
cataclysm when the outer core was stirred (Figure 1),
the field has rapidly and continuously lost total energy
ever since creation (Figure 2). It all points to an earth
and magnetic field only about 6,000 years old.6
Figure 2: The earths magnetic field has rapidly and
continuously lost total energy since its
origin, no matter which model has
been adopted
to explain its
magnetism. According to creationists
dynamic decay model, the earths
magnetic field lost more energy
during the Flood, when the outer core
was stirred and the field reversed
direction several times.
Rescuing Devices
Old-earth advocates maintain the
earth is over 4.5 billion years old, so
they believe the magnetic field must
be self-sustaining. They propose a
complex, theoretical process known
as the dynamo model, but such a
model contradicts some basic laws of
physics. Furthermore, their model
fails to explain the modern, measured
electric current in the seafloor.7 Nor can it explain the past field reversals, computer simulations notwithstanding.8

To salvage their old earth and dynamo, some have suggested the magnetic field decay is linear rather than exponential,
in spite of the historic measurements and decades of experiments confirming the exponential decay. Others have
suggested that the strength of some components increases to make up for other components that are decaying. That
claim results from confusion about the difference between magnetic field intensity and its energy, and has been refuted
categorically by creation physicists.9
#6 Helium in Radioactive Rocks
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on October 1, 2012
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During the radioactive decay of
uranium and thorium contained
in rocks, lots of helium is
produced. Because helium is
the second lightest element and
a noble gasmeaning it does
not combine with other atoms
it readily diffuses (leaks) out
and eventually escapes into the
atmosphere. Helium diffuses so
rapidly that all the helium
should have leaked out in less than 100,000 years. So why are these rocks still full of helium atoms?While drilling deep
Precambrian (pre-Flood) granitic rocks in New Mexico, geologists extracted samples of zircon (zirconium silicate) crystals
from different depths. The crystals contained not only uranium but also large amounts of helium.1 The hotter the rocks,
the faster the helium should escape, so researchers were surprised to find that the deepest, and therefore hottest, zircons
(at 387F or 197C) contained far more helium than expected. Up to 58% of the helium that the uranium could have ever
generated was still present in the crystals.The helium leakage rate has been determined in several experiments.2 All
measurements are in agreement. Helium diffuses so rapidly that all the helium in these zircon crystals should have leaked
out in less than 100,000 years. The fact that so much helium is still there means they cannot be 1.5 billion years old, as
uranium-lead dating suggests. Indeed, using the measured rate of helium diffusion, these pre-Flood rocks have an
average diffusion age of only 6,000 ( 2,000) years.3These experimentally determined and repeatable results, based on
the well-understood physical process of diffusion, thus emphatically demonstrate that these zircons are only a few
thousand years old. The supposed 1.5-billion-year age is based on the unverifiable assumptions of radioisotope dating
that are radically wrong.4Another evidence of a young earth is the low amount of helium in the atmosphere. The leakage
rate of helium gas into the atmosphere has been measured.5 Even though some helium escapes into outer space, the
amount still present is not nearly enough if the earth is over 4.5 billion years old.6 In fact, if we assume no helium was in
the original atmosphere, all the helium would have accumulated in only 1.8 million years even from an evolutionary
standpoint.7But when the catastrophic Flood upheaval is factored in, which rapidly released huge amounts of helium into
the atmosphere, it could have accumulated in only 6,000 years.8
Rescuing Devices
So glaring and devastating is the surprisingly large amount of helium that old-earth advocates have attempted to discredit
this evidence.One critic suggested the helium didnt all come from uranium decay in the zircon crystals but a lot diffused
into them from the surrounding minerals. But this proposal ignores measurements showing that less helium gas is in the
surrounding minerals. Due to the well-established diffusion law of physics, gases always diffuse from areas of higher
concentration to surrounding areas of lower concentration.9Another critic suggested the edges of the zircon crystals must
have stopped the helium from leaking out, effectively bottling the helium within the zircons. However, this postulation has
also been easily refuted because the zircon crystals are wedged between flat mica sheets, not wrapped in them, so that
helium could easily flow between the sheets unrestricted.10 All other critics have been answered.11 Thus all available
evidence confirms that the true age of these zircons and their host granitic rock is only 6,000 ( 2,000) years.
Helium in Radioactive Rocks
Quick Escape of Helium

Figure 1: Radioactive elements in rocks produce a lot of helium as they decay; and this gas quickly slips away into the
atmosphere, especially when the rocks are hot. Yet radioactive rocks in the earths crust contain a lot of helium. The only
possible explanation: the helium hasnt had time to escape!

#7 Carbon-14 in Fossils, Coal, and Diamonds


by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on October 1, 2012; last featured November 20, 2012
Carbon-14 (or radiocarbon) is a
radioactive form of carbon that
scientists use to date fossils. But it
decays quickly.
Carbon-14 (or radiocarbon) is a
radioactive form of carbon that
scientists use to date fossils. But it
decays so quicklywith a half-life of
only 5,730 yearsthat none is
expected to remain in fossils after only
a few hundred thousand years. Yet
carbon-14 has been detected in ancient fossilssupposedly up to hundreds of millions of years oldever since the
earliest days of radiocarbon dating.1Even if every atom in the whole earth were carbon-14, they would decay so quickly
that no carbon-14 would be left on earth after only 1 million years. Contrary to expectations, between 1984 and 1998
alone, the scientific literature reported carbon-14 in 70 samples that came from fossils, coal, oil, natural gas, and marble
representing the fossil-bearing portion of the geologic record, supposedly spanning more than 500 million
years. All contained radiocarbon.2Further, analyses of fossilized wood and coal samples, supposedly spanning 32350
million years in age, yielded ages between 20,000 and 50,000 years using carbon-14 dating.3 Diamonds supposedly 13
billion years old similarly yielded carbon-14 ages of only 55,000 years.4
A sea creature, called an ammonite, was discovered
near Redding, California, accompanied by fossilized
wood. Both fossils are claimed by strata dating to be
112120 million years old but yielded radiocarbon
ages of only thousands of years.Even that is too old
when you realize that these ages assume that the
earths magnetic field has always been constant. But
it was stronger in the past, protecting the atmosphere
from solar radiation and reducing the radiocarbon
production. As a result, past creatures had much less
radiocarbon in their bodies, and their deaths occurred
much more recently than reported!So the radiocarbon
ages of all fossils and coal should be reduced to less
than 5,000 years, matching the timing of their burial
during the Flood. The age of diamonds should be
reduced to the approximate time of creationabout
6,000 years ago.5
Rescuing Devices
Old-earth advocates repeat the same two hackneyed
defenses, even though they were resoundingly
demolished years ago. The first cry is, Its all
contamination. Yet for thirty years AMS radiocarbon
laboratories have subjected all samples, before they
carbon-14 date them, to repeated brutal treatments with strong acids and bleaches to rid them of all contamination.6 And
when the instruments are tested with blank samples, they yield zero radiocarbon, so there cant be any contamination or
instrument problems.The second cry is, New radiocarbon was formed directly in the fossils when nearby decaying
uranium bombarded traces of nitrogen in the buried fossils. Carbon-14 does form from such transformation of nitrogen,
but actual calculations demonstrate conclusively this process does not produce the levels of radiocarbon that world-class
laboratories have found in fossils, coal, and diamonds.7
#8 Short-Lived Comets
A comet spends most of its time far
from the sun in the deep freeze of
space. But once each orbit a comet
comes very close to the sun, allowing
the suns heat to evaporate much of
the comets ice and dislodge dust to
form a beautiful tail. Comets have little
mass, so each close pass to the sun
greatly reduces a comets size, and
eventually comets fade away. They
cant survive billions of years.Two
other mechanisms can destroy cometsejections from the solar system and collisions with planets. Ejections happen as
comets pass too close to the large planets, particularly Jupiter, and the planets gravity kicks them out of the solar system.
While ejections have been observed many times, the first observed collision was in 1994, when Comet Shoemaker-Levi
IX slammed into Jupiter.Given the loss rates, its easy to compute a maximum age of comets. That maximum age is only
a few million years. Obviously, their prevalence makes sense if the entire solar system was created just a few thousand
years ago, but not if it arose billions of years ago.
Rescuing Devices
Evolutionary astronomers have answered this problem by claiming that comets must come from two sources. They
propose that a Kuiper belt beyond the orbit of Neptune hosts short-period comets (comets with orbits under 200 years),
and a much larger, distant Oort cloud hosts long-period comets (comets with orbits over 200 years).
Yet there is no evidence for the supposed Oort cloud, and there likely never will be. In the past twenty years astronomers
have found thousands of asteroids orbiting beyond Neptune, and they are assumed to be the Kuiper belt. However, the

large size of these asteroids (Pluto is one of the larger ones) and the difference in composition between these asteroids
and comets argue against this conclusion.

#9 Very Little Salt in the Sea


by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on October 1, 2012; last featured December 4, 2012
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If the worlds oceans have been
around for three billion years as
evolutionists
believe,
they
should be filled with vastly more
salt than the oceans contain
today.Every
year
rivers,
glaciers, underground seepage,
and atmospheric and volcanic
dust dump large amounts of
salts into the oceans (Figure 1).
Consider the influx of the
predominant salt, sodium chloride (common table salt). Some 458 million tons of sodium mixes into ocean water each
year,1 but only 122 million tons (27%) is removed by other natural processes2 (Figure 1).If seawater originally contained
no sodium (salt) and the sodium accumulated at todays rates, then todays ocean saltiness would be reached in only 42
million years3only about 1/70 the three billion years evolutionists propose. But those assumptions fail to take into
account the likelihood that the saltwater ocean was created for all the sea creatures. Also, the year-long global Flood
cataclysm must have dumped an unprecedented amount of salt into the ocean through erosion, sedimentation, and
volcanism. So todays ocean saltiness makes much better sense within the young age timescale of about six thousand
years.4
Salt in the Sea
The Numbers Just Dont Add Up
Figure 1: Every year,
the
continents,
atmosphere,
and
seafloor add 458 million
tons of salt into the
ocean, but only 122
million tons (27%) is
removed. At this rate,
todays saltiness would
be reached in 42 million
years.
Rescuing DevicesThose
who believe in a threebillion-year-old
ocean
say that past sodium
inputs had to be less
and outputs greater.
However, even the most
generous estimates can only stretch the accumulation timeframe to 62 million years.5 Long-agers also argue that huge
amounts of sodium are removed during the formation of basalts at mid-ocean ridges,6 but this ignores the fact that the
sodium returns to the ocean as seafloor basalts move away from the ridges.7
#10 DNA in Ancient Bacteria
by Dr. Georgia Purdom on October 1, 2012; last featured January 15, 2013
Scientists were surprised to find that DNA
was still intact after a supposed 250 million
years.
In 2000, scientists claimed to have
resurrected bacteria, named Lazarus
bacteria, discovered in a salt crystal
conventionally dated at 250 million years old.
They were shocked that the bacterias DNA
was very similar to modern bacterial DNA. If
the modern bacteria were the result of 250
million years of evolution, its DNA should be very different from the Lazarus bacteria (based on known mutation rates).
In addition, the scientists were surprised to find that the DNA was still intact after the supposed 250 million years. DNA
normally breaks down quickly, even in ideal conditions. Even evolutionists agree that DNA in bacterial spores (a dormant
state) should not last more than a million years. Their quandary is quite substantial.However, the discovery of Lazarus
bacteria is not shocking or surprising when we base our expectations on the young age accounts. For instance, the Flood
likely deposited the salt beds that were home to the bacteria. If the Lazarus bacteria are only about 4,500 years old (the
approximate number of years that have passed since the worldwide flood), their DNA is more likely to be intact and similar
to modern bacteria.
Rescuing Devices
Some scientists have dismissed the finding and believe the Lazarus bacteria are contamination from modern bacteria. But
the scientists who discovered the bacteria defend the rigorous procedures used to avoid contamination. They claim the
old age is valid if the bacteria had longer generation times, different mutation rates, and/or similar selection pressures
compared to modern bacteria. Of course these rescuing devices are only conjectures to make the data fit their
worldview.

EVIDENCES FROM THE RADIOHALOS


RadiohalosMysterious Bullet Holes in Rocks
Part One
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on April 1, 2012; last featured April 1, 2014
The tiny black flecks found in granite testify to a
powerful and recent worldwide Flood. But you have
to look closely.
Shop Now
RadiohalosThe Floods Smoking Gun
Part One: Mysterious Bullet Holes in Rocks
Part Two: The Mysterious Vanishing Bullets
Part Three: Solving the Mystery of the Missing
Bullets
Most people are familiar with granite. Several famous cliffs are made of granite, such as the sheer towering cliffs on either
side of the Yosemite ValleyEl Capitan and Half Dome (Figure 1). In other places granites cover the ground with large
rounded boulders, such as the Devils Marbles in central Australia (Figure 2).
We also see granites used for countertops in many home kitchens. Their colorful, interlocking crystals give the rock an
elegant, sought-after flecked appearance (Figure 3). Along with glassy, pink, and cream crystals, granites usually contain
scattered flakes of a dark, shiny mineral called biotite.
WORLDWIDE TESTIMONY TO THE
FLOODLOCKED
IN
GRANITE.Granite is one of the most
common rocks on the planet, seen in
places like Half Dome in Yosemite
(Figure 1) and the Devils Marbles in
central Australia (Figure 2). Inside the
granite is radioactive damage, called
radiohalos, which is best explained by
granite forming quickly during a
recent, worldwide catastrophe.These
are more than just pretty rocks. They
have amazing stories to tell. Just one
of those stories has to do with the
flakes of biotite. Sometime during the
Flood, these flakes were damaged at
the atomic level. If we can piece
together their story, these flakes can tell
us more about the forces during the
Floodand to form new granites from
molten conditions in only hours or days,
not millions of years.But to investigate
that story requires a bit of background
on that tiny black mineral found in
granite. The first article in this three-part
series explains a few things we can
learn about a rocks history by looking at
it under a microscope.
WHAT ARE RADIOHALOS? (Figures 3
and 4) Granite is filled with tiny black
specks, which give the granite its beauty
in countertops. These black specks are
the mineral called biotite.Creationists
are interested in something mysterious
within this black mineral. Under a
microscope, they find something that
looks like bullet holesround places
where the mineral has been damaged.
What caused this damage?Within the
biotite are small radioactive crystals,
called zircons. When the radioactive
elements in zircons decay, they shoot
out particles in all directions. These
bullets, known as alpha particles,
cause damage to the surrounding
material. This damaged area looks like a
sphere around the zircon, called a radioactive halo, or simply radiohalo.
Biotite Flakes and Zircon Crystals
To the unaided eye, the flat surfaces of the biotite flakes in granites look polished and smooth. However, under a
microscope, the brown or green biotite flakes often contain impurities, tiny crystals of other types of minerals. It is as if
biotite crystals grew around previous minerals, like a tree might grow around a nail. One of these minerals, which is of
special interest to us, is zirconium silicate (ZrSiO 4). Crystals of zirconium silicate are called zircons, named after the
distinctive atom of the mineral.Biotite flakes consist of layers and layers of ultra-thin crystal sheets, stacked on top of one
another like the pages of a book. Wedged between these sheets are tiny zircons (like bookmarks between pages of a
book).An additional characteristic of zircons is that they are radioactive. None of the atoms of pure zirconium silicate are
radioactive. However, uranium atoms (which are radioactive) are so similar in size and electric charge to zirconium atoms

that they can play the part of zirconium atoms. When zircon crystals form, any uranium atoms in the vicinity can replace
zirconium atoms in the zircons crystal structure.Once the zircons form, the trapped uranium atoms start breaking apart or
releasing pieces because the uranium nucleus is very large and highly unstable. The nuclear binding forces cant hold
together all 238 of the particles in the nucleus. When they release pieces, this is called radioactive decay. Two protons
(particles with a positive electric charge) and two neutrons (particles with no electric charge) are ejected from the nucleus
of each uranium atom.
Alpha ParticlesThe two protons and two neutrons are clumped together when ejected, behaving as a single unit. This
unit, called an alpha particle, is itself the very stable nucleus of another atom, helium. The type of radioactive decay that
produces alpha particles (helium) is called alpha decay. These are the particles that cause the clicking sound in a Geiger
counter, the familiar instrument for detecting radioactivity.Once ejected from uranium atoms, the alpha particles leave the
zircon crystals entirely. They are so energetic they shoot out like little bullets, moving at a whopping speed of 9,300
miles/second (15,000 km/sec)more than 45,000 times faster than a typical bullet from a gun.As a result, the alpha
particles damage the surrounding biotite flakes, the same way bullets would leave holes in the walls of a house. Millions of
these alpha particle bullets shoot out in all directions creating a zone of damage a specific distance away from each tiny
zircon.As the alpha particle bullets crash their way through the biotite flakes, leaving trails of damage in the biotites
structure, they slow down until they eventually stop. The most damage occurs where the alpha particles stop. All of this
bombardment by millions of alpha particles produces a narrow band of dark discoloration in the biotite flakes at a certain
distance in every direction away from the zircon.
Radiohalos
The spherical zone of damage around a zircon looks like a halo around the zircon (Figure 4). Thats why these zones of
radiation damage are called radioactive halos, or radiohalos for short. The tiny zircon crystal at the center of each halo is
called a radiocenter. (These terms will become very important later in the discussion.)When the alpha particle bullets
shoot out from the tiny zircon crystals, they pass through and damage multiple biotite crystal sheets (book pages) until
they stop. The resulting discoloration thus affects many pages of the biotite book.In order for geologists to study these
radiohalos under a microscope, they have to pull apart the biotite sheets and view them in two dimensions. So the
radiohalos appear circular on the flat surface of the biotite sheet, much like a slice through a golf ball might look (Figure
5).
HOW CAN YOU STUDY
RADIOHALOS? (Figures 5
and 6) The biotite specks in
granite are made of thin
flakes, which are stacked on
top of each other, like the
pages of a book. If the flakes
are pulled apart, you can
look at the pages of the
book. The sphere damaged
by radioactive decay looks
like a halo.Creationists are
most interested in the slice
through the middle of the sphere. The center, where the destructive particles originated, is called the radiocenter. In many
cases a zircon is there, but in some cases the source is missing. Why do we find a radiohalo but not the source?The best
view, though, is the slice through the center of the radiohalo. Thats where the tiny zircon crystal, the radiocenter, can be
seen. We know when we are looking at the central slice when the radiocenter is seen and the discoloration is the same
distance all the way around the radiocenter.If you look at Figure 6, you will see that the outer edge of the discoloration
halo looks like a dark line. This shows where the most damage was caused as the alpha particles stopped.
A Reminder of the Flood
Far from being an oddity, radiohalos are a record of radioactive decay during the Flood. The sequence of events that
produced this discoloration is locked into biotite flakes for us to see today, in a sense like pre-Flood animals and plants
were locked into mud and sand layers that hardened into fossils. Just like the fossils, these halos of fossilized
radioactivity serve.Once you finish this series, every sighting of this ubiquitous rock, granite, will become another
opportunity to share your faith and the historical truth of the Flood.
RadiohalosThe Mysterious Vanishing Bullets
Part Two
Geologists have uncovered a great mystery in granite rocks. They find tiny black circles, known as radiohalos. They were
caused by radioactive decay of polonium, but the source has disappeared. Where did it come from, and where did it go?
The only answer is a global Flood.
RadiohalosThe Floods Smoking Gun
Part One: Mysterious Bullet Holes in Rocks
Part Two: The Mysterious Vanishing Bullets
Part Three: Solving the Mystery of the Missing Bullets
Part one of this three-part series described the mysterious halos found inside granite (the common speckled rocks used
for kitchen countertops and tombstones). These microscopic halos look a lot like bullet holes. Why are they of interest to
creationists?Once you learn more about these features, you will see why they mystify geologists. They are hard to explain
if granite formed slowly over millions of years, but they make perfect sense if molten material rose near the earths surface
during the worldwide Flood and quickly hardened into granite.But first, you will need to understand a bit more about
radioactive decay and its effects on rocks.
The Well-Understood Radioactive Decay of Uranium
Geologists have a clear understanding of the radioactive decay of uranium atoms and the decays effects on surrounding
rocks. We can observe this process today. It is not a mystery.As explained in the first article, the nuclei of uranium atoms
are so large that they are very unstable. As the atoms decay, subatomic alpha particles fly out like bullets, damaging the
surrounding material. These bullets produce spherical halos called radiohalos (an abbreviation for radioactive halos).
After the first set of these particles is ejected, the smaller nucleus is still unstable. So more particles are ejected from the
nucleus. This happens repeatedly until the atom is stable and no longer decays. In what is known as the uranium decay

chain, the nucleus of the original uranium-238 atom typically undergoes eight alpha-particle changes until it becomes the
stable lead-206 atom (see The Uranium Decay ChainThe Source of Radiohalos below).
The Uranium Decay ChainThe Source of Radiohalos

All the intermediate steps during the radioactive decay of uranium-238 are shown, resulting in the final, stable element
lead-206. Where the arrows point downward, those changes result from alpha decay. The arrows pointing upward indicate
beta decay. (Alpha decay involves the loss of two protons and two neutrons; beta decay involves splitting of a neutron, the
loss of an electron, and the gain of a proton.)The original (or parent) uranium nucleus contains 92 protons. Thats why
uranium is element number 92 on the periodic chart. However, after two protons are ejected in an alpha particle, the
nucleus then has only 90 protons, so the uranium has changed into element number 90, which is thorium.The nucleus of
thorium is still unstable, so it decays radioactively. However, it decays by successively splitting and ejecting two electrons,
known as beta particles, while gaining two extra protons, giving it a total of 92 again. So the thorium has changed back
into the element number 92, uranium.But this uranium is now four neutrons lighter. Whereas the original parent uranium
atom had 146 neutrons and 92 protons in its nucleus (called uranium-238), this uranium atom has only 142 neutrons and
92 protons (called uranium-234).The nucleus of this uranium-234 atom is still unstable, so it decays. The process
continues through what is known as the uranium decay chain, until the stable lead-206 atom is reached, the final end
product.The picture is a little more complicated at the bottom end of this decay chain. At polonium-218 there is
branching, but most polonium-218 atoms decay to lead-214. Then they quickly decay to bismuth-214, then polonium214. The main decay path is depicted with solid red arrows. And the main eight alpha-decaying atoms are shown in
red.Figure 1 shows a sample radiohalo that resulted from this process. Notice the eight dark rings. Why eight and not just
one? As each of the alphaparticles is fired from
the nucleus, it has a different energy. Consequently
each bullet travels a different distance into the
surrounding material before it stops to leave a
black mark.
The Mystery of Polonium Radiohalos
The origin of eight-ring radiohalos is not a mystery
for geologists. They must have formed from
uranium-238 decay. The mystery is the source of
the one-ring, two-ring, and three-ring radiohalos
that are found in the same rock specimens (Figures
24).
Geologists find four types of radiohalos in granite.
One was caused by the decay of uranium, and the
others came from the decay of another radioactive
element, polonium.We can see the source of the
eight-ring radiohalos because it is still therea
zircon crystal that still hosts uranium. But nothing is
usually visible at the center of the other types of
radiohalos. The source has vanished!Fortunately, it
is still possible to determine the source of the rings.
By carefully measuring the distance from the center
of the radiohalo to each ring, we can identify which
type of nucleus formed each ring (Figure 5).1In
each case, the smoking gun was a variation of
the radioactive element polonium.2 Polonium-218,
polonium-214, and polonium-210 generate exactly
the right amount of energy to produce the three-

ring, two-ring, and one-ring radiohalos.The problem is that polonium is never found alone in rocks. It is a rare, unstable
element that appears quickly during the decay of uranium and then decays into stable elements, such as lead. The only
possible source of the polonium was the
decay of uranium. But we do not find a
uranium source at the center of the one, two-, and threering radiohalos! The
crucial clue is the appearance of
polonium during the uranium-238 decay
chain. As the uranium atoms nucleus
becomes progressively smaller, three
variations of polonium appear briefly in
sequence at the end of the chain.
FIGURE
5Composite
schematic
drawing of the four types of radiohalos:
(a) a uranium-238 radiohalo, (b) a
polonium-218 radiohalo, (c) a polonium214 radiohalo, and (d) a polonium-210
radiohalo. Different types of atoms
(nuclides) cause each ring in the
radiohalos, and the particles that they
send out have different energies (MeV).
A Possible Source of the Polonium
Radiohalos
We can be certain that no other
radioactive element appeared at the
center of the polonium radiohalos. If any
other elements had been there, such as
uranium or radon, they would have formed other rings as they decayed.
So where did the polonium atoms come from?The best possible answer is that the polonium traveled from a nearby
source where uranium atoms were decaying. Is there such a nearby uranium source? Absolutely! The same flakes that
host the polonium radiohalos usually contain uranium radiohalos, usually less than a fraction of an inch from polonium
radiohalos (Figure 6).
Finding the Source of Polonium Radiohalos
The source of uranium radiohalos still survives in granite rocks: tiny zircon crystals. But geologists are mystified because
the source of polonium radiohalos is missing. The answer lies
only a tiny way up the biotite sheet . . . the zircons!
Photo courtesy Andrew Snelling
Biotite flakes often have numerous polonium radiohalos, in
addition to uranium radiohalos.
FIGURE 7Diagram of a cross-section through a biotite flake
where radiohalos are found. The uranium-238 in the zircon crystal
generated the uranium-238 radiohalo. Water flowing past the
crystal carried decaying atoms along the same sheet to a nearby
location, where a polonium-210 radiohalo developed. Nothing
remains at the center of this radiohalo, however, because it
dissolved quickly.
Yet under normal conditions, like those we see in the earth today,
that migration would be impossible. To understand the magnitude
of the problem, you need to understand how many polonium
atoms had to migrate and how quickly they had to
travel.Scientists have estimated that each radiohalos
discoloration initially develops after 100 million alpha-particles
have been emitted from its center. It does not become dark until
500 million particles, and it does not become very dark until one billion alpha particles have been ejected.3 This means
that each polonium radiohalo needs at
least 500 million polonium atoms. And
many polonium radiohalos often appear in
the same specimen, so many billions of
polonium atoms had to move into position
to explain the radiohalos we see.Then
there is the problem of how fast they must
be moved. Polonium-214 atoms decay so
quickly they are gone in the blink of an
eye! Polonium-218 has a half-life (decay
rate) of only 3.1 minutes, while polonium214 decays in 164 microseconds!4 By
comparison polonium-210 atoms are longlived, with a half-life of 138 days. What
unusual forces could have carried so
many atoms away from the uranium
source so quickly?Another possibility is to
move another element in the uranium-238 decay chain that appears before polonium. For example, the element
immediately before the polonium-218, polonium-214, polonium-210 sequence is radon-222. If radon-222 moved into
place, then the polonium would not have to be transported. But this presents two problems. First, the travel time is still
short: the half-life of radon-222 is only 3.8 days. The radon would still have to be transported from the zircons to the

polonium halo sites in only days.Second, we dont find a radon-222 decay halo in the polonium radiohalos. Somehow the
polonium had to separate from the radon-222 and then concentrate in what would become the polonium radiohalo
centers. The location of radiohalos and the different chemical properties of radon and polonium suggest a solution to
these problems.
How Polonium Radiohalos Likely Formed
When uranium and polonium radiohalos are observed under the microscope, their radiocenters are actually on the same
sheet.5 As explained in the first article, radiohalos are found in the dark flecks within granites, called biotite. These biotite
flakes consist of layers and layers of crystal sheets, which can be pulled apart and examined under a microscope.Water
can easily travel down the spaces between these sheets (Figure 7). Changes in the biotites color are often evidence that
water has seeped between the sheets. Thats the key to the creationist explanation for polonium radiohalos.When
granites crystallize and are cooling, hot waters are left over. This water is capable of seeping along the spaces between
the stacked sheets of biotite. As they pass by the zircon, these waters could dissolve any radon-222 atoms that had
leaked out of the zircon crystals and transport them between the sheets of the biotite flake.Radon-222 atoms are
chemically inert (they do not combine with other atoms). But once they decay, the newly formed polonium-218 atoms
would readily combine with other atoms, such as chlorine or sulfur atoms that had dissolved in the hot water and were
flowing between the biotite sheets. Polonium chlorides and polonium sulphides dont dissolve well in water, so as soon as
the polonium combines with these other atoms, the molecules drop out of the water. There the polonium would start
forming polonium radiohalos.The water would continue to move many radon-222 atoms past the forming radiocenters,
providing a continual supply of new polonium atoms.Ever since a geologist dismissed this evidence of the Flood, calling it
a very tiny mystery at a 1981 trial on teaching creationism in Arkansas schools,6 scientists have ignored this mystery.
The problem is that secular geologists believe the host granites took millions of years to form, but the process had to be
much fasteronly hours or weeksfor polonium radiohalos to appear. They shouldnt exist, according to conventional
wisdom! The next and final article will look at the profound implications for all of geology.Though they are very tiny,
polonium radiohalos have a huge message that cannot be ignored. These amazing testimonies to the Flood are found in
granites all around the world. And they point to a catastrophic origin for granites, consistent with the timeframe for earth
history.Though they are very tiny, polonium radiohalos have a huge message that cannot be ignored. These amazing
testimonies to the Flood are found in granites all around the world. And they point to a catastrophic origin for granites,
consistent with the young age timeframe for earth history.
RadiohalosSolving the Mystery of the Missing Bullets
Part Three
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on October 1, 2012; last featured April 9, 2014
Granite
rocks
exhibit
mysterious black spheres,
known as radiohalos. The
only reasonable explanation
for their origin is a recent,
worldwide Flood. Indeed, the
unique conditions required to
form such spheres show us
that radioactive decayand
granite
formationwas
extremely rapid in the past.
Shop Now
RadiohalosThe Floods Smoking Gun
Part One: Mysterious Bullet Holes in Rocks
Part Two: The Mysterious Vanishing Bullets
Part Three: Solving the Mystery of the Missing Bullets
The only reasonable explanation for their origin is a recent, worldwide Flood. Indeed, the unique conditions required to
form such spheres show us that radioactive decayand granite formationwas extremely rapid in the past.Part two of
this series explained why old-earth geologists are baffled by evidence of radioactive damage from polonium in certain
kinds of granite crystals, called biotite. These damaged areas, called radiohalos, look like dark halos. To the evolutionist,
their existence is a mystery.Why the mystery? The source of these halos, polonium, is an unstable, radioactive element
that does not survive long in nature (only milliseconds, in some cases). It appears only briefly during the decay of another
element, uranium. But no uranium source is found at the center of these polonium radiohalos! Where did the polonium
come from?The cataclysmic, worldwide Flood provides the answer. Uranium-238 is found a short distance away from the
polonium radiohalos. Hot water seeping through the granite during the Flood could easily explain how products of the
uraniums decay could be transported to the site of the polonium radiohalos.As will be explained in this article, this whole
process must have occurred rapidly. Otherwise, not enough polonium would be produced to form each radiohalo, which
requires hundreds of millions of polonium atoms in a short amount of time.The rapid formation of polonium radiohalos has
astounding implications for earth history and physics. It means that radioactive decay must have occurred at a much
faster rate in the recent past, and it also means that the earths granites must have formed under catastrophic conditions
(e.g., at Creation and again during the world-wide Flood).
Accelerated Radioactive Decay
Two basic kinds of radiohalos are found in biotite: some come from uranium and others come from polonium. Something
very unusual must have taken place for both kinds of radiohalos to appear together.According to standard estimates,
uranium must eject at least 500 million alpha particles to form a single dark radiohalo.1 At their current very slow rate of
radioactive decay, parent uranium-238 atoms would need nearly 100 million years to produce that many alpha particles.
So each uranium radiohalo would require 100 million years to form.In contrast, the polonium radiohalos had to form very,
very quickly. While the reasons are complex (see previous article), basically the only way to transport polonium is as its
precursor, a radioactive gas called radon. But this presents a huge problem. The only reasonable way to transport the
radon is hot water, water so hot that it would destroy any polonium halos that formed! That makes the polonium
radiohalos a very tiny mystery for long-age geologists.2This means that all the radon had to be transported first, while
things were hot, and then the polonium halos had to form later, after things got cooler. But since both radon and
polonium have short half-lives, the entire process had to occur in days. Radon-222 has a half-life (decay rate) of only 3.8
days, and polonium-218 and polonium-214 have half-lives of 3.1 minutes and 164 microseconds, respectively. At least

500 million radon atoms had to be produced, be transported, decay, and then be deposited as polonium. This would
require 100 million years worth of decay in just a few days.Expressed another way, rare conditions were required to form
the polonium radiohalos, and those conditions had to remain in place for more than 100 million years. The hot waters
would have to keep seeping into and through the biotite flakes for more than 100 million years at current rates of uranium
decay, and this had to happen in granites all over the globe (Figure 1). Such a scenario is impossible.The only viable
alternative is that all the needed polonium was available very quickly, before it could decay away. That is, it had to be
transported to the various points within the biotite flakes within hours, or days at the very most (Figure 1).3
Figure 1: Two Essential Conditions to Form Polonium Radiohalos
In granites all over the earths surface, we find polonium-210 radiohalos near uranium-238 sources at the centers of
uranium radiohalos. Two rare conditions were required to form these polonium radiohalos. First, a constant flow of hot
water within forming granites had to rapidly transport millions of decaying atoms from the uranium to the sites of the
polonium radiohalos. Second, molten granite magma, where
the radiohalos formed, had to crystallize and cool quicklyin
a matter of days. Only a global, cataclysmic Flood could
explain these unique conditions.
(a) The uranium-238 in the zircon crystal generated the
uranium-238 radiohalo. Water flowing past the crystal carried
along decaying radon and polonium atoms between the
same biotite sheets to a nearby location, where a polonium210 radiohalo developed. Nothing remains at the center of
this radiohalo, however, because whatever was there has
been dissolved away.
Constantly Flowing Hot Water
(b) The crystallizing granite magma included zircon crystals
containing radioactive uranium-238 atoms that emitted alphaparticles. The cooling residual magma then released hot
water, which flowed through the minerals. The hot water
dissolved any products of the uranium decay (radon and
polonium atoms) and then carried them a slight distance
away. These radioactive products also emitted alphaparticles.
Falling Temperatures
(c) To dissolve and transport radon gas requires high
temperatures, but such high temperatures would remove any
evidence of alpha-particle decay. (In essence, the minerals
were so hot the tracks left by alpha decay were erased.)
(d) The hot, mineral-rich water also carried sulfur atoms,
which lodged in the minerals cleavages. As temperatures
dropped near 150C (302F), the polonium in the hot water
combined with the sulfur and was removed from the water
flow. The uranium in the zircon continued to decay and
replenish the supply of radon and polonium to the hot flowing
water.
(e) Once the temperature dropped below 150C (302F), the
alpha particles started to leave trails, discoloring the mineral.
As the polonium decayed to lead, more polonium flowed in.
Both uranium and polonium radiohalos formed at the same
time.
(f) Once the granite cooled completely, the hot water flow
ceased, leaving behind the polonium radiohalos we find in
granites today.The implications are astounding. At least 500
million uranium-238 atoms had to alpha decay within a few
hours or days. The equivalent of 100 million years of
uranium-238 decay had to occur within hours!Thus, the
decay rate of uranium had to be nearly a billion times faster
in the past than it is today! And if uranium decayed at such
an accelerated rate, then other radioactive elements, which
are even less stable, must have also decayed much
faster.Yet long-age dating methods assume that the
radioactive decay rates have never changed. The very
existence of the polonium radiohalos is evidence that the
radioactive rates were accelerated in the past. This means
that dates for rocks of billions of years must be questioned,
as the rocks are in fact only thousands of years old. This
means that all the rocks we know ofmeteorites, rocks
brought back from the moon, and the oldest rocks on the
earthare in fact only thousands of years old. This gives us
good scientific reasons to believe that the earth, the moon,
and all the objects of the solar system are only thousands of
years old.
The Rapid Origin of Granites
The rapid formation of polonium radiohalos has another
astounding implication for earth history.The granite masses
that contain the radiohalos are typically cubic miles in size
and originally formed under ground from molten magmas at
temperatures between 650C and 705C (12001300F). It is
usually claimed that they thus take millions of years to

crystallize and cool.4 Since radiohalos can survive only at and below 150C (302F), based on observed evidence,5 the
radiohalos had to be generated very late in the granite formation process (Figure 2). By this time, though, most of the
polonium would have decayed away. Any polonium halos that might have formed would be destroyed by the heat.
Figure 2: The Right Conditions Lasted Only 610 Days
This diagram shows the only possible timescale that could produce radiohalos from cooling granite magma. The magma
must first be hot enough to produce water and transport the radon and polonium, but then it must be cool enough for the
decaying polonium to leave behind radiohalos. The only way to explain these radiohalos is if the granites were deposited
and cooled in less than two weeks . . . during a global Flood!

So unless the granites cooled quickly, no polonium radiohalos could be present. Thus, the existence of the polonium
radiohalos implies that granites crystallized and cooled within just six to ten days, not millions of years!Uranium and
polonium radiohalos found together in the same biotite flakes thus provide startling evidence of past catastrophic
geological processes acting on a young earth. During Creation (about six thousand years ago) and again during the yearlong Flood (about 4,300 years ago) sediments were eroded and deposited catastrophically on a global scale.6 Rapid
earth movements pushed up mountains and melting of rocks formed granite bodies quickly.7 Inside these granites, superfast radioactive decay generated uranium and polonium radiohalos rapidly.Though the radiohalos are so microscopic they
could easily be overlooked, their abundance in granites all around the world cannot be ignored. They are exciting
confirmation that the earth and its rocks are not millions and billions of years old as usually claimed. Instead, they are only
thousands of years old.
Radiohalos in Multiple, Sequentially Intruded Phases of the Bathurst Batholith, NSW, Australia: Evidence for
Rapid Granite Formation during the Flood
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on March 5, 2014
Abstract
The Bathurst Batholith west of Sydney, Australia, consists of an enormous pluton (the Bathurst Granite) and numerous
smaller related satellite plutons and dikes. The major pluton cuts east-west across the prevailing north-south strike of the
fossiliferous sedimentary strata, unequivocal evidence that the intrusion of the batholith structurally disrupted the regional
fabric of the host strata sequence. Sedimentary rocks in the contact zone were metamorphosed by the hot magma. The
major dike-like Evans Crown granite cuts across the Bathurst Granite and the surrounding host strata. This dikes central
portions are coarse and even grained like the Bathurst Granite, but the margins are chilled, testimony to intrusion of the
dike as hot granite magma. Many minor granite dikes cut across the margins of the Bathurst Granite and also across the
Evans Crown dike out into the surrounding strata. Alteration zones marginal to the sharp contacts of the dikes with the
wallrocks indicate the magma was still hot when injected. Abundant 238U and 210Po radiohalos are present in biotite flakes
of all samples of the Bathurst Granite and Evans Crown dike. 214Po and 218Po radiohalos are present only in some
samples of the Bathurst Granite. A few 210Po and 238U radiohalos are also present in biotite flakes within some samples of
the dikes that cut across the Bathurst Granite or the Evans Crown dike. Field and textural data have established that
these granite phases were sequentially intruded while still hot. That these granitic phases were intruded as hot magma is
also confirmed by analytical and experimental data. All this had to occur within the Flood year, so these multiple granite
phases were not created cold by fiat. Instead, the Po radiohalos indicate they were formed rapidly below 150C via
hydrothermal fluid transport of Rn and Po from the zircon grains embedded in the biotite flakes that are often the
radiocenters of the U radiohalos. Furthermore, their presence in all three sequentially intruded granite phases is evidence
that all this intrusive activity, and the cooling of all three granite phases to 150C, must have occurred within a week or
two so that these Po radiohalos in them formed subsequently within days to weeks.
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Keywords: granite, Bathurst Batholith, magma, contact metamorphism, dikes, alteration zones, host fossiliferous
sediments, chemical analyses, experimental data, biotite, 238U radiohalos, Po radiohalos, hydrothermal fluids, the Flood
Introduction
Over 50 years ago there was intense debate in the conventional scientific community on the origin and formation of
granites (Pitcher 1993). For most geologists it has now been conclusively resolved that granitic magmas formed by partial
melting of deep crustal (continental) rocks or of subducted sediments at temperatures of around 630730C. The hot
granitic magmas, being less dense than the surrounding source rocks, then ascended through fractures and feeder zones
to intrude into upper crustal rocks, including fossiliferous sedimentary strata. Often, the heat and hydrothermal fluids
released by the cooling granitic magmas baked and/or altered the host rocks around the contact zones (contact
metamorphism and/or metasomatism).However, there are still some unresolved issues. On one hand, there is the issue of
the time involved for such a process, because the conventional geologic community generally regards the time necessary
from partial melting to intrusion, crystallization and cooling of granites to have taken millions of years (Pitcher 1993; Young
and Stearley 2008). On the other hand, a potential solution to the time issue and an alternative model for the origin of
granites was presented by Gentry (1973, 1974, 1986, 1988). He argued that because the polonium (Po) radiohalos within
biotite grains in granites appeared to be orphaned (there apparently being no precursor or parent atoms in situ), and
they thus had to form extremely rapidly (due to the fleeting existence of two of the polonium isotopes), the Po radiohalos
and the granites hosting them had to have been created in a fiat manner .He concluded the granites are primordial rocks
and termed the Po radiohalos as fingerprints of creation.The observation that many granite bodies intrude fossil-bearing
sedimentary rocks which were deposited during the Flood is not considered an obstacle to this proposal for the
instantaneous origin of granites. Instead, Gentry (1986, 1988, 1989) proposed and insisted that primordial granite bodies
were tectonically intruded during the Flood while they were cold, and any thermal effects surrounding the margins of these
granite bodies was due to frictional heating during tectonic emplacement. His argument was aided by the observational
fact that limited exposures of the contact zones at the margins of granite bodies are difficult to find. However, this is
because outcrops of the contact zones are often not fully exposed or are absent due to the alteration effects facilitating
deeper weathering of both the margins of the granite bodies and their adjacent host rocks.A number of previous studies
have sought to establish the case for Po radiohalos having formed rapidly from Po atoms sourced from nearby decaying
uranium (U) atoms and transported by hydrothermal fluids during the cooling phase of granite bodies (Snelling 2005a,
2008a, d; Snelling and Armitage 2003; Snelling and Gates 2009). Only one of these studies included an investigation of
the contact zone around a granite body. Also, no previous studies examined discrete, separate granite bodies that had
intruded into one another sequentially. The present study encompasses these two aspects in the investigation of a major
granite body, two generations of dikes intruding into it, and their contained radiohalos.Fieldwork was conducted in July
September 1974 as the focus of a B.Sc. (Honors) dissertation at The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia,
in an area located about 185 km (115 mi.) west of the city of Sydney (fig. 1). Detailed field observations were made of the
contact zone along the margins of the Bathurst Granite where it intruded the host fossil-bearing sedimentary strata, and
where it was itself intruded by two generations of late-stage granitic dikes. The resulting unpublished dissertation (Snelling
1974) was a description and discussion of the geology of the field area, accompanied by the compiled geological map.
Further fieldwork in the region was undertaken in July 1999 to acquire a regional perspective in the investigation of
radiohalos in the granite and the dikes. This subsequent radiohalos study used samples collected in 1999 and archived
samples from the 1974 dissertation fieldwork. The results provide convincing evidence that this granite and its ancillary
phases were indeed intruded rapidly as a hot magma into the surrounding host fossiliferous sedimentary strata during the
Flood. Furthermore, the radiohalos in these sequentially intruded phases had to have been produced rapidly from Po
atoms sourced from decaying U atoms in these granitic rocks.
Fig. 1. Location of the Bathurst
Batholith (red) in relation to
other granite batholiths (pink)
in south-eastern Australia.
The Bathurst Batholith
Geologic Setting
The Bathurst Batholith, named
after the city which sits on top
of it, outcrops over an area of
about 1600 km2 (620 sq. mi.)
(fig. 1). It consists of an
enormous pluton (the Bathurst
Granite) and numerous smaller
related satellite plutons and
dikes. Though often deeply
weathered, the granite is well
exposed in road and railroad
cuts, and in the hills around its
margins which have been
mapped in detail. At the
contact with the granite the
host fossiliferous sedimentary
strata
have
been
metamorphosed and in this
instance have thus been more
resistant to weathering (Joplin
1936; Snelling 1974; Vallance
1969).Previous
studies
by
Chaffer (1955) and Mackay (1959) included geological mapping and investigations, as well as the measuring of the type
section for the Lambie Group at Mt. Lambie in the map area and identifying the fossil assemblages.Outcrops are poor
over much of the Bathurst Plains and little is known of the granite in that region. However, early fieldwork by Joplin (1931,
1933, 1935, 1944) dealing with the eastern part of the batholith has contributed much to our knowledge of the batholith as
a whole as a composite body, concluding the batholith consists of multiple plutons with variable compositions ranging
from minor gabbroic phases to dominant adamellite (Chappell et al. 1991; Joplin 1931; Knutson and Flood 1988; Vallance

1969). The main plutonic rock types in the eastern part of the batholith, as elsewhere in the batholith, are pinkish, evengrained, biotite-granite/adamellite, gray biotite-granite/adamellite with large pink phenocrysts of potassium feldspar,
hornblende-biotite granite/adamellite, and hornblende and biotite granodiorites (Joplin 1931). All are medium- to coarsegrained and massive with gradational contacts between the several varieties. Biotite granites with large potassium
feldspar phenocrysts outcrop, for example, near Sodwalls and Tarana in the area studied by Snelling (1974). The satellite
stock-like body at Yetholme, which appears to be related to the main mass of the batholith, also carries similar large Kfeldspar phenocrysts.In general, age relations between the various granitic units in the batholith are not clear. An obvious
exception to this rule is the major dike-like granite body 12.8 km (8 mi.) long and often 0.8 km (0.5 mi.) wide that forms the
Evans Crown ridge near Tarana and extends north-north-eastwards cutting across the Bathurst Granite and the
surrounding host sedimentary strata. Numerous minor granitic dikes cut across the margins of the Bathurst Granite and
out into the surrounding host strata. Good exposures of these dikes are seen in the many railroad cuts between Sodwalls
and Tarana. Up to 45 m (about 150 ft.) wide, these granitic dikes have the same composition as both the Bathurst Granite
and the Evans Crown dike, often with the same porphyritic texture (Snelling 1974).Recent airborne magnetic and
radiometric surveys have enabled the separate bodies with different compositions to be identified within the main outcrop
of the batholith (Branagan and Packham 2000). The individual intrusive phases are well expressed on modern detailed
aeromagnetic maps and in radiometric data. Detailed mapping using such data combined with petrology has enabled their
improved depiction on geological maps (Raymond et al. 1998). The emplacement of these granitic plutons caused thermal
metamorphism (hornfels and skarns) and metasomatism to the surrounding strata.Earlier K-Ar dating (Facer 1979) on an
adamellite from Dunkeld just east of the city of Bathurst, yielded a total rock age of 3044 Ma and a biotite age of 3016
Ma for the western part of the Bathurst Granite, has proved unreliable. Radioisotope dating using the K-Ar, Rb-Sr, and
Re-Os methods has been interpreted as indicating a mean time of emplacement of the Bathurst Batholith at 310 Ma
(Scheibner and Basden 1998). However, Shaw and Flood (1993) have suggested that these ages are too young. Shaws
unpublished data (Scheibner and Basden 1998) consists of more extensive Rb-Sr age dating of biotite/bulk rock pairs,
and show that all plutons are older, with the mafic intrusions being the oldest at 340 Ma (Knutson and Flood 1988). This is
within the range of 338349 Ma from biotite in the regionally metamorphosed Merrions Formation (Cas, Flood, and Shaw
1976). The youngest intrusives dated are the felsic north-south dikes cross-cutting the Bathurst Batholith, with the Evans
Crown dike dating at 312 Ma. Shaw and Floods (1993) histogram of 33 biotite ages from all major plutons of the batholith
suggests an intrusive maximum around 325330 Ma.In its structural setting the Bathurst Batholith is clearly discordant
along much of its margin. Apart from radiometric dating, the evidence that the granite intruded later than the folding can
be seen in the shape of the granite body which trends east-west, cutting across the grain of the folded host sedimentary
rocks (fig. 2). The western part of the batholith lies against well-cleaved or foliated lower Paleozoic rocks. In places, the
host country rocks have been shoved locally into concordances with the trend of the contact. Important structural features
such as the thrust fault systems to the north of the batholith are intersected by the intrusive body which is clearly younger
than the thrust faults.

Fig. 2. Simplified geological map of the Lachlan Fold Belt in the region of the Bathurst Batholith (after Branagan and
Packham 2000). Click image for larger view.
The granitic bodies making up the batholith invade host country rocks as young as upper Devonian, and on the eastern
margin are overlapped by Permian sediments. The available evidence from the thickness of the overlapping Permian
sediments suggests that the depth of cover at the eastern margin, at least, was not great, perhaps not more than 1.5 km
(0.93 mi.). The distribution of the thermal aureole indicates that the contacts between the granites and the host
sedimentary strata are often rather shallowly dipping, as can clearly be recognized in the Tarana area. The numerous
stocks, including those at Yetholme and Meadow Flat, which are lithologically similar to the rocks of the main granite mass
of the batholith, yet separated from it at todays land surface, suggest that the granite is not deeply eroded.With the folding
and regional metamorphism of the sedimentary strata in what is now the Lachlan Fold Belt, numerous post-kinematic,
massive, orogenic granites were intruded into these host strata, including the Bathurst Granite. These granites cut across
the structural zones, and individual granitic stocks and batholiths show a marked preference for zones of crustal
weakness, such as pre-existing lineaments and fracture zones. For example, the transverse Bathurst Batholith was
emplaced along the Lachlan River Lineament (Scheibner and Stevens 1974). Aeromagnetic data indicate the importance
of some additional lineament directions for the emplacement history of the Bathurst Batholith (Raymond et al. 1998). Also,
the individual plutons, their often concentric structure and the numerous late north-south trending dikes, which are also
very common in the surrounding country rocks, are all well displayed in the aeromagnetic images.
Host Rocks the Batholith Intrudes

The Bathurst Batholith and related satellite bodies and dikes intrude into folded Silurian-Devonian marine sediments and
pyroclastics. Two tectonically distinct zones are recognized in the local regionthe Hill End Trough and the Capertee
High (fig. 2). The Hill End Trough was the site of thick active sedimentationalmost 7500 m (24,600 ft.) of turbidites,
flysch, and pyroclastics (Scheibner and Basden 1998). These sediments thin and wedge out as they onlap the Capertee
High, which is believed to have been the site of the active volcanism responsible for much of the pyroclastic material and
lava flows in the sedimentary sequence.
Fig. 3. The local stratigraphic column
(approximately 6100 m [20,000 ft.] thick),
showing the order of deposition of the
sedimentary rock units that host the
Bathurst Granite in the Tarana-Sodwalls
area.
At the base of the stratigraphic section in
the mapped area is the Silurian
Chesleigh Group (Scheibner and
Basden 1998) (fig. 3) which crops out
sparsely south and east of Meadow Flat
(fig. 4) and in its type area is 1050 m
(3445 ft.) thick (Packham 1968). It
consists
of
turbidites,
primarily
graywackes (well-sorted with small
angular quartz and feldspar fragments
scattered throughout a clay matrix) with
interbedded shales (typically composed
of extremely small grains of quartz and
occasional feldspar set in a clay matrix).
Up-sequence the amount of feldspar
increases, and these turbidites are
interbedded
with
felsic
tuffs,
characterized by quartz, orthoclase and
plagioclase fragments in an ultra-fine
groundmass. Among the tuffs is a
porphyritic rhyodacite lava, consisting of
fragmented quartz, orthoclase and
plagioclase phenocrysts in a flowbanded groundmass.

Fig. 4. Geological map of the Tarana-Sodwalls-Mt. Lambie-Meadow Flat area, west of Sydney, New South Wales,
Australia (from Snelling 1974). Click image for larger view.
There is a sharp change in the conformably overlying lower Devonian Crudine Group from quartz-rich sedimentation into
volcanogenic deposition of felsic tuffs, tuffaceous breccias, banded tuffs interbedded with graywackes, siltstones, and
shales. Then followed the accumulation of the widespread, grossly tabulated volcanogenic Merrions Formation (fig. 3),
which consists of sheet-like to lobate horizons of dacite lavas and volcaniclastics. These two lower Devonian stratigraphic
units are together about 1600 m (5250 ft.) thick in the study area (Snelling 1974)In the middle Devonian the sediments
deposited in the Hill End Trough and on adjoining highs were deformed regionally into north-south trending folds with an
axial slaty cleavage. This was followed by onset of upper Devonian molassic sedimentation with deposition of the Lambie
Group (fig. 3). In the type section on Mt. Lambie, Mackay (1959, 1961) measured 3405 m (11,170 ft.) of reddish shales,
siltstones, sandstones, conglomerate and massive quartzites. Upper Devonian fossils recorded in the area include
brachiopods (including four species of Cryptospirifer), clams and clam fragments. The Bathurst Granite is in direct
intrusive contact with the upper Devonian Lambie Group strata, so the granite is clearly younger. However, unconformably
overlying all these Silurian-Devonian sedimentary units and the Bathurst Granite on its eastern flank is the Permian
Megalong Conglomerate, a massive cobble conglomerate which is the basal unit of the western Sydney Basin (fig. 2).
Metamorphism in the Host Rocks
Exogenetic metamorphic products associated with the batholith are variable. Many previously cleaved or foliated rocks
have retained traces of original structures after static recrystallization. Thus in the Newbridge area, on the extreme
southwestern margin of the batholith (Benson 1907), and to the north of the batholith (Vallance 1969), slates develop
porphyroblasts of andalusite or chiastolite. On the southern margin of the batholith, some reaction between foliated rocks
and the granite has led locally to the formation of banded quartzofeldspathic rocks described as migmatites by Binns
(1958).To the east, the batholith comes into contact with less deformed rocks, and massive granoblastic hornfelses are
typical in the aureole. Similar products have been examined in detail at Hartley (Joplin 1935), where the upper Devonian
sediments include quartz-rich sandstones, shales and impure calcareous rocks. Among the sandstone and shale
hornfelses, the most common minerals are quartz, biotite, andalusite, and cordierite. More calcareous rocks include
plagioclase, diopside, hornblende, wollastonite, grossular, or vesuvianite. Local variations in grade are common and not

all hornfelses carry equilibrium assemblages. Andalusite-biotite-potassium feldspar hornfelses (indicating pyroxene
hornfels facies conditions) and hornblende-diopside-plagioclase rocks (hornblende-hornfels facies) both occur at Hartley
(Joplin 1935, 1936). At granite contacts near Tarana, calcsilicate rocks are derived from limestones. Silicated hornfelses
(andradite-wollastonite) occur between recrystallized pure limestone and granite suggesting transfer of material across
the contact. Andradite-hedenbergite skarns occur at various localities, such as at Yetholme where a satellite stock has
invaded a succession containing limestones and conglomerates with limestone pebbles (Vallance 1969).
History and Significance of U and Po Radiohalos
When radiohalos were first reported between 1880 and 1890, they remained a mystery until the discovery of radioactivity.
Now they are recognized as any type of discolored radiation-damaged region within a mineral, resulting from the emissions from a central radioactive inclusion or radiocenter (Gentry 1973). Radiohalos when viewed in rock thin sections
usually appear as concentric rings that were initiated by the -decay in the 238U or 232Th series (Gentry 1973, 1974).
Radiohalos are usually found in igneous rocks, most commonly in granitic rocks in which biotite is a major mineral.
However, more recently radiohalos have also been reported as common in biotite in some metamorphic rocks (Snelling
2005a, 2008b, c). Thus biotite is the major mineral in which the radiohalos occur. While initially observed mainly in
Precambrian rocks (Gentry 1968, 1970, 1971; Henderson and Bateson 1934; Henderson, Mushkat, and Crawford 1934;
Iimori and Yoshimura 1926; Joly 1917a, b, 1923, 1924; Kerr-Lawson 1927, 1928; Owen 1988; Wiman 1930), radiohalos
have since been shown to exist in rocks stretching from the Precambrian to the Tertiary (Holmes 1931; Snelling 2000,
2005a; Stark 1936; Wise 1989).
Within the 238U decay series, the three Po isotopes have been the only -emitters observed to form radiohalos other
than 238U itself (fig. 5). These isotopes and their respective half-lives are 218Po (3.1 minutes), 214Po (164 microseconds),
and 210Po (138 days), respectively. Their very short half-lives constrain the formation of the granites in which they are
found to a short time frame because the Po radiohalos can only form after the granites have crystallized and cooled
(Gentry 1986, 1988; Snelling 2000, 2005a). Thus, if granite magma emplacement and pluton cooling are not extremely
rapid, then these Po isotopes would not have survived to form the Po radiohalos (Snelling 2008a). This is consistent with,
and in support of, a young earth model.
Fig. 5. Composite schematic drawing of (a) a
218Po halo, (b) a 238U halo, (c) a 214Po
halo, and (d) a 210Po halo, with radii
proportional to the ranges of the -particles
in air. The nuclides responsible for the particles are listed for the different halo rings
(after Gentry 1973).
Because the rings which should be produced
by the Po precursors are missing in many Po
radiohalos (fig. 5) (Snelling, Baumgardner,
and Vardiman 2003), the source of the Po
for the radiohalos has been an area of
contention (Snelling 2000). Was it primary,
or did a secondary process transport it?
Gentry (1986) proposed that the Po
radiohalos had been produced by primordial
Po, having an origin independent of any U,
suggesting all granites and granitic rocks
were formed by fiat creation. In contrast,
based on all the available evidence, Snelling
(2000) suggested a possible model for
transporting the Po via hydrothermal fluids
during the latter stages of cooling of granite plutons to sites where the Po isotopes would have been precipitated and
concentrated in radiocenters that then formed the respective Po radiohalos in the granites.Subsequently, Snelling and
Armitage (2003) investigated the radiohalos in biotite within three granite plutons, demonstrating that these granite plutons
had been intruded and cooled during the Flood. They found that the biotite grains contained both fully formed 238U
and 232Th radiohalos around zircon and monazite inclusions (radiocenters) respectively, thus providing a physical,
integral, historical record of at least 100 million years worth (at todays rates) of accelerated radioactive decay during the
recent year-long Flood. However, Po radiohalos were also often found in the same biotite flakes as the U radiohalos,
usually less than 1 mm (0.04 in) away. Thus, they argued that the source of the Po isotopes must have been the U in the
zircon grains within the biotite flakes, the same zircon inclusions that are the radiocenters to the U radiohalos.Because the
precursor to 218Po is the inert gas 222Rn, which is produced by 238U decay in the zircon grains and is then capable of
diffusing out of the zircon crystal lattice, Snelling and Armitage (2003) reasoned that the evidence confirmed the tentative
model suggested by Snelling (2000). Concurrently, as the emplaced granite magma crystallizes and cools, the water
dissolved in it is released below 400C, causing hydrothermal fluids to begin flowing around the constituent minerals and
through the granite pluton, including along the cleavage planes within the biotite flakes. Snelling and Armitage (2003) and
Snelling (2005a) argued these hydrothermal fluids were capable of transporting 222Rn (and its daughter Po isotopes) from
the zircon inclusions to sites where new radiocenters were formed by Po isotopes precipitating in lattice imperfections
containing rare ions of S, Se, Pb, halides or other species with a geochemical affinity for Po. Continued hydrothermal fluid
transport of Po would have also replaced the Po atoms in the radiocenters as they -decayed to produce the Po
radiohalos, thus progressively supplying the 510 9 Po atoms needed to form fully registered Po radiohalos.
Significantly, none of the radiohalos (Po or U) could form or be preserved until the biotite crystals had formed and cooled
below the thermal annealing temperature for -tracks of 150C (Laney and Laughlin 1981). Yet hydrothermal fluids
probably started transporting Rn and the Po isotopes immediately after they were expelled from the crystallized granite at
temperatures below 400C. This implies that cooling of the Po-radiohalo-containing granite plutons had to be extremely
rapid, in only 610 days (Snelling 2008a). Snelling, Baumgardner, and Vardiman (2003) and Snelling (2005a) have
summarized this model for hydrothermal fluid transport of U-decay products (Rn, Po) in a six-step diagram. The final step
concludes with the comment:
With further passing of time and more -decays both the 238U and 210Po radiohalos are fully formed, the granite cools
completely and hydrothermal fluid flow ceases. Note that both radiohalos have to form concurrently below 150C. The rate

at which these processes occur must therefore be governed by the 138 day half-life of 210Po. To get 218Po and 214Po
radiohalos these processes would have to have occurred even faster. (Snelling 2005a)
If the U and Po radiohalos both formed during the 610 days while the granite plutons cooled during the Flood, then this
implies 100 million years worth of accelerated 238U decay occurred in a time frame of a few days. Thus the U-Pb isotopic
systematics within the zircons in these granite plutons are definitely not providing absolute ages as conventionally
interpreted.
Field and Laboratory Methods
Mapping and Sampling
JulySeptember 1974 was spent geological mapping an area of almost 95 km 2 (almost 37 sq. mi.) straddling the margins
of the Bathurst Granite and the adjoining fossil-bearing sedimentary host rocks (figs. 2 and 6). The study area embraces
the villages of Sodwalls and Tarana in the southeastern and southwestern corners respectively, and the village of
Meadow Flat in the northwest corner (fig. 4). Access to much of the area was facilitated by the major western railroad from
Sydney, and the Great Western Highway traverses across the northern boundary and passes through Meadow Flat.
Fig. 6. Regional outline of the
Bathurst Batholith, showing the
location of the area mapped and
sampled in JulySeptember 1974
and locations of the regional
samples collected in July 1999.
Mapping was accomplished by
using 1964 air-photo coverage of
the Bathurst district (Bathurst Run
Numbers
10 and
11,
Photo
Numbers 5162-5167 and 50575062, respectively). Pairs of aerial
photos were closely examined
through a stereoscopic viewer and
the tentative boundaries between
various rock units were annotated
on the photos, along with the
locations of outcrops. A tentative
geologic map was then compiled
from this air-photo interpretation by
transferring it to a composite
overlay. The geological map produced (fig. 4) was originally at the air-photo scale of 1:38,000.This tentative geological
map was field checked along the boundaries between the different strata, recording geologic details at different outcrops.
Traverses were done on foot along the railroad, along creeks and their tributaries, and across ridges and hills. Various
outcrops were appropriately sampled and significant features photographed, with the locations of these being carefully
recorded on the geological map being compiled. Samples were named and numbered appropriately according to the
various rock types. Where appropriate, strike and dip measurements were made on bedding planes in the outcrops of the
sedimentary rock units, and such details were also recorded on the geological map being compiled.Further fieldwork was
undertaken in the region in July 1999. The aim was to give a regional perspective to the previously mapped and sampled
area, which represented only a small fraction of the margins of the Bathurst Batholith (fig. 6). Several outcrops were
sampled along the highways and minor roads that skirt around and cross the batholith, the chosen samples being
representative of the margins of the batholith for comparison with similar samples in the earlier intensely mapped area.
Chemical Analyses
Seven samples collected during the 1974 fieldwork were selected for further chemical analyses. These included two from
the Bathurst Granite, three from the Evans Crown dike (one from a feeder dike, one from the coarse-grained phase, and
one from the chilled margin), and two samples of porphyry dikes that cross-cut both the Bathurst Granite and the Evans
Crown dike. These samples were sent to the Perth (Western Australia) laboratories of Associated Laboratories of
Australia Pty Ltd for whole-rock analyses.
Laboratory Methods
Samples were crushed and pulverized. The following methods were then used to analyze the chemical compositions of
these rocks:
X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) fusion analysis was used to determine Si, Al, Fe, Ti, Ca, and K concentrations, as well as the
loss on ignition (H2O). To accomplish this, the pulverized samples were heated in a platinum crucible to 1000C, fused
with a lithium tetraborate based flux, and quenched quickly. A counting precision of 2% was obtained by accumulating
more than 2500 counts per element peak. Detection limits were rather less than 500 ppm, depending on the matrix.Atomic
Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) was used to analyze for Mg, Mn, Na, Cu, and Mo following total acid attack of the
pulverized samples. While Mg and Mn were included in the XRF fusion determination, the AAS method allows a 100-fold
reduction in the detection limit. Precision, based on the measuring of light intensities, was better than 5%. Detection limits
were all routinely 5 ppm.X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) pressed powder pellet analysis was used to determine S
concentrations, assuming levels not much higher than 1%. Precision depended to a large extent on particle size, but a
precision of 5% or 50 ppm has been consistently demonstrated at this laboratory.Once all the results were obtained
the weight percents of the major elements were calculated, followed by distribution of oxygen proportionally to the various
oxides in order to recalculate the oxide percentages. Trace elements were reported as ppm concentrations.Samples
selected for radiohalos counting were thin-sectioned in order to characterize the mineralogy and textures of the different
rock types, particularly the granites from the main batholith mass and satellite stocks, the granitic rocks from the dikes,
and the host rocks adjoining the margins of the granite where metamorphism had occurred. Furthermore, an accurate
assessment of the mineral content of several samples of the Bathurst Granite and the Evans Crown dike were obtained
by point counting of thin sections for statistical analyses.
Counting of Radiohalos
Twenty-four samples of granitic rocks were selected from those collected in 1974, and four granite samples collected in
1999. Of these 28 samples, twelve were of the Bathurst Granite, eight were from the Evans Crown dike (seven of coarsegrained granitic dike rock and one from the dikes chilled margin), four were from granitic dikes intruded across the
Bathurst Granite, two were from granitic dikes intruding through the Evans Crown dike, and two were from granitic dikes

cross-cutting the host sedimentary rocks.Portions of the 28 samples were crushed to liberate the biotite grains. Biotite
flakes were then handpicked with tweezers from each crushed sample and placed on a piece of Scotch tape fixed to the
flat surface of a laminated board on a laboratory table with its adhesive side up. Once numerous biotite flakes had been
mounted on the adhesive side of this piece of tape, a fresh piece of Scotch tape was placed over them and firmly
pressed along its length so as to ensure the two pieces were stuck together with the biotite flakes firmly wedged between
them. The upper piece of tape was then peeled back in order to pull apart the sheets composing the biotite flakes, and
this piece of tape with thin biotite sheets adhering to it was then placed over a standard glass microscope slide so that the
adhesive side and the thin mica flakes adhered to it. This procedure was repeated with another piece of Scotch tape
placed over the original tape and biotite flakes affixed to the board, the adhering biotite flakes being progressively pulled
apart and transferred to microscope sides. As necessary, further handpicked biotite flakes were added to replace those
fully pulled apart. In this way tens of microscope slides were prepared for each sample, each with many (at least 20) thin
biotite flakes mounted on it. This is similar to the method pioneered by Gentry (1988). A minimum of 50 microscope slides
was prepared for each sample (at least 1000 biotite flakes) to ensure good representative sampling statistics.Each slide
for each sample was then carefully examined under a petrological microscope in plane polarized light and all radiohalos
present were identified, noting any relationships between the different radiohalo types and any unusual features. The
numbers of each type of radiohalo in each slide were counted by progressively moving the slide backwards and forwards
across the field of view, and the numbers for each slide were then tallied and tabulated for each sample.
Results
Mapping and Sampling
The geological map resulting from the intense fieldwork is shown in Fig. 4 (Snelling 1974). Marked on the map are the
interpreted boundaries between the various outcropping rock units in the area, the creek drainages, the villages, the major
roads, and the railroad. The strike and dip measurements of the bedding in the host sedimentary units are recorded on
the map in the locations they were obtained, and the numbered black dots represent the sample collection sites. Only
those samples used in this radiohalos study are marked on the map. And around the borders of the map not only are the
longitude east and latitude south coordinates marked, but there is also a one kilometer by one kilometer grid coordinates
system marked and annotated for ease of referencing map locations.
Fig. 7. Panoramic view looking southwest
and west from the summit of Mt. Lambie
(from Snelling 1974). To the left in the
distance the Evans Crown dike is easily
recognized with its prominent granite tors
on the middle. Moving right the
topographic hollow of the Solitary Creek
valley is seen, as marked on Fig. 4. The
Evans Crown dike crosses that valley and
forms
the
ridge
(Evans Crown) in the
middle of the view
(center and right). The
Deadmans
Creek
valley separates the
latter ridge and Mt.
Lambie (just beyond
the foreground). The
Tarana Range looms
in the background
(middle right).
Fig.
8. The
local
composite stratigraphic crosssection, drawn approximately
east-west through the summit
of Mt. Lambie (from Snelling
1974).
Fig. 9. View of the Solitary
Creek valley with the railroad
from Sydney west to Parkes on
the extreme right (from Snelling
1974). Bald Ridge (marked on
fig. 4) lies in the center of the
view, with the Evans Crown dike cropping out along
the ridge to the left. In the railroad cuts to the
immediate right of Bald Ridge the Evans Crown dike
is found to split into a multitude of coalescing smaller
dikes. The margins of the Bathurst Granite occupy
the low-lying land along Solitary Creek because the
granite is more weathered.
Fig. 10. Prominent outcrop of the Bathurst Granite in
the Meadow Flat stock at grid reference 928693 in
Fig. 4 (from Snelling 1974).
Fig. 11. Outcrop of the granitic Evans Crown dike at
grid reference 939636 in Fig. 4 (from Snelling 1974).
Mineral variations within this dike parallel the jointing,
which can be seen prominently running through the

crest of the outcrop.


The host sedimentary rocks and stratigraphic sequences and relationships are shown in Fig. 3. Because they have been
regionally metamorphosed, they are more resistant to weathering and erosion, so they form the higher ground in the
panoramic view in Fig. 7. This view is looking west and southwest from the summit of Mt. Lambie, at 1284 m (4213 ft.) the
highest point in the map area (fig. 4). The next ridge to the west (center and right in fig. 7) is the Evans Crown dike. These
topographic variations according to the rock types can also be seen in the geological cross-section in Fig. 8, which cuts
approximately east-west across Fig. 4 through the summit of Mt. Lambie. Because the Bathurst Granite is more
weathered, it occupies the lower ground along Solitary Creek in the southern portion of the map area (fig. 4), as observed
in Figs. 7 and 9.
Adjacent to the margins of the Bathurst Granite in the west and north of the map area are outlying stocks of the same
granitethe Eusdah and Meadow Flat stocks respectively (figs. 4 and 10). Cross-cutting the margin of the Bathurst
Granite near Tarana and then through the surrounding host sedimentary rocks roughly northwards to form Bald Ridge
(figs. 4 and 9) and Evans Crown (fig. 7) is the granitic
Evans Crown dike (fig. 11), which is estimated to be
12.8 km (8 mi.) long and often 0.8 km (0.5 mi.) wide.
In the railroad cuts beside Solitary Creek to the
immediate south of Bald Ridge within the Bathurst
Granite the Evans Crown dike was found to split into
multiple, coalescing smaller dikes. In the same area
several granitic (acid) dikes are found within the
Evans Crown dike, following and paralleling jointing.
A few basaltic (basic) dikes (fig. 12) and numerous
minor granitic dikes (similar to those that are within
the Evans Crown dike) also cut across the margins of
the Bathurst Granite, also following and paralleling
jointing, and extend out into the surrounding host
sedimentary strata (fig. 13). Good exposures of these
dikes are seen in the many railroad cuts between
Sodwalls and Tarana (fig. 4). Up to 45 m (about 150
ft.) wide, these granitic dikes have the same mineral composition as both the Bathurst Granite and the Evans Crown dike,
often with the same porphyritic texture.The regional context of the mapped area in relation to the whole Bathurst Batholith
is shown in Fig. 6. The sites from which the regional samples of the Bathurst Granite were collected are marked. These
chosen samples were representative of the batholith and very similar in appearance and composition to the Bathurst
Granite in the mapped area.
Fig. 12. A basaltic (basic) dike cutting across the Bathurst granite in a railroad cut at grid reference 948587 in Fig. 4 (from
Snelling 1974). Notice the parallel jointing in both the dike and the granite, due to the basaltic magma having intruded
along the jointing in the granite.
Fig. 13. View of the weathered Bathurst Granite along the Solitary Creek valley at grid reference 958584 in Fig. 4 (from
Snelling 1974), showing the linear outcrops of cross-cutting dikes
which can be traced across the fields.

Chemical Analyses
The whole-rock chemical analyses for the selected granitic rocks
are listed in Table 1. Included in this table is a sample of the
Bathurst Granite from the Sodwalls area (sample 2) whose
chemical analysis was reported by Joplin (1963).
Photomicrographs representative of some of the samples of the
Bathurst Granite, the Evans Crown dike and the minor granitic
dikes are provided in Fig. 14. The mineral contents of selected
samples of the Bathurst Granite and the Evans Crown dike obtained by point counting of thin sections, the modal
analyses, are listed in Table 2.

Fig.
14. Photomicrographs
representative of some of the
samples of the Bathurst Granite,
Evans Crown dike, and granitic dikes
intruding them used in this study, as
seen under the microscope. Their
locations are plotted on Fig. 4. All
photomicrographs are at the same
scale (20 or 1 mm = 40m) and the
granites are as viewed under crossed
polarized
light.
Bathurst
Granite:
(a) Sample RBG-4: K-feldspar (plain
mid gray), quartz (light color), biotite
(bright colors partly extinguished).
(b) Sample ASI-32: plagioclase
(striped gray), K-feldspar (plain dull
gray), biotite (bright colors), sphene
(prismatic crystal), quartz (light color).
(c) Sample ASI-32: quartz (light
yellowish color), biotite (bright colors
partly
extinguished),
sphene
(prismatic crystal), K-feldspar (plain
mid and dull gray), magnetite (black).
(d) Sample ASI-31: plagioclase
(striped gray), K-feldspar (plain mid
gray),
biotite
(bright
colors),
magnetite
(black).
(e) Sample ASI-23: plagioclase
(striped gray), quartz (light yellowish
color), biotite (bright colors), Kfeldspar
(plain
mid
gray).
(f) Sample ASI-23: plagioclase
(striped gray), quartz (light yellowish
color), K-feldspar (plain mid gray),
biotite
(bright
colors).
Evans
Crown
dike:
(g) Sample ASI-46: biotite (bright
colors), K-feldspar (plain mid gray),
plagioclase (speckled gray due to
alteration
to
sericite).
(h) Sample ASI-46: K-feldspar (plain
mid gray), plagioclase (remnant
striping and speckled gray due to
alteration
to
sericite).
(i) Sample ASI-17: biotite (dark brown
due to alteration), altered plagioclase
(right, striped speckled mid gray) and
K-feldspar (left, speckled mid gray).
(j)
Sample
ASI-17:
altered
plagioclase and K-feldspar (speckled
mid gray and black), minor quartz
(light
yellowish
color).
Granite
dikes:
(k) Sample ASI-57: minor quartz (light
yellowish color), altered plagioclase
(crystal shape right, speckled mid
gray) and K-feldspar (speckled mid
gray
and
black).
(l) Sample ASI-109: minor quartz
(light
yellowish
color),
altered
plagioclase (crystal shape top,
speckled mid gray) and K-feldspar
(speckled mid gray and black).
(m) Sample ASI-110: plagioclase
(speckled gray and brown due to
alteration to sericite and iron oxides),
K-feldspar (plain mid gray), biotite
(bright
colors).
(n) Sample ASI-110: plagioclase
(speckled gray and brown due to
alteration to sericite and iron oxides),
biotite (bright colors), K-feldspar
(plain mid gray).
Table
1. Whole-rock
chemical
analyses, expressed in oxide percent,

of Bathurst Granite and granitic dikes of the Tarana-Sodwalls area (from Snelling 1974).

1. Granite, Sodwalls. AnalystAssociated Laboratories of Australia


2. Granite, Sodwalls. AnalystW. G. Stone (Joplin 1963)
3. Porphyry dike, between Sodwalls and Tarana. AnalystAssociated Laboratories of Australia
4. Dikes of the Evans Crown dike Railway Cuttings. AnalystAssociated Laboratories of Australia
5. Chilled Margin, Evans Crown dike. AnalystAssociated Laboratories of Australia
6. Coarse-grained phase, Evans Crown dike. AnalystAssociated Laboratories of Australia
7. Porphyry dike near Sodwalls. AnalystAssociated Laboratories of Australia
8. Granite, Meadow Flat. AnalystAssociated Laboratories of Australia
Click table to view larger version.

Counting of Radiohalos

Fig. 15. Photomicrographs of some representative 238U and 210Po radiohalos in biotite flakes in samples of the Bathurst
Granite, Evans Crown dike, and granitic dikes intruding them, as seen under the microscope. All the biotite grains are as
viewed in plane polarized light, and the scale bars are all 50 m (microns) long. Bathurst Granite: samples ASI-32 (a), (b)
(c) and (d); ASI-23 (e) and (f). Bathurst Granite: samples ASI-31 (g); RBG-3 (h) and (i); ASI-68 (j) and (k); and ASI-37 (l).
Evans Crown dike: samples ASI-46 (m); and ASI-44 (n). Granitic dike intruding Bathurst Granite: sample ASI-57 (o) and
(p). Granitic dike intruding Evans Crown Dike: sample ASI-110 (q) and (r).
Photomicrographs of some representative radiohalos are shown in Fig. 15. The statistics of the counted radiohalos in the
28 chosen granitic samples are listed in Table 3. The number of radiohalos per slide was calculated by adding up the total
number of all radiohalos found in each sample, divided by the number of slides made and viewed for counting of
radiohalos. The number of Po radiohalos per slide was calculated in a similar way, except it was the total number of Po
radiohalos divided by the number of slides examined for that sample. And finally, the ratio in the last column was
calculated by taking the number of 210Po radiohalos and dividing by the number of 238U halos.
Table 2. Modal analyses of the mineral contents of the Bathurst Granite and the Evans Crown dike of the TaranaSodwalls area obtained by point counting of thin sections.

1. Bathurst Granite, Sodwalls. (Mackay 1959)


2. Bathurst Granite, Sodwalls. (Mackay 1959)
3. Bathurst Granite, Sodwalls.
4. Bathurst Granite, Sodwalls.
5. Evans Crown dike. (Mackay 1959)
6. Evans Crown dike. (Mackay 1959)
7. Evans Crown dike.
8. Evans Crown dike.
Click table to view larger version.
Table 3. Radiohalos count statistics for samples of the Bathurst Granite and granitic dikes of the Tarana-Sodwalls area.

Click table to view larger version.


Discussion
Results of the Present Study
In the mapped area there is a definite sequence for the formation of the granitic rocks. The fossil-bearing sedimentary
rocks were first intruded by the major pluton of the
Bathurst Granite. Fig. 16 shows the contact of the
Bathurst Granite (right) with the host fossil-bearing
Lambie Group sedimentary strata in a railroad cut at
grid reference 993589 in Fig. 4 (from Snelling 1974).
Notice the vein-like apothyses of granite protruding into
the sedimentary strata from the granite to the left of the
line of contact. Also notice that the bedding of the
sedimentary layers has been disturbed near the contact.
Both these observations indicate the granite had the
constituency of a hot magma that flowed as it forced its
way up and into the host sedimentary strata, rather than
being a cold, solid body that was tectonically emplaced.
Fig.16. The contact of the Bathurst Granite (right) with
the host Lambie Group sedimentary strata in a railroad
cut at grid reference 993589 in Fig. 4 (from Snelling

1974). Notice the vein-like apothyses of granite protruding into the sedimentary strata from the granite to the left of the line
of contact.
Further observations to answer this question of whether the granite was hot or cold when intruded are readily available.
The granite at the contact and in the apothyses in Fig. 16 is coarse-grained and is the same as the granite outcropping
elsewhere in the pluton, so the intruding granite body appears to have been at a uniform temperature. If the pluton had
been tectonically emplaced there should be evidence in the contact zone either of melting and recrystallization or of
mechanical crushing of the granite. If melting and recrystallization had occurred, then the granite at the contact with the
sedimentary strata and in the apothyses could be expected to be of a noticeably different grain size than the granite in the
main body, contrary to what is observed. Alternately, if any mechanical crushing had occurred at the margin of the granite
body, then the granite and the host sedimentary layers at the contact should exhibit signs of mylonitization, which is not
evident. Also, no vein-like apothyses would be expected, as those indicate fluid flow, and not mechanical crushing.
Additionally the hot granite intrusion would have impacted the adjacent host fossil-bearing sedimentary strata, creating the
observable contact metamorphic aureole. As already noted (Fig. 16), it is evident that the sedimentary layering very close
to the granite contact has been disturbed, not crushed, likely both by intrusion of the main granite body and of the
apothyses. This would have been due to the mechanics of fluid flow of a hot magma, rather than tectonic emplacement of
a cold body. Nevertheless, the definitive observation that is consistent with intrusion of a hot granitic magma is the contact
metamorphism of the host sedimentary strata adjacent to the granite margin.
Fig. 17. ACF-AKF diagrams for the contact metamorphism of the sedimentary strata in the aureole adjoining the margin
of the Bathurst Granite in the Tarana-Sodwalls area
(from Snelling 1974). (A) The albite-epidote-hornfels
facies. (B) The hornblende-hornfels facies.
Both Mackay (1959) and Snelling (1974) cataloged the
contact metamorphic mineral assemblages in the
aureole adjacent to the margins of the Bathurst Granite
in the Sodwalls-Tarana area (fig. 4). These mineral
assemblages are summarized in the ACF-AKF
diagrams in Fig. 17. The depicted mineral assemblages
of the albite-epidote-hornfels facies are found in the host
sedimentary rocks in the outer fringes of the contact
aureole
where
the
temperatures
of
contact
metamorphism were very low. Furthermore, many of
these same minerals characterize the assemblages
typical of the greenschist facies produced by the
regional burial metamorphism of these sedimentary
strata. However, the mineral assemblages of the
hornblende-hornfels facies in the aureole closer to the contact with the Bathurst Granite stand out in clear contrast to the
regional burial metamorphism of the surrounding host sedimentary strata. This facies embraces the majority of rocks that
form the obvious contact aureole. It is also significant that sillimanite, which is characteristic of the even higher
temperature pyroxene-hornfels facies, is not present in the aureole even closer to the contact, but is found in the granite
right at the boundary (Snelling 1974).
Fig. 18. Diagram showing the pressuretemperature (P-T) fields of the four facies of
low-pressure contact metamorphism (after
Turner 1968).
The pressure-temperature (P-T) conditions in
the contact aureole can be determined by the
experimental calibration curves for the mineral
reactions. Fig. 18 depicts the P-T fields of
these facies of contact metamorphism (Turner
1968). The position of the minimum melting
curve for quartz-orthoclase-albite (Qz-Or-Ab)
implies the highest temperature at the least
pressure (that is, the shallowest depth) at
which the hornblende-hornfels facies would be
produced in this aureole against the molten
Bathurst Granite is 700C and 2 kb pressure,
approximately equivalent to a depth of less
than 5 km (3 mi.) (Bucher and Fry 2002).
Confirmation that the depth of granite emplacement was shallow is indicated by the observations of jointing and flow
banding in the granite consistent with those outcrops near the roof of the pluton (Snelling 1974), and confirmed by
measurements of the stratigraphic thicknesses above the granite. Independent confirmation that the granite would have
been molten at 700C (or more) is consistent with experimental work on granite formation (Johannes and Holtz 1996;
Tuttle and Bowen 1958).Field relationships clearly indicate that the Evans Crown dike intruded into a major fracture
through the Bathurst Granite and also penetrated across into the surrounding sedimentary strata. The dikes central
portions are coarse and even-grained like the Bathurst Granite, but the margins are chilled against the host granite. These
relations indicate the dike intruded as a hot granitic magma similar to that of the Bathurst Granite (and likely even from the
same magma source). Other observations indicate the Bathurst Granite had cooled considerably prior to this dikes
intrusion. Some of the chilled margins in the dike exhibit pronounced flow-banding texture parallel to the contact (Snelling
1974). Furthermore, the development of graphic quartz-feldspar intergrowths, myrmekitic outgrowths and reaction-rimmed
grains in the dike also suggest the Bathurst Granite had cooled prior to the dikes intrusion.

Fig. 19. A typical granitic (acid) dike within the Bathurst Granite in a railroad cut at grid reference 963586 in Fig. 4 (from
Snelling 1974). Notice the jointing in the dike and the
alteration zones in the Bathurst Granite marginal to the
dike due to the heat and fluids during its intrusion.
Following intrusion of the Evans Crown dike, residual
granitic magma intruded as smaller dikes that cut across
the Bathurst Granite. These dikes follow joints and
fractures within and parallel to the Evans Crown dike,
and they also continue out into and across the host
sedimentary strata. Both reaction textures and mineral
intergrowths within these granitic dikes suggest the
phenocrysts crystallized prior to the injection of the
dikes into the Bathurst Granite, and also across the
Evans Crown dike (Snelling 1974). Alteration zones
marginal to the sharp contacts of the dikes with the wallrocks indicate the magma was still hot when injected,
and the dikes are frequently flow-banded parallel to
these contacts (fig. 19).Whole-rock chemical analyses
of the granitic rocks are listed in Table 1 in order of
increasing silica (SiO2) content. Note that the Bathurst Granite samples have the lowest silica content, and that in the later
dike phases (both the Evans Crown dike and the smaller dikes that intrude it and the Bathurst Granite) the silica content is
increased. This silica trend somewhat parallels the time sequence of intrusion, which is consistent with the interpretation
that later granitic dike phases were derived from residual magma of the Bathurst Granite. This relationship is wellrecognized and characterized in the literature (Hall 1996). The exception is the Meadow Flat Granite in the satellite stock,
north of the mapped area (fig. 4), which is lithologically similar to the Bathurst Granite, but has the highest silica content of
the samples (table 1). This may suggest that because the stock was intruded peripherally to the main body of the
batholith, it intruded laterally as a residual magma from the main Bathurst Granite pluton.
Fig. 20. Triangular plot of modal plagioclase, orthoclase and quartz in 260 thin sections of granites from the eastern
United States (after Chayes 1951; Tuttle and Bowen 1958).
The contours from the outside inwards are more than 0, 2, 5,
and 7% respectively (0.25% counter).
The pioneering experimental work of Tuttle and Bowen (1958)
led to the development of graphical schemes for the
classification of granitic rocks based on both modal and
normative analyses. Modal analyses are obtained by direct
point counting of the observed mineral contents of the rocks in
thin sections, whereas normative analyses rely on calculating
the ideal mineral contents from the oxides obtained in wholerock chemical analyses. Once obtained, the modal and
normative analyses were recast or normalized so that the three
components quartz, orthoclase and plagioclase, and quartz,
orthoclase and albite respectively totalled 100% for each rock.
These were then plotted on triangular composition diagrams
with the respective minerals at their apices (figs. 20 and 21).
The surprising results were that both schemes plotted around
the same point, the point representing one third of each
mineral component, and corresponded exactly with the results
of their laboratory work on artificial silicate systems.
Fig. 21. Contoured triangular diagram showing the distribution of normative albite, orthoclase and quartz in all 1269

analyzed rocks in Washingtons (1917) tables containing 80% or


more combined albite + orthoclase + quartz (after Tuttle and
Bowen 1958). The internal triangle labeled abc indicates the compositions considered to be granites (or rhyolites) in the
present classification of sialic (acid) rocks.
Fig. 22. Paths of crystallization in the three component (quartz + orthoclase + albite) magma towards the point of lowest
temperature, 660700C (point M) (after Tuttle 1955; Tuttle and Bowen 1958).

Tuttle (1955), Tuttle and Bowen (1958) and Johannes and Holtz (1996) discuss the magmatic origin of granite based on
experimental work on artificial silicate systems. Tuttle and Bowen (1958) demonstrated that the path of crystallization in
the three component system quartz-orthoclase-albite reaches its minimum temperature of 660700C when the
components are in equal proportions (fig. 22). This point coincides with the clustering of the modal and normative
analyses of the same three components on the same triangular compositional diagram (figs. 20 and 21), thus leading to
the overwhelming conclusion that the analyzed granites were truly of magmatic origin. Tuttle and Bowen (1958) went on
to show that sediments at 37 km (23 mi.) depth could melt to form a granitic magma at 630C if sufficient water were
present. Johannes and Holtz (1996) have subsequently shown that at the pressure and temperature conditions indicated
for the contact metamorphism of the host sediments at the granite contact (2 kb and 700C), the Bathurst Granite would
have to have been intruded with a water content of 45 wt % in the magma, which has been found to be a common water
content for granitic magmas (Hall 1996; Johannes and Holtz 1996).
Table 4. Normative analyses of orthoclase, albite (plagioclase) and quartz in the Bathurst Granite and Evans Crown dike
of the Tarana-Sodwalls area derived from the chemical analyses in Table 1. (A) The raw normative proportions. (B) The
adjusted proportions, normalized to 100%.

1. Bathurst Granite, Sodwalls. (Mackay 1959)


2. Bathurst Granite, Sodwalls. (Mackay 1959)
3. Bathurst Granite, Sodwalls. AnalystW. G. Stone (Joplin 1963)
4. Bathurst Granite, Sodwalls. AnalystAssociated Laboratories of Australia
5. Evans Crown dike. (Mackay 1959)
6. Evans Crown dike. (Mackay 1959)
7. Evans Crown dike. AnalystAssociated Laboratories of Australia
8. Evans Crown dike. AnalystAssociated Laboratories of Australia
Table 5. Modal analyses of the Bathurst Granite and Evans Crown dike of the Tarana-Sodwalls area adjusted to only their
quartz, orthoclase and plagioclase contents.

1. Bathurst Granite, Sodwalls. (Mackay 1959)


2. Bathurst Granite, Sodwalls. (Mackay 1959)
3. Bathurst Granite, Sodwalls.
4. Bathurst Granite, Sodwalls.
5. Evans Crown dike. (Mackay 1959)
6. Evans Crown dike. (Mackay 1959)
7. Evans Crown dike.
8. Evans Crown dike.
The results of both the modal and normative analyses of the granitic rocks of Bathurst Batholith in the Tarana-Sodwalls
area (Tables 1 and 4A) can thus be recast or normalized so that their three components quartz, orthoclase, and
plagioclase, and quartz, orthoclase, and albite respectively totalled 100% for each rock (tables 4B and 5). These
compositions were then plotted on the three component triangular diagrams in Figs. 23 and 24. Not surprisingly the
Bathurst Batholith granitic rock values cluster in much the same way as Tuttle and Bowens (1958) data (figs 20 and 21).
Furthermore, a quick comparison of the modal and normative values of the Tarana-Sodwalls granitic rocks (plotted in figs.
23 and 24, respectively) with the path of magmatic crystallization to its minimum temperature of 660700C when the
quartz-orthoclase-albite components are in equal proportions (fig. 22), demonstrates that they also coincide to Tuttle and
Bowens (1958) data (figs. 20 and 21). This suggests that the granitic rocks of the Bathurst Batholith also have a
magmatic origin.

Fig. 23. Triangular plot of the modal quartz, orthoclase and plagioclase in the samples of the Bathurst Granite and the
Evans Crown dike in the Tarana-Sodwalls area as recorded and numbered
in Table 4. All samples plot within the adamellite field.
Fig. 24. Triangular plot of the normative quartz, orthoclase and albite in the
samples of the Bathurst Granite and the Evans Crown dike in the TaranaSodwalls area as recorded and numbered in Table 5. All samples plot within
the triangle abc indicating the compositions are granites as formally
classified..
Abundant 238U and 210Po radiohalos are present in biotite flakes of all
samples of the Bathurst Granite and Evans Crown dike (table 3 and fig.
15al and mn respectively). 214Po and 218Po radiohalos are only present in
some samples of the Bathurst Granite (table 3), but in one sample (RBG-4)
they are present in comparatively large numbers, especially the 218Po
radiohalos. A few 210Po and 238U radiohalos are also present in biotite flakes
within some samples of the dikes that cut across the Bathurst Granite or the
Evans Crown dike (table 3 and fig. 15op and qr, respectively).The 238U
radiohalos in Fig. 15 are over exposed, meaning there has been so much
rapid 238U decay that the resultant heavy discoloration of the biotite has
blurred all the inner rings (compare with fig. 5). Often only holes remain in
the centers of the 238U radiohalos where the tiny zircon radiocenters have
been lost during the peeling apart of the biotite flakes to tape them to the
microscope slides. In Fig. 15g a visible zircon radiocenter is so large it has
distorted the radiohalos shape. In Fig. 15 there are also numerous
examples of incomplete radiohalos stains. These are due to the biotite
sheets not peeling apart through the radiocenters of these (spherical)
radiohalos during preparation of the microscope slides. These stains usually
represent 238U radiohalos, but sometimes 210Po radiohalos. Nevertheless,
only the visible complete radiohalos where the radiocenters were visible are
recorded in Table 3. The 210Po radiohalos are easily identified by their single
outer ring about 39 m (microns) in diameter (fig. 5). Usually their radiocenters are hollow bubbles or empty holes where
former bubbles were destroyed, which is consistent with hydrothermal fluids having deposited the 210Po atoms there,
which then -decayed to discolor the biotite and form the radiohalos. Sometimes the 210Po radiocenters are only about
100 m from the nearby 238U radiocenters in the same biotite flake (fig. 15c, d, l, and m). The hydrothermal fluids thus did
not have far to transport 222Rn and Po from the 238U radiocenters to form and supply the 210Po radiocenters. This likely
occurred within weeks so that the 238U and 210Po radiohalos formed concurrently. Fig. 15 (a, e, l, m, n, and r) shows overexposed 210Po radiohalos. This is indicative of a lot of 210Po atoms having been in the radiocenters that then decayed.
Spreading of the radiation damage is often due to the large sizes of many radiocenters, which appear to now be empty
holes that may originally have been fluid-filled bubbles. There are also remnants of much larger fluid inclusions in
several biotite flakes (fig. 15b, e, f, h. i, q, and r). And finally, in Fig. 15e, k, o, and q are 210Po radiohalos consisting
of 210Po radiation staining around elongated radiocenters that appear to have been fluid inclusions.
The data for all the samples from each rock unit are listed in Table 3 and summarized in Table 6. All granitic rock units
contain more 210Po radiohalos than 238U radiohalos (except the dikes which intrude the sedimentary rocks and contain no
radiohalos at all). There is a distinct pattern in the radiohalo abundances according to the sequence of intrusion of the
different granitic rocks.
Table 6. Summary of the radiohalos data for the different granitic rock units of the Tarana-Sodwalls area, including several
regional samples of the Bathurst Granite (see table 3).

The radiohalo abundance for the Bathurst Granite are highly inflated by one sample, RBG-4, which comes from just on
the edge of the main study area near Tarana (fig. 6). This sample comes from near a small prospectors mine where there
was copper and gold mineralization found in hydrothermal veins (Raymond et al. 1998; Snelling 1974). Snelling (2005a)
found that there were higher numbers of radiohalos in granites associated with hydrothermal ore veins and lodes, such as
those hosted by the Lands End Granite in Cornwall, UK, and in and around the Mole Granite in the New England area of
eastern Australia. Thus this solitary anomalous Bathurst Granite sample with high numbers of radiohalos (2270 210Po
radiohalos, 23 214Po radiohalos, 520 218Po radiohalos, 1694 238U radiohalos, and 31 232Th radiohalossee RBG-4 in table
3) would appear to be consistent with its proximity to an area of higher hydrothermal fluid flows, which lends support to the
hydrothermal fluid flow model for Po transport to form Po radiohalos (Snelling 2000, 2005a; Snelling and Armitage 2003).
Excluding sample RBG-4, the Bathurst Granite has on average 2.22 210Po radiohalos and 2.7 total radiohalos per
microscope slide, with a ratio of 1.6 210Po radiohalos for every 238U radiohalo (table 6). As expected, the Meadow Flat
stock, which is an outlying extension of the Bathurst Granite, has similar radiohalo statistics to the Bathurst Granite, with
an average of 1.98 210Po radiohalos and 2.64 total radiohalos per microscope slide, with a ratio of 3 210Po radiohalos for
every 238U radiohalo. In contrast, the coarse-grained inner section of the Evans Crown dike has on average 0.65 210Po

radiohalos and 0.74 total radiohalos per microscope slide, but a ratio of 6.6 210Po radiohalos for every 238U radiohalo (see
the samples in brackets in table 6, compared to the total figures that include the sample from the fine-grained margin).
Similarly, radiohalo numbers are low in the dikes cutting through the Bathurst Granite and Evans Crown dike, with
averages of 0.03 210Po radiohalos and 0.03 total radiohalos per microscope slide and 0.07 210Po radiohalos and 0.08 total
radiohalos per microscope slide, respectively. But the ratio at seven 210Po radiohalos for every 238U radiohalo in the dikes
cutting through the Evans Crown dike is higher.
Results Compared to Previous Models
In conventional thought, the Po radiohalos observed in the Bathurst Granite are a very tiny mystery (G. Brent Dalrymple,
as quoted by Gentry, 1988, p. 122) that can be conveniently ignored because they have little apparent significance.
However, the reality is that the mystery of the Po radiohalos is often ignored because it constitutes a profound challenge
to conventional wisdom.Comprehensive reviews of what these Po radiohalos are and how they may have formed are
provided by Gentry (1973, 1974, 1986, 1988) and Snelling (2000). Gentry (1974) has established that all the observed Po
radiohalos are generated exclusively from the Po radioisotopes in the 238U decay series, namely, 218Po, 214Po, and 210Po,
with contributions from none of the other species in the 238U -decay chain. Furthermore, it has been estimated that, like
the 238U radiohalos, each visible Po radiohalo requires between 500 million and 1 billion -decays (Gentry 1988), equating
to a corresponding number of Po atoms in each radiocenter. Yet the half-lives of these Po radioisotopes are only 3.1
minutes (218Po), 164 microseconds (214Po), and 138 days (210Po), so how did so many Po atoms get concentrated into
these radiocenters, before they decayed, to then generate the Po radiohalos?Gentry (1986, 1988, 1989) insists that the
Po must be primordial, that is, the Po radioisotopes was created instantaneously in place in the radiocenters in the biotite
flakes in the granites, and thus the granites are also created rocks. In other words, he argues that granites did not form
from the crystallization and cooling of magmas, but rather are the earths original foundation rocks.Moreover, where
granites such as the Bathurst Granite have intruded into fossiliferous Flood-deposited strata, Gentry (1989) insists that
these granites also represent originally created rocks. He argues that during the Flood they were tectonically intruded as
cold bodies, and that the contact metamorphic aureoles were produced by the heat and pressure generated during
tectonic emplacement, augmented in some cases by hot fluids from depth. Thus, in the case of the Bathurst Granite, he
would surmise it was tectonically emplaced during the Flood, but he would have to also argue that the Evans Crown dike
and the dikes intruding it and the Bathurst Granite were subsequently and sequentially emplaced tectonically. Alternately
he would argue the Bathurst Granite was created then tectonically emplaced during the Flood, yet somehow the Evans
Crown and the other dikes were then sequentially intruded into the Bathurst Granite and the host sediments.Such
interpretations are inconsistent with the field and petrological evidence from the Bathurst Granite and the dikes, and with
the experimental evidence discussed above. The contact between the Bathurst Granite and the regionally
metamorphosed fossiliferous (Flood-deposited) host rocks it intruded is a sharp, knife-edge boundary, with none of the
fracturing, brecciation, or mylonization that should be evident in either the granite or host rocks if the granite had been
intruded tectonically as a cold body (fig. 16). Instead, there are apothyses or veins of granite intruding into the host
sedimentary layers, and a contact metamorphic aureole with mineralogy consistent with the temperatures of the granite
magma when it intruded (figs. 18 and 22). Furthermore, the mineralogy and textures of the Evans Crown dike and the
dikes which intrude into it and the Bathurst Granite are very similar to and identical with those of the Bathurst Granite (fig.
14). This is entirely consistent with a magmatic origin for all these granitic phases from the same magma source, but is
not in any way consistent with the Bathurst Granite being created cold and the subsequent granitic dikes being a result of
local melting of the Bathurst Granite during its cold tectonic emplacement during the Flood. The chilled margin of the
Evans Crown dike against the Bathurst Granite and the host sedimentary rocks is also consistent with its intrusive
magmatic origin.Gentry (1989) postulated hot fluids augmented the heat and pressure during tectonic emplacement of
cold granite bodies to produce the contact aureoles, and presumably the local melting of the granite at its margin to
produce veins and apothyses, and in the case of the Bathurst Granite, also the formation of the granitic magma that then
intruded as the Evans Crown dike and subsequent dikes. However, if the theorized accompanying hot fluids from depth
had a temperature of >150C, as likely they would have to locally melt granite, then they would have left evidence of their
passage within the Bathurst Granite and annealed all the radiohalos in it (Laney and Laughlin 1981). There is no
observable evidence of any pervasive alteration produced by hydrothermal fluids, either macroscopically or
microscopically, in the Bathurst Granite. In fact, the only evidence of extensive hydrothermal fluid flows in the Bathurst
Granite is in the one sample (RBG-4) in proximity to hydrothermal ore veins, showing an increase in the numbers of Po
radiohalos, consistent with the hydrothermal fluid model for transport of the Po atoms as a requirement to form the Po
radiohalos (Snelling 2005a; Snelling and Armitage 2003).
Evidence Supporting the Hydrothermal Fluid Transport Model
We conclude that the presently observed Po radiohalos in the Bathurst Granite and its associated granitic dikes could only
have been generated after the granite had cooled below 150C (Laney and Laughlin 1981). Thus the Po radiohalos were
formed after the Bathurst Granite was intruded as magma and after it and its contact metamorphic aureole in the host
rocks had cooled. The only other model at present that explains the formation of the Po radiohalos is the hydrothermal
fluid transport model (Snelling 2005a; Snelling and Armitage 2003). In that model it is postulated that the Po isotopes, as
well as the 222Rn parent of 218Po, were produced from 238U decay in the zircons which are the radiocenters of nearby 238U
radiohalos located in the same biotite flakes as the Po radiohalos. The hydrothermal fluids released by the crystallizing
and cooling granite magma flowed along the biotite cleavage planes and transported the 222Rn and Po isotopes from the
zircon radiocenters (fig. 25). The Po isotopes, including the 218Po produced by 222Rn -decay (half-life of 3.8 days), likely
precipitated in lattice defects along the same biotite cleavage planes where S, Cl, and other atoms chemically attractive to
Po were located, remaining within about a millimeter of the zircon radiocenters. These Po precipitation sites became the
subsequent radiocenters for the Po radiohalos. As the Po in the radiocenters -decayed, new Po atoms were supplied
from hydrothermal fluids flowing through the biotite lattice (fig. 25). Thus, provided the supply of Po isotopes was sufficient
and the hydrothermal fluid flows were sustained and rapid, the required Po concentrations could have been supplied to
the radiocenters to produce the 500 million1 billion Po -decays to generate the Po radiohalos within hours or days,
consistent with the very short half-lives of the Po isotopes.

Fig. 25. Time sequence of diagrams to show schematically the formation of 238U and 210Po radiohalos concurrently as a
result of hydrothermal fluid flow along the biotite flakes within a cooling granite mass (after Snelling 2005a).
(a) Diagrammatic cross-section through a biotite flake showing the sheet structure and perfect cleavage. A tiny zircon
crystal (left) has been included between two sheets and its 238U content has generated a 238U radiohalo. A 210Po radiohalo
(right) has also developed around a tiny radiocenter between the same two sheets. Its radiocenter contains no visible
inclusion, being just a bubble-like hole left behind by loss of the original inclusion, probably by dissolution of the solid
phases.
(b) Enlarged diagrammatic cross-section through a biotite flake that has crystallized from a granite magma to 300C. The
radioactive 238U in an included zircon crystal is emitting -particles, while hydrothermal fluids released from the cooling
magma are flowing along the cleavage planes dissolving the U decay products222Rn and Po isotopesthat have
diffused out of the tiny zircon crystal and carrying them downflow a short distance where they also emit -particles.
(c) However, at temperatures >150C the -tracks are annealed, so no radiohalos form and there is no -track record of
the hydrothermal fluids containing Rn and Po flowing at a rate of up to 5 cm (2 in) per day along the cleavage plane. A few
S atoms also transported in the hydrothermal fluids become lodged in lattice defects downflow of the zircon crystal.
(d) As the temperatures approach 150C and 222Rn decays to 218Po, the Po isotopes in the hydrothermal fluids which
have a geochemical affinity for S precipitate to form PoS as the fluids flow by the S atoms in the lattice defects. The 238U
in the zircon continues to decay and replenish the supply of Rn and Po isotopes in the fluids.
(e) Once the temperature drops to below 150C, the -tracks produced by continued decay of both the 238U in the zircon
and the Po in the PoS are no longer annealed and so start discoloring the biotite sheets, forming both 238U and 210Po
radiohalos concurrently. More Po isotopes in the flowing hydrothermal fluids replace the Po in the PoS after it decays to
Pb,
the
freed
S
atoms
scavenging
yet
more
Po
from
the
passing
fluids.
(f) With further passing of time and more -decays both the 238U and 210Po radiohalos are fully formed, the granite cools
completely and hydrothermal fluid flow ceases. Note that both radiohalos have to form concurrently below 150C, and that
the original content at the center of the 210Po radiohalo has been dissolved and carried away. The rate at which these
processes occur must therefore be governed by the 138 day half-life of 210Po. To get 218Po and 214Po radiohalos the
processes
would
have
to
have
occurred
even
faster.
Click image to view larger version.
Because hydrothermal fluid flows are crucial to this Po radiohalos formation model, it might be expected that the greater
the volume and flow of hydrothermal fluids, the greater the probability that more Po radiohalos would be generated. This
prediction has shown to hold true in several situations. First, in granites where hydrothermal ore deposits have formed in
veins due to large, sustained hydrothermal fluid flows, there are huge numbers of Po radiohalos (for example, the Lands
End Granite, Cornwall [Snelling 2005a]). Second, where hydrothermal fluids were produced by mineral reactions, at a
specific pressure-temperature boundary during regional metamorphism, four to five times more Po radiohalos were
generated, precisely at that specific metamorphic boundary (Snelling 2008b). Third, the Po radiohalos numbers also
progressively decreased where the hydrothermal fluids generated in the central granite at the highest grade within a
regional metamorphic complex flowed and decreased outwards into that complex (Snelling 2008c). Fourth, in a granite
pluton which has an atypically wide contact metamorphic and metasomatic aureole around it due to the high volume of
hydrothermal fluids it released during its crystallization, Po radiohalos numbers were shown to be higher than in other
granite plutons (Snelling 2008d). Fifth, in a sequentially intruded suite of nested granite plutons where the hydrothermal
fluid content of the granites correspondingly increased, so that the last intruded central pluton was connected to coeval
explosive, steam-driven volcanism, the numbers of Po radiohalos generated increased inwards within the nested suite of

granite plutons (Snelling and Gates 2009). Such evidence provides confirmation that the hydrothermal fluid transport
model can explain the generation of the Po radiohalos.
Suggested Model for the Bathurst Granite
The hydrothermal fluids generated by the crystallization and cooling of the Bathurst Granite produced several effects
indicating a large volume of sustained fluid flow was involved. Hydrothermal fluids dispersed the heat released by the
crystallizing granite by convection into the host rocks. The heat from these fluids likely helped to generate the contact
metamorphic aureole around the granite (Mackay 1959; Snelling 1974). Additionally, in one location near Tarana, the
hydrothermal fluids penetrated along fractures in the host rocks, beyond the aureole, to deposit ore veins of copper and
gold (Raymond et al. 1998; Snelling 1974). Then, within the granite itself, the numbers of Po radiohalos are consistent
with sustained hydrothermal fluid flows. The tiny zircon grains that are still at the centers of the many 238U radiohalos in
the Bathurst Granite would have been the source of the Po isotopes transported by the hydrothermal fluids to generate
the Po radiohalos. However, the general absence of 214Po and 218Po radiohalos in the Bathurst Granite and the granitic
dikes implies both a generally reduced supply of hydrothermal fluids and a slow rate of hydrothermal fluid transport,
restricting the formation of those radiohalos due to their very short half-lives. It also implies that 222Rn was likely absent in
the hydrothermal fluids. Therefore, Po was most likely transported primarily as 210Po in the fluids to the nucleation sites
where the 210Po radiohalos formed.A constraining factor on the preservation of the Po radiohalos is that the damage left
by the -particles is retained in the biotite flakes only below 150C (Laney and Laughlin 1981). Above this -particle
annealing temperature the damage either doesnt register or is obliterated. Thus all the radiohalos now observed in the
Bathurst Granite had to form below 150C, late in the cooling history of the granite. Granite magmas intrude at
temperatures of 650750C, and the hydrothermal fluids are released at temperatures of 370410C, after most of the
constituent minerals have crystallized (fig. 26). However, the accessory zircon grains, containing the 238U, crystallize very
early at higher temperatures, and likely were already formed in the magma before and during intrusion. Thus the 238U
decay producing the Po isotopes had begun well before the granite had fully crystallized, and before the hydrothermal
fluids had begun flowing. Furthermore, by the time the temperature of the granite and the hydrothermal fluids had cooled
to 150C, the heat energy driving hydrothermal fluid convection would have likely begun to wane and the vigor of the
hydrothermal flow would also have begun to diminish (fig. 26). If the processes of magma intrusion, crystallization and
cooling required 100,0001 million years, as is conventionally claimed (Pitcher 1993; Young and Stearley 2008), most of
the Po would have already decayed and thus been lost from the hydrothermal fluids by the time the granite and fluids had
cooled to 150C, leaving no Po isotopes left to generate the Po radiohalos (Snelling 2008a).
Fig. 26. Schematic, conceptual, temperature versus time cooling curve diagram to show the timescale for granite
crystallization and cooling,
hydrothermal fluid transport,
and
the
formation
of
polonium radiohalos (after
Snelling 2008a).
The data in Tables 3 and 6
show that Po radiohalos
greatly
outnumber 238U
radiohalos in the Bathurst
Granite. There are likely two
reasons for this. First, many
of the 238U radiohalos are
dark and overexposed with
blurred inner rings (fig. 15),
which indicates that there
has been an enormous
amount of 238U decay, much
more than the 500 million1
billion atoms needed to
produce a radiohalo with
distinct inner rings. This
implies that there likely
would have been enough Po
generated to form multiple
Po radiohalos in the vicinity
of
each 238U
radiohalo.
Second, as noted above,
much evidence suggests that
the greater the volume and
flow of hydrothermal fluids,
the greater the number of Po
radiohalos generated. A
reasonably large volume of
hydrothermal
fluids
apparently flowed within and through the Bathurst Granite and the associated dikes. Thus, there was a great capacity for
hydrothermal fluid transport of Po atoms to supply the observed Po radiohalos.
Rapid Formation of the Bathurst Granite
Conventional thinking on the timescale for the granite intrusion, crystallization, and cooling processes used to claim
granite formation took more than a million years (Pitcher 1993; Young and Stearley 2008). However, it is now recognized
that granite formation is a rapid, dynamic process operating on timescales as short as thousands of years (Clemens 2005;
Petford et al. 2000). Various studies have shown that emplacement of a melt is rapid via dikes and fractures, and assisted
by tectonics (Clemens and Mawer 1992; Coleman, Gray, and Glazner 2004). Other studies have shown that melt cooling
is aided by hydrothermal fluids and groundwater flow (Brown 1987; Burnham 1997; Cathles 1977; Hardee 1982; Hayba
and Ingebritsen 1997). Formation of these granites, from emplacement to cooling, therefore had to have been on a
timescale that previously has been considered impossible. The processes of magma generation, segregation, ascent,

emplacement, crystallization, and cooling are now being viewed even as catastrophic (Snelling 2008a, Snelling and
Woodmorappe 1998; Vardiman, Snelling, and Chaffin 2005).
Catastrophic Granite Formation and Accelerated Decay
Both catastrophic granite formation and accelerated radioisotope decay are relevant to the hydrothermal fluid transport
model for Po radiohalo formation (Vardiman, Snelling, and Chaffin 2005). Halo formation provides constraints on the rates
of both those processes (Snelling 2005a). If 238U in the zircon radiocenters supplied the Po isotopes required to generate
the Po radiohalos, the 238U and Po radiohalos must have formed in hours or days, as required by the Po isotopes short
half-lives. This requires 238U production of Po to be grossly accelerated. The 500 million1 billion -decays necessary to
generate each 238U radiohalo, equivalent to at least 100 million years worth of 238U decay at todays decay rates, had to
have taken place in hours to days to supply the required concentration of Po for producing Po radiohalos. However,
because accelerated 238U decay in the zircons would have occurred as the zircons crystallized at 650750C (fig. 26), the
granite magma must have fully crystallized and cooled to below 150C very rapidly. If not, the 238U in the zircons would
have rapidly decayed away, as would have also the daughter Po isotopes, before the biotite flakes were cool enough for
the 238U and Po radiohalos to form and survive without annealing. Furthermore, the hydrothermal fluid flows needed to
transport the Po isotopes along the biotite cleavage planes from the zircons to the Po radiocenters are not long sustained,
even in the conventional framework, but decrease rapidly due to cooling of the granite (fig. 26) (Snelling 2008a).
Therefore, Snelling (2005a) concluded that granite intrusion, crystallization, and cooling processes occurred together over
a timescale of only about 610 days.Thus sufficient Po had to be transported quickly to the Po radiocenters to form the Po
radiohalos while there was still enough energy at and below 150C to drive the hydrothermal fluid flows rapidly enough to
get the Po isotopes to the deposition sites before they decayed. This is the time and temperature window depicted
schematically in Fig. 26. It would thus simply be impossible for the Po radiohalos to form slowly over many thousands of
years at todays groundwater temperatures and chemistries in cold granites. Hot chemically enriched hydrothermal fluids
are needed to dissolve and carry the Po atoms, and heat is needed to drive rapid hydrothermal convection to move Po
transporting fluids fast enough to supply the Po radiocenters to generate the Po radiohalos. Furthermore, the required
heat cannot be sustained for the 100 million years or more while sufficient 238U decays at todays rates to produce the 500
million1 billion Po atoms needed for each Po radiohalo.One consequence of accelerated 238U decay is that the decay of
the Po isotopes might also be similarly accelerated, and thus there would not have been enough time for hydrothermal
fluid transport of the radioactive Po atoms within the biotite flakes. However, Austin (2005) and Snelling (2005b) have
shown that in an accelerated -decay episode the parent isotopes which today have the slowest decay rates (and thus
yield the oldest ages on the same rock samples) had their decay accelerated the most. The implication of this observation
is that in an accelerated -decay episode, the Po isotopes which decay at extremely high rates today should have
experienced almost no acceleration of their decay. This inverse relationship of decay rate to accelerated decay would,
therefore, have allowed enough time for hydrothermal fluid transport of the Po atoms to generate the Po
radiohalos.However, what requires the hydrothermal fluid flow interval to be so brief? Surely, because the zircon
radiocenters and their 238U radiohalos are near to (typically within only 1 mm [0.04 in] or so) the Po radiocenters in the
same biotite flakes, could not the hydrothermal flow have indeed carried each Po atom from the 238U radiocenters to the
Po radiocenters within minutes, but the interval of hydrothermal fluid flow persist over many thousands of years during
which the billion Po atoms needed for each Po radiohalo are transported that short distance? In this case the 238U decay
and the generation of Po atoms could be stretched over that longer interval. However, as already noted above, by the
time a granite body and its hydrothermal fluids cool to below 150C, most of the energy to drive the hydrothermal
convection system and fluid flow has already dissipated (Snelling 2008a). The hydrothermal fluids are expelled from the
crystallizing granite and start flowing at between 410 and 370C (fig. 26), so unless the granite cooled rapidly from 400C
to below 150C, most of the Po transported by the hydrothermal fluids would have been flushed out of the granite by the
vigorous hydrothermal convective flows as they diminished. Simultaneously, much of the energy to drive these fluid flows
dissipates rapidly as the granite temperature drops. Thus, below 150C (when the Po radiohalos start forming) the
hydrothermal fluids have slowed down to such an extent that they cannot sustain protracted flow. Moreover, the capacity
of the hydrothermal fluids to carry dissolved Po decreases dramatically as their temperature decreases.In summary, for
there to be sufficient Po to produce Po radiohalos after the Bathurst Granite cooled to 150C, the timescales of the decay
process as well as the cooling both must be on same order as the lifetimes of the Po isotopes. The hydrothermal fluid
flows had to be rapid, as the convection system was short-lived while the granite crystallized and cooled rapidly within 6
10 days, and as they transported sufficient Po atoms to generate the Po radiohalos within hours to a few
days.Furthermore, if the formation of the large volume, Bathurst Granite was rapid in order for the radiohalos present in it
to exist, it follows that the formation of the intruded granitic dikes in this field area which also contain Po radiohalos had to
be likewise rapid. The numbers of Po radiohalos in these subsequent granitic dikes decrease in order of their intrusion,
with the narrower granitic dikes containing fewer Po radiohalos intruded after the Evans Crown dike (table 6). On the other
hand, the ratio of 210Po radiohalo numbers per each 238U radiohalo increases according to the time sequence in which
these units were intruded, from around 4:1 in the Bathurst Granite to 6.6:1 in the Evans Crown dike to 7:1 in the granitic
dikes intruding the Evans Crown dike. This is consistent with an increase in hydrothermal fluids being progressively
released with each subsequent granitic intrusion. This is further corroborated by the evidence of increased hydrothermal
alteration observed in the Evans Crown dike and the subsequently intruded granitic dikes (fig. 14), and is consistent with
all these granitic rocks being sourced from the same magma body late in its life. Thus the granitic magma that was
intruded as the Evans Crown dike was likely residual magma from the Bathurst Granite, while the remaining residual
magma then intruded into the Evans Crown dike. Such an increase in the volume of hydrothermal fluids in a sequence of
granitic intrusions has already been documented by Snelling and Armitage (2003) in the zoned La Posta Pluton in the
Peninsular Ranges Batholith east of San Diego, and by Snelling and Gates (2009) in the nested plutons of the Tuolumne
Intrusive Suite of Yosemite, California.Thus the significance of the progressively increasing Po radiohalo numbers relative
to 238U radiohalos numbers in granitic intrusions within the Bathurst Batholith (table 6), according to the order in which
they were intruded, implies that there were progressively more hydrothermal fluids per volume with each successive
intrusion from the Bathurst Granite pluton to the large Evans Crown dike to the narrow granitic dikes intruding them both.
The increase in the hydrothermal fluids in the later stages of the intrusive sequence is likely due to the water released as
the intrusive phases crystallized and cooled building up in the later residual intrusive phases; particularly if the
hydrothermal fluids are not readily escaping out into the surrounding host rocks. Whereas many other granite plutons
intruded into sedimentary rocks containing connate and ground waters that assisted rapid granite cooling by convection
outwards from the plutons (Snelling and Woodmorappe 1998), the large Evans Crown dike intruded into the Bathurst
Granite pluton, and then narrower granitic dikes subsequently intruded into them both. Consequently, since granites have
poor connective porosities and therefore poor permeabilities, the successively generated hydrothermal fluids would have
been essentially trapped in the later intrusive phases.Since these granitic intrusions in the Bathurst Batholith were

successively intruded into one another, there were severe constraints, due to the 150C thermal annealing temperature of
the radiohalos. The lapse of time between the intrusion of each phase of the batholith had to be extremely short, as each
phase had to be rapidly emplaced, crystallized and cooled before the next phases were injected, so that the entire
intrusion sequence of pluton and dikes was in place before the radiohalos began forming below 150C. Otherwise, the
heat given off by each successively emplaced phase, which intruded its predecessors, would have annealed all
radiohalos in them. Confirmation that each phase had crystallized and cooled before the next phase was intruded is
demonstrated by the lack of contact metamorphic effects where the Evans Crown dike intrudes the Bathurst Granite and
where the smaller dikes cut into the Bathurst Granite and the Evans Crown dike, by the chilled margin of the Evans Crown
dike, and by alteration zones marginal to the smaller dikes (Snelling 1974). It can therefore be concluded that the
successive development of the batholith was a relatively rapid emplacement process. However, so that annealing of the
radiohalos would not occur above 150C, all the phases of the batholith had to have intruded so rapidly that the Bathurst
Granite pluton, and the stocks, satellite bodies, and subsequent large and small dikes making up the batholith cooled
below 150C more or less at the same time. Furthermore, because of the short half-life of 210Po and the need for the
hydrothermal fluids within the cooling granite masses to rapidly transport sufficient 210Po to supply the radiocenters to form
the 210Po radiohalos before the 210Po decayed, the successive emplacement and cooling of this successive series of
intrusions could not have taken more than a week or two.Survival of the Po radiohalos as a result of the rapid sequential
emplacement of these intrusions also implies that there could not have been a heat problem due to accelerated
radioactive decay (Snelling 2005a). The mechanisms that dissipated the heat from these crystallizing and cooling
magmas (Snelling 2008a; Snelling and Woodmorappe 1998) did so rapidly and efficiently without annealing the Po
radiohalos in the surrounding earlier intruded phases of this suite of intrusions. Thus this entire intrusive event that lasted
only a week or two, consisting of successive pulses of granite magma emplacement and cooling, fits easily within the time
frame of the year-long Flood event.
Extension of Model to Other GranitesThe Bathurst Granite does not appear to be unique, but rather is typical of other
granites, in terms of its mineralogy, chemistry, texture, and the hydrothermal fluids it generated. Thus this model for its
rapid formation and cooling can be extended to other granite bodies, as has been done by Snelling (2005a, 2008a, d),
Snelling and Armitage (2003), and Snelling and Gates (2009). Many other granites are surrounded by aureoles, though
many are often larger. Almost all granites show evidence of the hydrothermal fluids they generated as they crystallized
and cooled. The ubiquitous presence of Po radiohalos (Snelling 2005a) is also testimony to these hydrothermal fluids. In
those granites where fewer Po radiohalos suggest less hydrothermal fluids were produced, the presence of Po radiohalos
indicates there were still sufficient hydrothermal fluids to cool them rapidly. The volume of the Bathurst Batholith is very
large. Yet, the volume of the nested granite plutons of the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite of Yosemite, California, is comparable
to that of the Bathurst Batholith, and Snelling and Gates (2009) built a strong case that each of those plutons also formed
and cooled rapidly. Because this model of rapid formation and cooling has been applied successfully to other granite
bodies, it can be concluded that each of the plutons, stocks, satellite bodies and subsequent large and small dikes making
up the Bathurst Batholith likewise formed and cooled rapidly.
Conclusions
The Bathurst Granite intruded Flood-deposited, fossiliferous sedimentary strata, disrupting them and producing a contact
metamorphic zone. It was then itself intruded by the Evans Crown dike, which has a chilled margin. Finally, smaller
granite dikes intruded both the Bathurst Granite, Evans Crown dike and the host sedimentary strata, producing adjacent
alteration zones. Field and textural data have established that these granite phases were sequentially intruded while still
hot. Analytical and experimental data confirm that these granitic phases were intruded rapidly as hot magma,
contradicting Gentrys concept of their cold creation and tectonic emplacement during the Flood. Evidence suggests all
granitic phases were intruded from the same magma source, with the release of hydrothermal fluids as the magmas
crystallized and cooled. All three granite phases contain 238U and Po radiohalos. The Po radiohalos indicate rapid
formation after all the granites cooled below 150C via hydrothermal fluid transport of Po from 238U decay in the zircon
grains in the biotite flakes that are usually in the radiocenters of the 238U radiohalos. Their presence in all three,
sequentially intruded, granite phases is evidence that all this intrusive activity, and the cooling of all three granite phases
to below 150C, must have occurred within a week or two so that the Po radiohalos in them subsequently formed within
days to weeks during the Flood year.
Radiohalos and Diamonds
Are Diamonds Really for Ever?
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling and Mark Armitage on September 9, 2009
Abstract
We offer an explanation for the radiohalos
and for the tubes in these diamonds in
terms of a hydrothermal fluid transport model
for Po radiohalo formation.
Keywords: radiohalos, diamonds, diamond
inclusions, zircons, polonium, kimberlite,
hydrothermal fluids, cleavagesThis paper
was originally published in the Proceedings
of the Sixth International Conference on
Creationism, pp. 323334 (2008) and is
reproduced here with the permission of the Creation Science Fellowship of Pittsburgh and the Institute for Creation
Research, Dallas.
Abstract
Radiohalos were first reported in diamonds more than a decade ago. Since that time little work has been done to locate
other radiohalo-bearing diamonds, to explain the origin of the radiohalos, or evaluate their significance. We conducted a
search for such diamonds secured from a variety of sources and identified radiohalos containing one, three and four rings,
as well as strange features in the form of twisted crystalline tubes. New data suggest a radiohalo annealing temperature
in diamond above 620C. We offer an explanation for the radiohalos and for the tubes in these diamonds in terms of a
hydrothermal fluid transport model for Po radiohalo formation.
Introduction
Diamonds are probably the most intensely sought after of all the mineral gems known to man. India was the earliest
producer of diamonds in the sixth century, with monarchs as their primary customers. Diamonds remained very rare and

only a privileged few had them, until the first commercial diamond mine was opened in the late 1860s in South Africa.1 It
was Marilyn Monroe who in 1953 immortalized the phrase, Diamonds are a girls best friend in a song from the
movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Of course, it had already become accepted practice for a marriage proposal to be
secured with a diamond ring. It was DeBeers, a privately owned commercial enterprise, and still the largest seller of
diamonds in the world with revenues of US$65 billion in 2005 alone, who in 1947 launched the successful A Diamond is
Forever marketing campaign.2 The unmatched brilliance of the sparkle of diamonds, their sizes and colors make them
desirably attractive, but it is their unique hardness and resistance to physical weathering that give them their durability.
Today, over 130 million carats (US$1013 billion) of diamonds are mined annually.3Tiny, microscopic radioactive halos
(or radiohalos for short,) were first reported in diamonds only a decade ago.4, 5 This discovery elicited some brief
discussion,6, 7, 8 but little has been done since to elucidate their enigma. The purpose of this study was to find additional
diamonds containing radiohalos and to investigate in greater depth how they might have formed.
Diamonds
Diamonds are classified into two major categoriesType I, which contain nitrogen, and Type II, which do not.9 There are
four generally recognized sub-categories based on the form and placement of the nitrogen, and the presence or absence
of boron. Type Ia diamonds, for example, which may comprise over 98% of the worlds natural diamonds, contain from
200 ppm up to a maximum of 5500 ppm nitrogen distributed in small clusters or aggregates of nitrogen atoms through the
diamonds.10 Diamonds in this category are normally colorless, light yellow or brown. Type Ib diamonds, which comprise
around 1% of natural diamonds, are yellow and contain lesser atoms (150600 ppm) of nitrogen in individual carbon
substitution sites. Normal colors of this type range from light to bright yellow or even amber. Type IIa diamonds comprise
less than 1% of all diamonds and contain very small concentrations of nitrogen atoms in the range of 440 ppm
(undetectable or barely detectable by infrared spectroscopy). These diamonds are generally colorless or brown. Some of
the worlds very large diamonds are in this category. Type IIb diamonds, the rarest and purest type, contain up to around
20 ppm boron and even less nitrogen. These are usually blue or grey in color, and are electrically conductive.The origin
and formation of diamonds is not yet completely understood, but it is generally accepted that diamonds crystallized from a
liquid melt in the earths upper mantle at depths of between 150 and 300 km.11 At these depths the temperatures range
from 11002900 C and the pressures range from 50100 kilobars, as calculated and confirmed by laboratory studies of
the minerals in rock fragments brought up from the earths upper mantle with the diamonds in volcanic rocks.12 Some
diamonds may even have formed at depths of 450 km below the earths surface, because of the great temperatures and
pressures required for certain mineral inclusions in them to form.13Most natural diamonds so far discovered are thought
to have crystallized between 1 and 3 billion years ago in mantle rock containing relatively high concentrations of
magnesium and iron.14, 15 The processes of diamond formation are inferred on the basis of what is known of conditions
in the earths upper mantle at 150300 km depth.16, 17, 18 The origin of the carbon source for diamonds is also still very
much debated.19, 20, 21 Once formed, the diamonds seemed to have resided for hundreds of millions up to 2 billion years
in the upper mantle beneath the Archean keels of the continental Precambrian cratons. The diamond phase of carbon,
once crystallized, remains stable there, because of the high temperatures and pressures.It is generally postulated that
localized melting of the mantle subsequently occurred to produce a magma rich in CO 2and H2O, either a kimberlite or
lamproite. This volatile-rich magma then began rising explosively through the mantle areas containing the diamonds and
transported the diamonds through the crust to the earths surface at speeds of 1030 km per hour via propagating cracks
in the mantle and the crust above.22, 23 The kimberlite and lamproite magmas cooled as they approached the earths
surface and therefore hardened, so the resultant explosive eruptions often shattered the solidified magmas in what were
cold volcanic eruptions. What remained in the conduit and the material that settled back into it after the eruptions contains
the diamonds in pipe-like structures. If these kimberlite and lamproite magmas did not ascend catastrophically from the
upper mantle to the earths surface within 824 hours, the diamond crystals would have become unstable at the changing
pressure and temperature conditions during their passage and would have reverted to graphite. At the earths surface
these kimberlite and lamproite pipes weather and are eroded so the diamonds are shed into alluvial deposits in river
systems, deltas and along coastlines. The diamonds that remain in the pipes may be mined, often from great depths. For
some diamond deposits no formation process has been proposed.24, 25, 26, 27Efforts to produce gem-grade synthetic
diamonds, though intensive, have produced only meager results. In 1955 researchers at General Electric successfully
synthesized tiny industrial-grade diamonds over several weeks of extreme laboratory temperatures and pressures over
intervals of several weeks.28 Since then many small industrial-grade diamonds have been produced (some estimates are
as high as 100,000 carats per year). In order to produce these diamonds, carbon must be subjected to very high
pressures and temperatures in the presence of transition metals (or some other seed) to get the reaction
started.29, 30, 31 Although gem quality diamonds as large as 5 carats have been produced, the cost of production
generally remains prohibitively high. DeBeers claims that their equipment can detect the difference between synthetic and
natural diamonds; but that claim is highly disputed. Synthetic gemstones larger than 1 carat are not readily produced or
available.Diamonds, along with other gemstones, were present in and on the earth, so if diamonds are really as old as
claimed, then they may date back to the original creation. Their presence in the earths crust today and at the earths
surface may then largely be due to the subsequently eruption of kimberlite and lamproite magmas during the Flood.
Diamonds and their origin have occasionally featured in creationist news reports and literature.32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39
Inclusions in Diamonds
Natural diamonds (and many other crystalline materials) often encase smaller grains or crystals of other minerals within
their crystalline matrices, and these are known as inclusions. Twenty to thirty different minerals have been described as
inclusions inside natural diamonds, along with 58 different types of impurities, including uranium and thorium.40 Synthetic
diamonds also suffer from inclusions, but these are mostly metal fragments introduced in the manufacturing process.41 In
the case of the natural diamonds, these included minerals must have been present at the time the diamonds formed to be
incorporated within the diamond matrix. As far as has been ascertained, diamonds are almost completely chemically inert
and extremely resistant to any contamination or chemical exchange within their crystal lattice. This means they would
have traveled from the earths upper mantle and through the crust to the earths surface carrying these inclusions
completely intact and unchanged during the 150300 km ascent.42, 43, 44, 45, 46Therefore, these inclusions represent
tiny capsules of mantle materials captured under mantle conditions that have been safely delivered from the upper
mantle to the earths surface. Yet there are some as yet unexplained mysteries concerning the types of inclusions found in
diamonds. For example, it is well known that sulfides represent the most common inclusions in diamonds, implying that
these sulfides formed in the mantle. Yet many mantle xenoliths brought from the upper mantle to the earths surface by
volcanic eruption contain only small quantities of sulfides.47Furthermore, it is puzzling as to how saline liquids and water,
plus gases, are often encapsulated as fluid inclusions within diamonds at such depths (and pressures).Inclusions consist
of, but are not limited to, apatite, calcite, carbonates, chromite, smaller diamonds, garnet, hematite, iron, mica, pyrite,
pyroxene, silicates, sulfides, zircon, and, as mentioned, liquids (such as liquid CO 2, water and even brine) and

gases.48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58Frequently mineral inclusions contain radioactive nuclides such as uranium or
thorium incorporated within the crystalline lattice of the inclusion. These radioactive nuclides eject alpha particles as a
normal part of the radioactive decay process. Alpha-particles travel some distance in the mineral (and then into the
surrounding host) depending on the energy at which they were ejected from the nucleus of the nuclide as well as the
characteristics of the crystalline material(s). The crystalline lattice structure of inclusions, including zircons, may tend to
become somewhat amorphous over time if sufficient self-irradiation takes place.59, 60The presence of zircons in
diamonds is considered rare, but they have been previously reported.61, 62 It may be that few reports of zircon inclusions
have appeared because zircons are not expected to be at depths in the mantle where diamonds are thought to
form.63 The consensus is that zircons exist predominately in the earths crust. Because of their extreme hardness, it is
unlikely that diamonds can incorporate zircons from the crust during their ascent from the mantle to the earths surface (J.
Baumgardner, pers. comm., April 2, 2007). Nevertheless, zircon inclusions occur within diamonds and have been
reported.64, 65 Furthermore, there have even been reports of diamond inclusions within zircons,66, 67, 68 but these are
microdiamonds formed under ultrametamorphic conditions in the earths crust.69, 70Zircons are known to contain
radioactive nuclides (such as described above) and they are also well known in their role as radiocenters for 238U
radiohalos, which have been observed in biotite, chlorite, cordierite, fluorite, sapphire, quartz, and other
minerals.71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78 One well-known researcher commented, however, that he was not aware of any
report describing uranium in diamond (K. N. Bozhilov, pers. comm., June 16, 2006). Nevertheless, zircon inclusions in
sapphires are known to contain uranium, the parent radionuclide for polonium79 and others have described such
radioactive elements in other rocks from diamond-bearing kimberlites.80Radiohalos are minute circular areas (in crosssection) of discoloration and darkening caused by damage from -particle radiation emanating from a tiny central inclusion
containing radioactive elements such as U and Th.81, 82 The damage is mostly from point vacancies produced in the
crystal lattice of the host mineral by the -particles. The identity of the isotopic species responsible for a given ring in the
darkened region can be determined from the rings diameter, which is proportional to the energy of the alpha particles
emitted by the isotopic species. The rare element polonium (Po) is momentarily produced as three isotopes in the 238U
decay chain218Po, 214Po and 210Po. Whereas a 238U radiohalo consists of eight rings, radiohalos are also found with only
three, two, and one rings, resulting from, respectively, the -decay of these three Po isotopes. Such 218Po, 214Po,
and 210Po radiohalos had to have been produced with the respective Po isotopes exclusively present in their radiocenters.
It has been estimated that each radiohalo requires between 500 million and 1 billion -particles to form it.83Doubts have
been raised concerning whether radiohalos interpreted as polonium radiohalos have been correctly identified. For
example, Moazed, Spector, and Ward84 and Moazed, Overbey, and Spector85 claim that single-, double-, triple- and
quadruple-ring radiohalos can clearly and unambiguously be shown to have been generated by the 238U and 232Th decay
chains, rather than by parentless polonium isotopes as proposed by Gentry.86, 87, 88, 89 This claim is based partly on
the issue of potential uncertainties in the ion microprobe analyses of the halo radiocenters. However, Gentry90, 91 and
Gentry, Hulett, Cristy, McLaughlin, McHugh, and Bayard92 have refuted this claim, demonstrating that due care was
taken in these analyses, and other techniques were employed for comparison to rule out such uncertainties. Furthermore,
most of the many others that disagree with Gentrys model for the formation of these polonium radiohalos have accepted
their correct identification (for example, Damon,93 Dutch,94 Wakefield,95Wilkerson,96 York97). Indeed, Collins98 goes
further and specifically includes the Moazed, Overbey, and Spector99claim in his list of attempts to explain Gentrys
conundrum that are not fully satisfactory. In any case, Meier and Hecker100 have conclusively shown that polonium
radiohalos are sometimes associated with polonium bands generated by the polonium being transported by hydrothermal
fluids along fractures. Thus the overwhelming consensus is that the polonium radiohalos have been correctly
identified.The formation of Po radiohalos has thus been somewhat enigmatic, given the short half-lives of the three Po
isotopes3.1 minutes, 164 microseconds and 138 days, respectively. Conventionally the Po radiohalos have been called
a very tiny mystery without further explanation (Dalrymple, as quoted by Gentry101). The mystery in question is how
these polonium isotopes could have been derived and separated from a nearby source of 238U to then be concentrated in
radiocenters to produce the Po radiohalos, all within ten half-lives of these Po isotopes, corresponding to their effective
life-spans (1.64 milliseconds in the case of 214Po). Therefore, Gentry102, 103, 104, 105 proposed that the polonium had to
have been primordial, created in place in the radiocenters and then nearly instantaneously produce the Po radiohalos.
Furthermore, he maintained, if the Po was primordial, then the host crystals and rocks (for example, biotite flakes and
their host granites) also had to have been created at the same time. However, as pointed out by Wise106 and
Snelling,107 many granites that contain Po radiohalos appear from their geologic contexts to have been formed during the
Flood, and therefore cannot have been primordial (that is, created) granites. This in turn implies that the Po which
generated the Po radiohalos in those granites could not have been primordial Po. Indeed, Snelling and
Armitage108 studied three specific Po-radiohalobearing granite plutons that they demonstrated had to have been
generated and formed during the Flood. Therefore, Snelling and Armitage109 and Snelling110 proposed a hydrothermal
fluid transport model for Po radiohalo formation, which has been tested and verified by subsequent studies
(Snelling,111, 112, 113 Snelling and Gates114).Mendelssohn, Milledge, Vance, Nave, and Woods115 reported finding
radiohalos on the outer surfaces of opaque diamonds using cathodoluminescence. Armitage,116, 117 however, was the
first to report optically-visible, multiringed internal radiohalos in a Type Ia diamond. Despite the fact that exact size
matching with the radiohalos observed in biotites was difficult because of the greater density of the diamonds carbon
structure reduces the penetration distance of the -particles, these radiohalo rings were nevertheless identified as
produced by 218Po, 214Po, 210Po, and 222Ra. Furthermore, these radiohalos were found along rod-like structures and at the
termini of strange hollow tubes that were bent repeatedly at right angles within the diamond. Wise118 suggested that
these structures represented fluid conduits along which the radioisotopes responsible for parenting these radiohalos had
been transported into the diamond, but both Armitage119 and Gentry120 maintained that this interpretation was not viable
due to the diamonds unfractured internal crystal structure. They insisted instead that the short half-lives of the
radioisotopes responsible for the rings in the radiohalos suggested a primordial origin for the radioisotopes and thus the
diamond. Nevertheless, Vicenzi, Heaney, Snyder, and Armstrong121 reported radiation halos 25 micrometers in diameter
in alluvially deposited polycrystalline diamonds (carbonados) from the Central African Republic, which they maintained
were generated as a result of uranium deposition from a single pulse of fluids infiltrating the diamonds following their
formation. Furthermore, whereas J. W. Harris (pers. comm., May, 2007) has claimed, over decades of looking at millions
of diamonds I have only once seen a green set of haloes inside a stone, jewelers and gemologists in southern California
testify to having regularly seen radiohalo inclusions in diamonds and other gemstones (Armitage, pers. comm. with
jewelers in southern California, April, 2007; May, 2007).
Diamonds Examined
Sixty-nine small diamonds and diamond chips from diamond mines in Kimberley (South Africa), Jwaneng (Namibia), and
Orapa (Botswana), and from alluvial diamond deposits in Namibia and Guinea, were examined for radiohalos. These

diamonds were in the possession of Dr. John Baumgardner at the Institute for Creation Research in Santee, California.
The two diamonds with radiohalos in them examined in this study were on loan from the Gemological Institute of America
laboratory (GIA), Carlsbad, California, courtesy of Dr. John Koivula and Thor Strom. The first of these diamonds was a
0.06 carat, faceted stone from an unknown source. The other was described as a 0.11 carat diamond macle (or oddly
shaped crystal) from the Diamantina mines, Gerias, Brazil.The diamonds of interest were photographed with film on a
Zeiss Jena dissecting light microscope configured with multiple fiber optic illuminators and an Olympus SLR film camera
body. Illumination of radiohalos proved difficult particularly since both specimens had been carbon-coated for examination
with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), but SEM was not performed in this study. Prints of the negatives made were
digitally scanned.Twenty different jewelry stores in three counties in southern California were visited over a period of
several weeks. Jewelers and gemologists at those stores were interviewed. Half of the proprietors stated that they had
seen such radiohalo inclusions in diamonds and other gemstones previously but none of the twenty had any gemstones
available for examination.
Results
No radiohalos were found in any of the African diamonds. However, large numbers of various inclusions (including
possible zircons) were found in them and some in the Orapa diamond were photographed (fig. 1).
Fig. 1. Small inclusions in diamond from Orapa mine, Africa.
Magnification 250. Scale bar = 300 microns.
Radiohalos with one, three, and four rings were found in the GIA
diamonds. The round brilliant cut 0.06 carat diamond from an unknown
source contained dozens of radiohalos and etch trails (figs. 24).
Documentation was provided with this diamond. It described etch trails
which intersected with the radiocenters of each halo sharply bent at
differing angles (see fig. 4). These etch trails did not extend to the
surface. Therefore, the diamond girdle was ground away by GIA
personnel until contact with the etch trails was made (see ground girdle
on figs. 45). The text stated that inclusions were solid (crystalline?) and
that they appear to have a hexagonal outline. These radiohalos (both 3
and 4 ring varieties) were measured with a calibrated ocular micrometer to 50 micrometers diameter.The diamond macle
(oddly shaped crystal) from Brazil (figs. 78) contained dozens of radiohalos, but only of the single ring variety. This
documentation supplied with this specimen stated this 0.11 carat diamond macle is from Diamantina mines, Gerais,
Brazil. Its radiation spots with central cores are from some unknown substance. These spots started out green and
changed to brownish orange when the diamond was heated to 620C. The first change in spot color was noticed at 590
600C. These radiohalos (single ring only) were measured with a calibrated ocular micrometer to 30 micrometers
diameter.DiscussionThe crucial factor in the occurrence of the radiohalos within these two diamonds is the temperature at
which radiohalos are annealed. At the annealing temperature the vibrations of the atoms in the crystal structure have
increased sufficiently to repair the point vacancies caused by the previous -particle bombardment, such that the
darkening, and thus
the radiohalos, are
erased. In biotites,
radiohalos are erased
above 150C.122 This
annealing temperature
was determined using
samples taken from a
drill-hole
in
which
present
in
situ
temperatures
had
been measured, and
so
could
be
interpreted as having
been
determined
under
natural
conditions. In contrast,
Armitage
and
Back123 placed biotite
flakes
containing
radiohalos in an oven,
heating
them
at
temperatures up to
700C for up to five
hours. They found
erasure of radiohalos occurred after only an hour of heating at temperatures of 250550C. However, it is not known
whether radiohalos in diamonds are annealed at 150250C. The Brazilian macle diamond was reported to have been
heated to 620C without complete loss of radiohalos. This would seem to imply that the annealing temperature of
radiohalos in diamonds is higher than 620C.
Fig. 2. Round, brilliant cut diamond. Note radiohalos at 12 oclock position. Scale bar = 0.3 mm
Fig. 3. Radiohalos in round diamond. Magnification 80. Scale bar = 450 micrometers.
Fig. 4. Radiohalos in round diamond. Note right and sharp angles made by crystalline tubes. Magnification 80. Scale bar
= 450 micrometers.
Fig. 5. Radiohalos in round diamond. Magnification 100. Scale bar = 160 micrometers.

Fig. 6. Radiohalos in
round
diamond.
Magnification
200.
Scale bar = 75
micrometers.
Fig. 7. Radiohalos in
macle diamond from
Brazil. Magnification
200. Scale bar = 1
mm.
The temperatures at
the
150300
km
depths in the upper
mantle
where
diamonds are inferred to have formed are 11002900C. Of course, any
radiohalos would only be generated in diamonds after the diamonds
formed at those temperatures. If the annealing temperature of
radiohalos in diamonds is higher than 620C, there is a greater
temperature window (compared with the 150C annealing temperature
of radiohalos in biotites) in which magmatic and hydrothermal fluids
could transport 238U and its decay products into and within diamonds.
This assumes that238U, its decay products, or tiny crystals of a mineral
such as zircon hosting them, had not been included in diamonds when
they formed. Zircon inclusions in diamonds are considered to be rare,
but at the upper mantle temperatures at which diamonds have
supposedly resided for hundreds of millions of years, before transport to
the earths surface by kimberlite and lamproite magmas, it is highly
unlikely radiohalos would have formed around any zircon
inclusions.Instead, it is far more likely that 238U and its decay products infiltrated the diamonds during and after their
ascent to the earths upper crust. However, while kimberlite and lamproite magmas are volatile-rich, particularly with
respect to CO2, they contain very little water and so produce dry volcanic eruptions. Thus, as water is the likely transporter
of238U and its decay products, the infiltration of water transporting 238U and its decay products to form the radiohalos in
diamonds would need to occur after the emplacement of the host kimberlite or lamproite at and near the earths surface.
Indeed, even though the kimberlite and lamproite magmas are considered dry, they are nonetheless very hot (>1,000C)
when emplaced, and their interaction with the ground waters in the immediately surrounding intruded strata would
generate in situ hydrothermal fluids.124 That such fluids are generated is confirmed by the ubiquitous hydrothermally
produced minerals such as serpentine in kimberlites and lamproites. Such fluids would scavenge, dissolve, and
concentrate 238U and its decay products from both the intruded strata and the congealed, rapidly cooled, and explosively
fragmented intruding magmas.The next question has to be whether magmatic and hydrothermal fluids can infiltrate into
diamonds. Both Armitage125and Gentry126 insisted that fluid infiltration was not possible due to the unfractured, tight
internal crystal structure of diamonds. However, Vicenzi et al127 maintained the radiohalos they found in alluvially
deposited carbonados were generated as a result of uranium deposition from a single pulse of fluids having infiltrated
those microcrystalline diamonds after their formation. The crystal structure of diamonds is cubic, and even though
diamonds fracture conchoidally, they exhibit cleavage in four directions (octahedral) with one perfect cubic
cleavage.128 As in the case of the radiohalos in the diamond documented by Armitage,129 many of the radiohalos in one
of the diamonds in our study are centered along thin darkened straight lines within the diamond. These lines appear to
follow the directions of the cleavages (figs. 35). Other radiohalos are at the termini of strange darkened tubes that turn
and twist at right angles (fig. 4). Wise130 interpreted all these features as conduits along which fluids must have
transported the 238U and its decay products responsible for the radiohalos. This interpretation is supported by the
observations made by Armitage and Back131 and in our study that the darkening along these linear features and twisted
tubes is due to radiation staining. Furthermore, these linear features and the linear sections of the twisted tubes appear to
follow the perfect cleavages within the diamonds. These cleavages are the natural weaknesses of the diamond crystal
lattice along which infiltrating fluids might be expected to flow.
Fig. 8. Radiohalos in macle diamond. Magnification 90. Scale bar = 0.5 mm.
This interpretation raises several issues. Again, the intact crystal structure of diamonds, without clearly developed fracture
surfaces along cleavages, would seem not to be capable of providing open avenues for fluid infiltration. However, this
concern is based on observations of diamonds at ambient temperatures. By contrast, at the temperatures of 300400C
at which magmatic and hydrothermal fluids might have infiltrated, the heat would likely have expanded the diamond
crystal structure, thus opening cleavage planes to provide the necessary pathways for these fluids. Yet how are these
darkened linear features and tubes produced by fluid infiltration when cleavage planes are two-dimensional surfaces?
Given that the diamond crystal structure is normally tight (close-packed), if the cleavages within it are opened by heat and
fluid pressures, the easiest, most open, pathways for fluids to infiltrate would be at the linear intersections of cleavage
planes. It then follows that because there are essentially five cleavage planes in diamonds, the lines of intersection
between them run in numerous directions, which would account for the twisted tubes.It would also be precisely because of
the tight crystal structure of diamonds that some of these tubes are twisted at right angles. Because all the cleavages are
at varying angles only a few right angles would seem possible, but the cubic cleavage plane is regarded as
perfect.132 Armitage133 described these strange twisted tubes as solid inclusions, rather than being hollow as previously
thought.134 A few of these twisted tubes were found to extend to the surface of the diamond,135 and not all of them
terminated at a radiohalo. Furthermore, in both the Armitage136 diamond and the cut diamond in our study, both the
darkened linear tubes with radiohalos centered along them, and the twisted tubes terminating in radiohalos, usually do not
reach the surfaces of these faceted stones. This would seem to argue against these tubes having been formed by fluid
infiltration. However, the character of these tubes, and their containment of solid mineral inclusions, suggest their
formation as mineral inclusions via precipitation from infiltrating fluids. These would have to have been trapped in the
diamond crystal structure long enough for the mineral matter dissolved in them to precipitate.It is thus envisaged that with
the emplacement of the host kimberlite pipe, connate water in the surrounding intruded strata was heated by the cooling
kimberlite, and the hydrothermal fluids thus generated infiltrated the still warm diamonds within the kimberlite,
carrying 238U and its decay products scavenged from the intruded strata. Heated diamonds expanded sufficiently to

facilitate fluid infiltration along cleavage planes; but because of the tight diamond crystal structure, where the fluids met
resistance within the diamonds because the cleavages would not open further, the fluids instead exploited any weakness
along the intersections between other cleavage directions. Thus some of the linear fluid pathways became twisted
repeatedly at right angles as the fluids infiltrated where cleavage intersections were sufficiently open to them. As the
diamonds first cooled at their outer surfaces, the cleavages infiltrated by the fluids would contract and close first at their
outer surfaces, locking the fluids into those cleavages where the contained elements and minerals then precipitated.
Because 238U and its decay products were dissolved in these infiltrating fluids, -radiation tracks would be left along the
cleavage pathways traversed by the fluids. The 238U decay products in the fluids apparently became concentrated in
nucleation or precipitation centers, where trace atoms such as Cl (present in diamonds) chemically attracted Po. These
precipitated Po atoms then parented the now observed radiohalos. The half-lives of these radioisotopes are short (210Po
138 days, 218Po 3.1 minutes, and 214Po 164 microseconds); but isolated 214Po radiohalos may be accounted for by
retention in the infiltrating fluid of the 27-minute half-life parent 214Pb and the 20-minute half-life parent 214Bi. Similarly,
isolated 210Po radiohalos may be accounted for by retention of the 22-year half-life parent 210Pb and the 5-day half-life
parent 210Bi. A satisfactory explanation for the observed density ratios of polonium radiohalos awaits further study.The
single ring radiohalos in the Brazilian macle diamond, most probably 210Po radiohalos, are dispersed randomly and
sometimes apparently in clusters, and do not seem to be along any radiation-stained linear features (figs. 78). This does
not mean the 210Po was not transported into this diamond by fluid infiltration along cleavages. Rather, it suggests that
the 210Po transport was so rapid there was insufficient time for radiation staining to develop along the cleavages infiltrated
by the fluids. Furthermore, the oddly shaped nature of this macle diamond has two other implications. First, its contraction
accompanying cooling after emplacement would have been very rapid due to its likely less orderly crystalline structure;
and thus fluid infiltration to produce these 210Po radiohalos also needed to be very rapid. And second, the packing of its
crystal structure would mean that its cleavages are not as well defined, and the infiltrating fluids would have more readily
dispersed around the constituent components of its crystal lattice rather than along cleavages. This is consistent with its
distribution pattern of 210Po radiohalos. However, since only 210Po radiohalos are present in this macle diamond, the
infiltrating fluids likely only transported 210Po scavenged from the host kimberlite and the intruded strata. The fluids which
infiltrated the other diamond we studied had to have carried radioisotopes higher up the 238U decay chain, at least up to
1,000 year half-life 226Ra, which is readily soluble in most fluids.All these considerations indicate time limits on the fluid
infiltration process to generate the polonium radiohalos is the order of hours or weeks. This is consistent with the evidence
of the rapid speed (within hours) at which diamond-bearing kimberlite pipes are explosively emplaced. Additionally, once
emplaced, complete cooling of the fragmented congealing kimberlite magma is also rapid (within days or weeks) at the
surface, and in the near-surface environment beneath where heated meteoric waters containing Ra, Rn, and Po
scavenged from the host strata would rapidly penetrate into the kimberlite and mix with any magmatic and hydrothermal
fluids. Rapid hydrothermal fluid transport of 210Po in the natural environment has been documented.137 Hussain, Church,
Luther, and Moore138 found that the residence time of 210Po in hydrothermal fluids venting on the ocean floor was of the
order of only a few minutes, and that the residence time of the hot fluids in the hydrothermal system was no more than 30
days. Furthermore, the hydrothermal fluids in geothermal and mid-ocean ridge vent systems are estimated to circulate
through rock volumes of several cubic kilometers over distances of several kilometers,139, 140 transporting 210Po within
2030 days. Given the explosive emplacement of the hot kimberlite pipes and the rapid penetration into them of
hydrothermal fluids transporting Ra, Rn, and Po, infiltration of hydrothermal fluids carrying Po into the diamonds within the
hot fragmented kimberlite would have needed to be rapid to deposit the Po in time to generate the Po radiohalos before
the whole system cooled rapidly, the diamond cleavages closed, and hydrothermal fluid circulation ceased.
Conclusions
Even though the available data suggest the erasure temperature of radiohalos in diamonds may be above 620C, the
11002900C conditions in the mantle where diamonds form would be too severe for radiohalos to form there.
Furthermore, the temperature of the kimberlite and lamproite magmas that transported diamonds to the upper crust, the
short transit times, and the lack of water to transport radioisotopes into diamonds, would militate against radiohalos being
formed during the ascent of diamonds from the mantle. Thus the radiohalos in the diamonds examined in this study must
have formed after emplacement of their host kimberlite/lamproite pipes at or near the earths surface.The emplacement of
the hot, dry kimberlite/lamproite magmas in pipes would result in heating of the connate water in the surrounding intruded
(host) strata. The hydrothermal fluids thus produced would then scavenge and concentrate trace amounts of 238U and its
decay products, transporting them into the kimberlite/lamproite pipes via convective flow. Due to expansion of the still hot
diamonds, these fluids would have infiltrated the diamonds along the cleavages within them. Where resistance was
sometimes encountered because of the diamonds tight crystal structure, the fluids exploited other cleavage directions,
resulting in fluid pathways, which twisted repeatedly at right angles. The -decay of the radioisotopes in the fluids often
left dark radiation stains along these linear and twisted fluid pathways. Contraction of the outer surfaces of the diamonds
would have closed termination of cleavages there, thus trapping the infiltrated fluids to precipitate the mineral matter that
forms the observed tubes. Precipitation of 238U decay products in nucleation centers along, and sometimes at the end of,
these fluid infiltrated cleavages where chemical conditions were conducive produced concentrations that generated the
observed polonium radiohalos. All considerations indicate severe time limits on the fluid infiltration processon the order
of hours or weeks.
Radiohalos in diamonds can be explained by the hydrothermal fluid transport model for Po radiohalo formation; but they
cannot answer the question: are diamonds really for ever?
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the kind loan of diamonds from the collection of Dr. John Koivula and Thor Strom at
the Gemological Institute of America (Carlsbad, CA). We also thank Dr. John Baumgardner of the Institute for Creation
Research for allowing us access to his collection of diamonds. Additionally, we thank the anonymous reviewers and the
editor of the manuscript for their helpful comments and suggestions that considerably improved the final paper.
Radiohalos in the Cooma Metamorphic Complex, New South Wales, Australia
The Mode and Rate of Regional Metamorphism
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on September 2, 2009
Abstract
The Cooma granodiorite was generated as a consequence of the regional metamorphism that resulted from the
catastrophic large-scale emplacement during the catastrophic plate tectonics of the Flood.
Keywords: regional metamorphism, Cooma, southeastern Australia, Po radiohalos, 238U radiohalos, granodiorite,
metamorphic zones, hydrothermal fluids, catastrophic granite generation, creationist model for regional metamorphism

This paper was originally published in the Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Creationism, pp. 371387
(2008) and is reproduced here with the permission of the Creation Science Fellowship of Pittsburgh and the Institute for
Creation Research, Dallas.
Abstract
The Cooma metamorphic complex in southeastern Australia is a classical example of regional metamorphic zones
centered on a granodiorite generated by partial melting at the highest metamorphic grade. Samples collected along a
traverse from the low-grade biotite and then andalusite zone schists through the high-grade K-feldspar and migmatite
zone gneisses into the central granodiorite contain increasing numbers of Po radiohalos with increasing metamorphic
grade. The highest Po radiohalo numbers are in the high-grade zones and the granodiorite. These radiohalo patterns
correlate with the Po radiohalos being generated by the hydrothermal uids owing out of the central granodiorite as it
crystallized and cooled, their numbers diminishing as the hydrothermal uid ow decreased outwards. This is further
evidence consistent with the hydrothermal transport model for Po radiohalo formation. Furthermore, generation of the
regional metamorphic complex only required 1220 days, based on the catastrophic granite formation of the adjacent
Murrumbidgee Batholith whose heat and hydrothermal uids generated the regional metamorphic zones of the complex
from the mineral constituents of the original fossiliferous sediment layers, then the central granodiorite as a consequence.
This sequence of outcomes is consistent with creationist models for catastrophic granite formation and regional
metamorphism driven by catastrophic plate tectonics during the year-long Flood.
Introduction
The Cooma granodiorite was first mapped by Browne1 and is a small, elliptical pluton centered approximately on the
township of Cooma in southern New South Wales, 300 km south-southwest of Sydney (fig. 1 inset). The pluton is about 8
km in maximum dimension and has a surface exposure of 1420 km2, depending on where its gradational contact with the
surrounding migmatites is placed.2 When mapped, the pluton was found to be central to a sequence of roughly concentric
prograde regional metamorphic zones.3,4,5 In fact, the Cooma metamorphic complex is considered to be a classic
geological area for regional metamorphic zones, because it is one of the first localities where andalusite-sillimanite type
regional metamorphism was described.6,7 Furthermore, the Cooma granodiorite itself is also regarded as a classic
geological example of a pluton produced by a low degree of partial melting of the metasediments at the heart of a regional
metamorphic complex (fig. 1).8The Cooma metamorphic complex has a mapped outcrop area exceeding 300 km 2, and
probably extends over a similar area beneath the local cover of Tertiary basalt. Isograds can be traced over 30 km
northwards adjacent to the Murrumbidgee Batholith.9 Based mainly on the work of Joplin10,11 and
Hopwood,12,13 Chappell and White14recognized a series of metamorphic zones delineated by the appearance of
chlorite, biotite, andalusite, sillimanite, and granitic veining, respectively. Approximate equivalents are chlorite zone
greenschist facies; biotite and andalusite zonesamphibolite facies; sillimanite and migmatite zonesgranulite
facies.15 Some additional metamorphic zones have been
distinguished by subdividing the andalusite and sillimanite zones on
the basis of the first appearances of cordierite, andalusite, and Kfeldspar.16 The zoning is markedly asymmetric. The belt of highest
grade rocks and the enclosed Cooma granodiorite are located
towards the eastern margin of the complex (fig. 1), with the regional
aureole extending approximately 3 km to the east, but nearly 10 km
to the west. At least four,17 and possibly seven,18 separate
deformation fabrics can be distinguished in the metasediments of the
Cooma complex. The exception is the Cooma granodiorite, which
preserves only the last foliation, suggesting that it was emplaced late
in the development of the complex.19,20
Cooma Metamorphic Complex
Fig. 1. The Cooma metamorphic complex, southeastern Australia,
showing the zones of regional metamorphism of increasing grade
surrounding a central granodiorite, coinciding with the town of
Cooma. The marked area is enlarged in Fig. 2.
The stratigraphic sequence that transitions into the higher grade
zones of the Cooma metamorphic complex has been estimated at
approximately 3,000 meters thick, as measured from beyond the
western edge of the low grade zones eastward into the
complex.21,22Four units have been mapped, none of which are
completely free of low grade metamorphic effects. The lowest unit, to
the east stratigraphically above the high grade zone rocks of the
central complex, is a sequence of regularly bedded sandstones and
shales. The sandstones are thinly bedded, averaging 1045 cm
thick, and the shaly units are often characterized by finely laminated
alternating units of grey shale and white sandy shale. About halfway
up this unit 1, which is at least 915 m thick, is an 18 m thick massive
sandstone bed. Otherwise, gradually towards the top of this
formation massive clayey shales and lenses of black shales appear.
The overlying unit 2 is a sequence of massive thickly bedded
sandstones, averaging 2.53.5 m thickness per bed, and often
separated by thin layers of sandy shale. These shale layers appear
regularly throughout the sequence, but together make up no more
than one fifth of the total 425 m thickness of unit 2. Above this is unit
3, a 950 m thick sequence of green and grey shales, with occasional
lenticular black shales and very thinly laminated siliceous bands. At
the base of the unit is a massive black shale layer, over which lies a
fine-grained grey siltstone, while towards the top, the monotonous
sequence of shales is broken by a thin quartz-rich sandstone layer.
The top of the unit 3 shale succession then grades by interlayering
into the volcanic sequence of unit 4, which is at least 455 m thick. At
the base are a few small limestone lenses, and clay shales. The

volcanics, now greenschists, are strongly foliated, and porphyritic in quartz. They probably were originally trachytic or
andesitic lava flows and their detrital equivalents.
The top of this unit 4 volcanic sequence is not exposed. Abundant fossilized graptolites have been recorded still
preserved in the shale layers within these lowest grade zone rocks, approximately 8 km west of the Cooma granodiorite,
in the outer area of the metamorphic complex.23 Biostratigraphically these graptolites equate to upper Ordovician fossil
zones elsewhere in the Lachlan Fold Belt of New South Wales.24,25 Thus the volcanics at the top of this strata sequence
could be lower Silurian. Otherwise, the other units are typical of other upper Ordovician turbidite strata sequences of
shales and subgreywacke sandstones found elsewhere in the Lachlan Fold Belt. Furthermore, detrital zircon and
monazite grains with inherited U-Pb ages have been found in both these metamorphosed sediments of the Cooma
metamorphic complex, at least as far out as the low grade biotite zone, and in the Cooma granodiorite which was derived
from those sediments by partial melting.26 The U-Pb ages of these detrital zircon grains ranged from 450 Ma to 3538 Ma,
with 50% of the grains in the 450600 Ma range and 30% in the 8001250 Ma range. The detritral monazite grains
yielded similar U-Pb ages, with most grains in the 410650 Ma range. Similar detrital zircon grains are also found in
graptolite fossil-bearing upper Ordovician turbidite sediments elsewhere in the Lachlan Fold Belt.27 The U-Pb ages of
those zircon grains were similarly in the ranges of 480630 Ma (60% of grains in one sample) and of 470600 Ma (50% of
grains in a second sample), with 20% and 25% of grains (respectively) yielding 10001300 Ma ages.The metamorphism
in the Cooma complex (fig. 1) is classified as low-P, high-T (LPHT),2829 the metamorphic assemblages resembling those
in the Abukuma andalusite-sillimanite metamorphic belt of Japan:30
Chlorite zone
The metapelites are characterized by the mineral assemblage chlorite + muscovite + quartz, with minor albite, calcite, and
opaque (iron oxide) minerals.31,32,33 Muscovite is generally far more abundant than chlorite, and both minerals occur as
highly elongate grains rarely longer than 0.1 mm. The metapsammites contain the same minerals, with local detrital Kfeldspar grains sometimes partly altered to muscovite, whereas former detrital biotite and plagioclase grains have been
altered to chlorite and albite respectively.
Biotite zone
This zone is differentiated from the chlorite zone by the first appearance of biotite in metapelites, resulting in the
characteristic mineral assemblage quartz + albite + biotite + muscovite chlorite, with minor tourmaline and opaque (iron
oxide) minerals. The first biotite to appear is green and weakly pleochroic, but this variety gives way to a more strongly
pleochroic brown biotite further into the zone.34 Grain sizes differ little from those in the chlorite zone, except the mica
grains range up to 0.2 mm in length, and biotite porphyroblasts can be as long as 0.7 mm.35
Andalusite zone
This zone is defined on the presence of andalusite alone, without accompanying sillimanite. Its characteristic mineral
assemblage is andalusite + cordierite + biotite + muscovite + quartz + albite, with minor tourmaline, opaque (iron oxide)
minerals and zircon. Andalusite porphyroblasts range widely in size from approximately 0.5 to 5.0 mm in their longest
dimension. Johnson, Vernon, and Hobbs36 inserted an extra zone between the biotite and andalusite zones, basing its
identification on the first appearance of cordierite. Named the cordierite zone, it has the same mineral assemblage as the
andalusite zone, but minus andalusite, whereas cordierite is still present in the andalusite zone. In this cordierite zone the
cordierite porphyroblasts range from 1.0 to 10.0 mm in longest dimension, but are extensively replaced by retrogressive
aggregates of sericite, biotite and chlorite. On the other hand, in the andalusite zone some andalusite is intimately related
with replaced cordierite porphyroblasts.
K-feldspar zone
This zone is defined by the first appearance of metamorphic K-feldspar (orthoclase), which marks the onset of grain
coarsening into a gneissic texture. The characteristic mineral assemblage is K-feldspar + cordierite + andalusite + biotite +
plagioclase + quartz sillimanite, with minor tourmaline, zircon and opaque (iron oxide) minerals. Muscovite is commonly
present as relatively large grains, which appear though to be of retrograde origin.
Migmatite zone
This zone is vaguely defined by the presence of abundant granitic veins in a sillimanite-andalusitebiotite gneiss. The
veins consist chiefly of quartz, K-feldspar and lesser plagioclase, and vary in thickness from a few millimeters to a few
centimeters. Overall, the metasedimentary rocks of this zone are commonly divided into mottled metapelitic gneisses and
banded metapsammitic gneisses.37,38 The mottling in the metapelitic gneisses is due to intergrowths of green-brown
biotite, quartz and andalusite pseudomorphing cordierite porphyroblasts. The banded metapsammitic gneisses are
composed of a dark/light compositional layering. These metapelitic and metapsammitic migmatites are found all the way
around the granodiorite in gradational contact with it. The more pelitic rocks have leucosomes of granitic material
surrounded by coarse-grained mesosomes. The leucosomes are composed of quartz, K-feldspar and plagioclase, and
range in width from 2 mm to 5 cm. Some leucosomes have distinct biotite-rich selvedges and may contain fresh cordierite
crystals up to 5 mm across.39Major and trace element abundances suggest that the high-grade metapelitic and
metapsammitic gneisses of the migmatite and K-feldspar zones surrounding the granodiorite are the geochemical
equivalents of the more distant, low-grade pelitic and psammitic schists.40 However, the minor variation in the orthoclasealbiteanorthite ratio between the low-grade schists and high-grade gneisses would suggest otherwise.41 Nevertheless, for
the purpose of this study it was noted as significant that biotite is always present throughout the metamorphic complex
from the biotite zone inwards through the migmatite zone into the granodiorite, while accessory zircons are similarly
distributed.42,43 Williams also reported 238U and 232Th radiohalos surrounding tiny zircon and monazite grains
respectively within biotite flakes from the K-feldspar and migmatite zones, as well as in the granodiorite, the latter
confirmed by Snelling and Armitage,44 along with abundant Po radiohalos. Furthermore, Snelling45,46 had reported
finding Po radiohalos in metamorphic rocks, including through the zones within a regionally metamorphosed sequence of
sandstone.47 Thus, because Snelling48 had proposed a model for regional metamorphism involving hydrothermal fluids,
and the hydrothermal fluid transport model for the formation of Po radiohalos involves the required Po isotopes being
sourced from zircons in biotites,49,50 it was predicted that Po radiohalos would be found in all the biotite bearing schists
and gneisses of the Cooma metamorphic complex.
Cooma granodiorite
The Cooma granodiorite contains the same minerals as the gneisses and migmatites, and lies within the cordieriteandalusite-K-feldspar zone. It is extremely quartz-rich (50%), and contains plagioclase, K-feldspar and biotite, with
andalusite, sillimanite, cordierite and muscovite, some or all of the latter appearing to be secondary.51,52,53 The biotite is
crowded with 238U and 232Th radiohalos around inclusions of zircon and monazite respectively,54 while Snelling and
Armitage55 have reported Po radiohalos are also prevalent. The granodiorite contains abundant xenoliths of the
surrounding migmatites and, less commonly, the high-grade gneisses, quartz veins and pegmatites. This is consistent
with the granodiorite having been derived by partial melting of a metasedimentary source, presumably the high-grade

gneisses surrounding the granodiorite.56 Thus the granodiorite has been classified as S-type57 with normative corundum
values of 5.82%,58 indicating that it is strongly peraluminous. It is also very low in Na 2O and CaO, which has been
attributed to its derivation from the surrounding metamorphosed Ca-poor Ordovician sediments.59 This origin is supported
by isotopic data.60,61,62,63,64 The Cooma granodiorite is thus typical of regional aureole granites described by White,
Chappell, and Cleary,65 and Chappell and White.66Radioisotopic data suggests that the Cooma granodiorite and the
related metamorphic rocks thus cooled through the blocking temperature for most geochronological systems in the mid to
late Silurian.67 Pidgeon and Compston68obtained an Rb-Sr mineral isochron age for the granodiorite of 406 12 Ma.
The age of the high-grade gneisses was found to be similar to the granodiorite, but the low grade metasediments yielded
a significantly older age of 450 11 Ma (recalculated by Munksgaard69). Based on these results it was concluded that the
granodiorite formed in situ by partial melting of the surrounding metasediments, the high-grade gneisses being associated
with the emplacement of the granodiorite, whereas the higher ages in the low-grade metasediments perhaps indicated the
original age of deposition, or the age of regional metamorphism predating the high-grade metamorphism.
Tetley70 obtained a Rb-Sr whole-rock isochron age for the granodiorite of 410.0 19.0 Ma, thus supporting the previously
determined granodiorite age. However, Munksgaard obtained whole-rock Rb-Sr ages of 362 77 Ma for the granodiorite,
375 55 Ma for the high-grade gneisses, and 386 25 Ma for the low-grade metasediments. He suggested these results
implied the metasediments and the granodiorite were not fully equilibrated on a regional scale with respect to their Sr
isotope composition at the time of metamorphism, and thus whole-rock samples would not give meaningful ages for the
Cooma complex. Nevertheless, he showed that the Cooma granodiorite is similar in major- and trace-element composition
to a calculated mixture of the surrounding schists and gneisses.Preliminary results of ion-probe zircon U-Pb
studies71 yielded ages from zircon about 30 Ma greater than the 410 Ma age recorded by hornblende K-Ar and wholerock Rb-Sr.72 More detailed results have now been published.73 Both monazite and zircon grains from the Cooma
granodiorite and from the metasediments in each of the surrounding regional metamorphic zones were analyzed.
Monazite in the migmatite and granodiorite were found to have recorded only metamorphism and granite genesis at 432.8
3.5 Ma, whereas detrital zircon grains in the original sediments were unaffected by metamorphism until the inception of
partial melting, when platelets of new zircon precipitated on the surfaces of the grains. These new growths of zircon
crystals, although maximum in the leucosome of the migmatites, were best dated in the granodiorite at 435.2 6.3 Ma.
Thus the best combined estimate for the U-Pb age of the metamorphism and granite genesis is 433.4 3.1 Ma. Because
the detrital zircon U-Pb ages were found to have been preserved unmodified throughout metamorphism and magma
genesis, Williams74 concluded that this indicated the Cooma granodiorite was derived from lower Paleozoic source rocks
with the same protolith as the Ordovician sediments found outcropping adjacent to the metamorphic complex in the same
region. These U-Pb ages for the detrital zircon and monazite grains preserved in the metasediments and the granodiorite
from the original Ordovician sediments were dominated by composite populations dated at 500600 Ma and 9001200
Ma, although almost 10% of the grains analyzed yielded apparent ages scattered from 1450 Ma to 2839 Ma, one grain
even yielding an apparent age of 3538 Ma.The general consensus is that the Cooma granodiorite is an integral part of the
regional metamorphic sequence, having formed by the in situ, or virtually in situ, partial melting of high-grade
metasediments identical to those surrounding it.75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84 However, Flood and Vernon85 pointed
out that an origin for the Cooma granodiorite from essentially in situ anatexis of the adjacent metasedimentary rocks was
in apparent conflict with the surrounding low-pressure metamorphic environment, unless unrealistically high and localized
geothermal gradients were invoked. They suggested that subsequent to the granodiorite forming by partial melting of the
adjacent high-grade migmatitic rocks, the granodiorite moved upwards as a diapiric intrusion, the high-grade envelope
surrounding it having been dragged up to higher crustal levels with the intruding granitic diapir. Support for this model
includes evidence for vertical movement along a transition zone between the andalusite zone schists and the K-feldspar
zone gneisses (fig. 1), a step in metamorphic pressures at the sillimanite isograd, coinciding with the boundary between
the gneisses and migmatites, and a steady pressure rise thereafter towards higher metamorphic grades.86 All the
metamorphism is regarded as part of the same relatively intact sequence, the thermal aureole having contracted towards
the granodiorite during the later stages of the deformation associated with the regional metamorphism and the
emplacement of the granodiorite.87 Finally, Vernon, Richards, and Collins88 have demonstrated that in situ partial melting
of metapsammitic leucosome would have produced a magma of suitable composition to form the Cooma granodiorite, but
this locally produced magma appears to have only contributed to the rising pluton of magma formed by deeper, more
extensive accumulation of similarly derived magma, a model consistent with the U-Pb zircon data.89
Field Work
A field trip to the Cooma area was undertaken in late December, 2004. A west-east traverse was made through the
metamorphic complex into the central granodiorite along major roads (fig. 2). Representative samples were collected from
the biotite, andalusite, K-feldspar, and migmatite zones, as well as from the granodiorite, from outcrops in road cuts and
on a small hill in Cooma itself. All nine sample locations are marked in Fig. 2. Views of some of the outcrops are shown in
Fig. 3.

Fig. 2. Enlargement of the area marked in Fig. 1, showing an enlarged view of the regional metamorphic zones west of
the Cooma granodiorite
centered on the town of
Cooma. The sample
locations are shown
along major roads.
Fig. 3. Typical views of
the outcrops sampled
(see
fig.
2).
(a) Sample site RMC-3,
a low-grade biotite zone
schist.
(b) Sample site RMC-4,
a low-grade andalusite
zone
schist
(c) Sample site RMC-7,
high-grade
migmatite
zone
gneiss
(d) Sample site RGC-1,
the Cooma granodiorite
on Nanny Goat Hill
Experimental
Procedures
A standard petrographic
thin
section
was
obtained
for
each
sample.
In
the
laboratory, a scalpel and
tweezers were used to
pry flakes of biotite loose from the sample surfaces, or where necessary portions of the samples were crushed to liberate
the constituent mineral grains. Biotite flakes were then hand-picked and placed on the adhesive surface of a piece of clear
Scotch tape fixed to a bench surface with its adhesive side up. Once numerous biotite flakes had been mounted on the
adhesive surface of this piece of clear Scotch tape, a fresh piece of clear Scotch tape was placed over them and
firmly pressed along its length so as to ensure the two pieces of clear Scotch tape were stuck together with the biotite
flakes firmly wedged between them. The upper piece of clear Scotch tape was then peeled back in order to pull apart
the sheets composing the biotite flakes, and this piece of clear Scotch tape with thin biotite sheets adhering to it was
then placed over a standard glass microscope slide, so that the adhesive side which had the thin mica flakes adhered to it
became stuck onto the microscope slide. This procedure was repeated with another piece of clear Scotch tape placed
over the original Scotch tape and biotite flakes affixed to the bench, the adhering biotite flakes being progressively
pulled apart and transferred to microscope slides. As necessary, further hand-picked biotite flakes were added to replace
those fully pulled apart. In this way tens of microscope slides were prepared for each sample, each with many (at least
2030) thin biotite flakes mounted in them. This is similar to the method pioneered by Gentry. A minimum of 30 (usually
50) microscope slides was prepared for each sample to ensure good representative sampling statistics. Thus there was a
minimum of 1,000 biotite flakes mounted on microscope slides for each sample.Each thin section for each sample was
then carefully examined under a petrological microscope in plane polarized light and all radiohalos present were identified,
noting any relationships between the different radiohalo types and any unusual features. The numbers of each type of
radiohalo in each slide were counted by progressively moving the slide backwards and forwards across the field of view,
and the numbers recorded for each slide were then tallied and tabulated for each sample. Only radiohalos whose
radiocenters were clearly visible were counted. Because of the progressive peeling apart of many of the same biotite

flakes during the preparation of the microscope slides, many of the radiohalos appeared on more than one microscope
slide, so this procedure ensured each radiohalo was only counted once.
Fig. 4. Representative photo-micrographs
of the schists, gneisses, and granodiorite
samples of the Cooma metamorphic
complex, collected from the outcrops
plotted on Fig. 2. All photo-micrographs are
at the same scale (20 or 1 mm = 40 m)
and the rocks are as viewed under crossed
polars.
(a) RMC-3 biotite zone schist: quartz,
biotite, muscovite
(b) RMC-4 andalusite zone schist: quartz,
biotite (with halos), muscovite
(c) RMC-5 K-feldspar zone gneiss: quartz,
K-feldspar, biotite (with halos), muscovite
(d) RMC-6 K-feldspar zone gneiss: quartz,
K-feldspar, biotite (with halos), muscovite
(e) RMC-7 migmatite zone gneiss: quartz,
plagioclase, K-feldspar, biotite (with halos)
muscovite
(f) RLG-2 Cooma granodiorite: quartz,
plagioclase, K-feldspar, biotite (with halos),
zircon
(g) RGC-1 Cooma granodiorite: quartz,
plagioclase, K-feldspar, biotite (with halos),
zircon, muscovite
Results
Fig.
4
provides
representative
photomicrographs of the samples of schists
and gneisses from the Cooma regional
metamorphic complex. All radiohalos
results are listed in Table 1. As predicted,
all samples of the low-grade schists, highgrade gneisses and the granodiorite, except
one of the two samples from the low-grade
biotite zone, contained Po radiohalos.
However, the two samples each from the
biotite and andalusite zones only contained
Po radiohalos, and almost exclusively 210Po
radiohalos. 238U radiohalos were only
present in the samples of the K-feldspar
and migmatite zones, and the granodiorite,
confirming
the
observations
of
Williams,90 and 218Po and 214Po radiohalos
were almost exclusively only found in those
same samples. Some representative examples of the observed radiohalos can be seen in Fig. 5.
As well as the absolute numbers of each radiohalo type counted in each sample, Table 1 also shows the average total
numbers of radiohalos per slide, and Po radiohalos per slide, plus abundance ratios for some pairs of radiohalo types.
The total numbers of radiohalos and Po radiohalos per slide in the two biotite zone (low grade) samples averaged < 1, but
were numerous at an average of 1112 per slide in the two andalusite zone samples. The highest average total numbers
of radiohalos and Po radiohalos (~26 and 1819 respectively) were in both the K-feldspar zone and the granodiorite
samples (two each), more than double the average total number in the two andalusite zone samples. In stark contrast to
this, the total number of radiohalos and Po radiohalos per slide, at 6 and 5 respectively, were significantly lower in the one
migmatite zone sample.
Fig. 6 is a plot of the numbers of radiohalos per slide for each sample (vertical axis) along the west-east traverse across
the regional metamorphic complex into the granodiorite (horizontal axis), as shown in Fig. 2. Four trends in the data are
immediately evident. First, there is a rapid rise in the numbers of Po radiohalos with increasing metamorphic grade, from
the biotite zone (low grade) through to the K-feldspar zone (high grade). Second, only the high grade zones (K-feldspar
and migmatite) and the granodiorite have 238U radiohalos in them. Third, the average total numbers of radiohalos and Po
radiohalos in the high-grade K-feldspar zone and the granodiorite are both high and approximately the same. And fourth,
there is a dramatic drop in the total numbers of both radiohalos and Po radiohalos in the migmatite zone.
Table 1. Data table of radiohalos numbers counted in samples from the Cooma metamorphic complex and Cooma
granodiorite.
Radiohalos
Sample Rock type

Slides
210Po

214Po 218Po 238U

Total
Number
of
Radiohalos
232Th per Slide

Number of
Po
Radiohalos
per Slide

Ratios
210Po:238U

210Po:238U

RMC1

Biotite zone
schist

50

RMC3

Biotite zone
schist

50

63

1.26

1.26

RMC2

Andalusite
zone schist

50

592

11.84

11.84

RMC4

Andalusite
zone schist

50

557

11.18

11.18

278.5:1

RMC5

K-feldspar
zone schist

50

880

14

402

25.94

17.9

2.2:1

62.9:1

RMC6

K-feldspar
zone schist

50

1036

47

278

27.22

21.66

3.7:1

22:1

RMC7

Migmatite

50

240

13

47

6.0

5.06

5.1:1

18.5:1

RLG2

Granodiorite

41

373

44

418

37

21.27

10.17

0.9:1

8.5:1

RGC1

Granodiorite

50

1175

81

318

31.48

25.12

3.7:1

Fig. 5. Some representative examples


of radiohalos found in biotite grains
separated from the schists and
gneisses of the Cooma metamorphic
complex and the Cooma granodiorite.
All photo-micrographs are at the same
scale (40 or 1 mm = 20 m) and the
biotite grains are as viewed in plane
polarized
light.
(a) RMC-3 biotite zone schist: two
overlapping 210Po
radiohalos
(b) RMC-4 andalusite zone schist:
a 210Po
radiohalo
(c) RMC-5 K-feldspar zone gneiss:
two overexposed 238U radiohalos and
a 210Po
radiohalo
(d) RMC-6 K-feldspar zone gneiss:
single 210Po, 214Po
and
an
overexposed 238U
radiohalo
(e) RMC-7 migmatite zone gneiss: an
overexposed 238U
and
a 210Po
radiohalo
(f) RLG-2 Cooma granodiorite: four
overexposed 238U
and
five 210Po
radiohalos
(g) RLG-2 Cooma granodiorite: three
overexposed 238U and three 210Po
radiohalos
(h) RGC-1 Cooma granodiorite: two
overexposed 238U
and
four 210Po
radiohalos
Discussion
The significance of so many observed
Po radiohalos in these Cooma
metamorphic complex and Cooma
granodiorite samples depends on how
they are understood to have formed.
In conventional thinking they are a
very tiny mystery (G. Brent
Dalrymple, as quoted by Gentry91)
that can therefore be conveniently
ignored because they have little
apparent significance. However, if the
formation of these Po radiohalos
cannot be explained, then their significance cannot be fully comprehended. The reality is that the mystery of the Po
radiohalos is ignored, because it constitutes a profound challenge to conventional wisdom.
Comprehensive reviews of what these Po radiohalos are and how they may have formed are provided by
Gentry92, 93,94, 95and Snelling.96 It has been established that all the observed Po radiohalos are generated exclusively
from the Po radioisotopes in the 238U decay series, namely, 218Po, 214Po, and 210Po, with contributions from none of the
other species in the 238U -decay chain (Gentry97). Furthermore, it has been estimated that, like the 238U radiohalos, each
visible Po radiohalo requires between 500 million and 1 billion -decays to generate it (Gentry98), which equates to a
corresponding number of Po atoms having been in each radiocenter. Thus the crucial issue is how did so many Po atoms
get concentrated into these radiocenters to generate the Po radiohalos, when their half-lives are only 3.1 minutes (218Po),
164 microseconds (214Po), and 138 days (210Po)?Gentry99,100,101 insists that the Po must be primordial, that is, created
instantaneously in place in the radiocenters in the biotite flakes in the granites, and thus the granites are also created
rocks. In other words, he argues that granites did not form from the crystallization and cooling of magmas, but rather are
the earths created foundation rocks. Moreover, where granites such as the Cooma granodiorite have been intruded into
fossiliferous Flood-deposited strata, Gentry102 insists that these granites also represent originally created rocks. He
argues that during the Flood they were tectonically intruded as cold bodies, and that the contact metamorphic aureoles
were produced by the heat and pressure generated during tectonic emplacement, augmented in some cases by hot fluids

from depth.Such an interpretation is inconsistent with the field and petrological evidence from the Cooma metamorphic
complex and the Cooma granodiorite. The granodiorite is in fact the product of the regional metamorphism of the
fossiliferous (Flood-deposited) sedimentary rocks that host the granodiorite, with a gradational boundary of migmatites
(consisting of partially melted sediments). There is no fracturing, brecciation or mylonization that should be evident in
either the granodiorite or these immediately adjacent metamorphic rocks if the granodiorite had been intruded tectonically
as a cold body. Indeed, the biotite flakes in the metamorphic schists and gneisses that host the Po radiohalos were not in
the original fossiliferous sediments, but are the product of the regional metamorphism of the sediments which post-dated
their deposition. Therefore, the Po radiohalos must have formed after the biotite flakes formed, during the regional
metamorphism and the generation of the granodiorite.The four trends in the data (table 1 and fig. 6) are assumed here to
be both real and significant, and thus require an attempted explanation. It was predicted that Po radiohalos would be
found in these regionally metamorphosed pelitic and psammitic sediments because:
The hydrothermal fluid transport model for Po radiohalo formation103,104 only requires biotite flakes which enclose tiny
zircon grains containing 238U, and hydrothermal fluids to flow along the biotite cleavage planes past the zircon grains;
The schists and gneisses in the Cooma metamorphic complex contain both biotite flakes and zircon grains from the biotite
zone schists inwards to the migmatite zone gneisses;105,106 andA proposed young age model for regional
metamorphism107,108 postulates hydrothermal fluids flowing through sediments are responsible for their regional
metamorphism.
Of course, this prediction was also confidently made because:
238U radiohalos had already been observed in the high grade gneisses of the Cooma metamorphic complex,109and
reported in the Cooma granodiorite110 along with Po radiohalos;111 and
Po radiohalos had already been observed in metamorphic rocks elsewhere.112,113,114
The increasing numbers of Po radiohalos in the schists and gneisses with increasing metamorphic grade (the first trend in
fig. 5) would definitely not have been due to the increasing temperatures and pressures. It has been determined from the
relevant experimental and calculated phase equilibria115,116,117 that to have produced the migmatites containing
cordierite would have required temperatures of approximately 700C at pressures of 3.54.0 kbar.118,119 However,
radiohalos in biotite are annealed at and above 150C,120 so all the currently observed radiohalos in both the schists and
gneisses, and the granodiorite, had to form below that temperature. Thus this trend has to have been due to another
factor.
Fig. 6. Plot of numbers of radiohalos per slide in each
sample along the west-east traverse shown in Fig. 2. The
different metamorphic zones and the granodiorites are
marked along the horizontal axis, and the relative lateral
distances between sample locations are approximately to
scale.Other
evidence
elsewhere121,122,123 would
suggest that the numbers of Po radiohalos generated are
primarily related to the volume and flow of hydrothermal
fluids, such that more hydrothermal fluid flow produces
more Po radiohalos. Of course, this assumes that there
are sufficient zircon grains to supply enough Po isotopes
from 238U decay, and biotite flakes to host the Po
radiocenters and resultant Po radiohalos. Indeed, this
relationship is a direct outworking of the hydrothermal fluid
transport model for Po radiohalo formation.124 Thus,
greater numbers of Po radiohalos have been reported in
granites responsible for, and hosting, hydrothermal
metallic ore veinsfor example, the Lands End Granite,
Cornwall.125 Furthermore, where hydrothermal fluids had
been produced by mineral reactions at a specific pressuretemperature boundary between zones during regional
metamorphism of a sequence of sandstones, four-five
times more Po radiohalos were generated at that specific
metamorphic boundary than elsewhere in that regional metamorphic complex, regardless of increasing metamorphic
grade.126,127 In another example, where hydrothermal fluids flowing in narrow shear zones had rapidly metamorphosed
the high-grade granulite wall rocks, Po radiohalos are now present in the resultant eclogite, a high-grade metamorphic
rock that otherwise doesnt host Po radiohalos.128 And then, in a sequentially intruded suite of nested granite plutons,
where the hydrothermal fluid content of the granites correspondingly increased so that the last intruded central pluton was
connected to coeval explosive, steam-driven volcanism, the numbers of Po radiohalos generated increased inwards within
the nested suite of granite plutons.129 These evidences not only support the hydrothermal fluid transport model for Po
radiohalo formation, but explain this first trend in the Cooma Po radiohalos data, as due to more hydrothermal fluids
flowing through the metamorphic complex with increasing metamorphic grade producing more Po radiohalos.So why do
only the high-grade K-feldspar and migmatite zones and the granodiorite have 238U radiohalos in them (the second trend
Fig. 6), when the low-grade biotite and andalusite zone schists also contain both zircon grains and biotite flakes? It cant
be due to the 238U radiohalos being annealed in the low-grade schists because of the elevated temperatures in them,
because their Po radiohalos would also have been annealed. Besides, the temperatures in the highgrade gneisses and
granodiorite were presumably even higher, yet both their Po and 238U radiohalos have survived because of all being
generated below 150C. Furthermore, it cant be due to the zircons in the lowgrade schists not having had 238U in them,
because they have been flushed by hydrothermal fluids of the Po derived by 238U decay in them to generate the Po
radiohalos in the schists biotites, and the zircons in these schists have yielded U-Pb ages.130 That potentially leaves only
one likely explanation, namely, the zircon grains within the low-grade schists are not included in the biotite flakes.
Obviously, to have 238U radiohalos form around them, the tiny zircon grains need to have been included in much larger
biotite flakes, and that is the case in the high-grade gneisses and granodiorite. Neither Hopwood131 nor Johnson,
Vernon, and Hobbs132 reported zircon grains being observed in the biotite zone schists, although Williams133 reported
some, albeit, as grains separated from the schists, rather than being observed within biotite flakes. On the other hand,
Johnson, Vernon, and Hobbs reported zircon as an accessory mineral in the andalusite zone schists, and Williams
separated zircon grains from them, so again the zircon grains may not have been in the schists biotite flakes. The biotite
flakes in the biotite zone schists can be as long as 0.7 mm,134 potentially large enough to include zircon grains only 12
microns wide. However, the zircon grains separated from these low-grade schists by Williams are 75150 microns long,

too large to have 238U radiohalos form around them, but still capable of supplying Po isotopes to passing hydrothermal
fluids to generate Po radiocenters and radiohalos in the biotite flakes, even if the zircon grains were not enclosed in
them.Next is the third trend, namely, the numbers of 238U and Po radiohalos are large, the same, and the highest both in
the high-grade K-feldspar zone gneisses and the granodiorite (table 1 and fig. 6). If the major factor influencing the
numbers of Po radiohalos generated is the volume of hydrothermal fluids in these rocks, then obviously the high grade
zones and the granodiorite must have experienced the same greatest hydrothermal fluid flows within the complex. It must
be remembered that because of the annealing of all radiohalos at and above 150C, these presently observed 238U and Po
radiohalos could only have formed after the regional metamorphism and after the granodiorite formed, as both the central
granodiorite and the surrounding regional metamorphic complex together cooled below 150C. The general consensus is
that the regional metamorphism occurred first, with the granodiorite an integral part of that event, but forming late in the
development of the complex135,136 by virtually in situ partial melting of the high-grade metapsammites and
migmatites.137,138,139,140,141,142,143,144,145,146,147 Thus, if the granodiorite formation, crystallization, and cooling
were the last to occur, then it was this that produced the last flux of hydrothermal fluids as the granodiorite and the
surrounding metamorphic complex finally cooled below 150C. Because the granodiorite is central, then the hydrothermal
fluids it produced when crystallizing and cooling flowed through it and then out from it. Thus the major impact of these
hydrothermal fluids to generate Po radiohalos would have been in the granodiorite and in the surrounding high-grade
gneisses, their effect rapidly waning with distance out to the low-grade zones as their passage slowed and temperatures
fell.Williams148 also noted that in the low-grade biotite and andalusite zone schists the zircon grains are rounded and are
thus totally detrital. On the other hand, in the high-grade K-feldspar and migmatite zone gneisses, and the granodiorite,
there has been progressively more metamorphic and magmatic growth of the new zircon crystal faces over the original
detrital zircon grains with increasing temperatures in the migmatite and granodiorite, and even the crystallization of new
zircon grains. He concluded that below the K-feldspar isograd metamorphic conditions, zircon remained inert. However,
at, or just before, the point of incipient partial melting, new zircon began to grow, implying some zircon had been dissolved
in the partial melts. Because peraluminous melts and magmas, such as the Cooma migmatite leucosomes and the
granodiorite, become zircon-saturated at relatively low Zr contents,149 and zircon crystallization and new growth is
controlled mainly by the degree of zircon supersaturation of the melt,150 it was likely inevitable that some new zircon
crystals grew. This may perhaps have been another factor in why there are 238U radiohalos only in the high-grade Kfeldspar and migmatite zone gneisses and the granodiorite.Given these considerations, why then is there a dramatic drop
in the numbers of both 238U and Po radiohalos in the high-grade migmatite zone gneisses, the fourth trend noted in Table
1 and Fig. 6? If the generation of Po radiohalos is dependent on hydrothermal fluid flow, and the greater the fluid volume
the more Po radiohalos are generated, then it follows that in the migmatite zone there must have been another factor
operating to reduce the hydrothermal fluid flows, and/or their effectiveness in generating Po radiohalos. It has already
been concluded above that the major impact of the hydrothermal fluids, produced by this last-stage granodiorite
crystallizing and cooling to generate Po radiohalos as the whole complex cooled, would have been in the granodiorite and
in the surrounding high-grade gneisses. That major impact is observed in the greatest numbers of Po radiohalos in the
granodiorite and in the K-feldspar zone gneisses, but not in the migmatite zone gneisses.This apparent enigma is
resolved when the conditions under which partial melting occur are understood. It has long been known experimentally
that apart from temperature and pressure, the major factor involved in partial melting is the presence and availability of
water.151 The temperatures required for partial melting are significantly lowered by increasing water activity up to
saturation, and the amount of temperature lowering increases with increasing pressure.152 At the temperatures of 650
700C and pressures of 3.54.0 kbar required to produce the Cooma migmatites containing cordierite,153 the partial
melting involved would have been under conditions of water saturation (Flood & Vernon, 1978). Furthermore, the water
aids the partial melting process by dissolving in the melt, the water solubility in granitic melts increasing with pressure
(and thus depth), so whereas at 1 kbar (equivalent to 34 km depth) the water solubility is 3.7 wt%,154 at 30 kbar (up to
100 km depth) it is approximately 24 wt%.155 Thus the partial melting in the migmatite zone would have, in effect, largely
used up whatever water was available in the rocks, and the water dissolved in the melt, when the latter crystallized, would
have partitioned into mineral lattices, such as the biotite in selvedges around some leucosomes. There would, therefore,
have been less hydrothermal fluids available during the cooling of the migmatite zone to generate Po radiohalos.Three of
the four trends in the radiohalo abundance data (table 1 and fig. 6), therefore, appear to be primarily related to the
availability and volume of the hydrothermal fluids that were released from the central granodiorite after crystallization as it
cooled to below 150C, and then flowed out from the granodiorite into the surrounding metamorphic complex. Thus the
presently observed Po radiohalos in the metamorphic complex appear to be a consequence of the intrusion,
crystallization, and cooling of the granodiorite, rather than due to the processes that formed the regional metamorphic
complex. Indeed, as previously discussed, the general consensus is that the formation of the granodiorite by in situ partial
melting was a consequence of the regional metamorphism and not its cause. This is supported by the isotopic uniqueness
of this granodiorite compared to the many other granitic rocks in the Lachlan Fold Beltthe highest initial 87Sr/86Sr
values (0.7195), the greatest negative initial Nd values (eNd = 9.2), and the highest d18O values (12.9)156,157,158all
suggestive of a different origin for this granodiorite compared to the many other granitic rocks in the Lachlan Fold
Belt.Therefore, it has been suggested that the heat which caused the regional metamorphism was probably introduced to
the lower crust of this region by large-scale mantle processes due to a major shift in the patterns of asthenospheric (upper
mantle) convection.159 Such large-scale mantle processes are also credited with the initiation of the large-scale lower
crustal partial melting to generate the tens to hundreds of granitic plutons in regional batholiths, so it has also been
suggested that the Cooma regional metamorphism was related to emplacement of the adjacent Murrumbidgee
Batholith.160 Indeed, Richards and Collins161 provide evidence to support their claim that the Cooma complex
represents a regional metamorphic aureole developed around the Murrumbidgee Batholith.Snelling162,163 has reviewed
the mounting evidence in conventional thinking that granite magma generation, intrusion, crystallization, and cooling are
rapid dynamic processes requiring only tens to hundreds of years within a uniformitarian time framework, compared to the
100,000 to 1 million years originally claimed. Conventional plate tectonics at uniformitarian slow rates is postulated to be
responsible for the large-scale upper mantle convection that delivered heat to partially melt the lower crust and thereby
generate granite batholiths. However, in the context of the Flood event in the framework for earth history, these processes
are postulated to have occurred at catastrophic rates during catastrophic plate tectonics.164 The catastrophic large-scale
generation of a granite batholith, such as the Murrumbidgee Batholith in the Lachlan Fold Belt, would have resulted in the
many constituent intruded plutons all emanating heat with the released convecting hydrothermal fluids as they crystallized
and cooled, thus producing a regional metamorphic aureole around the batholith. This is consistent with a catastrophic
model for regional metamorphism in which the heat and hydrothermal fluids acting on the mineral constituents of the
original sediment layers rapidly produced the regional metamorphic zones with their index minerals designating the
different metamorphic grades, as in the Cooma complex.165 Based on the catastrophic rate for granite formation of 610

days,166,167 this regional metamorphic complex would thus have been produced during this same timescale of 610
days over which the granite batholith was emplaced and cooled.However, this regional metamorphic event reached its
climax within that 610 days timescale with the partial melting that generated the Cooma granodiorite, which is thus, in
effect, a secondary product of the emplacement of the Murrumbidgee Batholith. According to Flood and Vernon,168 the
large-scale partial melting at depth to produce the Cooma granodiorite as a consequence of the generation of this regional
metamorphic aureole would have resulted in the melt segregating and being emplaced within the center of the regional
metamorphic complex, attenuating the metamorphic zoning to leave the asymmetric zonal pattern observed today. The
further 610 days timescale for the formation and cooling of the secondary Cooma granodiorite169,170 would have
commenced within the 610 days timescale for the formation of the granite batholith, so the total timescale for the
formation of this regional metamorphic complex with its central granodiorite would have been on the order of 1220 days.
This is consistent with the Po radiohalos produced by the hydrothermal fluids released by the cooling central granodiorite
in the latter part of this period, because the 214Po and 210Po radiohalos in the schists and gneisses would have formed
within hours and days respectively,171 after the granodiorite and the metamorphic complex both cooled below 150C.It
might be argued that alternately the temperature fall in both the granite and the metamorphic complex could have been
gradual over thousand of years, and when the temperature reached 150C the continued outflow of hydrothermal fluids at
lower temperatures over further decades provided the necessary conditions for Po radiohalo generation in different loci at
different times. However, Snelling172 has shown that the Po radiohalos in granites could only have been generated within
hours to a few days concurrently while the 238U radiohalos were also forming, and while the 238U decay in their zircon
radiocenters to provide the necessary Po (before it decayed) was grossly accelerated. Furthermore, Snelling173 has
argued that below 150C the hydrothermal fluid flows cannot be long sustained, because most of the heat energy to drive
the needed convection system174 that both cools the granite and transports the Po has already been dissipated while the
temperature in the granite rapidly falls from 400C to 150C. Thus, these evidences combined are consistent with the
emplacement and cooling of these granite plutons within 610 days.Apparent U-Pb, Rb-Sr, Kr-Ar, and Ar-Ar ages of
minerals from the Cooma granodiorite and metamorphic complex175,176,177 can be used to construct a cooling history
curve for the Cooma granodiorite and metamorphic complex,178,179,180,181 based on the effective closure temperatures
of those minerals. According to this curve, the granodiorite and metamorphic complex supposedly took 45 million years to
cool from 735 to 150C. However, if as has been shown from several lines of evidence, radioisotope decay rates were
grossly accelerated during the Flood event,182 while catastrophic plate tectonics were operating to produce catastrophic
granite formation, then this cooling would have occurred within days, which is consistent with the timescales for granite
formation183,184 and Po radiohalos generation.185
Conclusions
The Cooma granodiorite was generated as a consequence of the regional metamorphism that resulted from the
catastrophic large-scale emplacement of the Murrumbidgee Batholith during the catastrophic plate tectonics of the yearlong Flood event. The Cooma metamorphic complex was generated as a regional aureole by the heat and hydrothermal
fluids released by the batholith interacting with the mineral constituents of the original, fossil-bearing, Flood-deposited
sediments it intruded within 610 days to produce the regional metamorphic zones. At the peak of this regional
metamorphism, partial melting at depth at the center of the complex formed the granodiorite, which was then emplaced
within the complex. As the granodiorite crystallized and cooled, the hydrothermal fluids emanating from it generated Po
radiohalos within the granodiorite and within the surrounding metamorphic complex in hours to days as the terrain cooled
below 150C. This would have occurred towards the end of the further 610 days in which the granodiorite formed and
cooled. Thus this regional metamorphic complex and its centrally-generated granodiorite with the contained Po radiohalos
only took 1220 days in total to form and cool. The observed patterns of Po radiohalos are consistent with the availability
and volume of the hydrothermal fluids responsible for transporting the necessary Po isotopes from the source zircons in
the granodiorite, gneisses and schists to form the Po radiocenters that generated the Po radiohalos. Thus, where there
was a high volume of hydrothermal fluids in the granodiorite and the immediately surrounding gneisses of the high-grade
zones, large numbers of Po radiohalos were generated, except in the migmatite zone where the water aided partial
melting, was dissolved in the melt, and then was partitioned into minerals as they crystallized. Where the volume of
hydrothermal fluids progressively diminished further out in the low-grade schists, the numbers of Po radiohalos rapidly
diminished outwards through the andalusite and biotite zones. In conclusion, not only do the radiohalos in the Cooma
metamorphic complex support the hydrothermal fluid transport model for Po radiohalos generation,186 but they and their
context are consistent with young age models for catastrophic granite formation187,188 and catastrophic regional
metamorphism189 during the catastrophic plate tectonics190 of the year-long Flood.
Acknowledgments
This research would not have been achieved without the help and support of numerous people. First, there was the
forbearance and support of my wife Kym and family in allowing the necessary field work and sampling during travel on
family vacations. Second, Mark Armitage assisted with the processing of samples and the counting of radiohalos. Third,
the Institute for Creation Research funded Marks help and my time on this project.
hide="true" hide="true"

Radiohalos in the Shap Granite, Lake District, England


Evidence that Removes Objections to Flood Geology
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on August 26, 2009
Abstract
The Po radiohalos and other evidence associated with this granite thus remove objections to Flood geology and any need
to place the Flood/post-Flood boundary in the lower Carboniferous.
Keywords: Shap granite, northern England, contact metamorphic aureole, hydrothermal fluids, Po radiohalos, orthoclase
feldspar megacrysts, catastrophic granite formation, hydraulic fracturing, rapid unroofing, overlying basal conglomerate,
Flood/post Flood boundary
This paper was originally published in the Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Creationism, pp. 389405
(2008) and is reproduced here with the permission of the Creation Science Fellowship of Pittsburgh and the Institute for
Creation Research, Dallas.
Abstract
The Shap Granite in the Lake District of northern England intruded the surrounding host rocks as a magma that released
hydrothermal fluids as it crystallized and cooled. These hot fluids in turn produced an atypically wide contact metamorphic
and metasomatic aureole around the intrusion. There is no evidence at the boundary for tectonic emplacement of a
primordial cold granite body. This study documents an abundance of Po radiohalos in the Shap Granite. These Po

radiohalos had to have been produced in the granite after the hydrothermal fluids released in the granite had assisted in
the formation of the granites distinctive orthoclase feldspar megacrysts, and after the crystallized granite had
subsequently cooled below the 150C annealing temperature of radiohalos. The abundance of Po radiohalos is consistent
with the hydrothermal fluid transport model for Po radiohalo formation and with catastrophically rapid granite formation.
These features imply that the Shap Granite formed in 610 days and its Po radiohalos within hours to days once the
granite cooled below 150C. Hydraulic fracturing of the host rocks overlying the pluton facilitated rapid unroofing of the
granite. Continued rapid erosion then deposited granite pebbles in the basal conglomerate of the overlying limestone. It is,
therefore, conceivable that the Shap Granite formed, was unroofed, and the basal conglomerate with granite pebbles was
deposited, all within 23 weeks during the early-middle part of the Flood year. The Po radiohalos and other evidence
associated with this granite thus remove objections to Flood geology and any need to place the Flood/post-Flood
boundary in the lower Carboniferous.
Introduction
An oft-repeated claim is that a timescale of a million years or more for the formation and cooling of molten granite bodies
unequivocally disproves Flood geology and its young age chronological framework.1 But many lines of current research
are dispelling this misguided thinking.2, 3, 4, 5 Nevertheless, there exist granite bodies whose geological contexts place
very tight time constraints on their formation and cooling histories, so much so, that some Flood geologists feel compelled
for this and other reasons to place the end of the Flood well down in the geologic record, even as low as the so-called
lower Carboniferous (or Mississippian) (for example, Robinson6). An example of such a granite body is the middle
Devonian Shap Granite of the Lake District, England. However, an investigation of radiohalos in this granite provides
evidence that further dispels these objections to Flood geology and alleviates the need to place the end of the Flood so far
down in the geologic record.
Geology of the Lake District, England
The Lake District in northwest England contains a small dome of Lower Paleozoic (Ordovician and Silurian) sedimentary
and volcanic strata, an inlier protruding from beneath a cover of Carboniferous and Permo-Triassic sedimentary
strata.7 Fig. 1 is a generalized geological map of the area, while fig. 2 shows the generalized geological succession of
strata.8
Fig. 1. Geology of the Lake District, northern England,
showing the location of the Shap Granite.
The oldest rocks in the district (the lowermost in the
exposed strata sequence) are Skiddaw Group greywackes,
siltstones, and mudstones (now slates in some cases), with
sandstones. These appear to have been deposited almost
entirely by turbidity currents in relatively deep water. Even
though these sedimentary strata are more than 3,000
meters thick, their accumulation via turbidity currents need
not have taken the oft-claimed millions of years. Instead,
such a thick strata sequence could have accumulated very
rapidly early in the Flood year as catastrophic global
tectonic upheavals triggered an abundance of turbidity
currents, at intervals as short as minutes. Such a
catastrophic depositional environment has been confirmed
by recognition of large blocks hundreds of meters in
diameter which slid downslope as the sediments
accumulated.9 The burial of such large blocks indicates that
each cycle of these turbidite sediments had to be tens to
hundreds of meters thick, so that the whole 3,000 meters
thick sequence was deposited within days during the Flood.
One source of this huge thickness of sediments would have
been the sediments on the pre-Flood ocean floor.10 The
conventional Ordovician age assigned to these Skiddaw
Group sediments is based mostly on graptolites, but
acritarchs and other microfossils have lately been
used.Overlying the Skiddaw Group sediments are the Eycott
Group volcanic strata. These likely erupted partly in
submarine conditions, as some of the last Skiddaw Group
sediments are interbedded with them. They consist primarily
of basalt and basaltic andesite lavas that preceded the main
large-scale catastrophic explosive volcanism of the
overlying Borrowdale Volcanic Group. Dominating the
landscape over 800 km2 of the Lake District, the Borrowdale
Volcanic Group consists of about 6,000 meters of calc-alkaline basalt, basaltic andesite, and andesite lavas followed by
the catastrophic explosive eruption of widespread and voluminous dacitic and rhyolitic pyroclastic deposits (tuffs and
ignimbrites), and lavas, associated with volcano-tectonic faulting.11 Garner12 has discussed the evidence for
subaqueous, rather than the oft-claimed subaerial, eruption of these volcanics and has shown how the rapid, catastrophic
accumulation of the entire volcanic succession during the Flood is consistent with all the field data and what is known
about explosive volcanism. For example, in the AD186 Taupo, New Zealand, eruption hot ash-flows or ignimbrites
traveled for 80 km in all directions with an initial speed of 250300 m/sec, so that 30 km3 of rhyolitic volcanic ash was
erupted in less than 10 minutes!13

Fig. 2. Time-stratigraphic chart showing the strata sequence in the Lake District, northern England, including the relative
time position of the Shap Granite.
Unconformably overlying both the Skiddaw
Group and Borrowdale Volcanic Group
strata are the predominantly sedimentary
strata of the 3,000 meter thick Windermere
Group. Deposition commenced in the latest
Ordovician with the thin (60150 m)
Coniston Limestone, which contains
reworked volcanic ash, and occasional
brachiopods and trilobites. Sedimentation
was then continuous throughout the socalled Silurian, with thick turbidite
sequences of sandstones, flagstones (thin,
hard sandstones), gritstones, mudstones,
and dark shales deposited that are quite
fossiliferous
(trilobites,
graptolites,
brachiopods, ostracods). Apart from
uniformitarian
assumptions
about
sedimentation rates, there is no evidence in
these Windermere Group strata that would
preclude their having been deposited
rapidly, especially the thick turbidite
sequences, as part of the catastrophic
sedimentation during the early part of the
Flood. Even the black shales in the
Windermere Group, which conventionally
would be interpreted as having been
deposited in a quiescent, anaerobic, deep
marine environment, could have been
deposited catastrophically. For example,
there are marine black shales in Scotland
that must have been deposited as a result
of a submarine earthquake induced
tsunami, because the shales intertongue
with large boulders.14 Furthermore, recent
experiments have demonstrated that
muddy sediments do accumulate rapidly, at
flow velocities that transport and deposit
sand.15, 16
In addition to the sediments and extruded
volcanic rocks, there was also massive
intrusive volcanism. Even as early as the
Ordovician, the intrusion of the large Lake
District Batholith17, 18 had begun, as
represented by the now extensive outcrops
of the Eskdale Granite. Intrusive activity apparently continued until the early Devonian, represented by the Skiddaw and
Shap Granites. The dates for the granites are based on K-Ar, Rb-Sr, and U-Pb radioisotope whole-rock and mineral,
model and isochron methods.19, 20, 21, 22, 23 It has thus been suggested that the batholith may be genetically related to
the Borrowdale volcanicity.24, 25 There is evidence for continuation of a large volume of intrusive activity through the
Silurian to the early Devonian.26, 27 The east-west belt of relatively low gravity anomalies suggests the area is underlain
by the large granite batholith, for which gravity minima coincide with the outcropping Eskdale, Skiddaw and Shap Granite
plutons. These plutons are parts of the roof of the batholith that was exposed by erosion. The heat from these granite
intrusives produced wide contact metamorphic aureoles, while hydrothermal fluids from the cooling granites penetrated
the overlying Skiddaw, Borrowdale and Windermere Group rocks, depositing copper, lead, tungsten, and iron ores in
fracture veins.28By the late Devonian all earlier formed strata were being severely eroded. As a result, the coarsegrained, poorly-sorted Mell Fell Conglomerate was deposited in what has been interpreted as a series of alluvial fans. At
least 275 m thick (some estimates are as high as 1,500 m thick), this conglomerate consists of pebbles of mostly Silurian
Windermere greywacke, but also some Skiddaw type and Borrowdale volcanic pebbles.29 Possible crossstratification in
this conglomerate is added testimony to its rapid deposition.This severe erosion had waned by the early Carboniferous or
Dinantian (equivalent to the Mississippian in the USA), giving way to deposition of a sequence of predominantly
limestones that has been interpreted as a series of cyclothems.30 However, the Basement Beds to these limestones
consist of conglomerates and sandstones that appear to fill irregularities in the pre-Dinantian erosion surface, and are
therefore extremely variable in thicknessover 200 meters in the southwest, about 10 m in the Shap area, and
completely absent in places. It is in this lower Carboniferous basal conglomerate that pebbles of, and pink feldspar
crystals from, the Shap Granite are found, just over a kilometer to the east of the outcropping Shap Granite. Then during
the Namurian (mid-Carboniferous) these limestones were overlain by typical cyclothem sequences consisting of
sandstones, shales, and gritstones followed by limestones. These in turn were overlain by the Westphalian (upper
Carboniferous, or Pennsylvanian in the USA) Coal Measures, up to more than 600 meters of cyclothems consisting of
shales, sandstones, and coals, followed by several hundred meters of red beds.Finally, Permian-Triassic sedimentary
strata outcrop along the southwestern, northern and northeastern margins of the Lake District. The lowest deposits
(Permian) were breccias that are overlain by, and interbedded with, the Penrith Sandstone, followed by so-called
evaporite deposits (mainly gypsum and anhydrite). These latter strata are usually interpreted as representing a desert
environment, but can be equally well explained as precipitites, that is, they precipitated from water oversaturated in those
salts due to catastrophic influxes of salt-laden hydrothermal fluids into cold ocean waters during the Flood.31, 32, 33
The Shap Granite

Fig. 3. Geologic map of the Shap Granite, showing the


atypically wide contact metamorphic and metasomatic
aureole surrounding the boundary of the granite with its
host rocks. Sample locations are marked. The nearby
basal conglomerate to the Carboniferous limestone
outcrops near the Spa Wells Hotel (right).
The Shap Granite is one of the best-known and most
distinctive rock types in northern England.34 With its
coarse porphyritic texture and large, pink orthoclase
feldspar megacrysts, it has been quarried as a building
stone used in London and many other places. Although
the Shap Granite only outcrops over a small area of 5.5
km2 (fig. 3), geophysical studies and field evidence have
revealed that it is a steepsided stock-like intrusion with a
subsurface extension to the northwest.35 This granite
pluton was intruded near and at the unconformity
between the Ordovician Borrowdale Volcanic Group
lavas and tuffs, and the overlying Silurian Windermere
Group. The heat and hydrothermal fluids from the
crystallizing granite magma as it cooled generated a
broad (600+ meter wide) metamorphic and metasomatic
aureole
around
its
contact
with
its
host
rocks.36, 37, 38The Shap Granite has a characteristic
porphyritic texture dominated by pink orthoclase
feldspar megacrysts often more than 3 cm in length with
good rectangular shapes and twinning parallel to their
long axes.39 The matrix is coarse and consists of
glassy grey quartz, cream plagioclase feldspar, and
black biotite crystals. Hornblende is occasionally a
minor constituent, while accessory minerals include
zircon, apatite, allanite, sphene (titanite), and
magnetite.40Also present in the granite is a suite of
mafic microgranular enclaves, essentially quartz
microdiorite, often incorrectly called xenoliths, typically 1020 cm in size.41, 42 They can be angular or rounded, and may
have either sharp or fuzzy boundaries with the normal granite. Furthermore, they also usually contain the same pink
orthoclase feldspar megacrysts as in the granite, but they are less frequent and more rounded than in the normal granite.
These observations have fueled debate about the origin of these mafic enclaves.The Shap Granite when first mapped
was shown to be a composite intrusion, with three separate main stages, each containing different types of mafic
enclaves, after an initial more primitive fraction of the magma represented by the early mafic enclaves.43, 44 These three
granite stages show cross-cutting relationships, and show a progressive increase in both grain size and orthoclase
feldspar megacryst content. The second stage represents 90% of the intrusion, and the third and last stage of the
intrusion contains approximately 50% orthoclase feldspar megacrysts. Firman45demonstrated that the whole-rock
geochemical data46 was consistent with a mixing hypothesis. However, textural observations,47 mixing trends,48 rare
earth element patterns49 and the crystallization path50 all suggest little open system fractionation has occurred. Changes
in pressure and/or fluid content, together with partial hydridization, seem to have dominated the granite magmas chemical
evolution as it was intruded, crystallized, and cooled. Indeed, the mafic (quartz microdiorite) enclaves are now regarded
as the result of hydridization of the granite by co-intrusion of a mafic magma. Good evidence for this is provided by
seismic reflection data for sills in the nearby related Eskdale Granite.51 There is also good observational evidence that
magmatic hydrothermal fluids played a major role in the formation of the orthoclase feldspar megacrysts during granite
crystallization and cooling at temperatures of 410C and 370C.52, 53, 54Brown et al.55 have summarized all previous
attempts to date the Shap Granite.56, 57, 58 Six Rb-Sr model ages determined on biotite from the granite ranged from 364
24 Ma to 403 15 Ma, while 15 K-Ar model ages, also determined on biotite, ranged from 381 12 Ma to 410 Ma.
Subsequent U-Pb measurements on zircons from the granite yielded a discordia line with an upper intercept age of 390
6 Ma.59 Wadge, Gale, Beckinsdale, and Rundle60made three further K-Ar model age determinations on biotites from the
granite, which yielded ages of 394 12 Ma, 394 12 Ma and 403 12 Ma, averaged to 397 7 Ma. However, they also
performed 22 Rb-Sr measurements on whole-rock granite samples, and biotite and orthoclase feldspar megacryst
separates, which yielded a 21-point Rb-Sr isochron line corresponding to an age of 394 3 Ma. Given this apparent
agreement (concordance) between these ages for the Shap Granite obtained by three radioisotope dating methods (K-Ar,
Rb-Sr, and U-Pb), it has been concluded that in conventional terms this granite is early Devonian (Emsian).
The Perceived Problem

Fig. 4. Outcrops of the


conglomerate, containing the
Shap Granite pebbles and
pink K-feldspar crystals, at
the
base
of
the
Carboniferous
(Dinantian)
limestone in the creek bank
near the Spa Wells Hotel
(fig.
3).
(a) The conglomerate can be
seen at the bottom of the
creek
bank
(b) Closer view of the basal
conglomerate layer with
rounded pebbles clearly
visible
(c) Even closer view of the
conglomerate showing the
clasts in a course matrix
(d) Another enlarged view of
the conglomerate in which
granite and K-feldspar clasts
can be seen
The Shap Granite has been
convincingly
dated,
in
conventional terms, at 394 3 Ma, or middle Devonian. Yet just over a kilometer to the east of the outcropping granite,
near the Spa Wells Hotel (fig. 3), is an outcrop of the lower Carboniferous basal conglomerate to the overlying
Carboniferous limestones, in which are found pebbles of, and pink orthoclase feldspar megacrysts from, the Shap Granite
(fig. 4). So if this conglomerate dates to approximately 354 Ma, there are only 40 million years, in conventional terms, for
complete cooling of the granite, erosion of perhaps 13 kilometers of host metamorphosed sediments to unroof the
granite, and then erosion of the granite to deposit these granite pebbles and feldspar megacrysts in the nearby
conglomerate bed.Placement of these processes during the Flood year requires 40 million years of conventional geologic
time to be compressed to perhaps only 23 weeks! To alleviate this problem some have placed the Flood/post- Flood
boundary within this interval, allowing more time in the immediate post-Flood period for the cooling and unroofing of this
granite61 (Robinson, Tyler, and Garton, pers. comm.). This view makes the upper Carboniferous coal measures, which
overlie the limestones and their basal conglomerate, post-Flood. It also makes the Carboniferous-Recent fossils the result
of the post-Flood recolonization of the earth. Since radiohalo studies have provided evidence that granites had to
crystallize and cool rapidly,62, 63 a radiohalos investigation of the Shap Granite was undertaken.
Field Work
A field trip to the Shap Granite was made in early October 2002. Several sections of the boundary of the granite with its
host rocks were followed and inspected in outcrop. Four samples of the granite were collected. Three of these were from
the sporadically used Shap Granite Quarry, and one from an outcrop of the granite at its host rock boundary, not far from
the active Shap Blue Quarry (fig. 3). Fig. 5 shows views of the granite and of the sampled outcrops.
Experimental Procedures
Fig. 5. Outcrops of the
Shap Granite sampled in
this
study
(locations
indicated in fig. 3).
(a) The northern end of
the
Shap
Granite
Quarrys east-facing wall
in the vicinity of where
samples RUK-2 and 3
were
collected
(b) Close view of the
Shap Granite in the
quarry
showing
the
abundance of pink Kfeldspar megacrysts in
the
granite
(c) The boundary of the
pink granite (foreground)
with the overlying grey
contact hornfels at the
site of sample RUK-4,
taken from the clean
area towards the creek.
The red ribbon marks the
granite/hornfels
boundary, which is sharp
(d) Closer view of the granite/hornfels boundary, marked by the hand lens and red ribbon. The boundary is sharp, with no
evidence of any cold tectonic emplacement of the granite
A standard petrographic thin section was obtained for each granite sample. In the laboratory, a scalpel and tweezers were
used to remove flakes of biotite from the sample surfaces. Where necessary portions of the samples were crushed to
liberate the constituent mineral grains. Biotite flakes were then hand-picked and placed on the adhesive surface of a piece

of clear Scotch tape. Once numerous biotite flakes had been mounted on the adhesive surface of this tape, a fresh
piece of clear Scotch tape was placed over them and firmly pressed along its length so as to ensure the two pieces of
tape were stuck together with the biotite flakes firmly wedged between them. The upper piece of clear Scotch tape was
then peeled back in order to pull apart the biotite flakes. This upper piece of clear Scotch tape with thin biotite sheets
adhering to it was then placed over a standard glass microscope slide. This procedure was repeated with another piece of
clear Scotch tape placed over the original Scotch tape with biotite flakes adhering to it. These adhering biotite flakes
were progressively pulled apart and transferred to microscope slides. In this way tens of microscope slides were prepared
for each granite sample, each slide with many (at least 2030) thin biotite flakes mounted on it. This is similar to the
method pioneered by Gentry (Gentry, pers. comm.). Fifty microscope slides were prepared for each sample to ensure
good representative sampling statistics. Thus there was a minimum of 1,000 biotite flakes mounted on microscope slides
for each sample.Each slide for each granite sample was then carefully examined under a petrological microscope in plane
polarized light, and all radiohalos present were identified, noting any relationships between the different radiohalo types,
and any unusual features. The numbers of each type of radiohalo in each slide were counted by progressively moving the
slide backwards and forwards across the field of view, and the numbers recorded for each slide were then tallied and
tabulated for each sample. Because of the progressive peeling apart of many of the same biotite flakes during the
preparation of the microscope slides, many of the radiohalos appeared on more than one microscope slide. Only
radiohalos whose radiocenters were clearly visible were thus counted to ensure each radiohalo was only counted once.
Results
Fig. 6 shows the typical mineralogy and textures of the Shap Granite under the microscope in the samples collected for
this study. All radiohalos results are listed in Table 1. All four samples contained abundant 238U, 232Th, and Po radiohalos,
some representative examples of which can be seen in Fig. 7. As well as the absolute numbers of each of the radiohalo
types counted, Table 1 also shows the average total numbers of radiohalos and of just Po radiohalos per slide, plus
abundance ratios for pairs of radiohalo types.The four samples average between 9 and 16 radiohalos per slide, and
between 6 and 12 Po radiohalos per slide. This compares well to similar average numbers of radiohalos in other
Paleozoic-Mesozoic granitic rocks, well above the numbers of radiohalos in Precambrian granitic rocks (see Tables 1 and
2, and Figs. 5 and 6 in Snelling64). 210Po radiohalos outnumber 238U radiohalos by between 2.3 to 1 and 8.7 to 1, and
greatly outnumber 214Po and 218Po radiohalos, 35-227 to 1 and 48-571 to 1, respectively. This is also typical of other
Paleozoic-Mesozoic granitic rocks.
Discussion
The significance of so many observed Po radiohalos in these Shap Granite samples depends on how they are understood
to have formed. In conventional thinking they are a very tiny mystery (G. Brent Dalrymple, as quoted by Gentry65) that
can therefore be conveniently ignored because they have little apparent significance. However, if the formation of these
Po radiohalos cannot be explained, then their significance cannot be fully comprehended. The reality is that the mystery of
the Po radiohalos is ignored, because it constitutes a profound challenge to conventional wisdom.Comprehensive reviews
of what these Po radiohalos are and how they may have formed are provided by Gentry66, 67,68, 69 and Snelling.70 It
has been established that all the observed Po radiohalos are generated exclusively from the Po radioisotopes in the 238U
decay series, namely, 218Po, 214Po, and 210Po, with contributions from none of the other species in the 238U -decay
chain.71 Furthermore, it has been estimated that, like the 238U radiohalos, each visible Po radiohalo requires between 500
million and 1 billion -decay s to generate it,72 which equates to a corresponding number of Po atoms having been in
each radiocenter. Thus the crucial issue is how did so many Po atoms get concentrated into these radiocenters to
generate the Po radiohalos, when their half-lives are only 3.1 minutes (218Po), 164 microseconds (214Po), and 138 days
(210Po)?Gentry73, 74, 75 insists that the Po must be primordial, that is, created instantaneously in place in the radiocenters
in the biotite flakes in the granites, and thus the granites are also created rocks. In other words, he argues that granites
did not form from the crystallization and cooling
of magmas, but rather are the earths created
foundation rocks. Moreover, where granites such
as the Shap Granite have been intruded into
fossiliferous
Flood-deposited
strata,
Gentry76 insists that these granites also
represent originally created rocks. He argues that
during the Flood they were tectonically intruded
as cold bodies, and that the contact metamorphic
aureoles were produced by the heat and
pressure
generated
during
tectonic
emplacement, augmented in some cases by hot
fluids from depth.Such an interpretation is
inconsistent with the field and petrological
evidence from the Shap Granite. The contact
between the granite and the metamorphosed
fossiliferous (Flood-deposited) host rocks it
intruded is a sharp, knife-edge boundary, with no
fracturing, brecciation or mylonization that should
be evident in either the adjacent granite or host
rocks if the granite had been intruded tectonically
as a cold body (Figs. 5c & d).
Fig. 6. Representative photo-micrographs of the
Shap Granite samples used in this study. All
photo-micrographs are at the same scale (20 or
1 mm = 40 m) and the granite is as viewed
under crossed polars.
(a) RUK-1: quartz, K-feldspar, plagioclase (with
sericite), biotite, apatite
(b) RUK-2: quartz, K-feldspar, plagioclase, biotite
(c) RUK-2: quartz, K-feldspar, plagioclase, biotite
(with halos)
(d) RUK-3: quartz, K-feldspar, plagioclase (with sericite), biotite, sphene (titanite)

(e) RUK-4: quartz, K-feldspar, plagioclase (with sericite), biotite


(f) RUK-4: quartz, K-feldspar, plagioclase (with sericite), biotite (with halos)
Fig.
7.
Some
representative radiohalos
found in biotite flakes
separated from the Shap
Granite in this study. All
photo-micrographs are at
the same scale (40 or 1
mm = 20m) and the
biotite flakes are as
viewed in plane polarized
light.
(a)
RUK-1:
two
overexposed 238U
radiohalos and a 210Po
radiohalo with a zircon
grain
nearby
(b)
RUK-1:
an
overexposed 238U
radiohalo with a tiny
zircon grain in its center
(c)
RUK-1:
a 218Po
radiohalo with a faint
outer ring, and an
enlarged 210Po radiohalo
(d)
RUK-2:
a 210Po
radiohalo, a possible 238U
radiohalo, and some fluid
inclusions
(e)
RUK-2:
a 214Po
radiohalo,
a 210Po
radiohalo, and a fluid
inclusion
(f)
RUK-4:
a 210Po
radiohalo (left), and a
large
zircon
grain
(g)
RUK-4:
an
overexposed 238U
radiohalo and a fluid
inclusion
(h)
RUK-4:
an
overexposed 238U
radiohalo,
and
a
reversed
overexposed 238U
radiohalo
Table 1. Data table of
radiohalos
numbers
counted in the collected
Shap Granite samples.
Radiohalos
Sample

Number of Slides

Total Number of Radiohalos per Slide


210Po

214Po

218Po

238U

232Th

RUK-1

51

311

138

18

9.4

RUK-2

51

454

52

10.1

RUK-3

51

576

12

212

15.9

RUK-4

51

571

216

18

15.9

Sample

Number of Po Radiohalos per Slide

Ratios
210Po:238U

210Po:214Po

210Po:218Po

214Po:218Po

238U:232Th

RUK-1

6.3

2.3:1

34.6:1

104:1

3:1

7.7:1

RUK-2

8.9

8.7:1

227:1

7.4:1

RUK-3

11.6

2.7:1

115:1

48:1

0.4:1

30:1

RUK-4

11.3

2.6:1

190:1

571:1

3:1

12:1

Indeed, granite sample RUK-4 was collected right at the boundary, yet it displayed no petrographic signs of cold tectonic
emplacement effects and looked no different from the other samples that were collected further away from the boundary.
Furthermore, if the theorized accompanying hot fluids from depth had a temperature of >150C, as likely they would, then
they would have annealed all the radiohalos.77 In fact, hydrothermal fluids were responsible for forming the pink
orthoclase feldspar megacrysts within the granite at 410C and 370C; so the presently-observed Po radiohalos in the
granite could only have been generated subsequently, after the granite had cooled below 150C. Thus the Po radiohalos
were formed after the granite was intruded and after it and its contact metamorphic aureole in the host rocks had cooled.
Indeed, the rock in the contact metamorphic aureole at sample site RUK-4 consists of andesite that has been extensively
recrystallized to hornfels by the intense magmatic heat and hydrothermal fluids emanating from the intruding
magma.78 Furthermore, tongues and veins of granite can be seen penetrating the metamorphosed host rock, proving that
the granite intruded as a magma, and is therefore not primordial (that is, created).The other competing model for the
formation of the Po radiohalos is a hydrothermal fluid transport model.79, 80 In this model it is postulated that the Po
isotopes as well as the 222Rn parent of 218Po were produced from 238U decay in the zircons that are the radiocenters of
nearby 238U radiohalos located in the same biotite flakes as the Po radiohalos. The hydrothermal fluids released by the
crystallizing and cooling granite magma flowed along the biotite cleavage planes and transported the 222Rn and Po
isotopes from the zircon radiocenters. The Po isotopes, including the 218Po produced by 222Rn -decay (half-life of 3.8
days), were then precipitated in lattice defects along the same biotite cleavage planes where S, Cl and other atoms
chemically attractive to Po were located, within a millimeter or so of the zircon radiocenters. These Po precipitation sites
became the radiocenters for the Po radiohalos. As the Po in the radiocenters -decayed, new Po atoms were supplied
from the hydrothermal fluids flowing through the biotite lattice. Thus, provided the supply of Po isotopes was sufficient and
the hydrothermal fluid flows were sustained and rapid, the required Po concentrations would have been supplied to the
radiocenters to produce the 500 million1 billion Po -decay s to generate the Po radiohalos within hours or days,
consistent with the fleeting half-lives of the Po isotopes.Because hydrothermal fluid flows are crucial to this Po radiohalos
formation model, it might be expected that the greater the volume and flow of hydrothermal fluids, the greater the
probability that more Po radiohalos would be generated. This prediction has proven true in several situations. First, in
granites where hydrothermal ore deposits have formed in veins due to large, sustained hydrothermal fluid flows, there are
huge numbers of Po radiohalos, for example, in the Lands End Granite, Cornwall.81 Second, where hydrothermal fluids
were produced by mineral reactions, at a specific pressure-temperature boundary during regional metamorphism, four to
five times more Po radiohalos were generated, precisely at that specific metamorphic boundary.82, 83 Third, where
hydrothermal fluids flowing in narrow shear zones had rapidly metamorphosed the wall rocks, Po radiohalos were present
in the resultant metamorphic rock, a type of metamorphic rock that otherwise does not host Po radiohalos.84 Fourth, in a
sequentially intruded suite of nested granite plutons where the hydrothermal fluid content of the granites correspondingly
increased, so that the last intruded central pluton was connected to coeval explosive, steam-driven volcanism, the
numbers of Po radiohalos generated increased inwards within the nested suite of granite plutons.85 Such evidences
provide confirmations that give confidence in this hydrothermal fluid trasnport model for forming Po radiohalos.The
hydrothermal fluids generated by the crystallization and cooling of the Shap Granite produced several effects that indicate
substantial volumes of sustained fluid flow were involved. The hydrothermal fluids carried the heat released by the
crystallizing granite and dispersed it by convection into the host rocks. These fluids generated the 600+ meter wide
contact metamorphic and metasomatic aureole around the granite.86, 87, 88 The enormous width of this aureole, nearly
half the radius of the exposed Shap Granite stock itself, is most unusual compared with other granites. This large width is
testimony to the large volumes of hydrothermal fluids that produced it. Additionally, the hydrothermal fluids penetrated
along fractures in the host rocks well beyond the aureole to deposit ore veins of copper, lead, tungsten, and iron.89 Then
within the granite itself the magmatic hydrothermal fluids played a role in the formation of the orthoclase feldspar
megacrysts, which are characteristic of this granite and dominate its porphyritic texture.90, 91, 92 Thus the large numbers
of Po radiohalos in the Shap Granite are consistent with these other evidences of sustained hydrothermal fluid flows
through it and out into the surrounding host rocks. The tiny zircon grains that are at the centers of the many 238U
radiohalos in the Shap Granite would have been the source of the Po isotopes transported by the hydrothermal fluids to
generate the Po radiohalos.A constraining factor on the preservation of the Po radiohalos is that the damage left by the particles is retained in the biotite flakes only below 150C. Above this -particle annealing temperature93 the damage
either doesnt register or is obliterated. Thus all the radiohalos now observed in the Shap Granite had to form below
150C, which is relatively late in the cooling history of the granite. Granite magmas when intruded are at temperatures of
650750C, and the hydrothermal fluids are released at temperatures of 370410C after most of the granite and its
constituent minerals have crystallized. However, the accessory zircon grains with their contained 238U crystallize very
early at higher temperatures, and may have even been already formed in the magma when it was intruded. Thus the 238U
decay producing Po isotopes had already begun well before the granite had fully crystallized, before the hydrothermal
fluids had begun flowing, and before the crystallized granite had cooled to 150C. Furthermore, by the time the
temperature of the granite and the hydrothermal fluids had cooled to 150C, the heat energy driving the hydrothermal fluid
convection would have begun to wane and the vigor of the hydrothermal flow would also have begun to diminish (fig. 8).
The obvious conclusion has to be that if the processes of magma intrusion, crystallization, and cooling required 100,000
1 million years, then so much Po would have already decayed and thus been lost from the hydrothermal fluids by the time
the granite and fluids had cooled to 150C that there simply would not have been enough Po isotopes left to generate the
Po radiohalos.94The data in Table 1 show that Po radiohalos greatly outnumber 238U radiohalos in the Shap Granite.
There are likely two reasons for this. First, many of the 238U radiohalos are dark and overexposed with blurred inner rings
(fig. 7), which indicates that there has been an enormous amount of 238U decay, much more than the 500 million1 billion
atoms needed to produce a radiohalo with distinct inner rings. This implies that there likely would have been enough Po
generated to form multiple Po radiohalos in the vicinity of each 238U radiohalo. Second, as already noted above, much
evidence suggests that the greater the volume and flow of hydrothermal fluids, the greater the number of Po radiohalos
generated. Both the Shap Granite and its aureole indicate a large volume of hydrothermal fluids flowed within and outside
of this granite. Thus there was a greater capacity for hydrothermal fluid transport of Po atoms to supply more radiocenters
with the needed Po atoms to generate the observed Po radiohalos.Even conventional thinking on the timescale for the
granite intrusion, crystallization, and cooling processes is changing. Whereas formerly it was claimed that granites took a
million years or more to form,95 it is now recognized even in the conventional community that granite formation is a rapid,
dynamic process operating on timescales as short as thousands of years.96, 97 Consequently, much evidence now favors
the processes of magma generation, segregation, ascent, emplacement, crystallization, and cooling being
catastrophic,98, 99, 100, 101 consistent with the catastrophic plate tectonics model for the Flood event.102 Furthermore,
the concept of accelerated radioisotope decay103allows nuclear decay processes at catastrophic rates during the Flood.

Fig. 8. Schematic conceptual temperature versus time cooling curve diagram to show the timescale for granite
crystallization
and
cooling, hydrothermal
fluid transport, and the
formation of polonium
radiohalos
(after
Snelling105).
Both
catastrophic
granite formation and
accelerated
radioisotope
decay
are relevant to the
hydrothermal
fluid
transport model for Po
radiohalo formation.
However,
halo
formation
itself
provides constraints
on the rates of both
those
processes.104 If 238U
in
the
zircon
radiocenters supplied
the concentrations of
Po isotopes required
to generate the Po
radiohalos,
the 238U
and Po radiohalos
must form over the
same timescale of
hours to days, as
required by the Po
isotopes short halflives.
This
requires 238U
production of Po to be grossly accelerated. The 500 million1 billion -decays to generate each 238U radiohalo, equivalent
to at least 100 million years worth of 238U decay at todays decay rates, had to have taken place in hours to days to
supply the required concentration of Po for producing an adjacent Po radiohalo. However, because accelerated 238U
decay in the zircons would have been occurring as soon as the zircons crystallized in the magma at 650750C, unless
the granite magma fully crystallized and cooled to below 150C very rapidly, all the 238U in the zircons would have rapidly
decayed away, as would have also the daughter Po isotopes, before the biotite flakes were cool enough for the 238U and
Po radiohalos to form and survive without annealing. Furthermore, the hydrothermal fluid flows needed to transport the Po
isotopes along the biotite cleavage planes from the zircons to the Po radiocenters are not long sustained, even in the
conventional framework, but decrease rapidly due to cooling of the granite (fig. 8).106 Thus Snelling107 concluded from
all these considerations that the granite intrusion, crystallization, and cooling processes occurred together over a
timescale of only about 610 days.One apparent difficulty with this model is its requirement for -particle energy, as
indicated by radiohalo radius, to be diagnostic and also independent of parent decay rate over many orders of magnitude.
However, Chaffin108 has demonstrated that if the depth of the potential energy well for -decay is increased, with a
corresponding increase in the decay constant (and therefore the decay rate), then the decay energy of the -particle may
be held the same with only a slight increase in the nuclear radius, so that the radii of radiohalos also would remain the
same while the -decay rate increased. A second apparent and related difficulty is that if the 238U decay rate was grossly
accelerated by many orders of magnitude, then the decay of the Po isotopes might also be similarly accelerated, and thus
there would not have been enough time for hydrothermal fluid transport to carry the Po atoms for even a millimeter within
the biotite flakes. However, Austin109 and Snelling110 have documented evidence that in an accelerated -decay
episode the parent isotopes which today have the slowest decay rates (and thus yield the oldest ages on the same rock
samples) had their decay accelerated the most. The implication of this observation is that in an accelerated -decay
episode, those parent isotopes which decay at extremely high rates today should have experienced almost no
acceleration of their decay. Thus the decay of the Po isotopes would have hardly been accelerated at all, in stark contrast
to the huge acceleration of 238U decay. This would, therefore, have allowed enough time for hydrothermal fluid transport of
the Po atoms needed to generate the Po radiohalos.However, someone might inquire what requires the hydrothermal fluid
flow interval to be so brief? Surely, because the zircon radiocenters and their 238U radiohalos are near to (typically within
only 1 mm or so) the Po radiocenters in the same biotite flakes, could not the hydrothermal flow have indeed carried each
Po atom from the 238U radiocenters to the Po radiocenters within minutes, but the interval of hydrothermal fluid flow persist
over many thousands of years during which the billion Po atoms needed for each Po radiohalo are transported that short
distance? In this case the238U decay and the generation of Po atoms could be stretched over that longer interval.
However, as already noted above, by the time a granite body and its hydrothermal fluids cool to below 150C, most of the
energy to drive the hydrothermal convection system and fluid flow has already dissipated.111 The hydrothermal fluids are
expelled from the crystallizing granite and start flowing at between 410 and 370C (fig. 8). So unless the granite cooled
rapidly from 400C to below 150C, most of the Po transported by the hydrothermal fluids would have been flushed out of
the granite by the vigorous hydrothermal convective flows as they diminished. Simultaneously, much of the energy to
drive these fluid flows dissipates rapidly as the granite temperature drops. Thus, below 150C (when the Po radiohalos
start forming) the hydrothermal fluids have slowed down to such an extent that they cannot sustain protracted flow.
Moreover, the capacity of the hydrothermal fluids to carry dissolved Po decreases dramatically as the temperature
becomes low.Thus sufficient Po had to be transported quickly to the Po radiocenters to form the Po radiohalos while there
was still enough energy at and below 150C to drive the hydrothermal fluid flows rapidly enough to get the Po isotopes to
the deposition sites before they decayed. This is the time and temperature window depicted schematically in Fig. 8. It

would thus simply be impossible for the Po radiohalos to form slowly over many thousands of years at todays
groundwater temperatures in cold granites. Hot hydrothermal fluids are needed to dissolve and carry the polonium atoms,
and heat is needed to drive rapid hydrothermal convection to move Po transporting fluids fast enough to supply the Po
radiocenters to generate the Po radiohalos. Furthermore, the required heat cannot be sustained for the 100 million years
or more while sufficient 238U decays at todays rates to produce the 500 million1 billion Po atoms needed for each Po
radiohalo. In summary, for there to be sufficient Po to produce a radiohalo after the granite has cooled to 150C, the
timescales of the decay process as well as the cooling both must be on same order as the lifetimes of the Po isotopes.
Thus, the hydrothermal fluid flows had to be rapid, as the convection system was short-lived while the granite crystallized
and cooled rapidly within 610 days, and as they transported sufficient Po atoms to generate the Po radiohalos within
hours to a few days.The Shap Granite does not appear to be unique, but rather is typical of other granites, in terms of its
mineralogy, chemistry and texture, and the hydrothermal fluids it generated. Thus, this model for its rapid formation and
cooling can be extended to other granite bodies, as has been done by Snelling,112, 113 Snelling and Armitage,114 and
Snelling and Gates.115 Even the enormous metamorphic aureole is not unique to the Shap Granite. Many other granites
are surrounded by aureoles, though often smaller. Almost all granites show evidence of the hydrothermal fluids they
generated as they crystallized and cooled. The ubiquitous presence of Po radiohalos116 is also testimony to these
hydrothermal fluids. Even in those granites where fewer Po radiohalos would suggest less hydrothermal fluids were
produced in them, the presence of Po radiohalos indicates there were still sufficient hydrothermal fluids to cool them
rapidly. The volume of the Shap Granite is small compared with that of the large Lake District Batholith to which it
belongs. Yet because this model of rapid formation and cooling has been applied successfully to so many other granite
bodies, there are many reasons to conclude that each of the plutons making up the batholith likewise formed and cooled
rapidly. Indeed, the volume of the nested granite plutons of the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite of Yosemite, California, is
comparable to that of the Lake District Batholith, and Snelling and Gates117 have built a strong case that each of those
voluminous plutons also formed and cooled rapidly.The abundant 238U and Po radiohalos in the Shap Granite are,
therefore, compelling evidence that this granite formed in only about 610 days. This is consistent with its having intruded
into the fossiliferous Flood-deposited Borrowdale and Windermere Group sediments and volcanics. The enormous scale
of the contact metamorphic and metasomatic aureole surrounding the Shap Granite is also testimony to the rapid rate of
granite cooling and thus rapid release of heat that drove the hydrothermal fluids forcefully out of the pluton and into the
surrounding host rocks. Once in the host rocks, the hydrothermal fluids combined convectively with ground waters to
disperse the granites heat and together produce the aureole. The aureoles size also is consistent with the granite
producing, and the host rocks containing, large volumes of hydrothermal fluids and ground waters, respectively. The
ground water would be a consequence of rapid sediment deposition only days and weeks before granite intrusion during
the Flood.
The force of the intruding granite magma inevitably weakened the surrounding host rocks, particularly above the resulting
pluton because the buoyant magma had pushed its way upwards into them. Any induced fracturing of the overlying rocks
would have been exploited by the ascending magma. Hydrothermal fluids released by the crystallizing and cooling
magma would also tend to be forced upwards more easily than laterally. The high fluid pressures would result in acute
hydraulic fracturing of the roof rocks overlying the granite pluton, and the hydrothermal fluids released upwards would
produce intense hydrothermal alteration. This combination of intense hydraulic fracturing and hydrothermal alteration of
the host rocks directly overlying the granite pluton (the roof) makes the roof more susceptible to subsequent weathering
and erosion and thus to being stripped away rapidly to expose (or unroof) the top of the granite pluton.118 In the case of
the Shap Granite, the large size of the metamorphic/metasomatic aureole compared to the width of the pluton (fig. 3) likely
implies that the hydraulic fracturing and hydrothermal alteration of the roof rocks was very intense, resulting in their
increased susceptibility to subsequent rapid erosion and rapid unroofing of the pluton.In regard to the relative timing of
deposition of the strata sequence in the Lake District during the Flood (fig. 2), there appears to have been a depositional
hiatus at the time the Shap Granite was intruded, with an unconformity at the top of the Silurian Windermere Group before
later deposition of the Carboniferous limestone. This implies that when the Shap Granite intruded, its Windermere and
Borrowdale Group host rocks were either being uplifted, perhaps by the ascending magma itself, or the Flood water level
was dropping, or both. Thus it is entirely possible that within days of intrusion and cooling of the Shap Granite stock the
overlying heavily fractured and altered roof rocks were exposed to rapidly falling water levels from their uplifted and
arched-up surface, resulting in their rapid erosion to quickly expose the granite beneath. However, due to the tidal
movement of the global Flood waters, repeated sediment-laden surges would have quickly eroded both the roof rocks and
the granite, so that dislodged pebbles of granite and orthoclase feldspar megacrysts from the granite would soon be
deposited nearby in a conglomerate. With rising water levels the subsequent sediment deposition quickly transitioned into
limestone.In conclusion, therefore, the presence of abundant Po radiohalos in the Shap Granite and in the sharp
granite/host rock boundary, and the large comparative width of the surrounding contact metamorphic and metasomatic
aureole, together provide evidence that the granite was intruded as magma and cooled within 610 days and was then
unroofed within a few days later. Thus, a coherent solution for the perceived time problems associated with the formation
of the Shap Granite and the adjacent overlying basal conglomerate containing granite pebbles and orthoclase feldspar
megacrysts appears to be available, with no compelling reason to place the Flood/post-Flood boundary between the
intrusion of the Devonian Shap Granite and the deposition of the basal conglomerate to the Carboniferous limestone.
These observations now show that it is plausible for the Shap Granite to have been generated, intruded, cooled, and then
unroofed and eroded, to be immediately followed by deposition of the conglomerate basal to the limestone, all within the
early-middle part of the Flood year.
Conclusions
The Devonian Shap Granite in the Lake District, England, was intruded as molten magma into the older explosivelyerupted Ordovician Borrowdale Group lavas and tuffs and the fossiliferous Flood-deposited Windermere Group sediments
overlying them. There is no evidence of fracturing, brecciation and mylonization at the granite/host rocks boundary that
should be present if the granite stock had been emplaced tectonically as a cold body. Instead, the heat and hydrothermal
fluids from the crystallizing magma produced a 600+ meter wide contact metamorphic and metasomatic aureole.
Therefore, the abundant Po radiohalos presently observed in samples of the granite could not have been generated by
primordial Po, because the hydrothermal fluids also helped form orthoclase feldspar megacrysts in the granite at 370
410C. Any pre-existing Po radiohalos in the granite would have been annealed at those temperatures that are well above
the 150C annealing temperature for radiohalos. Instead, the abundant presence of Po radiohalos is consistent with a
large volume of hydrothermal fluids released by the cooling granite. These fluids are also responsible for the atypically
wide contact metamorphic and metasomatic aureole. Thus, this evidence supports a hydrothermal transport model for Po
radiohalos and catastrophically rapid granite formation. This evidence suggests the Shap Granite formed within 610 days
and its Po radiohalos within hours to days once the granite cooled below 150C. Hydraulic fracturing and hydrothermal

alteration of the host rocks above the granite intrusion would have facilitated rapid unroofing of the pluton also within days.
Sediment-laden Flood waters then surging over the exposed granite would have eroded granite pebbles and orthoclase
feldspar megacrysts from the granite to quickly deposit them in a conglomerate bed nearby, where sedimentation soon
transitioned into a Carboniferous limestone. It is, therefore, entirely conceivable for this sequence of events from formation
of the Devonian Shap Granite through to the deposition of the stratigraphically overlying Carboniferous limestone to have
occurred within 23 weeks during the early-middle part of the Flood year. The Po radiohalos and the other evidence
associated with this granite thus remove objections to Flood geology, including the timescale for granite formation, and
the need to place the Flood/post-Flood boundary in the lower Carboniferous.
Acknowledgments
This research would not have been achieved without the support and help of numerous people. First, Paul Garner, David
Tyler, and Randall Hardy organized and provided transport for the field trip to the Shap Granite and the surrounding area.
Second, the Institute for Creation Research funded my time on this project, including the travel and sample processing to
count radiohalos. Third, there has been the constant patience and support of my wife Kym and my family in my research
endeavors. Fourth, the reviewers and the editor of the manuscript are thanked for their helpful suggestions that improved
this paper.
RadiohalosA Tale of Three Granitic Plutons
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling and Mark Armitage on August 19, 2009
Abstract
The origin and significance of radiohalos have been debated for almost a century, perhaps largely because their
geological distribution has been poorly understood.
Keywords: radiohalos, 218Po, 214Po, 210Po, 238U, 232Th, granitic plutons, biotites, zircons, monazites, hydrothermal
fluids, 222Rn, radiocenters, accelerated decay and heat flow, rapid hydrothermal fluid flows, rapid regional metamorphism,
rapid pluton cooling, rapidly formed Metallic Ore Deposits
This paper was originally published in the Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Creationism, pp. 243267
(2003), and is reproduced here with the permission of the Creation Science Fellowship of Pittsburgh.
Abstract
The origin and significance of radiohalos, particularly the 218Po, 214Po, and 210Po radiohalos, have been debated for almost
a century, perhaps largely because their geological distribution has been poorly understood. In this study samples from
three granitic plutons were scanned under microscopes for radiohalos as part of a larger project to investigate the
geological occurrence and global distribution of all types of radiohalos. These three granitic plutons were all demonstrated
to have formed during the Flood, but all contained 210Po, 214Po, and 238U radiohalos, usually with 210Po >> 214Po
and 238U; 218Po radiohalos were rare, and 232Th radiohalos were abundant in one granitic pluton. Thus neither the Po
radiohalos nor the granitic rocks could have been formed by fiat creation. Instead, a model is proposed in which
hydrothermal fluids separated 222Rn and the Po isotopes from their parent 238U in zircons and transported them very short
distances along cleavage planes in the host, and adjacent, biotites until the 222Rn decayed and the Po isotopes were
chemically concentrated into radiocenters, there to subsequently produce the Po radiohalos. Furthermore, the very short
half-lives of these isotopes require this transport process to be rapid (within days), and the observed fully formed 238U
and 232Th radiohalos imply at least 100 million years worth (at todays rates) of accelerated radioactive decay has
occurred. Other implications include: accelerated heat flow during the Flood that helped catastrophically drive global
tectonic and geological processes, including metamorphism and magma genesis; and rapid convective hydrothermal fluid
flows that rapidly formed and cooled regional metamorphic complexes, rapidly cooled granitic and other plutons, and
rapidly formed many metallic ore deposits.
Introduction
Radiohalos are minute zones of darkening surrounding tiny central mineral inclusions or crystals in some minerals. They
are best expressed in certain minerals in rock thin sections, notably in the black mica, biotite, where the tiny inclusions (or
radiocenters) are usually zircon crystals. The significance of radiohalos is due to them being a physical, integral historical
record of the decay of radioisotopes in the radiocenters over a period of time. First reported between 1880 and 1890, their
origin was a mystery until the discovery of radioactivity. Then in 1907 Joly1 and Mgge2independently suggested that the
darkening of the minerals around the central inclusions is due to the alpha (a) particles produced by -decays in the
radiocenters. These -particles damage the crystal structure of the surrounding minerals, producing concentric shells of
darkening or discoloration. When observed in thin sections these shells are concentric circles with diameters between 10
and 40 m, simply representing planar sections through the concentric spheres centered around the inclusions.3Many
years of subsequent investigations have established that the radii of the concentric circles of the radiohalos in section are
related to the -decay energies. This enables the radioisotopes responsible for the -decays to be
identified.4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Most importantly, when the central inclusions, or radiocenters, are small (about 1 m) the radiohalos
around them have been unequivocally demonstrated to be the products of the -emitting members of the238U and
the 232Th decay series. The radii of the concentric multiple spheres, or rings in thin sections, correspond to the ranges in
the host minerals of the -particles from the -emitting radioisotopes in those two decay series.9, 10, 11235U radiohalos
have not been observed. This is readily accounted for by the scarcity of 235U (only 0.7% of naturally-occurring U, since
large concentrations of the parent radionuclides are needed to produce the concentric ring structures of the
radiohalos.Ordinary radiohalos can be defined, therefore, as those that are initiated by 238U and/or 232Th -decay,
irrespective of whether the actual halo sizes closely match the respective idealized patterns. In many instances the match
is very good, the observed sizes agreeing very well with the 4He ion penetration ranges produced in biotite, fluorite and
cordierite.12, 13 U and Th radiohalos usually are found in igneous rocks, most commonly in granitic rocks and in granitic
pegmatites. While U and Th radiohalos have been found in over 40 minerals, their distribution within these minerals is
very erratic.14, 15, 16, 17 Biotite is quite clearly the major mineral in which U and Th radiohalos occur. Wherever found
they are prolific, and are associated with tiny zircon (U) or monazite (Th) radiocenters. The ease of thin section
preparation and the clarity of the radiohalos in them have made biotite an ideal choice for numerous radiohalo
investigations.18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 U, Th and other specific halo types thus far have been
observed mainly in Precambrian rocks, but much remains to be learned about their occurrence in rocks from other
geological periods. However, some studies have shown that they do exist in rocks stretching from the Precambrian to the
Tertiary.34, 35, 36 Unfortunately, in most instances the radiohalo types were not specifically identified in these
studies.Some unusual radiohalo types that are distinct from those formed by 238U and/or 232Th -decay have been
observed. Of these, only the Po (polonium) radiohalos can presently be identified with known radioactivity.37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42There are three Po isotopes in the 238U-decay chain. In sequence they are 218Po (halflife
of 3.1 minutes), 214Po (half-life of 164 microseconds), and 210Po (half-life of 138 days). Po radiohalos contain only rings

produced by these three Po -emitters. They are designated by the first (or only) Po -emitter in the portion of the decay
sequence that is represented. The presence in Po radiohalos of only the rings of the three Po -emitters implies that the
radiocenters which produced these Po radiohalos initially contained either only the respective Po radioisotopes that then
parented the subsequent -decays, or a non-emitting parent.43, 44 These three Po radiohalo types occur in biotites
from granitic rocks.45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54Joly55, 56 was probably the first to investigate 210Po radiohalos and
was clearly baffled by them. Because Schilling57saw Po radiohalos located only along cracks in Wlsendorf fluorite, he
suggested that they originated from preferential deposition of Po from U-bearing solutions. Henderson58 and Henderson
and Sparks59 invoked a similar but more quantitative hypothesis to explain Po radiohalos along conduits in biotite. Those
Po radiohalos found occurring away from the conduits, similar to those found by Gentry,60, 61 were more difficult to
account for. The reason for these attempts to account for Po radiohalos by some secondary process is simplethe halflives of the respective Po isotopes are far too short to be reconciled with the Po having been primary, that is, originally in
the granitic magmas which slowly cooled to form the granitic rocks that now contain the Po-radiohalo-bearing biotites. The
half-life of218Po, for example, is 3.1 minutes. However, this is not the only formidable obstacle for any secondary process
that transported the Po into the biotites as, or after, the granitic rocks cooled. First, there is the need for isotopic
separation of the Po isotopes, or their -decay precursors, from parent 238U.62 Second, the radiocenters of very
dark 218Po radiohalos, for example, may need to have contained as much as 5 109 atoms (a concentration of more than
50%) of218Po .63 But these 218Po atoms must migrate or diffuse from their source at very low diffusion rates through
surrounding mineral grains to be captured by the radiocenters before the 218Po decays.64, 65, 66Studies of some Po
radiohalo centers in biotite (and fluorite) have shown little or no U in conjunction with anomalously high 206Pb/207Pb and/or
Pb/U ratios, which would be expected from the decay of Po without the U precursor that normally occurs in U radiohalo
centers.67, 68 Indeed, many 206Pb/207Pb ratios were greater than 21.8, reflecting a seemingly abnormal mixture of Pb
isotopes derived from Po decay independent of the normal U-decay chain.69, 70Thus, based on these data Gentry
advanced the hypothesis that the three different types of Po radiohalos in biotites represent the decay of primordial Po
(that is, original Po not derived by U-decay), and that the rocks hosting those radiohalos, that is, Precambrian granites as
he perceived them to be, must be primordial rocks produced by fiat creation, given that the half-life of 214Po is only 164
microseconds.71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78As a consequence of Gentrys creation hypothesis, the origin of the Po
radiohalos has remained controversial and thus apparently unresolved. Snelling79 has thoroughly discussed the many
arguments and evidences used in the debate that has ensued over the past two decades, and has concluded that there
are insufficient data on the geological occurrence and distribution of the Po radiohalos for the debate to yet be decisively
resolved. Of the 22 locations then known where the rocks contained Po radiohalos, Wise80 determined that six of the
locations hosted Phanerozoic granitic rocks, a large enough proportion to severely question Gentrys hypothesis of
primordial Po in fiat created granitic rocks. Many of these Po radiohalo occurrences are also in proximity to higher than
normal U concentrations in nearby rocks and/or minerals, suggesting ideal sources for fluid separation and transport of
the Po. Furthermore, there are now significant reports of 210Po as a detectable species in volcanic gases, in
volcanic/hydrothermal fluids associated with subaerial volcanoes and fumaroles, and associated with mid-ocean ridge
hydrothermal vents and chimney deposits,81, 82, 83 as well as in ground waters.84, 85 The distances involved in this fluid
transport of the Po are several kilometers (and more), so there is increasing evidence of the potential viability of the
secondary transport of Po by hydrothermal fluids during pluton emplacement, perhaps in the waning stages of the
crystallization and cooling of granitic magmas.86, 87Whereas Po radiohalos would appear to indicate extremely rapid
geological processes were responsible for their production (because of the extremely short half-lives of the Po isotopes
responsible), 238U and 232Th radiohalos appear to be evidence of long periods of radioactive decay, assuming decay rates
have been constant at todays rates throughout earth history. Indeed, it has been estimated that dark, fully-formed U and
Th radiohalos require around 100 million years worth of radioactive decay at todays rates to form.88, 89, 90, 91 Thus the
presence of mature U and Th radiohalos in granitic rocks globally throughout the geological record would indicate that at
least 100 million years worth of radioactive decay at todays rates has occurred during earth history. As proposed by
Humphreys,92 these observable data require that within the young-earth time framework radioisotopic decay therefore
had to have been accelerated, but just by how much needs to be determined. If, for example, mature U and Th radiohalos
were found in granitic rocks that were demonstrated to have formed during the Flood year, then that would imply about
100 million years worth of radioisotopic decay at todays rates had occurred at an accelerated rate during the Flood
year.93,94 Furthermore, if Po radiohalos were alongside U and Th radiohalos in the same Flood-related granitic rocks,
then that would have implications as to the rate of formation and age of these granitic rocks formed during the Flood year
within the young age timescale.A systematic effort to investigate radiohalo occurrences in granitic rocks throughout the
geological record globally has thus been initiated.95 Initial focus has been on granitic plutons that intrude Flood strata and
thus are considered to have formed during the Flood. Already Armitage96 has reported the discovery of 210Po radiohalos
in the late Carboniferous Stone Mountain granite near Atlanta, Georgia. Additional suitable samples have been collected
from the Stone Mountain granite pluton for more detailed assessment of the radiohalo content of this pluton. Samples
have also been collected along a traverse through the large mid-Cretaceous La Posta zoned granite pluton in the
Peninsular Ranges Batholith east of San Diego, California. A sample has also been collected from the Silurian Cooma
granite pluton which occurs at the center of a classic regional metamorphic complex in southern New South Wales,
Australia.
The Stone Mountain Pluton
The Stone Mountain granite is a fine-grained, leucocratic quartz monzonite97 or monzogranite98 intruded into sillimanitegrade schist and gneiss of the Inner Piedmont geologic province of Georgia, about 1530 km east of Atlanta (fig. 1). It
forms several prominent monadnocks, the most famous of which is Stone Mountain itself at the south-western extremity of
the main exposure of the pluton (fig. 1), its steep north-facing slope being the Confederate Memorial, a carving of Lee,
Jackson, and Davis.99 The pluton was first mapped in detail by Hermann.100 Fig. 1 is a simplified geologic map of the
main body of the pluton.The composition of the monzogranite averages about 30% quartz, 35% plagioclase (oligoclase),
25% K-feldspar (microcline), 9% muscovite, and 1% biotite, with a hypidiomorphic-granular to aplitic
texture.101, 102, 103Characteristic accessories include epidote, apatite, zircon, and occasional tourmaline and garnet
(almandine).104commented on the well-developed radiohalos around tiny zircon inclusions within biotite grains. The
mineral grain sizes range from 1 to 4 mm, but the grain size distribution is uniform so the rock mass appears equigranular
throughout the pluton, which is mineralogically quite homogeneous, with very little statistically meaningful variation
throughout it.105, 106 The intrusion is also noted for 25 cm long tourmaline-rich pods; and pegmatite, aplite, and
composite dikes are common near the western margin of the pluton, while occurring sporadically throughout the rest of
the intrusion. These appear similar in mineralogy to the rest of the intrusion, except tourmaline often occurs rather than
biotite or muscovite.107

The monzogranite intrudes both concordantly and discordantly into country rocks composed primarily of biotiteplagioclase gneiss, interlayered with pods of amphibolite, and minor mica schist.108, 109, 110 These rocks had been
regionally metamorphosed to above the sillimanite isograd. At the monzogranite contact a slight grain-size enlargement
occurs which is attributed to contact metamorphism.111 There is also some indication of contact metasomatism, which
manifests itself as microcline porphyroblasts in the gneisses near the north monzogranite contact.112 The intrusion
appears to cross-cut both the common isoclinal structures and more open folds in the surrounding regional
metamorphosed rocks, structural evidence also suggesting that some parts of the pluton may have been forcefully
intruded, deforming all previous foliations.113, 114 Thus the contact and structural data indicate that the monzogranite
intrusion was late metamorphic, confirmed by the crystal growth at contacts with pre-existing metamorphic mineral
assemblages.115
Fig. 1. Geologic map of the
main area of the Stone
Mountain pluton, showing its
location near Atlanta, Georgia,
and the locations of the
samples
examined
for
radiohalos.
The
Stone
Mountain
monzogranite itself has a
moderate to poor foliation
defined by the orientation of
biotite and muscovite. This
foliation is not concordant with
the regional trends in the
surrounding country rocks and
appears to be parallel to
megascopic flow features
within the pluton.116 Indeed,
flow banding and flowage
foliation
within
otherwise
massive monzogranite is well
documented
by
Grant.117Xenoliths are mostly
lens-shaped
mica
schist
fragments that show a strong
orientation parallel to the flow
structure.
Biotite
gneiss
xenoliths are less common.
Mapping of flow structures
suggests that the pluton is a
rather thin sheet, the intrusion
of which was controlled by the
dominant northwest-trending
fold system in the surrounding country rocks.118, 119 It is thus possible that the monzogranite was intruded through
northwest-trending dikes in a number of pulses rather than a single episode.120 Supporting this contention are
monzogranite dikes which cross-cut earlier-formed monzogranite autoliths contained in the main monzogranite mass, all
these monzogranites being of similar composition and only recognized by these textural and structural features. The
distribution of lineations contained in the xenoliths support the contention that the granitic magma grew and expanded as
it intruded between thin layers of simultaneously folding country rock.121Petrologic and geochemical data suggest that
the origin of this peraluminous monzogranite is best explained by the anatexis of an older peraluminous, granitic crustal
material.122 The most likely source material is believed to be the Lithonia Gneiss, which has a peraluminous, granitic
composition very similar to the Stone Mountain monzogranite and which underlies the area.123 The Stone Mountain
intrusion thus probably originated as a lowtemperature anatectic melt formed from fractional melting of a part of the
Lithonia Gneiss at a temperature of 700C or less at depths of 2228 km, depending on the regional geothermal gradient
at the time.124 During the process the availability of water would have been an important factor in determining the degree
of melting. Once generated the magma was probably intruded at a depth of around 12 km.Radioisotopic ages determined
from the Stone Mountain pluton are in the range 281325 Ma.125, 126, 127 Whitney et al. obtained an Rb-Sr isochron
from 10 whole-rock and three mineral samples (plagioclase, microcline, and biotite) which yielded an age of 2917 Ma,
making the intrusion latest Carboniferous. On the other hand, Dallmeyer found that40Ar/39Ar age spectra of biotite and
muscovite from the Stone Mountain monzogranite were undisturbed, both minerals recording similar total-gas ages
(biotite 2815 Ma, muscovite 2835 Ma). These ages were regarded as anomalously younger than those recorded by
biotite and hornblende within the adjacent gneisses, so it was suggested that these ages represent rapid post-magmatic
cooling below argon retention temperatures. Thus the 291 Ma date for the Stone Mountain monzogranite is the
recognized age, temporally relating it to a belt of other granitic plutons in the Piedmont of the southeastern
Appalachians, primarily in North and South Carolina.128 The postulated source for the magma, the Lithonia Gneiss, has
yielded conventional K-Ar ages from its micas of 310315 Ma129, 130 (probably the onset of regional metamorphism),
whereas zircons have yielded U-Pb ages of about 480 Ma131 (zircons probably inherited from the original sediments).
Both McQueen132 and Froede133 place the formation of the Stone Mountain monzogranite pluton within the year of the
Flood. Furthermore, Froede134, 135 has documented much evidence consistent with rapid emplacement and cooling of
the granitic magma within the Flood year prior to the massive amounts of erosion at the end of the Flood that stripped the
overlying country rocks to leave the pluton exposed today at the earths surface.
The La Posta Pluton
The La Posta pluton is located approximately 65 km east of San Diego, California, in the Peninsular Ranges Batholith and
straddles the international border with Mexico (fig. 2). The Peninsular Ranges Batholith is an elongated body of igneous
rocks, consisting of hundreds of plutons, averaging about 100 km in width that extends nearly 1000 km from the
transverse Ranges near Riverside, southern California, to about the 28th parallel in Baja California, Mexico. It has been

subdivided along a major discontinuity into western and eastern zones that parallel the long axis of the
batholith.136, 137, 138 The western zone is characterized by small plutons that are generally less than 100 km 2 in
exposed area, pluton compositions ranging from peridotite to granite with tonalite being most abundant, the presence of
gabbros, and moderate grades of metamorphism in the host rocks.139, 140 This contrasts with the larger plutons, typically
several hundred km2 in size, with a more limited range of compositions (tonalite to monzogranite), and no gabbro in the
eastern zone intruded into sillimanite-bearing and migmatitic pre-batholithic rocks. The boundary between these eastern
and western zones is a major discontinuity defined by an I-S line separating I-type granitoids to the west and both I-type
and S-type granitoids to the east,141 and a magnetite-ilmenite line which effectively separates magnetite- and ilmenitebearing plutons to the west from the plutons to the east in which the only opaque phase is ilmenite.142 Additionally, Todd
and Shaw143 recognized that the plutons of the western zone are synkinematically deformed and were thus
syntectonically emplaced, whereas the eastern zone plutons are essentially undeformed and thus are late- to posttectonic intrusions. Finally, there is a significant difference in the ages of the plutons either side of this discontinuity
through the batholith, the western zone plutons yielding emplacement ages from 140 to 105 Ma, while the eastern zone
plutons were emplaced from 98 to 89 Ma,144, 145 interpreted as two distinct periods of static-arc magmatism resulting
from an eastward migration of the locus of magmatism.The largest intrusion in the eastern zone of the batholith is the La
Posta pluton, with an estimated exposure area of 1400 km 2. Approximately 750 km2 of this pluton have been mapped and
studied in detail (fig. 2).146, 147 It has thus been established that the pluton is a single intrusive body produced by a
single magmatic pulse that crystallized inward to form a lithologic succession of concentric zones ranging from a sphenehornblendebiotite tonalite rim to a muscovite-biotite granodiorite core (fig. 2). A banded border facies up to 100 m wide,
not shown in Fig. 2, consists of alternating bands rich in hornblende ( biotite) and plagioclase ( quartz) which are locally
and discontinuously developed along contacts with the older igneous rocks of the western zone of the
batholith.148, 149 Actually, the pluton is massive, the absence of foliation being noteworthy. It is only foliated near its
margins or near metasedimentary roof pendants where the foliation is steep and parallel to contacts. The sphenehornblende-biotite tonalite found in the outer zone (hornblende-biotite facies) consists of large (up to 1 cm), inclusion-free
hornblende euhedra, pseudo-hexagonal books of biotite, and smaller (up to 0.5 cm) honey- to amber-colored prismatic
sphene crystals. Plagioclase is the most abundant phase and displays mild oscillatory zoning. Quartz occurs as discrete
anhedral grains with weakly developed undulatory extinction. The rock becomes progressively more enriched in interstitial
K-feldspar and depleted in hornblende inwards.
Fig. 2. Geologic and location maps
for the La Posta pluton, Peninsular
Ranges
Batholith,
southern
California, showing the different
facies of this zoned pluton and the
sampling locations.All the contacts
between these internal zones of
the pluton are gradational over
distances of several tens of
meters.150, 151 The hornblendebiotite facies grades inwards to the
large-biotite facies, a sphenebiotite granodiorite, by gradual loss
of the large hornblende euhedra
and
increase
in
oikocrystic
feldspar. The large-biotite facies is
characterized by its abundance of
large
(up
to
1
cm)
pseudohexagonal books of biotite
that impart a distinct salt and
pepper
appearance
to
the
outcrops. The transition into the
small-biotite facies is observed as
a gradual loss of the large biotite
books and an increase in the
amount of smaller (1 to 4 mm), but
still euhedral, biotite grains. There
also appears to be a general
decrease in grain size in this unit, although the K-feldspar oikocrysts locally reach 5-cm widths. The muscovite-biotite
facies core of the pluton (a muscovite-biotite granodiorite) is defined on the basis of visible muscovite in hand specimen,
which ranges up to 1% and meets the textural criteria for being of primary magmatic origin.152 Sphene is absent in this
facies. Ilmenite appears to be the sole opaque phase in all of the facies.Multiple zircon fractions from three different
samples within the pluton yield an U-Pb age of 942 Ma, although the data obtained also possibly suggest a small
inherited Pb component.153, 154 An Rb-Sr mineral isochron from one of these same samples, taken from the small biotite
facies on the western side of the pluton, yielded a regression age of 922.8 Ma (the apatite, whole rock, and hornblende
had comparable Rb-Sr and thus reduced the system to an effective two-point isochron). Nevertheless, the Rb-Sr
regression age is consistent within the error margins with the average zircon U-Pb age, which indicates the placement of
the pluton in the mid-Cretaceous.Intrusive into the La Posta pluton and the large sillimanite-grade metasedimentary
screen, elongated north-south across the center of the pluton dividing it into two parts (fig. 2), are two small garnetmuscovitebiotite monzogranite plutons.155, 156, 157, 158 The Indian Hill pluton, the smaller and more northerly of the two
plutons (fig. 2), consists of two faciesthe medium-grained garnet-muscovite-biotite monzogranite and a fine-grained
muscovite-biotite granodiorite.159 A sample of the garnet-muscovite-biotite monzogranite yielded a four-point Rb-Sr
mineral isochron representing the crystallization age of 89.62.6 Ma, which is thus interpreted as the emplacement age
for the pluton.160, 161, 162 Five zircon fractions from the same sample yielded discordant ages that plot on a chord with a
lower concordia intercept age of 84.46.1 Ma and an upper concordia intercept age of 1161430 Ma. This U-Pb upper
intercept age is interpreted as representing the average age of the rocks which melted to form the Indian Hill pluton, and
thus the zircons containing the Pb are also interpreted as inherited.163, 164, 165, 166 Significantly, the zircon grains within
this pluton are recorded as being readily apparent as tiny inclusions surrounded by radiohalos within the biotite

flakes.167 In contrast, three zircon fractions from a sample of the larger garnet-muscovite-biotite monzogranite pluton to
the south (fig. 2) yielded a concordant age of 931 Ma, an emplacement age that is consistent with the observed field
relationships.168
Pegmatite dikes are common in the metasedimentary screen to the west of the Indian Hill pluton. This metasedimentary
screen, and the Indian Hill pluton within it (fig. 2), is in fact a roof pendant within and above the La Posta
pluton.169 Limited field and isotopic data suggest that these dikes are genetically related to the garnet-muscovite-biotite
(S-type) monzogranite plutons, which are in turn believed to have resulted from the anatexis of the metasedimentary
rocks in the roof pendant to the La Posta pluton, the heat source being likely due to the emplacement of the La Posta
pluton.170, 171 During the partial melting of these metasedimentary rocks detrital zircon contained in them was
incorporated in the partial melt and thus the resultant monzogranite plutons. Emplacement of the plutons is believed to
have been preceded by injection of the pegmatite dikes.172The most distinctive singular geochemical characteristic of the
La Posta pluton is its high Sr content, which contrasts markedly with Sr abundances in the other plutonic rocks of the
batholith, and this suggests a fundamental difference in the source region for its magma.173, 174 Additionally, the rare
earth element (REE) patterns of the La Posta rocks suggest that the pluton was derived by subduction-related anatexis of
eclogitefacies basaltic oceanic crust.175Alternately, a source region of amphibolitic oceanic crust would also appear to
satisfy the trace element and chemical constraints, provided that all plagioclase was removed from the source during the
melting event to account for the high Sr abundance.176 However, the presence of zircon in the La Posta pluton and in the
spatially related but compositionally distinct garnet-muscovite-biotite monzogranite plutons, with U-Pb ages older than
emplacement ages of these plutons, suggests inheritance of detrital zircon from a metasedimentary source, which in turn
suggests contamination of the I-type La Posta magma subsequent to its derivation by partial melting of oceanic
crust.177 This would also account for the core of the pluton being S-type muscovite-biotite granodiorite. It has thus been
suggested that the La Posta magmatic diapir ascended through the juncture of the older North American continental crust
and oceanic lithosphere,178 with the muscovite-biotite granodiorite core representing the tail of the diapir that had
interacted with the leading edge of the North American continental crust prior to intruding into the head of the ballooning
(?) La Posta diapir.179, 180 Viscosity differences between the parental La Posta melt and the contaminated tail would
inhibit homogenization, so that inward crystallization would still produce the observed gradational contacts between the
higher temperature outer facies and the lower temperature assemblage in the core. Marked changes in plagioclase
compositions, and in Fe/Mg and Fe2+/Fe3+ in biotites, between the core and outer zones181 are consistent with this
emplacement and crystallization model.
The Cooma Pluton
The Cooma granodiorite was first mapped by Browne182 and is a small, elliptical pluton centered approximately on the
township of Cooma in southern New South Wales, 300 km south-southwest of Sydney (fig. 3). The pluton is about 8 km in
maximum dimension and has a surface exposure of 1420 km2, depending on where its gradational contact with the
surrounding migmatites is placed.183 When mapped, the pluton was found to be central to a sequence of roughly
concentric prograde regional metamorphic zones.184, 185, 186 In fact, the Cooma metamorphic complex is considered to
be a classic geological area for regional metamorphic zones, because it is one of the first localities where andalusitesillimanite type regional metamorphism was described.187, 188 Furthermore, the Cooma granodiorite itself is also
regarded as a classic geological example of a pluton produced by a low degree of partial melting of the metasediments at
the heart of a regional metamorphic complex (fig. 3).189The Cooma metamorphic complex has a mapped outcrop area
exceeding 300 km2, and probably extends over a similar area beneath the local cover of Tertiary basalt. Isograds can be
traced over 30 km northwards adjacent to the Murrumbidgee Batholith.190 Based mainly on the work of
Joplin191, 192 and Hopwood,193, 194 Chappell and White195 recognized a series of metamorphic zones delineated by
the appearance of chlorite, biotite, andalusite, sillimanite, and granitic veining, respectively. Approximate equivalents are
chlorite zonegreenschist RadiohalosA Tale of Three Granitic Plutons facies; biotite and andalusite zones
amphibolite facies; sillimanite and migmatite zonesgranulite facies.196 Some additional metamorphic zones have been
distinguished by subdividing the andalusite and sillimanite zones on the basis of the first appearances of cordierite,
andalusite and K-feldspar.197 The zoning is markedly asymmetric. The belt of highest grade rocks and the enclosed
Cooma granodiorite are located towards the eastern margin of the complex (fig. 3),
with the regional aureole extending approximately 3 km to the east, but nearly 10 km
to the west. At least four,198 and possibly seven,199 separate deformation fabrics
can be distinguished in the metasediments of the Cooma complex. The exception is
the Cooma granodiorite, which preserves only the last foliation, suggesting that it was
emplaced late in the development of the complex.200, 201
Fig. 3. Geologic and location maps for the Cooma granodiorite and the surrounding
regional metamorphic zones in southeastern Australia. The location of the sample
used in this study is also shown.
The Cooma granodiorite contains the same minerals as the gneisses and migmatites
and lies within the cordierite-andalusite-K-feldspar zone. It is extremely quartz-rich
(50%) and contains plagioclase, K-feldspar and biotite, with andalusite, sillimanite,
cordierite, and muscovite, some or all of the latter appearing to be
secondary.202, 203, 204 The biotite is crowded with radiohalos around inclusions of
zircon and monazite.205The granodiorite contains abundant xenoliths of the
surrounding migmatites and, less commonly, the highgrade gneisses, quartz veins
and pegmatites, which is consistent with the granodiorite having been derived by
partial melting of a metasedimentary source, presumably the high-grade gneisses
surrounding the granodiorite.206 Thus the granodiorite has been classified as Stype,207 with normative corundum values of 5.82%,208 indicating that it is strongly
peraluminous, and is very low in Na2O and CaO, which has been attributed to its
derivation
from
the
surrounding
metamorphosed
C-poor
Ordovician
sediments.209 This origin is supported by isotopic data.210, 211, 212, 213,214 The
Cooma granodiorite is thus typical of regional aureole granites described by White,
Chappell, and Cleary215 and Chappell and White.216
Radioisotopic data suggests that the Cooma granodiorite and the related
metamorphic rocks thus cooled through the blocking temperature for most
geochronological systems in the mid to late Silurian217, 218 obtained an Rb-Sr
mineral isochron age for the granodiorite of 40612 Ma. The age of the high-grade
gneisses was found to be similar to the granodiorite, but the low grade

metasediments yielded a significantly older age of 45011 Ma (recalculated by Munksgaard219). Based on these results it
was concluded that the granodiorite formed in situ by partial melting of the surrounding metasediments, the high-grade
gneisses being associated with the emplacement of the granodiorite, whereas the higher ages in the low-grade
metasediments perhaps indicated the original age of deposition or the age of regional metamorphism predating the highgrade metamorphism. Tetley220 obtained a Rb-Sr whole-rock isochron age for the granodiorite of 410.019.0 Ma, thus
supporting the previously determined granodiorite age. However, Munksgaard obtained whole-rock Rb-Sr ages of 36277
Ma for the granodiorite, 37555 Ma for the high-grade gneisses and 38625 Ma for the low-grade metasediments, results
which he suggested implied the metasediments and the granodiorite were not fully equilibrated on a regional scale with
respect to their Sr isotope composition at the time of metamorphism, and thus whole-rock samples would not give
meaningful ages for the Cooma complex. Nevertheless, he showed that the Cooma granodiorite is similar in major- and
trace-element composition to a calculated mixture of the surrounding schists and gneisses.Preliminary results of ion-probe
zircon U-Pb studies221 yielded ages from zircon about 30 Ma greater than the 410 Ma age recorded by hornblende K-Ar
and whole-rock Rb-Sr.222 More detailed results have now been published.223 Both monazite and zircon grains from the
Cooma granodiorite and from the metasediments in each of the surrounding regional metamorphic zones were analyzed.
Monazite in the migmatite and granodiorite were found to have recorded only metamorphism and granite genesis at
432.83.5 Ma, whereas detrital zircon grains in the original sediments were unaffected by metamorphism until the
inception of partial melting, when platelets of new zircon precipitated on the surfaces of the grains. These new growths of
zircon crystals, although maximum in the leucosome of the migmatites, was best dated in the granodiorite at 435.26.3
Ma. Thus the best combined estimate for the U-Pb age of the metamorphism and granite genesis is 433.43.1 Ma.
However, detrital zircon U-Pb ages were found to have been preserved unmodified throughout metamorphism and
magma genesis, which was concluded to indicate derivation of the Cooma granodiorite from lower Paleozoic source rocks
with the same protolith as the Ordovician sediments found outcropping adjacent to the metamorphic complex in the same
region. These U-Pb ages for the detrital zircon and monazite grains preserved in the metasediments and the granodiorite
from the original Ordovician sediments were dominated by composite populations dated at 500600 Ma and 9001200
Ma, although almost 10% of the grains analyzed yielded apparent ages scattered from 1450 Ma to 2839 Ma, one grain
even yielding an apparent age of 3538 Ma.The general consensus is that the Cooma granodiorite is an integral part of the
regional metamorphic sequence, having formed by the in situ, or virtually in situ, partial melting of high-grade
metasediments identical to those surrounding it.224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233 However, Flood &
Vernon234 pointed out that an origin for the Cooma granodiorite from essentially in situ anatexis of the adjacent
metasedimentary rocks was in apparent conflict with the surrounding low-pressure metamorphic environment, unless
unrealistically high and localized geothermal gradients were invoked. They suggested that subsequent to the granodiorite
forming by partial melting of the adjacent high-grade migmatitic rocks, the granodiorite moved upwards as a diapiric
intrusion, the high-grade envelope surrounding it having been dragged up to higher crustal levels with the intruding
granitic diapir. Support for this model includes evidence for vertical movement along a transition zone between the
andalusite zone schists and the K-feldspar zone gneisses (fig. 3), a step in metamorphic pressures at the sillimanite
isograd, coinciding with the boundary between the gneisses and migmatites, and a steady pressure rise thereafter
towards higher metamorphic grades.235 All the metamorphism is regarded as part of the same relatively intact sequence,
the thermal aureole having contracted towards the granodiorite during the later stages of the deformation associated with
the regional metamorphism and the emplacement of the granodiorite.236 Finally, Vernon, Richards, and Collins237 have
demonstrated that in situ partial melting of metapsammitic leucosome would have produced a magma of suitable
composition to form the Cooma granodiorite, but this locally produced magma appears to have only contributed to the
rising pluton of magma formed by deeper, more extensive accumulation of similarly derived magma, a model consistent
with the U-Pb zircon data.238
Sampling and Laboratory Procedures
Each of these granitic plutons was sampled at the locations shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 3. In most instances access was
available by roads and samples were collected in roadcuts where the outcrops were freshest. Fist-sized (12 kg) pieces of
granite were collected at each location, the details of which were recorded using a Garmin GPS II Plus hand-held unit.A
standard petrographic thin section was obtained for each sample. In the laboratory, a scalpel and tweezers were used to
prise flakes of biotite loose from sample surfaces, or where necessary portions of the samples were crushed to liberate
the constituent mineral grains. Biotite flakes were then hand-picked and placed on the adhesive surface of a piece of
scotch tape fixed to a bench surface with its adhesive side up. Once numerous biotite flakes had been mounted on the
adhesive side of this piece of scotch tape, a fresh piece of scotch tape was placed over them and firmly pressed along its
length so as to ensure the two pieces of scotch tape were stuck together with the biotite flakes firmly wedged between
them. The upper piece of scotch tape was then peeled back in order to pull apart the sheets composing the biotite flakes,
and this piece of scotch tape with thin biotite sheets adhering to it was then placed over a standard glass microscope slide
so that the adhesive side and the thin mica flakes adhered to it. This procedure was repeated with another piece of scotch
tape placed over the original scotch tape and biotite flakes affixed to the bench, the adhering biotite flakes being
progressively pulled apart and transferred to microscope slides. As necessary, further hand-picked biotite flakes were
added to replace those fully pulled apart. In this way tens of microscope slides were prepared for each sample, each with
many (at least 1020) thin biotite flakes mounted on them. This is similar to the method pioneered by Gentry. A minimum
of 30 microscope slides was prepared for each sample to ensure good representative sampling statistics.Each thin
section for each sample was then carefully examined under a petrological microscope in plane polarized light and all
radiohalos present were identified, noting any relationships between the different radiohalo types and any unusual
features. The numbers of each type of radiohalo in each slide were counted by progressively moving the slide backwards
and forwards across the field of view, and the numbers recorded for each slide were then tallied and tabulated for each
sample.
Results
All results are listed in Table 1. In the Stone Mountain monzogranite 210Po radiohalos outnumbered all other radiohalo
types. For the six samples 291 thin sections were scanned and yielded 1139 210Po radiohalos, 93 214Po halos, and 88238U
radiohalos, the average proportions being approximately 13 210Po radiohalos to every 214Po and 238U radiohalo, which
occurred in approximately equal numbers. For the individual samples these proportions varied from a low of about
six 210Po radiohalos for every 214Po radiohalo, to a high of 69 210Po halos for every 214Po radiohalo.238U radiohalos were
always found in similar numbers to the 214Po radiohalos. Additionally, in sample SMG-5 two218Po radiohalos were found,
while in sample SMG-2 where no 214Po radiohalos were found, four of the 210Po radiohalos were found in muscovite, an
unusual but not unknown occurrence.239A smaller number of radiohalos (437) were counted in 563 slides from twelve
samples of the La Posta pluton. Indeed, radiohalos were relatively rare in the biotite flakes from the hornblende-biotite
facies, large biotite facies, and small biotite facies zones of the pluton. Only the muscovite-biotite facies core of the pluton

contained appreciable numbers of radiohalos, the proportions being 86 210Po radiohalos, three 214Po radiohalos and
one 238U radiohalo in 180 slides from four samples. Of potential significance is the substantially voluminous occurrence of
radiohalos in the genetically and spatially related Indian Hill and other monzogranite plutons, three samples yielding
279 210Po radiohalos, 11214Po radiohalos and 45 238U radiohalos in 130 slides. This is a distribution of approximately
25 210Po radiohalos for every 214Po and every four 238U radiohalos. Thus >210Po radiohalos are approximately as prolific in
the Stone Mountain monzogranite as they are in the Indian Hill and other monzogranites, while the muscovite-biotite
granodiorite core of the La Posta pluton has less than approximately one quarter of the number of radiohalos found in the
genetically and spatially related Indian Hill and other monzogranites.
Table 1. Compilation of the Po, U, and th radiohalos counted in samples from the three granitic plutons.
Pluton

Sample

Number
Slides

SMG-1

of

Radiohalos

Additional
Notes
(approximate
proportional radiohalo numbers)

210Po

214Po

218Po

238U

232th

30

192

11

(38:5:0:2:0)

SMG-2

30

90*

*4 in muscovite

SMG-3

30

222

(49:2:0:1:0)

SMG-4

30

138

SMG-5

30

179

36

26

(6:1:~0:1:0)

SMG-6

141

288

41

45

(6:1:0:1:0)

PRB-6

50

Hornblende-biotite facies

PRB-7

50

Large biotite facies

PRB-5

53

PRB-22

50

PRB-4

50

36

PRB-20

30

15

PRB-24

50

18

PRB-25

50

17

Muscovite-biotite facies

PRB-21

30

56

11

15

Indian Hill monzogranite

PRB-23

50

159

PRB-26

50

64

30

Other monzogranite

La Posta

PRB-27

50

Pegmatite

Cooma

RLG-2

41

373

44

418

37

(9:1:0:10:1)

Stone
Mountain

Small biotite facies

The single sample of the Cooma granodiorite yielded the largest numbers of radiohalos, as anticipated from the reported
occurrence of radiohalos around zircon and monazite inclusions in the biotite of this granodiorite.240However, unlike the
Stone Mountain monzogranite, the La Posta granodiorite, the Indian Hill and other monzogranites, 238U radiohalos are a
little more prolific than 210Po radiohalos, and 232Th radiohalos are found around monazite radiocenters. In the 41 slides
examined there were approximately nine 210Po radiohalos to every one 214Po radiohalo, every ten 238U radiohalos and
every one 232Th radiohalo. So Po radiohalos are far more prolific in the Cooma granodiorite. The ratio 210Po:214Po of 9:1 in
the Cooma granodiorite is similar to that in the Stone Mountain monzogranite, although there is an average of
approximately four 210Po radiohalos per slide in the six Stone Mountain monzogranite samples compared to nine 210Po
radiohalos per slide in the single sample of Cooma granodiorite. Similarly, for comparison, whereas there are only
approximately three 238U radiohalos in every ten slides of the Stone Mountain monzogranite, there are at least 100 238U
radiohalos in every ten slides of the Cooma granodiorite.
Discussion
Flood Origin of these Granitic Plutons
It is arguably beyond dispute that these three granitic plutons were intruded as hot magmas during the Flood, and that
therefore these radiohalos found in them formed subsequently, during the Flood and thereafter. Froede241 believes that
the Stone Mountain granitic magma formed as a result of the mixing of some remelted original primordial granite which
melted surrounding rocks and sediments and suggests that possibly the source magma of Stone Mountain was derived
from deep within the crust during the tectonic event identified as the Alleghenian Orogeny (a Flood generated orogenic
event). However, the only evidence presented for these claims is that the Stone Mountain granite is compositionally
different from all of the other granites in the area. Nevertheless, Froede is convinced by the field evidence that the Stone
Mountain monzogranite was intruded as a hot magma during the Flood and then cooled rapidly, as evidenced by the
plutons mineralogical and compositional homogeneity and its uniform grain size. Indeed, experimental work has shown
that plutonic rocks with crystal sizes similar to those found in the Stone Mountain pluton can be grown in a matter of days
or weeks.242 Furthermore, there is field evidence of contact metamorphism and metasomatism,243, 244 so there is
agreement that the Stone Mountain pluton formed by the intrusion of a hot granitic magma. However, based on
geochemical, mineralogical and structural evidence the source of this granitic magma is undoubtedly the nearby Lithonia
Gneiss,245, 246 which itself appears to be a product of the regional metamorphism of the host rocks to the pluton.
Indeed, isotopic evidence suggests that the same regional metamorphic event responsible for the Lithonia Gneiss and the
metasediments that host the pluton was also responsible for the partial melting of the Lithonia Gneiss itself, conventional
K-Ar ages obtained from its micas being within the range of radioisotopic ages obtained for the Stone Mountain
monzogranite.247, 248, 249, 250, 251 This still leaves unanswered the question of when the precursor sediments were
deposited, but U-Pb ages of about 480 Ma for zircon grains in the Lithonia Gneiss252 probably indicate these are detrital

zircon grains inherited from the original sediments, which were thus probably deposited early in the Flood. This is
consistent with the time of deposition of the fossiliferous sediments now making up strata in the Appalachians, including
these metasediments in the Piedmont of Georgia.253The rocks into which the plutons of the Peninsular Ranges Batholith,
including the La Posta pluton, have intruded are metasedimentary units that include the pelitic and psammitic schists and
gneisses of the roof pendant in the La Posta pluton into which the Indian Hill monzogranite pluton has intruded (fig.
2).254, 255 These metasedimentary rocks are part of the sandstone-shale belt of Gastil,256 a flysch-type sequence which
extends southward through Baja California and which in southern California was named the Julian Schist by
Hudson.257 While the relative age of the Julian Schist is poorly constrained, an ammonite imprint found on a piece of
quartzite within the Julian Schist has been identified as triassic (Hudson), and Upper triassic mollusks are reported from
part of the sandstone-shale belt in the northern part of the Peninsular Ranges Batholith.258 These fossils therefore attest
to the sediment precursors of the pre-batholithic metasedimentary rocks having been deposited during the Flood.
Evidence that the La Posta pluton was intruded as a hot granitic magma includes the narrow discontinuous border facies
where the pluton cooled against the older granitic rocks it intruded, and the contact metamorphic effects on marbles in the
metasedimentary roof pendant immediately adjacent to the pluton at Dos Cabezas.259 Thus the La Posta pluton was
probably intruded into the metamorphosed Flood-deposited sediments towards the end of the Flood. Though much of this
granitic magma was undoubtedly sourced from oceanic crust that was partially melted after being metamorphosed during
subduction near the margin of the overlying North American continental crust, there is evidence of contamination of the
ascending diapir with this older metasedimentary continental crust (inheritance of detrital zircon grains) to produce the Stype muscovite-biotite granodiorite core of the pluton.260, 261 This subduction would have been a part of the global
tectonic movements late in the Flood, and the oceanic crust being subducted would likely have been new oceanic crust
generated during the Flood,262 so both sources for the granitic magma that produced the La Posta pluton were formed
and deposited during the Flood. Heat from the intrusion of the La Posta pluton appears to have been responsible for
partial melting of the metasediments (Julian Schist) into which it was intruding, and this melt was first injected as
pegmatites before the main body of granitic magma that had been generated intruded as the Indian Hill and the other
garnetiferous muscovite-biotite monzogranite plutons (fig. 2).263, 264
There is a strong general concensus based on overwhelming evidence that the source of the hot granitic magma that
cooled to form the Cooma pluton was partial melting of the high-grade metamorphic gneisses and migmatites that are
adjacent to the pluton.265, 266, 267 Indeed, the boundary of the granodiorite with the surrounding migmatites is
gradational, and the granodiorite pluton is central to the metamorphic zones around it that therefore represent a regional
aureole to the pluton. The metasediments can in turn be traced outwards from the pluton through the decreasing grade
regional metamorphic zones to the adjacent original Ordivician sedimentary rocks, turbidites that are predominantly
clay/quartz mixtures of shales and greywackes which elsewhere in the Lachlan Fold Belt contain an abundance of
graptolite fossils.268 Detrital zircon grains with inherited U-Pb ages, found in both the Cooma granodiorite and the
surrounding metasediments from which it is derived,269 are similarly found in these fossiliferous Ordovician sediments
elsewhere in the Lachlan Fold Belt.270 Thus it is beyond dispute that these sediments, which were the source via partial
melting of the Cooma granodiorite, were first deposited early during the Flood, and the granitic magma was intruded as a
hot diapir at the heart of this regional metamorphic complex also during the Flood.
Implications
Having established that the granitic rocks of these three plutons were not only intruded as hot magmas and cooled during
the Flood, but that the sources of these were Flood-deposited sediments and oceanic crust formed during the Flood (for
much of the La Posta magma), the radiohalos found in the biotite grains within these granitic rocks need to be understood
within the framework of the year-long Flood about 4,500 years ago. There are a number of immediate implications. First,
the presence of so many dark, fully-formed (mature) 238U radiohalos in these granitic rocks (and232Th radiohalos also in
the Cooma granodiorite) indicates that at least 100 million years worth of radioactive decay at todays
rates271, 272, 273, 274 has occurred in these granitic rocks since the biotites in them cooled sufficiently to record the decays from the parent 238U (and 232Th) in the tiny zircon (and monazite) inclusions in the biotites. Because these granitic
rocks mostly formed from sediments deposited early in the Flood year, this implies that this would be a minimum estimate
of the amount of radioactive decay that occurred during the Flood. Indeed, the La Posta pluton probably formed near the
end of the Flood year, and yet the biotites in its granodiorite core and in its genetically and spatially related Indian Hill
monzogranite pluton still record at least 100 million years worth of radioactive decay at todays rates. Thus these U and
Th radiohalos are a physical, integral, historical record of at least 100 million years worth (at todays rates) of accelerated
radioactive decay during the Flood and its accumulated rock record.275, 276, 277This, in turn, implies that all conventional
radioisotopic dating of these rocks, which relies on the assumption of constant decay rates, is grossly in error.
Furthermore, the large pulse of heat flow generated by the accelerated decay would have helped to initiate and drive
global tectonic processes during the Flood year and to accomplish catastrophically much geologic work, including regional
metamorphism and anatexis of crustal and mantle rocks to produce granitic and other magmas.Second, because the
granitic rocks in these plutons are not primordial, that is, formed by fiat creation, the Po that parented the Po radiohalos
found in the biotites in them cannot have been primordial either. Thus the hypothesis that the three different types of Po
radiohalos found in biotites always represent the decay of primordial Po (original Po not derived by Udecay)278, 279, 280, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285 has been falsified, as has the related hypothesis that any granitic rocks in
which Po radiohalos are found must be primordial rocks produced by fiat creation. This is, to say the least, extremely
disappointing, because so many young-earth creationists (the present authors included) have in the past often used the
Po radiohalos as evidence of fiat creation of the rocks containing them. Nevertheless, the falsifying of this hypothesis
does not in any way falsify the general creation hypothesis But it does illustrate that the science built on that belief is
subject to the normal rules of the scientific method, in particular, the making of predictions and the proposing of
hypotheses that can be either verified or falsified. However, the presence of the Po radiohalos in these granitic rocks,
which formed during the Flood by the cooling of hot magmas produced by the melting of Flood-deposited sediments,
remains an enigma that still requires an explanation.
The Source of the U-Decay Products
The fact that the radiohalos are not homogeneously distributed in the La Posta pluton potentially provides another clue,
for even though biotite is present throughout the pluton it is in the muscovite-biotite granodiorite core where most of the
radiohalos are found. Indeed, the Stone Mountain monzogranite, the Indian Hill monzogranite and the Cooma granodiorite
are all muscovite-biotite granitic rocks similar to the muscoviteboitite granodiorite in the core of the La Posta pluton, so
this suggests that the mineral and chemical composition of the granitic rocks determines their radiohalo content.
Obviously, U and Th must be present, concentrated in accessory minerals such as zircon and monazite within biotite
flakes. The apparent correlation between the presence of muscovite and the radiohalos suggests that the source of the
granitic magma, which then largely controls the composition of the granitic rock, is crucial. The common factor between all

these muscovite-biotite granodiorites and monzogranites in these plutons is that their magmas were sourced in
sedimentary rocks containing detrital zircon grains, sedimentary rocks that were first metamorphosed before anatexis
extracted granitic magmas from them. These are then known as S-type granitic rocks, and the presence of muscovite in
them is indicative of that classification. Furthermore, U-Pb isotopic data on zircons in these monzogranites and
granodiorites confirms inheritance of zircons that were detrital grains in the original sediments. It is also significant that
muscovite-biotite, or two-mica, granitic rocks often contain above average concentrations of U, and may even contain
accessory uraninite.286, 287 Indeed, two-mica granites are spatially and genetically associated with hydrothermal vein
uranium deposits in western Europe and North America, the granitic rocks being favorable sources of leachable U by
hydrothermal fluids in the late stages of the cooling of the plutons.
However, none of these granitic plutons (the Stone Mountain, La Posta, Indian Hill, and Cooma plutons) is known either
for its accessory uraninite grains or for being associated with, or even hosting, hydrothermal vein uranium deposits. The
only exception is a reference to the occurrence of a secondary uranium mineral, uranophane, associated with the Stone
Mountain pluton.288 This indicates that there must have been leachable U in this pluton, which in this instance must have
been dissolved and concentrated by, and precipitated from, supergene ground waters. So if U has been leached from the
Stone Mountain pluton simply by oxidizing ground waters near the earths surface, it is almost certain that more highly
reactive hydrothermal fluids, produced both from the crystallizing and cooling magma and by the influx of water contained
within the country rocks being intruded,289 would have been even more capable of leaching and transporting U and its
decay products through the monzogranite and its constituent minerals.Now if these monzogranite and granodiorite plutons
do not contain accessory U minerals, then what may have been the source of leachable U in them? Clearly, the answer is
obvious, given that the 238U radiohalos in the biotites of these granitic rocks all surround tiny inclusions of zircon. For
example, in the Cooma granodiorite Williams290 found that the U content of the zircon grains ranged from 20 to 831 ppm,
while the monazite grains ranged from 1281 to 7222 ppm U. However, of even greater significance to the present
discussion is that Williams found that in the Cooma metamorphic complex the detrital monazite in the metasediments
began to dissolve at lower amphibolite facies and virtually disappeared by upper amphibolite facies. At conditions above
the upper amphibolite facies it began to regrow. Thus, whereas the detrital monazite U-Pb ages survived through to the
mid-amphibolite facies, at higher grades the monazite grains only record the metamorphism and granite genesis.
Similarly, while the detrital zircon was unaffected by metamorphism until the inception of partial melting when new zircon
precipitated as overgrowths on the surfaces of the detrital grains, the U-Pb ages of these overgrowths record the
metamorphism and granite genesis, in contrast to the preserved and modified detrital zircon U-Pb ages. Thus as a result
of the dissolving of both monazite and zircon grains as the metamorphic grade increased towards partial melting and
genesis of the granitic magma, U and its decay products would have been released into solution and were not all
incorporated into the new growth of monazite and zircon, as evidenced by the resetting of the U-Pb ages. In particular,
this implies that the U-decay products that had accumulated in the detrital zircons and monazites prior to the
metamorphism and anatexis were not incorporated in the new growth of zircon and monazite, being therefore free to
migrate dissolved in the hydrothermal fluids of the magma as it crystallized and cooled.Similarly, the Stone Mountain
monzogranite, the La Posta granodiorite core and the Indian Hill monzogranite all have evidence of inherited detrital
zircon grains in which the U-Pb isotopic system was reset by metamorphism and anatexis of the source sediments. The
U-decay products released from these zircons during magma genesis were thus separated from their parent U and free to
migrate within the melt. Upon cooling and crystallization of the melt, the U-decay products would then migrate into the
hydrothermal fluids also released by the cooling magma. Thus the available zircon U-Pb isotopic data for these granitic
rocks291, 292, 293, 294 unambiguous evidence of the isotopic separation of U-decay products, including Po isotopes, from
their parent 238U. These decay products were then available in large quantities within the zircon grains that had been
incorporated into the S-type granitic rocks from their sediment precursors. This process thus eliminates one of the claimed
formidable obstacles to any secondary transport of Po isotopes into radiocenters within biotite flakes to subsequently form
the Po radiohalos.295 This isotopic separation process has been demonstrated to occur naturally.
Hydrothermal Fluid transport
Quite obviously none of the radiohalos could form until the biotite crystals had formed and cooled sufficiently to preserve
the -particle tracks (with no erasure by thermal annealing). The fact that Po (and also U and Th, of course) radiohalos
are found in the biotites of these granitic rocks indicates that these radiohalos formed below the temperature at which
radiohalos are thermally erased from biotite. The only available data suggests that thermal erasure of radiohalos in biotite
occurs at and above 150C.296, 297 This temperature corresponds to that of hydrothermal fluids. Depending on the depth
of emplacement during magma intrusion, 150C is well below the temperature of second boiling and magma degassing,
when the water and volatiles held in solution in the magma are released.298, 299 Of course, hydrothermal transport of Udecay products such as Ra, Rn, and Po would have all started as soon as hydrothermal fluids formed at temperatures
above 150C at which thermal erasure of -tracks occurs. There would be no record of decay product passage at those
elevated temperatures between or within mineral grains in the granitic rocks, because the -tracks (and fission tracks, if U
were also being transported) would be erased. Some time would thus elapse during pluton cooling for the dissolved
isotopes to diffuse some distance in the flowing hydrothermal fluids and to become concentrated in new radiocenters
without leaving any trace of their passage. The only stipulation demanded by the observable evidence is that by the time
the temperature dropped below the radiohalo thermal erasure level (around 150C in biotite) the species held in the new
radiocenters must be only one of the three Po isotopes. There is no evidence of any other -emitters in the Po
radiohalos.300, 301It would thus seem plausible to postulate initial formation of the new radiocenters by transport of 226Ra
and/or 222Rn, as their half-lives (1,622 years and 3.8 days respectively) allow more time for the transport process than the
3.1 minute half-life of 218Po. This 3.1 minute half-life was initially regarded as an obstacle to any secondary transport
process. Both Ra and Rn are readily soluble in water, with Rn primarily as a gas and Ra probably bonding with
halides.302However, Po is also readily transported in hydrothermal fluids as halide and sulfate complexes.303 Halide and
sulfate species are common in hydrothermal fluids.304 Not only is Rn a gas, but its diffusion coefficient of 0.985 cm2 day1(1.14 10-5 cm2 sec-1) at a water temperature of only 18 C305 is comparable with the diffusion coefficient for 218Po of
7.9 10-2 cm2 sec-1 in nitrogen gas at ambient temperatures with an 80% relative humidity.306 By comparison, Pb has a
diffusion coefficient within seven different minerals of 10-18 cm2 sec-1.307 Furthermore, biotite has a sheet structure with a
perfect cleavage which preferentially and readily facilitates the passage of fluids through the mineral structure, in contrast
to minerals that rarely contain radiohalos. Gentry et al.308 maintained that in minerals the diffusion coefficients are so low
that there is a negligible probability for atoms of the Po isotopes to migrate even 1 m through the mineral structures
before decaying; but this argument would be irrelevant if the diffusion were occurring in hydrothermal fluids flowing along
the cleavage planes in the biotite flakes.However, Gentry309, 310 has maintained that Po radiohalos do not occur along
cracks or conduits in biotite, pointing to the photographic evidence.311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 316, 317 This assertion is
emphatically incorrect. Biotite flakes are peeled apart along their cleavage planes when mounting them for observation

and photography, which is why cracks or defects are not usually seen. Thus radiohalos in biotites are always on cleavage
planes, which are ready made cracks in the biotites crystal structure that provide conduits for the flow of fluids.In any
case, how far do the hydrothermal fluids have to carry the 222Rn and/or 218Po? Because the source of these isotopes is
the zircon crystals within the biotite flakes, and the resultant Po radiohalos are also in the same or adjacent biotite flakes
(which is readily apparent from the microscope examination of normal rock thin sections where the total rock fabric is in
view), the transport distances can be measured in the micron (m) to millimeters (mm) range. These distances would
easily be accomplished within the 3.8 day half-life of 222Rn with its diffusion coefficient of 1.14 10 -5cm2 sec-1 (0.985
cm2 day-1) in water at 18 C. The diffusion rate would be much faster in water at 150200 C. By contrast, even
though 218Po has a similarly fast diffusion rate, because of the much shorter half-life of 218Po (only 3.1 minutes)
hydrothermal transport of 222Rn would seem the most likely means of transporting the descendant Po isotopes to the new
radiocenters. Brown318 favored 226Ra to allow even more time for the required transport, yet he calculated that given a
constant supply of 226Ra in a hydrothermal fluid the equilibrium concentrations in the fluid of all three Po isotopes would be
reached in about 100 years after a zero-level starting point. However, we would consider that the timeframe for 226Ra
transport is longer than the timeframe allowable for the cooling of the granitic rocks from the temperatures at which the
biotites crystallize (and include the zircon grains) and at which the hydrothermal fluids are exsolved, to the temperature at
which -tracks are thermally erased. All this cooling had to have occurred within much less than the year of the Flood,
given that most, if not all, of the erosion that has exposed these plutons to the earths surface occurred at the close of the
Flood, only months after the intrusion and cooling of the granitic magmas earlier in the Flood year (probably only weeks
earlier in the case of the La Posta and Indian Hill plutons). In our opinion, this restrictive timeframe would rule out 226Ra
(half-life 1,622 years) as the species transported in the hydrothermal fluids. Instead, the fast diffusion rate of
gaseous 222Rn (half-life 3.8 days) would appear to be adequate for a timeframe of only days for its transport by
hydrothermal fluids while the granitic rocks were cooling through the temperatures of thermal erasure of -tracks.
Supply of Sufficient Polonium
The next question to resolve is whether this proposed transport mechanism would supply enough 218Po to the new
radiocenters to subsequently produce the Po radiohalos? Gentry319 has calculated that the radiocenters of very
dark218Po radiohalos, for example, may have needed to contain as much as 5 109 atoms (a concentration of more than
50%) of 218Po, which he maintained needed to be in the radiocenters at the time of their formation to subsequently be
successful in producing the 218Po radiohalos. However, this calculation is based on fiat creation of the 218Po as primordial
within the radiocenters, a hypothesis that we have argued here from the observable data is falsified. On the other hand,
the 222Rn hydrothermal fluid transport model does not require 5 109 atoms of 218Po to be delivered to each radiocenter
all at the same time. Fluid flow could have progressively supplied this quantity over a period of days, the 218Po atoms
decaying at any given time in the radiocenter being replaced by more 218Po atoms from the flowing hydrothermal fluids. All
that is required is a steady hydrothermal fluid flow with a constant supply of Rn and Po, together with favorable conditions
at deposition sites that became the radiocenters.Given that some of the apparent U-Pb ages of the detrital zircons in
these granitic plutons are extremely high, being equivalent to hundreds of millions of years worth of decay at todays
rates, the implication is that the zircons also held within them relatively large concentrations of all the U-decay products in
equilibrium at the time of metamorphism, anatexis, magma generation, and subsequent cooling. It has been calculated
that in one gram of 238>U there are 2.53 1021 atoms. In radioactive equilibrium with its decay products, there would be
associated 9.11 1014 atoms of 226Ra, 5.8 109 atoms of 222Rn, 3.22 106 atoms of 218Po, less than 3 atoms of 214Po,
and 2.13 1011 atoms of 210Po.320Thus, even when the zircon grains only have U concentrations of hundreds of ppm, the
relative numbers of 222Rn atoms would still be high and sufficient to deliver the needed concentrations of Po to the new
radiocenters. This of course assumes that hundreds of millions of years worth of radioactive decay at todays rates had
occurred in these zircon grains prior to the Flood, an assumption which is verified by the presence of mature U radiohalos
in pre-Flood (Precambrian) granitic rocks (for example, Gentry,321, 322, 323, 324 Henderson,325 Henderson and
Turnbull,326Holmes,327 Kerr-Lawson,328, 329 Stark,330 Wiman,331 Wise332). Thus a sufficient number of 222Rn atoms
would have been available to supply the new radiocenters with the needed concentrations of 218Po atoms, perhaps even
supplemented by hydrothermal fluid transport of some 218Po atoms before they decayed. It would also seem possible that
because of the even larger number of 210Po atoms also available (2.13 1011 210Po atoms for every 2.53 1021238U
atoms) that some of these might also have been transported in the hydrothermal fluids, given the longer half-life of 210Po
(138 days compared with the 3.8 days of 222Rn) and the probable similar diffusion rate. This concurrent hydrothermal fluid
transport of 210Po may be needed to explain the high numbers of observed 210Po radiohalos in the biotites of these granitic
rocks compared to the numbers of 214Po radiohalos (ratios varying from about 6:1 to 69:1), which are usually similar to the
numbers of 238U radiohalos (except in the Cooma granodiorite). Such hydrothermal fluid transport of 210Po has in fact
been documented, with hydrothermal fluid transport of 210Po having been measured over distances of up to several
kilometers and transit times of 2030 days.333, 334transport
Timescale
In determining the timescale for the hydrothermal fluid transport of 222Rn and for the establishment of new radiocenters for
subsequent radiohalo development, the almost complete absence of 218Po radiohalos in the biotites of these granitic rocks
must be significant (only two 218Po radiohalos have been observed in one of the Stone Mountain monzogranite samples).
This would seem to indicate that while the other Po radiohalos were produced, there was insufficient time for the transport
of sufficient U-decay products to establish significant new centers containing 218Po atoms to produce 218Po radiohalos. On
the other hand, transport was slow enough for most 218Po atoms to decay in transit before reaching the sites where 210Po
was redeposited.It is also evident that the extremely short half-life of 214Po (164 microseconds) gives it a lower probability
of surviving transport than 210Po has, so 214Po radiohalos were not always formed compared with radiohalos from the
longer-lived 210Po atoms. Because the same pattern of six or more 210Po radiohalos to every 214Po radiohalo is found in
almost every sample from these three granitic plutons (plus the subsidiary associated Indian Hill and other monzogranite
plutons) there must be a common factor in operation that needs an explanation, such as the one given here. In other
words, the pattern in the ratios of quantities of the different Po radiohalos evidently is directly related to the transport
mode, distance and time. This observation supports the secondary transport model for the separation of the Po isotopes
from their parent 238U in the formation of the three discrete types of Po radiohalos.
Establishment of New Radiocenters
The final question that needs answering is how do the new radiocenters become established? Together with hydrothermal
fluid transport, there needs to be a mechanism by which the Po isotopes are concentrated at particular locations that
become discrete radiocenters. transport may be as 222Rn, but radon is an inert gas and has no chemical affinity with other
species, so there is no chemical propensity for it to concentrate at discrete locations. Thus it would appear that the
radiocenters could only have formed after the 222Rn had decayed to 218Po. This is consistent with only Po isotopes having
been in the radiocenters, since only rings equivalent to -emissions from the Po isotopes surround the radiocenters. Po

behaves geochemically similar to Pb, with an affinity for S, Se, and halides, and even forms polonides with other
metals.335 Gentry et al.336 have demonstrated that where Pb, S, and Se were available in coalified wood, Po transported
through the coalified wood by fluids became attached to these species with which it has a chemical affinity, and became
concentrated enough in radiocenters to produce 210Po radiohalos.Some biotites in granitic rocks that host hydrothermallyproduced porphyry Cu ore deposits have inclusions of native Cu 0.0020.01 m thick and up to 1.0 m in diameter in
favored lattice planes.337 These tiny Cu inclusions were evidently deposited from Cu-bearing hydrothermal fluids that
flowed along the cleavage planes within the biotite crystals. It is therefore reasonable to expect that the same
hydrothermal fluids responsible for transporting Ra, Rn, and Po would have also transported metal and other ions, just as
is observed,338 and would thus have similarly deposited tiny inclusions of metals and other elements along the cleavage
planes within biotites. Collins339 has correctly observed that the crystal lattice of biotite contains sites where negatively
charged halide or hydroxyl ions can be accommodated. These lattice sites and other imperfections found along cleavage
planes, being relatively large, would provide space for metal and other ions such as Po to enter and take up lattice
positions or be concentrated at particular discrete places along the cleavage planes where the chemical environment was
conducive. Collins also contended that the Po radiohalos formed as a result of the diffusion of 222Rn in ambient fluids
within the crystallizing granitic rocks. In this way Po was incorporated in discrete radiocenters along the cleavage planes
in the biotite flakes where suitable ions had been concentrated in lattice sites and crystal imperfections, and where the
chemical environment was conducive to Po being concentrated to form the discrete radiocenters. It needs to be
emphasized again that all the Po atoms required to give the desired high concentration of Po in the radiocenters to
produce the observed intensity of Po radiohalos do not have to be delivered by the fluid transport process at the same
time. As Po atoms decayed further fluid flow delivered more Po atoms to the radiocenters, where the metal or other ions
that had scavenged Po from the passing fluids had become free to scavenge more Po. Thus the required ring density is
reached by accumulation over a period of time, during which fluid flow continues and supply of Po atoms is available.
Model Predictions and Implications
It needs to be stressed that this secondary transport model for the origin of the Po-rich radiocenters and therefore the Po
radiohalos is tentative. Further data collection and analysis is needed. It is another hypothesis or model that is open to
either verification or falsification. The strength and usefulness of this model can be tested by its ability to make predictions
about future discoveries which can be tested. One predication that could be made is that Po radiohalos should be found
not only in granitic plutons, but also in regional metamorphic rocks. It has been argued here that some granitic plutons
containing Po radiohalos were derived from the regional metamorphic rocks adjacent to them, or associated with them;
and that the zircons, which were the source of the 238U-decay products that were transported by hydrothermal fluids to
form the Po radiohalos, were originally detrital zircons in the metasediments. Thus it is predicted that Po radiohalos
should be found, along with U and Th radiohalos, in the metamorphic rocks that surround, and were the source of, the
Cooma granodiorite. To have produced Po radiohalos the other required ingredient would have been the passage of
hydrothermal fluids through the biotite crystals containing the tiny zircon and monazite inclusions. Thus the finding of Po
radiohalos in these Cooma metamorphic rocks would also confirm the model for regional metamorphism in which
hydrothermal fluids circulated and permeated through sediment layers of differing mineralogy and composition to facilitate
the transformation of the precursor minerals to new metamorphic minerals now characteristic of each of the regional
metamorphic zones we observe in metamorphic complexes today.340, 341The presence of U and Th radiohalos in
metamorphic rocks has already been documented,342, 343 and there is also some tentative documentation of Po
radiohalos in high-grade metamorphic rocks.344 But concerted systematic observations now need to be made to verify
the geological distribution and occurrence of all types of radiohalos in appropriate metamorphic rocks.Verification of this
hydrothermal fluid transport model for the secondary formation of Po radiohalos in both granitic and metamorphic rocks
would have other far-reaching and powerful implications. Whereas it can be perceived as disappointing that the fiat
creation hypothesis for the Po radiohalos and their host granitic rocks has been falsified, the timescale considerations in
that hypothesis still remain. Any hydrothermal fluid transport model for the Po radiohalos must envisage extremely rapid
flow of hydrothermal fluids, along with extremely rapid cooling of the granitic magmas and metamorphic rockscooling
from the temperatures of their formation to below the temperature at which -tracks are thermally erased. It is in that
window of falling temperature that the fluid flow must occur to rapidly transport the Po isotopes and their precursors, and
the -tracks they make along their fluid flow paths must also be erased.345 The short 222Rn half-life requires this falling
temperature window to be very short time-wise. And this implies very rapid cooling of the granitic magmas and the
metamorphic rocks. The clear implication is that granitic plutons and metamorphic complexes that contain Po radiohalos
had to have cooled very rapidly. The hydrothermal fluids that transported the Po isotope precursors also rapidly
transferred the heat from the crystallizing and cooling granitic magmas, and away from the high grade metamorphic zones
to the outer limits of the metamorphic complexes.346, 347Thus it is contended that the presence of Po radiohalos in
granitic and metamorphic rocks implies an extremely short timescale for the formation and cooling of these rocks (days,
not weeks or years), a timescale consistent with the year of the catastrophic global Flood on a young earth.Finally,
because the Po radiohalos imply that rapid convective flows of hydrothermal fluids in granitic and metamorphic rocks
rapidly cooled them, they also imply that these flows would have been responsible for the rapid deposition of metallic ore
deposits.348 This implication encompasses all major classes of metallic ore deposits, ranging from porphyry Cu Au
Mo deposits hosted by granitic rocks to vein deposits of gold and other metals, and to massive sulfide deposits containing
base and other metals. Deposit sizes from small to giant at many distinctive strata levels throughout the global geological
record are included. Rather than disappointment and dismay at the failure of the hypothesis regarding the Po radiohalos
as evidence for fiat creation, we have powerful far-reaching implications for the rapid formation of granitic and other
plutonic rocks, regional metamorphic complexes, and metallic ore deposits on a global scale within the Flood year.
Conclusions
The discovery and documentation of the three types of Po radiohalos in the biotites within three granitic plutons that were
clearly sourced and formed during the Flood year falsifies the hypothesis for the formation of these Po radiohalos and
their host granitic rocks during the beginning . Furthermore, the presence of dark, mature U and Th radiohalos in the
same biotites in these same granitic rocks may be considered physical evidence of at least 100 million years worth of
radioactive decay at todays rates within a part of the Flood year. We consider this to be evidence of accelerated nuclear
decay during the catastrophic Flood. Accordingly, conventional radioisotopic dating of rocks based on the assumption of
constancy of decay rates is grossly in error. Furthermore, the heat generated by this accelerated nuclear decay would
have contributed to catastrophic tectonic and geologic processes during the Flood.Many related lines of evidence can be
brought together in development of a viable hydrothermal fluid transport model for the precursors to the Po isotopes
(principally 222Rn), and probably also some Po atoms themselves. Sourced from zircon and monazite grains already
included within biotite flakes, the hydrothermal fluids would have carried these isotopes only short distances along the
cleavage planes of the same and adjacent biotite flakes to deposition sites where the chemical environment was suitable

for concentration of the Po isotopes into radiocenters that then formed the Po radiohalos. The short half-lives of these
isotopes require the hydrothermal fluid transport and chemical concentration timeframes to have been extremely short
less than in the order of ten Po half-lives. Furthermore, after Po atoms are deposited at radiohalo sites, the temperature
must drop below the -track annealing temperature before radiohalos can form. This implies that the timescale for cooling
of the granitic plutons was also extremely short, measured in half-lives of these isotopes (days, not years).The possibility
of Po radiohalos, and thus also rapid hydrothermal fluid flows, in metamorphic rocks has powerful implications for the
rapid formation and cooling of regional metamorphic complexes. This needs further investigation. Additionally, the Po
radiohalo evidence for rapid hydrothermal fluid flow has far-reaching implications for the rapid deposition and formation of
many classes of metallic ore deposits hosted by, and associated with, granitic, other plutonic, and metamorphic rocks.
Thus the Po radiohalos are potentially powerful evidence for rapid geological processes within the year of the Flood on a
young earth.
Acknowledgments
Full acknowledgment is given to the ground-breaking, pioneer work on polonium radiohalos by Dr. Robert Gentry. We are
both personally indebted to Bob for the training and counsel he gave us on radiohalos that has enabled us to accomplish
this research project. We have both spent time in the field with Bob and received from him personal instruction on the
technique of mounting biotite flakes onto microscope slides. We would both have wished that the outcome of our research
could have corroborated Bobs conclusions. However, in disagreeing with him we still wish to recognize and emphasize
his essential pioneering research that was foundational to our research reported here. We are also grateful to Carl Froede
for assistance to obtain the Stone Mountain pluton samples, and grateful for the helpful comments of an anonymous
reviewer that greatly improved the readability of our paper. Finally, we acknowledge the gifts of the donors to the RATE
(Radioisotopes and the Age of The Earth) project that made this radiohalo research possible.
Implications of Polonium Radiohalos in Nested Plutons of the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite, Yosemite, California
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling and Dallel Gates on April 8, 2009
Abstract
The formation of granite plutons has conventionally been thought to be a slow process requiring millions of years from
generation to cooling. Even though new mechanisms for rapid emplacement of plutons have now been proposed,
radioisotope dating still dominates and dictates long timescales for pluton formation. However, a new challenge to those
long timescales has arisen from radiohalos. Polonium radiohalos found in biotite flakes of granites in Yosemite National
Park place severe time constraints on the formation and cooling of the granite plutons due to the short half-lives of the
polonium isotopes. The biotite flakes must have formed and cooled below 150C before the polonium supply was
exhausted and the radiohalos could be preserved, so the U decay had to be grossly accelerated and the formation of the
plutons had to be within 610 days. Furthermore, rapid cooling of the plutons was facilitated by the hydrothermal fluid
convection that rapidly generated the Po radiohalos, challenging conventional thinking that cooling is a slow process by
conduction. It is evident that there were greater volumes of hydrothermal fluids in the later central intrusions of the nested
plutons of the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite. So as expected, more Po radiohalos were generated in these plutons as they
were sequentially intruded, confirming the hydrothermal fluid transport model for Po radiohalo formation. Thus granite
pluton formation is consistent with the timescale of a young earth, and accelerated radioisotope decay renders the
absolute ages for these granite plutons grossly in error.
Shop Now
Keywords: Granite plutons, Yosemite National Park, Magma
emplacement, Magma cooling, Polonium radiohalos, Hydrothermal
fluids, Accelerated U decay, Nested plutons, Tuolumne Intrusive Suite,
Sequential emplacement, Explosive volcanism.
Introduction
Granites constitute a major portion of the continental crust. They outcrop
over many areas of the earths surface as discrete bodies called plutons,
ranging in size from 10 km2 to thousands of km2. The granite magmas
are believed to be sourced from great depths in the lower to mid levels
of the continental crust, but the plutons crystallize in the upper crust,
typically at depths of 15 km. Furthermore, granite plutons are often part
of batholiths, which are regional areas comprised of hundreds of
plutons.As far as can be ascertained, granite magmatism primarily
occurs in the continental crust and involves four separate but potentially
quantifiable
stagesgeneration,
segregation,
ascent,
and
emplacementthat operate over length scales ranging from 10-5 to 106 meters (Petford et al. 2000). Once in place, the
final stage is cooling. Explanations for the formation of even a single granite pluton have become somewhat controversial,
even in the conventional geologic community, as once held conventions are being challenged. No longer is research
focusing on just the mineralogy, geochemistry, and isotopes of granites as clues to their formation (which has hithertofore
supposedly required long timescales of millions of years), but on the physical processes as well. The results of such
research have drastically shortened the intrusion timescales of many plutons to just centuries and even months (Petford
et al. 2000).Various evidences are now being cited that change the long-held, extended time frames for granite formation
(Coleman, Gray, and Glazner 2004). Conventional thinking has been that plutons form from the slow rising of diapirs,
large molten masses that intrude into the host rocks and then cool. However, the problem of how the host rocks provide
the space for these intruding diapirs has been increasingly recognised. In contrast, there are field data that indicate
persuasively that plutons have formed from small batches of magma that accumulated in succession by dike intrusions.
This new thinking drastically reduces the timescales for magma intrusion to form granite plutons, but most geologists are
still convinced, based on their unerring commitment to radioisotope dating, that plutons require long uniformitarian time
frames to form and then to cool primarily by conduction. Thus, the formation and the cooling of granite plutons are still
regarded as prima facie evidences against the year-long, catastrophic global Flood on a young earth (Young and Stearley
2008).Granites are composed of several major minerals (quartz, K-feldspar, plagioclase, biotite, & hornblende), with minor
constituents such as zircon (zirconium silicate). Tiny zircon grains (15 microns in diameter) are often found encased
within large flakes (15 mm in diameter) of ubiquitous biotite. The zircon grains usually carry trace amounts of 238U,
whose radioactive decay has provided a means by which it is claimed the ages of granites can be measured.
Nevertheless, as the 238U in the zircon grains decays to 206Pb, it leaves physical evidence of that decay in the form of
radiohalos, spherical zones of discoloration around these zircon grains (the radiocenters). Radiohalos are, in fact, the
damage left by the emission of alpha (a) during the 238U decay process. The crystal structure of the surrounding biotite is

damaged by the a-particles being fired in all directions like bullets, producing various concentric shells of darkening or
discoloration (which are dark rings when viewed in cross-section). The radii of these concentric rings are related to the
energies of the a-decay daughters in the 238U decay series (fig. 1b).Of the different radiohalo types distinct from 238U
(and 232Th), presently the only ones to be identified with known a-radioactivity are the Po (polonium) radiohalos (fig. 1a, c,
d). There are three Po isotopes in the 238U-decay chain. In sequence they are 218Po (half-life of 3.1 minutes), 214Po (halflife of 164 microseconds), and 210Po (half-life of 138 days). Found also in fluorite and cordierite, these radiohalos could
only have been produced by either the respective Po radioisotopes that then parented the subsequent a-decays, or by
non- a-emitting parents (Gentry 1973, 1974). Because of the radiohalos being located along cleavages and cracks in
fluorite grains and biotite flakes, secondary fluid transport processes are thought to have been responsible for supplying
the required Po radioisotopes to the radiocentres. The reason for the attempts to account for the Po radiohalos by some
secondary process is simplethe half-lifes of the respective Po isotopes are so short that the only alternative is the Po
was primary, that is, the Po was independent of 238U originally in the granitic magmas which are supposed to have slowly
cooled to form the granite plutons. However, there are obstacles to any secondary process. First, there is the problem of
isotopic separation of the Po radioisotopes from their parent 238U having occurred naturally. Second, the concentration of
Po necessary to produce a radiohalo is as high as 5 x 10 9 atoms (approximately 50% Po), and yet the host minerals
contain only ppm abundances of U, which apparently means only a negligible supply of Po daughter atoms is available for
capture in a radiocenter at any given time.
Fig. 1. Composite schematic drawing of (a) a 218Po halo, (b)
a 238U halo, (c) a 214Po halo, and (d) a 210Po halo, with radii
proportional to the ranges of the a-particles in air. The nuclides
responsible for the a-particles are listed for the different halo
rings (after Gentry 1973).
Therefore, there are strict time limits for the formation of the Po
radiohalos by primary or secondary processes in granites. It was
for this reason that Gentry (1974, 1986, 1988) proposed that the
three different types of Po radiohalos in biotites resulted from the
decay of primordial Po (original Po not derived by 238U decay),
and thus claimed that the host granites also had to be primordial,
that is produced by fiat creation. He thus perceived all granites to
be Precambrian, and part of the earths crust created during the
beginning . However, Wise (1989) documented that six of the 22
locations reported in the literature where Po radiohalos had been
found were hosted by Phanerozoic granites which had been formed during the Flood. Additionally, many of the
occurrences of Po radiohalos were in proximity to higher than normal U concentrations in nearby rocks and/or minerals,
suggesting ideal sources for fluid separation and transport of the Po. Indeed, Snelling (2000) documented reports of 210Po
as a detectable species in volcanic gases, in volcanic/hydrothermal fluids associated with subaerial volcanoes and
fumaroles, and associated with mid-ocean ridge hydrothermal vent fluids and chimney deposits, as well as in
groundwaters. The distances travelled by the Po in these fluids were up to several kilometres. Such evidence supports a
viable secondary transport model for Po in hydrothermal fluids in granite plutons after their emplacement and during the
waning stages of the crystallization and cooling of granite magmas (Snelling 2005a; Snelling and Armitage 2003; Snelling,
Baumgardner, and Vardiman 2003).Po radiohalos thus appear to indicate that very rapid geological processes were
responsible for their production, due to their very short half-lifes. This places severe time constraints on the processes by
which granites can form, that is, granites had to form rapidly in much shorter time periods than is conventionally
interpreted from the longer half-life of238U decay (4.46 x 109 years). The potential problems thus arise with the
conventional interpretation of isotopic systems and/or plutonic processes. Glazner, et al. (2004) have stated:The
prevailing view that plutons cool in less than a million years requires such conflicting ages to reflect the problems in
isotopic systematics. However, it may be that many such age differences are real and that the problem lies instead with
assumptions about plutonic processes.However, the existence of Po radiohalos in granite plutons supports the convention
that plutonic processes occurred in very short time frames, so the problem has to be with the interpretation of the isotopic
systematics, a concern echoed by Paterson and Tobisch (1992). Snelling (2005a), Snelling and Armitage (2003), and
Snelling, Baumgardner, and Vardiman (2003) have proposed a model for the secondary transport of Po in hydrothermal
fluids to form Po radiohalos during pluton cooling, so it needs to be recognized just how rapidly plutonic processes must
have occurred.
A classic location for the widespread outcropping of granites is in the Sierra Nevada of eastern Central California (fig. 2).
Known as the Sierra Nevada Batholith, hundreds of granite plutons outcrop over an area of 40,00045,000 km2. The
batholith is conventionally of Mesozoic age, and lies along the western edge of the Paleozoic North American craton
(Bateman 1992). It was emplaced in strongly deformed but weakly metamorphosed strata ranging in conventional age
from Proterozoic to Cretaceous. To the east of the batholith in the White and Inyo Mountains, sedimentary rocks of
Proterozoic and Paleozoic age crop out, and metamorphosed sedimentary volcanic rocks of Paleozoic and Mesozoic age
crop out west of the batholith in the western metamorphic belt. The plutonic rocks of the batholith range in composition
from gabbro to leucogranite, but tonalite, granodiorite, and granite are the most common rock types. Most of the plutons
have been assigned to intrusive suites that appear to be spatially related to one another by being intruded sequentially
and thus show regular age patterns.In the central Sierra Nevada are the spectacular granite outcrops of the Yosemite
National Park (fig. studies on granites and the formation (Bateman 3), so these have been the focus of many previous
1992). This present study investigates the occurrence and distribution of U and Po radiohalos in the biotites of selected
granite plutons in various, easily accessed outcrops in Yosemite National Park and shows how they provide evidence and
support of the rapid formation of these granites. A particular focus was the set of nested plutons of the Tuolumne Intrusive
Suite, which in contrast to the other granite plutons appear to have been intruded in a progressive sequence to form a
very large zoned pluton.
Generation, Emplacement and Cooling of Granites
The generation of granite magmas and emplacement of granite plutons are still topics of debate among geologists today
(Pitcher 1993). In recent years, a consensus has emerged that granite magmatism is a rapid, dynamic process operating
at timescales of 100,000 years (Paterson and Tobisch 1992; Petford et al. 2000). Petford et al. (2000) state that research
into the origin of granite has shifted away from geochemistry and isotopic studies towards understanding the physical
processes involved. Heat advected into the lower crust from underlying hot mantle-derived basaltic magmas would rapidly
and efficiently cause partial melting of crustal rocks, producing enough melt in 200 years or less to form a granite magma
that can then be transported to the area of emplacement in the upper crust (Bergantz 1989; Huppert and Sparks 1988;

Jackson, Cheadle, and Atherton 2003).Transport of the melt and magma (melt plus suspended solids) operates over two
length scales (Miller, Watson, and Harrison 1988). First, segregation is small-scale movement of melt (centimeters to
decimeters) within the source region. Second, once the melt is segregated, long-range (kilometer-scale) ascent of the
magma through the continental crust to the site of final emplacement occurs. Crucial physical properties of a granite melt
that facilitate its segregation are viscosity and density. Traditionally, granite melt has been thought to have a viscosity
close to that of solid rock, but experimental studies have now demonstrated that the viscosity is a function of the
composition, temperature and water content of the melt (Clemens and Petford 1999; Pitcher 1993).
Fig. 2. Generalized geology of the Sierra Nevada and adjacent areas
of eastern California, showing the location of the Yosemite National
Park (after Bateman 1992).
Deformation has been shown from field evidence to be the dominant
mechanism that segregates and focuses granite melt flow in the
lower crust, and this has been confirmed by rock deformation
experiments (Brown and Rushmer 1997; Rutter and Neumann 1995).
However, the proven efficiency of melt segregation by deformation
makes it unlikely that large, granite magma chambers will form in the
region of partial melting (Petford 1995; Petford and Koenders 1998).
Instead, the most viable driving force for subsequent large-scale
vertical transport of the melt through the continental crust is gravity.
However, the traditional idea of buoyant granite magma ascending
through the continental crust as slow-rising, hot diapirs or by stoping
has been largely replaced. New models involving the ascent of
granite magmas in narrow conduits, either as self-propagating dikes
(Clemens and Mawer 1992; Clemens, Petford, and Mawer 1997;
Petford 1995) along pre-existing faults (Petford, Kerr, and Lister
1993; Yoshinobu, Okaya, and Paterson 1998) or as an
interconnected network of active shear zones and dilational
structures (Collins and Sawyer 1996; DLemos, Brown, and Strachan
1993), are overcoming the severe thermal and mechanical problems
associated with transporting very large volumes of magma through
the upper brittle continental crust (Marsh 1982).
A striking aspect of the ascent of granite melt in dikes compared to
diapiric rise is the extreme difference in magma ascent rate between
both processes, with the former up to a factor of 106 faster depending upon the viscosity of the material and conduit width
(Clemens, Petford, and Mawer 1997; Petford, Kerr, and Lister 1993). In fact, field and experimental studies support the
narrow dike widths (~150 m) and rapid ascent velocities predicted by fluid dynamical models (Brandon, Chacko, and
Creaser 1996; Scalliet et al. 1994). Thus these dike ascent models have brought the timescale for granite magmatism
more in line with that for large scale and volume catastrophic volcanism.

Fig. 3. Scenic views in the Yosemite National Park. The total landscape is composed of many outcropping granite plutons
that have intruded one another.
The final stage, emplacement, in the granite forming process has challenged geologists for most of the twentieth century
with the so-called space problem (Glazner et al. 2003; Pitcher 1993), the way in which the host rocks make room for the
newly incoming magma. This problem becomes all the more acute where batholithic volumes (>1 x 10 5 km3) of granite
magma are considered to have been emplaced in a single episode. However, the recognition of the important role played
by tectonic activity in making space in the crust for incoming magmas during their ascent has helped to potentially solve
this problem (Hutton 1988). Also contributing to the solution have been the more realistic determinations of the geometry
of granite plutons at depth, and the recognition that emplacement is an episodic process involving discrete pulses of
magma. The majority of plutons so far investigated appear as flat-lying to open funnel-shaped structures with central or
marginal feeder zones, consistent with field studies that have demonstrated plutons to be sheeted on a decimeter to
kilometer scale (Ameglio and Vigneresse 1999; Bouchez, Hutton, and Stephens 1997; Hutton 1992; Petford 1992). Thus
the best comprehensive model of pluton emplacement, combining all empirical studies, envisages pluton growth

commencing with a birth stage, characterized by lateral spreading, followed by an inflation stage, marked by vertical
thickening. This would result in plutons, at the fastest magma delivery rates, being emplaced in less than 1,000 years
(Harris and Ayres 2000). Petford et al. (2000) concluded with the comment:The rate-limiting step in granite magmatism is
the timescale of partial melting (Harris Vance, and Ayers 2000; Petford, Clemens, and Vigneresse 1997); the follow-on
stages of segregation, ascent and emplacement can be geologically extremely rapidperhaps even catastrophic.Once
emplaced the magma must crystallize completely and cool to form the final granite pluton. Traditionally this process has
been considered to have been primarily by conduction, thus taking millions of years. However, more recently, cooling
models have increasingly incorporated convective cooling as the major component (Norton and Knight 1977; Parmentier
1981; Spera 1982; Torrance and Sheu 1978), and empirical studies (Brown 1987; Hardee 1982) have proved that thick
igneous bodies do in fact cool primarily by circulating water (Snelling and Woodmorappe 1998). Thus, computer programs
have been used to generate the most recent models for cooling plutons (Hayba and Ingebritsen 1997; Ingebritsen and
Hayba 1994).The initial source of the water required for this convective cooling is within the magma itself, the same water
dissolved in the magma that lowered its viscosity and thus aided its emplacement. As the granite crystallizes the dissolved
water becomes concentrated in the residual magma, which increases its cooling rate. When the residual magma
eventually becomes saturated with water as the temperature continues to fall, the water is released as steam under
pressure that is thus forced through the cooling granite pluton fracturing its outer contact zone, and out into the host rocks
through those fractures carrying heat with it (Burnham 1997; Candela 1991; Zhao and Brown 1992). This in turn allows
any cooler water present in the host rocks to flow through those same fractures back into the granite pluton, thus setting
up a convective cell circulation between the host rocks and the pluton (Cathles 1977). This facilitates the rapid increase of
the cooling process, as more and more heat is carried by these hydrothermal fluids from the magma out into the host
rocks where it dissipates. Spera (1982) concluded:
Hydrothermal fluid circulation within a permeable or fractured country rock accounts for most heat loss when magma is
emplaced into water-bearing country rock . . . Large hydrothermal systems tend to occur in the upper parts of the crust
where meteoric water is more plentiful.Thus Snelling and Woodmorappe (1998) concluded that millions of years are not
necessary for the cooling of large igneous bodies such as granite plutons.
The Significance of U and Po Radiohalos
When radiohalos where first reported between 1880 and 1890, they remained a mystery until the discovery of radioactivity
(Gentry 1973). Now they are recognized as any type of discolored radiation-damaged region within a mineral, resulting
from the a-emissions from a central radioactive inclusion or radiocenter. Usually the radiohalos when viewed in rock thin
sections appear as concentric rings that were initiated by the a-decay of 238U or 232Th series (Gentry 1973, 1974).
Radiohalos are usually found in igneous rocks, most commonly in granitic rocks in which biotite is a major mineral. In fact,
biotite is the major mineral in which the radiohalos occur. While observed mainly in Precambrian rocks (Gentry 1968,
1970, 1971; Henderson and Bateson 1934; Henderson, Mushkat, and Crawford 1934; Iimori and Yoshimura 1926; Joly
1917a, b, 1923, 1924; Kerr-Lawson 1927, 1928; Owen 1988; Wiman 1930), radiohalos have been shown to exist in rocks
stretching from the Precambrian to the Tertiary (Holmes 1931; Snelling 2005a; Stark 1936; Wise 1989).Within the 238U
decay series, the three Po isotopes have been the only a-emitters observed to form radiohalos other than 238U itself (fig.
1). These isotopes and their respective half-lifes are 218Po (3.1 minutes), 214Po (164 microseconds), and 210Po (138 days).
Their very short half-lifes constrain the formation of the granites that they have been found in to a short time frame (Gentry
1986, 1988; Snelling 2000, 2005a), because the Po radiohalos can only form after the granites have crystallized and
cooled, yet the Po isotopes are already in the granite magma when it is emplaced. Thus, if granite magma emplacement
and pluton cooling are not extremely rapid, then these Po isotopes would not have survived to form the Po radiohalos
(Snelling 2008a). This is consistent with, and in support of, a young earth model. As the rings for the Po precursors are
usually missing (Snelling, Baumgardner, and Vardiman 2003), the source of the Po for the radiohalos has been an area of
contention (Snelling 2000). Was it primary, or did a secondary process transport it? Gentry (1986) proposed that the Po
radiohalos had been produced by primordial Po, having an origin independent of any U, so therefore, all granites and
granitic rocks were formed by fiat creation during the Creation. In contrast, based on all the available evidence, Snelling
(2000) suggested a possible model for transporting the Po via hydrothermal fluids during the latter stages of cooling of
granite plutons to sites where the Po isotopes would have been precipitated and concentrated in radiocenters that then
formed the respective Po radiohalos in the granites.Subsequently, Snelling and Armitage (2003) investigated the
radiohalos in the biotite flakes within three granite plutons, demonstrating first that these granite plutons had been
intruded and cooled during the Flood. They found that the biotite grains contained both fully-formed 238U and 232Th
radiohalos around zircon and monazite inclusions (radiocenters) respectively, thus providing a physical, integral, historical
record of at least 100 million years worth (at todays rates) of accelerated radioactive decay during the recent year-long
Flood. However, Po radiohalos were also often found in the same biotite flakes as the U radiohalos, usually less than 1
mm away. They thus argued that the source of the Po isotopes must have been the U in the zircon grains within the biotite
flakes, the same zircon inclusions that are the radiocenters to the U radiohalos.Snelling and Armitage (2003) then went on
to progressively reason the evidence that confirms the tentative model suggested by Snelling (2000). Because the
precursor to 218Po is the inert gas 222Rn, after it is produced by 238U decay in the zircon grains it is capable of diffusing
out of the zircon crystal lattice. Concurrently, as previously described, as the emplaced granite magma crystallizes and
cools, the water dissolved in it is released below 400C so that hydrothermal fluids begin flowing around the constituent
minerals and through the granite pluton, including along the cleavage planes within the biotite flakes. As argued by
Snelling and Armitage (2003), and elaborated by Snelling (2005a), these hydrothermal fluids were capable of then
transporting 222Rn (and its daughter Po isotopes) from the zircon inclusions to sites where new radiocenters were formed
by Po isotopes precipitating in lattice imperfections containing rare ions of S, Se, Pb, halides or other species with a
geochemical affinity for Po. Continued hydrothermal fluid transport of Po would have also replaced the Po in the
radiocenters as it a-decayed to produce the Po radiohalos, thus progressively supplying the 5 x 10 9 Po atoms needed to
form fully registered Po radiohalos.Significantly, as none of the radiohalos (Po or U) could form or be preserved until the
biotite crystals had formed and cooled below the thermal annealing temperature for a-tracks of 150C (Laney and
Laughlin 1981), yet the hydrothermal fluids probably started transporting Rn and the Po isotopes immediately they were
expelled from the magma just below 400C, this implies cooling of the Po-radiohalo-containing granite plutons had to be
extremely rapid, in only 610 days (Snelling 2008a). Snelling, Baumgardner, and Vardiman (2003) and Snelling (2005a)
have summarized this model for hydrothermal fluid transport of U-decay products (Rn, Po) in a six-step diagram. The final
step concludes with the comment:With further passing of time and more a-decays both the 238U and 210Po radiohalos are
fully formed, the granite cools completely and hydrothermal fluid flow ceases. Note that both radiohalos have to form
concurrently below 150C. The rate at which these processes occur must therefore be governed by the 138 day half-life
of 210Po. To get 218Po and214Po radiohalos these processes would have to have occurred even faster.Of course, if the U
and Po radiohalos have both formed in a few days during the 610 days while the granite plutons cooled during the Flood,

then this implies 100 million years worth of accelerated 238U decay occurred over a time frame of a few days. Thus the UPb isotopic systematics within the zircons in these granite plutons are definitely not providing absolute ages as
conventionally interpreted.
The Granites of the Sierra Nevada Batholith in Yosemite National Park
No other large batholith has offered conditions as favorable for geologic study as the Sierra Nevada Batholith, where
exposures are good almost everywhere due to the glaciation in the high elevations (fig. 3) and the arid climate in the
eastern escarpment (Bateman 1992). Before 1956, the batholith was considered a barrier to relating the stratified rocks in
the western metamorphic belt to remnants within the batholith and to the strata east of the batholith in the Basin and
Range Province, until plate tectonics provided a solution, due to the Sierra Nevada being considered to lie within the
zone affected by Mesozoic and Cenozoic convergence of the North American plate with plates of the Pacific Ocean. The
batholith is a segment of the Mesozoic batholiths that encircle the Pacific Basin. Systematic mapping of the region (fig. 2)
by geologists of the U.S. Geological Survey grew out of independent studies of discrete areas or topics by individuals or
small groups of individuals, and was completed at the 1:62,500 scale in 1982. The relevant quadrangle areas have also
been combined into two comprehensive maps, one by Huber, Bateman, and Wahrhaftig (1989) covering the Yosemite
National Park area and its surroundings (summarized in fig. 4), and the other by Bateman (1992) covering the belt across
the batholith between latitudes 37 and 38N.
Fig. 4. Geologic map of the southern and central Yosemite
National Park (after Huber, Bateman, and Wahrhaftig 1989).
The locations of the samples used in this study are indicated.
The legend listing the chronologic sequence of mapped units is
below. Those units sampled are indicated in bold.Studies of
the individual plutons within the batholith have provided crucial
contributions to the development of the model for rapid granite
pluton formation discussed above. For example, Reid, Evans,
and Fates (1983) studied magma mixing in granite rocks of the
central Sierra Nevada and concluded that the intrusion of mafic
magmas in the lower crust were important in the generation of
the Sierra Nevada Batholith, having caused partial melting that
generated granite magmas. These mafic and granite magmas
then mixed during their emplacement, the evidence for this
relationship being found in the El Capitan Granite and the Half
Dome Granodiorite in the Yosemite National Park.
Subsequently, Ratajeski, Glazner, and Miller (2001) concluded
that the intrusion of the Yosemite Valley Suite involved two
probably closely timed pulses of mafic-felsic magmatism. The
first stage yielded the El Capitan Granite, mafic enclaves and
the Rockslides diorite, while the second stage yielded the Taft
Granite and a mafic dike swarm. A previous study by Kistler et al. (1986) attributed the compositional zoning of the
Tuolumne Intrusive Suite to the initial generation of a basalt magma in the lower continental crust. This basaltic magma
then interacted with and melted some of the more siliceous and isotopically more radiogenic lower crust rocks to produce
mixtures that were emplaced into the upper crust as the equigranular outer units of the suite. These studies thus confirm
the role of mafic magmas in the rapid heating of the lower crust to rapidly form granite magmas.Various other studies
have been done on the emplacement of the Sierra Nevada granite plutons. Paterson and Vernon (1995) applied the
popular model for the emplacement of spherical granite plutons, that is, ballooning or in situ inflation of the magma
chamber, to their studies of the Papoose Flat Pluton and the plutons of the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite. They concluded that
many such plutons are better viewed as syntectonic nested
diapirs, which implies that magma ascent may have occurred
by the rise of large magma batches. Furthermore, normally
zoned plutons may have thus formed by intrusion of several
pulses of magma, rather than by in situ crystal fractionation
from a single parent melt. Glazner et al. (2003) addressed the
problem of making space for large batholiths such as the Sierra
Nevada by suggesting that isostatic sinking of the growing
magmatic pile into its substrate would have displaced the subbatholithic crust toward the backarc region via large-scale
intracrustal flow. They thus concluded that this may be the
solution for the space problem, the crust beneath batholiths
having been involved in lateral, large-scale, two- or threedimensional intracrustal flow accompanied by thrust faulting.
Mahan et al. (2003) studied the McDoogle Pluton near the
eastern margin of the Sierra Nevada Batholith, and found field,
microstructural, and geochronological evidence that indicated
the pluton had been emplaced as a subvertically sheeted
complex, not by the diapiric rise of multiple batches of magma.
Thus, such sheeted dike emplacement of the pluton would have
reduced the time frame for the plutons formation, which was
confirmed by zircon U-Pb isotope data. McNulty, Tong, and
Tobisch (1996) had similarly studied the Jackass Lakes Pluton
in the central Sierra Nevada, and concluded that this pluton had
also formed via sheet-like assembly of a dike-fed magma
chamber. Furthermore, the bulk emplacement was facilitated by
multiple processes, including lateral expansion of sheets and
ductile wall-rock shortening at the final emplacement site,
stoping and caldera formation, and possibly roof uplift or
doming. McNulty, Tong, and Tobisch (1996) concluded with the
comment:Hybrid viscoelastic models also offer realistic

alternatives to end-member models (that is, dike versus diapir). More accurate models of pluton emplacement will allow
better understanding of the construction of magmatic arcs, and ultimately how tectonics are manifested at plate
boundaries.Studies of the evidence for how and when the plutons in the Sierra Nevada Batholith were emplaced are thus
challenging previous conventional models and their associated timescales. For example, Coleman and Glazner (1997)
considered the Sierra Nevada Batholith as a whole and concluded that during what they informally called the Sierra Crest
magmatic event extremely voluminous magmatism resulted in rapid crustal growth. From approximately 98 to 86 Ma (a
veritable instant in conventional geologic time) greater than 4000 km2 of exposed granodioritic to granitic crust was
emplaced in eastern California to form about 50% of the Sierra Nevada Batholith, including the largest composite intrusive
suites (such as the Tuolumne). Furthermore, although they comprise an insignificant volume of exposed rocks (less than
100 km2), mafic magmas were intruded contemporaneously with each episode of magmatism during this event, often
mingling with the granite magmas during emplacement. Thus, the heat from these mantle-derived mafic magmas appears
to have triggered this large-scale granite magmatic event.
The Tuolumne Intrusive Suite (consisting of the Kuna Crest Granodiorite, Glen Aulin Tonalite, Half Dome Granodiorite,
Cathedral Peak Granodiorite, and the Johnson Granite Porphyry) in the Yosemite National Park area has recently been
used prominently as a prime example of the evidence that large and broadly homogenous plutons have accumulated
incrementally supposedly over millions of years (Glazner et al., 2004). As previously discussed, a growing body of data
suggests that many granite plutons were rapidly assembled as a series of sheet-like intrusions, while others preserve
evidence that they were rapidly injected as a series of steep dikes. The Tuolumne Intrusive Suite of Yosemite National
Park has long been thought to have crystallized from several large batches of magma that were emplaced in rapid
succession (Bateman and Chappell 1979). Thus, Glazner et al. (2004) cited the abundant, unequivocal field evidence for
the incremental dike emplacement of the plutons of the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite. For example, in many places the outer
margin of the Tuolumne is clearly composed of granodiorite dikes that invaded its wall-rocks. Furthermore, near its
contact with the Glen Aulin Tonalite, the Half Dome Granodiorite contains sheets of varying composition and tabular
swarms of mafic enclaves, but then grades inward to a more homogeneous rock. There in the Half Dome Granodiorite the
occurrence of dikes or sheets is less certain, but they concluded that the textural homogeneity of large plutons like the
Half Dome Granodiorite could also reflect the post-emplacement annealing of amalgamated dikes or sheets, and such a
pluton thus might contain any number of cryptic contacts.This field evidence thus supports the model of Petford et al.
(2000) for the incremental emplacement of very large zoned plutons such as the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite in less than
100,000 years. However, Glazner et al. (2004) state that the geochronologic data contradicts that timescale. In particular,
U-Pb zircon data from the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite indicate that the plutons were assembled over a period of 10 m.y.
between 95 and 85 Ma, with the oldest intrusions at the margins and the youngest at the center (Coleman and Glazner
1997; Coleman et al. 2004). The Half Dome Granodiorite evidently was intruded over a period of about 4 m.y., with older
ages near the outer contact and younger ages near the inner contact, even though it has been mapped as a single
continuous pluton. Nevertheless, Coleman, Gray, and Glazner (2004) admit that the apparent lateral age variations in the
Tuolumne Intrusive Suite are not consistent with the field evidence for its emplacement as a series of small intrusions
assembled incrementally as sheets or dikes through the entire suite, and not just its outer units where such evidence is so
obvious. Furthermore, they state that when large plutons are dated multiple times by the zircon U-Pb method, it is fairly
common for the resulting dates to disagree by more than the analytical errors.Bateman and Chappell (1979) reported on
their comprehensive study of the concentric texturally and compositionally zoned plutonic sequence of the Tuolumne
Intrusive Suite, in which they sought to develop and test a model for the origin of comagmatic plutonic sequences in the
Sierra Nevada Batholith. Their study involved detailed petrologic and geochemical investigations of a large suite of
samples in two traverses across the Tuolumne plutons. Modal, major oxide and trace element analyses, as well as some
mineral analyses, were undertaken in order to characterize each of the plutons and quantify the mineralogical and
compositional variations within and between them. Structural and textural variations were also described. They concluded
that the compositional zoning within the suite indicated that with decreasing temperature the sequence solidified from the
margins inward, with solidification being interrupted repeatedly by surges of fluid core magma.Bateman (1992) provided a
comprehensive compilation of all the data from the studies of the Sierra Nevada Batholith up until that date, and this
includes descriptions of all the plutons investigated in this current study. The Granodiorite of Kuna Crest (Kkc) (fig. 4) is
dark gray and equigranular, with the average composition changing from quartz diorite to granodiorite. Its modal
composition is quartz (1522%), K-feldspar (915%), plagioclase (4450%), biotite (1012%), hornblende (713%), and
sphene (0.51.0%) (Bateman and Chappell 1979). The Half Dome Granodiorite (Khd) is coarser grained than the
Granodiorite of Kuna Crest (Kkc), and includes an outer equigranular facies and an inner megacrystic facies. Hornblende
(5 mm x 1.5 cm) and biotite (1 cm wide) crystals decrease in abundance inward, while plagioclase abundance remains
constant, but both quartz and alkali (K)-feldspar abundances increase inward. Its modal composition is quartz (2027%),
K-feldspar (1626%), plagioclase (3951%), biotite (411%), hornblende (18%), and sphene (0.21.2%) (Bateman and
Chappell 1979). The Cathedral Peak Granodiorite (Kcp) contains blocky alkali-feldspar megacrysts (commonly 3 cm x 5
cm), with the size and abundance of the megacrysts decreasing inward. Except for the inward decrease in abundance of
these megacrysts and an absence of hornblende in the innermost parts, the modal composition of the Cathedral Peak
Granodiorite is fairly constant, with quartz (2430%), K-feldspar (2028%), plagioclase (4052%), biotite (1.34.5%),
hornblende (02%), and sphene (0.10.7%) (Bateman and Chappell 1979).
The Sentinel Granodiorite (Kse) (fig. 4) is equigranular and contains well-formed crystals of hornblende and biotite, and
abundant wedgeshaped crystals of sphene. The Yosemite Creek Granodiorite (Kyc) is a dark-gray medium- to coarsegrained granitic rock of highly variable composition containing plagioclase phenocrysts. Both these plutons have
sometimes been regarded as members of the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite, but are usually placed in the Intrusive Suite of
Jack Main Canyon, or the Intrusive Suite of Sonora Pass by some workers.The Intrusive Suite of Yosemite Valley
includes the El Capitan Granite and the Taft Granite, which have yielded U-Pb isotopic ages of about 102103 Ma (Stern
et al. 1981). The El Capitan Granite (Kec) (fig. 4) is a weakly to moderately megacrystic, leucocratic biotite granite. It is
light gray, medium to coarse grained, and contains K-feldspar megacrysts (12 cm long) and small books of biotite. The
Taft Granite (Kt) is medium-grained, very light gray, and on the Q-A-P diagram plots in the granite field.The Intrusive Suite
of Washburn Lake, or of Buena Vista Crest according to some workers, includes the Granodiorite of Illilouette Creek (Kic)
(fig. 4), which has yielded a discordant U-Pb age of 100 Ma (Stern et al. 1981). The Granodiorite of Illilouette Creek is the
oldest, most mafic, and largest intrusion in this suite of plutons. It is dark, medium-grained, equigranular hornblendebiotite granodiorite and hornblende tonalite, with the combined hornblende and biotite content varying from 15% to 50%.
Sparse euhedral crystals of hornblende are as long as 10 cm.The intrusive relationships between these plutons can be
seen in Fig. 4. Bateman (1992) also reported that many of the biotite flakes found in the Sierra Nevada granite plutons
contain tiny zircon crystals around which are pleochroic halos, another name for radiohalos. This observation had been
previously made by Snetsinger (1967), who identified which mineral formed the nuclei (radiocenters) of the pleochroic

halos in biotites in some of the Sierra Nevada granites. Because it was zircons that formed the radiocenters to those
observed halos, they were undoubtedly 238U radiohalos.
Field and Laboratory Work
Each of the chosen granite plutons was sampled at the locations shown in Fig. 4. Access to the outcrops was available by
road and by walking trails. The samples were collected where the outcrops were freshest with the approval of the
Yosemite National Park via the granting of a sampling and research permit. Some of the sampled outcrops are shown in
Fig. 5. Fist-sized (12 kg) pieces of granite were collected at each location, the details of which were recorded using a
Garmin GPS II Plus hand-held unit.

Fig. 5. Outcrops of granites, many in road cuts, in the Yosemite National Park that were sampled for this study (for
location details see fig. 4).
A standard petrographic thin section was obtained for each sample. Photo-micrographs representative of some of these
samples of the Yosemite granites as seen under the microscope are provided in Fig. 6.
In the laboratory, portions of the samples were crushed to liberate the biotite grains. Biotite flakes were then handpicked
with tweezers from each crushed sample and placed on the adhesive surface of a piece of Scotch tape fixed to the flat
surface of a laminated board on a laboratory table with its adhesive side up. Once numerous biotite flakes had been
mounted on the adhesive side of this piece of tape, a fresh piece of Scotch tape was placed over them and firmly
pressed along its length so as to ensure the two pieces were stuck together with the biotite flakes firmly wedged between
them. The upper piece of tape was then peeled back in order to pull apart the sheets composing the biotite flakes, and
this piece of tape with thin biotite sheets adhering to it was then placed over a standard glass microscope slide so that the
adhesive side and the thin mica flakes adhered to it. This procedure was repeated with another piece of Scotch tape
placed over the original tape and biotite flakes affixed to the board, the adhering biotite flakes being progressively pulled
apart and transferred to microscope sides. As necessary, further handpicked biotite flakes were added to replace those
fully pulled apart. In this way tens of microscope slides were prepared for each sample, each with many (at least 20) thin
biotite flakes mounted on it. This is similar to the method pioneered by Gentry (1988). A minimum of 50 microscope slides
was prepared for each sample (at least 1,000 biotite flakes) to ensure good representative sampling statistics.

Fig. 6. Photo-micrographs of some of the Yosemite granites used in this study, the locations of which are plotted on Fig.
4. All photo-micrographs are at the same scale (20 or 1 mm = 40m) and the granites are as viewed under crossed
polars.
Each slide for each sample was then carefully examined under a petrological microscope in plane polarized light and all
radiohalos present were identified, noting any relationships between the different radiohalo types and any unusual
features. The numbers of each type of radiohalo in each slide were counted by progressively moving the slide backwards
and forwards across the field of view, and the numbers for each slide were then tallied and tabulated for each sample.
Results
All results are listed in Table 1. Of the thirteen rock units sampled, four units had some samples yielding no radiohalos:
the Granodiorite of Kuna Crest (two samples), the Sentinel Granodiorite (one sample), the Yosemite Creek Granodiorite
(one sample), and the Tonalite of the Gateway (one sample). Nevertheless, all the granitic rock units sampled contained
at least some radiohalos. In Table 1, the number of radiohalos per slide was calculated by adding up the total number of
all radiohalos found in all samples of that particular rock unit, divided by the number of slides made and viewed for
counting of radiohalos. The number of polonium radiohalos per slide was calculated in a similar way, except it was the
total number of polonium radiohalos divided by the number of slides examined for that rock unit. And finally, the ratio in
the last column was calculated by taking the number of 210Po radiohalos and dividing by the number of 238U halos.Photomicrographs of some representative radiohalos are shown in Fig. 7. The 238U radiohalos in Fig. 7a and b are over
exposed meaning there has been so much rapid 238U decay that the resultant heavy discoloration of the biotite has
blurred all the inner rings (compare with fig. 1). Often only holes remain in the centers of the 238U radiohalos where the
tiny zirocn radiocenters have been lost during the peeling apart of the biotite flakes to tape them to the microscope slides
in Fig. 7a (especially) other incomplete radiohalos stains can be been (lower right). These are due to this biotite sheet not
cutting through the radiocenters of these (spherical) radiohalos. These stains likely represent four 210Po radiohalos and
another 238U radiohalo, but only the visible complete radiohalos were recorded in Table 1. The outer ring of the 214Po
radiohalo is very faint and see in these photo-micrographs. In Fig. 7d the single 210Po radiohalo is easily identified by its
single outer ring about 39 m (microns) in diameter. Note that its radiocenter is a hollow bubble where hydrothermal
fluids deposited the 210Po atoms which then a-decayed to discolor the biotite and form the radiohalo. This feature is not so
clearly seen in Fig. 7c, where the 210Po radiocenter is only about 100 m from the nearly 238U radiocenter in the same
biotite flake. The hydrothermal fluids thus did not have far to transport 222Rn and Po from the 238U radiocenter to form and
supply the 210Po radiocenter within weeks so that the 238U and 210Po radiohalos formed concurrently. In Fig. 7e are three

over-exposed 210Po radiohalos. This is indicative of there having been a lot of 210Po atoms in the radiocenters that then
decayed. The diffuseness of the radiation damage is due to the large sizes of the radiocenters, which appear to now be
empty holes that may originally have been fluid-filled bubbles. There are also remnants of much larger fluid inclusions
in the same biotite flake. And finally, in Fig. 7f are three more diffuse 210Po radiohalos, as well as 210Po radiation staining
around an elongated radiocenter that appears to have been a fluid inclusion. The other radiation stains in the same biotite
flake represent radiohalos whose radiocenters are not in this plane of observation on this cleavage plane in this biotite
flake.The data in Table 1 indicate that all these granitic rock units contain more 210Po radiohalos than 238U radiohalos
(except the Sentinel Granodiorite which has equal numbers). There is also a wide range in the radiohalo abundances,
from the Tonalite of the Gateway with only one 210Po radiohalo in two samples, and the Granodiorite of Kuna Crest with
only five 210Po radiohalos and three 238U radiohalos (0.05 radiohalos per slide), to the Cathedral Peak Granodiorite with
325 210Po radiohalos and six 238U radiohalos (3.31 radiohalos per slide). Thus the ratio of the number of 210Po radiohalos
to the number of 238U radiohalos varies from 1:1 in the Sentinel Granodiorite and 1.7:1 in the Granodiorite of Kuna Crest
to 54:1 in the Cathedral Peak Granodiorite. The only rock units that contain other halos apart from 210Po and 238U halos
are the Granite of Lee Vining Canyon and the Granodiorite of Arch Rock which both contain some 218Po halos, and the
Half Dome Granodiorite with a single 214 halo.
Radiohalos
Intrusive
Suite

Tuolumn
e

Jack
Main
Canyon
(Sonora
Pass) (?)

Washbur
n
Lake
(Buena
Vista
Crest) (?)

Yosemite
Valley

Sample
Rock
unit
s
(Pluton)
(slides)

210P

214P

218P

238

232T

Number
of
radiohalo
s
per
slide

Number
of
Po
radiohalo
s
per
slide

Ratio210Po:238
U

Granodiorit
e of Kuna
Crest

3
(150)

0.05

0.03

1.7:1

Half Dome
Granodiorit
e

2
(100)

55

30

0.82

0.53

1.8:1

Cathedral
Peak
Granodiorit
e

2
(100)

325

3.31

3.25

54:1

Johnson
Granite
Porphyry

1 (50)

157

3.26

3.14

26:1

Yosemite
Creek
Granodiorit
e

2
(100)

0.08

0.08

Sentinel
Granodiorit
e

3
(150)

29

29

0.39

0.19

1:1

Granodiorit
e
of
Illilouette
Creek

2
(100)

24

0.32

0.24

3:1

El Capitan
Granite

3
(150)

111

17

0.85

0.74

6.5:1

El Capitan
Granite
enclave

1 (50)

68

1.36

1.36

Taft
Granite

1 (50)

58

1.28

1.16

9.7:1

Tonalite of
the
Gateway

2
(100)

0.01

0.01

Granodiorit
e of Arch
Rock

2
(100)

106

10

1.23

1.13

10.6:1

Granite of
Lee Vining
Canyon

1 (50)

108

13

2.46

2.2

8.3:1

Fine Gold

Scheelite

Discussion
The results obtained for these Yosemite granites confirm the model for the formation of polonium radiohalos proposed by
Snelling (2005a). Both 238U and 210Po radiohalos were found present together in the same biotite flakes in fourteen of the
25 samples studied. Because the thermal annealing temperature of radiohalos in biotite is 150C (Armitage and Back
1994; Laney and Laughlin 1981), the 238U and 210Po radiohalos in these biotite flakes had to have formed concurrently
below that temperature. However, the short half-life of 210Po places a time constraint on the necessary conditions for the

formation of the biotite flakes within the crystallizing and cooling granites and then the radiohalos of only 610 days or
several weeks at most. The almost complete absence of 214Po and 218Po radiohalos implies both an insufficient supply of
hydrothermal fluids and a slow rate of hydrothermal fluid transport, which restricted the formation of those radiohalos due
to their very short half-lifes. It also implies that 222Rn was likely absent in the hydrothermal fluids. Therefore, Po was most
likely transported as 210Po in the fluids to the nucleation sites where the 210Po radiohalos formed.
Fig. 8 is a schematic conceptual temperature versus time cooling curve diagram which visualizes the timescale
constraints on granite magma crystallization and cooling, hydrothermal fluid transport, and the formation of polonium
radiohalos (Snelling 2008a). Granite magmas when intruded are at temperatures of 650750C, and the hydrothermal
fluids are released at temperatures of 370410C after most of the granite and its constituent minerals have crystallized.
However, the accessory zircon grains with their contained 238U crystallize very early at higher temperatures, and may
have even been already formed in the magma when it was intruded. Thus the 238U decay producing Po isotopes had
already begun well before the granite had fully crystallized, before the hydrothermal fluids had begun flowing, and before
the crystallized granite had cooled to 150C. Furthermore, by the time the temperature of the granite and the hydrothermal
fluids had cooled to 150C, the heat energy driving the hydrothermal fluid convection would have begun to wane and the
vigor of the hydrothermal flow would also have begun to diminish (fig. 8). The obvious conclusion has to be that if the
processes of magma intrusion, crystallization, and cooling required 100,0001 million years, then so much Po would have
already decayed and thus been lost from the hydrothermal fluids by the time the granite and fluids had cooled to 150C
that there simply would not have been enough Po isotopes left to generate the Po radiohalos (Snelling, 2008a).

Fig. 7. Photo-micrographs of representative radiohalos in Tuolumne Intrusive Suite granites. All the biotite grains are as
viewed in plane polarized light, and the scale bars are all 50 m (microns) long.Both catastrophic granite formation
(Snelling 2008a) and accelerated radioisotope decay (Vardiman, Snelling and Chaffin 2005) are relevant to the
hydrothermal fluid transport model for Po radiohalo formation. However, halo formation itself provides constraints on the
rates of both those processes (Snelling 2005a). If 238U in the zircon radiocenters supplied the concentrations of Po
isotopes required to generate the Po radiohalos, the 238U and Po radiohalos must form over the same timescale of hours
to days, as required by the Po isotopes short half-lifes. This requires 238U production of Po to be grossly accelerated.
The 500 million1 billion a-decays to generate each 238U radiohalo, equivalent to at least 100 million years worth of
238U decay at todays decay rates, had to have taken place in hours to days to supply the required concentration of Po
for producing an adjacent Po radiohalo. However, because accelerated 238U decay in the zircons would have been
occurring as soon as the zircons crystallized in the magma at 650750C, unless the granite magma fully crystallized and
cooled to below 150C very rapidly, all the 238U in the zircons would have rapidly decayed away, as would have also the
daughter Po isotopes, before the biotite flakes were cool enough for the 238U and Po radiohalos to form and survive
without annealing. Furthermore, the hydrothermal fluid flows needed to transport the Po isotopes along the biotite
cleavage planes from the zircons to the Po radiocenters are not long sustained, even in the conventional framework, but
decrease rapidly due to cooling of the granite (Snelling 2008a). Thus Snelling (2005a) concluded from all these
considerations that the granite intrusion, crystallization, and cooling processes occurred together over a timescale of only
about 610 days.However, someone might inquire what requires the hydrothermal fluid flow interval to be so brief?
Surely, because the zircon radiocenters and their 238U radiohalos are near to (typically within only 1 mm or so) the Po
radiocenters in the same biotite flakes, could not the hydrothermal flow have indeed carried each Po atom from the 238U
radiocenters to the Po radiocenters within minutes, but the interval of hydrothermal flow persist over many thousands of
years during which the billion Po atoms needed for each Po radiohalo are transported that short distance? In this case
the 238U decay and the generation of Po atoms could be stretched over that longer interval. However, as already noted
above, by the time a granite body and its hydrothermal fluids cool to below 150C, most of the energy to drive the
hydrothermal convection system and fluid flow has already dissipated (Snelling 2008a). The hydrothermal fluids are
expelled from the crystallizing granite and start flowing at between 410 and 370C (fig. 8). So unless the granite cooled
rapid from 400C to below 150C, most of the Po transported by the hydrothermal fluids would have been flushed out of
the granite by the vigorous hydrothermal convective flows as they diminished. Simultaneously, much of the energy to
drive these flows dissipates rapidly as the granite temperature drops. Thus, below 150C (when the Po radiohalos start
forming) the hydrothermal fluids have slowed down to such an extent that they cannot sustain protracted flow. Moreover,
the capacity of the hydrothermal fluids to carry dissolved Po
decreases dramatically as the temperature becomes low.
Fig. 8. Schematic, conceptual, temperature versus time cooling curve
diagram to show the timescale for granite crystallization and cooling,
hydrothermal fluid transport, and the formation of polonium
radiohalos (after Snelling 2008a).
Thus sufficient Po had to be transported quickly to the Po
radiocenters to form the Po radiohalos while there was still enough
energy at and below 150C to drive the hydrothermal fluid flow
rapidly enough to get the Po isotopes to the deposition sites before
they decayed. This is the time and temperature window depicted
schematically in Fig. 8. It would, thus, simply be impossible for the Po
radiohalos to form slowly over many thousands of years at todays
groundwater temperatures in cold granites. Hot hydrothermal fluids
are needed to dissolve and carry the polonium atoms, and heat is
needed to drive rapid hydrothermal convection to move Po
transporting fluids fast enough to supply the Po radiocenters to
generate the Po radiohalos. Furthermore, the required heat cannot
be sustained for the 100 million years or more while sufficient 238U
decays at todays rates to produce the 500 million1 billion Po atoms needed for each Po radiohalo. In summary, for there
to be sufficient Po to produce a radiohalo after the granite has cooled to 150C, the timescales of the decay process as
well as the cooling both must be on same order as the lifetimes of the Po isotopes. Thus, the hydrothermal fluid flow had
to be rapid, as the convection system was shortlived while the granite crystallized and cooled rapidly within 610 days,

and as it transported sufficient Po atoms to generate the Po radiohalos within hours to a few days.Formation of these
granites, from emplacement to cooling, therefore had to have been on a timescale that previously has been considered
impossible. Various studies have shown that emplacement of a melt is rapid via dikes and fractures assisted by the
tectonics (Clemens and Mawer 1992; Coleman and Glazner 2004). Other studies have shown that cooling of the melt has
been aided by hydrothermal fluids and groundwater flow (Brown 1987; Burnham 1997; Cathles 1977; Hardee 1982;
Hayba and Ingebritsen 1997). Conventional thinking, that the formation of granite intrusions is a slow process over
hundreds to thousands of years, is in need of drastic revision. The granites of Yosemite show that their formation had to
be rapid in order for the radiohalos present in them to exist.The four rock units of the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite of the
Sierra Nevada Batholith display a pattern of Po radiohalos in which their numbers increase inwards within the suite
according to the time sequence in which these units were progressively intruded. The first granite pluton intruded, the
Granodiorite of Kuna Crest, only contains a few 210Po radiohalos, while there are progressively more 210Po radiohalos in
the Half Dome Granodiorite, intruded next, and the Cathedral Peak Granodiorite and the Johnson Granite Porphyry,
intruded last (table 1). This matches the pattern of Po radiohalos Snelling and Armitage (2003) observed in the zoned La
Posta Pluton in the Peninsular Ranges Batholith east of San Diego, where there was also sequential intrusion of the
granitic phases now making up that zoned pluton. Fig. 9 shows the sequence of intrusion within the Tuolumne Intrusive
Suite. The last phase of these multiple intrusions, the Johnson Granite Porphyry, was also probably related and
connected to volcanism at the surface (Huber 1989; Titus, Clark, and Rikoff 2005) (fig. 10).
The implication of the Po radiohalos numbers is that the greater the volume of hydrothermal fluids the more polonium
would have been transported and the more Po radiohalos would have formed, as has been confirmed by Snelling (2005a,
b, 2006, 2008b, c, d). First, in granites where hydrothermal ore deposits have formed in veins due to large, sustained
hydrothermal fluid flows, there are huge numbers of Po radiohalos, for example, in the Lands End Granite, Cornwall,
England (Snelling 2005a), and in the Mole Granite, New South Wales, Australia (Snelling 2009). Second, where
hydrothermal fluids were produced by mineral reactions, at a specific pressure-temperature boundary during regional
metamorphism of sandstone, four to five times more Po radiohalos were generated, precisely at that specific metamorphic
boundary (Snelling 2005b, 2008b). Third, where hydrothermal fluids flowingin narrow shear zones had rapidly
metamorphosed the wall rocks, Po radiohalos were present in the resultant metamorphic rock, a type of metamorphic rock
that otherwise does not host Po radiohalos (Snelling 2006). Fourth, where the hydrothermal fluids generated in the central
granite at the highest grade within a regional metamorphic complex flowed and decreased outwards into that complex, the
Po radiohalos numbers also progressively decreased outwards in the complex (Snelling 2008c). Fifth, in a granite pluton
which has an atypically wide contact metamorphic and metasomatic aureole around it due to the high volume of
hydrothermal fluids it released during its crystallization and cooling, Po radiohalos numbers are higher than in other
granite plutons (Snelling 2008d).Thus, the significance of the increasing Po radiohalos numbers progressively inwards
within this nested suite of plutons in the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite (table 1) according to the order in which they were
intruded is the implication that there were progressively more hydrothermal fluids within each successive pluton. It is
particularly evident from the much higher Po radiohalos numbers in the last two intrusive phases, the Cathedral Peak
Granodiorite and the Johnson Granite Porphyry, that they sustained greater hydrothermal fluid volumes and flows. This
increase in the hydrothermal fluids in the later stages of any intrusive sequence is due to the water released as the earlier
intrusive phases crystallized and cooled building up in the later residual intrusive phases; particularly if the hydrothermal
fluids are not readily escaping out into the surrounding host rocks. Whereas many other granite plutons intruded into
sedimentary rocks containing connate and ground waters that assisted rapid granite cooling by convection cells being
established outwards from the plutons (Snelling and Woodmorappe 1998), these Tuolumne plutons intruded into existing
granite plutons, and then successively one another (fig. 9). Consequently, since granites have poor connective porosities
and therefore poor permeabilities, the successively generated hydrothermal fluids would have been essentially bottled
up in the later intrusive phases. Another tell-tale sign of the high volume of hydrothermal fluids that was in the Cathedral
Peak Granodiorite is the large K-feldspar megacrysts which dominate its porphyritic texture. Magmatic hydrothermal fluids
are known to have played a major role in their formation (Cox et al. 1996; Lee and Parsons 1997; Lee, Waldron and
Parsons 1995). It was this continued build-up in the confined volume of hydrothermal fluids that also consequently
explains why the last phase in this intrusive suite, the Johnson Granite Porphyry, was likely connected to explosive
volcanism to the land surface above these cooling plutons (fig. 10). That large volumes of hydrothermal fluids were
increasingly being confined to the inwards migrating hotter crystallizing core of the Cathedral Peak Granodiorite into which
the Johnson Granite Porphyry intruded is evident from the observed inward decrease in the size and abundance of the Kfeldspar megacrysts in the Cathedral Peak Granodiorite (Bateman and Chappell 1979). Indeed, the explosive volcanism
would have released the confining pressure on the increasing volume of bottled-up hydrothermal fluids, the Johnson
Granite Porphyry cooling from the residual pulse of magma that supplied the explosive volcanism (Huber 1989; Titus et al.
2005).
.Fig. 9. A map view of the sequential emplacement of the
Tuolomne Intrusive Suite to form a set of nested plutons: nodiorite
of Kune Crest, (b) (c) Half Dome Granodiorite, and (d) Cathedral
Peak Granodiorite and Johnson Granite Porphyry (after Huber
1989).
Since the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite is a nested set of plutons, there
were severe constraints, due to the 150C thermal annealing
temperature of the radiohalos, on the lapse of time between the
intrusion of each phase of the suite. Each phase had to have been
rapidly emplaced, crystallized and cooled sufficiently before the
next phases were sequentially intruded, so that the entire suite of
nested plutons was in place before the radiohalos began forming
below 150C. Otherwise, the heat given off by each successively
emplaced phase, which intruded its predecessors, would have
annealed all radiohalos in them. That each phase had crystallized
and cooled before the next phase was intruded has been
confirmed by a recent study of the internal contacts within the suite
(Zak and Paterson 2005). These are highly variable from relatively
sharp, with no contact metamorphic effects from any major
temperature differences between the earlier crystallized pluton and
the subsequent intruding pluton, to gradational, the latter indicative
of large scale mixing where the earlier (host) and subsequent

(intruding) magmas must have both been crystallizing together. Coleman, Gray, and Glazner (2004) concluded that the
successive development of the suite was a relatively rapidly emplaced series of small intrusions as possible sheets or
dikes to incrementally assemble each pluton (or phase). However, so that annealing of the radiohalos would not occur
above 150C, all the phases of the entire suite had to have intruded so rapidly that the entire suite cooled below 150C
more or less at the same time. Furthermore, because of the short half-life of 210Po and the need for the hydrothermal
fluids within the cooling granite masses to rapidly transport sufficient 210Po to supply the radiocenters to form the 210Po
radiohalos before the 210Po decayed, the successive emplacement and cooling of the entire suite of nested plutons thus
must have only taken several weeks.This survival of the Po radiohalos as a result of the rapid sequential emplacement of
these nested plutons also implies that there could not have been a heat problem (Snelling 2005a). Whatever
mechanisms dissipated the heat from these crystallizing and cooling magmas (Snelling 2008a; Snelling and
Woodmorappe 1998) did so rapidly and efficiently without annealing the Po radiohalos in the surrounding earlier intruded
phases of this nested suite of plutons. Thus this entire intrusive event, consisting of successive pulses of granite magma
emplacement and cooling, must only have taken several weeks, culminating with a violent volcanic eruption. That would
have finally dissipated the remaining heat by rapidly moving it to the earths atmosphere in steam and to the earths
surface in the rhyolitic tuffs and lavas released by the eruption.
Fig. 10. Final stages in the development of the nested plutons of
the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite (after Huber 1989). The Johnson
Granite Porphyry represents the final phase of the suite that
intruded the Cathedral Peak Granodiorite and erupted through a
volcanic caldera at the earths surface above, spewing volcanic
ash and debris across it. The volcanic deposit and much of the
underlying rock were subsequently removed by erosion to create
todays land surface.Finally, the formation of the hundreds of
granitic plutons of the Sierra Nevada batholith, some of which
outcrop on a grand and massive scale in the Yosemite area, can
thus be adequately explained within the framework for earth
history. The regional geologic context suggests that late in the
Flood year, after deposition of thick sequences of fossiliferous
sedimentary strata, a subduction zone developed just to the west
at the western edge of the North American plate (Huber 1989).
Because plate movements were then catastrophic during the
Flood year (Austin et al. 1994), as the cool Pacific plate was catastrophically subducted under the overriding North
American plate the western edge region of the latter was deformed, resulting in buckling of its sedimentary strata and
metamorphism at depth (fig. 11). The Pacific plate was also progressively heated as it was subducted, so that its upper
side began to partially melt and thus produce large volumes of basalt magma. Rising into the lower continental crust of the
deformed western edge of the North American plate, the heat from these basalt magmas in turn caused voluminous
partial melting of this lower continental crust, generating buoyant granite magmas. These rapidly ascended via dikes into
the upper crust, where they were emplaced rapidly and progressively as the hundreds of coalescing granite plutons that
now form the Sierra Nevada batholith. The presence of polonium radiohalos in many of the Yosemite area granite plutons
is confirmation of their rapid crystallization and cooling late in the closing phases of the Flood year. Conventional
radioisotope dating, which assigns ages of 80120 million years to these granites (Bateman 1992), is grossly in error
because of not taking into account the acceleration of the nuclear decay (Vardiman et al 2005). Subsequent rapid erosion
at the close of the Flood, as the waters drained rapidly off the continents, followed by further erosion early in the postFlood era and during the post-Flood Ice Age, have exposed and shaped the outcropping of these granite plutons in the
Yosemite area as seen today.
Conclusion
Conventional thinking has been that granites in the continental crust have formed slowly over 10 5 to 106 years. In the last
two decades though, evidence has accumulated to convince many geologists that granite pluton emplacement was a
relatively rapid process over timescales of only years to tens of years. Dilation pressures in the deep crustal sources
forced magma through fractures as dikes to feed rapidly shallow crustal magma chambers. Rapid cooling was aided by
hydrothermal convection.
Fig. 11. Subduction of an oceanic plate (Pacific plate) during convergence with a
continental plate (North American plate). Magma, formed by partial melting of the
overriding continental plate, rises into the upper continental plate to form granite
plutons and volcanoes along a mountain chain (after Huber 1989).The evidence
left by radiohalos found in Yosemite granites, however, further challenges the
timescale of even this recent school of thought. The short half-lifes of polonium
isotopes place severe time constraints on the formation and cooling of the biotite
flakes containing the radiohalos produced by these polonium isotopes. The
hydrothermal fluids which were critical to the rapid cooling process also transported the 222Rn and polonium isotopes from
U decay in zircon inclusions to generate the nearby polonium radiohalos within hours to days, once the granites
temperature has fallen below 150C, the radiohalo annealing temperature. For the supply of 222Rn and Po isotopes to be
maintained during the whole pluton formation process, so as to still generate the Po radiohalos, the U decay rate had to
have been grossly accelerated, and the Yosemite granite plutons must have formed and cooled below 150C within six to
ten days. This timescale, of course, is consistent with granite pluton formation within the young earth model. Furthermore,
the acceleration of radioisotope decay means that absolute dates for rocks calculated on the assumption of decay having
been constant are grossly in error.The nested plutons of the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite provide a test of the hydrothermal
fluid transport model for the generation of Po radiohalos. The volume of hydrothermal fluids increased in each pluton as it
was successively emplaced, so that the final magma at the center of the suite contained enough volatiles to feed a violent
volcanic eruption at the earths surface. The model predicted the progressively greater volume of hydrothermal fluids
would have generated more Po radiohalos in each successive pluton, and more Po radiohalos were indeed found.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Dr. Larry Vardiman for his original suggestion to do this radiohalo study in Yosemite National Park,
for help in collecting the rock samples, and for support of this research generally. Thanks to Mark Armitage for his help
with some of the photomicrographs, and for processing some of the samples to obtain the radiohalos counts. Thanks to
the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) for funding much of this project and for providing the equipment and facilities to
do some of the research. Thanks to the National Parks Service for permission to collect the samples. And thanks also to

Dallels parents and friends for their support and encouragement in her part of this study, which resulted in an M.S.
dissertation in the ICR Graduate School.
Testing the Hydrothermal Fluid Transport Model for Polonium Radiohalo Formation: The Thunderhead
Sandstone, Great Smoky Mountains, TennesseeNorth Carolina
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on March 26, 2008
Abstract
The meta-arkoses of the Thunderhead Sandstone in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina
contain both detrital zircon grains and metamorphic biotite flakes in all zones of regional metamorphism. The original
sandstones after deposition would have contained water. Furthermore, the reaction responsible for the mineralogical
changes at the staurolite isograd would have produced large volumes of water. Thus it was predicted that during the
regional metamorphism these waters as hydrothermal fluids should have transported Po from the zircon grains to the
biotite flakes to generate Po radiohalos in the latter. Also, the greater volume of hydrothermal fluids at the staurolite
isograd should have generated more Po radiohalos there. Both predictions were verified, with fourfive times more Po
radiohalos in the meta-arkoses straddling the staurolite isograd. These results also verify the hydrothermal fluid transport
model for Po radiohalo formation. It was concluded that the regional metamorphism, the hydrothermal fluid flows, the
cooling of the regional metamorphic complex, and the formation of the Po radiohalos all had to have occurred within a few
weeks. This is feasible in the context of catastrophic plate tectonics and grossly accelerated 238U decay during the Flood.
Shop Now
Keywords: Po radiohalos, 238U decay, hydrothermal fluid transport
model, sandstones, regional metamorphism, meta-arkoses, detrital
zircon grains, metamorphic biotite flakes, staurotile isograd, mineral
reaction
Introduction
Radiohalos research was a major focus of the RATE (Radioisotopes and
the Age of The Earth) project (Snelling 2000). As a result of this
research it was concluded that the 238U and Po radiohalos frequently
found together in biotite flakes in granitic rocks had to have formed
simultaneously (Snelling 2005). Because of the very short half-lives of
the parent Po isotopes, this implies that hundreds of million of years
worth of 238U decay (at todays rates) had to have instead occurred in
only a matter of a few days. There needs to have been that much decay
of 238U to produce both the visible physical damage (the 238U radiohalos)
and the 500 million1 billion polonium atoms required to generate the
polonium radiohalos. However, that much polonium would then have decayed within a few days. A hydrothermal fluid
transport model was thus proposed which explains how the polonium was separated from its parent 238U, transported very
short distances, and then concentrated in radiocenters close by to form the polonium radiohalos (Snelling and Armitage
2003; Snelling, Baumgardner, and Vardiman 2003; Snelling 2005).Another outcome of this research was the discovery of
plentiful polonium radiohalos in metamorphic rocks (Snelling 2005), an occurrence not previously documented. However,
such a finding was predicted, because hydrothermal fluids are generated in water-saturated sedimentary rocks as they
become deeply buried, helping to transform them into regional metamorphic complexes (Stanton 1982, 1989; Snelling
1994). Thus it was argued that the same hydrothermal fluid transport model could likewise explain the formation of
polonium radiohalos in those regional metamorphic rocks where an adequate supply of 238U decay products was available
(Snelling 2005).In continued research, a test of this polonium radiohalo formation model in metamorphic rocks was
proposed, and reasoned as follows. Sandstones often contain some zircon grains, derived from erosion of, for example,
granitic rocks and deposited in water-transported sandy sediments. Chemical weathering of such source rocks, plus
abrasion of grains during water transport, destroys biotite grains, so they tend to be absent in sandstones. However, after
metamorphism of sandstones, the resultant schists and gneisses usually contain biotite grains. Thus it would seem that
the biotite grains formed via mineral reactions during the metamorphism. Such mineral reactions have been studied in
laboratory experiments, and in them water is often a by-product (Spear 1993). At the temperatures of these metamorphic
processes, such water would become hydrothermal fluids, capable of transporting any 238U decay products from nearby
zircon grains and depositing polonium in biotite flakes to form polonium radiohalos. If this is correct, metasandstones
should contain polonium radiohalos, and metasandstones could be studied to test the claim.
The Thunderhead Sandstone, TennesseeNorth Carolina
The thick Thunderhead Sandstone forms a significant part of the 4,5007,500 meter (15,00025,000 feet) thick Great
Smoky Group of the Ocoee Series in the Great Smoky Mountains along the TennesseeNorth Carolina border in the
southern part of the Blue Ridge province of the Appalachian Highlands (King 1964; Hadley and Goldsmith 1963; King et
al. 1958). Its Upper Precambrian designation suggests it may have been deposited early in the Flood. The most common
rock in the formation is relatively homogeneous medium- to coarse-grained feldspathic sandstone (arkose), with interbeds
of argillaceous sandstone, and dark-gray argillite. The Ocoee Series was subsequently thrust northwest along the
Greenbrier Fault early in the Paleozoic (fig. 1). The

Thunderhead Sandstone comprises about half of the


thrust sheet.
Fig. 1. A geologic cross-section of the Great Smoky
Mountains from Pigeon Forge, Tennesse, across Mt. Le

Conte to the Oconaluftee Ranger Station near Cherokee, North Carolina (after Moore 1988).
After thrusting, the lithologic units of the entire Ocoee Series and the underlying Precambrian crystalline basement
complex were regionally metamorphosed coincident with the orogenic (mountain-building) deformations during formation
of the Appalachian Highlands, beginning in the Devonian (early-middle Flood). In the northwest the rocks were
metamorphosed to the greenschist facies, but increasing temperatures and pressures to the southeast produced
almandine amphibolite facies rocks. This regional metamorphism thus produced in the Thunderhead Sandstone a series
of chemically and mineralogically distinct zones of schists and gneisses (fig. 2) (Allen and Ragland 1972). These zones
are named according to the presence of the highest pressure/temperature metamorphic minerals in the rock. Shaly
interbeds in the Thunderhead Formation are completely recrystallized throughout the sequence, so the demarcation of the
isograds is based on the minerals in the shales. As the intensity of the metamorphism increases laterally from northwest
to southeastthe shaly interbeds successively contain biotite, garnet, staurolite, and kyanite in the biotite, garnet,
staurolite and kyanite zones, respectively. The boundaries between adjacent zones are called isograds.
Fig. 2. Geologic and metamorphic map of the central Great Smoky Mountains, showing the Thunderhead Sandstone,the
isograds between regional metamorphic zones, and the location of the meta-arkose samples collected in this study (after
Allen and Ragland 1972).
The arkosic sandstone in the Thunderhead Formation is slightly different. Figure 3 depicts the mineralogic variations
within the metamorphosed arkoses of the Thunderhead Sandstone along a traverse from northwest (biotite zone) to
southeast (kyanite zone). With the exception of garnet in the garnet and staurolite zones, the same mineral assemblage of
quartz, K-feldspar (microcline), plagioclase, biotite, and muscovite is found throughout the sequence of meta-arkoses.
Relict quartz and K-feldspar in the metamorphosed arkoses of the Thunderhead Sandstone exhibit little recrystallization
through the biotite and garnet zones until the staurolite zone (Allen and Ragland 1972). In the garnet zone the presence of
metamorphic garnet in the meta-arkose, which should not be stable according to the whole rock chemistry, indicates that
equilibrium was obtained only in the interstitial portions of the rock and mineral system.
Regional MetamorphismHydrothermal Fluids and Po Radiohalos
Currently, in every regional metamorphic zone the meta-arkoses of the Thunderhead Formation contain both zircons and
biotite flakes. In the original sedimentation process biotite flakes were probably destroyed, leaving the original
Thunderhead sandstone without any biotite. However, Allen and Ragland (1972) specifically noted that the accessory
zircon grains they observed in the Thunderhead were of detrital origin. Thus the original Thunderhead sandstones
probably contained zircons but no biotite. Because the zircon grains would likely have still contained minor amounts of
uranium, they could thus have been a source of 238U decay products, including polonium. During regional metamorphism
biotite and hydrothermal fluids were generatedsome from pre-metamorphism pore waters and some from metamorphic
reactions. Therefore, according to the hydrothermal fluid transport model for polonium radiohalo formation, those
hydrothermal fluids should have transported the polonium diffusing out of zircon grains into adjacent biotite flakes, where
it should have concentrated in radiocenters and generated polonium
radiohalos.
Fig. 3. Mineralogic variations within the Thunderhead Sandstone
(after Allen and Ragland 1972). The sample site numbers are those
of Allen and Ragland (1972), as are the mineral percentages they
determined.
Allen and Ragland (1972) found from analyses of the bulk rock
geochemistry that metal/Al ratios in the Thunderhead meta-arkoses
remain constant throughout the biotite and garnet zones. The
preservation of relict grains in the biotite and garnet zones was
attributed to lack of complete recrystallization during the regional
metamorphism due to a lack of a significant aqueous phase. The
high porosities and permeabilities inherent in the original sandstones
would have resulted in most of their pore waters being driven off by
the heat and load pressure during the initial stages of metamorphism.
Structural water and some absorbed pore water in the clays of the
sandstone matrix probably provided the water necessary for
crystallization of the micas in the biotite and garnet zones. Thus most
of the water was held in crystal structures within the meta-arkoses
and was not readily available to act as a transporting medium.
According to the hydrothermal fluid transport model for polonium
radiohalo formation, relatively little radiohalo generation would be
expectedat least in the meta-arkoses of the Thunderhead
Formation.
Near the staurolite isograd, the boundary between the garnet and staurolite zones, however, numerous chemical changes
are apparent in the bulk rocks and in the micas (Allen and Ragland 1972). These changes and the disappearance of relict
minerals suggest a significant aqueous phase was generated at the staurolite isograd. Mineral phases such as staurolite
were formed that contain notably less structural water, while chlorite disappears entirely in the pelitic beds within the
meta-arkoses, muscovite decreases sharply, and biotite becomes more abundant. This suggests the following reaction
predominated at the staurolite isograd:
54
muscovite
+
31
chlorite
54 biotite + 24 staurolite + 152 quartz + 224 water
This reaction has been confirmed experimentally (Hoschek 1967, 1969). In the pelitic beds it would have released some
63 percent of the structural water from the reacting minerals. The generation of large quantities of water by this reaction
within the pelitic interbeds at the prevailing high temperatures determined experimentally would have resulted in relatively
large volumes of hydrothermal fluids migrating down the P H20 free-energy gradient into the adjacent meta-arkoses. Within
the meta-arkoses these hydrothermal fluids would have provided an aqueous transporting medium that resulted in a rapid
catalyzing action. This would have caused the recrystallization of all relict grains and a rapid approach to equilibrium. At
the entry of this aqueous phase, chemical equilibrium was set up over the macrosystem of large volumes of meta-arkose,
rather than just in the interstitial microsystems encountered in the lower metamorphic grade zones.These conditions in the
Thunderhead meta-arkoses at the staurolite isograd should have been ideal for the generation of Po radiohalos in them,
assuming that Po radiohalo formation does indeed occur as described by the hydrothermal fluid transport model (Snelling
and Armitage 2003; Snelling, Baumgardner, and Vardiman 2003; Snelling 2005). Detrital zircon grains to provide 238U
decay products, and metamorphic biotite flakes to host Po concentrations in radiocenters, were present in the meta-

arkoses, and around the staurolite isograd the copious quantities of hydrothermal fluids flowed through the meta-arkoses
as a result of the mineral reaction in the pelitic interbeds. Therefore, it was predicted that many more Po radiohalos should
be found in the Thunderhead Sandstone in the meta-arkoses surrounding the staurolite isograd than elsewhere in the
meta-arkoses throughout these regional metamorphic zones.
Field and Laboratory Work
A field test of this prediction was thus proposed. Nine samples of the meta-arkoses of the Thunderhead Sandstone were
collected from road-cut outcrops along U.S. Highway 441 between Cherokee, North Carolina, and Gatlinburg, Tennessee
(figs. 2 and 4). This effectively formed a traverse through the kyanite, staurolite, garnet, and biotite zones of the regional
metamorphism as already described (Allen and Ragland 1972). A basement gneiss sample was also collected.

Fig. 4. Outcrops of the meta-arkoses of the Thunderhead Sandstone, where the samples for this study were collected,
mainly along U.S. Highway 441 between Cherokee NC and Gatlinburg TN. Their locations are plotted on Fig. 2.
(a) Sample site RSM-2, kyanite zone
(b) Sample site RSM-3, staurolite zone
(c) Sample site RSM-4 & 5, staurolite zone (note the shaly interbeds to the bottom right)
(d) Sample site RSM-6 & 7, garnet zone
(e) Sample site RSM-8, garnet zone
(f) Sample site RSM-10, biotite zone
A standard petrographic thin section was obtained for each meta-arkose sample. In the laboratory, portions of each
sample were crushed to liberate the constituent mineral grains. For each sample, biotite flakes were then hand-picked
using tweezers and placed on the adhesive surface of a piece of clear Scotch tape. Once numerous biotite flakes had
been mounted on the adhesive surface of this tape, a fresh piece of clear Scotch tape was placed over them and firmly
pressed along its length so as to ensure the two pieces of tape were stuck together with the biotite flakes firmly wedged
between them. The upper piece of clear Scotch tape was then peeled back in order to pull apart the biotite flakes. This
upper piece of clear Scotch tape with thin biotite sheets adhering to it was then placed over a standard glass microscope
slide. This procedure was repeated with another piece of clear Scotch tape placed over the original Scotch tape with the
biotite flakes adhering to it. These adhering biotite flakes were progressively pulled apart and transferred to microscope
slides. As necessary, further hand-picked biotite flakes were added to replace those fully pulled apart. In this way 50
microscope slides were prepared for each meta-arkose sample, each slide with many (at least 2030) thin biotite flakes
mounted on it. This is similar to the method pioneered by Gentry (Gentry, pers. comm.). The basement gneiss sample
was treated in the same way. Fifty microscope slides for each sample were prepared to ensure good representative
sampling statistics. Thus there was a minimum of 1,000 biotite flakes mounted on microscope slides for each sample.

Fig. 5. Representative photo-micrographs of the meta-arkose samples of the


Thunderhead Sandstone used in this study collected from outcrops of each
regional metamorphic zone (fig. 4), as plotted on Fig. 2. All photomicrographs
are at the same scale (20 or 1 mm = 40 ) and the meta-arkoses are as
viewed under crossed polars.
(a) Sample RSM-2 (kyanite zone): quartz, biotite, muscovite, zircon
(b) Sample RSM-3 (staurolite zone): quartz, plagioclase, biotite, muscovite, garnet
(c) Sample RSM-4 (staurolite zone): quartz, biotite, garnet, muscovite, staurolite
(d) Sample RSM-5 (staurolite zone): quartz, muscovite, biotite
(e) Sample RSM-6 (garnet zone): quartz, plagioclase, muscovite, biotite, zircon
(f) Sample RSM-7 (garnet zone): quartz, biotite, garnet, muscovite
(g) Sample RSM-8 (garnet zone): quartz, muscovite, biotite
(h) Sample RSM-10 (biotite zone): quartz, plagioclase, muscovite, biotite
Each slide for each sample was then carefully examined under a petrological microscope in plane polarized light, and all
radiohalos present were identified, noting any relationships or unusual features. The numbers of each type of radiohalo in
each slide were counted by progressively moving the slide backward and forward across the field of view, and the
numbers recorded for each slide were then tallied and tabulated for each sample. Because of the progressive peeling
apart of many of the same biotite flakes during the preparation of the microscope slides, it was possible that some of the
radiohalos appeared on more than one microscope slide. Only radiohalos whose radiocenters were clearly visible were
thus counted to ensure each radiohalo was only counted once.
Results
Representative photo-micrographs of meta-arkose samples from each regional metamorphic zone are shown in Fig. 5. All
results are listed in Table 1. Nine of the samples (eight meta-arkoses and one basement gneiss) contained only 210Po
radiohalos, while one meta-arkose sample also contained 214Po radiohalos. Some representative examples of the
radiohalos in the samples can be seen in Fig. 6. Table 1 lists both the total number of 210Po and 214Po radiohalos found in
each sample, and the average numbers of Po radiohalos per slide in each sample. The total number of Po radiohalos
found in each sample was then plotted against each samples relative position along the traverse in Fig. 2 through the
metamorphic zones, which is displayed in Fig. 7.

As can be readily seen in Table 1 and Fig. 7, whereas seven of the meta-arkose samples averaged a total of around 30
Po radiohalos each, the two samples straddling the staurolite isograd contained 177 and 147 Po radiohalos, respectively.
Discussion
The results of this test of the hydrothermal fluid transport model for Po radiohalo formation were astounding, being exactly
as predicted. The Po radiohalos were fourfive times more abundant in the two meta-arkose samples straddling the
staurolite isograd than in the immediately adjoining meta-arkose samples in the garnet and staurolite zones (table 1 and
fig. 7). The Po radiohalo numbers were even less in the other meta-arkose samples, including the one sample from the
high-grade kyanite zone.
Table 1. Data table of radiohalos numbers counted in samples of the meta-arkoses of the Thunderhead Sandstone and
the basement gneiss.
Radiohalos
210Po

214Po

218Po

238U

232Th

Number of Po
Radiohalos per
Slide

Metamorphic Zone

50

0.08

Basement Gneiss

RSM-2

50

34

0.68

Kyanite

RSM-3

50

24

0.48

Staurolite

RSM-4

50

26

19

0.90

Staurolite

RSM-5

50

147

2.94

Staurolite

RSM-6

50

177

3.54

Garnet

RSM-7

50

41

0.82

Garnet

RSM-8

50

35

0.70

Garnet

RSM-9

50

0.12

Garnet

RSM-10

50

28

0.56

Biotite

Sample

Number
Slides

RSM-1

of

The numbers of Po radiohalos do not correlate with metamorphic grade. There were only 34 Po radiohalos in the kyanite
zone (high grade) meta-arkose sample compared with only 28 Po radiohalos in the biotite zone (low grade) meta-arkose
sample. Yet there were U-bearing zircon grains and biotite flakes present in all samples of the Thunderhead Sandstone
along the traverse from low grade through to high grade regional metamorphism.Neither the Po which generated the Po
radiohalos nor the biotite flakes which host the Po radiohalos were primordial. Unlike the zircon grains, the biotite flakes
were not present in the arkoses when they were deposited but were produced by mineral transformations and reactions
during the subsequent regional metamorphism. This means that the Po which generated the Po radiohalos in the biotite
flakes had to be transported from in situ nearby sources into the biotite flakes after they had formed. As has been argued
by Snelling and Armitage (2003) and Snelling (2005), the only in situ nearby sources of Po are the decaying 238U atoms in
the zircon grains in the originally deposited arkoses. Thus it is argued that the required Po had to be transported from the
zircon grains into the biotite flakes after they had formed, and hydrothermal fluids (hot waters) seem to be the logical
candidate (Snelling and Armitage 2003; Snelling 2005).

Fig. 6. Some representative examples of the210Po radiohalos found in biotite grains separated from the meta-arkoses of
the staurolite and garnet zones in the Thunderhead Sandstone in this study. All photo-micrographs are at the same scale
(40 or 1 mm = 20 m) and the biotite grains are as viewed in plane polarized light.
(a) & (b) RSM-4 (c), (d) & (e) RSM-5 (f), (g) & (h) RSM-6
When arkoses (and sandstones) are deposited by and from moving water, some of that water is often trapped between
the mineral grains making up the sandy sediments. The cement that binds the mineral grains together to transform the
sand into sandstone and arkose usually is precipitated from that trapped water, but also from meteoric water that
percolates down into the sediments. Once lithified, sandstone and arkoses still often contain much ground water. When
such water-saturated sedimentary rocks subsequently become deeply buried and are subjected to tectonic forces, the
heat generated thereby turns the contained waters into hydrothermal fluids as the sedimentary rocks undergo regional
metamorphism. Stanton (1982, 1989) and Snelling (1994) have argued that such hydrothermal fluids are primary catalysts
in helping to transform sedimentary rocks into regional metamorphic complexes.It was these hydrothermal fluids
generated during regional metamorphism that were available to transport Po from 238U decay in detrital zircon grains into
metamorphic biotite flakes to form Po radiohalos (Snelling and Armitage 2003; Snelling 2005). It was thus predicted,
based on the hydrothermal fluid transport model for Po radiohalo formation, that Po radiohalos would be found in
regionally metamorphosed sedimentary rocks. Consequently, because a search for Po radiohalos in metamorphic rocks
was undertaken, Po radiohalos have been found in metamorphic rocks (Snelling 2005, 2006, 2008b).The results of this
study also confirm that the hydrothermal fluid transport model for Po radiohalo formation applies to regional metamorphic
rocks. The 641 Po radiohalos per sample in each of the meta-arkose examples, except for the two straddling the
staurolite isograd (table 1 and fig. 7), would appear to have been generated from Po transported by the hydrothermal

fluids produced from the water originally in the sandstones during their regional metamorphism. However, where during
the regional metamorphism the mineral reaction in the pelitic interbeds at the staurolite isograd produced a lot of extra hot
water, the extra flow of hydrothermal fluids in the adjacent meta-arkoses generated fourfive times more Po radiohalos,
144 and 177 in two relevant meta-arkose samples (table 1 and fig. 7).This successful verification of the hydrothermal fluid
transport model for Po radiohalo formation adds to the supporting evidence found by Snelling (2006). Where
metamorphism along shear zones had been rapid, even in conventional terms, due to tectonic pumping of hydrothermal
fluids, Po radiohalos had been generated in biotite flakes in the resultant rocks. In these examples, mainly 210Po
radiohalos were generated in the metamorphic biotite flakes. This has timescale implications for these metamorphic
processes and the hydrothermal fluid flows. 218Po and214Po have half-lives of 3.1 minutes and 164 microseconds
respectively, whereas 210Pos half-life is 138 days. Thus, even if 218Po from 238U decay diffused out of the detrital zircon
grains, by the time the hydrothermal fluids had transported the Po into the biotite flakes, where it was concentrated in
radiocenters by Po-bonding atoms such as Cl or S at lattice defects, the 218Po had decayed through 214Po to 210Po, so
only 210Po radiohalos would be generated.This implies that the Po transport, from within the zircon grains the >1 mm
(approximately 210 mm) distances across into the biotite flakes and along the cleavage planes in them to the Po
radiocenters, probably took as long as a few days to even weeks. Note that in contrast, many granites contain 218Po
and/or 214Po radiohalos, as well as 210Po radiohalos, due to the much shorter transport distances (<1 mm) because the
source zircon grains are within the biotite flakes where the Po radiohalos are generated.
Fig. 7. Po radiohalos for the meta-arkose samples along the traverse in
this study (fig. 2) through the regional metamorphic zones across the
Great Smoky Mountains, TennesseeNorth Carolina.On the other hand,
the Po radiohalos in both these metamorphic rocks and granites would
only have formed below 150C, the annealing temperature of radiohalos in
biotite. As in crystallizing granites, at higher temperatures during regional
metamorphism, Po transport would have commenced as soon as the
hydrothermal fluids were produced. Even at temperatures well above
400C, the temperatures at which the mineral reaction occurred at the
staurolite isograd, the hydrothermal fluids would have flowed vigorously
(but under pressure) transporting available Po. However, because the Po
radiohalos could not be generated and visually registered in the biotite
flakes until the temperature in the metamorphosed rocks fell below 150C,
the cooling of the whole regional metamorphic complex needs to have
been relatively rapid, within days to a few weeks, to ensure there was still
sufficient 210Po to produce the 210Po radiohalos before all the 210Po decayed.It may be countered that because 238U today
decays slowly, there would have been a continuous supply of Po over millions of years. So the hydrothermal fluid
transport of Po and the generation of the Po radiohalos could have taken millions of years of incremental additions of Po
to the radiocenters. However, the concurrent formation of 238U and Po radiohalos in the same biotite flakes in many
granites (Snelling and Armitage 2003; Snelling 2005, 2008a), and other evidence (Vardiman, Snelling, and Chaffin 2005),
is consistent with 238U decay having been grossly accelerated during an event, or events, in earth history, particularly the
Flood. This is when the deposition of the Thunderhead Sandstone is envisaged, followed by the regional metamorphism.
So an abundant supply of Po during this accelerated 238U decay in the detrital zircons was only very short-lived. Thus,
unless the Po was transported rapidly from the detrital zircons to the radiocenters in the metamorphic biotite flakes, the Po
would have decayed before the Po radiohalos could have formed.Furthermore, both the hydrothermal fluid flows and the
regional metamorphism had to also have been rapid and short-lived. Unless the hydrothermal fluid flows below 150C
were rapid, the transported Po would have decayed before reaching the radiocenters. However, the hydrothermal fluid
flows are driven by the heat energy associated with the regional metamorphism. As with cooling granite bodies (Snelling
2008a), much of the heat would have been dissipated by the time the temperatures in the regionally metamorphosed rock
had fallen below 150C, so the hydrothermal fluid flows would have begun to diminish. Thus, the regional metamorphism
had to be a rapid event to drive the rapid hydrothermal fluid flows.In the context of the year-long Flood event, catastrophic
plate tectonics would have driven the rapid, catastrophic earth movements that produced the tectonic settings, where
rapid regional metamorphism of thick sedimentary rock sequences would have taken place (Austin et al. 1994). Coupled
with catastrophic plate tectonics, concurrent catastrophic accelerated radioisotope decay (Vardiman, Snelling, and Chaffin
2005) would have provided a rapid burst of heat in those developing regional metamorphic complexes to generate the
rapid hydrothermal fluid flows and the metamorphic mineral reactions. Thus the presence of the Po radiohalos in the
regionally metamorphosed Thunderhead Sandstone are testimony to the catastrophic tectonic and geologic processes
that formed the Great Smoky Mountains as part of the Appalachian mountain-building episode early in the Flood, and
validate the hydrothermal fluid transport model for their formation.
Conclusions
Based on the mineralogical changes produced by regional metamorphism in the arkoses of the Thunderhead Sandstone,
Great Smoky Mountains, TennesseeCarolina, a test of the hydrothermal fluid transport model for Po radiohalo formation
was proposed. These meta-arkoses contain both detrital zircon grains (a potential source of Po from 238U decay) and
metamorphic biotite flakes (a potential host for Po radiohalos). When originally deposited the arkoses would have retained
pore and meteoric waters, which during regional metamorphism would have become hydrothermal fluids. Furthermore,
the reaction responsible for the mineralogical changes at the staurolite isograd (the boundary between the garnet and
staurolite metamorphic zones) would have produced large volumes of water as hydrothermal fluids. It was thus predicted
that if the hydrothermal fluid transport model for Po radiohalo formation is valid, then there should be Po radiohalos in the
biotite flakes of these meta-arkoses, and there should be greater numbers of Po radiohalos at the staurolite isograd.Both
predictions were verified. All nine samples of the meta-arkoses collected along a traverse through the regional
metamorphic zones contained Po (mainly 210Po) radiohalos. Furthermore, the two samples straddling the staurolite
isograd contained fourfive times more Po radiohalos than the other seven samples. These results also verify the
hydrothermal fluid transport model for Po radiohalo formation. The presence of mainly 210Po radiohalos was also
consistent with the longer transport distance (> 1mm) from the zircon grains to the biotite flakes. It was concluded that,
because these Po radiohalos could only have formed below 150C (the annealing temperature of radiohalos in biotite),
both the regional metamorphism and the hydrothermal fluid flows to transport the required Po had to be rapid. These
processes, plus the cooling of the regional metamorphic complex and the formation of the Po radiohalos, had to have all
occurred within a few weeks. This is all feasible in the context of catastrophic plate tectonics and grossly accelerated 238U
decay during the Flood.
Acknowledgments

This research was encouraged by Kurt Wise, who also provided the logistical support for the field work. Mark Armitage is
acknowledged for his work in processing the samples and counting the radiohalos. Funding was provided by the Institute
for Creation Research from donations received toward the RATE project.
EVIDENCES FROM THE MAGNETIC FIELD
More Evidence of Rapid Geomagnetic Reversals Confirms a Young Earth
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on January 8, 2015
Abstract
For almost three decades the paleomagnetic record of extraordinarily rapid polarity reversals of the earths magnetic field
in basalt lava flows at Steens Mountain in southern Oregon has stood as a challenge to the conventional millions-of-years
geodynamo model. It has also been a severe embarrassment, because it is consistent with predictions of rapid polarity
reversals of the earths magnetic field during the Flood according to the young-earth freely-decaying electric currents
model for the generation of the geomagnetic field. Thus there has been a recent attempt to re-measure the paleomagnetic
record in the Steens Mountain basalts using a new untried method, but the results and their re-interpretation are far from
convincing. Instead, published at the same time, a new independent study of the paleomagnetic record in mud layers in a
former post-Flood Ice Age lake in Italy has used Ar-Ar dating of interbedded volcanic ash layers to constrain the
timeframe of a well-documented geomagnetic polarity reversal to less than 100 years. When accelerated radioactive
decay is factored in, the timeframe for this reversal is reduced to just months, further stunning evidence consistent with
the young-earth model for the earths magnetic field and rapid reversals during the Flood and its aftermath on a young
earth.
Keywords: earths magnetic field, paleomagnetic field directions, basalt lava flows, Steens Mountain, Oregon, rapid
geomagnetic polarity reversals, geodynamo, young-earth freely decaying electric currents model, Sulmona Basin, Italy,
calcareous muds, tephra layers, post-Flood Ice Age, Ar-Ar dating, sanidine, accelerated radioactive decay.
IntroductionBack in 1985 Coe, Prvot, and their scientific colleagues reported in three papers the evidence they had found
of extremely rapid polarity changes of the earths magnetic field recorded in basalt lava flows at Steens Mountain in
southern Oregon.1,2,3 These scientists carefully documented that Steens Mountain provided an excellent record of a
geomagnetic reversal, because the volcano had spewed out 56 separate lava flows during that episode, so that each rock
layer provided a time-lapse snapshot of the reversal.Their studies resulted in a benchmark directional record with 49
distinguishable paleomagnetic field directions from two well-exposed rock sequence sections more than a mile apart.
Within this detailed record were three gaps of approximately 90 between one directional group and the next. These gaps
were thought possibly to represent interludes in volcanic activity, but the absence of evidence of any hiatus between
successive flows either side of the gaps suggested instead that the geomagnetic field may have changed very rapidly at
these times.
These tantalizing results spurred detailed sampling from bottom to top of flows that straddled these directional gaps.
Results for the samples from the flow straddling the first directional gap were intriguing.4 They discovered that toward the
top of that flow the basalt had recorded a different paleomagnetic orientation than the basalt lower down in the same flow
(see Figure 1). Coe and Prvot interpreted this to mean that the geomagnetic field had shifted by about 3 per day during
the few days it took this basalt lava flow to cool. Such a rate of change is about 500 times faster than that seen in direct
measurements of the field today.

Figure 1. The geomagnetic polarity reversal record in basalt lavas on Steens Mountain, Oregon. (a and b) Variations in
the paleomagnetic field direction during the reversal in the sequence of numbered lava flows on Steens Mountain.1 Three
large gaps are denoted by thick black arrows. Each point represents the average paleomagnetic field direction of a group
of superposed lava flows, solid and open circles indicating downward and upward inclination respectively.3 (c) Variation in
the paleomagnetic field direction of flow B51 samples as a function of position.4 Shown as well are the mean directions of
the underlying flow B52 and the overlying flow B50.Continuing their painstaking work, a follow-on study reported results of
detailed sampling of the basalt flows which straddle the second of the three gaps in the record of changes in the direction
of the geomagnetic field.5 They reported that their results indicated the rate at which the orientation of the ancient
geomagnetic field had rotated could have reached an astounding 6 per day over an eight-day period during cooling of
one of these basalt flows.6 Furthermore, they argued that these field changes recorded in these basalt lava flows at
Steens Mountain did reflect genuine changes in the earths main magnetic field.
Reactions
Reactions to these claims of evidence for extraordinarily rapid changes in the geomagnetic field direction were swift and
vocal, because such evidence was an affront to the uniformitarian mindset regarding their slow-and-gradual view of the
earths geologic history. Principle of Least Astonishment was the title of an opinion piece in the journal Nature, in which
geophysicist Ronald Merrill of the University of Washington (Seattle) tried to grapple (unsuccessfully) with this newly
published evidence confirming that extraordinarily rapid reversals of the earths magnetic field have indeed occurred.7 He
wrote on the origin and history of the field:

. . . most geomagnetists dismissed the claim by applying the principle of least astonishmentit was easier to believe
that these lava flows did not accurately record the changes in the earths magnetic field than to believe that there was
something fundamentally wrong with the conventional wisdom of the day . . . .
Indeed, these findings at Steens Mountain veer far from the standard college geology textbook image of how the earth is
supposed to work. Said Roberts of the University of California, Los Angeles: To a theoretician like myself, these results
are almost inconceivable.8 Yet earth scientists by their own admissions lack a firm understanding of the earths magnetic
field. According to the current theory in uniformitarian thinking, slowly swirling currents of molten iron within the earths
outer core create a dynamo that powers the magnetic field. It is believed that once every few thousand years the field flips
orientation, swapping the north pole for the south pole. These magnetic reversals, as they are called, supposedly take
about 10,000 years from start to finish, because it would take that long for the geodynamo to crank down so as to switch
direction before cranking up again to generate the field again, but with the reversed polarity.Most geophysicists
questioned the original finding. I cant really understand the mechanism, said Hoffman of California Polytechnic State
University.9 In the face of this conundrum, some geophysicists tried (unsuccessfully) to explain the rapid field changes in
terms of something else other than fluid movements in the outer core itself. Critics have pointed out that the magnetization
recorded in the basalt lava flows might not be primary, because it is not uncommon to find basalt lava flows that have
been remagnetized long after they cooled, for example, due to chemical alteration. Thus they claimed that the alleged
rapid geomagnetic field changes in reality reflect imperfections in the paleomagnetic recording process, resulting in an
artefact according to Bloxham of Harvard University.However, Coe and Prvot (with Camps) tackled such criticisms
head-on in their reports, making a convincing case against the magnetic artefact argument. The two lava flows they had
studied have quite different magnetic properties and yet show similar signals, making it harder to blame some glitch in the
recording of the paleo-geomagnetic field in these basalts. Hoffman agreed: We havent found anything really
questionable about the rock magnetics. Similarly, they convincingly countered other hypotheses, such as that the
changes in the magnetization reflected changes in the external geomagnetic field associated with, for example, a
magnetic storm.Bloxham acknowledged that he and his fellow geophysicists had a hard time explaining away the findings.
People are taking them seriously, he said. Indeed, Merrill agreed:
They are some of the best experimentalists in the world. Theyve made it much more difficult to be a skeptic.
In short, if Coe et al. are correct, then the consequences could be much more profound than they say. All this leaves us
with a dilemma: we would like to apply the principle of least astonishment, but to which data and interpretations? Some
scientists will accept the view as given by the authors [Coe et al.]. Others, I suspect, will choose to believe the rock record
is still inaccurate . . . .
However, Merrill and all his uniformitarian colleagues failed to consider his own stated alternativethat there is
something fundamentally wrong with the conventional wisdom of the day on the origin and history of the earths
magnetic field. Why do they fail to consider that alternative? Because they would have to abandon their dynamo theory
and its millions of years timescale!
Enter a Young-Earth Explanation
Even before Coe, Prvot, and their colleagues announced their discoveries, a viable alternative model for both the origin
of the geomagnetic field and the rapid field polarity reversals that fits all the data had been proposed and published. Back
as early as 1973 young-earth creationist Thomas Barnes had proposed a model for the generation of the earths magnetic
field by freely-decaying electric currents in the earths core.10 Subsequently, Russ Humphreys built on that model,11 and
then used it to explain the paleomagnetic evidence recorded in the basalt lava flows in the sea floor of geomagnetic field
polarity reversals having happened rapidly during the Flood and its
aftermath (see Figure 2).12
Figure 2. How the earths magnetic field has changed since the
earths creation, its intensity decaying due to the energy loss of the
freely decaying electric currents in the liquid outer core, but
interrupted by rapid polarity reversals during the Flood and its
aftermath due to the Floods catastrophic plate tectonics changing the
flow directions in the convection cells in the liquid outer
core.11,12Humphreys was able to demonstrate that during the
upheaval of the Flood the flow of the molten iron in convection cells in
the outer core carrying the freely-decaying electric currents meant
that the resultant geomagnetic field generated would have rapidly
changed direction and reversed its polarity because of that fluid
movement.13 On the sea floor at the earths surface new basalt lava
flows were erupting rapidly due to the rifting apart of the old pre-Flood ocean floor and mantle plumes in mantle
convection cells rising as a result of the catastrophic plate tectonics during the Flood.14 Each new basalt lava flow
recorded the polarity direction of the geomagnetic field at the time it cooled. So due to the geomagnetic field reversing
rapidly, and the basalt lava flows being erupted rapidly, the result was that these geomagnetic field polarity reversals were
recorded in these sea floor basalts, both laterally and vertically. This paleomagnetic striping within the sea floor basalts
was one of the key pieces of evidence that convinced geologists that the sea floor plates had spread, pushing the
continental plates with them, albeit at a drift pace within their uniformitarian paradigm.However, Humphreys was able to
demonstrate that because the paleomagnetic recordings of the polarity reversals were often in patches within the basalt
sea floor and even within individual basalt flows, the reversals having occurred rapidly within days was a better
explanation. The catastrophic plate tectonics model for the geology of the Flood thus provided a better context to explain
the geomagnetic field polarity reversals. Thus Humphreys had even predicted that evidence of rapid reversals would be
found before Coe, Prvot and their colleagues announced their discoveries, which of course then provided confirmation of
both the Humphreys geomagnetic field model and the catastrophic plate tectonics model of the Flood.
Coe Recants?
How much more data then did Coe, Prvot and their colleagues need to generate before the geophysical community was
prepared to abandon its failed geodynamo theory? More work continued at Steens Mountain, with other investigators
finding additional evidence to support the original findings that the earth magnetic field had reversed its polarity rapidly in
the past within days to a week or two.15 Coe also had other investigators work with him at other nearby sites to correlate
the sequence of basalt flows and paleomagnetic findings at those sites with the sequence of lava flows that outcrop on
Steens Mountain with their reported paleomagnetic record.16 They thus claimed in their 2011 paper to have provided the
most detailed account of a magnetic field reversal yet observed in volcanic rocks (with) forty-five new distinguishable
transitional (T) directions together with 30 earlier ones reveal(ing) a much more complex and detailed record. They

also stated that the additional data confirms most parts of the earlier record but also reveals a more complex reversal
history.
However, it would seem that Coe has been under enormous pressure to somehow recant his previous findings with some
new way to explain away the previous impeccable evidence he had championed. That this has been the case is evident
from a paper he had published in 2014 in which he states it is important to set the record straight, citing the Steens
rapid-field-hypothesis . . . was misinterpreted by creationists in their attempts to reconcile the geological and young age
time scales (e.g. Humphreys, 1990).17
In this 2014 paper, Coe used a new batch of samples from the basalt flow at Steens Mountain which straddled the first
geomagnetic field directional gap and which in his 1989 paper he had announced their laboratory measurements had
shown that within that single basalt lava flow the geomagnetic field had shifted by about 3 per day during the few days it
took that basalt lava flow to cool. In processing these new samples in his laboratory, Coe abandoned using the stepheating technique which he had used previously to measure the paleomagnetism in the basalt lava low samples, instead
using a relatively new technique which is not as well-known and as thoroughly tested. He also abandoned the alternatingfield demagnetization procedure, which is not quite as reliable but still widely used.The step-heating technique is very
well-tested and has been relied on in paleomagnetic studies since the 1940s. In this technique a samples loss of
magnetization is measured as it is heated up slowly through a series of small temperature steps. Instead, he used a
relatively new technique in which the basalt samples were continuously and rapidly heated at 40 degrees Celsius (72
degrees Fahrenheit) per minute, measuring the demagnetization continuously. Coe also invented a new scenario called
thermal alteration, in which the slow reheating of a basalt flow, as in the step-heating technique, supposedly altered its
paleomagnetic record. However, this scenario is questionable, as heating basalt to temperatures below its Curie
temperature of about 500C, which is well below its melting point, should not affect the paleomagnetism it has recorded.
Instead, this new rapid-heating technique is supposed to give less time for thermal alteration to occur.Thus the results
using this new rapid-heating technique, Coe and his new collaborators now claim in this 2014 paper, call into question the
earlier results from his 1989 paper, which showed a steady change of the geomagnetic field direction, by about 60
degrees, for samples going deeper and deeper into the interior of this basalt lava flow which straddled the first
geomagnetic field directional gap in the sequence of basalt lava flows at Steens Mountain. However, if the new technique
is right, then it would call into question nearly 75 years worth of paleomagnetic conclusions in hundreds of other studies
all based on the well-tested step-heating technique.In the normal step-heating technique, the experimenter waits for
several minutes at each temperature for the basalt sample to get demagnetized before further heating the sample up
through the next temperature increment. This puts the experimental emphasis on the larger magnetic grains in the basalt
sample (grains of the iron oxide mineral called magnetite) because they are slower to change their magnetization at high
temperatures, and because they are unlikely to change their magnetization after the basalt lava cooled after it erupted and
flowed. However, in the rapid continuous-heating technique the magnetite grains have only a few seconds to change their
magnetization at each temperature. That tends to put the experimental emphasis on smaller magnetite grains that can
change magnetization more easily. Therefore those smaller grains are more likely to have been re-magnetized by the
recent thousands of years in which the earths magnetic field has had normal polarity after these basalt lava flows
cooled.Thus the old step-heating technique primarily tested the magnetization of the more robust, magnetically stable
set of larger magnetite grains in the basalt, but this new continuous rapid-heating technique primarily tested the
magnetically unstable smaller magnetite grains. The results produced by the old well-tested technique are thus not
influenced much by the smaller, magnetically unstable grains, so that technique should be a much more reliable way of
determining the earths past magnetic field while the basalt was cooling down below its Curie temperature, about 500C. If
secular paleomagnetic experts were not so eager to join Coe in discarding his earlier results from this basalt lava flow
because of the time
implications, then they
would not be so eager
to trust this new
experimental
technique. Yet Coe
and his collaborators
still admitted at the
end of their 2014
paper
that
the
question (of) whether
or not brief episodes
of field change much
faster than current
secular variation have
occurred is very much
alive and debated.
A New Independent
Study
This story doesnt
end there. The results
of a new independent
study,
in
which
different samples from
a
totally
different
geologic
and
geographic situation
were used, have since
been
published.18 And
what is especially
helpful, this new study
did not use basalt lava
flows samples, so the
possibility of thermal

alteration of them is not an issue.In this study, the researchers investigated the sediment layers that were deposited on
the floor of what was once a small lake in the Apennines of Italy. This small lake existed during the Ice Age of the socalled Pleistocene, which within the young age chronology we would all agree was post-Flood. The lake filled with layers
of whitish, faintly laminated to massive calcareous muds, interspersed with numerous tephra (volcanic ash) layers
resulting from nearby volcanic eruptions. Today what remains is a small sedimentary basin called the Sulmona Basin, and
the continuous sequence of mud and tephra layers in three main unconformity-bounded alluvial-fluvial-lacustrine units are
now well exposed in outcrop (see Figure 3).
Figure 3. Location maps and geological sketch of the northernmost sector of the Sulmona Basin, Italy, and a composite
section of the Sulmona Pleistocene (post-Flood Ice Age) sedimentary sequence, with the Ar-Ar dates for tephra layers
and the paleomagnetic record indicated.18
In a previous paleomagnetic investigation this research team had drilled to a depth of 65 meters (213 feet) through the
former lakes strata sequence and had constrained the location of the so-called Matuyama-Brunhes geomagnetic polarity
reversal to being within the oldest and lowermost unit. Within the recovered core they identified at least ten tephra layers
that could be correlated by being continuously traced laterally to those recognized in the surrounding outcrops of the
Sulmona sequence. So in this study they located the same stratigraphic interval cropping out about 500 meters (1640
feet) to the southeast of their previous drill-hole site and carefully sampled the correlated 3 meter (10 feet) section of
interest with 46 contiguous hand samples each spanning 616 cm (1541 inches) of stratigraphic thickness.In the
laboratory at least one sample per layer had its magnetic susceptibility and natural remnant magnetization (NRM)
measured. For 36 samples, distributed throughout the section, they also carried out a stepwise thermal demagnetization,
in 1011 steps up to 450C. They also did careful measurements of the variation of magnetic susceptibility in heatingcooling cycles in order to identify the Curie temperatures of the main magnetic minerals in the samples, and to check the
possible occurrence of significant alteration during heating.Pristine sanidine (K-feldspar) crystals were handpicked under
a binocular microscope from the three tephra layers within and spanning the 3 meter (10 feet) stratigraphic section being
investigated. A total of 124 crystals were submitted for argon-argon (Ar-Ar) dating at two laboratories. Both laboratories
used the sanidine standard from the Alder Creek Rhyolite as the neutron fluence monitor. Rather than absolute ages, the
reported ages were calculated relative to the age of the Alder Creek sanidine standard because the objective was to
provide a determination of the time intervals spanning the stratigraphic section and the measured paleomagnetic
properties of the samples within it.This research team found that these Sulmona lake calcareous mud sediments in the 3
meter (10 feet) stratigraphic section they so carefully investigated are characterized by excellent paleomagnetic
properties, which allowed the reconstruction of the Matuyama-Brunhes geomagnetic polarity transition in very fine detail.
The strong correlation and consistency between the rock magnetic and paleomagnetic stratigraphic trends between this
stratigraphic section and the original drill-hole core demonstrated the lateral continuity of the experimental results and the
reliability of the paleomagnetic signal for their high-resolution geomagnetic reconstruction. They also found that their data
were consistent with magnetite (Fe3O4) being the main carrier of the magnetic remanence and indicated that the
concentration of magnetic minerals is generally uniform throughout the investigated sequence.They found that the 180
polarity flip (reversal) associated with the Matuyama-Brunhes geomagnetic polarity transition occurred sharply in a 2 cm
(0.8 inch) sub-layer cut from the same hand sample block between two adjoining levels, at 152 cm (59.8 inches) and 154
cm (60.6 inches) of stratigraphic depth respectively. And it was recorded consistently between seven independent subsamples via both series of paleomagnetic measurements.
Next, the high precision Ar-Ar dates obtained on the three tephra layers spanning this stratigraphic interval in which this
geomagnetic polarity reversal was recorded and preserved were used to provide tight chronological constraints on this
Sulmona sequence of calcareous mud and tephra layers. Assuming the Ar-Ar ages are correct, they calculated an
average sedimentation rate for the calcareous mud layers of about 21 cm (8.3 inches) per thousand years, or about 2 mm
(0.08 inch) per year. Thus at that rate of deposition, this implies the 2 cm (0.8 inch) sub-layer that recorded the
Matuyama-Brunhes
geomagnetic
polarity
reversal
accumulated in about 100 years, and therefore the
geomagnetic field reversal transition occurred in less than
100 years, which is still extremely fast compared to the
usually assumed transition times of hundreds of
thousands of years to millions of years (see Figure 4).
Figure 4. (a) Virtual geomagnetic pole (VGP) path
reconstructed for the paleomagnetic data from the discrete
samples around the Matuyama-Brunhes transition in the
Sulmona strata sequence. (b) Stratigraphic trends for the
VGP latitude (blue curve) and the relative paleo-intensity
(RPI) scaled to unit maximum (red curve) for the Sulmona
strata sequence compared with the schematic reversal
path, illustrating the succession of the reversal precursor,
polarity switch and rebound. The colored areas indicate
the stratigraphic intervals of minimum RPI that have been
correlated with the precursor and transit phases, the latter
being the 2 cm (0.8 inch) thick mud layer recording the
rapid reversal.18However, this conclusion assumes the
rate of radioactive decay of 40K, the basis of the Ar-Ar
dating method, has remained constant in the past at the
slow decay rate measured today. Yet there are several
lines of good evidence that radioactive decay rates were
accelerated during past catastrophic events, especially
during the Flood year when geological processes were
also operating at catastrophic rates.19 Then at the close
of the Flood it is logical to envisage that the tempo of
geological processes did not slow abruptly, but tapered
off, and this is borne out by the abundant evidence of
localized superstorms and catastrophic flooding resulting
in localized sedimentary deposits in the decades before
the post-Flood Ice Age gripped the planet.20 Thus it would

be expected that deceleration of the radioactive decay rates also occurred during the same period and on into the postFlood Ice Age, and the evidence of inflated radioactive ages for post-Flood rocks is consistent with that logical
expectation.Therefore, if accelerated radioactive decay was still decelerating, and the rates were still significantly faster
than todays measured slow rates, in the period after the Flood and continuing on into the post-Flood Ice Age, then the
sediment deposition rate in the Sulmona Basin, Italy, as determined by the Ar-Ar dating of the interspersed tephra layers
(albeit with 40K radioactive decay still more rapid than todays measured slow rate), could easily have been more like 4
cm (1.6 inches) per year, a quite reasonable rate during the several centuries long, stormy Ice Age. That would reduce the
geomagnetic field polarity transition time to just a few months. Such a rapid polarity reversal rate compares quite well with
the evidence for fast reversals that were still occurring in the last stages of the Flood. It also supports the general picture
we have of many fast reversals during the Flood itself. This all collapses the so-called paleomagnetic time scale down
from millions of years to just months.
Conclusions
For many years studies of the paleomagnetism recorded in basalt lava flows on Steens Mountain in southern Oregon had
provided impeccable evidence that reversals of the geomagnetic field polarity had in the past occurred extraordinarily
rapidly, in a matter of only days to weeks. This has been a severe embarrassment to the conventional geoscience
community because such a rapid rate for geomagnetic field polarity reversals is totally inconsistent with their preferred
millions-of-years geodynamo model for the generation of the earths magnetic field. Their embarrassment was intensely
heightened by young-earth creation scientists being able to use this evidence at Steens Mountain to support their youngearth freely-decaying electric currents model for the generation of the earths magnetic field and rapid polarity reversals
during the Flood and its aftermath. This explains Coes recent efforts to use the results of a new untried rapid-heating
technique to re-measure the paleomagnetism stored in those Steens Mountain basalt lava flows in order to reinterpret
and overturn his earlier evidence of the extraordinarily rapid geomagnetic field polarity reversals. However, the original
results using the long-established step-heating measurement technique are not so easily overturned and
disregarded.Instead, a totally independent study by a different research team in a different location and geologic setting
has found unmistakably clear further evidence supporting past rapid polarity reversals of the earths magnetic field. In the
muddy sediment layers of a former post-Flood Ice Age lake they have found the indisputable record that the so-called
Matuyama-Brunhes geomagnetic polarity transition occurred rapidly. They used high precision Ar-Ar dating of sanidine
crystals from volcanic ash (tephra) layers between the mud layers to constrain the timeframe of sedimentation and
therefore the polarity reversal recorded in one thin mud layer to just 100 years or less. However, when the evidence for
grossly accelerated radioactive decay rates during the Flood and their deceleration through the post-Flood Ice Age are
factored into the Ar-Ar dating, the rates of both the sedimentation of the thin mud layer and the geomagnetic field polarity
reversal recorded in it reduce to just a few months. This is thus consistent with the Steens Mountain evidence of
extraordinarily rapid geomagnetic field polarity reversals, which are only consistent with the young-earth model for the
generation and rapid reversals of the earths magnetic field during the Flood and its aftermath.The majority of
geoscientists believe the earth is billions of years old, and so they have been striving for nearly a century to develop a
successful dynamo model to explain how the earths magnetic field might maintain itself over that long time. After
reviewing analytical theories, computer simulations, and laboratory experiments, young-earth creation scientist
Humphreys has concluded that all those efforts have fallen short of proving the geomagnetic field could be maintained by
a dynamo.21 In contrast with this apparent failure, Humphreys has demonstrated with the remarkable success how his
young age model for the origin and operation of the geomagnetic field explains the magnetic fields of other bodies in our
solar system, especially for the planet Mercury, a model consistent with the young age of the earth and the universe of
only about 6,000 years.
The Principle of Least Astonishment!
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on August 1, 1995
Originally published in Journal of Creation 9,
no 2: 138-139.
Abstract
A decade ago, Prvot and Coe (and
colleagues) reported in three papers the
evidence they had found of extremely rapid
changes of the Earths magnetic field
recorded in lava flows at Steens Mountain.
Shop Now
So ran the heading in the journal Nature, as
geophysicist Ronald Merrill of the University of Washington (Seattle) tried to grapple (unsuccessfully) with the newly
published evidence confirming that extraordinarily rapid reversals of the Earths magnetic field have indeed occurred.1 , 2
A decade ago, Prvot and Coe (and colleagues) reported in three papers the evidence they had found of extremely rapid
changes of the Earths magnetic field recorded in lava flows at Steens Mountain in southern Oregon (USA).3,4,5 Scientists
regard Steens Mountain as the best record of a magnetic reversal because the volcano spewed out 56 separate flows
during that episode, each of these rock layers providing time-lapse snapshots of the reversal. Within one particular flow,
Prvot and Coe discovered that rock toward the top showed a different magnetic orientation than did rock lower down.
They interpreted this to mean that the field shifted about 3 a day during the few days it took the single layer to
cool.6 Such a rate of change is about 500 times faster than that seen in direct measurements of the field today, so,most
geomagnetists dismissed the claim by applying the principle of least astonishmentit was easier to believe that these
lava flows did not accurately record the changes in the earths magnetic field than to believe that there was something
fundamentally wrong with the conventional wisdom of the dayon the origin and history of the field.7There the story would
have ended, except that Coe and Prvot have continued their painstaking work. Now they have reported that the rate at
which the orientation of the ancient magnetic field rotated reached an astounding 6 per day over an 8-day period, and
have argued that these field changes recorded in these lava flows at Steens Mountain do reflect changes in the Earths
main magnetic field.8These findings veer far from the textbook image of how the Earth is supposed to work. Says Roberts
of the University of California, Los Angeles, to a theoretician like myself, these results are almost inconceivable.9 Yet
earth scientists lack a firm understanding of the Earths magnetic field. According to current theory, swirling currents of
molten iron within the Earths outer core create a dynamo that powers the magnetic field. It is believed that once every few
hundred thousand years, the field flips orientation, swapping north pole for south pole. These so-called magnetic reversals
supposedly take about 10,000 years from start to finish.Most geophysicists questioned the original finding. I cant really

understand the mechanism, says Hoffman of California Polytechnic State University.10 In the face of this conundrum,
some geophysicists are tryingso far unsuccessfullyto pin the rapid shifts on something other than the core itself.
Critics have thus pointed out that the magnetisation might not be primary; it is not uncommon to find lava flows that have
been remagnetised long after they cool, for example, because of chemical alteration. Thus they concluded that the
alleged rapid changes in the Earths field really reflect an imperfection in the magnetic recording process, an artefact
according to Bloxham of Harvard University.
However, Coe and Prvot (with Camps) have now tackled such criticism head-on, making a convincing case against the
magnetic artefact argument. The two lava flows they have studied have quite different magnetic properties and yet show
similar signals, making it harder to blame some glitch in the record. Hoffman agrees:
We havent found anything really questionable about the rock magnetics.
Similarly, they have convincingly countered other hypotheses, such as that the changes in the magnetisation reflected
changes in the external magnetic field associated with, say, a magnetic storm.
Bloxham acknowledges that he and his geophysicist colleagues are having a hard time explaining away the findings.
People are taking them seriously, he says.11 Indeed, Merrill agrees. They are some of the best experimentalists in the
world. Theyve made it much more difficult to be a skeptic, he says.12
In short, if Coe et al. are correct, then the consequences could be much more profound than they say concludes
Merrill.13
All this leaves us with a dilemma; we would like to apply the principle of least astonishment, but to which data and
interpretations? Some scientists will accept the view as given by the authors [Coe et al.]. Others, I suspect, will choose to
believe the rock magnetic record is still inaccurate
However, Merrill and all his uniformitarian colleagues have failed to consider his own statedalternative that there is
something fundamentally wrong with the conventional wisdom of the day
on the origin and history of the Earths magnetic field! Why? Because they would have to abandon their dynamo theory
and its millions of years time-scale? In fact, there is a viable alternative explanation for both the origin of the geomagnetic
field and for the rapid field reversals (in days and weeks, not thousands of years) that fits all the datafreely decaying
electric currents in the Earths core, as proposed by young-earth creationists Barnes and Humphreys,14,15 with the rapid
field reversals associated with the Flood event. Indeed, Humphreys predicted that evidence of rapid reversals would be
found before Coe et al. announced their discovery. How much more data then do Coe et al. need to generate before the
geophysical community is prepared to abandon its failed dynamo theory? Perhaps Merrill could be right on one point
Eventually, the consequences should be profound
We may yet all be astonished!
The Earths Magnetic Field and the Age of the Earth
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on September 1, 1991
Originally published in Creation 13, no 4 (September
1991): 44-48.
Dr. Thomas G. Barnes drew attention to the fact that the
strength of the earths magnetic field was decreasing. On
this basis he concluded that the magnetic field was less
than 10,000 years old.
As early as 1971, creation scientist Dr. Thomas G.
Barnes, then Professor of Physics at The University of
Texas at El Paso, drew fresh attention to the fact that the strength of the earths magnetic field was decreasing.1He noted
that between 1835 and 1965 geophysicists had made some 26 measurements of the magnetic dipole moment of the
earths magnetic field. When plotted against time (that is, the year of measurement) these data points fitted a decay curve
which Barnes calculated had a halflife (halving period) of only 1,400 years. On this basis he concluded that the earths
magnetic field was less than 10,000 years old, and so the earth must likewise be that young (see Figure 1).
Which hypothesis? Evolved or created?
Needless to say, because of the powerful implications of this evidence Barnes received much opposition from the
evolutionary community. Evolutionist geophysicists simply poured scorn on Barnes conclusions because they argued that
any decay of the earths magnetic field merely represented the latest phase in the ongoing history of waxing and waning
field strengths as the field repeatedly reverses during multiplied millions of years.2 But Barnes stoutly repulsed this
objection by denying the validity of the fossil magnetism (palaeomagnetism) measurements of reversed magnetic polarity
(direction) in rock strata.3Evolutionary geophysicists were already locked into their multi-million-year timescale not only
because of the radioactive dating of the rocks in which the palaeomagnetic reversals were measured, but because of their
presumed dynamo mechanism for operation of the earths magnetic field. It is generally believed that the earths
magnetic field is generated by electric currents in the earth's innermost region, the core, which is presumed to consist of a
metallic iron-nickel mixture. However, according to the dynamo hypothesis, these electric currents are believed to be
produced by the slow circulation of molten material that carries unequal amounts of positive and negative electric charge.
The energy for this is thought to come from the earths rotation and/or its internal heat.4,5
Humphreys models for the history of the
earths
magnetic
field
(adapted
from
Humphreyssee reference 10). [Ed. note: Fullscale images available inCreation.]
So the generating mechanism is presumed to
operate like a dynamo, (similar to an electricity generator) causing the
field and maintaining it over large periods of time. Consequently, a
reversal of the earths magnetic field (which is difficult for them to explain anyway) could be
expected to be a slow process. Thus the evolutionary view has been that a transition from one
magnetic polarity (direction) to the other generally took millions of years, or several thousand
years at the very least.6However, this so-called dynamo hypothesis, the operational mechanism preferred by most
geophysicists, has many problems associated with it which have been well documented. 7,8,9,10
Reversals have occurred
More recently, creation scientist Dr. D. Russell Humphreys (Physicist at the Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque,
and Adjunct Professor of Physics at the Institute for Creation Research, San Diego) has reviewed the evidence for the
validity of these fossil magnetism11studies and has found that fully half of all the 200,000 plus geological samples tested

have a measurable magnetization whose direction (polarity) is reversed with respect to the earths present magnetic
field. He was forced to conclude that the variety, extent, continuity and consistency of the reversal data all strongly
suggest that most of the data are valid, so that there is no option but to accept that reversals of the earths magnetic field
must have occurred.
So how can these reversals of the earths magnetic field be reconciled with Barnes evidence that the earth and its
magnetic field are less than 10,000 years old? Barnes and Humphreys have both argued convincingly for a viable
alternative hypothesis to the evolutionists dynamo idea. They propose that the earths magnetic field comes from freely
circulating electric currents created initially with a high built-in energy. As these currents subsequently lose their energy
due to friction, the magnetic field will decay as the current strength decays.12,13,14,15,16However, a collapsing magnetic
field cutting across a conductor (the earths iron-nickel core) will generate more current, which helps to retard the rate of
decay, otherwise the field would vanish more quickly. In fact, if we were to calculate how much current is being generated
from the measured rate of collapse of todays magnetic field, this current is sufficient to account for the actual known
strength of the field as it is today! Besides being a good confirmation of the model, this means that the evolutionists
dynamo, if it ever existed, must now be switched off.Now we have already seen that this decay is real, having been
measured for over 160 years, as pointed out by Barnes and documented by McDonald and Gunst.17 So this BarnesHumphreys mechanism can account for this realtime decay of the earths magnetic field over the past 160 years, the
current generated from such field decay correlating well with calculations of the amount of current actually present within
the core. Furthermore, Humphreys maintains that it can also account for the magnetic reversals recorded in the rocks
having taken place in only days to weeks!18,19
The flood and rapid reversals
Now measurements of this fossil magnetism in rock strata (being the local field direction and strength) are different to
the global measurements of the strength of the earths total magnetic field as reported by Barnes, yet the fossil
magnetism (palaeomagnetism) does record the behaviour of the field during the earths history. Geophysicists have now
recognized a continuous sequence of roughly 50 magnetic polarity (field direction) reversals in the magnetism fossilized
in rock strata that span the last 600 million years of the evolutionists timescale, from the so-called Cambrian period when
the first metazoan (multi-celled) fossils appear in the rock record to the present. However, since some fossiliferous strata
also have reversed polarities preserved in them, the magnetic field must have been reversely polarized when those
sediments were being laid down.Many creationists argue that the Flood produced most of these fossiliferous rock layers
in a single year. Thus, these reversals of the earths magnetic field have to be envisaged as occurring on average every
week or two during the Flood year. If this were the case, we should then be able to find field evidence of the reversal
process having occurred this rapidly, otherwise the Barnes-Humphreys freely decaying electric currents mechanism for
the generation of the earths magnetic field in less than 10,000 years is also in trouble.But the field evidence has now
been found. As already reported,20 palaeomagnetic measurements of a lava flow at Steens Mountain in Oregon have
shown that one of these magnetic polarity transitions (part of a complete reversal) took place in about two weeks, the time
period over which the lava would have cooled. As would be expected, the investigators, both evolutionists, were
astonished by these results and had difficulty accepting them, but finally had to admit:
even this conservative figure of 15 days corresponds to an astonishingly rapid rate of variation of the geomagnetic field
direction of 3 per day. The rapidity and large amplitude of geomagnetic variation that we infer from the remanence
directions in flow B51, even when regarded as an impulse during a polarity transition, truly strains the imagination.We
think that the most probable explanation of the anomalous remanence directions of flow B51 is the occurrence of a large
and extremely rapid change in the geomagnetic field during cooling of the flow, and that this change likely originated in the
(earths) core.21
The suns magnetic field
In order to further bolster his case for rapid magnetic polarity reversals, Humphreys22 has also pointed to a natural object,
namely the sun, which demonstrates that a large body can rapidly reverse its magnetic field.23 Observations show that
the sun reverses the polarity of its general magnetic field every 11 years, in synchronism with its sunspot cycle. When the
number of sunspots is at a minimum, the observed field on a large scale has its lines of force going mainly north and
south. As the number of sunspots begins to increase, the strength of the north-south part of the field diminishes. In about
5.5 years the north-south component has diminished to zero and the number of sunspots is at a maximum. Then things
begin to happen in reverse. A south-north part of the field appears in the opposite direction from its predecessor and the
number of sunspots starts to diminish. After another 5.5 years, the number of sunspots is at a minimum again, and the
field is back to its original shape, but with the north and south poles of the field having switched places, that is, the suns
magnetic field has reversed its polarity.Physicists and astronomers do not yet have a theory that completely explains this
complex reversal phenomenon. One probable reason why they have had difficulty explaining the suns reversals is that,
because they believe the suns magnetic field is also generated by a dynamo, they have been looking for a mechanism
which would not only reverse the suns field, but also regenerate and maintain it for billions of years. But if the sun is
relatively young (only thousands of years), there is no need for the regeneration requirement. The sun would merely be
winding up and unwinding whatever magnetic field it had at creation, losing magnetic energy each solar cycle. Its longterm behaviour would thus be a steady decay modulated by the solar cycle of reversals.
Earths physical mechanism
Dr. Humphreys has now proposed a physical mechanism for reversals of the earths magnetic field during the Flood.24We
have already seen there is agreement that the earths magnetic field is generated in the earths metallic iron-nickel core,
most evolutionary scientists preferring a dynamo, as opposed to the free-decay model of Barnes and Humphreys. The
latter involves an initial endowment of energy in the core at the time of creation and that energy has dissipated and
decayed freely as electrical currents in the core since then, the currents generating a magnetic field at the earths surface
and beyond, which has decayed in step with the decay of electrical currents.However, because the metallic iron-nickel in
the earths outer core is in a fluid state, internal motions occur in this region due to convection flow, for which there is
evidence even at present. Humphreys suggests that a powerful event in the earths core at the beginning of the Flood
produced this convection, perhaps by the heating of the core due to a sudden increase of radioactive decay or cooling of
the mantle above the core, but these are as yet tentative suggestions that need further analysis. However, once
convection flows were initiated in the earths core, such flows moving upwards in the core towards the mantle would
produce a magnetic flux up into the mantle, which would then be conducted to the earth's surface as a magnetic
excursion.These convective updraughts in the earths core would have carried more magnetic flux to the surface than
downdraughts would have carried away from the surface, so the convective updraughts would have rapidly cancelled out
any previous flux above it. The work done by these convection flows in pushing a magnetic flux upward would generate
new electric currents, which in turn would generate new flux in the opposite direction. Thus a cycle of magnetic reversals
are set up due to these recurring convection currents, which are maintained as long as there is a strong heat source

within the core. In support of his model, Humphreys draws comparisons with convection currents within the sun, which we
have already seen are responsible for a rapid magnetic reversal cycle there.
Earths magnetic field history
Humphreys model for the history of the earths magnetic field is more complex than Barnes original picture of a steady
state decay from creation to now, but it does not differ on the essential hypothesis that the earths magnetic field has
freely decayed since creation. Figure 2 shows Humphreys model for the history of the earths magnetic field, which he
divides into five episodes:
Creation of the magnetic field along with the earth.
Steady decay for nearly 2,000 years until the Flood.
Rapid reversals during the year of the Flood.
Large fluctuations continuing for up to two thousand years after the Flood.
Resumption of steady decay from about the time of Christ until now.
The last period includes the historical measurements which show decay, as reported originally by Barnes.25
The model for the reversal process as proposed by Humphreys is simple compared to the evolutionary dynamo theories.
It differs fundamentally from the dynamo theories in that it is not intended to maintain the earths magnetic field for billions
of years. Rather, it inverts a previously existing field over and over again. Far from maintaining a field indefinitely, this
process accelerates the decay of a planetary magnetic field. The field strength at the peak of each cycle is less than the
peak of the previous cycle, because the inverting process does not completely reproduce the flux. This means that the
energy contained in the post-Flood magnetic field would be considerably less than that of the pre- Flood field.According to
Humphreys, even though creationist explanations of planetary magnetic fields are still in their infancy, they appear to be
more complete and successful than the 40-year-old dynamo theories. Indeed, recent magnetic measurements by the
Voyager spacecraft as it flew past Uranus and Neptune have confirmed Humphreys predictions on the origin of the
planetary magnetic fields.26,27 Furthermore, recent measurements have cast doubt on whether a dynamo really does
operate in the earths core at present. 28 In addition, there is no dynamo theory which accounts for the extremely rapid
variations reported at Steens Mountain by Coe and Prevot,29 but Humphreys model accounts for this data particularly
well. Dynamo theorists even acknowledge that their theories are incomplete, very complex, and not very successful at
making predictions. 30 As one such theorist has said:
you would have thought we would have given up guessing about planetary magnetic fields after being wrong at nearly
every planet in the solar system31
Age of the earth
If the creation scientist Humphreys is correct, and seeing that his predictions about planetary magnetic fields in the solar
system have been verified, and his model for magnetic reversals here on earth does fit well to the geophysical and rock
palaeomagnetic data compared to the woeful state of the dynamo model, then such a decrease in the energy of the
earths magnetic field implies that it is not eternal but relatively recent. Consequently, Humphreys has extrapolated todays
energy decay rate back to a theoretical maximum energy,32 and so has derived an upper limit for the age of the earths
magnetic field at 8,700 years.However, he concludes that the rate of energy loss would have been greater during and just
after the Flood, due to the postulated powerful heating event in the core at the time of the Flood which set in motion the
convection flow, that in turn produced the magnetic reversals and rapid dissipation of the field energy. Figure 3 shows one
scenario suggested by Humphreys in which about 90% of the earths magnetic field energy was lost during the Flood or
shortly thereafter. He suggests, thereby, that this would make the age of the field about 6,000 years, thus again providing
powerful evidence that the earth is as young.
Fossil Magnetism Reveals Rapid Reversals of the Earth's Magnetic Field
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on June 1, 1991
Originally published in Creation 13, no 3 (June 1991): 46-50.
Fossils with magnetic properties demonstrate the rapid reversals of the Earth's magnetic field in the past.
Shop Now
Almost everyone is familiar with a compass needle. The magnetic properties of the metallic iron in the needle force the
needle to swing on its pivot until it lines up with the north-south direction of the earths magnetic field. Indeed, every
molecule of the metallic iron in the needle has these magnetic properties.
Fossil magnetism
Iron also occurs in many types of rocks, not usually in its metallic form, but as an oxide mineral called magnetite, which as
the name suggests is magnetic. Just as all the molecules in the compass needle align themselves along the earths
magnetic field, so do the molecules in the magnetite grains in rocks.This will happen at the time a magnetite particle in a
sediment or volcanic ash comes to rest, or in a lava (hot volcanic rock) as it cools to 500C. Once the sediment layer is
deposited and buried, or the lava flow has cooled below 500C, the direction of the earths magnetic field as recorded by
magnetite grains in these rocks cannot usually be changed by subsequent geological events (except for metamorphism
the process of changes to rock under the influence of elevated pressures and temperatures), even if the direction of the
earths magnetic field has subsequently changed. This magnetism in the rocks is thus in essence fossilised, and so is
usually called palaeomagnetism.
Magnetic Reversals
The existence of this palaeomagnetism in the rocks has claimed a lot of attention since the 1960s. At that time it was
discovered that there were what appeared to be magnetic stripes in the rocks on the ocean floor. The stripes represented
sections in the rock of normal (the same as today) and reversed directions of the earths magnetic field, and this has been
used as evidence for so-called sea-floor spreading and continental drift.1Since their discovery, a lot of questions have
been raised regarding the validity of these magnetic polarity (direction) reversals. Doell and Cox 2 state that, The reversed
magnetisation of some rocks is now known to be due to a self-reversal mechanism. Thus Jacobs3 claimed that, Such
results show that one must be cautious about interpreting all reversals as due to field reversal and the problem of deciding
which reversed rocks indicate a reversal of the field may in some cases be extremely difficult.However, since this initial
skepticism, a number of careful field, laboratory, and theoretical studies, as reported by McElhinney 4 and Jacobs5, have
shown that self-reversal cannot explain more than a small percentage of the reversely magnetized samples. Indeed,
Humphreys6 has recently reviewed the evidence for the validity of these fossil magnetism studies and has found that fully
half of all the 200,000-plus geological samples tested have a measurable magnetization whose direction (polarity) is
reversed with respect to the earths present magnetic field. He concluded that the variety, extent, continuity and
consistency of the reversal data all strongly suggest that most of the data are valid, so that there is no option but to accept
that reversals of the earths magnetic field must have occurred.Geophysicists have now recognized a sequence of 26
such magnetic field reversals in rock extending from the Upper Miocene to the present, presumed to represent the past

5.5 million years of the evolutionists timescale. In the fossiliferous rock layers of the evolutionists past 600 million years,
from the lowest metazoan (multi-celled) fossils of the so-called Cambrian explosion to the present, there appear to have
been recorded in a continuous sequence roughly 50 of these magnetic polarity reversals.
The Mechanism?
The problem with the interpretation of these magnetic data is the presumed mechanism for operation of the earths
magnetic field, and thus the presumed multi-million year timescale for these reversals.The earths magnetic field is
generally considered by most geophysicists to be associated with electric currents in the earths innermost region, the
core, which is believed to consist of a metallic iron-nickel mixture, and is presumed to operate like a dynamo. These
electric currents are believed to be produced by the slow circulation of molten material that carries unequal amounts of
positive and negative electric charge.7,8 Consequently, reversal of the earths magnetic field could be expected to be a
slow process, and thus the evolutionary view has been that a transition from one magnetic polarity (direction) to the other
generally took millions of years. Certainly, at least several thousand years have now been estimated as necessary for the
completion of one such reversal.9In any case, this operational mechanism preferred by most geophysicists, the so-called
dynamo hypothesis, has many problems associated with it which have been well documented. 10-13Since the field reversals
are recorded in the fossil strata, the reversals must have happened when the strata were being laid down. Many
creationists argue that the Flood produced most of the fossil layers in a single year. Thus, these reversals of the earths
magnetic field have to be envisaged as occurring on average every week or two during the Flood year.Such changes are
obviously very rapid compared to the evolutionists multi-thousand-year or million-year-plus time-scales predicted by their
dynamo hypothesis. However, creationists Dr. Thomas G. Barnes (Professor Emeritus of Physics, The University of
Texas at El Paso) and Dr. D. Russell Humphreys (physicist at the Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, and
Adjunct Professor of Physics at the Institute for Creation Research, San Diego) have argued convincingly for a viable
alternative hypothesis to the dynamo. They propose freely decaying electric currents in the earths core. 14-18 This
mechanism accounts for the real-time decay of the earths field over approximately the past 150 years, the current
generated from such field decay correlating well with calculations of the amount of current actually present within the core.
In addition, it can account for the magnetic reversals recorded in the rocks having taken place in a matter of only days to
weeks!19,20
Found! A field test
A convincing test of Humphreys proposal, that reversals of the earths magnetic field must have taken only a matter of
days or weeks within the time-frame of the year-long Flood only 4,500 or so years ago, would be to look for evidence of
such rapid reversals within rock layers that would have formed, or are known to have formed, that rapidly. Indeed,
Humphreys has suggested this himself.21 He suggested that the best candidates for strata which clearly formed within a
few weeks and yet contained a full reversal, would be distinct lava flows thin enough that they would have cooled below
500C within a few weeks.There are several sites where reversal transitions are recorded in the rock layers in some
detail, continuously tracking both direction and strength in small steps. 22,23 However, a large portion of these magnetic
reversal transitions are not recorded in a single, rapidly formed, rock layer, and so dont meet the criteria for a test case.
Now two geoscientists have reported their examination of such a lava flow and found just such a polarity transition
recorded in it.24,25Coe and Prevot are respected palaeomagnetists, who for some years have been involved with a large
group of geoscientists undertaking detailed investigations of magnetic polarity changes in the immense pile of lava flows
at Steens Mountain in Oregon, near the California-Oregon border. These lava flows have been studied along two
traverses up the mountain and are regarded as Miocene, with the reversal record dating from 15.5 +/- 10.3 million years
ago.Coe and Prevot carefully sampled a relatively thin (1.9 metres) lava flow, designated as flow number B51, at a point
where their teams previous investigations had suggested a rapid transition (magnetic polarity change) was likely to have
been recorded. A group of nine lava flows with similar magnetic polarity directions (essentially reversed polarity), the last
one being B52, precedes a 90 jump to the normal direction of flow B50 above, which is followed up the sequence by a
group of six flows with directions that are indistinguishable from one another but very similar to the normal direction of
flow B50. Palaeomagnetic measurements by Coe and Prevot on the numerous samples they collected through the entire
thickness of flow B51 show a bumpy but continuous transition from the reversed polarity in the lava flows below to the
normal polarity in the lava flows above, just as expected.Next comes the question as to how long it took for this magnetic
reversal recorded in the lava flow to occur? This can be reasonably ascertained if it is possible to calculate how long it
took for the lava flow to cool to 500C, since at that temperature the magnetization of the magnetic grains in the basalt
would be frozen.For this purpose, Coe and Prevot used a very simple model of heat conduction that has been long
established,26 and which suffices to calculate a reasonable value of the cooling time of a basalt flow, as verified by the use
of actual temperature measurements from similar lava flows on the island of Hawaii. 27From their calculations, they
concluded that the entire lava flow would cool to 500C or below in about 15 days. This means that the magnetic polarity
transition recorded in the lava flow had to be made in less than two weeks!
An astonishingly rapid reversal rate!
Coe and Prevot commented:
This period [of 15 days] is undoubtedly an overestimateNonetheless, even this conservative figure of 15 days
corresponds to an astonishingly rapid rate of variation of the geomagnetic field direction of 3 per day.28They also
estimated that the minimum change in magnetic field intensity was at an average rate of at least 300 gammas per day.
This compares with typically measured rates of geomagnetic variation globally today of only a few degrees per century
and about 150 gammas per year.29,30 No wonder Coe and Prevot found the calculated rate in lava flow B51 at Steens
Mountain hard to believe:
The rapidity and large amplitude of geomagnetic variation that we infer from the remanence directions in flow B51, even
when regarded as an impulse during a polarity transition, truly strains the imagination 31
With due caution, Coe and Prevot thus felt prompted to search for alternative explanations. However, since other
hypotheses required special pleading, they decided that the most straightforward interpretation explains the data best,
that is, the balance of evidence now in hand weighs in favor of rapid geomagnetic field variation. 32 They concluded:
We think that the most probable explanation of the anomalous remanence directions of flow B51 is the occurrence of a
large and extremely rapid change in the geomagnetic field during cooling of the flow, and that this change most likely
originated in the [earths] core. This interpretation must remain tentative until our investigation is completely finished, but,
if true, it has important implications for the reversal process and the state of the earths interior. 33
How significant?
With just this one study completed on this flow, being the one and only example to date of a rapid magnetic polarity
reversal found recorded in a rapidly formed single rock layer, we cannot be dogmatic that Coe and Prevot are correct,
although as far as we can tell their work is very meticulous and quite thorough. They have been suitably tentative,
although they have explored every other possibility as far as they can ascertain. Of course, part of their reticence to

accept the implications of their own results is due to their strict adherence to the evolutionary time framework in which the
postulated dynamo generating the earths magnetic field has supposedly operated.However, so significant is this
discovery, Coe and Prevots paper was highlighted and commented upon in the international weekly journal Nature. 34 In
that report, the author was cautiously favourable to Coe and Prevots interpretation of the palaeomagnetic data, being
unable to challenge the data presented by Coe and Prevot, or the analysis by which they arrived at their
conclusions.However, quite predictably, the same author seemed reluctant to abandon his ingrained evolutionary view
that thousands of years are necessary for a geomagnetic reversal. Instead, he appeared to be hoping that some
alternative explanation will eventually emerge which would relieve him from the implications of the field data for reversals.
But, he also admitted:
Palaeomagnetism has a history of giving shocks to the geological and geophysical community. Usually these are initially
unpalatable, although they are later accepted.35
Conclusions
So, as Humphreys says, if Coe and Prevot are correct, we can infer important facts about the earth at the time when this
Miocene lava was flowing at Steens Mountain, a time which many creationists would place during the latter part of the
Flood year, or soon thereafter.36 Some physical process must have then been at work in the earths core which could
produce very rapid reversals of the earths magnetic field.The magnetic field change found recorded in flow B51 at Steens
Mountain was about 50,000 times faster than the 2,000 plus years previously thought to be the theoretical minimum time
for geomagnetic reversals, and millions of times faster than the shortest reversals previously found recorded in geological
strata, that is, according to the evolutionary time-scale. But these actual field data were found exactly as the creation
scientist Humphreys, working within a young earth framework, predicted they would be. So if the magnetic reversals have
occurred in days and weeks rather than thousands and millions of years, then the earths rock layers, in which there is a
continuous sequence of these magnetic reversals, are by implication probably only thousands of years old. Thus these
data are important new evidence for a young earth.
Rocks Around the Clock: Do Zircons Contain Reliable Time Stamps and Early Earths Secrets?
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling and Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell on February 26, 2014
Abstract
Zircon grains are found in rocks all over the earth. Despite debate about the accuracy of the uranium clocks they
contain, scientists led by University of Wisconsins John Valley say theyve found one grain with a confirmed age of 4.4
billion years. From it they suggest information the secular world finds surprising about hospitable conditions on the early
earth. When we examine the assumptions underlying their claims, however, we find their conclusions are built on a
wobbly house of cards.
Do zirconscrystals of zirconium silicatecontain clocks you can trust? Crystals of zirconium silicate can be found inside
many sorts of rocks in the earths crust. Most are small, and they often contain even smaller particles of enormous
interest. Trace elements trapped in the crystals may offer clues to the conditions under which the crystals were formed.
Oxygen isotopes and atoms of radioactive uranium trapped in the crystals are, many believe, frozen in time.Confined as
they are in these crystals, many scientists believe that the ratio of parent radioactive uranium to daughter lead atoms in
zircons can be used to calculate the ages of the crystals. These tiny zirconium silicate crystals can survive seemingly
intact despite erosion, changes in environment, and metamorphic conditions that radically alter most rocks. Therefore, the
oldest zircons are considered to be the best indicators of what the early earth was like.Though apparently impervious to
their environmental conditions, zircons can be ravaged from within. Radiation emitted from trapped uranium and thorium
atoms can disrupt their crystalline structure. It is possible for the lead atomsall believed to be the products of radioactive
decayto move. Therefore, many debate the accuracy of these clocks in the rocks.A team led by University of Wisconsin
geosciences professor John Valley, writing in the February 23, 2014 issue ofNature Geosciences, reports they have
pinpointed the location and identity of the individual lead atoms in sub-microscopic sections within one zircon grain from
the Jack Hills sandstone north of Perth, Australia. This zircon grain is the width of four human hairs. The research team
claims to have confirmed that the lead atoms in that particular crystals clock have not moved significantly since the crystal
was formed 4.4 billion years ago.Confident they have a clock they can trust, Valleys team also made a surprising
discovery about the conditions under which the crystal was formed. Because secular scientists like Valley believe the
earth is 4.56 billion years old, they believe this little crystal has a lot to say about the earth shortly after it coalesced into
molten rock from matter thrown from a solar nebula. Oxygen isotope ratios in the crystal are consistent with formation in
an environment that contained liquid water.The little crystal Valleys group analyzed supposedly dates to a time some
scientists call the Hadean age. The name is drawn
from Hades, the mythological Greek god of the
underworld. Even the student unfamiliar with Greek
mythology recognizes the hellish implications of the
name Hades, reflecting the secular belief that the
early earth remained a hot and uninhabitable place
for a long time.Their findings, Valleys team says,
suggest instead that the earth cooled and formed a
crust quite quickly, within 100 million years of its
fiery beginnings. The oldest known fossils
stromatolitescarry a conventionally assigned age
of almost 3.5 billion years, far younger than this
zircon. But those surprisingly cool conditions
documented in the crystal, presumably only 160
million years after the solar system formed, allowed
water to condense on earth and form oceans in
which life may well have evolved as early as 4.3
billion years ago.
This is an image of the latest history-making Jack
Hills zircon. Though lead (Pb) atoms in the zircon
presumably migrated into clusters 3.4 billion years
ago under the influence of the grains hot
environment at that time, researchers assume the
atoms havent budged since then. Image: John

Valley et al./University of Wisconsin-Madison in Nature Geoscience through Yahoo.com

This is a timeline purporting to display the unwitnessed version of earths history created byevolutionists. It is not possible
to accept this version of history, which is built on a host of unverifiable assumptions piled one upon another.
Chain of Evidence, or Chain of Assumptions?
In their paper Hadean age for a post-magma-ocean zircon confirmed by atom-probe tomography Valley and colleagues
interpret their research results through the lens of multiple levels of assumptions. Each interpretation is built on the
assumptions at that level and the interpretation from the previous level. Lets analyze their chain of arguments very
carefully. As we unravel their claims, the discerning reader will see that the whole tapestry Valley has woven falls apart.
Just the Facts, Please
What are the observational facts? What did Valleys team actually see? They examined tiny zircon grains, each
measuring about the width of four human hairs. These zircons were extracted from a metamorphosed sandstone layer in
a low range of hills called the Jack Hills on a sheep ranch in a remote arid region about 500 miles (800 km) north of Perth,
Western Australia. Thats all! From here on Valleys team makes assumptions to build each level of their interpretation.
What they believe about the history of these crystals determines the story they believe the crystals are telling.
History of the Zircons
First, it is assumed that the particles making up the Jack Hills sandstone in which the zircons were found were eroded
from pre-existing rocks and transported by water to be deposited in this layer. And what kind of rock could have produced
these zircons in the first place? Since zircon grains initially crystallize at high temperatures (1800C), the team assumed
the zircon grains in this sandstone must have come from a rock crystallized from hot magma. Sometime after the rock
cooled, they believe it was eroded and the zircons birthed in it were transported by water to Jack Hills.
This history all sounds reasonable, but none of it was observed. This entire scenario is based on inferences about what
happened in the distant past, including an assumed naturalistic origin for the earth.
History of the Earth
Secular scientists like those on Valleys team assume that the earth was formed out of a solar nebula as hot matter was
thrown out from the sun and coalesced to form a ball. Subsequent meteoric bombardment blasted our moon from the
earth, so the story goes, and the energy from that hit that formed our moon . . . melted and homogenized the earth,1 as
Valley explains in a news release, leaving its surface an ocean of magma. Thus they assume that the earth formed from
the sun after the sun formed, and then only subsequently after the magma ocean cooled enough for water to condense
from steam was the earth covered in water. That water, they believe, then eroded the rocks which had crystallized and
cooled from the magma ocean, and then transported and deposited the resulting sand and zircon grains in this sandstone
layer.
Tiny Tales of Grand Scope
The next level of interpretation begins with the U-Th-Pb (uranium-thorium-lead) dating of the tiny zircon grains extracted
from the Jack Hills sandstone. Of the hundreds of zircons that were analyzed and dated, only four yielded dates greater
than 4.3 billion years old. Yet as the writers admit, those four grains have been used to provide a basis for theories of
crustal growth, tectonics, surface conditions and possible habitats for life on early Earth!2 In other words, from four
microscopic mineral grains a whole story has been told about the early history of the earth. That story is based on the
assumption that only random natural processes have operated over eons of time with no hint that any Creator was
necessary or involved.Now, of those four tiny grains deemed to be old enough, only one grain was selected for this
present study. The authors do admit that there has been a lot of uncertainty about the cumulative effect of un-annealed
radiation damage and mobility of radiogenic isotopes [which] has led to questions about the reliability of ages and other
geochemical characteristics of these zircons.3 In fact, it was for these reasons the study of that solitary zircon grain was
undertaken.
The Dates Are Good Except When They Arent

Like other scientists who have previously dated this and the other zircon grains, the authors of this study never question
that the U-Th-Pb dating method is anything but reliable in providing absolute ages. While recognizing potential problems
owing to the mobility of lead atoms within the zircon grain, they are completely blind to the many other unverifiable,
worldview-based
assumptions
that
govern
their
interpretation
of
their
entire
radiometric
dating
methodology.They never recognize the underlying unprovable assumptions on which the U-Th-Pb system is based. The
starting conditions (e.g., the amount of lead present when the crystal formed) can never be knownhow do we know
that noneof the daughter lead atoms we measure today were not there in the zircon grain at the beginning? Actually, they
doassume there were at least some daughter lead atoms at the beginning, but only because of what is believed to be
primordial lead in one iron meteorite, which has no parent uranium atoms but some daughter lead atoms in it! They are
therefore constrained by what they believe about that meteorite to concede that some lead atoms could have been
present when this zircon grain originally formed, even though lead atoms are thought to not fit into the zircon crystal
lattice. But how much daughter lead was not derived by uranium decay? Even admitting that some daughter lead
atoms might have been in the grain to start with does not tell them how much lead not derived from uranium decay there
might have been.Next, can we be sure the U and Th have always decayed at the same rates we measure today? No! We
have measured U and Th decay for only 100 years, but is it reasonable to assume the decay rates have been constant at
todays rates for 4.5 billion years? This is not to suggest that natural laws have changed, only that conditions have not
always been the same, and those conditions may have affected the rate at which processes like radioactive decay took
place. In fact, this is not idle speculation and conjecture! We have solid evidence that radioactive decay rates cannot have
been constant. For example, discordant dates have been obtained on the same rocks by the different radioisotope
methods. Discordant dates have been derived from helium diffusion and U-Pb dates on the same zircon crystals.
Coexistent U and Po radiohalos argue against perpetual uniformity of decay rates. So do grossly
discordant radiocarbon and radioisotope dates.4 Given ample evidence observable in the present that decay rates have
not been constant throughout the supposed deep time, it is not reasonable to assume they have been uniform through
unobservable eons.Finally, how can we be sure there has been no contamination of the relevant trace elements inside
these zircons? Such removal or introduction of the parent or daughter atoms would completely invalidate the clocks in
the crystals. Along that same line, migration of the lead atoms within the crystals would also reset the dates, rendering
the ages of the crystals completely inaccurate. How can we be sure there has been no resetting of the dates during the
billions of years? To answer this last question was the exact reason for this present study. And while the researchers
decided the lead atoms in this little zircon have not moved enough to matter, they have not even begun to address the
other unverifiable assumptions on which their methods are based.
Tunnel Vision
So how good for this purpose was this one tiny zircon grain? Did their analyses demonstrate that the lead atoms did not
move? And if so, what does that do for the trustworthiness of Valley et al.s conclusions? Actually, even their own
published photosincluding those in the news releases (see the photo above)demonstrate conclusively that this grain,
like all the others, has a complex internal pattern of concentric crystal zones. They freely admit that these zones are
compositionally different. Yet the authors only partially acknowledge this heterogeneity when they mention that there is
a core that they date at ~4.4 billion years. They analyzed many tiny spots, and they describe an outer overgrowth (clearly
visible as gray in the above photo) which they date at ~3.4 billion years, based primarily on the Pb-Pb dates. But in so
doing they ignore a Th-Pb date, which they relegated to the supplemental information attached to their paper, that yields a
date of only 492 million years! In fact, even within the ~4.4 billion year-old core, their published images clearly show
compositional variations (the core is only the innermost zoned section inside the blue colored area in the photo above).
Between this innermost core and the gray overgrowth crust there are clearly additional compositional zones within the
blue colored area, including some they label as disturbed. Plus, there are tiny quartz inclusions. Such quartz inclusions
are problematical for them because quartz crystallizes at a much lower temperature than zirconium silicate, raising the
questions of how quartz inclusions could be there if the zircon crystallized first at high temperatures, and how could they
have survived intact if the zircon has been reheated and also weathered through all the time and conditions to which it
supposedly has been subjected.
Zooming in on Lead Atoms
Finally, we come to the crux of the present study, the atom-probe tomography analyses of nano-domains. This new
technique purports to count atoms within even tinier regions than those addressed above, much less than a tiny fraction of
a hairs width. Valleys group shows, and therefore claims, that within the tiny area they scanned there are distinct clusters
of atoms with uniform Pb isotope composition correlated with clusters of atoms of the rare element yttrium (Y). They
consider the apparently uniform isotopic composition in these clusters combined with the presence of yttrium to be like a
fingerprint identifying the migration of those lead atoms into these clusters. They confirmed that the Pb isotope
composition in the full volume of these very tiny (sub-microscopic) clusters was the same as that obtained by the standard
SIMS (secondary ion mass spectrometry) technique used to date the tiny spots elsewhere within this zircon
grain. However, they then admit that the cores of these very tiny clusters yield a Pb isotope composition that equates to a
Pb-Pb age for them of ~5.5 billion years, which they quickly add is significantly older than the age of the Earth and clearly
not correct.5 That of course begs the question as to how do we really know whether any of the other ages are correct?
How Much Is Too Much?
Given the great heterogeneity of even the most relevant parts of this zircon grain and the dating aberrancies so casually
disregarded, how does Valleys team conclude that the ~4.4 billion year age is accurate? After all, determining the
accuracy of this date was the objective of the study! They admit these very tiny clusters formed as a result of migration of
Pb atoms within the crystal after it formed. (Remember, it is this migration that scientists suspect of resetting the clocks in
the zircon and making their times suspect.)On their published U-Pb dating diagram, however, the authors project a line
representing the Pb isotope composition of the cores of the very tiny clusters from the ~4.4 billion years age (when the
zircon grain supposedly crystallized) to where the line happens to intersect the U-Pb isotopes growth curve at the ~3.4
billion years agethe presumed age of the zircons outer overgrowth (the gray-colored outer zone in the photo above).
Because they assume that overgrowth resulted from heating of the rock containing the zircon grains, they assume the Pb
atoms migrated to form these very tiny clusters in the nano-domains within the core during that heating event. Yet if that
processa heating event that metamorphosed the host sandstonecaused the clustering in the first place, why have
subsequent events and geologic processes presumably not perturbed those lead atoms further during the subsequent
~3.4 billion years! The ages measured in the relatively larger spots in the crystal core must therefore be reliable, they
conclude, because only very tiny clusters of migrated lead atoms were created within the much larger spots by the
disturbance of outside forces, and so there cannot have been any additional disturbance since then. The clusters of
migrated lead atoms musthave been frozen in time! Why? Because those who claim to have the key to confirming the age
of the worlds oldest rocks need for them to be so! And all this just goes to confirm, they believe, that the earth must have

been covered by a magma ocean prior to the crystallization of this tiny zircon grain ~4.4 billion years ago, a magma ocean
caused by the impact that formed the moon!
Journey to the Center of the Earth
So much about earth history depends on a correct understanding about the inner workings of our planet. But how can we
know anything about the
earths interior since we
cant actually go there and
see it firsthand?
Jules
Verne
captured
imaginations in 1864 with
his epic science fiction
novel A Journey to the
Center of the Earth.
Despite
huge
technological
advances,
such a journey would be
impossible, not because we lack interest but because the earth isnt hollow.How do we know this? In fact, how do we
know anything about the earths interior?
This question isnt trivial. Our modern economy depends on a correct understanding of the earth, as we incessantly
search for oil and essential minerals, and predict deadly earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. Moreover, the modern debate
about the origin of the solar system and the universe revolves, in part, around what makes up the earths interior and the
dynamic forces that shaped and moved the continents.Drilling alone cant tell us much. Until recently the deepest drillhole, the Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia, reached a depth of 7.6 miles (40,230 feet, or 12,262 m). This impressive
feat took nearly twenty years (19701989). Oil wells drilled in Qatar in 2008 and 2011 reached only a few hundred feet
(tens of meters) deeper, but these are all still pin pricks compared to the 3,960 miles (6,371 km) to the earths center.
The Size and Density of the Earth
The earths vast size is hard to imagine. Yet humans have known about it since early times. Pythagoras (about 530 BC)
was probably the first to recognize that the earth is a sphere.1 By sitting at the harbor and observing the approach of
ships from beyond the horizonfirst the masts and sails, and then the hull peeped over the horizonhe realized that the
earths surface must be curved.Eratosthenes (276196 BC), chief librarian at Alexandria in Egypt, devised a simple and
elegant method for estimating the size of the earth and the distance to its center, without the need to travel around the
world (see sidebar for details). He calculated the earths circumference to be approximately 25,000 miles (40,234 km),
only 2% above the actual value.Isaac Newton furthered our knowledge of the forces holding the earth together when he
formulated the law of gravity. All the particles of the earth are pulled toward the center of gravity, and the spherical shape
is the natural result.These principles are necessary to help us investigate the composition of the earth. What kinds of
materialslight or heavy, liquid or solidfill this sphere? To begin, we must establish three basic facts: volume, mass,
and density.
Volume
Volume is easy to calculate. We know the space inside a ball simply by knowing its circumference. The earths
circumference has been confirmed by surveying measurements, both on the earth and from space. The earth is not quite
a perfect sphere, but we can still easily calculate its circumference and volume.
Mass
The mass of the earththe amount of matter it containsis a little tougher to find. It can be estimated from the orbital
period of the moon (the time it takes the moon to complete one orbit around the earth).
Density
We can calculate the earths density by dividing the mass by the volume. This gives us a hint about what kind of materials
are inside the earth. We simply need to compare this density to the densities of typical rocks we find on the surface.
Typical rocks have densities of about 156187 pounds per cubic foot (2.5 3.0 grams per cubic cm). Yet the earths
density is much higheran average of 343 pounds per cubic foot (5.5 grams per cubic cm). How then can we reconcile
these different values?
Not Just Compressed Rock
With increasing depth, the pressure within the earth becomes immense. The temperatures also increase. The weight of
the overlying rock compresses the interior, which increases the density.We can measure this effect in the laboratory. Yet if
we compress surface rocks to pressures equivalent to the earths interior, we still do not obtain the same high density.So
we have to conclude that the earth is not made entirely of rock. The material deep within the earth must have a much
higher density than simply that of compressed rock.
Evidence from Seismic Waves
We can learn something about a body of material by the way certain waves pass through it. Such waves pass through air,
water, or molasses in different ways.An earthquake generates seismic waves that can travel all the way through the
interior of the earth. It is somewhat similar to a pebble dropped into a pond. The waves emanate in circles out from the
point of impact and are clearly visible. The sound waves that we generate in the air when we speak are similar but
invisible. Seismic waves in rocks are similar to the invisible sound waves in the air.As seismic waves travel through the
earth away from an earthquake, they eventually reach the earths surface again where they can be detected (Figure 1).
We can then use them to probe the earths interior in a way similar to how x-rays reveal our internal anatomy.By analyzing
these seismic waves, researchers have constructed a model of the earths interior (Figure 2). At a depth of about 1,796
miles (2,890 km)about 2,163 miles (3,481 km) from the center of the earthan abrupt change in the behavior of
seismic waves indicates that there must be a sudden increase in the earths density. This corresponds to the core-mantle
boundary.
Evidence of the Core from Seismic Waves
Earthquakes generate various seismic waves (such as P-waves) that travel through the earths interior. By analyzing how
these waves change behavior when they reach different regions, we can learn where the density changes significantly. At
a depth of about 1,796 miles (2,890 km), an abrupt change indicates a sudden increase in density. This corresponds to
the core-mantle boundary.If we look at a chart of different metal densities, iron best fits the density at the core, and olivine
(a magnesium-iron silicate mineral) best fits the mantle. Even though the core is made of the same basic iron material,
certain seismic waves travel differently through the outer core, indicating that it must be liquid, while the inner core is solid.

Giants Causeway
Northern Ireland
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on July 1, 2014
The Giants Causeway, Northern Irelands most iconic landmark, has attracted millions of curious travelers over the
centuries. Some 40,000 strange, interlocking columns form a road of stepping stones that lead from the coastal cliffs
down into the sea. The edges of each column line up so perfectly they look like the work of a skilled Inca mason.
AlbertoLoyo | Thinkstockphotos.com
Rising up along northern Irelands coast is a series of
tall, geometric stepping stones. These basalt columns
formed during the flood, as lava oozed over the
region, cracking into regular patterns as it cooled.
Legend has it that Irish giant Finn MacCool built the
causeway so he could travel across the sea to fight a
challenger in Scotland without getting his feet wet.
(Similar columns rise from the sea in the Scottish
Isles.) Evolutionary geologists say the causeway was
formed by massive volcanic eruptions 5060 million
years ago.
How Did It Really Happen?
The first clue is that these columns are made out of
basalt, a rock formed from cooling lava. When we
observe lava cooling today, it shrinks and cracks.
Under the right conditionsuniform mineral content
and slowly falling temperaturesthe cracks follow
geometric patterns.As the lava contracts, fractures
first appear on the surface. Then the cracks extend
deeper into the mass as it cools, forming the pillar-like
columns.The columns contracted at the bottom and
top simultaneously. This would mean that the bottom
shrank upward, while the top shrank downward. In
many cases the bottom is convex, as expected,
while the upper segment is concave, producing
what are called ball-and-socket joints.In theory,
based on how cooling lavas should behave, the
basalt columns should all be six-sided (hexagonal).
However,
nearly
one-third
are
five-sided
(pentagonal), and a few others are four-, seven-,
and eight-sided. This goes to show that real-world
geology doesnt always follow our initial, simple
theories.Most columns are about 15 to 20 inches
(3851 cm) in diameter, around the size of a
common patio stone. The size of the columns was
primarily determined by the speed at which the
lavas cooled. And not all the columns are vertical.
Some are tilted where the cooling surface was
sloped.
Several lines of evidence indicate that Giants
Causeway formed during several volcanic
eruptions that occurred in rapid succession. After
each eruption, the thick basalt started to congeal,
cool, and harden, aided by being briefly covered
with water, before the next lava flow covered it.
The middle flows in the sequence are slightly
different in content than the others, and these are
the ones that consist of regular, well-developed
columns, particularly in their lower parts.
The causeway is part of a massive basalt
deposit, known as the Thulean Plateau, estimated
to cover 700,000 square miles (1,800,000 km2)
and be nearly half a mile thick. Where did all this
material come from? We simply dont see anything
on that scale today.
The Flood produced just the right conditions. As
the earths plates moved rapidly apart (opening up
the Atlantic Ocean), huge fissures opened in the
crust. Massive amounts of thick lava flowed
through these openings into the North Atlantic,

covering Greenland, Iceland, western Scotland,


and northeast Ireland. These land areas were
closer together then but shifted apart as the
plates continued to move at the Floods end and
rapidly decelerated in the early post-Flood era.
The basalt lavas here did not erupt violently, but
instead poured out of the ground like a thin oil
(similar to the volcanoes in Hawaii today, but on
a much larger scale). Eruptions were intermittent
in pulses, as seven successive flows, most of
them measuring nearly 100 feet (30 m) thick,
stacked on top of one another. Later erosion
exposed some of the columns that formed within
these layers.Iron fits this estimated density and
behavior. Iron would also explain the earths
magnetic field. If a small amount of nickel is added to the iron, the earths overall density almost perfectly matches the
earths average density.Even though the core is made of the same basic material, it appears that it is divided into two
parts: an outer and an inner core. Certain seismic waves travel differently through the outer core, indicating that it must be
liquid, while the inner core is solid.
VolcanoesWindows to the Earths Interior
We learn other clues about the interiors of continents by the materials that volcanoes belch out. As molten rock passes
through the earths deep continental crust, chunks of rocks are broken off. When the lavas erupt and cool, many of these
chunks remain intact.The basalt lavas that picked up these chunks of continental rocks on their way to the earths surface
are a different kind of material. So they must have a different source below the crust, from the uppermost mantle. This is
consistent with the seismic evidence. Sometimes these basalt lavas also bring up chunks of uppermost mantle
rock.Another confirmation that we are looking at upper-mantle rocks is the rare occurrence of diamonds in them. Inside
the earth, diamonds are stable at depths greater than 100 miles (160 km). The conditions at shallower depths can actually
turn diamonds into graphite! That means the likely source of these diamond-bearing rocks is at least 100 miles down in
the upper mantle. Their composition confirms what we expected the upper mantle to be like.
Evidence from the Earths Wobble
Another clue about the earths makeup is its wobble. The earth spins like a top, with its spin axis tilted at 23.5. This spin
causes it to bulge slightly (by 13 miles [21 km]) at the equator and to contract a little at the poles. So the earth wobbles as
it spins.This wobble occurs in a predictable pattern. If the top were made out of the same material throughout, it would
theoretically take about 31,500 years for the earths wobbling axis to complete one full circle. But instead, we can
calculate that it would take only 26,000 years .By measuring the earths wobble and bulge, and estimating the forces of
gravity exerted by the sun and moon, it has been shown that material in the earths interior must be much denser than that
on its surface. Iron in the earths core helps explain these observations.
Evidence from Meteorites
Another hint of the material within solid planets comes from out in space. Between Mars and Jupiter is the asteroid belt,
which contains rocky objects ranging in size from less than an inch (mere millimeters) to several hundreds of miles (or
kilometers) across. Collisions in the asteroid belt cause fragments of asteroids to be ejected from their orbit into a collision
course with the earth. Entering earths atmosphere, most asteroids burn up, forming meteors or shooting stars. Those
fragments that reach the earths surface are called meteorites. Most meteorites (but not all) are believed to have come
from the asteroid belt.Stony meteorites constitute almost 95% of catalogued meteorites. The major mineral in them is
olivine. This is the same major component in the chunks of mantle rock brought up to the earths surface. Just over 4.5%
of meteorites are irons. They consist of iron-nickel alloys, which match the composition of the earths core deduced from
other evidence.Secular astronomers generally claim the asteroid belt is leftover materials from when the solar system
formed. If this is the caseand we do not know for surethe asteroid belt may be leftovers from that process, and
asteroid fragments that fall to earth as meteorites may provide us with samples of the possible internal composition of
rocky planets.
Conclusion
While we cannot directly sample deep inside the earth, researchers
can use several lines of evidence together to provide a confident
answer to our questionwhat is inside the earth? Our best scientific
estimates are that beneath the outer skin, called the crust, is a rocky
mantle composed primarily of olivine, and at the center of the earth is
the core, composed primarily of iron with some nickel as an alloy.
Under the unique stress and heat inside the earth during the Flood
event, these interior rocks would have weakened by a factor of over a
billion, allowing the fragments from the breaking up of the original
supercontinent to slide catastrophically into their current
configuration. The earths interior has yielded many other secrets
about the forces at work at the edges of those continental fragments,
helping us piece back together the original appearance of the earths
continental plates and how they behaved when they moved apart and
crashed into each other. (More to come in future issues of the
magazine!)
Eratosthenes MethodAround the World in Only a Day
One of the most amazing calculations in all of earth history was
possible because a mathematician in Egypt used his head rather
than his feet. You need to know only two points on a sphere to
calculate the distance around the rest of the sphere.
Eratosthenes realized he could determine a second point without
even traveling anywhere. He had heard that at the city of Syene,
located on the Nile River (where Aswan is today), the sun shines
vertically at noon on the summer solstice. (The solstice is the longest
day of the year, in the Northern Hemisphere, usually June 21.) So a

vertical stick there casts no shadow. At his own hometown of Alexandria, roughly 500 miles (805 km) to the north of
Syene, he noticed a very perceptible shadow.Next, all he had to do was the math (basic algebra). He could easily
determine the angle from the center of the earth () to Syene and Alexandria. It was just over 7, or almost exactly one
50th of 360. That means that the approximate length of the whole circumference was 50 times the distance between
Syene and Alexandriathat is, 50 x 500 = 25,000 miles. Calculations from the same measurements can also tell us the
distance to the center of the earthapproximately 3,960 miles.
The Devils Marbles
Northern Territory, Australia
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on July 1, 2014
An early Australian explorer trekking into central Australia found large, round boulders scattered across the surface,
sometimes in huge stacks, and sometimes precariously balanced on a tiny base. He reported in amazement, This is the
Devils country; hes even emptied his bag of marbles around the place! And the name stuck.
LSphotos | Thinkstockphotos.com
Strewn around the ground in Australias interior are rounded,
free-standing boulders. The original granite blocks were
formed during Creation and later sculpted in the harsh
environmental conditions after the Flood.The Devils Marbles
are an iconic landmark in Australias Outback. The local
indigenous Australians call the region Karlu Karlu (round
boulders) and consider it a sacred site. A dreaming story
says the Devil Man created these features when he left
twirled clusters of hair on the ground that became round
boulders. Evolutionary geologists say the rocks formed deep
in the earth 1.7 billion years ago, and then erosion over long
ages produced these features at the surface.
How Did It Really Happen?
The erosion of the granite in the conventional geologic story
does explain the boulders but not the timing of their
formation. Two catastrophic episodes in earth history could
explain when granite formed rapidly.The actual science
behind these boulders is pretty straightforward. Deep in the earths crust (its thin outer skin) the temperatures and
pressures were so high that the rocks sometimes melted to form granite magma (molten rock). This magma then
squeezed upwards along fractures and collected wherever spaces were forced to open up close to the earths surface.
There the granite magma cooled and crystallized to form the rock called granite.These granite masses shrunk a little as
they cooled and crystallized, but no cracks opened up because the immense weight of the overlying rock layers pushed
the rock mass tightly together. However, once the overlying rock layers eroded away during the Flood, the release of
weight allowed cracks to open up.Because of the regular pattern of mineral crystals in granite, the cracks followed an
even and geometric pattern (see figure). The granite mass broke up into many large blocks, roughly cubic in shape.Many
of these blocks wore away quickly under the heavy rains and harsh conditions that immediately followed the Flood. Water
carried chemicals down into the cracks, causing the granite to weather and decay rapidly.Two processes sped up the
breakdown. The surfaces constantly expanded and contracted as a result of chemical weathering and daily temperature
fluctuations. In todays desert environment, the heat of the sun causes the thin outer skins of the blocks, along with the
minerals in them, to expand slightly; after nightfall they contract slightly. The outer skins eventually cracked and fell off,
rounding the boulders so they look like peeling onions. These processes together are thus called spheroidal or onionskin
weathering. The net result is the piles of perched and rounded granite boulders, or tors.
How Were Devils Marbles Formed?

The boulders are remnants of a granite mass that formed deep in the earth during creation. As the magma cooled, it
shrunk and cracked. But the weight of the overlying rock layers kept the cracks from appearing.When the Flood washed
away the overlying rock layers, it released the weight on the granite, and cracks opened up. The receding floodwaters
scraped the continent down to the bedrock, exposing the granite.Because of the regular pattern of crystals in granite, the
cracks produced a regular pattern of large blocks. These blocks wore away quickly under the heavy rains and harsh
chemical conditions following the Flood.The breakdown was accelerated by daily temperature fluctuations that caused the
thin outer skins to expand and contract. Eventually the skins fell off, rounding the boulders like peeling onions.
Arches of Utah
Arches National Park, Utah
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on July 1, 2014
Located just outside Moab, Utah, is a wonderland of more than 2,000 natural arches. Towering 85 feet (26 m) overhead,
and spanning 65 feet (20 m) is the best-known rock arch in the world, Delicate Arch. Nearby is one of the worlds longest
natural arches, Landscape Arch (a whopping 291 feet, or 89 m, long). Everywhere you turn are spectacular arches of
various shapes and sizes, such as Double Arch, Skyline Arch, and Tower Arch. Why are there so many natural arches in
this one area?
How Did It Really Happen?

gcgebel | Thinkstockphotos.com
Standing alone on a hillside is the worlds best-known arch,
Delicate Arch, towering 85 feet (26 m) overhead. The flood set in
motion a sequence of events that produced such wonders very
rapidly.Evolutionary geologists recognize that massive earth
movements were required, but they mistakenly assume long spans
of time. The problem is that they have chosen to ignore the unique
impact the Flood had upon the earths surface.Creating such
delicate features requires more than gouging big holes into
sandstone. A long series of events had to happen beforehand.
First, some process had to create tall, thin rock walls, out of which
the arches were carved. These rock walls are called fins (see
figure). They appear in parallel rows, like the furrows of a plowed
field, and we can still see some today.Only later did water,
chemicals, andto a lesser extentwind, eat away at these walls.
In most cases the whole wall would crumble, but in some cases
only the lower portions collapsed. Today were looking at the
remains of these rows of walls (fins).Creating rows of rock walls
requires special conditions. Sandstone must be deposited on top
of less stable material, which then shifts upward and causes the sandstone to break up into parallel strips. Arches
National Park sits atop thick underground salt beds, which are very unstable. During the Flood, hot salty waters deposited
these beds in a wide basin in this area, now part of the Colorado Plateau region.After the Flood deposited the salt beds,
the waters tore debris from the nearby Uncompahgre Plateau (an Indian word meaning dirty water or rocks that make
water red) and deposited the sands on top of the salt beds. These sediment layers included the Navajo Sandstone and
the Entrada Sandstone. The weight of these accumulating rock layers caused the salt beds to liquefy and push up into
salt domes. The arching and bending of the sand layers over the salt domes produced parallel fractures in the sandstone.
Later the Flood deposited another mile of younger sediments (about 5,000 feet, 1,524 m) on top of the Entrada
Sandstone.Next this whole region was uplifted at the end of the Flood, and the waters that rushed violently off the
continent washed away most of the layers above the sandstone. The uplift further released pressure on the sandstone
and caused gentle warping in the Entrada Sandstone, opening up additional closely spaced, parallel joints, 1020 feet (3
6 m) apart.Most arches are carved out of the Entrada Sandstone, especially at the edges of the gentle hills that rose
above the valleys. Slightly acidic rainwater slowly broke down the sandstones cement (made of lime), progressively
releasing the sand grains. Such weathering and erosion by water and wind enlarged the fractures to produce narrow
parallel sandstone walls or fins. Frost and cycles of freezing and thawing caused expansion and contraction of the rock
surfaces, which progressively peeled off (exfoliated).Eventually holes appeared along the fractures that ran up and down
the walls. The seeping water collected at the bases of the walls and evaporated slowly. All this extra water caused the
bases to weather more rapidly than the tops. Fragments began to loosen and fall, enlarging the openings into holes and
then arches.Alternately, some of the holes may have appeared at the bottoms of the fins in places where the fins had
filled in with sand and soil. Acidic water in the sand and soil wore away these holes while the fins were still underground.
Later, the sand soil was removed, exposing the arches.Eventually arches will wear through and collapse. Forty-three
arches have collapsed due to erosion since 1970. Their loss is a sober reminder how delicateand recentthese
formations are. Rapid processes created them and are now destroying them.
How Were Arches Formed?
Arches are the remnants of a vast sandstone layer deposited on top of salt beds. When the sandstone was deposited on
the salt beds, the weight caused the salt to liquefy and push up, fracturing the sandstone into parallel strips.

Rainwater broke down the sandstone and enlarged the fractures, producing tall, thin walls known as fins. The arches were
carved out of these fins (left).Water, chemicals, andto a lesser extentwind, ate away at these walls. In most cases the
whole wall crumbled, but in some cases only the lower portions fell (center).The seeping water collected at the bases of
the walls. This caused the bases to weather more rapidly than the top. Openings were enlarged into holes and then
arches (right).
Hawaiis Volcanic OriginsInstant Paradise
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on January 1, 2014

The young age worldview changes how you see everything, even a paradise like Hawaii. If the Flood destroyed the
earth, whered these islands come from? Only catastrophic earth movementsa result of the Floodcan explain this
string of jewels.
Mention Hawaii, and it conjures up thoughts of a tropical paradise. Pristine waterfalls, luxuriant creeping vegetation, and
squawking, duck-like coots remind millions of annual visitors about the Creators handiwork.But red hot lavas slowly
moving across fields and engulfing roads are never far away. Indeed, the Hawaiian Islands are a string of active and
extinct volcanoes that hint at a catastrophic past. If the volcanoes that formed Hawaiis eight major islands had been
formed before or during the Flood, the Flood would have deposited sediments on their flanks. But they have none. So we
know the volcanoes must have erupted following the Flood.So how did eight islands pop up in a neat row in the middle of
the Pacific Ocean after the Flood, 3 miles (19,297 feet, or 5882 m) above the surrounding seafloor? The origin of these
gems gives us a fascinating window into the incredible tectonic forces that tore apart the planet during the Flood. Indeed,
we now have enough geologic clues to begin reconstructing what took place in the Pacific .Paradise RevisitedThe
Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, numerous small islets, and undersea mountain peaks called
seamounts (Figure 1). They extend in an arc some 1,500 miles (2,400 km) from the island of Hawaii (the Big Island) in
the southeast to the Kure Atoll in the northwest. The total land area of the Hawaiian Islands is a mere 6,423.4 square
miles (16,636.5 sq. km), small compared to the worlds largest archipelagothe Malay Archipelagowhich includes
24,000 islands and covers a million square miles.
Figure 1Rising Lava and a String of Pearls
The Hawaiian Islands are the last in a string of volcanic islands that arose as the Pacific Plate moved over a hot spot in
the crust. At the end of the Flood, eruptions began to produce dozens of islands stretching over 3,600 miles (5,800 km).
The hot spot currently sits under Hawaiis Big Island. The first islands, called the Emperor Seamounts, were small and
most never grew large enough to reach the ocean surface. Radiometric potassium-argon dating shows that these
seamounts are oldest, and the Hawaiian Islands are youngest. These islands formed quickly, over a few years, not
millions of years.
Illustration by Tasa Graphic Arts, Inc.
Yet the comparison is not fair. The Malay
islands are made out of crust material from the
nearby continents of Asia and Australia, while
the Hawaiian Islands are made out of volcanic
rock from the earths mantle. These volcanic
islands are part of an even longer chain that
extends all the way to Alaska. It is estimated
that volcanic material in this chain would be
enough to cover the entire state of California
one mile thick. That was a lot of lava belching
out of the earth in the past!1The Big Island at
4,028 square miles (10,432.5 sq. km) is made
up of five broad, rounded, still-active shield
volcanoes, the tallest being Mauna Kea, which
towers to 13,803 feet (4,207 m) above sea
level. If measured from its base on the ocean
floor, its height is 33,100 feet (10,100 m),
making it taller than Mt. Everest! Its still-active
neighbor Mauna Loa, just 120 feet (37 m)
lower, is the largest volcano in the world,
covering a land area of 2,035 square miles
(5,271 sq. km).
Where Do the Lavas Come From?
The earth has an outer skin or crust, beneath
which lies the mantle.2 Scientists believe the
molten basalt that erupts from these huge
volcanoes rises from the upper mantle. There is
even evidence that a plume of hot rock is still
welling up from the mantle and feeding the
active volcanoes on the Big Island (Hawaii).
This mantle plume has pushed up the ocean floor beneath Hawaii, forming a huge, shallow blister or swell over 620
miles (1,000 km) wide. Currently the most active volcano is Kilauea on the Big Island, but the newest volcano is the Loihi
Seamount, just to the southeast of Hawaii.Maui is the next largest island in size and the next in the chain. The islands
quickly become smaller and smaller. Mauis area is only 727.2 square miles (1,883.4 sq. km). Furthermore, its largest
volcano, Haleakala, is only 10,023 feet (3,055 m) tall and is no longer active. Indeed, the volcanoes and the volume of
lavas get progressively smaller as you progress along the chain toward the northwest.3
Intriguing Chains
This intriguing pattern does not end with the eighth island. Farther northward is yet another line of seamounts (undersea
mountain peaks). Known as the Emperor Seamounts, this chain stretches another 2,100 miles (3,400 km) northward to
Alaskas Aleutian Trench (Figure 1). These seamounts are the remnants of former volcanoes but do not rise above the
ocean surface. (Curiously, a few of these seamounts are flat-topped, implying they once were exposed above sea level
and were eroded off.)A very interesting pattern appears. The largest and active volcanoes are at one end. As you move
northward along the chain, the past lava output and volumes become progressively less and the volcanoes smaller, until
the volcanoes dont even rise above the surface and are long dead. What caused this progression?One clue is the relative
ages of the rocks on the Hawaiian Islands and Emperor Seamount chains. Using the standard radiometric dating
technique that measures the radioactive decay of potassium to argon (the potassium-argon method), we learn that the
youngest volcanic rocks are on the island of Hawaii. (Thats what we would expect since its volcanoes are still active.) The
volcanic rocks become progressively older northward along the chain. The central islands of Midway Island and Kure Atoll
are said to be 28 million years old, and then the seamounts along the Emperor Chain date from 47 million years
northward to 81 million years (Figure 1).While creationists strongly dispute the actual ages, they agree with the relative
nature of the measurements (more later).
The Moving Pacific Plate

The discovery that the earths crust is broken into moving plates has provided us with an elegant explanation for the
islands pattern. The Pacific plate (making up much of the floor of the Pacific Ocean) has been moving northwestward. As
the plate moved over the essentially stationary Hawaiian mantle plume, the rising molten rock built a series of seamounts
and islands in quick succession (Figure 2).
Figure 2Hawaii Is a Hot Spot
Most of the worlds volcanoes form where crustal plates crash into each other, but Hawaii is different. It lies over a hot
spot, or mantle plume, where hot material breaks through the thin ocean crust.

Illustration by Tasa Graphic Arts, Inc.


Radiometric dates show progressive aging from Hawaii (the youngest) to the seamounts (the oldest). These measure
radiometric decay over months and years, not millions of years (Ma).Thus the seamount at the northern end of the
Emperor chain was formed first, when that point was over this hot spot, incorrectly dated by the faulty radiometric
method at some 81 million years ago. As the plate moved, it eventually reached the position where it is today, with the
island of Hawaii and the Loihi Seamount sitting on top of the mantle plume (Figure 2).Old-earth, secular geologists say
this plate movement has always been slow and gradual. To bolster their supposed case, they point to an interesting
correlation. If you plot the radiometric ages of the different islands and seamounts against the distances from Kilauea, the
rate of 2.63.6 inches (6.69.1 cm) per year just happens to be about the same as the plate movement today. However,
if the plate motion had been uniformly slow at todays rate, all the volcanic islands should have been of similar sizes.As for
the bend where the Emperor and Hawaiian chains meet, it is thought the direction of the Pacific plates motion changed,
starting some 47 million years ago according to evolutionary scientists. No one knows yet why this direction changed.
Perhaps the answer will provide some new interesting insights. It has also been suggested, though, that before this bend
occurred the hot spot may also have been moving slightly.4
Making Sense of the Evidence
So what are we to make of all this within the young framework for the earths history?Creation geologists do not dispute
that plate tectonics has occurred. However, they believe substantial evidence confirms that it occurred catastrophically
during the Flood.5 Furthermore, as the Flood was waning, the plate motions decelerated from tens of feet (meters) per
second to their current snails pace of only an inch or two (mere centimeters) per year. Any movement of the hot spot also
would have ceased, while catastrophic outpourings of lavas from the hot spot rapidly decreased.And this view makes
even better sense of the observed evidence, such as the sizes of the recent islands, which grew bigger due to larger
volumes of lavas. As the plates slowed, there would have been more time for the upwelling mantle hot spot to send up
lavas, even if the eruptions decreased. Thus the island of Hawaii is much larger than the other islands.In contrast, the
plate was moving so rapidly when the Emperor chain was being formed that few of the volcanoes had time to grow big
enough to breach the ocean surface.Perhaps the plate began slowing down as it changed direction to produce the bend
between the two chains. Only when the plate motion slowed was there enough time to build the Hawaiian Islands, even if
the lava outpourings slowed to a comparative trickle.
Those Radiometric Dates?
But what about those potassium-argon millions-of-years dates? There are good reasons they must be regarded as greatly
exaggerated.Excess argon rises with the lavas from beneath the earths crust, contaminating them so that they yield
excessively old dates.6 This volcanic argon gas does not arise from radioactive decay of the potassium in the rocks, but
instead it is trapped in the basalts, making them read older. Furthermore, potassium-argon dates of volcanic rocks on
seamounts can increase with depth underwater, regardless of actual age.7This type of faulty assumption behind
radioactive dating leads to exaggerated dates.8 Another crucial, unverifiable assumption made by evolutionary scientists
is that the decay rate has been constant throughout timethat is, the radioactive clocks have always ticked at the same

rate. But creation research has demonstrated that all the decay rates were grossly accelerated in the recent past, during
the global Flood cataclysm.9This finding indicates that, just as plates accelerated during the Flood and then decelerated,
so radioactive decay rates accelerated, apparently in lockstep, and then decelerated. Thus the volcanic rocks that formed
earlier as the Pacific plate moved over the hot spot yield exaggerated radioactive dates due to quickly ticking radioactive
clocks. As the Flood ended, both plate motions and radioactive decay rates slowed. These are not true absolute dates
because the clock was ticking faster than it does today.So while the Hawaiian Islands today appear to be a tropical
paradise, they were built during the aftermath of the Flood cataclysm. Not only were the tectonic plate motions and
volcanic eruptions catastrophic, but even radioactive decay was occurring at catastrophic rates.
The Florida Sinkhole Tragedy
Why Did It Happen, and Could It Happen Again?
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on March 5, 2013
On Thursday, February 28, at about 11:00 PM
(Eastern Time) a Florida man was in bed
sleeping when a huge hole opened under his
house, swallowing part of the inside of his
house and him with it.Because it was deemed
too dangerous to keep searching, on Saturday
rescue workers called off their search for 36year-old Jeffrey Bush, who had not been
heard from since the hole appeared under his
house in Seffner, just east of Tampa, in
Hillsborough County. The remains of his
house were perched over a huge sinkhole 20
feet wide and at least 30 feet deep, which was
seriously unstable. So, on Sunday crews
began demolishing the house from outside the
perimeter of the sinkhole, which may extend
down as much as 50 to 60 feet.While some in
the neighborhood did not know of the risks,
sinkholes are common in Florida. In addition to
Florida, other U.S. hotspots for sinkholes
include Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky,
Tennessee, and Pennsylvania, according to
the U.S. Geological Survey.Under most of
Floridas relatively thin veneer of soils, surface
sands, and clays are numerous stacked
limestone beds, the total thickness of which is
up to 3,000 feet. Conventionally dated as
Pliocene to Eocene (supposedly 340 million
years old), in the young age framework of earth
history these fossil-bearing limestone layers were
only deposited after the Flood waters had finished
draining off the rest of North America. Their
accumulation continued for a few decades into
the post-Flood era, prior to the onset of the Ice
Age.On the one hand, these thick limestone beds
are a blessing, as they comprise the Floridan
aquifer system, a huge reservoir of groundwater
stored in interconnected cracks and pores within
the rock (see map 1). This Floridan aquifer
system is among the most productive in the
world, supplying millions of gallons of water to
homes and businesses throughout Florida,
especially in the Tampa-Orlando area (see map
2).
On the other hand, however, these groundwaters
are also responsible for creating sinkholes!
Unfortunately, these groundwaters within the
limestones are slightly acidic. Rainfall percolates
down through soils, sands, and clays that contain
organic matter, producing humic acid. The slightly
acidic groundwater then dissolves the limestone
that lies beneath the soil, creating large voids or
cavities in the limestone. If such cavities grow
upwards, weakening the limestone, then when
the overlying sands and clays can no longer
support the weight of the soil and whatever is on
top of it, the earth collapses into the cavity (see
diagram).

(Source http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/hydrology/si
nkholes/)
Thus, Floridas geological makeup increases the
likelihood
of
sinkholes.
Development
of
groundwater resources for municipal, industrial, and
agricultural water supplies places additional
stresses on this groundwater system and can alter
the balance of the natural water cycle. Excessive
pumping of groundwater and surface water, as well
as periods of drought, can lead to falling regional
groundwater levels and cause the soil to settle, thus
triggering sinkholes to form. Others form under the
weight of runoff-storage ponds, which cause the
underground support material to collapse.Of
course, this process does not require millions of
years. With all the groundwater being pumped from
the limestone, plus high rainfall and other factors,
the large cavities that become sinkholes can form in
tens to hundreds of years.Sinkholes of the sort that
swallowed this unfortunate Florida man form
suddenly. They are called cover-collapse sinkholes.
When they occur, a hole typically forms and grows
over a period of minutes to hours. Sediments may
continue to slump down the sides of the sinkhole for
several days, and erosion of the edges can last
even longer. Fortunately, these cover-collapse
sinkholes are quite rare. A recent assessment of 1,400 sinkholes found only one or two.As frightening as it sounds,
sinkholes happen all the time. Usually, though, they are slow-motion processes that can take years. More common is the
slow, gradual subsidence of land, forming bowl-shaped depressions at the surface in a process than can last years, giving
those affected plenty of warning.More than 500 have been reported in Hillsborough County since 1954 (see map 3). A
monster 400-foot sinkhole that sucked in a house, five sports cars, two businesses, and part of a swimming pool
appeared near Orlando in 1981. Sinkholes can reach more than 100 feet deep and several hundred feet wide. Others are
tinya few feet across and maybe a foot deep. Some hold water and form ponds.
It is fortunate that one sinkhole opening, does not necessarily mean another nearby is imminent. They are usually isolated
events, according to the Florida Geological Survey. However, certain events such as a hurricane following a period of
drought can trigger a series of sinkholes to occur within minutes to hours of each other.
Sadly, dangerous sinkholes forming suddenly are yet another sign that we live in a sin-cursed world.

VolcanoesWindows Into Earths Past


by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on July 1, 2010
Audio Version

Few natural catastrophes today compare to the awesome spectacle of a volcanic eruption. The Mount St. Helens eruption
of May 18, 1980, the most destructive in recorded U.S. history, unleashed the same energy as 400 million tons of TNT, or
approximately 20,000 Hiroshima-size atomic bombs.1 Yet its explosive power is miniscule compared to past eruptions.
The Mount St. Helens eruption produced an impressive 0.25 cubic miles (1 km 3) of volcanic ash. But that is nothing
compared to the eruption of Taupo (New Zealand) about 1,800 years ago, which produced 8 cubic miles (35 km 3) of ash.
Even this is dwarfed by an earlier Yellowstone eruption, soon after the Flood, which produced at least 480 cubic miles
(2000 km3) of ash.2Such was the magnitude of these explosions that they blasted away huge holes in the earth, called
calderas. The Taupo caldera is now filled by a huge lake, and the Yellowstone hole is so big you can only discern its
boundaries with the help of satellites.Yet these eruptions are tiny compared to a different type of volcano that deposited
gargantuan stacks of thick layers known as continental flood basalts.3 For example, the Deccan Traps of India are over
a mile (2000 m) thick and spread over nearly 200,000 square miles of the Indian subcontinent (500,000 km2)about the
same area as modern France! The Siberian Traps in Russia are even thicker (more than 480,000 cubic miles [2 million
km3] in volume), though they cover a slightly smaller area (130,000 square miles [340,000 km 2]).Its hard to imagine the
scale of an event that would produce these flood basalts. Many large cracks, or fissures, had to open in the earth all at
once, for so much lava to pour out over such a wide area. No eruptions today are that large, though a small fissure did
open in Iceland back in 178384, belching out around 3.4 cubic miles (14 km 3) of basalt lava (the same Laki area that
created so much international concern this year).Before we can understand the unique forces necessary to fuel such
immense eruptions in the past, we must first look at clues about volcanoes in the present.

Types of Volcanoes
Volcanoes occur in various sizes and forms. Many of the best-known volcanoes, especially the picturesque ones, are
large, steep-sided cones. These include Mount St. Helens, Mount Fujiyama (Japan), Mount Pinatubo (Philippines), Mount
Ngauruhoe (New Zealand), and many others. They form as successive layers of lava and ash pile up. Technically they
are called explosive composite volcanoes, or stratovolcanoes.4,5 It is likely that Yellowstone was originally a
stratovolcano, but much bigger than any volcano we see today.Another type of volcano is found in Hawaii, such as
Kilauea. These have gently sloping sides and are called shield volcanoes. Though spectacular, their eruptions are not
explosive. Actually, these Hawaiian volcanoes are taller than Mount Everest, if their heights are measured from their
bases on the deep ocean floor.

They produce oozing lava similar to the material we find in the Deccan Traps, but not on the same scale. The lava is
usually only a few feet deep over a square mile or less.
Types of Lavas and Eruptions
The different types of volcanoes vary depending on the content of the molten rock (magma) that formed them.
Volcanoes are fed from deep inside the earth. Various geologic events, such as friction of moving plates, cause the
melting of rock deep beneath the earths surface. This molten rock then rises to the surface as magma. If the melting rock
includes lots of a chemical component called silica, it will be very thick (viscous) and resist moving. But if the magma is
low in silica, it will flow very easily.Silica is very common in the rocks of the earths outer skin, or crust. The region below
the crust, called the mantle, does not have so much silica. If the magma comes from melting at the top of the mantle, then
it will be low in silica and flow easily. This rock is called basalt, and its what we find in the traps and in Hawaiis shield
volcanoes.If, however, the magma gets contaminated as it rises through fractures in the crust, then the proportion of silica
increases and the magma gets thicker. (Rocks of this kind are called andesite and dacite.) On the other hand, if just
crustal rocks melt, they form another, thicker kind of magmagranitewhich has the highest silica content. When these
granite magmas reach the surface, they are called rhyolite.Since basalt lavas flow easily, they erupt non-explosively.
Consequently, they tend to spread out to build gently sloping shield volcanoes. However, dacite magma is thicker, so it
squeezes out like tar, forming steep-sided volcanoes. Also, any gas and steam that is trapped in the rising dacite magma
cant easily escape. So the pressure increases, like that in a corked bottle which has been shaken. Eventually the volcano
erupts violently, breaking up the magma into frothy blocks (pumice) or fine-grained particles of ash (pyroclastics).6
Windows into Earths Interior
The lavas that flow out of todays volcanoes are very small in volume compared to lavas from the monster volcanoes of
the past. How can we explain the physical forces that could produce so much magma?Conventional geologists face a
quandary. Todays lava flows are small because the magma chambers below the volcanoes contain only small amounts
of magma, and the continental plates are moving so slowly that they cant facilitate the melting of much new magma.In
contrast, the basalts of the Deccan and Siberian Traps are massive. The eruptions must have been enormous, with huge
volumes of lava constantly pouring out rapidly from many large fissure volcanoes. Only some unique catastrophe could
have formed all this magma.
Where Do Volcanoes Occur
and Why?
Volcanoes give us another
clue about the forces at work
inside the earth. Most active
volcanoes are located near
the margins of the earths
crustal
tectonic
plates7 (Figure 1). This is
especially true where one
plate appears to be sinking or
is being pushed under the
adjoining plate, such as where
the Pacific plate is sinking
under the North American
plate in the U.S. Northwest
(see d in Figure 2), or where
the Philippine plate is sinking
under the Eurasian plate near
Japan (see ain Figure 2). The
sinking, or subducting, slab
causes mantle and crustal
rock to melt, which produces
magmas that rise to erupt
through
volcanoes.Other
active volcanoes occur where
the plates are splitting apart,
such as in the East African
Rift Valley and along ridges in
the middle of the ocean basins
(see c in Figure 2).8In a few
exceptional places, active
volcanoes are located over
hot spots under the plates,
where plumes of hot mantle
rocks are rising towards the
earths
surface
(see b in Figure 2).9 The best
known examples of these are
the Hawaiian volcanoes. The
continental flood basalts are
found where such hot spots occurred in the past.
Earths Catastrophic Past
Contrary to conventional (slow-and-gradual) thinking in geology, present volcanoes are not the key to understanding the
earths past. The volume of lava and deposits was much too large and catastrophic to be explained by todays volcanic
activity.10,11For old-earth scientists, the location of continental flood basalts above former mantle plumes is explained by
slow-and-gradual plate tectonics theory, but Flood geologists point out that the volume is not explained. The conventional
idea of a slow rate of mantle flow and plate movements cannot explain such huge volumes of basalt lavas. Indeed, they
had to be generated and erupt catastrophically. Even using conventional long-ages dating, these flood basalts were
produced in a veritable geologic instant.
The Flood

This is another powerful example of evidence that can be explained by catastrophic plate tectonics during the
Flood.12 The breakup of the fountains of the great deep at its onset and continuing for 150 days would have involved not
only the bursting out of water from inside the earth, but also steam and prodigious volumes of lavas. Then after the
fountains were closed and plate movements slowed, volcanic activity decreased at the end of the Flood. This is also
reflected in the documented declining power of post-Flood volcanoes to their relative quiescence today.13
Does Sand Prove Long Ages?
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on July 9, 2010

Dr. Andrew Snelling, AiGU.S., gives a young earth creation explanation of the formation of beaches and other sands.
I am a strong "young earth" creation scientist who has been unable to answer questions from old earth people or
find technical help to respond to the following: "beach sand demonstrates that the earth is at least millions of
years because its origin is lava, coral, and other metamorphic rock, and sedimentary rock is formed from the
erosion and reconsolidation of sands that had already been formed."Please help. I would greatly appreciate a
young earth explanation of the formation of beaches and other sands. I can only say that they werecreated that
way; however, why there are different kinds of sand, such as the black Hawaiian beach sands and other special
sands that appear to have had local sources.
Whenever anyone, makes a claim that some aspect or process of the earth demonstrates that the earth is at least
millions of years old, we should immediately challenge them as to what assumptions they are using to make such a
judgment. After all, no one was there in the past to see that aspect or process in operation, so how could anyone possibly
know that the rate of that aspect or process occurred in the past at the same rate it is occurring today? We simply cannot
know!It is instead an assumption that is implicit in such a statement, for example, that beach sand demonstrates that the
earth is at least millions of years old. That statement assumes that erosion to produce the sand on beaches has always
occurred at the rate that it is observed to occur todayand most of the time erosion does occur slowly and gradually
today. So most people have been indoctrinated with the idea that because geological processes are slow and gradual
today, then they have always been that way in the pastand so that to erode all the sand that is now on the beaches
must have taken millions of years!
Geological processes have not always been slow and gradual, as the rates we observe today are. The global watery
catastrophe cataclysmically convulsed the earth and totally reshaped it. Since we dont see things like global floods
operating todaywith the earth catastrophically convulsing everywhere due to the earths crust being ripped apart, steam
and red hot volcanic materials being blasted everywhere, and torrential rainfallthe present is not the key to the past.In
other words, it was because of what happened during the Flood that the earth is the way it is today.
All modern geology is built on this assumption of geological processes always occurring at the same slow and gradual
rates we observe today, and is known as uniformitarianism. It is a belief about the past that cannot be observed, because
we cant go back to the past. All we have is the evidence in the present of sand on beaches, and any explanation as to
how that sand got there and the rate at which it accumulated is based on assumptions about how to interpret the evidence
of slow and gradual erosion we see today. In other words, the conclusion you come to depends on the mental glasses you
are wearing, such mental glasses being the lens of interpretation through which one interprets the world one sees. This is
what we mean by one's worldview. In any case, there is observational evidence in the present that erosion rates arent
always slow and gradual, and that sand can be eroded rapidly and accumulate rapidly to form beaches.
In the late spring and early summer of 1983, there was snowfall in the high country of the upper Colorado River basin
causing excessive runoff to pour into Lake Powell behind Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona. In order to avoid the
dam wall overflowing, engineers decided to allow greater than normal outflows through the spillway tunnel in an effort to
drain away the excess water. On June 28, 1983, they increased the flow to 32,000 cubic feet per second out through the
40-foot-diameter spillway tunnel. However, within a matter of seconds the flow of water in the spillway tunnel changed
abruptly from smooth to turbulent, as large pieces of concrete and bedrock were hurled from the discharge end of the
tunnel. Furthermore, the water exiting the tunnel became red (the color of the surrounding sandstone), and noticeable
ground vibrations (earthquakes) were felt. The spillway tunnel was immediately closed, so that damage could be
evaluated.A survey team discovered extensive damage in the spillway tunnel due to the process called cavitation. The
water was moving so swiftly and in such a large volume that vacuum bubbles were produced in the water that imploded in
an explosive-like process that delivered hammer blows to the concrete lining of the tunnel at pressures estimated to be as
much as 440,000 lbs per square inch! No wonder the three-foot-thick, steel-reinforced concrete lining of the tunnel had
been gouged out in several huge pits. At an elbow where the tunnel levels out, a hole 32 feet deep, 150 feet long, and 40
feet wide had been cut through the lining into the red sandstone bedrock beneath. That enormous hole required 63,000
cubic feet of concrete to fill! The speed of this erosion had been very rapid, most of the erosion occurring during the few
seconds when the red color of water appeared and ground vibrations were generated. It was estimated that the cavitation
was pulverizing the concrete, steel and sandstone at a rate in excess of 1,000 cubic feet per second during the peak
period of this erosion.This event demonstrates what Derek Ager, the former professor of geology at the University College
in Swansea, Wales, maintained in his ground-breaking book The New Catastrophism, published by the Cambridge
University Press in 1993. The subtitle of that book was The importance of the rare event in geological history. Ager
maintained, and with much good evidence, that most geologic work was done during very brief catastrophic episodes. In

other words, the sand in any sandstone layer would have been produced by a catastrophic episode of erosion such as
was observed in the spillway tunnel of the Glen Canyon Dam in 1983.
To substantiate this claim and make it relevant to the issue of the formation of beaches and beach sands, we focus on
something that happened off the coast of Iceland. In 1963 volcanic eruptions on the seafloor adjacent to Iceland produced
a new island, which was called Surtsey. Amazingly, within a few months of the volcanic activity ceasing in 1964, erosion
by the ocean produced a coastline with beaches covered in sand. In fact, within a year or two the island had become
vegetated and populated with insects and animals. It didnt take thousands of years for either the beaches to form or the
island to be populated. Yet anyone who hadnt observed what actually happened, but who instead arrived to see the
island, may well have concluded, using the assumption of slow and gradual processes over millions of years, that the
beaches on the island looked as though the island and the beaches were millions of years old! Instead, it was all observed
to happen within months.It is relevant, in closing, to refer back to the cataclysmic Flood event the earth experienced as.
The Flood waters had to drain away to have the present exposed land surface with its topography. My point is that as the
Flood waters drained off the earths surface, massive erosion would have occurred at a catastrophic scale and rate. There
is abundant evidence (on which most everyone agrees) that many of the earths high mountains and plateaus today were
uplifted only relatively recently. That would have been at the end of the Flood, when the new ocean basins would have
also been deepened so as to collect the Flood waters draining off the uplifting continental surfaces. Thats why there are
such great thicknesses of sediments on the continental shelves surrounding the continents, because as the Flood waters
drained off they eroded and dumped those sediments offshore. Then and since the Flood, nearshore ocean currents
would have swept sand onto the coastlines to form beaches.The water flows would have been similar to what was
witnessed at the Glen Canyon Dam, so the rapid erosion of rocks would have produced huge volumes of sand, which
dumped offshore and on the coastline to form the sandy beaches and the immediate sandy offshore areas. Since this
would have happened during the closing months and weeks of the Flood year and in the years thereafter, the sand on the
beaches and the formation of the beaches didnt take millions of years. And of course, the waters eroded the local rocks
and materials that then accumulated as beach sands locally, which explains the black Hawaiian beach sands, for
example.So in conclusion, the interpretation of the evidence we see of sandy beaches today and how they formed
depends on your starting assumptions. If it is assumed that only slow and gradual erosion processes seen today were all
that were capable of eroding the sand and forming the beaches, then it would have taken millions of years. However,
observational evidence in the present and tell us that geological processes have not always been occurring at the same
rate, but that there have been catastrophes in the past, particularly a global catastrophe
Thirtieth Anniversary of a Geologic Catastrophe
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on May 18, 2010

The May 18, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens in the state of Washington is regarded by many as the most significant
geologic event of the twentieth century.

May 18 marks the thirtieth anniversary of one of the most violent


natural disasters of our time, the colossal 1980 eruption of Mount St.
Helens. This catastrophic geologic event not only shocked the world
because of its explosive power and made headline news, but
challenged the foundations of evolutionary theory.The May 18, 1980
eruption of Mount St. Helens in the state of Washington is regarded
by many as the most significant geologic event of the twentieth
century, excelling all others in its extraordinary documentation and scientific study. Although not the most powerful
explosion of the last century, that eruption provided a significant learning experience within a natural laboratory for the
understanding of catastrophic geologic processes. And thirty years later we learn that Mount St. Helens still confronts the
underlying slow-and-gradual assumptions of modern geologic thinking.

The beautiful mountain before it erupted thirty years ago today. (Photo by R. Fleshman from www.creationism.org)
Todays Mount St. Helens (Photo by R. Fleshman from www.creationism.org)
On May 18, 1980, a steam blast equivalent to 20 megatons of TNT destroyed the northern side of the once-pristine shape
of the volcano. Geologists, who are accustomed to thinking about slow evolutionary processes forming geologic features,
were astounded to witness many of these same features form rapidly as a result of that and subsequent eruptions. We
are indebted to Dr. Steven Austin of the Institute for Creation Research for his work in documenting carefully the geologic
results of this astounding catastrophe. The following undeniable lessons still confront us, thirty years on.
1. Rapid Formation of Sediment Layers
Up to 600-feet thicknesses of sediment layers formed as a result of the primary air blast, landslides, resultant water wave
on nearby Spirit Lake, volcanic ash flows, mudflows, air falls of volcanic ash, and steam water. The most surprising
accumulations resulted from the volcanic ash flows that moved at high velocities from the volcano. These deposits
included fine volcanic ash beds from a tiny fraction of an inch thick to greater than 3 feet thick, each representing just a
few seconds to several minutes of accumulation. Furthermore, one such layered deposit, 25 feet thick, accumulated within
three hours during the evening of June 12, 1980. It was deposited from volcanic ash flows moving at hurricane velocity.
Geologists were staggered that such coarse and fine sediment layers could be separated into distinct strata by such a
catastrophic flow process from a slurry moving at freeway speed.Sadly, most geologists still conventionally think that such
sedimentary layering has to represent long seasonal variations, or annual changes, as layers accumulate very slowly.
They normally think that catastrophic sedimentary processes homogenize materials, depositing coarse and fine grains
together. However, what researchers observed at Mount St. Helens emphatically teaches us that sedimentary layering
does form very rapidly by catastrophic flow processes, such as those that would have occurred during the Flood.
2. Rapid Erosion
From everyday experience it is observed that rivers and creeks erode very slowly. Thus it is usually assumed that great
time periods are needed to form deep canyons. However, at Mount St. Helens very rapidly erosion occurred, producing
erosion features that challenge conventional thinking about how landscapes form.Two-third of a cubic mile of landslide
and eruption debris from the May 18, 1980, eruption covered 23 square miles of the North Fork of the Toutle River,
blocking the drainage from Spirit Lake westward into the Pacific Ocean. It was the largest debris avalanche observed in
human history! The deposits averaged 150 feet thick. Then on May 19, 1982, another explosive eruption of Mount St.
Helens melted a thick snow pack in the crater, creating a destructive, sheet-like flood of water, which became a mudflow.
Reaching the landslide and eruption debris deposits of the North Fork of the Toutle River, the flow formed channels which
cut through the blockage of the drainage westward. Bedrock was eroded up to 600 feet deep to form two canyons on the
north flank of the volcano. Individual canyons up to 140 feet deep were cut through the landslide debris and volcanic ash
deposits. The erosion left elevated plateaus to the north and south resembling the North and South Rims of the Grand
Canyon.
Toutle River Canyon (Photo courtesy
USGS)
Also, gully-headed side canyons and
amphitheater-headed
side
canyons
resemble the side canyons to the Grand
Canyon. The breach did not occur straight
through the obstruction, but took a
meandering path, which reminds us of the
meandering path of the Grand Canyon
through the high plateaus of northern
Arizona. This Little Grand Canyon of the
Toutle River is a one-fortieth scale model of
the real Grand Canyon.The small creeks
which flow through the headwaters of the
Toutle River today might seem, by present
appearances, to have carved out these
canyons very slowly over a very long time
period, except for the fact that the erosion
was observed to have occurred extremely
rapidly! Geologists should thus have
learned that the long timescales they have been trained to assign to the erosion of deep canyons are not accurate, and
that deep canyons found elsewhere could likewise have formed very rapidly, including the Grand Canyon of Arizona.
3. Rapid Formation of Fossil Deposits
The volcanic blast of May 18, 1980, destroyed the surrounding forests. By late that afternoon one million logs were
floating on nearby Spirit Lake. Many of these logs were actually floating upright. Even though the roots had been broken
off, the logs were thicker at the root end and the wood obviously denser so that the root ends sank before the tops of the
logs. Indeed, thousands of upright, fully submerged logs were subsequently observed sitting on the floor of the lake,
looking as though they were a forest of trees. Investigations showed many had become buried by more than 3 feet of
sediment, while others were still resting on the floor of the lake.Geologists could easily have misinterpreted these upright
buried logs as representing multiple forests that had grown on different levels over periods of many thousands of years.
This is in fact how the petrified upright logs at Specimen Ridge in Yellowstone National Park had been interpreted, as
successive forests growing over many thousands of years. However, the lesson from Mount St. Helens is that fossilized
upright logs had to be buried rapidly.
4. Rapid Formation of a Peat Layer
The enormous log mat floating on Spirit Lake lost its bark and branches, rubbed off by the abrasive action of wind and
waves. Scuba investigations of the lake bottom subsequently revealed that sheets of bark intermingled with volcanic
sediments had formed a layer of peat many inches thick. Together with broken branches and root materials, the sheets of
bark gave the peat a coarse texture and a layered appearance. This Spirit Lake peat resembles, both compositionally
and texturally, certain coal beds of the eastern United States.Geologists suppose that coal beds formed by the
accumulation of organic material in vast swamps where the plants grew in place. By slow growth and accumulation, they
estimate about 1,000 years was required to form each inch of coal. However, typical swamp peat deposits are very fine,
with a texture looking like coffee grounds or mashed potatoes. They are homogeneous because of the intense penetration
of the roots which dominate swamps. Thus root material is the dominant coarse component of modern swamp peats,
while sheets of bark are extremely rare. This is the exact opposite of what was found in the Spirit Lake peat. Yet the

Spirit Lake peat is texturally and compositionally similar to coal. Thus the lesson from Spirit Lake at Mount St. Helens is
that this first formation stage of coal beds is rapid, and due to catastrophic destruction of forests, not the slow and gradual
growth of plants in swamps.
Conclusion
Mount St. Helens provided a rare opportunity to study geologic processes that within a few months produced changes that
geologists assumed required many thousands of years. Mount St. Helens served as a miniature laboratory for
catastrophism! The eruption and its aftermath challenged the timescales most geologists attach to geologic processes
and changes that are used to construct the long geologic ages underpinning Darwinian evolution. Thus the Mount St.
Helens catastrophe challenged, and still challenges, the slow and gradual interpretation of the accumulation of the
geologic record and provides the stepping stone to help us imagine catastrophism on a global scale during the
cataclysmic Flood.
The Cooling of Thick Igneous Bodies on a Young Earth
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling and John Woodmorappe on August 5, 2009
Abstract
One of the scientific objections to a young earth is the apparent evidence that large plutons of granitic and other igneous
intrusive rocks necessarily required millions of years to cool from magmas.
This paper was originally published in the Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Creationism, pp. 527
545 (1998) and is reproduced here with the permission of the Creation Science Fellowship of Pittsburgh.
Abstract
Not only is the presence of water deep in the earths crust crucial in producing granitic magmas, but water is also included
within such melts. Once a pluton is emplaced (probably rapidly by dikes) and crystallization begun, the magmas water
content significantly aids cooling. Meteoric water also penetrates into the pluton via joints and fractures that develop in the
cooled outer rind of the pluton, setting up hydrothermal circulation. The permeability of the cooling pluton is maintained as
the cooling/cracking front penetrates inwards, while vapor pressures ensure the fracturing of the surrounding country
rocks. Thus, convective cooling rapidly dissipates heat over a timescale compatible with a young earth.
Introduction
One of the persistent scientific objections to the earth being young (6,0007,000 years old rather than 4.55 billion years),
and the Flood being a year-long, global event, has been the apparent evidence that large plutons of granitic and other
igneous intrusive rocks found today at the earths surface necessarily required millions of years to cool from magmas. The
purpose of this work is to examine critically this oft-quoted assumption.Deep in the earths lower crust the temperatures
are sometimes high enough to melt the rocks locally, particularly if there are applied high pressures due to tectonic forces
and/or elevated temperatures. The latter can result from the proximal presence of basaltic magmas ascended from the
upper mantle. Most geologists now agree that large blobs of granitic magmas are thus generated at 700900C, and
owing to the fact that these blobs are lighter than the surrounding rocks, they are supposed to have risen like balloonshaped diapirs into the cooler upper crust. There they crystallize into the familiar granitic rocks. When exposed at the
earths surface due to erosion, these plutons cover large areas, sometimes hundreds of square kilometers. Indeed, it is
estimated that up to 86% of the intrusive rocks within the upper continental crust are of granitic composition.1Young2 has
insisted that an immense granitic batholith like that of southern California required a period of about one million years in
order to crystallize completely, an estimate repeated by Hayward3 and Strahler4 , the latter in a widely-quoted anticreationist book. Others quote on the order of 10 million years for the complete process of magma generation, injection,
and cooling. Pitcher says:My guess is that a granitic magma pulse generated in a collisional orogen may, in a complicated
way involving changing rheologies of both melt and crust, take 510 Ma to generate, arrive, crystallize and cool to the
ambient crustal temperature.5
Of course, to this must be added the time to unroof the batholith. However, most recent estimates of these timespans are
inflated, as they are based not solely on presumed cooling rates, but primarily on radiometric dating determinations and
other uniformitarian assumptions.
Water in Granitic Melts
Recent research in experimental igneous petrology has shown that the temperatures required for melting of rocks to form
granitic magmas are significantly lowered by increasing water activity up to saturation, and the amount of temperature
lowering increases with increasing pressure.6 A corollary to this is that water solubility in granitic magmas increases with
pressure, and therefore depth, so that whereas at 1 kbar pressure (34 km depth) the water solubility is 3.7 wt%;7 at 30
kbar pressure (100 km depth) the water solubility is approximately 24 wt%.8 Indeed, the amount of water available is one
of three crucial factors in the control of granitic magma formation, the others being parent rock composition and
temperature.9 Three sources are believed to provide the needed wateradjacent country rocks, subducted hydrated
oceanic crust, and hydrous minerals present in the melting rock itself. These three processes may act either
simultaneously or independently of each other. While the adjacent country rocks are of local importance, the other two
sources are regarded as supplying large quantities of water.Water is generally recognized as the most important
magmatic volatile component, both for its abundance and for its effects on physical and chemical properties of melts.
Indeed, the dramatic effects of the changes of water contents of melts on phase relations is due to the variation of
physical properties of melts with changing water content (for example, viscosity, density, diffusivity, solubility of other
elements). Therefore, the role of water in melting processes (collecting and segregation of melts), migration of melts, and
crystallization of magmas is fundamental.Experimental investigations have demonstrated that pressure is the most
important parameter controlling water solubility in granite petrogenesis, although the influence of temperature and melt
composition is also of importance.10However, water-saturated conditions commonly do not prevail in ascending granitic
magmas. Usually they are water-undersaturated, and their viscosity and density thus ensures that they ascend to higher
crustal levels where crystallization and cooling of granitic plutons takes place. Thus, if there has been a relatively fast
pressure release due to rapid ascent and emplacement of the granitic magma, even if initially water-undersaturated at
depth, fast crystallization will occur, and, once water saturation is reached, excess water may be released.
Ascent of Granitic Magmas
There has always been a problem with the accepted wisdom of slow magma ascent in balloon-shaped diapirsthe socalled space problem. How does a balloon-shaped diapir with a diameter of several kilometers or more find room to rise
through the earths crust from 2040 km (or more) depths and then the space to crystallize there (even at 25 km depth)
in spite of the continual confining pressures? As Petford, Kerr, and Lister point out,The established idea that granitoid
magmas ascend through the continental crust as diapirs is being increasingly questioned by igneous and structural
geologists.11

Clemens and Mawer12 maintain that the idea of long distance diapir transport of granitic magmas is not viable on thermal
and mechanical grounds, so they favor the growth of plutons by dike injection propagating along fractures. Pitcher
comments:. . . what is particularly radical is their calculation that a sizeable pluton may be filled in about 900 years. This is
really speedy!13
However, Petford, Kerr, and Listers calculations show that a crystal-free granitoid melt at 900 C, with a water content of
1.5 wt%, a viscosity of 8 105 Pa s, a density of about 2600 kg/m 3 and a density contrast between magma and crust of
200 kg/m3, can be transported vertically through the crust a distance of 30 km along a 6 m wide dike in just 41
days.14 This equates to a mean ascent rate of about 1 cm/sec. At this rate they calculated that the Cordillera Blanca
batholith of northwest Peru, with an estimated volume of 6,000 km 3, could have been filled from a 10 km long dike in only
350 years. Magma transport has to be at least this fast through such a dike or else the granitic magma would freeze due
to cooling within the conduit as it ascended. Yet because of the radiometric dating constraints on the fault movements
believed responsible for the dike intrusion of the granitic magma, Petford, Kerr, and Lister couldnt accept this 350 year
rapid filling of this batholith, but concluded that the intrusion of the batholith must have been very intermittent, the magma
being supplied in brief, catastrophic pulses, while the conduit supposedly remained in place for 3 million yearsEpidote is
found in some granitic rocks and therefore can have a magmatic origin, its stability in granitic magmas being restricted to
pressures of =6 kbar (21 km depth). Brandon, Creaser, and Chacko15 experimental work has shown that epidote
dissolves rapidly in granitic melts at pressures of <6 kbar, such that at 700800C (temperatures appropriate for granitic
magmas) epidote crystals (0.20.7 mm) would dissolve within 3200 years. Therefore, if magma transport from sources in
the lower crust were slow (>1,000 years), epidote would not be preserved in upper-crustal batholiths. However, granitic
rocks of the Front Range (Colorado) and the White Creek batholith (British Columbia) contain epidote crystals, and
Brandon, Creaser, and Chacko found that the 0.5 mm wide epidote crystals in the Front Range granitic rocks would
dissolve at 800C in less than 50 years. They concluded:Preservation of 0.5 mm crystals therefore requires a transport
rate from a pressure of 600 to 200 MPa [6 to 2 kbar] of greater than 700 m year -1.16This equates to a maximum ascent
rate of 14 km per year, which is similar to magma transport rates for dikes based on numerical modeling,17, 18, 19, 20 and
close to measured ascent rates for upper crustal magmas.21, 22, 23 By contrast, the modeling of magma transport by
ascending diapirs has yielded slow ascent rates of 0.350 m per year, meaning ascent times of 10,000100,000
years.24, 25 In fact, in his widely-quoted anti-creationist book, which is replete with outdated uniformitarian claims,
Strahler26 has alleged 150,000 years. In reality, however, the preservation of epidote crystals in some granitic rocks
which crystallized at shallow crustal levels not only implies magma transport had to be rapid (very much less than 1,000
years), but that the transport had to be via dikes rather than diapirs.The mechanical behavior of partially molten granite
has been investigated experimentally at temperatures of 8001100C, 250 MPa and confining pressure, different strain
rates and under fluid-absent conditions.27 Over that temperature range, strength decreased progressively from 500 MPa
to less than 1 MPa. The comparative viscosity of the melt alone was estimated at 950 and 1000 C from the distance it
could be made to penetrate into a porous sand under a known pressure gradient. Rutter and Neumann concluded:Shearenhanced compaction is inferred to drive melt into a network of melt-filled veins, whereupon porous flow through the highpermeability vein network allows rapid drainage of melt to higher crustal levels.Furthermore, it was suggested that the
overall kinetics are faster than just gravity-driven porous flow because transport distances to the veins are small and melt
pressure gradients, although small, are hundreds to thousands of times higher than those arising in large-scale porous
flow. And once the melt accumulates in veins, the effective permeability due to channel flow in the fractures is several
orders of magnitude higher than for intergranular flow.Even more recent experiments have determined the viscosity of
Himalayan leucogranite between 800 and 1100C, 300 and 800 MPa, for meltwater contents of 3.98 and 6.66
wt%.28 The melt viscosity was found to be independent of pressure, and so the experimentally determined phase
equilibria constrain the viscosity of this granite to around 104.5 Pa s during its emplacement. It was concluded thatThese
viscosities and the widths of dikes belonging to the feeder system (2050 m) are consistent with the theoretical
relationship relating these two parameters and show that the precursor magma of the leucogranite was at near liquidus
conditions when emplaced within host rocks with preintrusion temperatures around 350C. Calculated terminal ascent
rates for the magma in the dikes are around 1 m/s. Magma chamber assembly time is, on this basis, estimated to be less
than 100 years (for a volume of 150 km3). In addition, the dynamical regime of the magma flow in the dikes was
essentially laminar, thus allowing preservation of any chemical heterogeneity acquired in the source.The investigators
also noted that repeated injections of magmas over protracted periods will increase the temperatures of the host rocks,
and whereas the first injected magmas will traverse cold crust through dikes, later ones will encounter a hotter medium so
that the lower viscosity contrast may then be more favorable to diapiric ascent.
Conductive Versus Convective Cooling
Until relatively recently, both intrusives and extrusives were believed to cool primarily by conduction (fig. 1). In the last 20
years or so, however, the role of convective cooling (fig. 1) has become increasingly appreciated.29, 30 In addition, a
variety of empirical studies31, 32, 33 have proved that thick igneous bodies do, in fact, cool primarily by circulating water.
Cooling models which assume exclusive conductive cooling have been superseded by those which recognize convective
cooling in the host rock,34 followed by those which allow for the convective cooling of the outer parts of the plutons
also,35 and finally those which allow for constant permeabilities of both host rock and plutons.36, 37, 38
Fig. 1. Cooling of a pluton by (a)
conduction or (b) convection. Vectors are
proportional to the rate of heat flow to the
surface.
The
most
recent
generation
of
models39 for cooling plutons has been
based on the computer program
HYDROTHERM.40 Unlike
earlier
models, this program takes into account
the multiphase flow of water, and the
heat it carries, at temperatures in the
range 01200C and pressures in the
range of 0.051,000 MPa. Based on a
small pluton (2 1 km, at 2 km depth),
the model indicates that the cooling time
is 5,000 years (at a system permeability
of 10 md). Increasing the permeability to

33 md shortens the time to only 3,500 years. Unfortunately, however, the program HYDROTHERM has not been applied
to plutons of batholitic dimensions. For this reason, our study, described below, must rely on simpler models. Such an
approach is justified by the fact that reanalysis of the data used in simpler models, by HYDROTHERM, does not lead to
substantially different conclusions regarding inferred cooling time, as predicted by simpler models.41To begin our study,
we must point out that it is at least theoretically possible that some intrusive igneous lithologies had supernatural origins
during creationsome initial rocks had to be supernaturally created with an appearance of a formational history and
therefore age. And, of those magmas intruded during the Flood, a large fraction of their latent heat of crystallization may
date back to creation and the pre-Flood era. This follows from the fact that 20%60% of the crystals in a granitic magma
may already be crystallized at the time of intrusion.42Since the latent heat of a crystallizing magma is 65 cal/g and the
specific heat is only 0.3 cal/g/C,43 it follows that an intrusion with 50% pre-crystallization has already, in effect,
experienced a built-in cooling of over 100C.Furthermore, there is evidence accumulating that many granitic bodies,
including the large batholiths, may be essentially rootless and not as thick (deep) as the areal extents they cover have
seemingly suggested. The subsurface shapes of intrusive igneous masses have been until recently only indirectly known.
Mafic bodies appear to have simple dike-like forms extending to great depths, whereas the granitic types are elongate to
equant in plan view and extend only to a fraction of their diameters in depth. From a combination of seismic, gravity, and
heat flow data, Hamilton and Myers44 suggested that batholithic masses in particular may be only a few kilometers thick.
More recently, a seismic reflection study of the internal structure of the English Lake District batholith showed the
presence at depth of interpreted granitic sills 5001,000 m thick separated by country rock, which suggested to Evans et
al.45 that the batholith is made up of a series of horizontal sheets with flat tops and floors, or an overall laccolithic
structure. Similar sill-like geometries occur in sections of the Sierra Nevada batholith46 and the High Himalaya,47 while
the Harney Peak Granite pluton of the Black Hills (South Dakota) has now been mapped as a multiple intrusion that
consists of perhaps a few dozen large sills (which are probably no more than 100 m thick, extend laterally for only a few
kilometers, and have gentle dips in accord with a domal pattern) and thousands of smaller sills, dikes, and irregularlyshaped intrusions.48 Hutton49 has reviewed granite emplacement mechanisms in three principal tectonic settings and
concluded that the plutons have been constructed by multiple granite sheeting parallel to shear zone walls and
deformation fabrics. A detailed fractal analysis of the geometries of small to medium laccoliths and plutons50 indicates
that they exhibit scale-invariant tabular-sheet geometries, which also implies that larger intrusions (and notably batholiths)
are composed of composite sheets of smaller intrusions. This conclusion has been corroborated by a theoretical
analysis51 which suggests an upper limit of 2.5 km for the thickness of any single sheet of magma. Finally a variety of
geophysical evidences, recently summarized,52 constrain batholiths to total thicknesses of less than 12 km. The
implications of all these findings is that many granitic plutons and batholiths consist of relatively thin sills and laccoliths,
and hence the time-scale of the apparent crystallization and cooling problem is significantly diminished.The convective
overturn caused by settling crystals, in the magma chamber, is a significant factor in the dissipation of its heat. This allows
a 10-meter diameter sill to cool in one year53 and, at the other extreme, for a 10 km thick lava ocean to theoretically cool
in 10,000 years54 by this process alone. In the case of a 2.15 km cuboid pluton which cools by conduction through the
country rock (but whose magma can experience convective overturn), its temperature will drop from 850C to 650C in
3,000 years55 by this factor alone. If, however, the cooling is exclusively conductive both outside and inside the magma
chamber, the time increases to 20,000 years.Plutons with considerable amounts of magmatic water cool much faster than
do those which dont. Spera has developed a parameterized model for cooling plutons which accounts for heat transfer by
conduction and convection within the magma chamber and into the surrounding country rocks.56 According to his models
central equation linking the crucial parameters, the thermal history of a pluton is most sensitively dependent upon the
depth of pluton emplacement, the heat-transfer characteristics of the local environment (for example, emplacement into
hydrous or anhydrous country rock), the size of the
pluton, and the bulk composition of the melt.
Fig. 2. Influence of magma water content on the cooling
history of granodiorite (GD) plutons (radius = 5 km,
magma chamber/country rock contact temperature =
600C, emplacement pressure = 2 kbar). Increasing the
water content by a factor of 2 (from 2 to 4 wt%)
decreases solidification times by a factor of about 7
(after Spera58).From the essential results of his study,
Spera concluded that emplacement depths and the
scale of hydrothermal circulatory systems are first-order
parameters in determining the cooling times of large
plutons. Fig. 2 shows the remarkable role water plays
in determining the cooling time. For a granodioritic
pluton 10 km wide emplaced at 7 km depth, the cooling
time from liquidus to solidus temperatures decreases
almost ten-fold as the water content increases from 0.5
wt% to 4 wt%, other factors remaining constant.
However, Spera also found that if the temperature of the
magma chambercountry rock contact decreases from 700C to 500C, which depends on the geothermal gradient, the
emplacement depth, and the hydrothermal fluid/magma volume ratio, the cooling time decreases by eighteen-fold (with
only 2 wt% water content). Additionally, conduction cooling times were estimated to vary with the square of the radius R,
whereas in convective cooling the solidification time varies approximately according to R1.3. Spera concluded:
Hydrothermal fluid circulation within a permeable or fractured country rock accounts for most heat loss when magma is
emplaced into water-bearing country rock . . . . Large hydrothermal systems tend to occur in the upper parts of the crust
where meteoric water is more plentiful.57
Rock Permeability: The Rate-Determining Factor of Cooling
All of the factors endogenous to the magma itself pale into insignificance, in terms of cooling rate of igneous, once either
meteoric or connate water can enter near or into a hot igneous body at an appreciable rate. This is so whether the
convection is a heat engine driven by the cooling body itself,59 or is a result of extraneous forced convection (discussed
below).60 The rate of convective cooling itself scales closely with the rate of water circulated through a temperature
anomaly,61 and the volume of water involved in cooling a pluton is less than the volume of the igneous body itself.62
Equation 1 gives the rate of water flux and is a summary of equation (A1) in Cathles.63 The flux rate (Q in Equation 1) is
closely proportional to the rate of heat removal from the pluton, since it is the water that carries away virtually all of the
heat in a pluton whenever convective cooling dominates over conductive cooling.

Q=[KA (T)/[V] (1)


Q scales with size of intrusion because large intrusions generate proportionately more powerful convective heat
engines.64 The K refers to permeability of both host rock and igneous body (in millidarcies). The other term, A,
encompasses the respective products of other variables (the gravitational constant, the coefficient of thermal expansion of
water, and water density changes with depth), whereas V refers to the viscosity of the hydrothermal water. T refers to
the elimination of three-quarters of the temperature anomaly between the original temperature of the intrusion and that of
the country rock. For instance, if the magma had been intruded at 800C and the country rocks temperature had been
originally 200C, there would be 600C of temperature to eliminate. Thus, in the formula T would equal 450C. Based on
differing geologic conditions, all of the variables in Equation 1, with the exception of permeability K, can change by only
about a factor of 2 or so.
The situation is entirely different for permeability K. The permeability K of earth materials varies by several orders of
magnitude in crystalline rocks.65 It is thus obvious that the value of Q, and hence the time needed to cool the pluton, is,
for all practical purposes, governed by K.
This is borne out by Fig. 3 (which is modified after fig. 6 of Cathles).66 It indicates the time to cool off a pluton of specified
transverse dimension as a function of the permeability of the pluton and host rock. (Actually, the cooling in Fig. 3 starts
with solidus temperatures and ends at 25% of the difference between ambient temperatures and solidus temperature. The
remainder of the cooling to ambient crustal temperatures is not covered by Fig. 3, but is accounted for later.)
The effects of changing permeability K, on cooling time, is striking (fig. 3). An infinitely-long batholith that is 11 km wide,
16.5 km thick, and is buried 20 km below the surface of the ground, when at zero rock permeability (that is, conductive
cooling only) needs a few million years to cool. But with the intensity of convective cooling that is allowed by a
permeability K of 10 millidarcies (easily exceededsee below), the time to cool this batholith falls to a mere 3,000 years.
To put this cooling batholith in geothermal perspective, let us consider this: it implies an average geothermal output of 25
W/m2 sustained for the 3,000 years. This pessimistically assumes that the geothermal circulation extends no further than
the batholith itself, but thus allows for the presence of parallel batholiths nearby (as is usually the case in orogenic belts),
which must undergo their own convective cooling. The quoted heat output is half that of the present-day Grimsvotn
geothermal region of Iceland (50 W/m2, sustained over 100 km2 and for 400 years.67
We now perform a sensitivity analysis for the batholithic-emplacement parameters assumed for Fig. 3. Varying the
geometry of the pluton (that is, its width-thickness ratio), and its depth of burial relative to its size, from the values
arbitrarily chosen for Fig. 3, is relatively unimportant.68 For instance, if the burial depth was doubled, the time to cool
would be much less than doubled. Conversely, if it were halved, time to cool would decline by much less than a factor of
two. This owes to the fact that the convective cell becomes somewhat more efficient when at greater depth (and viceversa for shallower depth), and this partly cancels out the increasing (or decreasing) distance which the hot hydrothermal
fluid has to travel before reaching the surface and dissipating its heat.
This discussion does not imply that all of the large batholiths had cooled by the time they were uplifted after the Flood.
Since most (virtually all?) large batholiths show satellite intrusions and/or pegmatites, this indicates that their centers
could have been still liquid at the time they had been uplifted and/or unroofed. And in many areas of the world, geothermal
activity from still-hot igneous bodies continues to the present, itself challenging an old earth (see below).
The Extent of Permeability and Hydrothermal Activity
Since the plutons cooling rates are essentially limited by rock and crustal permeability, as well as the depth of
hydrothermal action, we must go beyond theory and examine how these agents are, in turn, limited under realistic
geologic conditions. We also need to understand how
these factors came into play during and after the Flood.
Fig. 3. Diagram showing scaling relationships for identical
intrusive geometries cooling by conduction or convection
(modified after Cathles74). The particular geometry of the
intrusions is indicated in the insert diagram. The solid lines
show convective cooling times for different permeabilities
(0.1, 1.0 and 10 millidarcies).
By way of introduction, Darcys Law allows for the same
level of permeability in a rock to be governed by apertures
of widely-divergent sizes, and this has been confirmed by
actual observations.69 For instance,70 it is clear that a
permeability K of 10 md, needed to cool the batholith
within 3,000 years (fig. 3), can result from 10-micron
microcracks spaced every 0.7 cm, 0.2 mm hairline cracks
separated from each other at outcrop scale (100 m), or
even 1 mm joints spaced 10 km apart.
Strictly speaking, Darcys Law applies to permeable rather
than fractured media. However, both theoretical and
experimental evidences indicate that fractured domains
closely approximate the behavior of equivalent-porous
domains when large distances and travel times are
involved, when the network of fractures is continuous, and
when the heat source which drives the movement of water
is large in comparison to the geometry of the fractures and
the intervals which separate them.71 These conditions are
largely fulfilled by cooling plutons. Moreover, reasonably
similar values are obtained for cooling models which allow
for a mass flux going through widely-separated fractures of
high permeability (and separated by large intervals of low rock-permeability) when contrasted with models which simply
compute an equivalent average permeability for the same domain.72, 73 Nevertheless, a residual-cooling model,
described below, considers the consequences of the convective cooling, which results from hydrothermal water flowing
through widelyseparated (but interconnected) fractures which cut through large thicknesses of otherwise-impermeable
rock.Darcys Law is based on the assumption that apertures are perfectly planar and of constant size. Concerns that
deviations from these assumptions would cause a severe reduction in actual permeability in the rock have proved
unfounded. To begin with, many if not most joints and cracks are reasonably close to planar.75 Moreover, studies on
sinuous apertures demonstrate that their permeability is reduced by only about 1030% over that of perfectly planar

ones.76 And while on the subject of theory versus actual geology, it should be noted that convective circulation of the type
of interest to us is very difficult to destabilize.77But how permeable are rocks in actuality? Studies which infer the
permeabilities of rocks on a microscopic or hand-sample scale greatly underestimate the permeability of the crust from
which they came.78, 79 This indicates that apertures in rocks tend to occur frequently, but at irregular intervals. Thus, the
limiting factor now becomes the largest permeability existing over a significant fraction of a given crustal region. This
should seldom if ever pose a problem, for joints are virtually universal in granitic terrains,80 as are microfractures.81 In
fact, the considerable difficulty of locating granites with low permeability, suitable for long-term storage of radioactive
wastes,82 attests to this fact. And, even when located, such bodies often turn out to be dissected by previouslyunrecognized joints.83Among existing granites, the largest K in an area is 1100 md (not including joints),84 and these
values underestimate the permeability it had when hydrothermal solutions circulated through it.85 The latter results from
the clogging of apertures during cooling, as is manifested by secondary mineralizations in fractures in the
rock.86, 87 There is evidence that presently-impermeable granites were once very permeable, even with microsized
apertures. When examined under cathodoluminiscence, seemingly-intact granitic fabrics betray evidence of a former
extensive network of microcracks.88Thus far, we have discussed long-inert granites. By contrast, the permeability of a
granite in the actual process of cooling remains unknown. The most recent models assume that an initially-impermeable
granite does not become appreciably permeable until it cools below about 360C, at which time its ductile behavior gives
way to brittle behavior, and thus jointing becomes possible.89 Even if this is correct, it need not imply that plutons are
virtually impermeable, in a creationist-diluvialist context, when their fabrics are still ductile. Owing to the ubiquity of
repeated tectonic stresses as a result of the Flood and its aftermath, combined with the high viscosity of even hot granitic
rock, joints will still open up and probably remain open for significant intervals of time before they are healed by the
flowing of the still-ductile granitic fabric.These rates of repeated creation of joints (under catastrophic tectonism) and the
opposing rates of healing in still-ductile rock need to be quantified. An analysis of some of these factors,90 albeit in an
actualistic context, suggests the following conclusions: for a sialic pluton at a geothermal gradient of 125C, and subject to
a strain rate of 10-12, the brittle-ductile transition occurs at about 390C. Under identical conditions, but in the case of a
more mafic granitic rock (for example, diorite), the same transition occurs at about 490C.Crustal strain rates of 10 -13 have
been measured after moderate earthquakes, and long-term strain rates on the order of 10-14 are considered plausible.91 It
is unclear how much greater the strain rates were during Flood-related tectonism. Assuming that the conditions discussed
above, for a sialic pluton, can be validly extrapolated to considerably higher strain rates, the ductile-brittle transition then
occurs at approximately 500C at a strain rate of 10-10, and even, at least theoretically, at approximately 600C under a
strain rate of 10-8.92 However, at such high strain rates, the heating and remelting of crustal material increasingly
becomes a factor. More research is needed to understand and quantify these effects.Both theoretical and experimental
evidence indicate that, not only can ostensibly-ductile hot granite behave as a brittle material under sufficient impulsive
tectonic stresses, but so can granitic magma itself.93 Moreover, even without the presence of repeated tectonic stresses,
and as discussed in the ensuing paragraphs, there are a variety of evidences against a simple ductile/brittle boundary at
or about 360C.How deep can meteoric water operate? Uniformitarian beliefs had such water limited to only the upper few
to several kilometers of the crust, and to crustal temperatures of only a few hundred degrees. Deep boreholes, spaced
many thousands of kilometers apart,94, 95 have surprised everyone by revealing that free water exists to at least 12 km
depth. They also have contradicted the notion that crustal permeability greatly decreases, if not disappears, at such
depths because the overpressure was supposed to crush pores and cracks shut.96 To those who make much of the
testable predictions claimed for uniformitarian geology, here is yet another example of a set of predictions proved false.
Furthermore, seismic data suggest that fractures can exist, at least transiently, down to 15 or 20 km.97As for
temperatures, we now have isotopic evidence that meteoric waters interacted with gabbros, implying temperatures of
500900C.98 This also means that such waters can reach the melting zone itself for mafic magmas,99to say nothing of
the cooler sialic magmas which give rise to granites.
Forced Convection and the Removal of Residual Plutonic Heat
We now consider what takes place when the convective cell that cools the pluton has eliminated 75% of the temperature
anomaly (fig. 3), and starts to die down. All this time, tectonically and hydrostatically-driven groundwater movement
(occurring during and after the Flood) has been taking place, but, until now, has been shunted away by the powerful
convection around the pluton. Now, with the heat engine petering out,100 the pluton becomes subject to forced
convection from the extraneous groundwater migrations.The limiting factor in the remaining cooling rate now becomes the
thinnest distance between parallel watercooling surfaces within the pluton itself. Thus, in order for the remaining heat of
the pluton to be dissipated in 2,000 years, the joints allowing free access of water to the pluton need not be spaced any
closer than 180 m in a slab-shaped block.101Under comparable conditions, a 160 m diameter granitic spheroid cools in
2,000 years.102 These computations, however, do not take actual temperature into account. Allowing a joint-dissected
pluton to have previously cooled from 850C (assumed temperature of intrusion) to 650C, only 2,000 more years are
needed to cool conductively the pluton to an ambient crustal temperature of 300C if each dimension of the cuboid pluton
is on the order of 400500 m.103 This latter computation does not take into account the constant hydrothermal bathing of
the cubes walls.
What if the Apertures Clog Up?
These rough calculations account for the complete closing of microcracks, and thus pessimistically assume zero
permeability (and thus exclusive conductive cooling) of the jointed slabs, spheroids, and cubes themselves. Under such
restrictions, the convective water cooling is restricted to the jointed surfaces.However, several factors counteract the
sealing of microcracks. One is size. As microcracks approach macroscopic size (1 mm in aperture), they become
exponentially more resistant to clogging.104 The common occurrence of partially-filled veins in rock indicates that the
sealing of cracks often does not go to completion.105 Also, if the water table fluctuates drastically in an area (as from
tectonics), this acts to help keep crustal fractures open.106 Tectonic action counteracts clogging by increasing fluid
pressure and causing the flushing out of streamlines, as is manifested by the increase of geothermal activity after even
small earthquakes.107 It is also recognized that, where there are high tectonic strain rates, permeabilities at least ten
times greater than we have adopted for our model (fig. 3) may be sustained at depth in spite of competing processes such
as silica deposition.108 Obviously, such strain rates must have been the norm during and after the Flood, as a
consequence of rapid mountain-building, crustal readjustments, etc.Finally, when cracks do get filled up, they are easily
replaced by new ones, especially under catastrophic conditions. Indeed, the rocks which occur in tectonic environments
show evidence of repeated generations of mineral-filled fissures and extension cracks, and so permeability of the host
rock becomes quickly restored.109 For instance, a new 0.5 cm-wide fracture spaced every 1 km apart will create, or recreate, a crustal permeability K of approximately 10 darcies.110 This is three orders of magnitude greater than that
needed for a batholith to cool in 3000 years (see fig. 3). Furthermore, as new joints develop, they allow access of water to
hot surfaces. The ensuing cooling generates a new generation of microcracks from the thermoelastic gradients produced

by the percolating water.111 Thus, in a sense, both macro- and micro-cracks are self-regenerating, much like the hairs of
the fabled Medusa.
Boundary Conditions: Magma and Infiltrating Waters (Extrusives)
Thick lava flows, being surficial, generally cannot develop convection cells as can plutons (see fig. 3). They remain,
however, quite vulnerable to cracking and water infiltration. Lister has demonstrated an intense positive feedback process
which exists between meteoric water and lava flows (fig. 4).112 Upon contact with water, the lava surface cools rapidly,
creating a thin, solid crust. In doing so, a very steep temperature gradient between the recently water-cooled surface
(100C) and the magma just below the surface (1000C) has been formed, causing severe thermoelastic tension. This
soon leads to cracking of the hardened lava crust, allowing water access to the hot interior. So, at once, the lava is cooled
to a greater depth, and a new zone of thermoelastic
stress is created.
Fig. 4. Feedback between water and a thick lava flow or
pluton. Water cooling creates an extreme temperature
gradient (shown hatched) in a thin layer of the igneous
body. Tensile stresses caused by the gradient lead to
further cracking. The cooling front progresses
downwards as water enters new cracks and the process
repeats itself.The cycle repeats itself, and the extreme
temperature gradient is displaced downwards. All the
while, the water-cooled crust is growing thicker, the
cracks with their concomitant entry of water keep
propagating, and the cooling front is advancing
downward. Eventually, the fractures in the lava solidify completely, allowing access to deeply-penetrating water.113 This
completes the cooling of the thick lava flow.Based on calculations, the feedback-generated cooling front can move 5170
m in a year.114 At the slowest rate, this suffices for cooling the thickest layers of lavas on earth in a few thousand years.
Empirical observations on the cooling of a lava lake,115, 116 have demonstrated the movement of a cooling front of over
2 m a year, and further evidence for the importance of this process comes from the heat-production rates of an Icelandic
geothermal system.117 It is also recognized that this feedback process explains the occurrence of columnar jointing in
basalts,118 and the fact that entablatures in ancient lavas follow downward-growing joints.119Boundary Conditions:
Magma and Circulating Water (Intrusives)We now focus on processes which make plutons themselves accessible to
hydrothermal waters. Consider crustal permeability first. The magma injected into host rock itself exerts pressure upon the
host rock, facilitating its fracture,120 and all the more so whenever the intrusion is emplaced rapidly.121 Also, the heat
from the pluton122 itself induces fracturing in the country rock as the fluid pressure in the pores of the host rock increase
from the heat.123Upon entry of the plutons heat into these new cracks, the process repeats itself.124Plutons are
commonly surrounded by rim monoclines or anticlines. In the past, this has been mistaken as evidence for regional
tectonic action. Now it is realized that these regional structures are caused by the fact that, as the plutons cooled, they
first weakened the wall rock by giving off heat and fluids.125 Subsequently, the plutons foundered as they cooled, causing
the adjacent and superjacent wall rock to buckle downward. Obviously, such a process could only help open up the
country rock, and then the pluton itself, to circulating ground water.Although plutons also rapidly become permeable, let
us pessimistically suppose that, unlike the situation discussed in describing Fig. 3, we have permeable crust and a
perpetually-impermeable pluton. As before, we have a convective cell, but water cannot enter the pluton itself. So, the
heat must leave the pluton itself solely by conduction, and a cooling time of 3000 years (to within 25% of ambient crustal
temperatures) suffices for an infinitely-long impermeable pluton which is 0.6 km wide, 0.9 km thick, and 11 km
deep.126 For thicker plutons, the limiting factor becomes the spacing of joints. These would have to split the cooling
pluton into slabs no larger than 0.6 0.9 km, which, as discussed above, is easily met.Many mineral/metal deposits
appear to have been formed by fluids of magmatic-hydrothermal origin associated with granitic and other plutons. Indeed,
a granitic magma has enough energy to drive roughly its mass in meteoric fluid circulation.127, 128 Meteoric fluids would
thus seem to dominate the magmatic fluid component of even up to 10 wt% or so for some granitic magmas, but several
factors can act to focus the magmatic fluids in parts of the hydrothermal system.129 Magmatic fluids are released only
while the intrusion is crystallizing, and fractionation of the magmatic fluids to the upper part of the magma chamber can
focus their release in a small region of the crust compared with the full extent of the hydrothermal system, so magmatic
fluids can locally dominate over meteoric fluids and
should not be ignored for the part they can play in
cooling plutons.130
Fig. 5. Cross-section of the margin of a magma
chamber traversing (from left to right): country rock,
cracked
pluton,
uncracked
pluton,
solidus,
crystallization interval, and bulk melt (after
Candela132).Following the emplacement of a granitic
magma in the upper crust, crystallization occurs due
to the irreversible loss of heat to the surrounding
country rocks.131 Heat passes out of the magma
chamber at the margins of the body, and the solidus
moves towards the interior of the chamber, defining
an inwardly progressing boundary (fig. 5). As
crystallization proceeds, water increases in
concentration in the residual melt. When the
saturation water concentration is lowered to the
actual water concentration in the melt, first boiling
occurs and water (as steam) is expelled from solution
in the melt, which is driven towards higher
crystallinities. Bubbles of water vapor then nucleate
and grow, causing second (or resurgent) boiling
within the zone of crystallization just underneath the
solidus boundary and the already crystallized magma
(fi g. 5). As the concentration and size of these vapor bubbles increase, vapor saturation is quickly reached, but initially
the vapor bubbles are trapped by the immobile crystallized magma crust.133 The vapor pressure thus increases and the

aqueous fluid can then only be removed from the sites of bubble nucleation through the establishment of a threedimensional critical percolation network, with advection of aqueous fluids through it or by means of fluid flow through a
cracking front in the crystallized magma and out into the country rocks. Once such fracturing of the pluton has occurred
(and the cracking front will go deeper and deeper into the pluton as the solidus boundary moves progressively inwards
towards the core of the magma chamber), not only is magmatic water released from the pluton carrying heat out into the
country rocks, but cooler meteoric water in the country rocks is able to penetrate into the pluton and to establish
hydrothermal circulation.There is now petrographic evidence, in the form of complex quartz growth histories,134 which is
consistent with the above-discussed sequence of events. Abrupt zone boundaries in quartz crystals indicate fluctuations
in melt composition and/or temperature during the crystallization interval.135 In fact, the acceptance of erratic temperature
fluctuations in the melt is not favored,136 precisely because of the belief that large plutons should cool at slow,
continuous rates!In conclusion, therefore, a long-impermeable pluton is, for our purposes, as unrealistic as it is
pessimistic. Pressure build-up within the magma137 will cause the solidified rind of the pluton to crack in short order,
resulting in a permeable pluton (fig. 3). The more water dissolved in the magma, the greater will be the pressure exerted
at the magma/rock interface.138 If the magma moves in surges, there will be a cyclic cooling and heating of the plutons
solidified rind, and the resulting thermal stress will exacerbate its cracking.139 As the pluton cools, the cracking front
moves progressively deeper into the pluton as the magma/rock boundary recedes inward.However, this release of
magmatic water from a pluton will tend to be focused towards the top or apical region of the magma chamber. The vapor
bubbles which nucleate on the magma chamber side-walls will tend to rise as they grow, combining with adjacent vapor
bubbles and migrating upwards as a plume towards the top of the magma chamber.140Because the density of water
vapor is reduced as it rises, the buoyancy of the plume is further enhanced, so that this process of bubble-laden plume
flow may be a driving force for convection within some magma chambers. Furthermore, the rate of plume flow can be
calculated,141 and in the case of a typical granitic magma chamber with 6 wt% water at saturation emplaced at 78 km
depth, a bubble-laden plume would rise to the top of the pluton in less than a year.142
Fig. 6. Schematic cross-section through a
hypothetical granodiorite stock at the
stage of waning magmatic activity in the
development of a porphyry copper
(molybdenum gold) system (after
Burnham144). A breccia pipe and dikes
have formed as a result of wallrock failure,
while the chaotic line pattern represents
the extensive fracture system developed in
the apex above the H2O saturated magma.
Note that the granodiorite has intruded into
already extruded comagmatic volcanics.
A relevant example that graphically
illustrates the rapid release of magmatic
fluids through fractures concentrated at
the apex of a granitic magma chamber is
the typical development of a porphyry
copper (molybdenum gold) ore deposit
system (fi g. 6), which is now well
understood.143 A stock-like body of
granodioritic magma is emplaced at
shallow
depth
in
a
subvolcanic
environment, and when water saturation is
reached and second boiling occurs the
vapor pressure becomes concentrated at
the apex or carapace, while the concurrent
crystallization process also expands the
crystallizing rock mass. The net result is
large-scale, brittle fracture of the already
crystallized pluton above, so that an intense stockwork of fractures develops into which hydrothermal fluids can flow to
deposit their metallic loads (fig. 6). The myriad of fractures is extended upward and outward by continued hydraulic action
(hydrofracturing), even into the wallrocks and sometimes the overlying volcanics that were earlier extruded from the same
magma chambera chimneylike fracture system that channels ore-bearing fluids and heat away from the underlying
cooling magma chamber.Breccia pipes also demonstrate that initiallyimpermeable rinds often fail catastrophically,
particularly as a result of the rapid build-up of vapor pressure at the tops of magma chambers.145 We can only
underestimate the significance of these intense fracture systems and breccia pipes in the tops of plutons and overlying
rocks, as subsequent erosion and the unroofing process must tend to remove them (except in the case of surviving
porphyry copper deposits). There is every reason to suppose that this fracturing of the tops of plutons and overlying roofrocks is ubiquitous, but such fracturing will invariably assist subsequent deep weathering and their rapid erosion and
removal to expose the plutons beneath. The same holds for many extrusive equivalents of plutons. The vents responsible
for extrusion of comagmatic lavas/volcanics and release of steam and heat from the cooling plutons below have been
subsequently eroded away. At other times, however, extrusive equivalents of plutons have only belatedly been recognized
to be in genetic association with each other. Such has been the case, for example, for many tuff-batholith associations in
the western USA.146Petrographic evidence147 contradicts the view that plutons remain impermeable for significant
periods of time. To the contrary: cracking begins as soon as the quartz is brittle enough, and before the granitic magma
has even fully crystallized,148 and continues during its subsequent cooling.149Finally, the observed rates of geothermal
output in modern hydrothermal systems are explicable only if meteoric water has free access to both hot
rock and intrusives.150 Note also that the previously-discussed water-induced feedback cooling mechanism of thick lava
flows151 must apply to plutons, if only because lithostatic pressure has relatively little effect on the process.152
Rapid Cooling of Igneous Bodies: Geologic Non-Problems
We must now account for the implications of rapid cooling. Consider igneous mineralogy and the belief that relatively large
crystals in extrusives mean long cooling times. To begin with, this premise is, on its own terms, inconsistent with the
ubiquitous distribution of very tiny crystals in many very thick lava flows,153 which are precisely the ones supposed to
take the longest to cool.

Ironic to Youngs argument154 about the slowly-cooling Palisades Sill, it also consists of relatively small crystals and
shows evidence of emplacement in 34 pulses,155 each of which could have cooled relatively rapidly.156 Of course, the
Palisades Sill need not have cooled (or even congealed) within one year (except at its surface) before becoming overlain
by fossiliferous rock. In fact, a still-flowing lava soon develops a crust strong enough157 to support a walking person
(approximately 770N),158 and so could also support a modest overburden of sediment almost immediately. And, based
on analogy with the Kilauea lava,159 a crust of hardened lava a few meters thick can form in a few months, thus being
capable of supporting a significant overburden of fossiliferous sediment within that time frame. Consistent with all of these
suggestions, the Palisades Sill shows evidence of cooling in both top-down and bottom-up directions,160 as well as
evidence for it (and its probable extrusive equivalent) having been deposited subaqueously,161 which, of course, would
have greatly accelerated the development of a crust thick enough to support an appreciably-thick superjacent layer of
fossiliferous sediments.It is now recognized that relatively large crystals found in extrusives are not evidence for
protracted periods of cooling, if only because these phenocrysts could have formed long before the emplacement of the
magma.162 But even in situ crystals can grow rapidly.163 lronically, we now realize that it is the rate of nucleation in the
magma, rather than the rate of its cooling, which determines the eventual size of its crystals.164Contrary to old
uniformitarian beliefs, phaneritic textures in granites are not evidence for millions of years of slow cooling. Macroscopic
igneous minerals can crystallize and grow to requisite size, in a sialic melt, well within a few thousand years.165, 166 So,
for that matter, can phaneritic crystals in a mafic melt.167, 168 It is extraneous geologic factors, not potential rate of
mineral growth, which constrain the actual size of crystals attained in igneous bodies.169Perhaps the most vivid and
relevant example is that of granitic pegmatites, regarded as dike-like offshoots of granite plutons because of their spatial
associations and identical major mineralogies and bulk compositions.170 At the point of aqueous vapor saturation of a
granitic melt, crystal fractionation can sometimes occur, so that volatiles are concentrated in a mobile vapor
(hydrothermal)-residual melt phase which readily migrates (usually upwards) into open fractures within the wallrocks
immediately adjacent to the granitic pluton, but sometimes within the granite itself.171 It is widely assumed and stated in
most textbooks that the giant crystal sizes (sometimes meters long) in pegmatites require very long periods of undisturbed
crystal growth, that is, that pegmatite magmas cool slowly. However, London172 noted that constant crystal growth rates
of approximately 10-6cm/s could produce quartz and feldspar crystals of pegmatitic dimensions in a few years.
Furthermore, in a model of the cooling history of the large Harding pegmatite dike, New Mexico,173 applied conservative
boundary conditions (for example, heat loss by conduction only, which is unrealistic) with a magma-wallrock temperature
difference of 300C at emplacement and calculated that the center of the pegmatite dike would have cooled below its
equilibrium solidus in about 12 years.What about entablatures and colonnades? It is now recognized that these basaltic
textures do not give unambiguous estimates for cooling rates.174 Entablatures form when lavas cool at 110C per
hour,175 and colonnades do so at tenfold slower cooling rates. But both estimates are compatible with much higher
cooling rates,176 so long as therelative cooling rates of these features differ by at least an order of magnitude.
Convective Cooling of Plutons: Petrographic Signatures
We now examine some of the pitfalls of attempting to minimize the significance of hydrothermal cooling. There is
considerable evidence for hydrothermal action (for example, hydrothermal ore deposits, widespread hydrothermal
alteration), but absence of evidence for such a process associated with most plutons is not evidence that hydrothermal
convective cooling has not occurred. As noted earlier, a major result of hydrothermal action will be intense fracturing in the
rocks overlying plutons and the upper zones of plutons themselves, but this has also facilitated erosion and thus removal
of the evidence.Consider secondary hydrous minerals (epidote, chlorite, serpentine, and various clay minerals). Gabbros
betray isotopic evidences for hydrothermal alteration, but are astonishingly free of such hydrothermal minerals.177 This
is because groundwater alteration has occurred at excessive temperatures for these low PT assemblages. Likewise, if
certain granites were cooled by hydrothermal fluids at temperatures higher than commonly supposed, there would be no
secondary minerals to show this.However, even this reasoning generously allows for waters cooling the pluton to have
experienced free access to its fabric. In actuality, if the fluids flowed mostly through larger cracks or joints, then only the
walls of large granitic blocks would show alteration. In fact, such is typical of granites.178 Cathles179 warns against
geologists consciously or unconsciously attempting to infer the volume of hydrothermal fluids having circulated through a
pluton based on the degree of its alteration. One pluton whose petrographic fabric shows little alteration may have passed
a thousand-foldgreater volume of hydrothermal fluids than did a second pluton whose fabric shows more alteration than
the first!180Now consider contact metamorphic aureoles. Their size doesnt give unequivocal evidence for the importance
or unimportance of hydrothermal cooling, in spite of models which predict that large aureoles are associated with primarily
conductive cooling and small ones result from extensive hydrothermal cooling at high crustal permeabilities.181 The size
of the aureole actually shows the maximum distance reached by a certain high temperature emanating from the cooling
pluton.182 If, as predicted, microcracks tend to clog as convective cooling proceeds, there may come a time when there is
a temporary impermeable cap above the pluton.183 The contact metamorphic aureole would enlarge as the hydrothermal
fluids pool and temporarily flow greater distances from the pluton. Furthermore, tectonic effects can perturb, and
temporarily expand, circulation streamlines.
Rapid Convective Cooling of Plutons: Isotopic Signatures
An exciting line of evidences for extensive former hydrothermal activity around plutons is provided by the isotopic
fractionating of 18O/16O and 2H/1H, and high permeabilities also favor the formation of such signatures.184Compared with
ocean water, meteoric water tends to be isotopically lighter, by several parts per million, and magmatic water tends to be
heavier. Therefore, whenever groundwater interacts with plutons, these rocks should be slightly depleted in 18O relative
to 16O and, to a less reliable extent, be likewise slightly depleted in deuterium ( 2H) relative to protium (1H). Large
assemblages of plutons, exposed over vast areas (such as the Canadian Cordilleras185) show this.It is
the contrast between isotopic signatures of pluton and host rock that is the most informative. However, the absence of
such isotopic signatures need not mean that hydrothermal cooling was unimportant in the history of the pluton, for the
following reasons (any of which would have blurred or eliminated the isotopic contrast between pluton and host rock). The
magma itself may have been anomalously light isotopically, ground water may have mixed with the magma itself
(especially under catastrophic conditions),186 the isotopic signature may have been obscured or erased by subsequent
geologic effects,187 etc.Let us now consider a different hydrological cycle prior to the Flood. Paucity of rainfall facilitates
the evaporation of water in landlocked bodies of water, making their isotopes heavier.188 Whenever these waters (and/or
their connate water equivalents) had interacted with the cooling plutons, there would be little or no isotopic contrast
between them and the magmatic water. Of course, we cannot know the isotopic composition of the connate waters which
existed when the earth was created and which were the first to cool the plutons.Under such conditions, the first
isotopically-light water came into existence only after extensive Flood rainfall had taken place. Upon percolating to great
depths and displacing the older, isotopically-heavy connate water, hydrothermal-cooling isotopic signatures were created.
Earlier-cooled plutons carry no such signatures despite alsohaving experienced extensive hydrothermal cooling.

Conclusions
With this work, yet another objection to the young-earth creationist position has hopefully been answered. Millions of
years are not necessary for the cooling of large igneous bodies. Moreover, the geologic role of hydrothermal cooling has
already been extended to account for the rapid origin of thick metamorphic lithologies.189, 190 We now have evidence
that regional metamorphism is, thus not unexpectedly, associated with hydrothermal circulation systems which extend 10
100 km from the metamorphic belt itself.191 Moreover, the metamorphic fabric itself can give access to circulating fluids
as a result of the microcracking that is now recognized to be a consequence of metamorphic reactions.192Gabbros
themselves can be metamorphosed to the point of acquiring metamorphic hornblende (for example, the so-called
amphibolite facies of metamorphism) in a time period as short as a few thousand years down to a few centuries.193A
number of uniformitarian authors194, 195, 196 have pointed out the discrepancy which exists between the large measured
permeabilities routinely measured within the earths crustal rocks (implying hydrothermal systems having lifetimes of only
thousands of years), and the (supposed) need for various geothermal processes to have persisted for millions of years.
For this reason, claims have been made about hydrothermal action being episodic and recurring.197,198, 199 The
progressive elimination and rejuvenation of rock permeability, over countless cycles, has also been invoked.200 While, as
discussed above, there indeed is much evidence for the previous searing of cracks, the pointed fact is the continued
existence of high crustal permeability (primarily cracks and fractures at all scales) in spite of such evidences. Ironically,
therefore, hydrothermal cooling not only negates the cooling of plutons as a valid argument for an old earth, but, in and of
itself, is more compatible with a young earth.
Future Research
It has been noticed that rapid drops in groundwater levels are sometimes correlated with magmatic activity.201 This
needs to be explored in the light of the Flood and its aftermath. The computer model HYDROTHERM,202 thus far applied
only to small plutons,203 needs to be employed in order to perform a more sophisticated study of cooling batholiths.
Moreover, the composite nature of these large igneous bodies must be better understood and then taken into account in
modeling their cooling. The multiphase flow of water simulated by HYDROTHERM also indicates that, as water
approaches its critical point (at which time the distinction between liquid water and steam disappears), superconvection
or runaway convection potentially occurs.204 In other words, convective heat transfer becomes suddenly enhanced by a
factor of 100 or more. For this to have a chance to take place, a permeability of about 100 md (which is an order of
magnitude larger than we have adopted for the cooling batholith: fig. 3) is required,205 along with a narrow window of
temperatures. Present evidence suggests that superconvection may occur during cooling of small plutons, but probably
not of batholiths. Nevertheless, this question must be thoroughly addressed.More research is needed on the catastrophic
extrusion of ancient voluminous lava flows, particularly that which follows up on the following tantalizing lines of evidence:
the presence of large vesicles206 in basalts (suggestive of suddenly-trapped volatiles), and textural evidence of very
small changes in temperature over considerable distances traveled by extruded lava.207 The latter is true of the Columbia
River Basalts (northwest USA), and is consistent with their extraordinarily rapid emplacement over an area with a
transverse distance of 500 km.208A major follow-up to this work needs to be a study of economic mineral deposits in the
light of the rapid cooling of large igneous bodies. An analogy from the eastern Pacific Ocean provides a fascinating
example: massive sulfide deposits of a few tons each have formed, from hydrothermal activity, in less than one year.209
AcknowledgmentsHelpful comments and three recent technical references were brought to our attention by Steven A.
Austin of theInstitute for Creation Research. Other information was provided by several uniformitarian specialists.
Additionally, we need to stress that all the work on this paper was our own, including the sourcing of all relevant research
papers. However, even though we did not use it, we recognize the Catastrophe Reference Database (CATASTROREF)
produced by Steven Austin (version 1.2, January 1997) as a very useful source of information on this and many other
topics.
Catastrophic Granite Formation
Rapid Melting of Source Rocks, and Rapid Magma Intrusion and Cooling
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on February 6, 2008

Abstract
The timescale for the generation of granitic magmas and their subsequent intrusion, crystallization, and cooling as plutons
is no longer incompatible with the young time frames of the global, year-long Flood cataclysm and of 6,0007,000 years
for earth history. Though partial melting in the lower crust is the main rate-limiting step, it is now conjectured to only take
years to decades, so partial melting to produce a large reservoir of granitic magmas could have occurred in the pre-Flood
era as a consequence of accelerated nuclear decay early in the Creation. Rapid segregation, ascent, and emplacement
now understood to only take days via dikes would have been aided by the tectonic squeezing and pumping during the
catastrophic plate tectonics driving the global Flood cataclysm. Now that it has also been established that granitic plutons
are mostly tabular sheets, crystallization and cooling would be even more easily facilitated by hydrothermal convective
circulation with meteoric waters in the host rocks. The growth of large crystals from magmas within hours has now been
experimentally determined, while the co-formation in the same biotite flakes of adjacent uranium and polonium radiohalos,
the latter from short-lived parent polonium isotopes, requires that crystallization and cooling of the granitic plutons only
took about 610 days. Thus the sum total of time, from partial melting in the lower crust to crystallization and cooling of
granitic plutons emplaced in the upper crust, no longer conflicts with the young age time frame for earth history, nor is it
an impediment to accounting for most of the fossil-bearing geologic record during the global year-long Flood catastrophe.

Keywords: granites, magma, partial melting, melt segregation, magma ascent, dikes, magma emplacement,
emplacement rates, crystallization and cooling rates, convective cooling, hydrothermal fluids, polonium radiohalos
Introduction
The major, almost exclusive, rock type in some areas on the earths surface, such as in the Yosemite National Park, is
granite. Huge masses of many adjoining granite bodies outcrop on a grand scale throughout that area (fig. 1), as they also
do along the length of the Sierra Nevada and the Peninsular Ranges of central and southern California respectively.
The Sierra Nevada batholith is the collective name given to all the granite bodies that outcrop in, and form much of, the
magnificent Sierra Nevada range. Each recognizably distinctive granite mass, the boundary of which can be traced on the
ground, is marked as a separate geologic unit called a pluton on a geologic map. Hundreds of such granite plutons,
ranging in size from 1 km2 to more than 1,000 km2, and each with its own name, make up the Sierra Nevada batholith.
The batholith stretches in a belt approximately 600 km (373 miles) long northwestsoutheast and more than 165 km (102
miles) wide. It is uncertain how deep the granite plutons are, that is, how thick they are. Evidence suggests that many may
only be several kilometers (or less) thick.
Fig. 1. Panoramic view of the
Yosemite valley with the Half
Dome rising above the cliffs to the
right, as seen from Glacier Point.
The entire landscape in this
panoramic view is composed of
granites.The
Sierra
Nevada
batholith, and the Peninsular
Ranges batholith just south of it,
are part of a discontinuous belt of
batholiths that circle the Pacific
Ocean basin. For example, granite
batholiths are found all through the
coastal ranges along the west
coast of South America and
extend northward from the Sierra
Nevada through Idaho and
Montana, western Canada, and
into Alaska. The granite plutons
making up the Sierra Nevada
batholith have intruded into and
displaced earlier sedimentary and
volcanic strata sequences, some of which had been transformed by heat, pressure, and earth movements into
metamorphic rocks. These strata sequences have been variously designated as Upper Proterozoic (uppermost
Precambrian) to Paleozoic and Paleozoic to Mesozoic. (In the young age framework for earth history, that makes them
Flood strata.) After the granite plutons intruded underground into these strata sequences, erosion (at the end of the Flood
and since) removed all the rocks above the granites to expose them at todays ground surface. Again, it is uncertain as to
just what thickness of overlying rocks have been eroded away, but it is likely only 13 km.Because we dont observe
granites forming today, debate has raged for centuries as to how granites form. While there is now much consensus,
some details of the processes involved are still being elucidated. Nevertheless, the conventional wisdom has been
adamant until recently that granites take millions of years to form, which is thus an oft-repeated scientific objection to the
recent year-long global Flood on a 6,0007,000 year-old earth (Strahler 1987; Young 1977).Several steps are required to
form granites. The process starts with partial melting of continental sedimentary and metamorphic rocks 2040 km (1225
miles) down in the earths crust (a process called generation) (Brown 1994). This must be followed by the collection of the
melt (called segregation), then transportation of the now less dense, buoyant magma upwards (ascent), and finally the
intrusion of the magma to form a body in the upper crust (emplacement). There, as little as 25 km (13 miles) below the
earths surface, the granite mass fully crystallizes and cools. Subsequent erosion exposes it at the earths surface. When
reviewing this list of sequential processes, it is not difficult to understand why it has been hitherto envisaged that granite
formation, especially the huge masses of granites outcropping in the Yosemite area, must surely have taken millions of
years (Pitcher 1993). Of course, such estimates are claimed to be supported by radioisotope dating.However, this longaccepted timescale for these processes is now being challenged, even by conventional geologists (Clemens 2005;
Petford et al. 2000). The essential role of rock deformation is now recognized. Previously accepted granite formation
models required unrealistic deformation and flow behaviors of rocks and magmas, or they did not satisfactorily explain
available structural or geophysical data. Thus it is now claimed that mechanical considerations suggest granite formation
is a rapid, dynamic process operating at timescales of less than 100,000 years, or even only thousands of years.
Magma Principles
First, however, it will be helpful to explain what magma is and why it is thought to exist underground. The molten material
which flows from volcanoes is known as lava and cools to form volcanic rocks. So lavas must be molten rocks; that is,
they were originally rocks that melted deep inside the earth underneath volcanoes. When deep inside the earth, these
molten rock materials are called magmas because they are slightly different in composition and physical properties due to
the steam and gases they have dissolved in them that erupt separately from the lavas through volcanoes.Before volcanic
eruptions there are warning rumbles inside volcanoes. These are earthquakes generated by the magmas moving up into
the volcanoes. Such earthquakes have allowed geologists to reconstruct how magmas first pond below volcanoes in
reservoirs known as magma chambers before their final passage upward through volcanoes to erupt as lavas. If the
magma cools when it ponds in the magma chamber, rather than rising further to erupt at the earths surface, then it
crystallizes as an intrusion. Subsequent erosion of all the overlying rock layers eventually exposes such intrusions at the
earths surface.This scenario has been confirmed by copper mining operations that have excavated into granite intrusions
that must have formed under volcanoes. The remnants of such volcanoes overlie the granite intrusions, and their volcanic
rocks are the same compositions as the granite intrusions (the former magma chambers) (fig. 2). Similarly, seismic
surveys across the mountains somewhat central to many ocean basins have detected the magma chambers under the rift
zones where lavas have erupted onto the ocean floor. Because the magma is less dense than the surrounding rocks, the
passage of the seismic (sound) waves when recorded and compiled actually produces images (or three-dimensional
pictures) of the magma chambers.

Fig. 2. Schematic cross-section through a


small granite pluton at the stage of waning
magmatic activity in the development of a
porphyry copper ore deposit. The chaotic
line pattern represents the extensive fracture
system in the apex above the cooling watersaturated granite magma. Note that the
granite has intruded into the volcanic rocks
that earlier erupted from the volcano its
magma supplied.
Laboratory experiments have produced very
small quantities of magmas by the melting of
appropriate rocks. Such experiments are not
easy to perform because of the difficulties of
simulating the high temperatures and
pressures inside the earth. The required
laboratory apparatus thus only contains a
very small vessel in which magmas can be
produced. Yet many such experiments have
enabled geologists to study and understand
the compositions and behavior of magmas.
Magma
ProcessesMeasurements
on
extruded magma (lava), together with
evaluations of the temperatures at which
constituent minerals form and coexist, and
experimental determinations of rock melting
relationships, indicate that magmas near the
earths
surface
are
generally
at
temperatures from 700C to 1,200C (1,3002,200F). We know from direct measurements in many deep drillholes that
rock temperatures inside the earths crust increase progressively with depth. This is known as the geothermal gradient.
From these measured geothermal gradients it is thus estimated that the temperatures needed to melt rocks and form
magmas must occur at depths of greater than 30 km, at and near the bottom of the crust of continents, and in the upper
mantle below.Being molten rock materials, magmas are very dense liquids which have varying abilities to flow. Viscosity
describes the ability of the magma to flow. This depends on the degree of immobility of the atoms inside the magma, the
resistance of their arrangement or bonding to the stress that would cause flow. Viscosity is the internal friction or
stickiness of a magma. A more viscous magma is very sticky and flows very slowly. A magma (or lava) that flows easily
and thus quickly has a low viscosity.Rheology is the study of the flow of magmas and of the ways in which magmas (and
rocks) respond to applied pressures or stress. If a body of material returns instantaneously to its initial undeformed state
once the stress applied to it wanes, it is said to be elastic. Magmas are not elastic, just viscous and plastic, because once
deformed by applied stress they do not recover their original shapes, but instead flow.The viscosity of a magma is
dependent on its temperature and composition. It should be fairly obvious that the hotter a magma, the more quickly it will
flow, because the heat gives its atoms more energy so their bonding is less resistant to applied stress. A hotter magma is
thus less viscous. However, there are two compositional factors that affect magma viscosity the mostsilica content and
water content.When igneous rocks are analyzed, their content of silicon atoms is expressed as a compositional
percentage of silica, which is silicon dioxide (SiO 2) or the glassy mineral called quartz (similar to window glass). Granites
have a silica composition of around 70%, whereas basalts contain around 50% silica. Thus granitic magmas are far more
viscous than basaltic magmas. The latter are also hotter. This is why basalt lavas tend to flow freely, compared with
rhyolite (granitic) lavas that are very viscous.The water content of magmas varies, but in general granitic magmas have
far more water dissolved in them than basaltic magmas. Indeed, the amount of water dissolved in granitic magmas
increases with pressure and therefore depth, from 3.7 wt % water content at 34 km depth (Holtz, Behrens, Dingwell, and
Johannes 1995) to 24 wt % water at 100 km depth (Huang and Wyllie 1975). The effect of more water in a granitic magma
is to reduce its viscosity. It is this greater water content and viscosity of granitic (rhyolitic) magma that make its volcanic
eruption so explosive. The viscous granitic magma forms a better/stronger cork (as it were) on the volcano, and with so
much water as steam, the volcanos top explodes. By comparison a basalt eruption is usually less explosive because the
magma contains much less steam and the lava is much less viscous.
Magma Generation by Partial Melting
Typical geothermal gradients of 20C/km do not generate the greater than 800C temperatures at 35 km depth in the crust
needed to melt common crustal rocks (Thompson 1999). However, there are at least three other factors, besides
temperature, that are important in melt generation: (1) water content of magma, (2) pressure, and (3) the influence of
mantle-derived basaltic magmas. The temperatures required for melting are significantly lowered by increasing water
activity up to saturation, and the amount of temperature lowering increases with increasing pressure (Ebadi and Johannes
1991). Indeed, water solubility in granitic melts increases with pressure, the most important controlling factor (Johannes
and Holtz 1996), so that whereas at 1 kbar (generally equivalent to 34 km depth) the water solubility is 3.7 wt % (Holtz et
al. 1995), at 30 kbar (up to 100 km depth, though very much less in tectonic zones) it is approximately 24 wt % (Huang
and Wyllie 1975). This water is supplied by the adjacent rocks, subducted oceanic crust, and hydrous minerals present in
the melting rock itself.Nevertheless, local melting of deep crustal rocks is even more efficient where the lower crust is
being heated by basaltic magmas generated just below in the upper (hotter) mantle (Bergantz 1989). Partial melting of
crustal rocks preheated in this way is likely to be rapid, with models predicting a melt layer two-thirds the thickness of the
basaltic intrusions forming in 200 years at a temperature of 950C (Huppert and Sparks 1988; Thompson 1999).
Experiments on natural rock systems have also shown the added importance of mineral reactions involving the
breakdown of micas and amphiboles to rapidly produce granitic melts (Brown and Rushmer 1997; Thompson 1999). One
such experiment found that a quartzo-feldspathic source rock undergoing water-saturated melting at 800C could produce
2030 vol. % of homogeneous melt in less than 110 years (Acosta-Vigil et al. 2006).A crucial consequence of fluidabsent melting is reaction-induced expansion of the rock that results in local fracturing and a reduction in rock strength
due to the increased pore fluid (melt) pressures (Brown and Rushmer 1997; Clemens and Mawer 1992). Stress gradients
can also develop in the vicinity of an intruding basaltic heat source and promote local fractures. These processes, in

conjunction with regional tectonic strain, are important in providing enhanced fracture permeabilities in the region of partial
melting, which aid subsequent melt segregation (Petford et al. 2000).
Melt Segregation
The small-scale movement of magma (melt plus suspended crystals) within the source region is called segregation. The
granitic melts ability to segregate mechanically from its matrix is strongly dependent on its physical properties, of which
viscosity and density are the most important. Indeed, the viscosity is the crucial rate-determining variable (Woodmorappe
2001) and is a function of melt composition, water content, and the temperature (Dingwell, Bagdassarov, Bussod, and
Webb 1993). It has been demonstrated that the temperature and melts water content are interdependent (Scalliet, Holtz,
and Pichavant 1998), yet the viscosities and densities of granitic melts actually vary over quite limited ranges for melt
compositions varying between tonalite (65 wt % SiO2, 950C) and leucogranite (75 wt % SiO2, 750C) (fig. 3) (Clemens
and Petford 1999). An important implication is that the segregation and subsequent ascent processes, which are
moderated by the physical properties of the melts, thus occur at broadly similar rates, regardless of the tectonic setting
and the pressures and temperatures to which the source rock has been subjected over time. Furthermore, granitic
magmas are only 101,000 times more viscous than basaltic magmas (Baker 1996; Clements and Petford 1999; Scalliet,
Holtz, Pichavant, and Schmidt 1996), which readily flow.
Fig. 3. Melt viscosity as a function of melt
water (wt %) content for typical tonalite and
leucogranite liquid compositions (after
Clemens and Petford 1999) at a fixed
pressure of 800 MPa. The horizontal line
shows the range of water contents typical for
natural melts. The estimated log10values of
the median viscosities (in Pa s) of the liquids
at their ideal water contents of 4 wt %
(tonalite) and 6 wt % (leucogranite) are 3.8
and 4.9 respectively.
Most field evidence points to deformation
(essentially squeezing) as the dominant
mechanism that segregates melt flow in the
lower crust (Brown and Rushmer 1997;
Vigneresse, Barbey, and Cuney 1996). Rock
deformation experiments indicate that when
1040% of a rock is a granitic melt, the pore
pressures in a rock are equivalent to the
confining pressure, so the residual grains
move relative to one another resulting in
macroscopic deformation due to melt-enhanced mechanical flow (Brown and Rushmer 1997; Rutter and Neumann 1995).
These experiments also imply that deformation-enhanced segregation can in principle occur at any stage during partial
melting. Furthermore, the deformation-assisted melt segregation is so efficient in moving melt from its source to local sites
of dilation (squeezing) over timescales of only a month up to 1,000 years. Thus the melts may not attain chemical or
isotopic equilibrium with their surrounding source rocks before final extraction and ascent (Davies and Tommasini 2000;
Sawyer 1991).According to the best theoretical models, melted rock in the lower crust segregates via porous flow into
fractures within the source rock (usually metamorphic) above a mafic intrusion (the heat source), the fractures inflating to
form veins (Petford 1995). Local compaction of the surrounding matrix then allows the veins to enlarge as they fill further
with melt, and the fluid-filled veins coalesce to form a dike (fig. 4). At a certain critical melt-fraction percent of the source
rock, a threshold is reached where the critical dike width is achieved. Once that critical dike width is exceeded, rapid
(catastrophic) removal of the melt from the source occurs. The veins collapse abruptly, only to be then refilled by
continuously applied heat to the source rock. Thus the process is repeated, the granitic melt being extracted and then
ascending through dikes to the upper crust in rapid and catastrophic pulses.

Fig. 4. Schematic representation of a possible sequence of events (14) resulting from fluid-absent melting reactions in a
protolith above a mafic (intrusive) heat source in the lower crust. Veins fill by porous flow, with some local compaction
(inset).

These rapid timescales for melt extraction are well-supported by geochemical evidence in some granites. For example,
some Himalayan leucogranites are strongly undersaturated with respect to the element zirconium (Harris, Vance, and
Ayres 2000) because the granitic melt was extracted so rapidly from the residual matrix (in less than 150 years) that there
was insufficient time for zirconium to be reequilibrated between the two phases. Similarly, based on comparable evidence
in a Quebec granite, Canada, the inferred time for the extraction of the melt from its residuum was only 23 years (Sawyer
1991).
Magma Ascent
Gravity is the essential driving force for large-scale vertical transport of melts (ascent) in the continental crust (Petford et
al. 2000). However, the traditional idea of buoyant granitic magma ascending through the continental crust as slow-rising,
hot diapirs or by stoping (that is, large-scale veining) (Weinberg and Podladchikov 1994) has been largely replaced by
more viable models. These models involve the very rapid ascent of granitic magmas in narrow conduits, either as selfpropagating dikes (Clemens and Mawer 1992; Clemens, Petford, and Mawer 1997), along preexisting faults (Petford,
Kerr, and Lister 1993), or as an interconnected network of active shear zones and dilational structures (Collins and
Sawyer 1996; DLemos, Brown, and Strachan 1993). The advantage of dike/conduit ascent models is that they overcome
the severe thermal and mechanical problems associated with transporting very large volumes of granite magmas through
the upper brittle continental crust (Marsh 1982), as well as explain the persistence of near-surface granite intrusions and
associated silicic volcanism. Yet to be resolved is whether granite plutons are fed predominantly by a few large conduits
or by dike swarms (Brown and Solar 1999; Weinberg 1999).The most striking aspect of the ascent of granitic melts in
dikes is the extreme difference in the magma ascent rate compared to diapiric rise, the dike ascent rate being up to a
million times faster depending on the magmas viscosity and the conduit width (Clemens, Petford, and Mawer 1997;
Petford, Kerr, and Lister 1993). The narrow dike widths (150 m) and rapid ascent velocities predicted by fluid dynamical
models are supported by field and experimental studies (Brandon, Chacko, and Creaser 1996; Scalliet, Pecher, Rochette,
and Champenois 1994). For example, for epidote crystals to have been preserved as found in the granites of the Front
Range (Colorado) and of the White Creek batholith (British Columbia) required an ascent rate of between 0.7 and 14 km
per year. Therefore the processes of melt segregation at more than 21 km depth in the crust and then magma ascent and
emplacement in the upper crust all had to occur within just a few years (Brandon, Chacko, and Creaser 1996). Such a
rapid ascent rate is similar to magma transport rates in dikes calculated from numerical modeling (Clemens and Mawer
1992; Petford, Kerr, and Lister 1993; Petford 1995, 1996), and close to measured ascent rates for upper crustal magmas
(Chadwick, Archuleta, and Swanson 1988; Rutherford and Hill 1993; Scandone and Malone 1985). Indeed, Petford, Kerr,
and Lister (1993) calculated that a granite melt could be transported 30 km up through the crust along a 6 m wide dike in
just 41 days at a mean ascent rate of about 1 cm/s. At that rate the Cordillera Blanca batholith in northwest Peru, with an
estimated volume of 6,000 km3, could have been filled from a 10 km long dike in only 350 years.It is obvious that magma
transport needed to have occurred at such fast rates through such narrow dikes or else the granite magmas would
freeze due to cooling within the conduits as they ascended. Instead, there is little geological, geophysical, or
geochemical evidence to mark the passage of such large volumes of granite magma up through the crust (Clemens and
Mawer, 1992; Clemens, Petford, and Mawer 1997). Because of the rapid ascent rates, chemical and thermal interaction
between the dike magmas and the surrounding country rocks will be minimal. Clemens (2005) calculates typical ascent
rates of 3 mm/s to 1 m/s, which, assuming there is continuous, efficient supply of magma to the base of the fracture
system, translates to between five hours and three months for 20 km of ascent. Such rapid rates make granite magma
ascent effectively an instantaneous process, bringing plutonic granite magmatism more in line with timescales
characteristic of silicic volcanism and flood basalt magmatism (Petford et al. 2000).
Magma Emplacement
The final stage of magma movements is horizontal flow to form intrusive plutons in the upper continental crust. This
emplacement is controlled by a combination of mechanical interactions, either preexisting or emplacement-generated
wall-rock structures, and density effects between the spreading flow and its surroundings (Hogan and Gilbert 1995; Hutton
1988). The mechanisms by which the host rocks make way for this incoming magma have challenged geologists for most
of the past century and have been known as the space problem (Pitcher 1993). This problem is particularly acute where
the volumes of magmas forming batholiths (groups of hundreds of individual granite plutons intruded side-by-side over
large areas, such as the Sierra Nevada of California) are 100,000 km 3 or greater and are considered to have been
emplaced in a single event.New ideas that have alleviated this problem are (1) the recognition of the important role played
by tectonic activity in making space in the crust for the incoming magma (Hutton 1988), (2) more realistic interpretations of
the geometry of granitic intrusions at depth, and (3) the recognition that emplacement is an episodic process involving
discrete pulses of magma. Physical models (Benn, Odonne, and de Saint Blanquat 1998; Cruden 1998; Fernndez and
Castro 1999; Roman-Berdiel, Gapais, and Brun 1997) indicate that space for incoming magmas can be generated
through a combination of lateral fault opening, roof lifting, and lowering of the growing magma intrusion floor. For example,
space is created by uplift of the strata above
the intrusion, even at the earths surface, and
their erosion.The three-dimensional (3D)
shapes of crystallized plutons provide
important information on how the granitic
magmas were emplaced. The majority of
plutons so far investigated using detailed
geophysical (gravity, magnetic susceptibility,
and seismic) surveys appear to be flat-lying
sheets to open funnel-shaped structures with
central or marginal feeder zones (Amglio
and Vigneresse 1999; Amglio, Vigneresse,
and Bouchez 1997; Evans et al. 1994;
Petford and Clemens 2000), consistent with
an increasing number of field studies
(collecting fabric and structural data) that find
plutons to be internally sheeted on the 0.1
meter
to
kilometer
scale
(Amglio,
Vigneresse, and Bouchez 1997; Grocott et
al. 1999).
Fig. 5. Mean (vertical) thickness versus
mean (horizontal) length for granitic plutons

and laccoliths (after Petford et al. 2000). Reduced major-axis regression defines a power-law curve for plutons with an
exponent a of 0.6 0.1. Laccoliths (shallow-level intrusions) are described by a power-law exponent of 0.88 0.1
(McCaffrey and Petford 1997). The line a = 1 defines the critical divide between predominantly vertical inflation (a > 1) and
predominantly horizontal elongation (a < 1) during intrusion growth. Significantly different power-law exponents rule out a
simple genetic relationship between both populations. Differences may be due to mechanical effects, with limits in
thickness reflecting floor depression (plutons) and roof lifting (laccoliths).Considerations of field and geophysical data
suggest that the growth of a laterally spreading and vertically thickening intrusive flow obeys a simple mathematical
scaling or power-law relationship (between thickness and length) typical of systems exhibiting scale-invariant (fractal)
behavior and size distributions (McCaffrey and Petford 1997; Petford and Clemens 2000). This inherent preference for
scale-invariant tabular sheet geometries in granitic plutons from a variety of tectonic settings (fig. 5) (Petford et al. 2000) is
best explained in mechanical terms by the intruding magma flowing horizontally some distance initially before vertical
thickening then occurs, either by hydraulic lifting of the overburden (particularly above shallow-level intrusions) or sagging
of the floor beneath. Plutons thus go from a birth stage characterized by lateral spreading to an inflation stage marked by
vertical thickening.This intrusive tabular sheet model envisages larger plutons growing from smaller ones according to a
power-law inflation growth curve, ultimately to form crustal-scale batholithic intrusions (Cruden 1998; McCaffrey and
Petford 1997). Evidence of this growth process has been revealed by combined field, petrological, geochemical, and
geophysical (gravity) studies of the 1,200 km long Coast batholith of Peru (Atherton 1999). On a crustal scale this
exposed batholith was formed by a thin (37 km thick) low-density granite layer that coalesced from numerous smaller
plutons with aspect ratios of between 17:1 and 20:1. Thus this batholith would only amount to 510% of the crustal
volume of this coastal sector of the Andes (Petford and Clemens 2000), which greatly reduces the so-called space
problem. Detailed studies of the Sierra Nevada batholith of California (which includes the Yosemite area) reveal a similar
picture, in which batholith construction occurred by progressive intrusion of coalescing granitic plutons 22,000 km2 in
area, supposedly over a period of 40 million years (as determined by radioisotope dating) (Bateman 1992).
Emplacement Rates
The tabular 3D geometry of granite plutons and their growth by vertical displacements of their roofs and floors enables
limits to be placed on their emplacement rates (fig. 6) (Petford et al. 2000). If we assume that a disk-shaped pluton grows
according to the empirical power-law relation shown in fig. 5, T = 0.6 (0.15)L0.60.1, then its filling time can be estimated
when the volumetric filling rate is known. Taking conservative values for magma viscosities, wall-rock/magma density
differences and feeder dike dimensions results in pluton filling times of between less than 40 days and 1 million years for
plutons under 100 km across. If the median value for the volumetric filling rate is used, then at the fastest magma delivery
rates most plutons would have been emplaced in much less than 1,000 years (Harris, Vance, and Ayres 2000; Petford et
al. 2000). Even a whole batholith of 1,000 km 3 could be built in only 1,200 years, at the rate of growth of an intrusion in
todays noncatastrophic geological regime (Clemens 2005).
Fig. 6. Estimated filling times for tabular disk-shaped plutons
(after Petford et al. 2000). This thickness (T) to width (L) ratio
is given by the equation in the text for a range of permissible
filling rates (Q). Heavy horizontal lines are the thickness
ranges estimated using that equation for the Mount Gwens
pluton (MGP), the Dinkey Creek pluton (DCP) and the Bald
Mountain pluton (BMP) in the Sierra Nevada batholith,
California. Vertical lines are the ranges of their possible filling
times, bracketed by their filling rates. The colored prism
indicates the range of thicknesses estimated independently for
the southwest lobe of the DCP using structural data (Bateman
1992).Thus the formation of granite intrusions in the middle to
upper crust involves four discrete processes partial melting,
melt segregation, magma ascent, and magma emplacement.
According to conventional geologists (Petford et al. 2000), the
rate-limiting step in this series of processes in granite
magmatism is the timescale of partial melting (Harris, Vance,
and Ayres 2000; Petford, Clemens, and Vigneresse 1997), but
the follow-on stages of segregation, ascent, and emplacement
can be geologically extremely rapidperhaps even catastrophic. However, as suggested by Woodmorappe (2001), the
required timescale for partial melting is not incompatible with the 6,0007,000 year framework for earth history because a
very large reservoir of granitic melts could have been generated in the lower crust in the 1,650 years between Creation
and the Flood, particularly due to residual heat from an episode of accelerated nuclear decay during the Creation
(Humphreys 2000; Vardiman, Snelling, and Chaffin 2005). This very large reservoir of granitic melts would then have
been mobilized and progressively intruded into the upper crust during the global, year-long Flood when the rates of these
granite magmatism processes would have been greatly accelerated with so many other geologic processes due to
another episode of accelerated nuclear decay (Humphreys, 2000; Vardiman, Snelling, and Chaffin 2005) and catastrophic
plate tectonics (Austin et al. 1994), the likely driving mechanism of the Flood event.
Crystallization and Cooling Rates
The so-called space problem may have been solved, but what of the heat problem, that is, the time needed to crystallize
and cool the granite plutons after their emplacement? As Clemens (2005) states, given that it has now been established
that the worlds granitic plutons are mostly tabular in shape and typically only a few kilometers thick, it is a simple matter
to model the cooling of granitic plutons by conduction (Carslaw and Jaeger 1980). So using typical values for physical
properties of the magma and wall-rock temperatures, thermal conductivities and heat capacities, Clemens (2005)
determined that a 3 km thick sheet of granitic magma would take around 30,000 years to completely solidify from the
initially liquid magma.However, this calculation completely ignores, as already pointed out by Snelling and Woodmorappe
(1998), the field, experimental, and modeling evidence that the crystallization and cooling of granitic plutons occurred
much more rapidly as a result of convection due to the circulation of hydrothermal and meteoric fluids, evidence that has
been known about for more than 25 years (for example, Cathles 1977; Cheng and Minkowycz 1977; Hardee 1982;
Norton, 1978; Norton and Knight 1977; Paramentier 1981; Spera 1982; Torrance and Sheu 1978). The most recent
modeling of plutons cooling by hydrothermal convection (Hayba and Ingebritsen 1997) takes into account the multiphase
flow of water and the heat it carries in the relevant ranges of temperatures and pressures, so that a small pluton (1 km 2
km, at 2 km depth) is estimated to have taken 3,5005,000 years to cool depending on the system permeability. But this

modeling does not take into account the relatively thin, tabular structure of plutons that would significantly reduce their
cooling times. Similarly, convective overturn caused by settling crystals in the plutons would be another significant factor
in the dissipation of their heat (Snelling and Woodmorappe 1998).
Convective Cooling: The Role of Hydrothermal Fluids
Granitic magmas invariably have huge amounts of water dissolved in them that are released as the magma crystallizes
and cools. As the magma is injected into the host strata, it exerts pressure on them that facilitates fracturing of them
(Knapp and Norton 1981). Also, the heat from the pluton induces fracturing as the fluid pressure in the pores of the host
strata increases from the heat (Knapp and Knight 1977), this process repeating itself as the plutons heat enters these
new cracks.Following the emplacement of a granitic magma, crystallization occurs due to this irreversible heat loss to the
surrounding host strata (Candela 1992). As heat passes out of the intrusion at its margins, the solidus (the boundary
between the fully crystallized granite and partially crystallized magma) progressively moves inward towards the interior of
the intrusion (Candela 1991). As crystallization proceeds, the water dissolved in the magma that isnt incorporated in the
crystallizing minerals stays in the residual melt, so its water concentration increases. When the saturation water
concentration is lowered to the actual water concentration in the residual melt, first boiling occurs and water (as
superheated steam) is expelled from solution in the melt, which is consequently driven towards higher crystallinities as the
temperature continues to fall. Bubbles of water vapor then nucleate and grow, causing second (or resurgent) boiling within
the zone of crystallization just underneath the solidus boundary and the already crystallized granite (fig. 7).
Fig. 7. Cross-section through the margin of
a magma chamber traversing (from left to
right): country rock, cracked pluton,
uncracked pluton, solidus, crystallization
interval, and bulk melt (after Candela 1991).
As the concentration and size of these
vapor bubbles increase, vapor saturation is
quickly reached, but initially these vapor
bubbles are trapped behind the immobile
crystallized granite margin of the pluton
(Candela 1991). The vapor pressure thus
increases until the aqueous fluid can only
be removed from the sites of bubble
nucleation through the establishment of a
three-dimensional
critical
percolation
network, with advection of aqueous fluids
through it or by means of fluid flow through
a cracking front in the already crystallized
granite and out into the surrounding host
strata. Once such fracturing of the pluton
has occurred (because the cracking front
will go deeper and deeper into the pluton as
the solidus boundary moves progressively
inward toward the core of the intrusion), not
only is magmatic water released from the
pluton carrying heat out into the host strata,
but the cooler meteoric water in the host
strata is able to penetrate into the pluton and thus establish a convective hydrothermal circulation through the fracture
networks in both the granite pluton and the surrounding host strata. The more water is dissolved in the magma, the
greater will be the pressure exerted at the magma/granite and granite/host strata interfaces and thus the greater the
fracturing in both the granite pluton and the surrounding host strata (Knapp and Norton 1981; Zhao and Brown 1992).
Thus by the time the magma has totally crystallized into the constituent minerals of the granite, the solidus boundary and
cracking front have both reached the core of the pluton as well. It also means that a fracture network has been
established through the total volume of the pluton and out into the surrounding host strata through which a vigorous flow
of hydrothermal fluids has been established. These hydrothermal fluids thus carry heat by convection out through this
fracture network away from the cooling pluton, ensuring the temperature of the granitic rock mass continues to rapidly fall.
The amount of water involved in this hydrothermal fluid convection system is considerable, given that a granitic magma
has enough energy due to inertial heat to drive roughly its mass in meteoric fluid circulation (Cathles 1981; Norton and
Cathles 1979).The emplacement depth and the scale of the hydrothermal circulatory system are first-order parameters in
determining the cooling time of a large granitic pluton (Spera 1982). Water also plays a remarkable role in determining
the cooling time. For a granitic pluton 10 km wide emplaced at 7 km depth, the cooling time of the magma to the solidus
decreases almost tenfold as the water content of the magma increases from 0.5 wt % to 4 wt %. As the temperature of the
pluton/host rock boundary drops through 200C during crystallization, depending on the hydrothermal fluid/magma volume
ratio, with only a 2 wt % water content, the pluton cooling time decreases eighteen-fold. As concluded by Spera (1982, p.
299):Hydrothermal fluid circulation within a permeable or fractured country rock accounts for most heat loss when magma
is emplaced into water-bearing country rock . . . . Large hydrothermal systems tend to occur in the upper parts of the crust
where meteoric water is more plentiful.Of course, granitic magmas rapidly emplaced during the Flood would have been
intruded into sedimentary strata that were still wet from just having been deposited only weeks or months
earlier.Furthermore, complete cooling of such granitic plutons did not have to all occur during the Flood year.It is also a
total misconception that the large crystals found in granites required slow cooling rates (Luth 1976, pp. 405411; Wampler
& Wallace 1998). All the basic minerals found in granites have been experimentally grown over laboratory timescales
(Jahns and Burnham 1958; Mustart 1969; Swanson, Whitney, and Luth 1972; Winkler and Von Platen 1958), so
macroscopic igneous minerals can crystallize and grow rapidly to requisite size from a granitic melt (Swanson 1977;
Swanson and Fenn 1986). So, asks Clemens (2005), how long did it take to form the plagioclase feldspar crystals in a
particular granite? Linear crystal growth rates of quartz and feldspar have been experimentally measured and rates of 10 6.5 m/sec to 10-11.5 m/sec seem typical. This means that a 5 mm long crystal of plagioclase could have grown in as short a
time as one hour, but probably no more than 25 years (Clemens 2005). Actually, it is extraneous geologic factors, not
potential rate of mineral growth, which constrain the sizes of crystals attained in igneous bodies (Marsh 1989). Indeed, it
has been demonstrated that the rate of nucleation is the most important factor in determining growth rates and eventual

sizes of crystals (Lofgren 1980; Tsuchiyama 1983). Thus the huge crystals (meters long) sometimes found in granitic
pegmatites have grown rapidly at rates of more than 10-6 cm/s from fluids saturated with the components of those
minerals within a few years (London 1992).
Crystallization and Cooling Rates: The Evidence of Polonium Radiohalos
There is a feature in granites that severely restricts the timescale for their emplacement, crystallization, and cooling to just
days or weeks at mostpolonium radiohalos (Snelling 2005; Snelling and Armitage 2003). Radiohalos are minute
spherical (circular in cross-section) zones of darkening due to radioisotope decay in tiny central mineral inclusions within
the host minerals (Gentry 1973; Snelling 2000). They are generally prolific in granites, particularly where biotite (black
mica) flakes contain tiny zircon inclusions that contain uranium. As the uranium in the zircon grains radioactively decays
through numerous daughter elements to stable lead, the -radiations from eight of the decay steps produce characteristic
darkened rings to form uranium radiohalos around the zircon radiocenters. Also present adjacent to these uranium
radiohalos in many biotite flakes are distinctive radiohalos formed only from the three polonium radioisotopes in the
uranium decay chain. Because they have been parented only by polonium, they are known as polonium radiohalos.The
significance of these polonium radiohalos in granites is that they had to form exceedingly rapidly because the half-lives
(decay rates) of these three polonium radioisotopes are very short3.1 minutes (218Po), 164 microseconds (214Po), and
138 days (210Po). Furthermore, each visible radiohalo requires the decay of 500 million to one billion parent radioisotope
atoms to form them (Gentry 1973; Snelling 2000). The zircons at the centers of the adjacent uranium radiohalos are the
only nearby source of polonium (from decay of the same uranium that produces the uranium radiohalos). The
hydrothermal fluids released by the crystallization and cooling of the granites flow between the sheets making up the
biotite flakes to transport the polonium from the zircons to adjacent concentrating sites. These then become the
radiocenters which produce the polonium radiohalos (Snelling 2005; Snelling and Armitage 2003). Furthermore, the
radiohalos can only form after the granites have cooled below 150C (Laney and Laughlin 1981), which is very late in the
granite crystallization and cooling process. Yet uranium decay and hydrothermal transport of daughter polonium isotopes
starts much earlier when the granites are still crystallizing. Nevertheless, because of the very short half-lives of these
three polonium radioisotopes that necessitate their rapid hydrothermal fluid transport to generate the polonium radiohalos
within hours to a few days, it is estimated that the granites also need to have crystallized and cooled within 610 days, or
else the required large quantities of polonium (from grossly accelerated decay of uranium) would decay before they could
form the polonium radiohalos (Snelling 2005; Snelling and Armitage 2003). Such a timescale for crystallization and
cooling of granite plutons is certainly compatible with the young timescales for the global Flood event and for earth history.
It might be argued that the uranium in the zircon grains could continue to supply polonium and radon isotopes to the
polonium deposition sites via hydrothermal fluids for an extremely long time period after the temperature of the granites
fell below 150C, so the polonium radiohalos would not need to form in hours to days. Even though the half-lives of the
polonium isotopes are very short, a long steady-state decay of uranium would surely build up slowly the uranium
radiohalos, and the hydrothermal fluids would steadily transport the radon and polonium to slowly generate the polonium
radiohalos nearby.However, this presupposes that the hydrothermal fluids continued to flow for long periods of time after
the granites cooled below 150C. To the contrary, once the granites and hydrothermal fluids fall below 150C most of the
energy to drive the hydrothermal fluid flow has already dissipated. The hydrothermal fluids are expelled from the
crystallizing granite and start flowing just below 400C (fig. 8). So unless the granite cooled rapidly from 400C to below
150C, most of the radon and polonium transported by the hydrothermal fluids would have been flushed out of the
granites by the vigorous hydrothermal convective flows as they diminished. Simultaneously, much of the energy to drive
these fluid flows dissipates rapidly as the granite temperature drops. Thus, below 150C the hydrothermal fluids have
slowed down to such an extent that they cannot sustain protracted flow, and with the short half-lives of the radon and
polonium isotopes, they would decay before those atoms reached the polonium deposition sites. Furthermore, the
capacity of the hydrothermal fluids to carry dissolved radon and polonium decreases dramatically as the temperature
continues to drop.
Thus sufficient radon and polonium had to be transported quickly to the polonium deposition sites to form the polonium
radiohalos, while there was still enough energy at and just below 150C to drive the hydrothermal fluid flow rapidly enough
to get the polonium isotopes to the deposition sites before the polonium isotopes decayed. This is the time and
temperature window depicted schematically in Fig. 8. The time window is especially brief in the case of the decay of
the 218Po and 214Po isotopes (half-lives of 3.1 minutes and 164 microseconds respectively) and the formation of their
radiohalos. It would thus be simply impossible for these polonium radiohalos to form slowly over millions of years at
todays groundwater temperatures in cold granites. Heat is needed to dissolve the radon and polonium atoms, and to
drive the hydrothermal convection that moves the fluids which transport the radon and polonium atoms to supply the
radiocenters to generate the polonium radiohalos. Furthermore, the required heat cannot be sustained for the 100 million
years or more while sufficient 238U decays at todays rates to produce the required polonium atoms to form the polonium
radiohalos. Thus the granites need to have crystallized and cooled rapidly (within 610 days) to still drive the
hydrothermal fluid flow rapidly enough to generate the polonium radiohalos within hours to a few days.

Fig. 8. Schematic, conceptual,


temperature
versus
time
cooling curve diagram to show
the timescale for granite
crystallization and cooling,
hydrothermal fluid transport,
and the formation of polonium
radiohalos.
Formation of the Yosemite
Area Granitic Plutons
Finally, the formation of the
hundreds of granitic plutons of
the Sierra Nevada batholith,
some of which outcrop on a
grand and massive scale in the
Yosemite area, can thus be
adequately explained within the
young framework for earth
history. The regional geologic
context suggests that late in
the Flood year, after deposition
of
thick
sequences
of
fossiliferous
sedimentary
strata, a subduction zone
developed just to the west at
the western edge of the North
American plate (Huber 1991).
Because plate movements
were then catastrophic during
the Flood year (Austin et al.
1994), as the cool Pacific plate
was catastrophically subducted
under the overriding North American plate, the western edge region of the latter was deformed, resulting in buckling of its
sedimentary strata and metamorphism at depth (fig. 9). The Pacific plate was also progressively heated as it was
subducted, so that its upper side began to partially melt and thus produce large volumes of basalt magma. Rising into the
lower continental crust of the deformed western edge of the North American plate, the heat from these basalt magmas in
turn caused voluminous partial melting of this lower continental crust, generating buoyant granitic magmas. These rapidly
ascended via dikes into the upper crust, where they were emplaced rapidly and progressively as the hundreds of
coalescing granitic plutons that now form the Sierra Nevada batholith. The presence of polonium radiohalos in many of
the Yosemite area granitic plutons (Gates 2007; Snelling 2005) is confirmation of their rapid crystallization and cooling late
in the closing phases of the Flood year. Conventional radioisotope dating, which assigns ages of 80120 million years to
these granites (Bateman 1992), appears to be grossly in error because of not taking into account the acceleration of the
nuclear decay (Vardiman, Snelling, and Chaffin 2005). Subsequent rapid erosion at the close of the Flood, as the waters
drained rapidly off the continents, followed by further erosion early in the post-Flood era and during the post-Flood Ice
Age, have exposed and shaped the outcropping of these granitic plutons in the Yosemite area as seen today.
Conclusions
Even the conventional long-ages geologic community now regards the formation stages of granite plutons, after partial
melting of source rocks to form granitic melts, that is, melt segregation, ascent and emplacement, to be geologically
extremely rapidperhaps even catastrophic. At todays apparently slow rates of partial melting significant granite
magmatism is not now occurring. However, a large reservoir of granitic melts could have been generated in the lower
crust during the 1,650 years between Creation and the Flood, particularly due to residual heat from an episode of
accelerated nuclear decay during the Creation . This very large reservoir of granitic melts would then have been mobilized
and progressively intruded into the upper crust during the global Flood cataclysm, when another episode of accelerated
nuclear decay would have greatly accelerated many geologic processes, including granite magmatism, driven by
catastrophic plate tectonics.Partial melting occurs, due to heating of the lower crust by basalt magmas intruded from the
mantle, to the elevated local water content, and to locally increased pressures as a result of tectonic activity. Once it
occurs,
continued
deformation
(squeezing) segregates
the melt so that it flows.
Melt-filled veins then
coalesce into dikes as
squeezing
continues
episodically, effectively
pumping the granitic
melt into the dikes and
up
the
dike-filled
fractures into the upper
crust. Thus, with a
continuous supply of
magma at the base of
the fracture system in the
lower crust, the magma
could typically ascend 20
km into the upper crust in
five hours to three
months.
There

emplacement occurs rapidly as flat-lying sheets due to lateral fault opening, roof lifting, and floor sagging beneath the
intrusion as it thickens in as little as 40 days.
Fig. 9. Subduction of an oceanic plate (Pacific plate) during convergence with a continental plate (North American plate).
Magma, formed by partial melting of the overriding continental plate, rises into the continental plate to form volcanoes and
granite plutons along a mountain chain (after Huber 1991).Because granitic plutons are now recognized as being mostly
tabular sheets, their crystallization and cooling occurs much more rapidly as a result of convection due to circulation of
huge amounts of outgoing hydrothermal fluids released from the magmas and ingressing meteoric fluids from the country
rocks. The pressure of these outgoing hydrothermal fluids fractures the inward crystallizing and cooling pluton margins,
facilitating the ingress of cold meteoric fluids, which completes the convection cycle and accelerates the cooling of the
pluton. Of course, during the Flood these granitic magmas were often intruded into wet sediment layers. Crystal growth
rates of 5 mm in an hour have been experimentally determined. These hydrothermal fluids also transported radon and
polonium within biotite flakes to generate polonium radiohalos below 150C, which due to the very short half-lives of the
polonium isotopes must have formed within hours to days. Furthermore, due to uranium decay and hydrothermal fluid
transport of daughter polonium starting earlier in the crystallization of the granite plutons, and the need to supply the
required large quantities of polonium below 150C to form the polonium radiohalos before the energy to drive the
hydrothermal fluids dissipates, the granite plutons need to have crystallized within 610 days.Quite clearly, timescales for
the generation of granitic magmas and their intrusion, crystallization, and cooling are no longer incompatible with the
young time frame for earth history and its global Flood cataclysm.
Conflicting Ages of Tertiary Basalt and Contained Fossilised Wood, Crinum, Central Queensland, Australia
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on August 1, 2000
Abstract
Originally published in CEN Technical Journal 14, num. 2 (2000): 99122.
Fossilised wood found entombed in a Tertiary basalt flow at Crinum in central Queensland was identified as probably
Melaleuca, and yielded a 14C age of about 37,500 years BP and a 13CPDB value of 25.69 consistent with terrestrial
plant organic carbon, and ruling out contamination. A nearby leaf imprint in the basalt was identified as probably
Lauraceae. The olivine basalt yielded an averaged K-Ar model age of 47.5 Ma, excessively older than the expected age
of 30 Ma due to excess 40Ar*.The basalts incompatible trace and rare earth element, and Nd-Sr isotope, geochemistry
are consistent with its tectonic setting, being an intra-plate continental alkali basalt derived from a homogeneous mantle
source and erupted as the Australian plate moved northwards over a stationary hotspot. A Pb-Pb isotopic linear array
which gives an apparent age of 5.07 0.27 Ga is probably a primary geochemical feature of the basalts mantle source.
In the context of the Creation/Flood model of Earth history the fossilised wood is from trees which grew in the immediate
post-Flood period. The decelerating Australian plate drifted over a mantle hotspot, a structural weakness in the crust
allowing magma to erupt as basalt which engulfed the trees. The fossilised woods radiocarbon demonstrates the basalts
youthfulness and the failure of radioisotopic dating, but is consistent with a Flood/immediate post-Flood stronger
magnetic field.hop Now
Introduction
The Crinum Colliery, situated near Emerald in the Bowen Basin of central Queensland (Figure 1), was developed to
exploit the Lilyvale (German Creek) Seam of the Permian German Creek Coal Measures. During construction of the mine
by BHP Australia Coal Pty Ltd in 1993, when Shaft Sinking and Development employees were sinking the upcast
ventilation shaft, a rare find was made.1 After digging through the thin surficial sands and clays, followed by Tertiary
basalt, 21 m down pieces of fossilised wood were found entombed in the basalt near the base of the flow. The basalt flow
unconformably overlies the uppermost siltstone and sandstone units of the German Creek Coal Measures.2The
excavators reported at the time that the fossilised wood appeared to belong to two distinct trees, partly standing, still
organic in nature and thus not fully petrified.1 The imprint of a leaf was also discovered within the basalt, which was also
regarded as remarkable, given the likely temperature (perhaps as high as 1,000C) of the basalt lava when it entombed
the leaf (and the wood). Additionally, what looked like tree roots were found in the siltstone directly below the basalt,
suggesting the trees when alive were rooted into the Permian
siltstone and thus growing on a Tertiary land surface over which the
basalt lava flowed.3
The investigations reported here focussed on:
Identifying the trees represented by the fossilised wood and leaf
impression, and testing the wood for a possible14C age, which might
be expected if these were trees growing on a Tertiary (post-Flood?)
land surface; and
Characterising the geochemistry of the basalt enclosing the fossilised
wood, and determining the age and source of the basalt by its K-Ar,
Rb-Sr, Sm-Nd and Pb-Pb radioisotopic systematics.
Local geology
Figure 1. Map showing the location of the Bowen Basin in central
Queensland (inset) and the Crinum Colliery north of the town of
Emerald (after Devey).5 The other mines exploiting the German
Creek Coal Measures are also shown.
The exposed Bowen Basin (Figure 1, inset) is the northern section of
the 1,800 km long Bowen-Sydney Basin, a meridional accumulation
of Permian and Triassic sediments in eastern Queensland and New
South Wales.4 Exposures of Bowen Basin sediments extend over an
area of 550 km north-south by 250 km across (east-west). Around
the western, northern and eastern margins of the basin the Permian
sediments onlap the pre-Permian basement, whereas to the south
the Bowen Basin sediments themselves disappear beneath the
Jurassic-Cretaceous Surat Basin of southern Queensland.
The Crinum area is about 50 km by road north-northwest of the town
of Emerald at approximately 14819E, 2312S 5,6 (Figures 1 and 2).
The pre-Permian basement to the west of Crinum consists of schist,
phyllite, quartzite, slate and recrystallised limestone of the Anakie
Metamorphics, overlain further west by the Devonian-Carboniferous

sediments and acid flows and tuffs of the Drummond Basin.6 To the west of Crinum the Permian sediments of the Bowen
Basin unconformably overlie the basement metamorphics of the Anakie Inlier, an erosional remnant preserved as a ridge.
The complete Permian stratigraphic sequence of the Bowen Basin is not represented in the Emerald-Crinum area. Also,
since the original field mapping and during subsequent mining operations, there have been difficulties in correlating strata
across such a large basin, and thus variations in the identification and naming of strata have resulted.7,8Nevertheless, the
original broad groupings and subdivisions of strata continue to be used and are represented in the Emerald-Crinum area.
Thus the first strata to be deposited belong to the Upper Permian Blenheim Sub-Group of the Back Creek Group about
365 m of quartz and lithic quartz sandstones, conglomerate, and micaceous and carbonaceous mudstone, containing
marine fossils (brachiopods and pelecypods), which outcrop to the north and west of Crinum6 (Figure 2). These strata are
overlain by 610 m or more of quartz sandstone, sandstone, carbonaceous siltstone and mudstone, coal seams and
conglomerate of the German Creek Coal Measures of the Back Creek Group.6 Outcrops occur in a strike-oriented belt
immediately to the north-east of Crinum, but this coal measure sequence continues to the south-west underneath Tertiary
basalt flows at Crinum and Gordonstone and under soil, gravel and alluvium cover5,6 (Figures 1 and 2). To the south-west
of Crinum and west of Emerald beyond the basalt, soil, gravel and alluvium cover are outcrops of undifferentiated Back
Creek Group strata (Figure 2) about 1370 m of quartz and pebbly quartz sandstones, feldspathic and micaceous
sandstone and mudstone containing marine fossils (brachiopods, pelecypods and gastropods), and some coal
seams.6 On the other hand, directly overlying the outcropping German Creek Coal Measures east of Crinum are more
than 610 m of lithic and feldspathic sandstone, conglomerate, tuff, tuffaceous sandstone and mudstone strata of the Fair
Hill Formation of the Blackwater Group which contain petrified wood and poorly preserved plant remains.
Figure 2. Geological map of the
Crinum-Emerald
area
(after
Olgers).6 Much of the Permian
Bowen Basin sequence is covered
by Tertiary basalt flows and
sediments, and Quaternary soil,
gravel and alluvium.
The occurrence of the coal seams
interbedded with clastic sediments
containing marine fossils poses a
challenge to the uniformitarian
framework for interpreting the
supposed
sedimentary
environments in which these strata
were
deposited.9 Thus
the
depositional basin is interpreted as
a shallow marine shelf onto which
clastic sediments were deposited by
rivers flowing from the presumably
exposed land to the west, burying
marine animals. On the coastal and
alluvial plains it is claimed wetlands
developed
into
coal-forming
swamps before slow subsidence
allowed the sea to encroach and
bury the peat. These coal measures
were supposedly deposited by such
cyclical repetition until the marine
shelf was subsequently totally filled
and covered over with fluvial
sediments washed in from the north
with wood and other plant debris.
Alternately, during the global Flood
cataclysm the plant debris would
have
been
catastrophically
accumulated and buried by the
sedimentation within the globeencircling marine environment.
By the end of the Permian it is
claimed sedimentation had ceased
in the Emerald-Crinum area as the
shallow
sea
retreated
eastward.9 Through
the
entire
Mesozoic the area was supposedly
a land surface at which presumably
the exposed strata were weathered
and eroded. Then in the Tertiary, intense volcanic activity to the west resulted in extensive olivine basalt flows being
extruded eastwards across the area, building up a cumulative thickness in places of up to 245 m.6 Interbedded with the
basalt flows are layers of claystone, siltstone, sandstone, pebbly sandstone and gravel, up to 105 m thick in total,
interpreted as fluvial and lacustrine sediments. Subsequent intense weathering has produced a laterite capping on these
Tertiary sediments, which can be seen in outcrop to the south-east and south of Crinum6 (Figure 2). And finally,
continued in situ weathering accompanied by fluvial processes have not only shaped the present landscape, but left thin
blankets of superficial soil, sand, gravel and alluvium covering all earlier strata, particularly in low-lying areas.
Mine geology
The Crinum Colliery has been sited and developed to exploit the Lilyvale Seam of the German Creek Coal Measures5
(Figures 1 and 2). The immediate mine area is in a relatively undeformed and stable region, the coal measure sequence

in the mine lying on the western limb of a gently dipping syncline which gently plunges south-west.2 The regional dip is
generally about 3 to the south and south-east.
Figure 3 is a simplified longitudinal, west-to-east cross-section through the Crinum Mine drift entries. Flat-lying Tertiary
clay and basalt flows unconformably overlie the gently folded and dipping Permian strata, and are generally 2040 m
thick. As many as eight distinct basalt flows have been recognized in the nearby Gordonstone area to the south2 and
these are often interbedded or underlain by clay, as is the case at Crinum (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Simplified longitudinal, west-to-east cross-section through the Crinum


Mine drift entries showing the geology and the exploratory drill-holes (adapted
from the BHP Australia Coal Pty Ltds Crinum Mine Project cross-section). The
upcast ventilation shaft was excavated in the approximate position of Drill-hole
05469.The German Creek Seam, and its lateral equivalent at Crinum, the Lilyvale
Seam, forms the base of the upper German Creek Coal Measures, which
average 160 m in thickness.5 The seam is generally between 3.0 and 4.5 m
thick, averaging 3.5 m at Crinum, has only a few thin claystone partings, is
vitrinite-rich, low in ash and sulfur, and has excellent coking properties. There are
other seams in the upper German Creek Coal Measures above the German
Creek (Lilyvale) Seam (in stratigraphic order upwards the Corvus, Tieri, Aquila
and Pleiades Seams), but these are generally thinner or absent in the Crinum
area. The upper German Creek Coal Measures are dominated by quartz lithic
sandstone, with minor siltstone interbeds (as in Figure 3), which have been
interpreted as eight separate lithofacies in what was supposedly a fluvial delta
depositional environment prograding onto a shallow marine self. Thus the lower
German Creek Coal Measures, which average 110 m thick, do not contain
economic coal and are interpreted as a marine sequence.
Discovery location
Whereas large-scale open cast strip mining methods have traditionally been
utilized to exploit the German Creek (Lilyvale) Seam to the north-east at the
Gregory, Oaky Creek and German Creek Mines (Figure 1) where the overburden
is shallow,8 at Crinum the seam is deeper and so underground longwall mining
methods are being used. Drilling preceded development so that planning could
optimize the siting of the transport and conveyor drifts, and the upcast ventilation
shaft, with respect to the longwall production panels in the seam.10 Thus the
drifts were excavated along the mine section shown in Figure 3, and the upcast
ventilation shaft alongside Drill-hole 05469 just 100 m south of that section.
Figure 4. Geological log for Drill-hole 05469 showing the strata sequence
intersected by the upcast ventilation shaft (adapted from the BHP Australia Coal
Pty Ltds Crinum Mine Project drill-hole log).
It was during the sinking of the upcast ventilation shaft in 1993 that the
excavators found the fossilised wood entombed in the Tertiary basalt flow.1 The
strata sequence in the shaft as recorded by Drill-hole 05469 is shown in Figure 4.
The excavators reported finding the pieces of fossilised wood at about 21 m
down the shaft in the bottom flow of the sequence of Tertiary basalt flows. At
approximately 4 m thick, this basalt flow was reported to consist of three distinct
sections lots of vesicles in the frothy top of the flow, then below that, coarser
basalt with visible phenocrysts and perhaps some columnar jointing, and at the
bottom of the flow, fine-grained, dense, hard, massive basalt.1,3 Being relatively
thin with such an internal structure, cooling of this flow would have been rapid
(perhaps days, but a few weeks at most).11 While Figures 3 and 4 show that
there is clay/claystone immediately below the basalt, careful examination of the
core recovered from Drill-hole 05469 revealed that the basalt sits at 25.2 m
downhole unconformably and directly on the Permian strata of the German Creek
Coal Measures. There is no fossil soil but a hard, dense silicified claystone/finegrained siltstone, grading downwards into siltstone then sandstone. The roof of the Lilyvale Seam is then at 76.5 m
downhole, only 51.3 m below the base of the bottom basalt flow which entombed the fossilised wood.
What was found
The workmen sinking the shaft reported that they found two distinct trees, still standing, partly organic in nature, and thus
not fully petrified.1Because the fossil wood specimens they collected were said to have come from a depth in the shaft of

about 21 m, the basalt flow entombing the trees is about 4 m thick,3 the bottom of the basalt flow in the drill-hole is at 25.2
m and also encases fossilised wood, and what appear to be thick petrified roots were found in the siltstone below,3 then
these appear to have been tree stumps over 4 m tall entombed through the full thickness of the basalt flow. (The apparent
lack of any preserved fossil soil is not altogether unexpected, given that trees are capable of growing on rocky outcrops.)
Thus the fossilised wood samples the workmen collected probably came from near the tops of the tree stumps at the top
of the basalt flow, which is verified by the vesicular nature of the basalt sample they also collected at the same location,
the top of the basalt flow having been described as vesicular.The fossilised wood when found was said to be in three
states ash, charred and intact timber.1 Because the original trees appear to have been rooted into the Permian
strata3 and thus growing on a Tertiary land surface, now preserved as the unconformity between the Permian strata and
the Tertiary basalt (Figure 3), it is not surprising that when the molten basalt lava at 10001200 C engulfed the trees
some of the wood was reduced to ash or was charred. In fact, it is likely that the charring of the outer sections of the tree
stumps protected the inner portions. The pieces of fossilised wood collected by the workmen are shown in Figures 59,
and the effects of charring can readily be seen. The imprint of a leaf (Figure 10) was also discovered in the basalt,
indicative of how quickly the molten lava congealed. Close inspection reveals that it is not a gum leaf, as initially
reported.1 Finally, as already mentioned, what clearly appear to be thick petrified/fossilised roots related to the trees were
found in the Permian siltstone immediately underneath the Tertiary basalt entombing the fossilised wood,3 and a sample
was collected by the workmen (Figure 11).

Figure 5. One of the pieces of fossilised wood recovered from the basalt flow during excavation of the upcast ventilation
shaft (the pen is for scale). The outer areas that were in contact with the hot basalt lava have been burnt to white ash.
(Courtesy of BHP Australia Coal Pty Ltds Crinum Mine Project.)

Figure 6. Another of the pieces of fossilised wood, showing black charring where it was in contact with the hot basalt lava
(the pen is for scale). (Courtesy of BHP Australia Coal Pty Ltds Crinum Mine Project.)

Figure 7. Another piece of the fossilised wood recovered during excavation of the upcast ventilation shaft, showing some
basalt still attached to its charred outer surface (the pen is for scale). (Courtesy of BHP Australia Coal Pty Ltds Crinum
Mine Project.)

Figure 8. A completely charred piece of the fossilised wood recovered from the basalt (the pen is for scale). (Courtesy of
BHP Australia Coal Pty Ltds Crinum Mine Project.)

Figure 9. Another piece of the fossilised wood which shows very little charring. The fossilised wood itself is brown,
probably due to impregnation with iron minerals during fossilisation (the pen is for scale). (Courtesy of BHP Australia Coal
Pty Ltds Crinum Mine Project.)

Figure 10. The piece of basalt with the imprint of a leaf on its surface. The leaf itself was not preserved and the basalt is
stained with iron minerals, but the leaf imprint is still intact (the pen is for scale). (Courtesy of BHP Australia Coal Pty Ltds
Crinum Mine Project.)

Figure 11. The apparent fossilised tree roots in a piece of the Permian siltstone recovered during excavation of the upcast
ventilation shaft (the pen is for scale). (Courtesy of BHP Australia Coal Pty Ltds Crinum Mine Project.)
Collection of samples
Contact was made with the mine staff expressing an interest in investigating their discovery. Small fragments of some of
their fossilised wood samples were received, and a visit to the mine took place on August 31, 1994. The pieces of
fossilised wood recovered by the workmen were examined and photographed, as too was the leaf imprint in the Tertiary
basalt sample and the fossilised roots in the Permian siltstone sample (Figures 511). However, access to the ventilation
shaft was not possible, nor were samples of the basalt directly enclosing the fossilised wood available, having long been
dumped with all the other rubble and waste rock.
Nevertheless, during the mine visit it was realised that an exploratory hole had been drilled close to where the shaft had
been sunk.10 The relevant drill core from Drill-hole 05469 was found, and upon inspection, it contained pieces of
fossilised wood, still apparently containing organic carbon, at the bottom of the lowermost basalt flow, encased in the
basalt at the boundary of the Tertiary basalt with the Permian siltstone below (Figure 12). This drill core was later provided
by the mining company for use in this investigation.

Figure 12. Drill core from Drill-hole 05469 (courtesy of BHP Australia Coal Pty Ltds Crinum Mine Project). In the centre of
the photograph is a piece of charred fossilised wood entombed in the very bottom of the Tertiary basalt (to the left and in
the next row above) right at the boundary at 25.2 m with the Permian siltstone (to the right).
During the mine visit it was noted that the site was devoid of outcrops. However, about 3 km south-east of the mine site
large outcrops of the Tertiary basalt were found beside a waterhole in Crinum Creek (Figure 2). Even though these

outcrops probably represent a different (younger) basalt flow to the one that entombed the wood, they were sampled to
provide a comparison with the basalt in the drill core, one sample of vesicular basalt from near the top of the main
outcrop, and a second sample of massive basalt from vertically halfway down the same large outcrop (Figure 13).
Figure 13. Large outcrop of Tertiary basalt beside the waterhole in
Crinum Creek near the Crinum Colliery. Two samples of basalt were
collected from this outcrop.
Laboratory work
Fragments of the fossilised wood provided by the mine staff, from the
large pieces collected by the workmen while sinking the ventilation shaft,
were sent to wood specialist Dr Geoff Downes, of the CSIRO Division of
Forestry and Forest Products, for identification of the species.
Additionally, an enlarged photograph of the leaf imprint in the basalt was
circulated to several palaeobotanists for identification.
At the CSIRO laboratory a piece of the fossilised wood was taken from
the least heat affected region of the sample and examined by incident light microscopy, as well as by Field Emission
SEM. Efforts were made to section the fossilised wood, but permineralization was too advanced. A Leica DRM-RXE light
microscope was used to examine fractured and polished surfaces to identify features of taxonomic importance.
Transverse and radial longitudinal surfaces (Figure 14) had been polished using a range of abrasive cloths down to 2400
grit. Both incident darkfield and polarised light were then used in an effort to find features that would enable identification
of the wood. Additionally, a Phillips Field Emission SEM with an accelerating voltage of less than 10 kV was used to
examine fractured surfaces.
Figure 14. Diagram to illustrate the terminology
used to describe the anatomical features of woods,
including the types of sections which are cut for
microscopy.
Other small fragments from the fossilised wood
samples found during sinking of the ventilation shaft
were sent for radiocarbon (14C) analyses to two
reputable laboratories, one set of different
fragments to each laboratory. The same
radiocarbon laboratories were also sent tiny
portions of the same piece of fossilised wood found
encased at the base of the same basal basalt flow
25.2 m down Drill-hole 05469. Neither Geochron
Laboratories in Cambridge, Boston (USA) nor the
Antares Mass Spectrometry Lab-oratory at the
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology
Organisation (ANSTO), Lucas Heights near Sydney
(Australia), was told where the samples came from to ensure that there would be no resultant bias. Both laboratories use
the more sensitive and reliable accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) technique for detecting radiocarbon. Geochron is a
commercial laboratory and Antares is a major research laboratory.Two pieces each of the basalt samples from the drill
core (from the flow which enclosed the fossilised wood) and the outcrop were submitted to the AMDEL Lab-oratories in
Adelaide (Australia) for major, minor and trace element analyses. Further sample pieces were sent to the AMDEL
Laboratories and Geochron Laboratories for conventional K-Ar dating, and to the PRISE Laboratory in the Research
School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University in Canberra (Australia) for Rb-Sr, Sm-Nd and Pb-Pb
isotopic determinations. AMDEL Laboratories is a reputable commercial laboratory employing the latest conventional
analytical equipment and techniques such as inductively coupled plasma emission spectroscopy (ICP), while the PRISE
Laboratory utilizes all the state-of-the-art and innovative mass spectrometry technology of a university research school
with an outstanding international reputation.
Results
Wood identification (with G. Downes)
Figure 14 provides a diagrammatical explanation of some of the terminology used to describe the anatomical features of
woods which can be diagnostic of the family, genus and sometimes species to which they belong. The essential
components are the vessels, rays and fibres. Vessels are formed from individual vessel elements which are single cells
produced in the vascular cambium. Each cell dies after enlargement and maturation, a part of this process being the
removal of the end walls, connecting it with other elements. A long tube or vessel is formed, through which xylem sap
passes as part of the transpiration stream. Vessels are orientated axially and form cross-fields where they intersect
radially-orientated rays. Within these intersections, or cross-fields, pits or holes occur, the arrangement of which varies
between taxonomic groups. Similar cross-fields occur where rays cross axially-orientated fibres. The spacing of the
vessels and their diameters relative to one another are also diagnostic. For example, vessels can vary from an even
spacing of equi-diameter vessels common in eucalypts (diffuse porous), to closely-packed rings of large-diameter vessels
(early wood) alternating with small-diameter vessels (late wood) found in oaks (ring porous). Adjacent thick-walled fibres
form bordered pits. Certain hardwoods have vestures, which are small occlusions occurring within the pit borders. The
thin-walled cells that are relatively undifferentiated or unspecialized infilling between the vessels are called parenchyma,
and the pattern of the occurrence of parenchyma tissue can also be taxonomically important.
The fossilised wood was identified as most probably belonging to the genus Melaleuca, which is in the Myrtaceae family
that includes the eucalypts. However, features which would enable a more definitive identification were not found. The
fossilised wood was a diffuse porous hardwood. Ray-to-vessel pitting was found to be simple, with several pits per crossfield. Bordered pit apertures appeared to be occluded, perhaps with silica (SiO2). The important parameters measured
and described by light microscope study of the fossilised wood are:
Fibre length

700800 m
A lot of parenchyma; elongated; axial. Some possibly vasicentric tracheids.

Vessel diameters

40 100 m

Vessel frequency

~10 per mm2

Bordered pits

~5 m diameter

Vessel-to-ray pitting

several small, simple pits per cross-field

Narrow uniseriate rays

(therefore, not Casuarina)

Rays

200300 m high in tangential longitudinal section commonly 610 cells high

Unfortunately, it could not be determined whether the bordered pits had vestures, which would be further diagnostic of
Melaleuca.
Figures 15 to 25 are Field Emission SEM photo-micrographs illustrating some of the anatomical features found in the
Crinum fossilised wood. The resolution possible with the Field Emission SEM system operating at low accelerating
voltages enabled resolution of the microfibrillar structure in the cell walls (Figure 18). The tendency of the fossilised wood
to fracture along the middle lamella/primary wall interface (Figures 15, 1820) allowed the microfibril orientation of the
primary wall to be seen. In places the fracture extended to the surface of the secondary wall (Figures 18 and 19). The
angle of the pit aperture is probably indicative of the microfibril angle of the S2 layer of the secondary wall. The circular
orientation of the microfibrils around the bordered pit is evident (Figures 18 and 20), the pits being around 5 m diameter.
An analysis of the chemical composition of the Crinum fossilised wood by SEM-EDS (Energy Dispersive System)
indicated that carbon and oxygen were still present (Figure 25). However, the presence of silicon was also evident,
suggesting that the original wood had undergone a considerable degree of permineralization, which would thus be
principally silica (SiO2).

Figure 15. Field emission SEM photomicrograph of a radial longitudinal section through the fossilised wood showing
wood fibres (F). Apparent decay of the middle lamella region resulted in fracture through this wall layer, exposing the
primary wall. Evidence of bordered pits along fibres is abundant. (Courtesy of G. Downes.)

Figure 16. Field emission SEM photomicrograph of another radial longitudinal section through the fossilised wood.
Exposed on this face are ray (R) and fibre (F) cross-fields. Vessel (V) elements are evident to the left. Bar = 200 m.
(Courtesy of G. Downes.)

Figure 17. Field emission SEM photomicrograph of a fracture surface of the fossilised wood. Bordered pits are well
preserved, with the fracture usually along the middle lamella region, exposing the internal pit face. Bar = 2 m. (Courtesy
of G. Downes.)

Figure 18. Field emission SEM photomicrograph of the fossilized wood showing that cellulose microfibril orientation is
preserved, and the changes in orientation associated with the bordered pits (BP), the primary wall (P) and the S1 layer of
the secondary wall. Occlusions (O) in the pit apertures are ubiquitous. Bar = 2 m. (Courtesy of G. Downes.)

Figure 19. Field emission SEM photomicrograph of the fossilized wood showing the reverse face of a bordered pit (BP)
together with the aperture. The compound middle lamella (CML) is exposed, with the inner face of the secondary wall
being evident. Bar = 2 m. (Courtesy of G. Downes.)

Figure 20. Field emission SEM photomicrograph of the fossilized wood showing that microfibril orientation in and around
a bordered pit (BP) is preserved. The compound middle lamella (ML) region between adjacent fibres is evident. Bar = 2
m. (Courtesy of G. Downes.)

Figure 21. Field emission SEM photomicrograph of the fossilized wood showing vessel (V) elements and fibres (F) in a
fractured transverse surface. Bar = 50 m. (Courtesy of G. Downes.)

Figure 22. Field emission SEM photomicrograph of the fossilized wood showing a closer view of a fractured vessel (V)
and fibres (F). The pitting along the vessel wall is apparent. Bar = 20 m. (Courtesy of G. Downes.)

Figure 23. Field emission SEM photomicrograph of the fossilized wood showing two adjacent fibres slightly separated
along the middle lamella. The left fibre has fractured transversely. Bar = 2 m. (Courtesy of G. Downes.)

Figure 24. Field emission SEM photomicrograph of the fossilized wood showing a vessel (V) element with the remains of
smooth vesicle-like structures, possibly tyloses. Bar = 20 m. (Courtesy of G. Downes.)
Figure 25. Field emission SEM photomicrograph of the
fossilised wood showing a fractured region of the transverse
surface and the preservation of vessel (V) elements. Individual
fibres can also be resolved (small arrow). EDS analyses in
these regions indicates the presence of silicon, oxygen and
carbon. (Courtesy of G. Downes.)
Leaf identification
Figure 26. A reproduction of a fossilised leaf of Laurophyllum
conspicuum from Nerriga, NSW, Australia (after Hill).12 Scale
bar = 1 cm.
Identification of the leaf imprint in the
basalt (Figure 10) proved straightforward.
When seen in the enlarged photograph by
palaeobotanists M. E. White (consultant) and M. Pole (University of Queensland) the fossilised leaf
was readily identified as belonging to the family Lauraceae.
For comparison, in Figure 26 is a reproduction of a fossilisedLaurophyllum conspicuum leaf from
Nerriga in New South Wales, Australia (140 km east of Canberra).12 The crucial similarities are the
venation and the leaf shape. Furthermore, fossilised Lauraceae leaves have been reported from
Moranbah in the northern Bowen Basin,13 so this fossilised leaf at Crinum is not out-of-place. The
fact that the original leaf appears to have belonged to a totally different tree to that from which the
fossilised wood came does not invalidate the identification, because a vegetated environment
normally has a variety of trees.
Wood radiocarbon (14C)
The radiocarbon (14C) results are listed in Table 1, and reveal that detectable radiocarbon was found
in all fossilised wood samples. The results are within the detection limits of the analytical equipment

and therefore provided finite ages. The one exception was obviously due to the small quantity of carbon extracted from
the sample, but the parallel analysis at the other laboratory on the same piece of fossilised wood from the basalt in the
drill core returned a finite age. The laboratories staff when questioned had neither hesitation nor difficulties in calculating
the quoted 13C-corrected radiocarbon ages, which they staunchly defended as valid. Thus the 14C age of the fossilised
wood from the drill core would appear to be 44,00045,500 years BP, whereas the fossilised wood samples from the
ventilation shaft appear much younger. The age differences in Table 1 are incongruous, given that the fossilised wood is
supposed to have all been derived from the same trees, but the quantities of carbon analysed being so small might result
in such large variations. Perhaps an averaged age would be more appropriate, and that would give the fossilised wood a
radiocarbon age of around 37,500 years BP.
Table 1. Radiocarbon (14C) analyses
of the Crinum fossilised wood
samples.
SAMPLE

CONVENTIONAL 14C AGE


LAB

LAB CODE

13CPDB ()

AGE (YEARS
BP)

1
SIGMA
ERROR

GX-20798AMS

>35,620

-25.7

0ZB472

44,700

950

-25.78

Wood in Drill Core

Geochron
ANSTO

Other Wood

Geochron

GX-20087AMS

29,544

759

-25.1

Other Wood

ANSTO

OZB473

37,800

3,450

-26.16

Notes:
(1) Ages quoted are 14C ages not calendar ages.
(2) The Geochron dates are based on the Libby half-life (5570 years) for 14C. The errors stated are 1 as judged by the
analytical data alone. Their modern standard is 95% of the activity of N.B.S. Oxalic Acid. The ages are referenced to the
year AD 1950.
(3) The ANSTO ages have been rounded according to the convention of Polach and Robertson.14
The possibility of contamination is also an important consideration which was raised with the laboratories staff. For
example, recent microbial and fungal activity long after the wood was buried, including spores and dust in the laboratories,
might have contaminated the fossilised wood with various amounts of radiocarbon to produce these different 14C ages.
However, the responses were unhesitatingly unanimous that there would be no such contamination
problem.15,16 Modern fungi or bacteria in fact derive their carbon from the organic material they live on and dont get it
from the atmosphere, so they would have the same age as their host.16 Furthermore, the lab procedure followed in
sample preparation would remove the cells and any waste products from either fungi or bacteria. Samples are treated first
with hot dilute hydrochloric acid to remove any carbonates, and then with hot dilute caustic soda to remove any humic
acids or other organic contaminants.17 After subsequent washing and drying, they are combusted to recover carbon
dioxide for the radiocarbon analyses.
However, pieces of the same fossilised wood from the basalt in the drill core, and also pieces of the fossilised wood
recovered during excavation of the ventilation shaft, were analysed by each laboratory and the results are comparable.
The radiocarbon age depends on the amount of residual radiocarbon left in the sample from the time of its incorporation
in the growing wood. This is usually expressed as percent modern carbon, which is how much modern carbon it would
require to be added to the sample, assuming no 14C to begin with, to yield an age equivalent to the calculated
radiocarbon age. It is thus a measure of the sensitivity to sample contamination. In these samples the percent modern
carbon was 0.9 % and 0.4 % for the ANSTO analyses, but between 1.0 and 2.5 % for the Geochron analyses. It has been
suggested that any unavoidable contamination (laboratory dust and airborne fungal spores) would only amount to at most
0.2 % modern carbon, which would have a negligible effect on any analyses of 1.0 % modern carbon or more.18 Thus if
such contamination were inadvertently present it would potentially have a noticeable effect on only one of the radiocarbon
analyses, but even in that instance the ANSTO laboratory confidently reported the resultant 14C age as valid and reliable.
Recent research has focussed on the dating of old materials and the problems of contamination.19 Radio-carbon
analyses of 14C-dead charcoal from sediments said to be greater than 50,000 years old using the conventional acid-base
pre-treatment and single combustion method have yielded ages of only 34,820 to 50,360 years, suggesting such pretreatment was inadequate to remove contamination. However, using a more severe acid-base-wet oxidation pre-treatment
and stepped combustion, 14C analyses on the same charcoal yielded ages of 37,720 to 55,860 years. This claimed
improvement is questionable, given that the vague greater than 50,000 years age for the sediments is based on
optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating fraught with its own set of difficulties, and not on some external objective
standard. Furthermore, the same study found that geologically ancient, 14C-dead graphite, even using the same severe
pre-treatment, etc., still yielded 14C ages of 59,280 to 67,730 years, which was interpreted as perhaps representing the
limit attainable due to un-removable sample and lab contamination. Such an interpretation is required, of course, by the
uniformitarian bias regarding the antiquity of the graphite. On the other hand, it could be that the graphite is not 14Cdead, and the 14C in it is there because the graphite is in fact not all that old. Therefore, such a study neither imposes
limits on the supposed antiquity of samples that can be 14C dated, nor verifies that sample and lab contamination is
necessarily still a problem after the appropriate pre-treatment. Thus it cannot be argued that this fossilised wood was too
old to be 14C dated, and/or that the 14C ages obtained were due to contamination.
Furthermore, whereas there is some variation in the 14C ages of the Crinum fossilised wood samples as measured by the
laboratories, the reported 13CPDB results, the measured differences between the 13C/12C ratios in the samples compared
to Pee Dee Belemnite (in the last column of Table 1), are extremely uniform. Thus, they are essentially the same, with the
average value of -25.69 (per mil) being totally consistent with the analysed carbon in the fossilised wood representing
organic carbon from wood which belonged to terrestrial plants,20 and not from contamination.
Basalt petrography and geochemistry
Even at the hand specimen scale it is evident that the basalt (which enclosed the fossilised wood) in the drill core is more
altered and/or weathered than the basalt from the outcrop beside Crinum Creek. This was verified by thin section
examination (Figures 27 and 28). The basalt in the drill core does, in fact, come from the zone of weathering (Figure 3)
where percolating oxidizing ground water readily alters minerals and rock chemistry by dissolving and removing various
elements. On the other hand, the basalt outcrop beside Crinum Creek is expected to be relatively fresh because the fact
that the basalt outcrops signifies it has survived weathering.

Figure 27. Polarised light photomicrograph of basalt sample BCM-3 from Drillhole 05469 from close to the entombed
fossilised wood (Figure 12). The large (1.5 mm wide) grain in the top left corner is former olivine altered to chlorite and
serpentine (green), goethite (brown) and iddingsite? (blue-green). Small (0.51 mm long) plagioclase laths (white) are
scattered uniformly through the rock, but the clinopyroxene (probably augite) between the laths has been altered to
chlorite with titanomagnetite grains (black) and iron oxide staining. (Approximately 60 times magnification.)

Figure 28. Polarised light photomicrograph of basalt sample BCW-2 from the large outcrop beside the waterhole in
Crinum Creek (Figure 13). Rounded, equidimensional grains (1.52 mm wide) of altered olivine and lath-like crystals (1.5
2 mm long) of olivine are scattered between plagioclase laths (11.5 mm long) with intergranular clinopyroxene (augite?)
altered to chlorite and small altered titanomagnetite grains. (Approximately 60 times magnification).
Very little trace of olivine is left in the basalt from the drill core. In thin section (Figure 27) all that is left of the olivine are
the outlines of the former 11.5 mm wide grains, which have been altered to pale green chlorite, serpentine and goethite.
The serpentine is evident from the framework/window structure stained by brown goethite, and the residual smaller grains
of bright blue-green iddingsite(?). It is hard to estimate, but the original proportion of olivine in the rock could have been at
least 10 %. The small (0.51 mm long) plagio-clase laths, of which 4045 % of the rock consists, are still visible, but all
the clinopyroxene (probably augite, and 3540 % of the rock) has been altered to chlorite and heavily stained with
goethite and other iron oxides. Titanomagnetite (510 %) would have made up the rest of what was probably a typical
olivine basalt.
In contrast, some relatively unaltered olivine is visible in thin section in the basalt from the outcrop beside Crinum Creek
(Figure 28). However, the sample of massive basalt from deeper within the flow is somewhat less altered than the sample
of vesicular basalt from the near the top of the flow. As well as rounded and equi-dimensional grains of altered olivine up
to 1.52 mm wide, there are lath-like crystals of mostly fresh olivine up to 1.52 mm long, all recognised by their high
birefringence and internal fractures. The rock consists of at least 10 % olivine. The plagioclase laths are generally larger
(11.5 mm long) in this basalt and make up about 45 % of the rock, while the intergranular clinopyroxene (probably
augite) is largely altered to chlorite and seems to be about 35 % of the rock. There is very little iron oxide staining only
of the altered olivine grains and some of the chloritised clinopyroxene. However, the titanomagnetite (around 10 % of the
rock) has been altered to leucoxene and hematite(?). This rock is only slightly different in its mineralogical make-up and
texture, but is still an olivine basalt similar to (but less altered than) that in the drill core.
The major and selected trace element analyses of these basalts are listed in Table 2. The loss on ignition, which is a
measure of the content of H2O and CO2 (CO2 from carbonates), in these basalts is moderate but consistent with the
alteration and weathering (H2O in chlorite, serpentine) observed in thin section. However, considering the amount of
goethite/iron oxide staining in the basalt from the drill core, particularly, the Fe 2O3 (total Fe) content seems somewhat low
and the Al2O3 content correspondingly high, but this may reflect the composition of the predominant chlorite alteration.
Otherwise, the MgO contents of the outcrop samples are reasonably consistent with the presence in them of fresh olivine
(particularly in the massive basalt from deeper in the flow), whereas the MgO content of the basalt in the drill core
enclosing the fossilised wood is noticeably much lower, a result of the alteration of all the olivine. Furthermore, the
TiO2 contents of all the basalt samples are depleted compared with analyses of comparable basalts in the Springsure
area south of Emerald.21
SAMPLE

BCW-1

BCW-2

BCM-2

BCM-3

SiO2

55.00

54.50

60.00

61.00

TiO2

1.42

1.39

1.65

1.68

Al2O3

15.00

14.50

17.00

17.50

Fe2O3

10.50

9.43

5.07

3.66

MnO

0.14

0.12

0.07

0.05

MgO

4.91

6.30

2.02

1.08

CaO

7.48

7.31

6.98

6.93

Na2O

3.57

3.57

3.71

3.91

K2O

0.60

0.59

0.83

0.88

P2O5

0.23

0.22

0.20

0.20

Lol

2.22

2.66

3.24

3.77

Total

101.07

100.59

100.77

100.66

Rb

9.50

10.00

19.00

20.50

Sr

220.00

260.00

300.00

340.00

12.00

13.00

13.00

17.00

Hf

4.00

3.00

3.00

3.00

Zr

100.00

80.00

100.00

120.00

Nb

15.00

15.00

20.00

20.00

Ba

180.00

160.00

400.00

460.00

Sc

15.00

15.00

15.00

15.00

110.00

105.00

110.00

115.00

Cr

300.00

280.00

280.00

300.00

Co

40.00

40.00

20.00

20.00

Ni

110.00

130.00

45.00

60.00

Cu

65.00

45.00

35.00

50.00

Ga

17.00

18.00

21.00

23.00

Zn

300.00

180.00

160.00

140.00

Pb

12.00

8.00

6.00

6.00

Th

1.00

1.00

1.00

1.00

1.50

0.50

0.50

2.00

Sb

3.00

3.00

3.00

2.00

Mo

4.00

4.00

4.00

4.00

125.00

96.00

71.00

61.00

Ta

5.00

4.00

4.00

4.00

La

12.00

11.00

13.00

17.00

Ce

22.00

20.00

24.00

31.00

Pr

3.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

Nd

12.50

10.00

12.50

14.50

Sm

2.50

3.00

2.50

1.50

Eu

1.50

1.00

1.50

1.50

Gd

4.00

4.00

4.00

4.00

Tb

0.50

0.50

0.50

0.50

Dy

3.50

3.00

4.00

4.00

Ho

0.50

0.50

0.50

0.50

Er

2.00

2.00

2.00

2.00

Tm

1.00

1.00

1.00

1.00

Yb

1.00

1.00

1.00

2.00

Lu

0.50

0.50

0.50

0.50

Table 2. Major, trace and rare earth element analyses of the Crinum basalts. (Units: % major oxides; ppm trace and rare

earth elements).
However, the major anomaly is the high SiO2 contents of these olivine basalts, which would be expected to be in the 46
50 % range, consistent with the related basalts of the Springsure area.21 With SiO2 contents of 54.555 % (outcrop) and
6061 % (drill core), these basalts actually plot on the total alkalis (Na 2O + K2O) versus SiO2 (TAS) plot in the basaltic
andesite and andesite fields respectively22 (Figure 29). On the other hand, whereas these major elements are highly
mobile during alteration and weathering, many trace elements are relatively immobile and highly incompatible, and
therefore, because they are retained once lavas crystallize, they can be used to discriminate original rock types even after
alteration and weathering. Thus on the Zr/Ti versus Nb/Y dis-crimination diagram these olivine basalts correctly plot close
together in the alkali basalt field23,24 (Figure 30). This would indicate then that Si was added during alteration and
weathering and/or other major elements (Mg, Fe, Ca, Na, K, Mn) which are mobile were depleted relative to Si.

Figure 29. Total alkalis (Na2O + K2O) versus silica (SiO2) or TAS diagram (after Le Maitre et al.22) for classification of
volcanic rocks. The Crinum basalt samples plot in the basaltic andesite and andesite fields.

Figure 30. The Zr/Ti versus Nb/Y discrimination diagram for volcanic rocks and particularly basalts (after Winchester and
Floyd,23 and Pearce24). The Crinum olivine basalt samples correctly plot in the alkali basalt field.
There are a number of normalized multi-element diagrams or incompatible element diagrams (spider diagrams) that are
useful in geochemically characterizing basalts and for distinguishing their magma type and tectonic setting.24,25 These
Tertiary olivine basalts at Crinum are readily classified as within-plate, continental alkali basalts, and this is verified by the
steep negative slope and the matching shape of the spidergrams in the MORB-normalized multi-element/incompatible
element diagram25,26,27,28,29 (Figure 31). Indeed, the pattern of trace element concentrations in this diagram has
affinities to that of ocean island basalts, which therefore suggests a similar source. However, the spidergrams on the
chondrite-normalized multi-element/incompatible element diagram (Figure 32) do not completely match that for ocean
island basalts but are suggestive of additional lower continental crust influence, probably as
contamination.25,27,28,29,30 One glaring anomaly is the very low relative P content of these basalts, but the Rb, Th and K
are also lower than expected, which in the case of those elements could be explained by their mobility during alteration
and weathering. On the other hand, the rare earth elements (REE) are regarded as amongst the least soluble trace
elements and are relatively immobile during alteration and weathering,25 so the REE abundances in rocks produce
characteristic spidergrams on chondrite-normalized REE diagrams. The REE spidergrams for these Crinum basalts are
plotted in Figure 33 and are as expected for such alkali basalts a negative slope due to light REE enrichment relative to
heavy REE, and a positive Eu anomaly.25,31 The low relative Sm in the basalt from the drill core is unexpected and may
indicate some Sm loss, which like the apparent Rb, Th and K losses could be significant for the respective radioisotopic
systems.

Figure 31. The MORB (mid-ocean ridge basalt)-normalized multielement/ incompatible element diagram (after Pearce26)
showing spidergrams for Crinum basalt samples BCM-3 and BCW-2. Normalizing values used are those of Pearce.24,26

Figure 32. The chondrite (chondritic meteorite)-normalized multi-element/ incompatible element diagram25 showing
spidergrams for Crinum basalt samples BCM-3 and BCW-2. Normalizing values used are those of Sun28 and Sun and
McDonough.30

Figure 33. The chondrite (chondritic meteorite)-normalized REE (rare earth element) diagram25 showing spidergrams
for Crinum basalt samples BCM-3 and BCW-2. Normalizing values used are those of Boynton.31
Basalt K-Ar dating
The K-Ar dating results for the Crinum basalts are listed in Table 3. The calculated model ages range from 36.7 1.2
Ma to 58.3 2.0 Ma, which is an unacceptable outcome for analyses of two samples from the same lava flow intersected
in the drill core. This problem of obtaining consistently acceptable model ages is highlighted by the fact that the same
sample from the outcrop (BCW-2) submitted to both laboratories yielded model ages of 39.1 1.5 Ma (Geochron) and
47.9 1.6 Ma (AMDEL). Because the other sample from the outcrop (BCW-1) yielded a result between these two model
ages it is tempting to assign an averaged model age of about 43.9 Ma to this basalt. For the basalt in the drill core an
averaged model age would be 47.5 Ma, which would appear to be consistent with it being an older flow (because it is at
the base of this Tertiary sequence).
Table
3. Potassi
um-argon
(K-Ar)
isotopic
analyses
and age
determina
tions on
the
Crinum

40Ar

LAB
CODE

K20
(wt
%)

40K

(pp
m)

*
(pp
m)
x
10-3

40A

r*
(%)

Total4
0Ar
(ppm)

4040*

Total4
0Ar

40A

r
/36A
r

36Ar

40K

(pp
m)
x
10-5

/36A
r (x
103
)

40Ar

*
/ 36A
r

MOD
EL
AGE
(Ma)

UNCERTA
INTY (Ma)
(one
sigma)

basalts.
SAMPLE
BCW-1
(outcrop)

BCW-2
(outcrop)

Amdel

Amdel

0.5
48

0.65
4

1.72
5

4.4
0

0.039
205

0.044

44.9

1.1

0.5
47

0.65
3

1.72
4

4.4
0

0.039
182

0.044

44.8

1.1

0.4
91

0.58
6

1.66
1

4.4
0

0.037
750

0.044

47.9

1.6

0.49
6

0.59
2

BCW-2
(outcrop)

Geoch
ron (R11800)

0.5
29

0.63
1

1.44
8

5.7
0

0.025
404

0.057

314
.0

8.09

7.8
02

17.8
98

39.1

1.5

BCM-2
(drill core)

Geoch
ron (R11798)

0.8
62

1.02
8

3.53
7

4.7
0

0.075
255

0.047

311
.0

24.1
9

4.2
49

14.6
17

58.3

2.0

BCM-3
(drill core)

Geoch
ron (R11799)

0.8
70

1.03
8

2.23
4

3.8
0

0.053
789

0.038

307
.5

17.4
9

7.6
87

11.6
85

36.7

1.2

Notes:
(1) The mean K values were used in the age calculations
(2) 40Ar' denotes radiogenic 40Ar
(3) Ages in Ma with error limits given for the analytical uncertainty at one standard deviation
Constants:
40K = 0.01167 atom%, 40K/K = 1.193 x 10-4 g/g
= 4.962 x 10-10/year, = 0.581 x 10-10/year
However, when the fossilised wood was discovered at Crinum during excavation of the ventilation shaft the expected age
of the basalt was suggested as only 30 Ma,1,3 which would have been due to the published K-Ar whole-rock model ages
of 27.9 Ma and 32.7 Ma for comparable olivine basalt samples from outcrops of the same Tertiary basalt flows south of
Emerald towards Springsure.32 It was argued there that this spread of ages most probably reflected varying degrees of
Ar leakage from the flows, which were suggested to be all at least 33 Ma, due to the alteration of the 510 % intersertal
cryptocrystalline material in the basalt (and in some instances to the alteration of the olivine and/or the
plagioclase).32 Nevertheless, because the alteration of those basalts was presumed to be deuteric and thus
contemporaneous with consolidation of the lavas, and because of the general agreement of these dates with those K-Ar
ages obtained from sanidine crystals in cogenetic rhyolites, it was concluded that there must have been no appreciable
leakage of radiogenic Ar (40Ar*) from the whole-rock samples, the alteration products (in most cases) having retained
almost all 40Ar* despite the fine grain size.
Thus it is very likely the K-Ar model ages obtained for the Crinum basalts (Table 3) are far too high. Both laboratories
reported an abnormally high atmospheric Ar component in the analyses so that the ratios of 40Ar* to total 40Ar were quite
low,33,34 and this was suggested as possibly due to the goethite and other fine-grained alteration products, including
some glassy mesostasis. Yet if the experience with the comparable olivine basalts south of Emerald is valid, then there
has probably been no appreciable 40Ar* leakage from the alteration products in these Crinum basalts, so the explanation
for these unacceptable older model ages must lie elsewhere.
One possibility is loss of K during weathering, but this is discounted by the fact that there is more K in the more altered
basalt in the drill core than in the less altered outcrop basalt. If this difference is due to the alteration process, then K may
have in fact been thereby added to the basalt in the drill core. On the other hand, because the two basalt outcrop samples
have approximately the same K concentration, while the two drill core basalt samples have higher, and identical, K
concentrations (Table 3), the difference may reflect different primary K concentrations in the basalts when extruded.
Another possibility is excess 40Ar* present initially in the lavas when extruded, inherited from the upper mantle source area
of the basaltic magma, which has been demonstrated to be a persistent and widespread problem for the K-Ar dating of
volcanics, and crustal rocks generally.35 It is very significant, therefore, that even though both laboratories reported
extreme levels of atmospheric Ar contamination, Geochron also reported with their analyses 40Ar/36Ar ratios much higher
than the atmospheric 40Ar/36Ar ratio of 295.533 (Table 3). This implies excess 40Ar* in these basalts, which was not
derived from in situ decay of parent 40K. Thus, because in the standard K-Ar model age calculations used by the
laboratories all the analysed 40Ar* in the samples was assumed to have been derived by in situ40K decay, when in fact
some excess 40Ar* is present, then the resultant model ages are probably too high. In any case, it is clear from close
examination of the analytical results in Table 3 that the variations in 40Ar* between the samples beyond proportionality
with 40K are primarily responsible for the variations in the K-Ar model ages. What the correct age is for the Crinum
basalts remains unclear, as does the validity of K-Ar dating. There was also too much scatter and not enough spread in
the data to determine any isochron ages.
Table 4. Rubidium-strontium (Rb-Sr) isotopic
analyses of the Crinum basalts.
SAMPLE

Rb
(ppm)

87

BCM-2

21.20

BCM-3

24.94

Sr
(ppm)

86Sr

68.825

340.67

80.966

366.98

(nm/g)

87Sr/86Sr

87Sr/86Sr

383.64

0.17940

0.704204
19

413.27

0.19592

0.704269
20

(nm/g)

BCW-1

13.66

44.365

306.20

344.83

0.12866

0.704160
21

BCW-2

13.51

43.900

307.48

346.26

0.12678

0.704227
25

Notes:
(1) *Measured, present-day 87Sr/86Sr ratios (2), normalized to 86Sr/88Sr = 0.1194.
(2) The 87Sr/86Sr value for the N.B.S. Sr isotope standard (SRM 987) run with these samples was 0.170207 26 ( 2).
Basalt Sr-Nd-Pb Isotopic Geochemistry
The results from the Rb-Sr, Sm-Nd and Pb-Pb isotopic analyses of the same four basalt samples are listed in Tables 4, 5
and 6 respectively. These radioisotopic systems are, of course, regularly used for dating of rocks and minerals,
particularly with the isochron method. However, because of the long half-lives of these parent radioisotopes and the
relatively young expected age of these Tertiary Crinum basalts (about 3033 Ma), these radioisotopic systems are
usually unable to provide statistically meaningful results. Moreover, there is insufficient spread in the data, particularly
the 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd ratios (Tables 4 and 5), to produce isochrons with slopes sufficient for age calculations.
Indeed, both the Rb-Sr and Sm-Nd data when plotted yield isochrons which are virtually horizontal. Furthermore, the
resultant isochrons do not fit the data well and thus yield poor statistics, unacceptably large MSWDs, and 2 errors which
are larger than the ages calculated from the isochrons. Model age calculations also produce useless results.
Where these isotopes prove useful, however, is in geochemical fingerprinting of the mantle source area of the basalt
magma. For example, when young oceanic basalts are plotted on an Nd-Sr isotope correlation diagram (Figure 34) they
fall within a narrow sloping linear band across the diagram referred to as the mantle array.37,28,39 The Crinum basalts
also plot within this mantle array, which has been attributed to a chondritic lower mantle source contaminated by mixing
with melts from a depleted MORB (mid-ocean ridge basalt) source during ascent. However, on both the Nd-Sr isotope
correlation diagram (Figure 34) and the Nd-Sr isotope correlation diagram37,40 (Figure 35) the Crinum basalts plot very
close to the Bulk Earth mantle reservoir, which is regarded as the chemical composition of the Earth without the core (all
of the Earth made up of only silicate minerals). The Crinum basalts also plot close to other continental basalts on the NdSr isotope correlation diagram (Figure 35) and thus show no signs of crustal radiogenic Sr contamination. Furthermore,
when Nd-Sr isotopic compositions of oceanic volcanics are plotted, there can be evidence of a second array different from
the main mantle array (Figure 36). This shallow mixing line has been attributed to sediment recycling the addition of
subducted sediments with a crustal radiogenic Sr component due to the recycling of oceanic crust.37,41 However, the
Crinum basalts plot in the main mantle array, which can also be interpreted as a mixing line attributed to the recycling of
magmatically fractionated material such as ancient oceanic crust.

Figure 34. Nd-Sr isotope correlation diagram for oceanic volcanic rocks showing the linear correlation referred to as the
mantle array (after DePaolo and Wasserburg,38 and Dosso and Murthey39). The Crinum basalt samples plot in the
mantle array close to the Bulk Earth composition, though slightly depleted.

Figure 35. eNd-Sr isotope correlation diagram for ocean floor, ocean island and continental basalts (after DePaolo and
Wasserburg).40 The Crinum basalt samples plot with other continental basalts along a linear correlation and near the
Bulk Earth composition, and no crustal radiogenic Sr contamination is evident in them, unlike other continental basalts
which plot to the right of the linear correlation.

Figure 36. Plot of Nd-Sr isotope compositions of oceanic volcanic rocks showing two arrays recycling of magmatically
fractionated material and sediment recycling (after Hofmann and White).41 The Crinum basalt samples plot near the
centre line of the magmatic fractionation array, and show no evidence of any contamination due to sediment recycling.
The Pb isotopic geochemistry of these Crinum basalts, on the other hand, is enigmatic. When the Pb isotopic
compositions of young ocean island basalts (OIBs) are plotted on a 207Pb-206Pb isochron diagram they define a series of
linear arrays to the right of the geochron 28,37 (Figure 37). The geochron is the isochron connecting the assumed
primordial Pb isotopic composition (that of the troilite from the Canyon Diablo meteorite) with the Pb isotopic compositions
of iron and stony meteorites and terrestrial pelagic sediment (regarded as a Bulk Earth composition), which defines the
supposed 4.57 Ga age of the Earth.42 The distribution of these OIB Pb-Pb arrays to the right of the geochron presents a
problem for the understanding of evolutionary models of Pb isotopes in the Earth as a whole, particularly as the slopes of
these OIB arrays correspond to apparent Pb-Pb ages of between 1.0 and 2.5 Ga.37Intriguingly, the Pb isotopic
compositions of the Crinum basalts also define a linear array to the right of the geochron, with its slope corresponding to
an apparent Pb-Pb age of 5.07 0.27 Ga (though the MSWD is too large for this result to have any statistical
significance).

Figure 37. Pb-Pb isochron diagram showing linear arrays of data defined by ocean island basalts (after Sun).28 The
Geochron was defined by Patterson.42 The Crinum basalt samples define a linear array, the slope of which corresponds
to an apparent Pb-Pb age of 5.07 0.27 Ga.
These OIB linear Pb-Pb isotopic arrays have been inter-preted in three principal ways as resulting from discrete mantle
differentiation events;43 as the products of two-component mixing processes;44 or resulting from continuousevolution of
reservoirs with changing (238U/204Pb) values.45 The steep slope of the linear array produced by the Crinum basalts
clearly reflects different values. The two drill-core samples of the basalt plot close together with a similar value, but the
two basalt outcrop samples have widely divergent values, even though they probably represent the same flow. This
difference cannot be the result of alteration or weathering, because the outcrop samples have suffered very little alteration
and weathering compared to the drill-core samples. Besides, Pb isotopes have been shown to be unperturbed by
alteration and weathering,46 so the difference must be a primary feature. Furthermore, this linear array cannot be the
product of a discrete mantle differentiation event because its apparent Pb-Pb age is older than the Earth itself, unless the
Pb isotopes are not recording ages. On the other hand, two com-ponent mixing is discounted by the Nd-Sr isotopic
correlations which indicate a fairly homogeneous mantle source and no crustal radiogenic Sr contamination, that is, no
mixing of a crustal component with the mantle reservoir. It is thus concluded that the Pb-Pb isotopic linear array of these
Tertiary Crinum basalts is a primary geochemical feature of their otherwise homogeneous mantle source and has no age
significance.
Discussion
The identification of the fossilised wood as probably belonging to the genus Melaleuca and of the fossilised leaf as
probably belonging to the family Lauraceae is consistent. Both living types are found in Australia today in wet
environments, where a variety of trees grow adjacent to one another. An example of a Melaleuca today is the tea-tree,
while Lauraceae grow today in wet rainforest, such as that on the Lamington Plateau near the Queensland-New South
Wales border, in-land behind the Gold Coast. Thus this fossilised wood and the leaf imprint suggest a reasonably wet and
humid environment in the Crinum area in the recent past. This is in marked contrast to the climate and environment in the
area today. The landscape is well-drained and dry for much of the year, and dominated byEucalyptus,
with Bauhinia and Casuarina trees growing along Crinum Creek. Most of the rain falls in the summer months from
tropic/sub-tropical storms which pass inland. Melaleuca and Lauraceae definitely do not grow in the Crinum area today.

However, Lauraceae leaf fossils are common in localised early Tertiary (Eocene) deposits scattered across Australia,
from Anglesea on the Victorian coast west of Melbourne, to Moranbah in central Queensland, the Lake Eyre area in
northern South Australia (which is desolate and arid today), and West Dale in the south-west of Western Australia.13 An
analogous extant flora to that found fossilised at Anglesea is that at Noah Creek on Queenslands northern tropical coast.
The best documented of these fossil floras is at Nerriga in New South Wales (140 km east of Canberra), where
fossilised Lauraceae leaves have generally been mummified, in contrast to the leaf impression at Crinum.12 At Moranbah
in the northern Bowen Basin, about 145 km north of Crinum, fossilised Lauraceae leaves occur in clay capped by basalt,
dated radiometrically and by pollen accompanying the fossilised leaves as of Eocene age.13 The 43.9 Ma and 47.5 Ma
K-Ar model ages obtained on the Crinum basalts are thus consistent with the enclosed Lauraceae leaf impression
and Melaleuca fossilised wood at Crinum being also of Eocene age.On the other hand, as already noted, due to the wellestablished and published K-Ar model ages of 27.9 Ma and 32.7 Ma for comparable olivine basalt samples from outcrops
of the same Tertiary basalt flows south of Emerald,32 it is very likely that these K-Ar model ages for the Crinum basalts
are far too high. Excess 40Ar*, not derived from in situ decay of parent 40K and therefore present in the basalts initially,
inherited from the magma source area, is suggested as the culprit. If these conclusions are correct, then the Crinum
basalts and the enclosed fossilised wood and leaf impression would be early Oligocene in age (in conventional terms), a
little younger than the Moranbah fossil flora.The chronological framework for regional volcanism also puts constraints on
the age of the Crinum basalts.47,48 When the K-Ar model ages of all the volcanic rocks of Eastern Australia and their
geographical locations are plotted there appears to be a consistent pattern of sub-parallel linear trends along which the
volcanism has occurred at progressively younger ages in a south-south-west direction.48,49 Thus there is a trend line of
volcanism running from Cape Hillsborough on the central Queensland coast (33 Ma) south-south-west through Nebo in
the northernmost Bowen Basin (32 Ma), North Clermont (31 Ma) and South Clermont (2829 Ma) in the central Bowen
Basin, to the Springsure area (27 Ma) south of Emerald, and it appears this trend line continues south-south-west through
younger centres of volcanism in western New South Wales and central Victoria. The Crinum basalts appear by proximity
and field relations to be related to, and part of, the volcanic centres and lava fields of South Clermont and
Springsure,32,47 which would make their age around 28 Ma, and the fossilised wood and leaf middle Oligocene (in
conventional terms).The explanation given for this, and the other sub-parallel, south-south-westerly younging trends of
volcanism, is the drift of the Australian plate over as many as seven stationary hotspots/mantle plumes producing hotspot
trails similar to the classical hotspot trail along the chain of Hawaiian Islands.49,50 The direction of the younging trend and
the rate of plate drift is said to be determined by the sea-floor spreading in the Southern Ocean and Coral Sea. Plate
motion in the Tertiary-Recent has essentially been northwards as Australia separated from Antarctica, the drift rate being
calculated from radioisotopic dating of this hotspot volcanism and ocean floor basalts related to sea-floor spreading. On
the other hand, the hotspots/mantle plumes are regarded as being related to magma sources formed at the sea-floor
spreading rift in the Coral Sea due to thermal anomalies in the mantle. The location of the volcanism itself at particular
sites is considered as being related to structural weaknesses, including basin margins (relevant to the western margin of
the Bowen Basin in the Clermont area), faults and major lineaments (perhaps linked to transform faults in the Tasman
Sea related to sea-floor spreading and plate motion).The mineralogy, the major, trace and rare earth element
geochemistry, and the Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic geochemistry are all consistent with these basalts being hotspot/mantle-plumederived, within-plate, continental alkali basalts, as indicated also by the tectonic setting. The isotopic geochemistry
suggests a mantle source for the Crinum basalts without any recycled crustal component and the tectonic setting confirms
this. The hotspot/mantle plume source developed beneath oceanic crust in a sea-floor spreading setting remote from the
influence of terrigenous sediments and their crustal isotopic signatures. It has been suggested that as much as 15 % or
more partial melting of upper mantle rock must have occurred to supply these alkali basalts,49 resulting in recycling of
magmatically fractionated material as implied by their isotopic geochemistry. Such partial melting may well have been
triggered by upward flow of a volatile-rich fluid and accompanying heat from deeper in the mantle,51 the volatiles
including excess 40Ar*.All the field evidence indicates that the wood was fossilised as a result of being entombed in the
lowermost of these Tertiary alkali basalt flows at Crinum. The trees were apparently rooted in the Permian siltstone at the
Tertiary land surface over which the lava flowed. Without doubt, the wood must be the same age as the basalt which
entombed it. However, an apparent conflict arises because the fossilised wood contains radiocarbon which yields a 14C
age of around 37,500 years BP, whereas the basalt has been labelled Tertiary with a K-Ar age of 47.5 Ma (the basalt
in the drill core enclosing the fossilised wood), though this latter result should probably be around 30 Ma due to the
inclusion of excess 40Ar* in the basalt. The reliability of K-Ar dating is, of course, questioned, and the true age of the
basalt based on radioisotopic dating remains unclear. The acceptable 30 Ma age is simply a product of correlation with
other K-Ar ages for comparable nearby basalts and the regional chronological framework,32,47 all of which is based on
uniformitarian assumptions.Quite obviously, the radiocarbon age for the fossilised wood is drastically short of the 30 Ma
or more for the basalt, when they should both be the same age. Of course, uniformitarian geologists would probably not
have even tested this fossilised wood for radiocarbon, because they would not expect any to be in it. No detectable 14C
should have remained in the fossilised wood if it is older than about 55,000 years (10 half-lives of 5570 years), and the
fossilised wood is supposedly at least 30 Ma, the age of the basalt. Because measurable radiocarbon has been
unequivocally demonstrated to be in this fossilised wood, uniformitarian geologists would assume this to be due somehow
to contamination. But such a criticism is totally unjustified for the reasons already discussed, including the percent modern
carbon in the samples and the extreme uniformity and consistency of the 13CPDB values. Thus the radiocarbon in the
fossilised wood may be a better guide to the age of the basalt than the K-Ar dating.
The results in the context of the Flood model
In the Creation/Flood framework for Earth history, the observation that these trees were probably growing on a land
surface that in relative terms existed very late in Earth history after many fossil-bearing strata (the Permian marine
fossiliferous strata and coal seams) had been catastrophically laid down would make these trees post-Flood. Furthermore,
the identification of the fossilised wood as probably Melaleuca and the leaf imprint as Lauraceae implies a wet
environment (perhaps rainforest) where today it is relatively dry (before clearing, probably dry schlerophyll). This is
consistent with this land surface and the trees being immediate post-Flood, when the climate was still drying out after the
Flood. Thus the basalt lava flowed across this post-Flood land surface, and so, like the fossilised wood it entombed, it is
less than 4,500 years old. In this framework, the radiocarbon in the fossilised wood has not provided the true age of the
fossilised wood and the enclosing basalt, but it clearly demonstrates that they cannot be millions of years old.
An excessively large finite radiocarbon age for this fossilised wood is neither inconsistent nor unexpected within the
Creation/Flood framework of Earth history. Engulfed by the basalt lava flow less than 4,500 years ago, this Crinum
fossilised wood contains less than the expected amount of about 4,500 years worth of radiocarbon. During the Flood and
the immediate post-Flood periods, the Earths stronger, but fluctuating, magnetic field would have more effectively
shielded the Earth from the incoming cosmic ray flux, which in turn would have resulted in a lower radiocarbon production

rate.52 Thus there would have been much less radiocarbon in the atmosphere back then, and much less in the
vegetation. Since the laboratories calculated the 14C ages for the fossilised wood samples based on the assumption that
the level of atmospheric radiocarbon in the past has been roughly the same as the level in 1950, the resultant radiocarbon
ages are very much greater than the true ages.
Furthermore, the Flood also buried a lot of carbon. Thus the stable 12C would not have been totally replaced in the
biosphere after the Flood, whereas 14C would have been regenerated in the atmosphere (from cosmic ray bombardment
of nitrogen) and then in the biosphere. So the 14C/12C ratios in the pre-Flood organic materials (that is, organic materials
that grew before the Flood but were buried during the Flood) and in immediate post-Flood organic materials (such as this
Crinum fossilised wood), would have been much higher than todays 14C/12C ratio. Using todays ratio for calculating
radiocarbon dates thus provides too high a calibration and yields inflated ages.
Finally, the tectonic setting and origin of the Crinum basalt is not inconsistent within the Creation/Flood model of Earth
history. Given that plate tectonics occurred catastrophically during the Flood, with metres per second rates of plate
movements initiated by thermal runaway subduction connected to sea-floor spreading by mantle-wide convective
flow,53,54,55 it is to be expected that plate movements slowed dramatically during the closing phase of the Flood but
continued, finally decelerating to todays rates some years after the Flood. Thus the final stages of movement of the
Australian plate into its current position could have occurred in the immediate post-Flood period. If the Flood/post-Flood
boundary were to be placed at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary55 or somewhere soon thereafter in the early Tertiary,
then by the early Oligocene (the conventional age of the Crinum basalt), trees would have again been growing on a wet
but drying out, post-Flood landscape in the Crinum area. With the Australian plate also drifting northwards over a
stationary hotspot/mantle plume, which was generated by residual convective volatile-rich fluid flow from deeper in the
mantle, a structural weakness in the crust allowed magma from the partial melting of the upper mantle, to erupt as
outpourings of the basalt lavas that engulfed trees and other vegetation in their path.
Conclusions
The fossilised wood found entombed in a Tertiary basalt flow during excavation of the upcast ventilation shaft at the
Crinum Colliery in central Queensland was identified as probably Melaleuca and yielded a radiocarbon age of about
37,500 years BP. A leaf imprint found in the basalt was identified as probably Lauraceae, which like Melaleuca suggests a
wetter environment than in the Crinum area today. The 13CPDB values measured in the wood were uniform, averaging 25.69 , consistent with the organic carbon in the fossilised wood being that of terrestrial plants. Thus the measured
radiocarbon pertains to organic carbon remaining in the fossilised wood, and is not due to any contamination.
The basalt which entombed the fossilised wood, while showing alteration due to weathering, is an olivine-bearing alkali
basalt. The basalts incompatible trace and rare earth element geochemistry though is unaffected by weathering and is
characteristic of within-plate continental alkali basalts, in this case with some affinities to ocean island basalts consistent
with a mantle source. The basalt yielded conventional K-Ar model ages ranging from 36.7 1.2 Ma to 58.3 2.0 Ma. The
averaged model age of 47.5 Ma was excessively old compared to the expected age of around 30 Ma, based on
published K-Ar model ages of 27.9 Ma and 32.7 Ma for comparable basalts to the south of Crinum which are believed to
be contemporaneous. Available evidence indicates the excessively old ages are due to excess 40Ar* in the basalt which
was not derived from in situ decay of parent 40K but inherited by the lava from its source. The Nd-Sr isotope
geochemistry of the basalt is consistent with a homogeneous mantle source potentially involving the recycling of
magmatically fractionated material such as older oceanic crust, but with no crustal radiogenic Sr contamination. The
basalt also yields a Pb-Pb isotopic linear array with a slope corresponding to an apparent Pb-Pb age of 5.07 0.27 Ga
(but with poor statistics), which is only significant as a primary geochemical feature of its mantle source. In its tectonic
setting, this basalt was erupted due to hotspot/mantle plume volcanism as the Australian plate moved northwards.
All the Crinum observations and data are best explained within the Creation/Flood model of Earth history. The trees were
growing in the immediate post-Flood period on a landscape that was drying out. After catastrophic plate movements
during the Flood, the decelerating Australian plate drifted over a hotspot/mantle plume which produced outpourings of
basalt lavas that engulfed the trees. The presence of the radiocarbon in the fossilised wood demonstrates that the
enclosing basalt cannot be millions of years old and that the radioisotopic dating is grossly in error. While not providing
the true age, the excessive radiocarbon age is consistent with a stronger magnetic field and changes in atmospheric 12C
levels around the Earth during and immediately after the Flood.
Acknowledgements
This study would not have been possible without the co-operation and help of Greg Chalmers, then Chief Project
Engineer for the Crinum Mine Project of BHP Australia Coal Pty Ltd. Greg supplied the fossilised wood samples, the
relevant drill cores, and copies of geological plans and sections, and hosted a visit to the Crinum Colliery.
Rapid Rocks
Granites They Didnt Need Millions of Years of Cooling
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling and John Woodmorappe on December 1, 1998

Originally published in Creation 21, no 1 (December 1998): 42-44.


The timescale and conditions for the formation and cooling of granites are totally consistent with a 6,0007,000 year-old
earth and a global cataclysmic flood 4,5005,000 years ago.
Shop Now

An oft-repeated objection to the earths being only 6,0007,000 years old is that large bodies of magma (molten rock)
supposedly require millions of years to accumulate and cool inside the earths upper crust to form granites.1,2,3 Exposed
at the earths surface today due to erosion, these large bodies of granites (plutons) sometimes cover hundreds of square
kilometres. It is thought that up to 86% of the once-molten rocks which have intruded into the upper crust are granites.
Rapid injection
Deep in the lower crust, the temperatures sometimes reach 700900C. This is high enough to melt the rocks locally,
particularly if there are high pressures, thus generating large blobs of granitic magmas. Recent research indicates that
the amount of water which can dissolve in granitic magmas increases with depth because of increased pressure.4Thus
more than 10% of the magma weight may be dissolved water.Once molten, the blobs of magma are lighter than the
surrounding rocks so the magma tries to rise, not slowly as large blobs as once thought, but squeezed through fractures
to be rapidly injected into the upper crust.5,6 The water in the magma makes it less viscous (more fluid), greatly helping its
flow into and along fractures.7 Calculations indicate that the magma could ascend at more than 800m per day.8 At that
rate, the 6,000 cubic kilometre Cordillera Blanca pluton of north-west Peru could have been formed by magma injected
from more than 30km depth through a 6m wide and 10 km long fracture conduit in only 350 years.9Plutons exposed at the
earths surface were once thought to extend many kilometres down into the lower crust. This would imply that an
enormous amount of heat needed to be dissipated as the original magmas cooled, thus requiring millions of years.
However, geophysical investigations have revealed that many plutons are only a few kilometres thick, and some are made
up of thin (1001,000m) sheets stacked on top of one another10for example, the Harney Peak Granite pluton that
includes Mt Rushmore in the Black Hills, South Dakota, where the famous presidents heads are carved.11 This discovery
of itself greatly diminishes the cooling problem.
Rapid water cooling
Figure 1. Cooling of a pluton
by (a) conduction and (b)
convection. The sizes of the
arrows are proportional to the
rate of heat flow to the surface.
Convection dissipates the heat
along fractures very quickly.
Research has also shown that
the higher the water content of
a magma, the faster it will
cool.12 This
is
simply
explained. As the magma cools
and the granite crystallizes, the
contained water comes out of
solution. But it is still very hot
and confined as steam by the
surrounding cooling granite,
and the country rock. As
continued cooling occurs and
more water is released, the
pressure inside the forming
pluton increases to the point where the water can no longer be confined, so it is driven by the heat outwards towards the
crystallized granite at the plutons margins and escapes into the surrounding country rocks by fracturing the granite.13In
so doing it takes heat with it outwards along fractures also in the country rocks (Figure 1). At the same time, cooler water
in the country rocks can seep inwards into the pluton, where it is heated and then circulates out again, taking more heat
energy with it. Thus what is known as hydrothermal circulation is established.14 As the cooling front advances deeper and
deeper into the heart of the hot pluton, the cracking and hydrothermal circulation also move inwards, and thus the pluton
rapidly cools.Previously, it had been assumed that cooling of plutons was only by way of conduction. So it is not surprising
that calculations suggested millions of years were needed (Figure 1). That process can be likened to the cooling of a hot
potato which is surrounded by a thick blanket. The heat from inside the potato takes a lot of time to work its way to the
surface of the potato, and then to work its way through the blanket. Now suppose that we remove the blanket. The potato
will cool more rapidly. Now let us slice the potato. Immediately, we see steam come out, and rise in a column. This
indicates that not only is heat rapidly leaving the potato, but the heat transfer now is mostly by convection. It is the
circulation of air near the potato which is largely responsible for its cooling. Of course, if we want to cool the potato still
faster, we can pour ice-cold water into it after we slice it.In many ways, the buried pluton is like that hot potato. If only
conductive cooling is allowed, heat can only work its way out slowly from within the pluton, through the thick layers of rock
enclosing it, and to the surface (Figure 1). Now consider what would happen if the thick layers of enclosing rocks became
cracked. Water would naturally percolate through the rocks, and this would speed up the cooling of the pluton. The very
heat supplied by the pluton would help drive the circulation of water, and hence the carrying-away of the plutons own
heat (Figure 1). Now let us take the analogy of the potato further. Permit not only the surrounding rock layers to crack, but
also allow the pluton itself to crack as it cools. This makes it possible for ground water to percolate right into the hottest
regions of the very interior of the hot potato pluton.How rapidly then does cooling occur? Based on mathematical cooling
models, the time to cool a large pluton falls from several million years to only a few thousand, at most.15,16,17 The most
recent models actually enable the cooling to be computer-simulated,18,19 but the timescale for cooling is still only
hundreds to a few thousand years, depending on the sizes of plutons.20
Cracking and cooling
Is there evidence that ancient plutons have been largely cooled by convective water cooling? Definitely. The rock layers in
contact with granites often contain chemicals which show that water has been greatly involved in cooling of the
granites.21,22 Virtually all plutons are dissected by cracks of various sizes.23 In fact, it is next to impossible to locate
uncracked granites! Many granitic bodies contain mineral-filled cracks, clearly proving that water has once flowed through
them (the minerals crystallized out from a water solution). Furthermore, under special lighting, seemingly-intact granite
samples show previously-filled channels between the major mineral components.24 Some granitic minerals, such as
quartz, show evidence of having cooled under fluctuating temperatures. This is all consistent with rapid water-induced
cooling, not slow-and-even cooling over millions of years.To begin with, the amount of heat to be dissipated by rapidlycooling plutons is not great. A large granite body will heat to boiling point only about its equivalent mass in water. This
means that there is plenty of water on earth to have carried away the heat of cooling plutons. Most of the earths water

would be unaffected by the heat of the worlds plutons undergoing cooling during and shortly after the Flood. Nor would
rapidly-cooling plutons cause excessive local heating. Simple computations show that the heat given off at the surface by
a large granite body cooling in 3000 years would be only half the rate of the heat emitted in a modern geothermal field in
Iceland.25
Conclusions
Millions of years are not necessary for the formation and cooling of granite plutons. New evidence shows that thick
plutons are not the result of one-time slow intrusion of great amounts of magma into the earths upper crust. Instead, they
are the result of rapidly-injected coalescing sheets of magma. Each of these sheets probably at least partly cooled
independent of the other sheets, thereby greatly accelerating cooling. Less than 3,000 years would be needed to cool
most plutons, and the vital ingredient is water in the magma and in the surrounding rocks. Thus the timescale and
conditions for the formation and cooling of granites are totally consistent with a 6,0007,000 year-old earth and a global
cataclysmic flood 4,5005,000 years ago.
Rapid Granite Formation?
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on August 1, 1996
Originally published in Journal of Creation 10, no 2 (August 1996): 175-177.
Abstract
Contrary evidence pointing to relatively rapid, even catastrophic, formation of granites is now beginning to surface.
One of the persistent scientific objections to the Earth being young (6,0007,000 years old rather than 4.5 billion years),
and the Flood being a yearlong, mountaincovering, global event, has been the apparent evidence that the large bodies
of granite rocks found today at the Earths surface took millions of years to cool from magmas. However, contrary
evidence pointing to relatively rapid, even catastrophic, formation of granites is now beginning to surface.Granites are
crystalline rocks that occur over large areas, sometimes exposed over hundreds of square kilometres. Deep in the Earths
crust, the temperatures are sometimes high enough to melt the rocks, particularly if there are applied high pressures due
to tectonic forces (earth movements). The theory has been that large blobs of magma are thus generated at 750900 C,
and because they are lighter than the surrounding rocks the blobs rise like balloonshaped diapirs into the cooler upper
crust. There they crystallise as granites.Young1 has insisted that an immense granitic batholith like that of southern
California required a period of about one million years in order to crystallise completely, an estimate repeated by
Hayward.2 A survey of the technical literature, however, yields estimates of even greater timespans. Pitcher sums it all
up:
My guess is that a granitic magma pulse generated in a collisional orogen may, in a complicated way involving changing
rheologies of both melt and crust, take 510 Ma to generate, arrive, crystallize and cool to the ambient crustal
temperature.3
Of course, there is the added timespan from cooling of the granite pluton within the Earths crust to its exposure at
todays land surface by uplift and erosion. Nevertheless, it should be kept in perspective that most recent estimates of
these timespans, including uplift and erosion, rely heavily on radiometric dating determinations and uniformitarian
assumptions, and not just on the thermodynamics of crystallisation and heat flow/dissipation.So whence cometh the
challenge to this hithertofore seemingly impregnable bastion of old-earthers? Surprisingly, the contrary evidence pointing
to relatively rapid (the word catastrophic has even been used!) formation of granites within the ranks of the
establishment itself! The geological fraternity always had a problem within the accepted wisdom anywaythe socalled
space problem. How does the balloonshaped diapir find room to rise through the Earths crust and then the space to
crystallise there (even at 25 km depth) in spite of the continual confining pressures? As Petford et al. point out,The
established idea that granitoid magmas ascend through the continental crust as diapirs is being increasingly questioned
by igneous and structural geologists.4In promoting the idea that the long distance diapir transport of granitic magmas is
not viable on thermal and mechanical grounds, Clemens and Mawer favoured the growth of plutons by dyke injection
propagating along fractures.5 In other words, the magma is squeezed upwards as thin sheets through long, narrow
fractures. Pitcher comments:what is particularly radical is their calculation that a sizeable pluton may be filled in about
900 years. This is really speedy!6Petford et al. have gone further, with calculations which show that a crystalfree
granitoid melt at 900 C, with a water content of 1.5 weight per cent, a viscosity of 8x105 Pa s, a density of about 2,600
kg/m3, and a density contrast between magma and crust of 200 kg/m 3, can be transported vertically through the crust a
distance of 30 km along a 6 m wide dyke in just 41 days.7 This equates to a mean ascent rate of about 1 cm/sec.
Petford et al. then apply their equations to the Cordillera Blanca batholith of northwest Peru and conclude that if its
estimated volume is 6,000 km3, then it could have been filled from a 10 km long dyke in only 350 years. Magma transport
must be this fast through such a dyke so that the granitoid magma does not freeze due to cooling within the conduit as it
is ascending, and Petford et al.therefore maintain that the dyke intrusion of granitoid magma occurs in response to fault
slippage within the Earths crust. They stop short of accepting this 350 year rapid filling of this batholith, because that rate
is orders of magnitude greater than the mean cavityopening rates based on radiometric dates for the associated faults.
So Petford et al. are constrained by the radiometric dates to conclude that intrusion of the batholith must have been very
intermittent, the magma being supplied in brief, catastrophic pulses, while the conduit supposedly remained open for 3
million years.In a more recent study, Petford has dealt with the question of how and at what rate, does deep crustal or
upper mantle rock melt to form granite magmas?8 This is, of course, the first step in the process of formation of granites.
Petford suggests that, according to the best theoretical models, melted rock in the lower crust segregates via porous flow
into fractures within the source rock (usually metamorphic) above a mafic intrusion to form veins. Local compaction of the
surrounding matrix then allows the veins to enlarge as they fill further with melt, and the fluidfilled veins coalesce to form
a dyke. At a certain critical melt-fraction per cent of the source rock, a threshold is reached where the critical dyke width is
achieved. Once that critical dyke width is exceeded, rapid (catastrophic) removal of the melt from source occurs. The
veins collapse abruptly, only to be then refilled by continuing porous flow of more melt from the continuously applied heat
to the source rock. Thus the process is repeated, the granitic melt being extracted and then ascending through dykes to
the upper crust in rapid and catastrophic pulses.In the physical model presented here of rapid melt extraction followed by
ascent of relatively small magma batches at rates orders of magnitude faster than chemical diffusion, the only significant
magma reservoir will exist at the level of emplacement, provided that is that space can be made fast enough in the upper
crust to accommodate the ascending magma batches.9Rapid provision of the required space within the upper crust
would not be a problem within the context of a catastrophic global Flood that involved catastrophic plate
tectonics.10 However, Petford only postulates a maximum vein filling rate of about 2.5 m/yr for a grain size of 5 mm and a
porosity of 50 %, a rate that seems comfortably slow enough for his uniformitarian timescale.But now just to hand is an
independent test of the slow (diapir) versus fast (dyke) models for emplacement of granitic magmas, based both on
laboratory work and field observations. Brandon et al. chose the mineral epidote for study because it has a magmatic

origin in some granitic rocks and its stability in granitic magmas is restricted to pressures of >= 600 MPa (a depth of 21
km).11 Their experimental work has now shown that epidote dissolves rapidly in granitic melts at pressures of < 600 MPa.
Indeed, for temperatures appropriate for granitic magmas (700800 C) they found that epidote crystals (0.20.7 mm)
would dissolve in a low-pressure granite melt within 3200 years. Therefore, if magma transport from sources in the lower
crust is slow (> 1,000 years), epidote will not be preserved within uppercrustal batholiths. Yet the authors are able to
point to granitic rocks of the Front Range (Colorado) and the White Creek Batholith (British Columbia) in which epidote
crystals are found, 0.5 mm wide crystals (in the case of the Front Range occurrence) that would dissolve at 800 C in less
than 50 years. Brandon et al. state:Preservation of 0.5mm crystals therefore requires a transport rate from a pressure of
600 to 200 MPa of greater than 700 m year-1.12They went on to calculate a maximum ascent rate of 1.4x10 4 m (or 14 km)
per year for the epidotebearing White Creek Batholic granitic magma. Therefore, since epidote is found preserved in
granitic magmas crystallised at shallow levels, then granitic magma transport from the lower crust must be fast (very much
less than 1,000 years). Furthermore, since the modelling of ascending diapirs indicates such magma transport rates are
slow (0.350 m per year) and ascent times are 10,000100,000 years,13,14 then the preservation of epidote crystals not
only implies magma transport was rapid, but that the transport was via dykes rather than diapirs.What all this means is
that much progress is currently being made by some establishment geologists (not all agree yet) with a catastrophic
model for the ascent of granitic magmas. While their findings are drastically reducing the timescales involved, even for
granitic melt production in the lower crust, there is still some way to go for our apparent granite problem to be fully solved.
Yet since their calculations are invariably always placed within a uniformitarian, radiometricallydetermined, millionsof
years context, there appears to be no intrinsic obstacle to successful transposition of these findings to a total catastrophic
context, such as catastrophic plate tectonics within a global Flood. This is not to ignore the cooling of the granite magma
once it has been rapidly transported into place from deep in the crust, but as Pitcher reminds us,...it is salutary to note
that his [Spera15] estimates of the time taken for solidification of a typical pluton from liquidus to solidus temperatures
varies greatly with the assumed water content, decreasing ten-fold between 0.5 and 4 wt % [weight per cent] water.16
Towards a Creationist Explanation of Regional Metamorphism
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on April 1, 1994
Originally published in Journal of Creation 8, no 1 (April 1994): 51-77.
Abstract
The classical model for regional metamorphism presupposes elevated temperatures and pressures due to deep burial
and deformation/tectonic forces over large areas over millions of years.
Summary
The classical model for regional metamorphism presupposes elevated temperatures and pressures due to deep burial
and deformation/tectonic forces over large areas over millions of yearsan apparently insurmountable problem for the
creationist framework. Furthermore, zones of index minerals are said to represent differences in temperatures and
pressures, and therefore mineral reactions, across the regionally metamorphosed terrain. However, evidence is now
mounting that such mineral reactions do not occur and diffusion is severely limited. Furthermore, rather than temperatures
and pressures being the key factors, compositional variations within and between metamorphic minerals are shown to
reflect patterns of original sedimentation.The metasedimentary sheaths surrounding stratiform sulphide orebodies have
facilitated the study of regional metamorphic processes on a much smaller scale. Such ore bodies were produced by
hydrothermal waters disgorging both sulphides and a variety of other minerals and chemicals onto the sea-floor, where
they have been superimposed on normal marine sedimentation. Rapid fluctuations have resulted in zones of different
clay and related minerals of varying compositions being found at scales of centimetres and metres. When subsequently
metamorphosed, these patterns of sedimentation are reflected in zones identical to the classical zones of regional
metamorphism, and yet minerals are together in the same assemblage that would normally be regarded as having formed
under vastly different temperature and pressure conditions. Thus it is shown that these metamorphic minerals have been
primarily formed from precursor minerals and materials by in situ transformation, and at only moderate temperatures and
pressures or less. Indeed, several remarkable examples of precursor minerals/materials having survived the supposed
highest grades of metamorphism over presumed millions of years are adequate testimony against the classical model of
regional metamorphism.This leads to a proposal for a creationist explanation of regional metamorphism. Two major
events within the creationist framework of earth history are capable of producing regionally metamorphosed terrainsthe
tectonism, catastrophic erosion and sedimentation during the formation of dry land in the beginning , and the catastrophic
erosion and sedimentation, deep burial and rapid deformation/tectonics during the Flood. Catastrophic sedimentation
linked to increased volcanic activity and release of hydrothermal waters during the Flood particularly would have aided the
production of zones of sediments of differing clay and related minerals, while catastrophic burial and higher heat flow from
that volcanism and hydrothermal activity would have aided the transformation of these precursor materials to produce the
resultant index mineral (grade) zones across these metamorphic terrains.
Introduction
One of the seemingly most potent, oft-repeated objections to the young-earth Creation-Flood model of earth history is the
supposed processes of metamorphism and the formation of metamorphic rocks. There are two major types of
metamorphismcontact and regional. Contact metamorphism is basically the baking of rocks around an intruding and
cooling magma and thus only involves elevated temperatures. Creationists must here not only explain how the
surrounding sediments could have been metamorphosed rapidly, but how the magma cooled quickly enough within their
young-earth time framework.However, it is not in the formation of contact metamorphic rocks that the most common
metamorphism objections to the Creation-Flood model occur. Regional metamorphic rocks are believed to have been
subjected to high pressures as well as high temperatures. This, in addition to the fact that they are always found over
areas of hundreds of square kilometres, has led geologists to believe that regional metamorphism occurs when the parent
rocks are buried to great depths. Consequently, at current rates of sedimentation the burial process itself would take many
millions of years, but creationists can counter that problem by pointing to the increased rate of sedimentation to
catastrophic levels during the Flood, when deep burial is envisaged to have been accomplished in only a matter of days or
months. However, as pointed out by Wise,l the biggest problem lies again in the heat presumed to have been involved.
Rapid burial beneath many kilometres of sediments would have produced virtually instantaneous pressure increases, but
once again the evolutionist would argue that it takes too much time to heat the sediment. He would argue that it takes
many millions of years to heat up sediments buried 20 kilometres beneath the earths surface.
These problems and objections are not minor, nor can they simply be ignored. As Young has stated:
Much of the earths surface is immediately underlain by vast tracts of crystalline metamorphic rock. Much of the exposed
rock of the eastern two-thirds of Canada consists of metamorphic rocks. The Blue Ridge Mountains of the southern
Appalachians, the southern Piedmont, virtually all of New England, New Yorks Manhattan Island, and nearly the entire

area between Philadelphia and Washington D.C., consist of metamorphic rock. So do large areas of the mountainous
western parts of the United States and Canada. Metamorphic rocks also are widely exposed in other parts of the world
such as Australia, Scandinavia, Siberia, and India.2Young goes on to say that a great many of these crystalline
metamorphic rocks are believed to be Precambrian in age, and so suggests that creationists might be tempted then to
relegate such rocks to the activity of Creation. However, even if some metamorphic activity could be relegated to the
Creation (for example, during Day Three), there is still evidence that many regionally metamorphosed rocks had to have
been, according to the Creation-Flood model, formed during the Flood year and subsequently.Young points to the
metamorphic terrain of the New England, USA, and quite rightly states that despite many of these rocks having been very
severely heated and deformed, it is evident that they were chiefly of sedimentary and volcanic character prior to their
metamorphism. Furthermore, the original sedimentary character of many of these rocks is, apart from differences from
various compositional, textural and structural characteristics, firmly established by the discovery in places of several
fossils (even if somewhat deformed) within these metamorphic rocks. 3,4 Thus, on the basis of these contained fossils,
creationists would argue that the sediments from which these metamorphic rocks developed were deposited during the
Flood year. Young also points out that in southern New England the metamorphic rocks are unconformably overlain by
unmetamorphosed fossiliferous sedimentary rocks, and so therefore Flood geologists are faced with the necessity of
concluding that the metamorphic rocks of New England metamorphosed during the time-span of
less than one year.
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Figure 1. Paleozoic regional metamorphism in New England and adjacent areas. Precambrian
rocks in eastern New England and of the New York City area not shown.
Furthermore, quantification of what is involved seemingly adds to the problem. Since it has been
possible to experimentally determine the range of stability of almost all important metamorphic
minerals in terms of pressure and temperature, and the pressure and temperature at which many
important metamorphic mineral reactions may occur, it can be concluded that the mineral
assemblages of these New England rocks indicate that many of the precursor sedimentary and
volcanic rocks must have been subjected to temperatures approaching 600C and pressures of 5
kilobars.5 Such conditions are interpreted as implying that the sediments were buried under a load of rock 16-19
kilometres thick. Thus Young insists that Flood geologists are obliged to explain in terms of their model for earth history
how it would have been possible in less than one year for the precursor sediments of these New England metamorphic
rocks to have been deposited, then progressively buried to a depth of between 16 and 19 kilometres as they were first
converted to sedimentary rocks. They subsequently, according to Young, had to be progressively metamorphosed as the
temperatures rose to around 600C, and then uplifted and eroded to eventually be exposed as metamorphic rocks at the
earths surface today!
Implications-Zones of Precursor Materials
As has now been shown, the evidence of some stratiform ore environments indicates that, even within a restricted and
relatively uniform group of rocks such as the pelites, there may be sufficient constitutional variation to induce the
development of a wide range of metamorphic minerals, indeed virtually all of the metamorphic minerals known, at a given
temperature and pressure. This is precisely the conclusion reached by Yoder from experimental evidence on the MgOAl2O3-SiO2-H2O system.94 Clearly, the system investigated by Yoder is very much simpler than the natural ones under
consideration here, yet Yoder showed that at 600C and 15,000psi it was possible to have assemblages within that
restricted system corresponding to every one of the accepted metamorphic facies in stable equilibrium. He pointed out
that earlier investigators such as Eskola95 had based their identification of metamorphic zones and facies on the
assumption that the rocks they had chosen were an isochemical group. However, Yoder noted that his experiments
showed that changes of a few percent in composition (including water) may produce great differences in mineralogy, and
that mineralogical differences interpreted by Eskola and others as resulting from changes in temperature-pressure
conditions might actually be, for the most part, results of subtle changes in bulk composition.Having thus stated explicitly
that observed mineralogical differences between rocks of different metamorphic facies might be the result of variation in
bulk composition and need not represent variations of pressure and temperature, it now seems ironic that Yoder should
have gone on to say, This conclusion, based on experimental fact, appears to be at variance with field observations. The
metapelitic rocks associated with many stratiform ores now clearly indicate, as did Yoders experiments, that differences
in metamorphic mineral assemblages may be due entirely to variation in the constitution of the rocks, and need not, and at
least in some cases do not, represent variations in pressure and temperature. The field evidence is there in the
metasedimentary sheaths of stratiform ores. Far from being at variance with Yoders experimental results, it appears to
confirm them.Thus the evidence suggests that there may well be an alternative, in the general sense, to Barrows
interpretation which has become almost unassailable dogma in the geological literature. At least in some cases
metamorphic mineral zones may reflect no more than subtle, but systematic, variations in the clay mineral assemblages of
the original pelitic sediments, variations consequent upon sedimentary facies in turn stemming from the filling and shall
owing of sedimentary basins and shelves, and from transgression and regression associated with epeirogenic changes in
shelf and basin depths. Additional factors effecting such clay mineral assemblages may have been the contribution of
particularly copious quantities of aluminium) and iron compounds through nearby calc-alkaline volcanism, and the
prevailing climate. Warm waters, as in the tropics today for example, may have favoured the development of abundant
chamosite in the appropriate facies, and hence, during subsequent metamorphism, the development of a pronounced and
extensive garnet zone. Indeed, one suspects that it may be the sediments of calc-alkaline volcanic shelves developed
under warm water (todays tropical) conditions that eventually yield the clearest metamorphic mineral zonations.In such a
context the broad zoning and separation of metamorphic minerals in normal sedimentary sequences, as compared with
the tiny, compressed sequences of stratiform ore environments, has been on a scale large enough to be compatible
with, and indeed to suggest, that the mineralogical changes stem from regional changes in temperatures and pressures.
However, this breadth of scale has probably misled us, and the clue to this possibility that we have probably been misled
is provided by the stratiform ores. This line of thought indicates:-Early developed sedimentary/diagenetic precursor
materials of the kind postulated may lead to the regional development of metamorphic mineral zoning mimicking that due
to prograde metamorphism.In some cases an interplay between early, cryptic zoning of such sedimentary/diagenetic
precursors, and later zoning of true prograde metamorphic temperature-pressure conditions may lead to confusing
patterns of mineralogical zonation including apparent grade reversals.The patchy rather than zonal distribution of the
various metamorphic mineralogies so often found in the field, and instances in which patterns of metamorphic mineral
occurrences appear to bear no relation to either structural or intrusive features, may be attributable to primary precursor

patterns rather than to variations in metamorphic grade.None of the foregoing should be misconstrued to imply that
prograde metamorphism is not a response to increased temperatures and pressures within a given volume of sedimentary
and/or other rock strata. That such metamorphism is indeed a P-T-X response (particularly a temperature-composition
response) on a regional scale has been taken as well established and therefore self-evident. However, what has been
emphasised is that development of metamorphic minerals may result not so much from the bulk chemistry of the parent
pelitic material, as from the crystal structures and chemical compositions of the innumerable individual particles of which it
is composed. If (a) regional metamorphism is substantially a response of these preexisting crystalline particles to a rise in
temperatures, (b) the different crystal structures respond at different temperatures, and (c) such temperatures vary in
space and time, then it may be expected that the various relevant metamorphic daughter products will develop in ordered
patterns in space and time. That is, regional metamorphism may proceed to different grades that may reveal themselves
by the areal distribution of different mineral assemblages and paragenetic sequences.At first sight this may appear to be
exactly the current conventional view of regional metamorphic grade and mineral zonation. This, however, is not the case,
and the principle involved may be illustrated by a reexamination of the Dalradian metamorphic terrain of Scotland (see
Figure 2 again) and the regional metamorphic zones there as mapped and interpreted by Barrow. Those zones are
currently regarded (and have been so regarded for 100 years) as reflecting the progressively changing response of pelitic
rocks of essentially uniform bulk chemical composition to a rise in temperature that itself exhibited an ordered increase in
space. Thus the mineralogical zonation from south-southeast to north-northwest of chlorite-to sillimanite-bearing
assemblages is interpreted as indicating a general increase in regional metamorphic temperatures in a north-northwest
direction. However, on the basis of the precursor principle as proposed by Stanton, 96,97 and discussed here, metamorphic
temperatures may not have been significantly different over the entire terrain affected; they may simply have been
sufficiently high to convert all members of a group of precursor minerals, arranged in zones of premetamorphic origin, to
their respective daughter products (see Figure 8 again).The words sufficiently high are chosen deliberately. It would be
very surprising indeed if all precursors converted to their relevant metamorphic daughter products at similar temperatures.
There can be little doubt that the various transformations, as distinct from simple grain growth being the mechanism
involved, would take place at different temperatures. If this were indeed the case, then the different grades of
metamorphism would be marked by the temperatures of precursor transformations rather than temperatures of
intermineral reactions as conventionally visualised. Clearly, the interplay between zonal sedimentary/diagenetic patterns
of precursor occurrence on the one hand, and different temperatures (and pressures) of transformation of these
precursors on the other, may well be complex. It is likely, for example, that neoformed chlorite will assume a high degree
of crystallinity, and illite transform to muscovite, at lower temperatures than siliceous chlorites might transform to
almandine, or kaolinite-gibbsite mixed layers reorder to silliminite. 98 However, the place of other potential transformations
in terms of the standard pattern of regional metamorphic zonation (chlorite-biotite-garnet-kyanite-sillimanite) is quite
unknown at this stage. Indeed, temperatures of any particular transformation may be influenced substantially by kinetic
factors, as has already been suggested in the cases of sillimanite99 and cordierite,100 and this, together with
palaeogeographical factors, might induce reversals and other deviations from normal zoning patterns.
Implications- Only Up to Moderate Temperatures Required
We noted earlier that Stanton and Williams101 found significant differences in garnet compositions developed and
preserved from one thin bed to the next on a scale of 1mm or less in a finely laminated garnet-quartzite in the Broken Hill
metamorphic terrain, New South Wales. Furthermore, whereas garnet compositions varied grossly across bedding, they
were completely uniform along beds, indicating that the observed finely layered compositional arrangement was a direct
reflection of original bedding. In other words, they maintained that a chemical sedimentary feature of the finest scale had
been preserved through a proposed period claimed to be at least 1.8 billion years, including a very high-grade
metamorphic episode. However, it strains credulity to suppose that this original pattern of chemical sedimentation could
have been preserved with the utmost delicacy, through a presumed period of 1.8 billion years through the claimed high
temperatures and pressures of very high-grade metamorphism.What is equally amazing is the discovery by Stanton102 of
distinctly hydrous quartz in well-bedded quartz-muscovite-biotite-almandine-spinel rocks also in the Broken Hill
metamorphic terrain. Stanton comments that it seems remarkable that this silica could still retain such a notably hydrous
nature (7-10% water) after 1.8 billion years that included relatively high-grade (that is, high temperatures and pressures)
metamorphism! He also insists that this well-bedded unit in part represents chert that exhibits delicately preserved fine
bedding in spite of being involved in high-grade metamorphism.So the quartz in this Broken Hill metamorphic rock unit
was originally chemically-sedimented silica, deposited as a product of sea-floor hydrothermal exhalation as hydrous silica
gel, that with diagenesis and aging dehydrated and transformed in situ to quartza metamorphic mineral. Thus it has not
been produced by any metamorphic reaction, being derived directly from an ancestral hydrous form of silica. Even any
induced variable grain growth and coarsening due to presumed metamorphic heating has in no way obliterated the fine
bedding. However, this is wishful thinking, that some of this hydrous quartz, that is supposed to be transformed in situ to
quartz merely with the low temperatures of diagenesis and aging, should not only survive intact through a presumed
period of 1.8 billion years, but the high temperatures and pressures of high-grade metamorphism. Surely, if this
remarkable discovery proves anything at all, then it is that metamorphic quartz has not only been produced by
dehydration and transformation in situ of precursor silica gel and/or chert, but that the temperatures, pressures and timescales postulated are not necessarily required. Indeed, this discovery indicates that, since quartz does form from its
hydrous silica precursor at the low temperatures of diagenesis, these claimed high-grade metamorphic rocks may not
have suffered high temperatures and pressures at all!Stanton 103 has concluded that if the regional metamorphic silicates
do develop principally by transformation and grain growth, the problem of the illusive metamorphic reaction in the
natural milieu is resolved. Preservation of what appear to be disequilibrium concentration gradients and mineral
assemblages follows naturally if the materials formed at low temperatures and pressures, particularly in wet sedimentary
and sedimentary-hydrothermal depositional regimes, simply undergo early water loss followed by in situ solid-solid
transformation with rising temperatures and pressures. There is no destabilising of large chemical domains (bulk
chemistries) leading to extensive diffusion, no widespread reaction tending to new equilibria among minerals that develop
as groups in accordance with the requirements of the Phase Rule. Puzzled speculation that some metamorphic rocks
might attain their mineral assemblages directly rather than through a series of mineral reactions, and hence without
passing through each successive grade, appears to be answered. The common lack of evidence that high-grade zones
have passed through all the mineral assemblages of the lower-grade zones, an inevitable corollary of the progressive
nature of the conventional understanding of metamorphism, seems accounted for. The real metamorphic grade indicators
are then not the hypothetical intermineral reactions usually postulated, but the relevant precursor transformations, which
may be solid-solid or in some cases gel-solid. Of course, it would be going too far to maintain that there was no such thing
as a regional metamorphic mineral reaction, or that regional metamorphic equilibrium was never attained. Nevertheless,
such phenomena appear not to have anything like the dominating importance in regional metamorphism that is currently

assumed, and the role of metamorphic reactions in generating the bulk of regional metamorphic mineral matter is
probably, quite contrary to present belief, almost negligible.The other key factor in elucidating regional metamorphic
grades, zones and mineral compositions besides precursor mineral/sediment compositions would thus be the
temperatures of precursor transformations, rather than the temperatures of presumed classical metamorphic mineral
reactions. It is therefore highly significant that hydrous quartz, which should have been totally dehydrated at relatively
low temperatures, is still found today with its water content in a high-grade metamorphic terrain. This is not an isolated
occurrence. Many such examples indicate that such transformations do occur at low to moderate temperatures and
pressures, and that the time-scales involved may not have been as long as suggested. Thus it is conceivable that regional
metamorphic terrains with their zones of classical index minerals could have been produced as a result of catastrophic
sedimentation, burial and tectonic activities over short time-scales, the zones only being a reflection of variations in
original sedimentation, as can be demonstrated in continental shelf depositional facies today
Regional Metamorphism Within the Creationist Framework
In the creationist framework of earth history there is more than one episode capable of producing large regions of zoned
metamorphic rocks. During the Creation it is not clear when the first rocks were created and formed, although of course
the Scriptural record clearly states that dry land was formed and covered in soils ready for plants to grow in during Day
Three. The earth itself was created on Day One, but we are only told that it was then covered in water. We can only
speculate whether there was a rocky earth beneath differentiated at that point of time into a core, mantle and rocky
exterior crust.104 Furthermore, the nature of any such early-formed rocky crust would be difficult to decipher from todays
surface exposures, because the rocks there have undergone changes due to the catastrophic events since. Nevertheless,
we can clearly infer that the formation of the dry land must have involved both earth movements (tectonism), erosion of
the emerging land surface due to the retreating waters, and deposition of sediments in the developing ocean basins. So at
the very least there is here sedimentation capable of producing zones of sediments with subtle differences in bulk
chemistry and mineralogy that would be precursors for accompanying or subsequent regional metamorphism. It is
because tectonism accompanied this sedimentation that we cannot preclude the possibility that with such earth
movements, plus deep burial of some of these sediments, some metamorphism in some regions may have accompanied
this Day Three regression.Of course, there is no reason to assume that this sedimentation did not continue on into, and
through, the pre-Flood era. Furthermore, any volcanism and tectonism that occurred during the Creation may also have
continued on into the pre-Flood era, but obviously with an intensity and frequency subdued enough so as not to generate
impossible living conditions for the residents of the pre-Flood world. Thus the pre-Flood continental shelves and ocean
basins would have continued to accumulate a variety of sediments with zonal patterns of different clay and other minerals,
perhaps not too dissimilar to those observed today and described earlier (for example, see Figure 7). There also seems
no reason not to suppose that there was also sea-floor hydrothermal activity, with hot springs issuing forth a variety of
chemicals to interact with the normal marine sedimentation. In the pre-Flood era there is wide scope for the development
of sedimentation patterns that may have subsequently been metamorphosed, due to heat released and burial at the
outset of the Flood producing temperatures sufficient to induce precursor transformations and regional zones that would
mimic conventional grades. Nevertheless, it is suggested that the scope for metamorphism itself would have been
somewhat limited in the pre-Flood era.It is, of course, the Flood event itself which provides perhaps the greatest scope for
regional metamorphism within the creationist framework of earth history. With water eventually again covering the whole
earth, catastrophic sedimentation occurred as the pre-Flood land surface was eroded away. The vast thicknesses of
fossil-bearing strata are mute testimony to the deep burial of large volumes of sediments. The rock record also testifies to
vast outpourings of lavas, so that volcanism on a global scale ensured the release of copious amounts of hydrothermal
waters during sedimentation, and the sediments would also have included volcanic components. 105 Tidal resonance of the
global oceans waters would have ensured an episodic nature to sedimentation, 106,107 and rapid deformation and
tectonism would have ensured both elevated temperatures and pressures in thick sediment piles, as well as the potential
for repeated cycles of sedimentation, metamorphism, erosion, sedimentation and then metamorphism again in regions
that overlapped as this catastrophic activity shifted geographically. l08 Add to this the possibility of rapid plate tectonics with
thermal runaway subduction, rapid rifting, and rapid continent-continent collisions as per conventional plate tectonics
minus the evolutionary time-scale109-111 and one has a sufficient scenario for the various settings required for regional
metamorphism. The range of induced pressures would have, of course, been short-lived, and the time-scales would have
only allowed for moderate temperatures to be reached. However, as we have seen, the evidence presented now indicates
that composition is the primary factor in metamorphism, and that the zoning of index minerals found across regionally
metamorphosed terrains is dependent upon the presence and compositions of precursor minerals, and the temperatures
at which those precursors are transformed.This overall scenario may be somewhat simplistic, but it does provide the
skeleton of a creationist explanation for regional metamorphism. As was noted at the outset, the biggest problem
creationists face with the conventional scenario for regional metamorphism is the heat presumed to have been
involved,112 given that even with rapid burial beneath kilometres of sediments time is needed to produce that heat within
the sediment pile. However, we have now seen that only moderate temperatures may be needed to transform the
precursors into the index minerals of the zones of regional metamorphism, and such moderate temperatures would have
conceivably been generated in the short time-scale in the Flood event described above, both due to the thicknesses of the
sediment piles catastrophically accumulated, and due to the increased heat flow from the mantle because of rapid plate
tectonics.113 This higher heat flow during the Flood also would have progressively raised ocean water temperatures. This
has been confirmed by oxygen isotope analyses of foraminifera fossilised in the lowermost deep-sea sediments in todays
post-Flood ocean basins (such fossilised foraminifera building their tests in equilibrium with the waters at the time they
lived, which would have been at the end of the Flood/beginning of the post-Flood era).114 So the waters trapped in the
Flood sediments would have been warmer than the waters being trapped in sediments today, thus giving the buried
sediments a head start in reaching the temperatures required for diagenesis, and then the moderate temperatures
required for regional metamorphism.This demonstrated necessity for only moderate temperatures to transform precursors,
even at the highest conventional grades also alleviates the conventional need, raised as an objection against Flood
geology by Young,115to bury sediments under loads up to 16-19 kms thick to produce the presumed high temperatures
and high pressures conventionally thought necessary for regional metamorphism. These conventionally postulated
overlying thicknesses Young also posed as another problem, as they need to be then eroded away subsequent to that
metamorphism so that the metamorphosed strata are now exposed at the earths surface again. Thus, given the primary
importance of precursors and zones of different precursors in the sediments, it has now been demonstrated that the
creationist framework with its short time-scale, and particularly the Flood event, appears to be able to cope with the
moderate temperatures, pressures and depths of burial, plus the catastrophic loading and unloading (burial and erosion),
required for regional metamorphism, and for the distribution of regionally metamorphosed rocks and their constituent
grade zones that we see exposed on the earths surface today.

Metamorphic Zones and Facies


Like other terrains of regionally metamorphosed rocks in other parts of the world, the New England (USA) area has been
carefully mapped and the rocks divided into metamorphic zones and facies according to their contents (see Figure 1 and
Table 1).6 As already indicated, conventional uniformitarian thinking like that of Young envisages that in regions such as
the New England sedimentary strata must have been subjected to elevated temperatures and pressures due to deep
burial and deformation/tectonic forces over millions of years, and that the resultant mineralogical and textural formations
are due to mineral reactions in the original sediments during those prevailing temperature-pressure conditions. Thus the
mapped zones of strata, as in Figure 1, contain mineral assemblages that are believed to be diagnostic and confined to
each zone respectively. It is assumed that these mineral assemblages reflect the metamorphic transformation conditions
specific to each zone, so that by traversing across these metamorphic zones, from the chlorite zone to the sillimanite-K
feldspar zone, higher metamorphic grades are progressively encountered, from low to high grade respectively. In the case
of the New England area the original sedimentary strata were not just pelitic rocks, but included mafic igneous rocks, and
carbonate units that had been metamorphosed into calc-silicates. Thus while the metamorphic zones are often more
easily mapped in the field within the pelitic rocks, there is believed to be an approximate correlation with characteristic
mineral facies developed in the associated mafic rocks and with index minerals found in the calc-silicates, as shown in
Table 1.
Pelitic Rocks

Mafic Rocks

Calc-Silicate Rocks

Biotite zone

Greenschist facies

Talc, phlogopite

Garnet zone

Epidote amphibolite facies

Tremolite, actinolite, epidote, zoisite

Staurolite zone

Diopside

Sillimanite zone

Amphibolite facies

Grossularite, scapolite

Sillimanite-K feldspar zone

Hornblende-pyroxene granulite facies

Forsterite

Table 1. Approximate correlation of mineral zones in pelitic rocks, as shown in Figure 1, with characteristic mineral facies
developed in associated mafic rocks and with the index minerals found in calc-silicate rocks.
The lines that separate the different metamorphic zones, as depicted in Figure 1, are called isograds, and are defined as
the line along which the index mineral or mineral pair characteristic of the next metamorphic zone first appears in rocks of
similar composition. Such first appearances are believed to be dependent not only on externally imposed conditions of
temperature, pressure, and the activities of components that have comparatively free mobility, such as water, but also on
the original bulk compositions of the rocks. These isograds, of course, are ideally drawn on maps so as to minimise the
effects of variations in initial bulk compositions which invariably occur due to the fact that these metamorphic zones and
facies cross the boundaries between different original stratafor example, pelitic sedimentary rocks, with interbedded
mafic igneous rocks and carbonates. It is envisaged that the mineral assemblages in these zones and facies are the result
of mineral reactions, whereby the temperature and pressure conditions, along with active components like water, have
induced the minerals in the original rocks to react and form new minerals. Thus, for example, it is envisaged that at the
boundary between the biotite and garnet zones in typical pelitic rocks is the first appearance of the completed reaction:

Of course, such reactions will vary according to which minerals are available to react with one another in the original
rocks, so for example, if the rock contained more aluminium the resultant reaction might be:

Considerable effort has therefore been expended to elucidate all possible reactions between minerals in the almost
limitless potential variations in original bulk compositions.
Historically, the concept of metamorphic zones
and facies was developed by Barrow as a result
of his geological mapping of the metamorphic
rocks and the mineral zones in them in the
Scottish Highlands (see Figure 2).7-9 Barrows
mineralogical zones, which he ascribed to the
effect of systematically increasing temperature on
the sedimentary rocks of the area he described,
laid the foundation for, and formed the basis of,
the
concept
of
progressive
regional
metamorphism as we know it today. The terrain
with which Barrow happened to be involved was
restricted almost entirely to commonly occurring
silicate
rocksprimarily
greywackes
and
subordinate pelites. Barrow was not concerned
with metamorphic assemblages associated with
metal ores of any kind, for he appears quite
simply not to have encountered them. Had he
encountered them he may have come to rather
different conclusions with respect to the
processes of regional metamorphism. It is now
known that many ores are metamorphosed, and
such ores and their environments yield clues to a
better understanding of metamorphism in general,
an understanding that may help to resolve some
of the perceived conflicts between the current
uniformitarian view of regional metamorphism and
the young-earth Creation-Flood model.

Figure 2. Simplified regional representation of the metamorphic zones of the Grampian Caledonides, Scotland.
Although there have been some doubts expressed, it appears to be widely accepted amongst geologists that the
achievement of chemical equilibrium in regional metamorphism is the rule rather than the exception. Metamorphic
petrology today is based on the assumption that chemical equilibrium is virtually always attained and hence that mineral
assemblages can be evaluated in the context of the Phase Rule. It appears to be generally accepted that diffusion occurs
over distances large enough to permit mineral reactions to occur through large volumes of rock, and that with rise in
temperature and pressure, such reactions occur in progressive fashion so that any particular set of pressure-temperature
conditions comes to manifest itself through the development, in rocks of like chemical composition, of a particular set of
metamorphic minerals. In this way grades of metamorphism and metamorphic gradients and zones are identified, and
metamorphic rocks of different compositions are linked through the facies principle.
Current Inherent Difficulties
This view of metamorphism is now so well established that it constitutes an essentially unquestioned basis for some very
highly refined studies of relationships between mineral chemistry and metamorphic grade. These include studies of trace
element abundances in individual minerals, trace element partitioning between mineral species, fractionation of stable
isotopes, and related fields of investigation.However, there are some reasons to doubt whether the basic assumptions are
as sound as they have been thought to be. More precise studies, on the scale of the microscope and particularly of the
electron microprobe, are beginning to place severe limits on the distances involved in metamorphic diffusion. This is
critical, because limits on diffusion set limits to the extent to which minerals may react, and this in turn limits the extent to
which the metamorphic system can approach equilibrium.Writing in the same year as Barrows epic work, Harker 10 set
severe limits to the scale on which metamorphic diffusion might take place. From his observations of the delicate
preservation of bedding in some metamorphosed strata, Harker concluded: that within the mass of rock undergoing thermal metamorphism any transfer of material (other than volatile
substances) is confined to extremely narrow limits, and consequently the mineral formed at any point depends on the
chemical composition of the rock mass within a certain very small distance around that point. 11
In the same year Harker and Marr,12 through their very careful consideration of metamorphic phenomena associated with
the contact of the Shap Granite, concluded that in that case diffusion distances were probably of the order of 1/20 or 1/25
inch13 (around 1mm).More recently, Turner and Verhoogen 14 observed that what little evidence there is seems to indicate
that metamorphic diffusion is probably effective at most over distances measured in centimetres, over times of the order
of millions of years. However, in the same year Chinner 15 noted:The confinement of rocks of varying oxidation ratio to well-defined sedimentary bands suggests that the differences in
oxygen content are of premetamorphic, diagenetic origin .16
In contrast, Carmichael17 has estimated diffusion limits of the order of 0.2mm4.0mm.
Thus in the century since Barrows and Harkers early work, opinion on diffusion distances, concomitant material transfer,
and resulting modification of rock compositions, has varied widely. Many investigators have assumed extensive diffusion
and substantial material transfer, though careful mass-balance calculations by others have repeatedly indicated that in at
least many cases diffusion distances have been very small. Opinion probably remains diverse, though Winkler has
encapsulated the view of many modem investigators:There are many indications that rocks constitute a "closed " thermodynamic system during the short time required for
metamorphic crystallization. Transport of material is generally limited to distances similar to the size of newly formed
crystals. It has been observed frequently that minute chemical differences of former sediments are preserved during
metamorphism.
Metamorphism is essentially an isochemical process . . . (emphasis his).18
Whether diffusion is in fact restricted to very small distances, and what, precisely, these distances are, is a critical matter
for regional metamorphic petrogenesis. If, as indicated by Harker in 1893 and reiterated by Winkler in 1979, the chemical
components of a metamorphic grain now occupying a given small domain are derived directly from those chemical
components occupying that domain immediately prior to the onset of metamorphism, that metamorphic mineral must
represent the in situ growth and/or transformation of a premetamorphic material of similar overall composition, or it must
be one of two or more products of the in situ breakdown of premetamorphic material of appropriate composition.
If this is the case, and it follows not only from the considerations of Harker and Winkler, but also from all those whose
findings have indicated metamorphic mineral growth to be isochemical on a fine scale, the implications for metamorphic
petrogenesis are profound. The development of metamorphic minerals would stem from simple grain growth, ordering of
randomly disposed structures, and solid-solid transformations, not from mineral reactions as these are currently
visualised. Such metamorphic mineral development would be attained on no more, and perhaps often less, than a single
grain scale, and the proposition that groups of minerals, on a thin-section scale, commonly represent equilibrium
assemblages developed in accordance with the Phase Rule, would be seriously open to question.For the geologist
studying ore deposits this question of diffusion distances, and the likelihood that metamorphic diffusion might induce
short-range modification of rock compositions, is vital in the detailed consideration of metamorphic processes. There are
some ore deposits that form as a primary part of the pelitic rocks in which they occur and which, hence, suffer any
metamorphism that the latter may undergo. One approach to the elucidation of the physical and chemical conditions of
formation of these ores is the consideration of their present chemical compositions. However, such an approach is
soundly based only if present constitutional features are a close reflection of the original ones. This will not be the case if
metamorphism has induced differential movement of components. Thus the ore petrologist is obliged to have a vital
concern with the nature, and particularly the scale, of metamorphic diffusion.Such limitations on the distance of migration
of the elements in metamorphism impose severe constraints on the extent of reaction and the opportunity for equilibration
of mineral assemblages. Indeed, clear microscopical evidence of mineral reaction, as distinct from solid-solid
transformations, such as the transformation of andalusite to kyanite, is usually very hard to find, even where minerals that
might be expected to react lie in contact. Where good microscopical evidence for a fact or process exists, in whatever field
of science, it is usual for this to be presented photographically (for example, Vernon 19). It therefore seems significant that
of the three great metamorphic texts in English of recent years 20-22 none shows a single photograph illustrating the
destruction of one mineral and the concomitant development of another. Two other texts of a specialist nature on
metamorphic textures23 and metamorphic processes24 also do not have any photographs of any mineral transformations,
although the former text has photographs of textures and some reaction rims and coronas. Mineral aggregates said to
indicate particular reactions commonly present an equivocal picture, and in most cases, the postulated product-reactant
grouping does not, within that group, yield a balanced chemical equation with respect to all elements. 25 What seems the
best evidence, that is, two or more products habitually replacing what could be seen to be formerly juxtaposed
reactants, the whole yielding a balanced equation, seems very difficult to find.

Quite frequently some minerals present in a rock, for example, quartz and muscovite, might have been expected to have
reacted prior to the achievement of the metamorphic grade indicated by the presence of an associated mineral, in this
case sillimanite, but there is no unambiguous microscopical evidence indicating that they have done so. Such difficulties
led Carmichael26 to propose the operation of metasomatic cation-exchange, though it is difficult to see how such a
mechanism can be reconciled better than any other mechanism with limits set by diffusion. Certainly, evidence of reaction
should be preserved along isograds, but even here it seems to elude us. This almost general absence of direct evidence
of reaction has led some observers27-29 to suggest that metamorphic rocks may attain their mineral assemblages directly,
rather than by a series of mineral reactions, and hence without passing through each successive grade. When viewed in a
detached way it may be seen that any evidence for mineral reactions is really largely circumstantial. On traversing a
metamorphic terrain we find that as one mineral diminishes and disappears another appears to take its place, and so it
has been assumed that there must have been a reaction leading to the demise of the first mineral and the generation of
the second. There are, however, other reasons why one mineral might give way to another in a spatial sense.Coupled
with doubts concerning the reality of many postulated reactions are doubts on equilibrium. The preservation of zoning in
garnets, for example, revealed so spectacularly in the past 20 years by the electron microprobe, has been an indication
that, even at high grades of metamorphism, equilibrium may remain unattained even in a single crystal. The significance
of this has often been minimised on the grounds that diffusion in garnet is probably sluggish due to the complex closepacked structure and strong bonding of the garnet crystal. However, evidence of the preservation of compositional
inhomogeneities in other minerals, including sulphides 30 is now mounting, indicating that compositional equilibrium may
not have been attained even in the most sensitive crystal structures, and even where these are subjected to the highest
grades of metamorphism.
Ore Deposits in Metasedimentary Rocks
There are two principle categories of ore deposits in sedimentary and metasedimentary rocks: those that, prior to any
post-depositional deformation, are concordant and those that are discordant with respect to the bedding of the containing
rocks.The discordant group are those referred to as veins that occupy openings, frequently faults, that cut across bedding.
The materials in the veins have been introduced from elsewhere in liquid and gaseous solutions, and they have built up by
accretion on the walls of the openings concerned. Frequently the solutions and gases have not only yielded the minerals
of the ores, they have also caused alteration of the walls of the opening. Such alteration may extend some metres into the
enclosing rocks and is commonly referred to as wall-rock alteration, an almost ubiquitous accompaniment of vein
formation. Common products of this alteration are sericite, chlorite, quartz, kaolinite and pyrite. In all cases both ore and
alteration are the products of materials manifestly introduced from elsewhere and superimposed on the geological
environment of the original opening.The concordant group of deposits are those now usually referred to as conformable
or stratiform ores. The ore minerals, usually sulphides, have the appearance of being an integral, and hence normal,
component of the sedimentary or metasedimentary rocks in which they occur, being simply grains within a granular rock.
The orebodies are usually lens-shaped and grossly elongated, with their long dimensions parallel to the stratification of
the enclosing rocks, and they themselves commonly display good internal bedding which may usually be demonstrated to
be continuous with that of the enclosing pelitic sediment.In a manner that appears somewhat analogous to the wall-rock
alteration zones around discordant or vein ores, many stratiform deposits contain, and are immediately ensheathed by,
metapelitic rocks displaying distinctive metamorphic mineral assemblages. These assemblages are sometimes quite
complex and exotic and include all of sericite, chlorite, garnet; metamorphic pyroxenes, amphiboles and olivines;
staurolite, sillimanite and most of the other well-known metamorphic minerals.Because the materials of discordant/vein
ores are so demonstrably introduced, and that at some discrete time after the formation of the host rocks, it was for a
long time thought that the materials of the concordant/stratiform ores must, simply because they were ores, have likewise
been introduced. Because they were clearly not formed by the filling of openings it was concluded that they formed by a
process of metasomatic replacement. At the same time the rather unusual metamorphic mineral assemblages that often
occurred within and surrounding concordant/stratiform orebodies were identified also as metasomatic and equated with
the zones of wall-rock alteration so commonly associated with the discordant/vein ores.
However, it is now generally accepted that most of these concordant/stratiform ores have not developed by replacement
of preexisting, lithified sedimentary or metasedimentary rocks, the sulphides of these ores having been laid down as fine
chemical precipitates as part of the original sediments themselves. Indeed, such modern-day analogues have been found
and observed forming on the sea-floor associated with hydrothermal springs. 31-36 These ores are, as of course they have
the appearance of being, intrinsic parts of the rocks in which they occur, and they have shared the whole of the latters
history.This being the case, the somewhat unusual metamorphic mineral assemblages within and surrounding the ores
can no longer be ascribed to late-stage metasomatic activity associated with ore deposition by hydrothermal replacement.
They must result from the metamorphism of the sedimentary materials laid down with, and adjacent to, the sulphide
precipitates. Thus they are genuine metamorphic rocks, even if unusual, and are likely to be just as significant in the study
of metamorphic phenomena as the metamorphosed pelitic rocks observed by Barrow, Harker and their many modern
counterparts.37-39These stratiform orebodies and their enclosing metapelites often provide very sharp chemical and
mineralogical contrasts down to a very small scale, such contrasts being commonly preserved in the very ordered form of
the earlier fine bedding of the sediment concerned. Such ores represent high, and usually highly fluctuating,
concentrations of particular elements and minerals set in a medium of very much lower concentrations of these elements
and minerals. For example, a stratiform orebody may contain 15% Pb, whereas the enclosing rocks a few centimetres
away normally only contain parts per million Pb. In the ore Fe may be in excess of 40%, whereas immediately outside the
orebody the Fe concentration usually decreases to less than 10%. Expressed mineralogically, the orebody contains
abundant galena whereas the surrounding strata contain none. Similarly, the ore-beds and their sheath may contain
abundant chlorite, garnet and other metamorphic minerals that are absent from, or very much less abundant in, the
enclosing rocks. In addition to this highly localised nature of the metamorphic minerals these also occur in a bedded
arrangement; that is, metamorphism of the rock and the development of the metamorphic minerals in many cases has not
led to the disruption of the original bedding or other sedimentary structures. Thus these orebodies provide unusually good
opportunities for studying the incidence of individual metamorphic mineral species and of compositional variations in
them, and the relation of this to the original features of sedimentation. As a result they also provide good opportunities for
studying distances over which concentration equilibria are attained, and hence instances over which metamorphic
diffusion has occurred.
Evidence of Regional Metamorphic Processes From Stratiform Ore Environments
The Extent of Metamorphic Diffusion
It seems reasonable to expect that the maximum distances of the diffusion would be indicated by the distance over which
compositional homogeneity is achieved on a small scale between, and within, individual crystalline grains of an individual
mineral species. Stratiform ores and their envelopes provide some striking examples of the preservation of compositional

inhomogeneities over very small distances. The following examples occur in assemblages that include garnet, staurolite
and sillimanite, that is, high-grade metamorphic assemblages in which diffusion would be expected to have operated to
the maximum extent.Beginning with the relatively gross scale of centimetres, Stanton and Vaughan 40,41 have studied
variations in garnet compositions associated with the Pegmont orebody in northwest Queensland. Close examination of
Figure 3 shows that over a distance of 23cm, between 357.03m and 357.26m in drill core PD31, substantial variations
exist in the compositions of garnet grains. Furthermore, at each of the three sample points concerned there was also
substantial variation in garnet grain compositions within each single electron microprobe section concerned. Yet garnet is
not the only mineral to exhibit such short range variations of this general kind in this particular orebody. For example,
FeO/MnO weight percent in manganiferous fayalitic olivine was found to vary from 10 to 24 weight percent then back to
10 weight percent again over a distance of less than a metre.
Click here for larger image
Figure 3. Variation in divalent cation composition of almandine garnets at eight points over a
total down-core distance of 1.08 m in diamond drill-hole PD31 through the fringe of the ore
horizon at Pegmont, Queensland. Note the gross variation in garnet composition over the 23
cm interval from 357.03 m yo 357.26 m. Rows of filled circles at each depth position indicate variation in composition
observed in each individual probe section.On a somewhat finer scale Stanton and Williams42 investigated the preservation
of garnet compositions as related to bedding in a finely laminated garnet-quartzite (a variant of a banded iron formation)
from Broken Hill, New South Wales. They found significant differences in garnet compositions developed and preserved
from one thin bed to the next on a scale of 1mm or less. However, systematic microanalyses showed that whereas garnet
compositions varied grossly across bedding they were, within the high order of accuracy of the analyses, completely
uniform along beds, indicating that the observed finely layered compositional arrangement was a direct reflection of
original bedding. That is, a chemical sedimentary feature of the finest scale had been preserved through a proposed
period claimed to be at least 1.8 billion years, and through a metamorphic episode generally regarded as of very high
grade.43On an even finer scale, there is clear evidence of within-grain inhomogeneities in some of the minerals associated
with stratiform ores, the presence of these inhomogeneities indicating limits to diffusion within a single crystal grain during
high grade metamorphism. For example, metamorphism of the Mount Misery stratiform orebody near Einasleigh, North
Queensland, has produced an assemblage which includes andradite, hornblende and epidote. 44-45Pairs of analyses from
single grains of andradite (0.05mm apart) and epidote (0.20mm apart) reveal compositional differences that are
substantial. In neither of these or other examples does it appear that these differences are due to segregation or
exsolution resulting from a tendency for the achievement of a lower energy state by the gathering of elements into
structural domains within the crystals. Neither do they represent visible zoning. Instead, they appear to be patchy
inhomogeneities that probably represent earlier individual grains of slightly different composition that have amalgamated
to become one larger grain as a result of grain boundary movement during metamorphism.The maintenance of such clear
compositional disequilibrium between and within grains of single mineral species, and the preservation of this
disequilibrium on such a fine scale through the highest supposed grades of metamorphism, seems to indicate that, at
least in some cases, metamorphic diffusion is limited not only to distances of a fraction of a millimetre but also to
distances less than the grain sizes of the minerals concerned.
Mineral Reactions
With the development of very extensive assemblages of metamorphic minerals within what are relatively very small
volumes it might be expected that metamorphosed stratiform ores and their envelopes would provide, better perhaps than
almost any other metapelitic environment, good textural evidence of mineral reactions. This, however, they do not seem to
do.In the ore environs at Broken Hill, New South Wales, quartz and muscovite occur together in rocks also containing
sillimanite, but the muscovite exhibits its characteristic sub-idiomorphic, sharply defined, platy form and shows no sign of
reacting with the adjacent quartz to form sillimanite and K-feldspar,46 as would normally be expected according to the
frequently quoted reaction

Similarly, muscovite-biotite and muscovite-biotite-quartz aggregates are common, but show no sign of reaction in situto
form garnet (or cordierite) and K-feldspar, although they might have been expected to have done so at the grade of
metamorphism that appears to have been achieved. Similarly, in the Mt Misery orebody chlorite, muscovite and quartz
occur in contact in samples whose apparent high-grade nature is indicated by the presence of abundant staurolite and
sillimanite or kyanite, but in spite of the high iron content of the chlorites 47 there is no textural evidence of the three
reacting to produce biotite, or cordierite-biotite, which they might be expected to have done given the over-all apparently
high-grade assemblages of the rocks concerned.Stanton reported that his examination of many thin sections of rocks from
these, and similar metamorphosed stratiform ore environments, has failed to yield clear micro-structural evidence of
mineral reactions. Indeed, there appears to be no unequivocal indication, in the development of corrosion features,
reaction rims or pseudomorphs, that minerals that might have been expected to react with each other have done so, nor
does there seem to be any clear micro-structural indication of reactions through which the higher grade minerals have
formed. Given that some stratiform ore zones possess a very wide range of metamorphic minerals within volumes of a
few cubic centimetres, it might have been expected that evidence of such reactions would be found here even if they
could be found nowhere else. The inference is that metamorphic mineral reactions, as these are currently visualised, are
unlikely to have been a significant factor in the development of these particular extensive metamorphic mineral
assemblages.
Attainment of Metamorphic Equilibrium
Probably the most basic of all the assumptions in the current consensus about metamorphic rocks and metamorphism is
that prograde mineral assemblages as those now observed reflect the attainment of chemical equilibrium. It seems widely
accepted that, because of the supposed long periods of presumed millions of years available, lag effects were not
significant and thus the various mineral phases present developed and were preserved in accordance with the Phase
Rule. On the other hand, because of the lack of these presumed long periods of time in the young-earth Creation-Flood
model we would expect chemical/metamorphic equilibrium not to have been attained. Thus it is highly significant that from
time to time evidence of doubt about the attainment of metamorphic equilibrium has appeared in the literature.
In 1925 Tilley,48 referring to chloritoid-andalusite schists of the Broken Hill area, noted:
One rock is described as containing in thin slice, quartz, muscovite, biotite, andalusite, sillimanite, chloritoid, chlorite,
garnet, magnetite and tourmaline. Such a mineral association is clearly one in which equilibrium is far from being
completely attained, and the associations bear witness to this great departure from equilibrium conditions.

Atherton,49 in examining variations in garnet, biotite and chlorite compositions in medium-grade pelitic rocks from the
Dalradian, noted:
Biotites 1 and 2 from rocks of higher grade have very similar Mg/Mg+Fe values; so do the rocks, but the chlorite values
are different. The reason for this is not clear. However, the host rock chlorite 2 is thinly banded and chlorite tends to be
confined to the quartzose portions, in which case the analyzed chlorite may include material from a subsystem of a
different composition to the whole.
Blackburn,50 working on high-grade gneisses from the Grenville Province of Ontario (Canada), concluded that the
volumes over which metamorphic equilibrium was established in rocks of this kind were limited to a few cubic centimetres
at most, and might be directionally related to foliation. Similar estimates, based on the mineral chemistry of coexisting
phases, as well as on the simple coexistence of such phases, have been
expressed by many other investigators.51-58
Click here for larger image
Figure 4. Zoning patterns in eight garnets in diamond drill-hole PD 31 through the
fringe of the ore horizon at Pegmont, Queensland. These garnets are in the lower
iron formation unit and the variations observed are over the small interval 356.82m
to 357.44m (see Figure 3). Compositional variation (y-axis) is expressed in terms of
Fe, Ca, Mn, and Mg cation numbers; the x-axis indicates the size of the garnets
(mm) and the relative positions of the probe analysis.
An ideal opportunity to further investigate whether metamorphic equilibrium has
been attained is afforded by some of the assemblages that occur within, and
immediately adjacent to, some metamorphosed stratiform ores. In most cases the
ores and their enclosing metasedimentary sheaths have been extensively drilled,
and continuous, spatially well-controlled, samples are thus available for study in a
highly systematic way.A lack of short-range equilibrium between grains of a single
mineral species during growth is quite spectacularly illustrated by the differences in
zoning patterns developed in garnets, for example, in drill-hole PO 31 from the
Pegmont ore deposit, Queensland (Figure 3). Vaughan and Stanton have
examined, using the electron microprobe, the patterns of zoning developed in
garnets of the several beds of garnet quartzite within an iron formation encountered
in this hole.59 Figure 4 shows the results obtained on eight garnets within three
beds 15cm and 8cm apart respectively. The zoning patterns present a complex
picture and are widely divergent. There is both normal Mn-Fe zonation (Mnenriched, Fe-depleted core relative to the rim) and reverse zonation (Mn-depleted, Fe-enriched core relative to the rim),
although Ca also contributes to zoning. These zoning patterns vary sharply over short distances, and therefore if these
zones developed during metamorphic growth they were apparently not in equilibrium when they did so.The most striking
evidence of the apparent lack of metamorphic equilibrium is, however, provided by the total assemblages of the ore zones
of deposits in metasedimentary rocks. Table 2 gives those associated with six such occurrencesthe Gorob orebody in
Namibia, the Gamsberg deposit in Namaqualand (South Africa ), the Broken Hill deposit (A-lode) in New South Wales, the
Pegmont and Einasleigh (Mount Misery deposits) in Queensland, and the Geco deposit in Ontario (Canada). 60Each of the
metamorphic mineral assemblages in these ore zones is extensive, and in most cases they cover the whole spectrum of
metamorphic index minerals of all the presumed zones of progressive regional metamorphism. Yet each assemblage is
contained within what is, compared to the regional scale of the classical metamorphic zones, almost an infinitesimally
small volume of rock. For example, the whole of the Mount Misery assemblage occurs in a single diamond drill-hole within
a core length of 20m, and a major portion of the whole assemblage can be found within a single thin section. 61 The
assemblage at Gorob is contained within a core length of 3m, and again a major part of it can be observed in almost any
individual thin section. Obviously, not all of the minerals listed in Table 2 as occurring in a given ore zone are found in
mutual contact, though the majority are so found in each case. Exhaustive examination of the Gorob metapelites shows,
for example, that quartz, chlorite, muscovite, biotite, almandine, staurolite and kyanite all occur within a single
homogeneous thin section and in mutual contact. While there is certainly a tendency for the various minerals to occur as
different groupings, that is, different assemblages, from one small metasedimentary unit to the next, the propensity for
extensive groupings of minerals to occur together is very clear.
Gorob
(Namibia)

Gamsberg
(South
Africa)

Broken-Hill
(A-lode)
(Australia)

Pegmont
(Australia)

Einasleigh
(Australia)

Geco
(Canada)

sillimanite

sillimanite

sillimanite

sillimanite

sillimanite

sillimanite

K-feldspar

K-feldspar

K-feldspar

andalusite

staurolite

K-feldspar

kyanite

olivine

olivine

K-feldspar

andesine

staurolite

staurolite

clinopyroxene

staurolite

staurolite

scapolite

hornblende

cordierite

orthopyroxene

hornblende

clinopyroxene

clinopyroxene

cordierite

anthophyllite

pyroxenoids

hedenbergite
pyroxenoids

hornblende

hornblende

gedrite

almandine

grunerite

grunerite

grunerite

andradite

biotite

biotite

codierite

almandine

biotite

almandine

muscovite

muscovite

almandine

biotite

muscovite

actinolite

chlorite

chlorite

andradite

muscovite

chlorite

epidote

kaolinite

prehnite

biotite

chlorite

greenalite

biotite

sudoitic
chlorite

and

related

quartz

zoisite

quartz

quartz

muscovite

clinozoisite

chlorite

muscovite

stilpnomelane

chlorite

prehnite

quartz

laumonite

quartz

chamosite
quartz
Table 2. Silicate mineral assemblages of some exhalative stratiform orebodies and their metasedimentary sheaths.
Significance of the Metapelites Associated With Stratiform Ores
All of the ores that have just been considered in connection with diffusion, reaction and equilibrium have been
metamorphosed to high grade; all contain abundant garnet, staurolite, and sillimanite or kyanite. They thus show that
even at what are currently regarded as high grades of metamorphism of pelitic rocksmetamorphic diffusion is, at least in
some cases, confined to distances of a small fraction of a millimetre,microscopic evidence of metamorphic reactions is
usually poor and ambiguous, or absent, andthe whole spectrum of metamorphic index minerals may occur within
centimetres of each other, indicating either that metamorphic mineral equilibrium is not established even over very small
distances, or that some factor other than, or additional to, temperature and pressure is responsible for the development of
these minerals.The confinement of metamorphic diffusion to minuscule distances indicates that the metamorphic minerals
now occupying a given domain in space must have grown from materials that previously occupied that domain, so that
what is now present in any small segment of a metamorphic rock must be a close constitutional (that is, compositional and
crystal-structural) reflection of what previously occupied the space concerned. Furthermore; the coexistence of the whole
spectrum of metamorphic index minerals in such confined spaces indicates that, given a temperature and pressure
sufficient to induce mineralogical change, there is some other factor that is of dominating importance in determining what
minerals will develop. There seems no doubt that this is composition, the constitutions of the minute volumes of material
from which each metamorphic mineral grain develops.It has of course long been recognised that compositional variation
is an important factor in the development of a given metamorphic mineral assemblage. Indeed, the development of a
particular set of metamorphic minerals has always been considered as being dependent on pressure (P), temperature (T)
and composition (X). However, it has been thought that by taking a particular group of rocks of essentially uniform
composition, such as the argillaceous rocks, 62-64 the composition X could be made essentially a constant; that is,
observation could be restricted to what was regarded, to a first approximation, as an isochemical system, so that
variations in mineralogy became independent of rock composition and could be regarded substantially as indicators of
variations in temperature and pressure.A careful study of the literature shows, however, that this assumption of constancy
of composition in argillaceous rocks has been an uneasy one. Repeatedly, different investigators have suggested that
anomalous occurrences of index minerals and resulting reversals of zones might be due to minor vagaries of parent
rock composition; that the composition of the original argillaceous rocks might not have been so constant that the
subsequent assemblages of metamorphic minerals reflected only variations in temperature and pressure. However, these
doubts and hesitations have generally been stated relatively unobtrusively, and so have had no significant effect on
mainstream thought.Now, however, the evidence of the metapelites associated with stratiform ores confirms these doubts,
putting them instead into a position of primary importance. Whole-rock analyses of the different lithological units and
bands at Gorob, Mount Misery, Broken Hill and Pegmont show these to vary in composition from one to another very
substantially over very short distances, even though the original rocks in all cases appear to have been pelitic. 65 The total
volumes of rock concerned have been far too small to have sustained differences in temperature, pressure, or partial
pressures of volatiles, over any significant period of time. The huge array of metamorphic minerals displayed in each case
must, therefore, reflect variations in the compositions of the parent shales. It appears that the sedimentary environments
of formation of the stratiform ores have been such as to induce marked and sudden changes in sediment constitution from
one bed to the next, and it is this that led to the development of such extensive metamorphic mineral assemblages in such
very small volumes of rock.What significance has this to our understanding of metamorphic grade and progressive
regional metamorphism? It indicates, as was pointed out by Yoder in 1952, 66 that differences between metamorphic
mineral assemblages may be, in at least some cases, entirely a result of variations in the bulk compositions of the parent
rocks, and need not represent variations in temperature and pressure at all. It also thus indicates that the metamorphic
zones described by Barrow and thought by him to reflect changing intensity of thermal metamorphism, could in fact result
from subtle but systematic compositional changes in the pelitic rocks concerned.
Precursors
If, as the evidence from the metamorphic mineral assemblages associated with stratiform ores suggests, metamorphic
minerals may represent essentially in situ transformations of earlier sedimentary-diagenetic materials, what might those
precursor materials have been? There are a number of possibilities, some of which, particularly in the case of some of
these simpler low-grade metamorphic minerals, are already well recognised.The chlorite of many metamorphic rocks
may have been incorporated in the original sediments as fine chloritic detritus, or it may have originated as fine volcanic
glass that was subsequently converted to montmorillonite and then, by iron and magnesium fixation, to chlorite. Sericite
and muscovite may have been contributed to the original sediments as fine illite, or it may represent sea floor and
diagenetic illitisation of kaolinite and other clay minerals. The biotite of metasedimentary rocks may have been detrital,
derived by erosion from granitic and older metamorphic rocks; or pyroclastic, derived from dacitic and related volcanism;
or it may be derived by potassium fixation and structural reordering from marine glauconite. 67 It has already been
suggested68-70 that at least many of the almandine garnets of metamorphosed sediments may derive from marine
chamosites, much of the zoning in the garnet stemming from the original oolitic structures of the chamosites. Although
garnet contains a little more silica than do most chamosites, dispersed fine chemical silica within chamosite grains could
readily supply the balance (Figure 5).71 Possible precursors of staurolite (and cordierite) are by no means obvious, but
marine degradation of, for example, calc-alkaline volcanic hornblendes might well yield mixed-layer clay-chlorite minerals
similar to some of those noted in volcanic clay deposits of Japan. 72 Granules of such materials, with finely admixed
chemical silica, as in the case of the chamosites above, in turn may be converted during compaction and metamorphism
to cordierite.

Figure 5. Al2O3-SiO2-M2+O relations in garnets from


Broken Hill and Mount Misery (dots) and in chamosites
from Mount Misery and in the literature (open circles).
The aluminium silicate (Al2SiO5) polymorphs may in
turn be derived from kaolinite, halloysite and related
alumino-silicate clays, sometimes in combination with
hydrothermal-sedimentary diaspore, boehmite and
gibbsite. It has previously been suggested73,74 that
sillimanite might be generated by desilication and
dehydration of kaolinite. It is possible, however, that
fibrolite, which may in some cases be a precursor of
sillimanite, is derived preferentially from the fibrous or
tubular member of the kaolinite family, halloysite. This
clay mineral is generated particularly in volcanic areas
as the result of degradation of feldspars by acid
(sulphate-bearing) hydrothermal solutions75 and has
been found in abundance in a number of the Japanese
volcanic hydrothermal clay deposits. Development of
sillimanite from halloysite might occur by a desilicationdehydration process analogous to that indicated for
kaolinite, or by the ordering of halloysite with
associated gibbsite, or with excess gibbsite in its
structure.
In work on minerals present in the metamorphosed
alteration zone associated with the Geco orebody (Ontario, Canada), Stanton 76 found three materials, whose identities
were not obvious under the microscope, that commonly occurred in association with sillimanite, and electron microprobe
analyses indicated that these were alumino-silicates. The most abundant of these alumino-silicate materials associated
with the sillimanite occurs as dark, extremely fine-grained clots, which give low analytical totals (90-98% ) indicative of
some water content, and plot on an Al2O3-SiO2diagram as shown in Figure 6. A lighter coloured, less fine-grained member
of the trio gives even lower analytical
totals and plots very close to the
position of halloysite.
Figure 6. Al2O3-SiO2 weight percent
relations in the three classes of
hydrous alumino-silicate minerals
intimately associated with sillimanite
in the Gleco Mine, Manitouwadge,
Ontario.
Points
for
kaolinite,
halloysite, pyrophyllite, sillimanite
and mullite are included for
reference.
There seems no likelihood that these
materials reflect weathering or
hydrothermal
breakdown
of
sillimanite to clay minerals, since the
drill core in which they occur comes
from deep beneath a heavily
glaciated,
and
little-weathered,
terrain. Neither is there any evidence
of alteration in associated sulphide or
silicate minerals (such as biotite),
and the microcrystalline material
tends strongly to occur at the
centres, not the peripheries, of
aggregates of clear, sharp sillimanite
crystals. Similarly, there is no evidence of retrogression in associated biotite, almandine and staurolite. Thus the fact that
these microcrystalline alumino-silicate materials plot in an unmistakable trend intermediate between halloysite/kaolinite
and sillimanite seems to give a strong indication that here preserved in an incomplete state is evidence of the prograde
transformation of halloysitic/kaolinitic precursor materials to sillimanite.On this general basis it may be suggested that the
three Al2SiO5 polymorphs, sillimanite, kyanite and andalusite, may in some cases each owe their development in
metamorphic rocks to nucleation and growth from a specific clay mineral of the kaolinite group, perhaps with additional
influence imposed by associated aluminium hydroxidesgibbsite, boehmite and diaspore. If this were the case, the
occurrence of particular Al2SiO5 polymorphs would thus be substantially a reflection of the compositions and crystal
structures of precursors, and would have little or no pressure-temperature connotation. This does not, however, contradict
the careful consideration of the problem of the Al 2SiO5polymorphs,77,78 or experiments79,80 which may be accepted as
impeccable. Nevertheless, this evidence does strongly suggest that there are alternative ways of generating these
minerals, just as there are alternative ways of producing many other minerals.Stanton 81 has provided numerous examples
of minerals found in metamorphic rocks that have been, or can be, produced from simple or complex precursors of near
identical compositions, and even at low temperatures. Consequently, the development of a particular metamorphic
mineral assemblage can thus be seen to have devolved from constitutional features in the widest sense, that is, not only
from simple bulk chemistry, but from this in combination with the detailed features of the precursor crystal structure or
mixtures of structures. The nature of such structures, and particularly of the mixed layering of clays - chlorites -Al/Fe
oxides/hydroxides- zeolites, and of the admixture of these with amorphous SiO2 and silica/ alumina gels, is likely to be just
as important as, or even more important than, bulk composition in the development of a particular metamorphic mineral.
Possible Reasons for the Extensive Assemblages Associated with some Stratiform Ores

Having established that metamorphic mineral assemblages, can be, indeed must be, derived by transformation in situfrom
simple and complex precursors as exemplified in the metasedimentary sheaths surrounding stratiform sulphide ores, it is
now necessary to explain how these remarkably extensive metamorphic mineral assemblages of the stratiform ore
environments develop, and the reasons for the great variations in composition of the original sediments that these mineral
assemblages reflect.It appears that most stratiform ores are formed by the contribution of mineral-bearing hot springs to
the sea floor in areas of volcanic activity. The waters of such hot springs today are, of course, at a relatively high
temperature, are also slightly acidic, and have a high dissolved solid content and low Eh. As they disgorge onto the sea
floor they encounter the water of the sea which is cold, slightly alkaline, possesses relatively low dissolved solids, and
which mayor may not have a low Eh (oxidation potential). Added to this, the output of the hot springs is likely to be somewhat pulsatory, and the motion of the sea water likely to vary with variation of the slow bottom currents of the locality
concerned, these two factors leading to a fluctuating interplay between the warm, acidic and concentrated waters of the
hydrothermal regime and the cold, alkaline and dilute waters of the normal marine regime. It is this interplay, the
encounter of warm, concentrated hydrothermal solutions with cold, dilute sea water, that leads to the precipitation of the
ore minerals, and it is its fluctuating nature that leads to the development of the bedding of the stratiform ores.However,
the contribution of the springs involves more than the ore minerals. As well as iron, calcium and other metal compounds, it
usually includes substantial quantities of silica, alumina, and silica-alumina gels, the basic materials of the clay minerals
and, through its acidic nature, it also involves the variable breakdown of detrital feldspars and other minerals to a variety
of clays within the surrounding sea floor sediments. This activity may continue on well after the deposition of the stratiform
orebody itself, and may thus lead to the accumulation of sediments not only of highly varying chemical composition, but
also containing a wide variety of clay and associated chemical/detrital minerals.Thus, sea-floor hydrothermal
environments of ore formation, involving as they inevitably do, rapid fluctuations in the chemical and physical state of the
mud-water interface, are likely to produce short-range changes of substantial chemical and crystal-structural significance
in the sediments to which they are contributing, particularly to rapid variations in clay mineral assemblages, as sediments
accumulate. Changes between dominantly kaolinitic, halloysitic, illitic, chamositic, montmorillonitic, chloritic, glauconitic
and related clay mineral sedimentation, changes that usually take place only over substantial distances and over
substantial stratigraphic intervals in normal marine sedimentation, may take place with extreme rapidity, and on a very
local scale, in the marine-hydrothermal regime. Thus if individual metamorphic minerals are essentially direct derivatives
of specific clay, chlorite, mixed-layer clay and mixed-layer clay-chlorite and zeolitic mineral precursors, the sea-floor
hydrothermal regime may generate over very small distances and over minute stratigraphic intervals the beginnings of a
wide range of metamorphic minerals, such as is usually observed to develop only over substantial distances and over
substantial stratigraphic intervals in normal marine pelitic sequences.
Clay Mineral Facies in the Marine-Shelf Environment
The small-scale sedimentary environments of stratiform ores such as those described thus indicate that the larger-scale
regional metamorphic zones in pelitic rocks could have stemmed in many cases from semi-regional variations in clay and
related mineral assemblages consequent upon the variations in the nature and conditions of sedimentation.The tendency
of the clay and related layered silicate minerals to develop zonal patterns of distribution during shelf sedimentation is well
established. Smoot,82 working in the Chester Series of the Mississippian sediments of Illinois, observed that clay minerals
were distributed in a regular pattern of essentially concentric zones which developed outwards from what he interpreted
as a delta onto an open marine shelf. He considered this distribution of clay minerals to be essentially a depositional,
rather than a diagenetic, feature, the coarser kaolinite having settled closer in-shore, whereas the finer material
remained suspended for some distance out to sea, thus adsorbing K + and being transformed to illite, which settled as
sediment further from the shore. Thus Millot 83 and de Segonzac84 both supported the suggestion that kaolinite, in
tending to deposit as larger crystals closer to its interpreted continental source, may be a palaeogeographical indicator of
supposed old shorelines.In considering the development of glauconite by the marine degradation of detrital biotite,
Galliher85 pointed out that in the sediments of Monterey Bay, California, biotite-rich sandy sediments laid down in nearshore zones were facies of glauconite muds deposited further out to sea. Similarly, in studying clays being delivered to the
present Gulf of Mexico, Griffen86 showed that a combination of current action and clay particle size led to an ordered
distribution of the different clay species, which in turn yielded a gradation facies pattern of clay minerals parallel to the
coastline. Figure 7, which shows the degrees of mixing of clay types from several rivers flowing into the Gulf of Mexico,
illustrates the scale and nature of clay mineral zoning in the near-shore, modern sediments
of the Gulf.
Click here for larger image
Figure 7. Zonal pattern of mixing of different clay types around portion of the coast of the
Gulf of Mexico. Apalachicola-type clay refers to the clay mineral suite contributed to the
Gulf by the Apalachicola River, as distinct from those contributed by the Mississippi and
Mobile Rivers.
The Liassic (Jurassic) chamositic ironstones of England and Germany have been noted as
occurring as a boundary facies between sandstone and shales, giving way laterally to
sandstones on what has been interpreted as the shallower margin, and to silty shales
towards what has been interpreted as deeper water.87 Thus it has been proposed that the ironstones developed as a
near-shore facies, and that they were an accompaniment to pronounced delta formation, the chamosite-rich zones
representing the pro-delta facies. Ellison,88 in his interpretation of the Middle Silurian sediments of the eastern USA,
suggested that a ferruginous facies occurred near-shore between the presumed palaeoshoreline and a carbonate reef
facies. This ferruginous facies constitutes a clear zonal development of iron-rich sediment containing abundant chamosite
as well as iron oxides. In a detailed study of the clay minerals of the iron-rich facies, Schoen89 showed that chamosite,
illite and chlorite were all abundant, the illite being detrital, the chlorite diagenetic, and the chamosite a primary,
syngenetic precipitate. Similarly, Porrenga90 found that the iron-rich minerals in the modern sediments of the Niger delta of
West Africa displayed a clear zoning of goethite, chamosite and glauconite- parallel to the shoreline. This is clearly
significant, because it is the clay minerals, chamosite and glauconite, that are the possible precursors to garnet and
biotite respectively.Along the South American shelf receiving sediments from the Amazon River, Gibbs 91 found a clear
zoning of clay minerals developed both along and across the shelf, which he attributed quite simply to sorting by size.
Jeans92likewise found distinctive zoning of clay mineral assemblages amongst the sedimentary megafacies in the Triassic
Keuper Marl, Tea Green Marl and Rhaetic Sediments in England. Two principal assemblages were recognised:a detrital assemblage of mica with minor chlorite which occurred throughout the sediments investigated; and
a neoformed assemblage of magnesium-rich clay minerals with a limited occurrence apparently related to certain
megafacies cycles that had presumably resulted from the interpreted transgression and regression of lighter, normal
marine waters over heavier, highly saline Mg-rich waters of a restricted hypersaline environment.

Thus, whatever the cause -variation in the nature of the source materials being eroded; differential settling due to
systematic differences in particle size or of flocculation; systematic variations in adsorption and neoformation sea- floor
alteration and agradation; variations in climatic conditions and temperatures during sedimentation; or marine
transgression or regression -it is clear that the incidence of different clay minerals in near-shore, and presumed nearshore, marine sediments commonly acquires distinct zoned patterns. The details of these patterns are not entirely
constant, and there is considerable overlap, but there does seem to be a widespread tendency for the sediments to
develop broad facies patterns not only in the size and nature of their coarser components, but also, though less obviously,
in the nature of the clay minerals that these sediments contain.The facies of clay mineral sedimentation on volcanic
shelves appear to be poorly studied, but it is envisaged that volcanic contributions to adjacent shelf areas may well modify
and enhance features of clay mineral distribution, and hence may have considerable significance in the metamorphic
response of the sediments concerned. In areas of sedimentation adjacent to calc-alkaline volcanism and hydrothermal
activity, it is likely that kaolinite is joined by halloysite and one or more of gibbsite, diaspore and boehmite. Considerable
hydrothermal iron could also be added to the sediments, and this presumably would favour the generation of chamosite
and glauconite in sedimentary facies, similar to the pattern found in the Niger delta. Erosion of deeply weathered
hinterlands, particularly those characterised by extensive laterite-bauxite, would also lead to the gross contribution of
ferriferous and aluminous material, and the addition of chamositic and glauconitic, and iron-rich chlorite, zones to the
more common kaolinite-, illite-, and smectite-rich clay mineral facies patterns.Thus with the superimposition of a
substantial component of iron, in somewhat greater-than-usual amounts of aluminous matter, on what might be referred to
as normal patterns of clay mineral sedimentation, we may visualise the development of a clay mineral zoning during
sedimentation such as is depicted in Figure 8(a). It should now be recalled that all of these minerals in this pattern have
been proposed as principle precursor materials of the common metamorphic index minerals. Figure 8(b) shows the
metamorphic mineral zonation that would, if these precursor-product relationships are valid, derive from the sedimentary
clay mineral zonation depicted in Figure 8(a). It should be noted that under such circumstances the given mineralogical
zone may be confined to a single stratum on a local scale, a single stratum may encompass several zones, and that
mineralogical (metamorphic) zones may develop at a high angle to bedding and hence cut across later developed fold
structures. For the pelitic rocks, on this basis, metamorphic facies may reflect sedimentary facies, as the latter manifest
themselves in subtle variations in clay mineral assemblages.
Click here for larger image
Figure 8. (a) Idealized representation of notably aluminum- and iron-rich clays and
clay type materials that might develop in the warm waters of a tropical shelf to
which seaboard calc-alkaline volcanic and hydrothermal activity were contributing.
(b), (c) Similarly idealized representation of metamorphic mineral zones that might
result from essentially isochemical regional metamorphism with concomitant
precursor
metamorphic mineral transformation, of the original pattern of
detrital, sedimentary and diagenetic clays as in (a). Note that the original clay
mineral facies boundaries and their derived metamorphic zones cut across
bedding, and hence would be transgressive to later fold structures.
A Creationist Alternative to the Uniformitarian Interpretation
As was noted at the outset, the concept of regional metamorphic zones and facies
was initially developed by Barrow, and later by Kennedy, their interpretation of the
metamorphic mineral zonation in the Dalradian of the Scottish Highlands being
depicted in a somewhat simplified fashion in Figure 2. It would appear that Barrow
was, very reasonably, conscious of the intrusive igneous rocks that cut the
Dalradian rocks further to the north, and interpreted the somewhat concentric zonation as a thermal effect. However, there
were in fact two possible explanations, not one, that he could have utilized, namely:that the zones reflected increasing grades of metamorphism of rocks of constant composition, as he concluded, or
that they reflected a more or less constant metamorphism of rocks of systematically, but subtly, changing constitution.
Whether Barrow saw only one possibility, or whether he saw the two and deliberately chose the first, we shall never know.
However, there is now this further evidence provided by stratiform ore environments that suggests that the second
alternative merits very serious consideration. In the Pegmont deposit (northwest Queensland), for example, Stanton and
Vaughan93 have presented what seems clear evidence that progressive change in metamorphic mineral assemblages and
metamorphic mineral chemistry are, in those instances at least, a direct consequence of sedimentary facies. Changes in
principal element abundances, as revealed in a series of drill-holes, from the centre to the edge of the Pegmont Basin
represent a pattern of chemical sedimentation that must have developed in a shallow depression on the sea floor. The
original materials of the chemical sediments were probably iron-rich clays and chlorites such as greenalite, minnesotaite
and chamosite, together with goethite, and minor sulphide increasing in abundance towards the center.
Conclusions
A careful search of the metamorphic petrology literature reveals that in recent years doubts have been expressed
regarding the basic assumptions of the classical or conventional explanation for regional metamorphism. Precise
microscope and electron microprobe studies now indicate that there are severe limits on the distances involved in
metamorphic diffusion, which in turn imposes severe constraints on both the extent of supposed mineral reactions and the
opportunity for equilibration of mineral assemblages. Even where different minerals are found side-by-side, that
conventional wisdom would expect to have reacted, no evidence of such mineral reactions can be found. Furthermore, the
preservation of very fine scale zoning patterns within single crystals indicates that, even at the supposed highest grades
of metamorphism, equilibrium has not been attained even within single crystals. One is thus forced to conclude that the
chemical components of a metamorphic grain now occupying a given small domain are derived directly from those
chemical components occupying that domain immediately prior to the onset of metamorphism - in other words, the
metamorphic mineral must represent the in situ growth and/or transformation of a pre-metamorphic material of similar
overall composition.These conclusions are strikingly confirmed by the array, assemblages and compositions of
metamorphic minerals found within and surrounding stratiform sulphide orebodies. Since these ores have now been
demonstrated to have formed due to hydrothermal springs on the sea-floor, the enclosing rocks with their metamorphic
assemblages must represent original pelitic sediments produced in concert with normal marine sedimentation. Studying
the assemblages of mineral species and their compositional variations in these metasedimentary sheaths shows that
original sedimentary features even at the finest scale (1mm or less) have been preserved through claimed millions of
years and the supposed highest grades of metamorphism. Furthermore, there is no clear micro-structural evidence of
mineral reactions and metamorphic equilibrium has not been established. Indeed, the whole spectrum of index minerals

characteristic of the presumed zones of regional metamorphism occurs within centimetres of each other. It is thus
concluded that the key factor in the development of a particular set of metamorphic minerals is the composition, not just
the bulk chemistry, of the pelitic rock, and the detailed features of precursor materials, their crystal structures and their
compositions.Therefore, these stratiform ores and their metamorphic assemblages reflect original sedimentation in seafloor hydrothermal environments mixing with normal marine sedimentation, the clay and other minerals in the sediments
being the precursors to the metamorphic assemblages now present. Extension of this precursor principle to wider zones
of sedimentation reveals that both in present-day marine shelf environments and in the depositional environments
reflected in a number of ancient sedimentary basins, there are wide zones of pelitic sediments containing different clay
and related mineral assemblages, such that if these were metamorphosed they would result in metamorphic mineral
assemblages that would mimic the zones of regional metamorphism with their characteristic index minerals.Furthermore,
it has been demonstrated that these transformations of precursor minerals/materials into metamorphic mineral
assemblages can occur at low to moderate temperatures. Some of these metamorphic minerals have been found with
remnants of their precursor materials alongside, the two coexisting in rocks that are supposed to have experienced the
highest grade of metamorphism. The most extreme example, the presence of distinctly hydrous quartz in high-grade
metamorphic rocks, even after 1.8 billion years and such metamorphism, can only mean that temperatures were low to
moderate and the time-scale was very short. Thus it is feasible to conclude that the classical zones of regional
metamorphism represent zonal patterns of the original sedimentation, and that the precursor clay and associated minerals
have undergone transformation to metamorphic mineral assemblages at low to moderate temperatures and pressures.
Furthermore, this implies that the depths of burial required were considerably less, and consequently the time-scales as
well.Creationists can therefore explain regional metamorphism within their time framework on the basis of catastrophic
sedimentation, deep burial and rapid deformation/tectonics, with accompanying low to moderate temperatures and
pressures, particularly during the Flood, but also during the tectonism, erosion and sedimentation of the emerging land
surface during the Creation. Volcanism on a global scale, and thus the release of copious amounts of hydrothermal
waters, during sedimentation would have produced zones of different precursor materials, and also provided heat for
metamorphism during the Flood year. Catastrophic erosion caused by the retreating Flood waters would also have left
previously-buried metamorphic rocks exposed at the earths surface today.Thus the major objections raised, on the basis
of the conventional explanation of regional metamorphism, against the young-earth Creation-Flood model of earth history
are answerable, and an alternative creationist explanation has been outlined on the basis of observational and
experimental realities. Further work is, of course, needed to quantify the conditions required for precursor transformations,
while various mineralogical and textural issues in metamorphic petrology, and in microstructural analysis of phases of
deformation, need to be dealt with to make this creationist explanation comprehensive.
Acknowledgment
The ideas I have expressed in this paper have been greatly influenced by the research of Professor Richard Stanton of
the University of New England, Armidale (New South Wales, Australia). This research is acknowledged without implying
that Professor Stanton would support the creationist conclusionshe would not.
Some Remaining Problems to be Solved
It would be misleading to give the impression that no problems remain to be solved. Far from it. While the skeleton of
this creationist scenario for regional metamorphism, based as it is on observational and experimental realities, is both
conceivable and feasible, the bones need fleshing out and the principles enunciated here need to be applied
specifically from region to region of metamorphic rocks across the earths surface today, and vertically and time-wise
down through the rock record.And some problems about the rocks and minerals themselves also remain to be resolved.
For example, at what specific temperatures and pressures are the various pre-cursors transformed? Obviously, the
answer to that question will enable quantification of the temperatures, pressures and depths of burial required for regional
metamorphism within the creationist framework. Also, how do porphyroblasts develop in the many cases where diffusion
has been restricted? Are they
products of transformation of large particles, for example, impure chamosite ooliths and particles in the case of garnet,
products of transformation of concretions and related products developed by post-sedimentation and diagenetic
processes, a derivation that would account for many spotty porphyroblasts, and porphyroblasts that straddle bedding
planes, or
products of later inhibition-dependent and orientation-dependent coarsening?116
These processes would readily account for porphyroblasts of a given mineral in a matrix of its own kind, for example,
quartz porphyroblasts in quartz-rich metapelites, and for porphyroblasts that straddle bedding planes. These mechanisms
would also account for porphyroblasts related to, or developed after, tectonic deformation.
Another group of problems lies in relationships between metamorphic minerals and phases of deformation. It seems likely
that some interpretations of metamorphic microstructures may require revision, although there has been some recent
vigorous discussion on some aspects of this issue. 117-124 However, it remains to be seen whether or not apparent
sequences of development of metamorphic minerals may be attributed, more simply, to differences in their deformational
behaviour and in their variable propensity to anneal and to undergo secondary grain growth in the metallurgical sense.
Thus there is still a lot of work for creationists to do in dealing with many of the mineralogical and textural issues in
metamorphic petrology from the short time-scale perspective, including conventional experimental studies on mineral
stabilities and reactions. Only then will we have developed a comprehensive explanation of regional metamorphism within
the creationist framework for earth history.
Australias Burning Mountain
A Challenge to Evolutionary Time
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on March 1, 1993
Originally published in Creation 15, no 2 (March 1993): 42-46.
For as long as anyone can remember Mt Wingen has been burning, with an acrid smell of sulphur in the fumes issuing
from cracks along its summit.
Australias Aboriginal inhabitants had known about this burning mountain for many years before the European settlers
reached the area, but soon after they came this spectacle attracted scientific attention. The earliest European visitors to
describe the phenomenon, Reverend C.P.N. Wilton (between 1828 and 1832) and Sir Thomas Mitchell (in 1829 and
1831), correctly recognized its cause, although this burning mountain became widely known overseas at that time as a
volcano or pseudo-volcano.1
Burning coal
Burning Mountain is located five kilometres (about 3 miles) north of the village of Wingen on a major highway between
Brisbane and Sydney. Sydney is about 200 kilometres (125 miles) to the south. But Burning Mountain is not a volcano,

Australia being fortunate in not having any volcanoes still active today. Instead, within Mt Wingen is a layer of coal that is
burning, having been set alight by natural means.The coal layer (or seam) and associated sandstone, shale and claystone
layers at Mt Wingen are called the Koogah Formation, and assigned an Early Permian age according to evolutionary
terminology.2 Below the Koogah Formation are the thick lavas of the Werrie Basalt, which is also assigned an Early
Permian evolutionary age. Overlying the Koogah Formation are alternating layers of conglomeratic mudstones and
sandstones containing fossilized shellfish (brachiopods and pelecypods), together called the Bickham Formation. These
geological relationships can be seen easily in the geological cross-section of Figure 1, which depicts these rock units as
they are seen where a west-flowing creek transects the Mt Wingen ridge 1.5 kilometres (less than a mile) north of Burning
Mountain.3
Subsidence and fused rocks
The burnt-out zone extends north-easterly for at least 6.5 kilometres (4 miles) from the present zone of burning at
Burning Mountain. The land surface above the burnt-out zone is characterized by subsidence features such as fractures,
closely-spaced parallel faulting, small grabens (fault-bounded gullies) and open gash-like fissures, which appear to have
been controlled by the jointing system in the rocks of the Koogah Formation. 4Small, collapsed, chaotically broken areas
containing highly altered and fused rocks may represent chimneys through which high-temperature burning gases
escaped (see Figure 1 again). Fused sandstones associated with these chimneys contain rare high-temperature forms of
the common mineral quartz and another high-temperature mineral in a rock glass of slaggy, vesicular (bubbly)
appearance.Elsewhere in the burnt-out area the highly refractory (high-temperature) kaolinite-bearing claystones, which
originally were underneath the unburnt coal layer, have been relatively little affected by the burning of the coal (see Figure
2). A thin zone of the claystone just below the burnt coal layer (see Figure 2 again) has been converted to the mineral
mullite, a very common refractory form of aluminium silicate. 5 However, the kaolinite-bearing claystone above the burnt
coal layer, which was subject to the full effects of burning gases, has been more extensively altered to the hightemperature forms of quartz and aluminium silicate (including mullite).
A blast-furnace effect
Experimental work, including laboratory firing and fusion tests on the natural starting materials suggests that
temperatures of up to 1700C must have been attained in the burning zones in order to account for these and other
alteration effects due to thermal metamorphism. 6, 7As a consequence of the burning of the coal layer a variety of thermal
and chemical replacement effects and mineralogical phenomena occur, as has already been described above.The area
on Burning Mountain which is presently burning is a highly fissured zone heated to red-white heat over an area of less
than 100 square metres.8, 9 Intake of air through the fissures appears to have resulted in a blast-furnace effect being
added to the natural combustion of the coal and its gases 30 metres (almost 100 feet) below the surface. Fissures are
continuing to open in as yet unburnt ground immediately south of the present area of thermal activity as underground
collapse occurs.Heated aqueous fumes emanating from the burning area deposit a sinter composed of hematite (an iron
oxide) and high-temperature forms of quartz, encrusted with elemental sulphur which has come from the sulphide
minerals, chiefly pyrite (iron sulphide), found in the coal. It is for this reason that the fumes have a pungent sulphur smell,
while condensate from these fumes is highly acidic and strongly sulphatic.10For many years these open fissures in the
vent area were used to extract water and gases for the production of a liquid and an ointment with supposed medicinal
value.11 These products were sold until the 1960s. The visitor in those days would have been confronted with an array of
various pipes and ducts over the fissures.
How did the fire start?
But how did this coal seam get ignited and for how long has it been burning? It has been estimated that the burning front
has been moving southward at a rate of approximately one metre (more than 3 feet) every year and has moved about
6,000 metres (nearly 4 miles) to its present position. 12 Thus, if the coal has burned in the past at the current rate, then the
fire started probably at most about 6,000 years ago. Even allowing for variations in the rate, the evidence certainly
indicates that it has been burning for a few thousand years, not millions.Those prepared to hazard a guess have
suggested that the coal seam may have been ignited naturally through a lightning strike, a forest fire, or more probably
through spontaneous combustion, the latter phenomenon being known to occasionally occur in coal mines
today.13However, spontaneous combustion of coal seams today is not known to occur where a coal seam is weathering in
outcrop at the surface. On the contrary, spontaneous combustion occurs where coal has been freshly exposed in mine
workings, whether in an open pit or in underground tunnels, the heat which ignites the coal being generated by a rapid
drying out and oxidation of the coal constituents because they have been rapidly exposed to the elements by the mining
process.
As for the other suggested
mechanisms for igniting the coal,
namely, a lightning strike or a
forest
fire,
again
simple
reasoning
exposes
the
improbability
of
these
explanations. To begin with, any
coal exposed at the land surface
as outcrop would be highly
weathered due to the way coal
rapidly oxidizes and weathers
when exposed to the elements at
the earths surface. It is not that a
lightning strike or a forest fire
could not ignite an outcropping
coal seam, but the weathered
nature of the exposed coal would
make ignition more difficult.
But that is not the only problem.
Once ignited at the surface the
Figure 1
fire has to burn along the coal
Cross section through Mt Wingen, 1.5km north of the present burning zone, showing
seam under the ground, having
the geological strata in the mountain particularly the burning coal layer (seam) (after
first to pass through the water
Rattigan).
table. There the seam would be
saturated with water, so the fire

would almost certainly be extinguished.


Added to that, as any fire moved along a coal seam down under the ground the supply of oxygen necessary for the
burning process would continually decrease. Admittedly, if the fire became established under the ground, the rocks above
the burnt-out coal would tend to fracture and collapse, thus allowing air down into the burning zone, as appears to be the
case on Burning Mountain. But to achieve that situation any fire ignited at the surface has to overcome the other hurdles
of passing through the weathered
zone and the water table with a
diminishing air supply initially.
A volcanic intrusion?
So if these explanations for the
igniting of this underground coal
fire beneath Burning Mountain
are either tenuous or virtually
impossible, how are we to
explain this phenomenon? There
is one other explanation that has
been hinted at subtly in one of
the few scientific papers written
about this site, but herein lies the
challenge
for
uniformitarian/evolutionary
geologists and their millions-ofyears timescale.
One geologist, a staff member at
the time at the University of
Newcastle (New South Wales),
observed
where
previously
molten volcanic rock has cut
through the coal seam at some
time in the past and cooled
Figure 2
(Figure 2).14, 15 Now it is well
The burning area today on top of Mt Wingen. There is smoke coming out of the
known that such molten rock can
ground and the surrounding white sinter.
be intruded at temperatures
around 1000C causing thermal
metamorphic effects in the rocks
it intrudes, while the intense heat
radiates outwards from the molten rock as it cools over subsequent weeks and months. In other places, such molten rock
intrusions through coal seams have been known to have either severely metamorphosed the coal or ignited it.
This then is the most likely mechanism for the igniting of the burning coal under Mt Wingen. Furthermore, since this
appears to have happened less than 6,000 years ago, this intrusion would have been sufficiently close to the surface for
fractures to supply the necessary air to the ignited coal to keep it burning.
Evolutionary time challenged
So when was the last volcanic activity in this area according to the evolutionary timescale? This molten rock which crosscuts the coal seam could hardly have come from the same volcano that poured out the basalts of the Werrie Basalt,
because those basalts underlie the coal seam of the Koogah Formation and are thus much older than this intrusive
volcanic rock (in evolutionary geologic terms). Besides, the Werrie Basalt is said to be of Permian age, that is,
supposedly over 260 million years old. 16, 17The closest volcanic activity to Mt Wingen that occurred after formation of the
coal seam is that responsible for the Liverpool Range Basalts, less than 5 kilometres (3 miles) to the north and to the
west18 The same basalts are found to the north-east of Mt Wingen also. But these basalts have been dated using the
potassium-argon radioactive method as 38 million to 41 million years old.19 Today they cover an area of approximately
6000 square kilometres (almost 2,620 square miles) and are in places up to 800 metres (over 2,600 feet) thick, so they
represent an enormous outpouring of molten lavas. 20 Thus it seems likely that these small intrusions of similar
composition in the nearby Mt Wingen area are related to the same volcano and volcanic event. Indeed, there are intrusive
rocks of related composition and the same age about 80 kilometres (49.5 miles) to the south,21 and other intrusives about
20 kilometres (12.5 miles)22 and 50 kilometres (31 miles)23, 24 to the south, so volcanic activity has been widespread
through this region.However, this would imply that if this intrusive rock at Burning Mountain is supposedly 38 million to 41
million years old, then it must have ignited the coal seam at that time. This is clearly impossible, for we have seen that
observational evidence in the present is only consistent with the coal having been burning for less than 6000 years.
Consequently, if this intrusive rock ignited the coal then it cant be millions of years old.
Is it any wonder then that Burning Mountain is a challenge to the evolutionary timescale, a challenge which is ignored by
geologists generally? Because of the bias generated by their evolutionary indoctrination, they cannot allow evidence like
this to challenge their time framework. On the other hand, the evidence is totally consistent with residual volcanic activity
sometime after the Flood having ignited this coal seam under Burning Mountain only thousands of years ago.

When Was the Ice Age in Biblical History?


Special Feature
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling and Mike Matthews on April 1, 2013

The Bible doesnt say, And then there was an Ice Age. Yet it does give us the big picture of human historyas well as
some critical detailswhich help us narrow down when the ice built up and then melted away.
Just down the road from Cincinnati in the north central USA is Big Bone Lick, the cradle of American paleontology. The
discovery of huge bones from mastodons, giant sloths, and other Ice Age creatures sparked the first scientific expedition
to collect vertebrate fossils in North America. In 1807 President Thomas Jefferson sent General William Clark (of Lewis
and Clark fame) to gather bones and ship them to the White House. Among the treasures Clark found were spear points.
After two centuries of research, we now have enough information to begin recreating scenes from the rise and fall of the
Ice Age. As a massive ice sheet expanded over Canada, it drove out most living things, and then it continued to push
south into the Ohio valley. Eventually, the heavy snows stopped and the earth warmed. Once the ice began to melt,
animals returned to Big Bone Lick, along with spear-wielding humans. Museums worldwide depict similar scenes from this
unique era.But it is still difficult to interpret the earths dynamic past based on present, slow processes. During the Ice Age
the earths landscapes, forests, and grasslands bore little resemblance to our own. Indeed, the thick ice sheets drew so
much water out of the ocean that large tracts of ocean floor became dry ground. Herds of animals wandered across a
1,000-mile-wide grassy plain that stretched from Asia across the Bering Strait to North America, and people actually lived
in the lowlands between England and Europe. (Fishermen in the North Sea sometimes dredge up their stone tools, which
look surprisingly similar to those found at Big Bone Lick!)Many pieces of the Ice Age puzzle remain unsolved, but one
thing is sure. Based on the Bible, we can be certain that the changes occurred within just a few human generationsnot
over millions of years. What follows is only a benchmark based on our starting parameters.
When Did the Ice Age Begin?
The Bible gives us many clues to help us nail down the real time frame of the Ice Age. For example, when did it begin?
Bible Fact: Eight Generations from the Flood to AbrahamThe Bible gives us an inerrant chronology for marking historical
events. It tells exactly how many human generations passed from the Flood to Abrahams birth: eight.1 Gods judgment
occurred at Babel sometime during the days of Peleg, who was the fourth generation after the Flood 2

Click chart to enlarge.


The Bible also reveals that humanity stayed at the plains around Babel until the Lord scattered them abroad over the face
of all the earth 3 This means that at least three generations passed between the Flood and the first appearance of

humans in Africa, Asia, and Europe. Meanwhile, the animals on the Ark had already fulfilled Gods command to abound
on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply. 4The Bible also tells us precisely how many years passed from Pelegs birth to
Abrahams birth. According to the most-often used Hebrew version of the Old Testament (the Masoretic text),5 the total is
190 years.6 Each generation lasted about thirty years until Abrahams father, Terah. He waited seventy years to have
children, so you could say he waited two generations, making a total of either five or six generations from Babel to
Abraham.With this information, can we set an approximate date for the start of the Ice Age?
Geological Fact: Growth of Arctic Ice Sheets
The Ice Age is an informal expression. So first it is necessary to define the term before discussing its timeline.In secular
thinking the Ice Age does not refer to the first formation of ice on the planet. Indeed, forests grew on Antarctica and the
Arctic before ice began to form.7 Drilling down through Antarcticas ice sheet, scientists have found in sediment layers
beneath the ice sheet fossils of a subtropical rainforest, complete with palm trees and macadamia trees. For these to
grow, the land would have to be frost-free for a brief time after the Flood.As the earth cooled, however, grasslands
expanded on the continent, while the forests changed to deciduous trees and tundra. Finally, the whole continent was
covered by ice, which marked the beginning of the post-Flood cool-down. In the old-earth view, all this took place millions
of years before the Ice Age and without a global Flood.The Ice Age actually refers only to the period when great ice
sheets arose in the Northern Hemisphere, well after the Antarctic ice sheet had formed (see above map). The deposits
from this time periodcaused by moving ice and melting watersare technically known as the Pleistocene. According to
old-age assumptions about radiometric dating, the deposits were laid between 2.6 million years and 11,700 years ago
(9,700 BC). As the term Ice Age is used in science publications, its end does not refer to the melting of the ice sheets, but
to the rising world temperatures that started the dramatic and relentless retreat of the ice.Though this range is clearly not
accurate because it lies outside the Bibles total timeline of 6,000 years, several lines of evidence support the choice of
the Pleistocene layers for the Ice Age. Anywhere that these layers have been tested by radiometric dating, the ages fall
within this range. Also, the plants and animals associated with these layers fit the Pleistocene. Indeed, the woolly
mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) and the saber-tooth cat (Smilodon fatalis)descendants of the original elephant and
cat kinds on the Arkfirst occur in these layers and disappear at the end of this time frame, except for a few holdouts on
a remote Russian island. (See Why Were the Animals So Big? p. 56, which discusses how the first elephant and cat
kinds on the Ark might produce all this variety during the Ice Age.)Apart from Antarctica and a few high mountain chains,
sediments deposited before the Ice Age do not show signs of cold-weather environments or ice sheet activity. Indeed, the
world appears to have been a pretty balmy place until the Ice Age.Knowing these things, how can we use the human
history described in the Bible to shed light on the Ice Ages beginning? Well, for one thing, no human tools or fossils
appear anywhere on the earth until found in deposits from the beginning of the Ice Age.8 Since their earliest remains
suddenly appear throughout the Old World (Asia, Africa, and Europe), it appears that these are the people who scattered
from Babel.So it is reasonable to conclude that the start of the Ice Age in the Northern Hemisphere (the Pleistocene)
roughly coincides with the Babel judgment, around a century or so after the Flood (perhaps 2250 BC).Who knows,
perhaps the Ice Age was part of Gods plan to keep people from quickly resettling in one place again. The unpredictable
climate would have made it difficult for anyone to settle down and raise seasonal crops in the years immediately following
Babels dispersion.
When Did the Ice Age End?
The Bible also sheds light on the Ice Ages end, though in an indirect way. If we can determine the dates of the first cities
built after Babel, including Ur, and then show their relationship with dates for the last human and animal remains from the
Ice Age, we can establish approximately when the Ice Age ended.
Bible Fact: Thriving Cities by Abrahams Day
The Bible mentions that some very important cities were established by Abrahams day and continued to thrive throughout
Old Testament times. For instance, the city of Abrahams nativity was Ur. Abraham later passed through many other cities
in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and Syria), Canaan, and Egypt. Since Abraham grew up in Ur, we know that it must have
been founded before his birth.Another important clue is the Bibles reference to several familiar domesticated animals,
such as camels, oxen, and donkeys, which Abraham and his contemporaries owned. These domestic animals are not the
same species as Ice Age fossils of the same created kinds, and they do not appear until cities are well established. (The
camels found earlier in the fossil record were not anything you would want to ride!) It appears that most wild versions of
these beasts of burden were extinct by Abrahams time, along with many other Pleistocene mammals (like wild horses in
the Americas).
Archaeological Fact: No Cities Associated with Ice Age Remains
The fossil and archaeological record offers us a phenomenal wealth of data from thousands and thousands of sites on
every continent. In case after case, radiocarbon dating confirms a general pattern. While the radiocarbon ages are
wrong because they exceed the Bibles timeline, the relative ages are useful. If something dates at 40,000 radiocarbon
years and something else at 20,000 or 5,000, we know the first find is older than the second, and so on.9Radiocarbon
dating shows that every fossil from the Ice Age predates anything from the earliest known human settlements. Several
cities have been continuously inhabited since Abrahams day, so its not likely that were just missing evidence. 10 Many
large mammals specifically designed for cold weather went extinct when the Ice Age ended, in a period known as the Ice
Age extinction event (see Mystery of the Megafauna Extinction, p. 57). We are also able to date human fossils and
other remains from the earliest human settlements around the world.In no case do these settlements, including Ur, date
as early as the end of the Ice Age. At the time of Urs settlement it was a port city on the Persian Gulf, but this gulf did not
even exist during the Ice Age. Only later did the melting ice sheets raise the ocean enough to flood into the area and fill
the gulf.11
What Were People Doing During the Ice Age?
Archaeologists have found thousands of campsites and small settlements where the people lived after the Babel
dispersion during the Ice Age. These early pioneers were daring explorers and settlers, quickly reaching as far as
Australia and the Americas. Everywhere they went, they found unfamiliar plants, weather cycles, soils, and wild animals.
Cast off from the pampered life of the city, the tiny bands had to invent whole new ways of doing things, including living off
the land while caring for their children.
Bible Fact: The Whole Earth Is Settled
The Bible does not reveal much about the biology and geology of the Ice Age, but it does tell us about the languages,
culture, and migrations of the people of that time. They began as a united people with one language, capable of
accomplishing great feats. But God recognized the danger of unity without obedience to His word, so He scattered the
people from Babel.Twice the Bible repeats that the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth.
Notice that this was the Lords doing. This supernatural event is essential for a proper understanding of human history.
Yet without Gods written Word archaeologists would have no way of knowing this happened.Archaeological Fact: Brief

Appearance of Neanderthals, Woolly Mammoths, and Stone Age VillagesThe fossil and archaeological record gives us a
wealth of amazing detail about the creatures that people met and the places where they lived.Various species of the
saber-tooth cat (such as Smilodon fatalis) began appearing as the Ice Age got underway, though not in the areas first
settled by humans. The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) did not appear until later, but as the cold increased
and grasslands spread across northern Asia and North America, its numbers quickly filled the grassy plains. Humans
soon followed in their steps.Another interesting development during the Ice Age was the appearance of Neanderthal
people, whose range was restricted to Europe and the Near East. Like all other humans, they were descendants of the
people who scattered from Babel. Their remains do not appear until the middle of the Ice Age, and they disappeared as
the glaciers reached their maximum and the cold, dry weather reached its worst.12Their short, squat bodies were better
suited for the cold than the taller, thinner bodies of their contemporaries, the Cro-Magnon people (other descendants of
Babel people), who looked like us. The Neanderthals used heavy spears to hunt woodland animals, but these woods
began disappearing at the height of the Ice Age, to be replaced by grasslands or barren tundra. The Cro-Magnon, in
contrast, made finely crafted arrows and other weapons that enabled them to hunt more easily on the open plains. The
vast number of the Cro-Magnon campsites and fossils indicate these men and women were more successful at adapting
to the changes.Sometime after the demise of Neanderthal people, the first stone age villages begin appearing all over
the Old World. We find them by the thousands, in some instances spread over several acres, and apparently predating
any cities we know of.It is hard to imagine such extreme changes in weather, landscapes, and vegetation during the
rapid Ice Age and the years that followed. Some lush places in the north were stricken by drought, while monsoons filled
the Sahara Desert with lakes and grasslands, attracting rhinoceroses, crocodiles, and human settlers. For a time at the
end of the Ice Age, the drenched Nile Valley was not even habitable (at least, no human artifacts or villages have been
found from this time). The great cities of Memphis and Luxor did not arise until many years later.
The toolmaking technology that
archaeologists find is not a record of
millions
of
years
of
human
advancement. These improvements
could easily happen within decades
after Babel.
Same Stone Tools, Different Views
Stone tools and other artifacts from
the Ice Age do not come with signs on
them telling us their age and
significance. Depending on your
starting assumptions, you can reach
very different conclusions, even if you
start with the very same facts.
Consider one interesting example.
Everywhere we find the earliest
known stone toolsin Europe, Asia,
and Africathey have the same basic
design, called Acheulean tools.* This
type of tool appears in most Ice Age
layers. Then suddenly, near the end,
lots of new styles were adopted, such
as the smaller Mousterian blades
associated with Neanderthals.
If you believe the Ice Age lasted 2.6
million years, then you must assume human beings were making the same basic tools for at least 50,000 generations
before any new ideas were invented. That scenario does not quite fit what we know about human ingenuity.
Gods Word gives us a different picture of human history. The earth is only six thousand years old, and humans lived here
since the first week. We would expect the people who scattered from Babel to share many of the same technological
skills. They also lived longer than we do, sometimes over four centuries. So they could pass down technology to many
generations. In fact, it is conceivable that most of the stone tool innovations occurred within a single generation. *Andrew
Snelling and Mike Matthews, When Did Cavemen Live? Answers, AprilJune 2012, pp. 5055.
Putting It All TogetherWhy did people wait so long after Babel to build cities and farm again? Problems included the tiny
populations, the threat of skirmishes, and the changing climates. We also know from the fossil record that they faced
constant flooding, dust storms, supervolcanoes, massive earthquakes, meteorites, and downpours of snow or rain on a
scale never before seen. It was much safer to live off the land and gather wild grains and game, as people still do in harsh
environments. On top of those problems was Gods supernatural intervention to scatter the small groups of families over
the face of the earth. The very purpose of this judgment, after all, was to limit mankinds ability to do whatever they
imagine. And it was clearly successful!Big Bone Lick is a stark reminder of this difficult time in earth history. The lick
was a salt deposit that appeared as the ice sheets began retreating. Animals came to lick the salt and then got trapped in
the boggy ground. Humans arrived in the area later, at the end of the Ice Age. Their weapons show up in the fossil record
about the same time that the large Ice Age mammals went extinctaround 21002000 BC. Only later would various
cultures begin building pyramid-like mounds and well-defined cities in the Americas, as they did elsewhere in the world.
We still have a lot to learn. But we know for certain that the Bible sheds light that puts our world into perspective, including
the Ice Age. In fact, it is essential to a right understanding of reality. That extends to modern worries, such as global
warming and endangered species, because our understanding of the future is built upon our correct understanding of the
past. If mankind would only take Gods Word to heart, it would transform our thinking in every area, and open up amazing
new vistas in science and archaeology.

ASTRO GEOLOY
Moon Dust and the Age of the Solar System
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling and David Rush on April 1, 1993
Originally published in Journal of Creation 7, no 1 (April 1993): 2-42.
Abstract
Using a figure published in 1960 of 14,300,000 tons per year as the meteoritic dust influx rate to the earth, creationists
have argued that the thin dust layer on the moons surface indicates that the moon, and therefore the earth and solar
system, are young. Furthermore, it is also often claimed that before the moon landings there was considerable fear that
astronauts would sink into a very thick dust layer, but subsequently scientists have remained silent as to why the
anticipated dust wasnt there. An attempt is made here to thoroughly examine these arguments, and the counter
arguments made by detractors, in the light of a sizable cross-section of the available literature on the subject.Of the
techniques that have been used to measure the meteoritic dust influx rate, chemical analyses (of deep sea sediments and
dust in polar ice), and satellite-borne detector measurements appear to be the most reliable. However, upon close
examination the dust particles range in size from fractions of a micron in diameter and fractions of a microgram in mass
up to millimetres and grams, whence they become part of the size and mass range of meteorites. Thus the different
measurement techniques cover different size and mass ranges of particles, so that to obtain the most reliable estimate
requires an integration of results from different techniques over the full range of particle masses and sizes. When this is
done, most current estimates of the meteoritic dust influx rate to the earth fall in the range of 10, 000-20, 000 tons per
year, although some suggest this rate could still be as much as up to 100,000 tons per year.Apart from the same satellite
measurements, with a focusing factor of two applied so as to take into account differences in size and gravity between the
earth and moon, two main techniques for estimating the lunar meteoritic dust influx have been trace element analyses of
lunar soils, and the measuring and counting of microcraters produced by impacting micrometeorites on rock surfaces
exposed on the lunar surface. Both these techniques rely on uniformitarian assumptions and dating techniques.
Furthermore, there are serious discrepancies between the microcrater data and the satellite data that remain unexplained,
and that require the meteoritic dust influx rate to be higher today than in the past. But the crater-saturated lunar highlands
are evidence of a higher meteorite and meteoritic dust influx in the past. Nevertheless the estimates of the current
meteoritic dust influx rate to the moons surface group around a figure of about 10,000 tons per year.Prior to direct
investigations, there was much debate amongst scientists about the thickness of dust on the moon. Some speculated that
there would be very thick dust into which astronauts and their spacecraft might disappear, while the majority of scientists
believed that there was minimal dust cover. Then NASA sent up rockets and satellites and used earth-bound radar to
make measurements of the meteoritic dust influx, results suggesting there was only sufficient dust for a thin layer on the
moon. In mid-1966 the Americans successively soft-landed five Surveyor spacecraft on the lunar surface, and so three
years before the Apollo astronauts set foot on the moon NASA knew that they would only find a thin dust layer on the
lunar surface into which neither the astronauts nor their spacecraft would disappear. This was confirmed by the Apollo
astronauts, who only found up to a few inches of loose dust.The Apollo investigations revealed a regolith at least several
metres thick beneath the loose dust on the lunar surface. This regolith consists of lunar rock debris produced by impacting
meteorites mixed with dust, some of which is of meteoritic origin. Apart from impacting meteorites and micrometeorites it
is likely that there are no other lunar surface processes capable of both producing more dust and transporting it. It thus
appears that the amount of meteoritic dust and meteorite debris in the lunar regolith and surface dust layer, even taking
into account the postulated early intense meteorite and meteoritic dust bombardment, does not contradict the
evolutionists multi-billion year timescale (while not proving it). Unfortunately, attempted counter-responses by creationists
have so far failed because of spurious arguments or faulty calculations. Thus, until new evidence is forthcoming,
creationists should not continue to use the dust on the moon as evidence against an old age for the moon and the solar
system.Shop Now
Introduction
One of the evidences for a young earth that creationists have been using now for more than two decades is the argument
about the influx of meteoritic material from space and the so-called dust on the moon problem. The argument goes as
follows:
It is known that there is essentially a constant rate of cosmic dust particles entering the earths atmosphere from space
and then gradually settling to the earths surface. The best measurements of this influx have been made by Hans
Pettersson, who obtained the figure of 14 million tons per year.1 This amounts to 14 x 1019 pounds in 5 billion years. If we
assume the density of compacted dust is, say, 140 pounds per cubic foot, this corresponds to a volume of 1018 cubic feet.
Since the earth has a surface area of approximately 5.5 x 1015 square feet, this seems to mean that there should have
accumulated during the 5-billion- year age of the earth, a layer of meteoritic dust approximately 182 feet thick all over the
world!
There is not the slightest sign of such a dust layer anywhere of course. On the moons surface it should be at least as
thick, but the astronauts found no sign of it (before the moon landings, there was considerable fear that the men would
sink into the dust when they arrived on the moon, but no comment has apparently ever been made by the authorities as to
why
it
wasnt
there
as
anticipated).
Even if the earth is only 5,000,000 years old, a dust layer of over 2 inches should have accumulated.
Lest anyone say that erosional and mixing processes account for the absence of the 182-foot meteoritic dust layer, it
should be noted that the composition of such material is quite distinctive, especially in its content of nickel and iron.
Nickel, for example, is a very rare element in the earths crust and especially in the ocean. Pettersson estimated the
average nickel content of meteoritic dust to be 2.5 per cent, approximately 300 times as great as in the earths crust.
Thus, if all the meteoritic dust layer had been dispersed by uniform mixing through the earths crust, the thickness of crust
involved (assuming no original nickel in the crust at all) would be 182 x 300 feet, or about 10 miles!
Since the earths crust (down to the mantle) averages only about 12 miles thick, this tells us that practically all the nickel in
the crust of the earth would have been derived from meteoritic dust influx in the supposed (5 x 109 year) age of the
earth!2
This is indeed a powerful argument, so powerful that it has upset the evolutionist camp. Consequently, a number of
concerted efforts have been recently made to refute this evidence. 3-9 After all, in order to be a credible
theory,evolution needs plenty of time (that is, billions of years) to occur because the postulated process of transforming
one species into another certainly cant be observed in the lifetime of a single observer. So no evolutionist could ever be
happy with evidence that the earth and the solar system are less than 10,000 years old.

But do evolutionists have any valid criticisms of this argument? And if so, can they be answered?
Criticisms of this argument made by evolutionists fall into three categories:The question of the rate of meteoritic dust influx to the earth and moon,
The question as to whether NASA really expected to find a thick dust layer on the moon when their astronauts, landed,
and
The question as to what period of time is represented by the actual layer of dust found on the moon.
Dust Influx to the Earth
Pettersons Estimate
The man whose work is at the centre of this controversy is Hans Pettersson of the Swedish Oceanographic Institute. In
1957, Pettersson (who then held the Chair of Geophysics at the University of Hawaii) set up dust-collecting units at
11,000 feet near the summit of Mauna Loa on the island of Hawaii and at 10,000 feet on Mt Haleakala on the island of
Maui. He chose these mountains because
occasionally winds stir up lava dust from the slopes of these extinct volcanoes, but normally the air is of an almost ideal
transparency, remarkably free of contamination by terrestrial dust.10
With his dust-collecting units, Pettersson filtered measured quantities of air and analysed the particles he found. Despite
his description of the lack of contamination in the air at his chosen sampling sites, Pettersson was very aware and
concerned that terrestrial (atmospheric) dust would still swamp the meteoritic (space) dust he collected, for he says: It
was nonetheless apparent that the dust collected in the filters would come preponderantly from terrestrial
sources.11Consequently he adopted the procedure of having his dust samples analysed for nickel and cobalt, since he
reasoned that both nickel and cobalt were rare elements in terrestrial dust compared with the high nickel and cobalt
contents of meteorites and therefore by implication of , meteoritic dust also.Based on the nickel analysis of his collected
dust, Pettersson finally estimated that about 14 million tons of dust land on the earth annually. To quote Petterson again:
Most of the samples contained small but measurable quantities of nickel along with the large amount of iron. The average
for 30 filters was 14.3 micrograms of nickel from each 1,000 cubic metres of air. This would mean that each 1,000 cubic
metres of air contains .6 milligram of meteoritic dust. If meteoritic dust descends at the same rate as the dust created by
the explosion of the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa in 1883, then my data indicate that the amount of meteoritic dust
landing on the earth every year is 14 million tons. From the observed frequency of meteors and from other data
Watson (F.G. Watson of Harvard University) calculates the total weight of meteoritic matter reaching the earth to be
between 365,000 and 3,650,000 tons a year. His higher estimate is thus about a fourth of my estimate, based upon
theHawaiian studies. To be on the safe side, especially in view of the uncertainty as to how long it takes meteoritic dust to
descend, I am inclined to find five million tons per year plausible.12
Now several evolutionists have latched onto Petterssons conservatism with his suggestion that a figure of 5 million tons
per year is more plausible and have thus promulgated the idea that Petterssons estimate was high, 13 very
speculative,14 and tentative.15 One of these critics has even gone so far as to suggest that Petterssons dustcollections were so swamped with atmospheric dust that his estimates were completely wrong16 (emphasis mine).
Others have said that Petterssons samples were apparently contaminated with far more terrestrial dust than he had
accounted for.17 So what does Pettersson say about his 5 million tons per year figure?:
The five-million-ton estimate also squares nicely with the nickel content of deep-ocean sediments. In 1950 Henri Rotschi
of Paris and I analysed 77 samples of cores raised from the Pacific during the Swedish expedition. They held an average
of. 044 per cent nickel. The highest nickel content in any sample was .07 per cent. This, compared to the average .008per-cent nickel content of continental igneous rocks, clearly indicates a substantial contribution of nickel from meteoritic
dust
and
spherules.
If five million tons of meteoritic dust fall to the earth each year, of which 2.5 per cent is nickel, the amount of nickel added
to each square centimetre of ocean bottom would be .000000025 gram per year, or .017 per cent of the total red-clay
sediment deposited in a year. This is well within the .044-per-cent nickel content of the deep-sea sediments and makes
the five- million-ton figure seem conservative.18
In other words, as a reputable scientist who presented his assumptions and warned of the unknowns, Pettersson was
happy with his results.
But what about other scientists who were aware of Pettersson and his work at the time he did it? Dr Isaac Asimovs
comments,19 for instance, confirm that other scientists of the time were also happy with Petterssons results. Of
Petterssons experiment Asimov wrote:At a 2-mile height in the middle of the Pacific Ocean one can expect the air to be pretty free of terrestrial dust.
Furthermore, Pettersson paid particular attention to the cobalt content of the dust, since meteor dust is high in cobalt
whereas earthly dust is low in it.20
Indeed, Asimov was so confident in Petterssons work that he used Petterssons figure of 14,300,000 tons of meteoritic
dust falling to the earths surface each year to do his own calculations. Thus Asimov suggested:
Of course, this goes on year after year, and the earth has been in existence as a solid body for a good long time: for
perhaps as long as 5 billion years. If, through all that time, meteor dust has settled to the earth at the same rate as it does,
today, then by now, if it were undisturbed, it would form a layer 54 feet thick over all of the earth.21
This sounds like very convincing confirmation of the creationist case, but of course, the year that Asimov wrote those
words was 1959, and a lot of other meteoritic dust influx measurements have since been made. The critics are also quick
to point this out . ..we now have access to dust collection techniques using aircraft, high-altitude balloons and spacecraft. These enable
researchers to avoid the problems of atmospheric dust which plagued Pettersson.22
However, the problem is to decide which technique for estimating the meteoritic dust influx gives the true figure. Even
Phillips admits this when he says:
(Techniques vary from the use of high altitude rockets with collecting grids to deep-sea core samples. Accretion rates
obtained by different methods vary from 102 to 109 tons/year. Results from identical methods also differ because of the
range of sizes of the measured particles.23
One is tempted to ask why it is that Petterssons 5-14 billion tons per year figure is slammed as being tentative, very
speculative and completely wrong, when one of the same critics openly admits the results from the different, more
modern methods vary from 100 to 1 billion tons per year, and that even results from identical methods differ?
Furthermore, it should be noted that Phillips wrote this in 1978, some two decades and many moon landings after
Petterssons work!
(a) Small Size In Space (<0.1 cm)
Penetration

Satellites

36,500-182,500

tons/yr

Al26 (sea
Rare
Zodiacal
(i)
(ii)

sediment)
Gases
Cloud

73,000-3,650,000
<3,650,000

tons/yr
tons/yr

91,500-913,000
73-730 tons/yr

tons/yr

(b) Cometary Meteors (104-102g) In Space


Cometary Meteors

73,000 tons/yr

(c) Any" Size in Space


Barbados
(i)
(ii)
(iii)

Total
Total

Meshes
Spherules
Winter
Annual

Balloon
Meshes
Airplane
Filters
Balloons
(i)
Dust
Counter
(ii)
Coronograph
Ni
(Antarctic
ice)
Ni
(sea
sediment)
Os
(sea
sediment)
CI36 (sea sediment) Sea-sediment
Spherules

<
<730
<220,000
<200,000
<91

110

tons/yr
tons/yr
tons/yr

,500

tons/yr
tons/yr

3,650,000
365,000
3,650,000-11,000,000
<3,650,000
110,000
1,825,000
365-3,650 tons/yr

tons/yr
tons/yr
tons/yr
tons/yr
tons/yr
tons/yr

36,500
365-3,650 tons/yr

tons/yr

(d) Large Size in Space


Airwaves
Meteorites

Table 1. Measurements and estimates of the meteoritic dust influx to the earth. (The data are adapted from Parkin and
Tilles,24 who have fully referenced all their data sources.) (All figures have been rounded off.)
Other Estimates, Particularly by Chemical Methods
In 1968, Parkin and Tilles summarised all the measurement data then available on the question of influx of meteoritic
(interplanetary) material (dust) and tabulated it. 24 Their table is reproduced here as Table 1, but whereas they quoted
influx rates in tons per day, their figures have been converted to tons per year for ease of comparison with Petterssons
figures.
Even a quick glance at Table 1 confirms that most of these experimentally-derived measurements are well below
Petterssons 5-14 million tons per year figure, but Phillips statement (quoted above) that results vary widely, even from
identical methods, is amply verified by noting the range of results listed under some of the techniques. Indeed, it also
depends on the experimenter doing the measurements (or estimates, in some cases). For instance, one of the
astronomical methods used to estimate the influx rate depends on calculation of the density of the very fine dust in space
that causes the zodiacal light. In Table 1, two estimates by different investigators are listed because they differ by 2-3
orders of magnitude.
On the other hand, Parkin and Tilles review of influx measurements, while comprehensive, was not exhaustive, there
being other estimates that they did not report. For example, Pettersson 25 also mentions an influx estimate based on
meteorite data of 365,000-3,650,000 tons/year made by F. G. Watson of Harvard University (quoted earlier), an estimate
which is also 2-3 orders of magnitude different from the estimate listed by Parkin and Tilles and reproduced in Table 1. So
with such a large array of competing data that give such conflicting orders-of-magnitude different estimates, how do we
decide which is the best estimate that somehow might approach the true value?
Another significant research paper was also published in 1968. Scientists Barker and Anders were reporting on their
measurements of iridium and osmium concentration in dated deep-sea sediments (red clays) of the central Pacific Ocean
Basin, which they believed set limits to the influx rate of cosmic matter, including dust. 26 Like Pettersson before them,
Barker and Anders relied upon the observation that whereas iridium and osmium are very rare elements in the earths
crustal rocks, those same two elements are present in significant amounts in meteorites.
Element

Sampling Site

Ni
Fe
Ni
Ni
Fe
Ni
Ir
Ir
Os
.

Surface
Surface
Pacific
Pacific
Stratosphere
Antarctic
Pacific
Pacific
Pacific sediment
.

Accretion
(tons/year)*

sediment
sediment
ice
sediment
sediment

40,000,000
200,000,000
3,000,000
40,000,000
<100,000
<100,000
80,000
60,000
<50,000

Rate

* Normalized to the composition of C1 carbonaceous chondrites (one class of meteorites).


Table 2. Estimates of the accretion rate of cosmic matter by chemical methods (after Barker and Anders, 26 who have fully
referenced all their data sources).
Their results are included in Table 2 (last four estimates), along with earlier reported estimates from other investigators
using similar and other chemical methods. They concluded that their analyses, when compared wit iridium concentrations
in meteorites (C1 carbonaceous chondrites), corresponded to a meteoritic influx rate forth entire earth of between 30,000
and 90,000 tons per year. Furthermore, they maintained that a firm upper limit on the influx rate could be obtained by
assuming that all the iridium and osmium in deep-sea sediments is of cosmic origin. The value thus obtained is between
50,000 and 150,000 tons per year. Notice, however, that these scientists were careful to allow for error margins by using a
range of influx values rather than a definitive figure. Some recent authors though have quoted Barker and Anders result
as 100,000 tons, instead of 100,000 50,000 tons. This may not seem a rather critical distinction, unless we realise that
we are talking about a 50% error margin either way, and thats quite a large error margin in anyones language regardless
of the magnitude of the result being quoted.
Even though Barker and Anders results were published in 1968, most authors, even fifteen years later, still quote their
influx figure of 100,000 50,000 tons per year as the most reliable estimate that we have via chemical methods.
However, Ganapathys research on the iridium content of the ice layers at the South Pole 27 suggests that Barker and
Anders figure underestimates the annual global meteoritic influx.
Ganapathy took ice samples from ice cores recovered by drilling through the ice layers at the US Amundsen-Scott base at
the South Pole in 1974, and analysed them for iridium. The rate of ice accumulation at the South Pole over the last
century or so is now particularly well established, because two very reliable precision time markers exist in the ice layers
for the years 1884 (when debris from the August 26,1983 Krakatoa volcanic eruption was deposited in the ice) and 1953
(when nuclear explosions began depositing fission products in the ice). With such an accurately known time reference
framework to put his iridium results into, Ganapathy came up with a global meteoritic influx figure of 400,000 tons per
year, four times higher than Barker and Anders estimate from mid-Pacific Ocean sediments.
In support of his estimate, Ganapathy also pointed out that Barker and Anders had suggested that their estimate could be
stretched up to three times its value (that is, to 300,000 tons per year) by compounding several unfavorable assumptions.
Furthermore, more recent measurements by Kyte and Wasson of iridium in deep-sea sediment samples obtained by
drilling have yielded estimates of 330,000-340,000 tons per year.28 So Ganapathys influx estimate of 400,000 tons of
meteoritic material per year seems to represent a fairly reliable figure, particularly because it is based on an accurately
known time reference framework.
Estimates via Aircraft and Spacecraft Methods
So much for chemical methods of determining the rate of annual meteoritic influx to the earths surface. But what about
the data collected by high-flying aircraft and spacecraft, which some critics 29,30 are adamant give the most reliable influx
estimates because of the elimination of a likelihood of terrestriat dust contamination? Indeed, on the basis of the dust
collected by the high-flying U-2 aircraft, Bridgstock dogmatically asserts that the influx figure is only 10,000 tonnes per
year.31,32 To justify his claim Bridgstock refers to the reports by Bradley, Brownlee and Veblen,33 and Dixon, McDonnel1
and Carey34 who state a figure of 10,000 tons for the annual influx of interplanetary dust particles. To be sure, as
Bridgstock says,35 Dixon, McDonnell and Carey do report that . ..researchers estimate that some 10,000 tonnes of them
fall to Earth every year.36 However, such is the haste of Bridgstock to prove his point, even if it means quoting out of
context, he obviously didnt carefully read, fully comprehend, and/or deliberately ignored all of Dixon, McDonnell and
Careys report, otherwise he would have noticed that the figure some 10,000 tonnes of them fall to Earth every year
refers only to a special type of particle called Brownlee particles, not to all cosmic dust particles. To clarify this, lets quote
Dixon, McDonnell and Carey:
Over the past 10 years, this technique has landed a haul of small fluffy cosmic dust grains known as Brownlee particles
after Don Brownlee, an American researcher who pioneered the routine collection of particles by aircraft, and has led in
their classification. Their structure and composition indicate that the Brown lee particles are indeed extra-terrestrial in
origin (see Box 2), and researchers estimate that some 10,000 tonnes of them fall to Earth every year. But Brownlee
particles represent only part of the total range of cosmic dust particles37 (emphasis mine).
And further, speaking of these fluffy Brownlee particles:
The lightest and fluffiest dust grains, however, may enter the atmosphere on a trajectory which subjects them to little or
no destructive effects, and they eventually drift to the ground. There these particles are mixed up with greater
quantities of debris from the larger bodies that burn up as meteors, and it is very difficult to distinguish the
two38 (emphasis ours).
What Bridgstock has done, of course, is to say that the total quantity of cosmic dust that hits the earth each year
according to Dixon, McDonnell and Carey is 10,000 tonnes, when these scientists quite clearly stated they were only
referring to a part of the total cosmic dust influx, and a lesser part at that. A number of writers on this topic have
unwittingly made similar mistakes.
But this brings us to a very crucial aspect of this whole issue, namely, that there is in fact a complete range of sizes of
meteoritic material that reaches the earth, and moon for that matter, all the way from large meteorites metres in diameter
that produce large craters upon impact, right down to the microscopic-sized fluffy dust known as Brownlee particles, as
they are referred to above by Dixon, McDonnell, and Carey. And furthermore, each of the various techniques used to
detect this meteoritic material does not necessarily give the complete picture of all the sizes of particles that come to
earth, so researchers need to be careful not to equate their influx measurements using a technique to a particular particle
size range with the total influx of meteoritic particles. This is of course why the more experienced researchers in this field
are always careful in their records to stipulate the particle size range that their measurements were made on.

Figure 1. The mass ranges of interplanetary


(meteoritic) dust particles as detected by various
techniques (adapted from Millman39). The particle
penetration, impact and collection techniques make
use of satellites and rockets. The techniques shown
in italics are based on lunar surface measurements.
Millman39 discusses this question of the particle size
ranges over which the various measurement
techniques are operative. Figure 1 is an adaptation of
Millmans diagram. Notice that the chemical
techniques, such as analyses for iridium in South
Pole ice or Pacific Ocean deep-sea sediments, span
nearly the full range of meteoritic particles sizes,
leading to the conclusion that these chemical
techniques are the most likely to give us an estimate
closest to the true influx figure. However,
Millman40 and Dohnanyi41 adopt a different approach
to obtain an influx estimate. Recognising that most of
the measurement techniques only measure the influx
of particles of particular size ranges, they combine
the results of all the techniques so as to get a total
influx estimate that represents all the particle size
ranges. Because of overlap between techniques, as
is obvious from Figure 1, they plot the relation
between the cumulative number of particles
measured (or cumulative flux) and the mass of the
particles being measured, as derived from the various
measurement techniques. Such a plot can be seen in
Figure 2. The curve in Figure 2 is the weighted mean
flux curve obtained by comparing, adding together
and taking the mean at anyone mass range of all the
results obtained by the various measurement
techniques. A total influx estimate is then
obtained by integrating mathematically the
total mass under the weighted mean flux
curve over a given mass range.
Figure 2. The relation between the cumulative
number of particles and the lower limit of mass
to which they are counted, as derived from
various types of recording - rockets, satellites,
lunar rocks, lunar seismographs (adapted
from Millman39). The crosses represent the
Pegasus and Explorer penetration data.
By this means Millman42 estimated that in the
mass range 10-12 to 103g only a mere 30 tons
of meteoritic material reach the earth each
day, equivalent to an influx of 10,950 tons per
year. Not surprisingly, the same critic
(Bridgstock) that erroneously latched onto the
10,000 tonnes per year figure of Dixon,
McDonnell and Carey to defend his
(Bridgstocks) belief that the moon and the
earth are billions of years old, also latched
onto Millmans 10,950 tons per year
figure.43 But what Bridgstock has failed to
grasp is that Dixon, McDonnell and Careys
figure refers only to the so-called Brownlee
particles in the mass range of 10-12 to 10-6g,
whereas Millmans figure, as he stipulates
himself, covers the mass range of 10-12 to
103g. The two figures can in no way be
compared as equals that somehow support
each other because they are not in the same
ballpark since the two figures are in fact talking about different particle mass ranges.
Furthermore, the close correspondence between these two figures when they refer to different mass ranges, the 10,000
tonnes per year figure of Dixon, McDonnell and Carey representing only 40% of the mass range of Millmans 10,950 tons
per year figure, suggests something has to be wrong with the techniques used to derive these figures. Even from a glance
at the curve in Figure 2, it is obvious that the total mass represented by the area under the curve in the mass range 10-6 to
103g can hardly be 950 or so tons per year (that is, the difference between Millmans and Dixon, McDonnell and Careys
figures and mass ranges), particularly if the total mass represented by the area under the curve in the mass range 10-12 to
10-6g is supposed to be 10,000 tonnes per year (Dixon, McDonnell and Careys figure and mass range). And Millman
even maintains that the evidence indicates that two-thirds of the total mass of the dust complex encountered by the earth
is in the form of particles with masses between 10 -6.5 and 10-3.5g, or in the three orders of magnitude 10-6, 10-5 and 10-4g,
respectively,44 outside the mass range for the so-called Brownlee particles. So if Dixon, McDonnell and Carey are closer
to the truth with their 1985 figure of 10,000 tonnes per year of Brownlee particles (mass range 10 -12 to 10-6g), and if two-

thirds of the total particle influx mass lies outside the Brownlee particle size range, then Millmans 1975 figure of 10,950
tons per year must be drastically short of the real influx figure, which thus has to be at least 30,000 tons per year.
Millman admits that if some of the finer dust partlcles do not register by either penetrating or cratering, satellite or aircraft
collection panels, it could well be that we should allow for this by raising the flux estimate. Furthermore, he states that it
should also be noted that the Prairie Network fireballs (McCrosky45), which are outside his (Millmans) mathematical
integration calculations because they are outside the mass range of his mean weighted influx curve, could add
appreciably to his flux estimate.46 In other words, Millman is admitting that his influx estimate would be greatly increased if
the mass range used in his calculations took into account both particles finer than 10-12g and particularly particles greater
than l03g.
Figure 3. Cumulative flux of meteoroids and related
objects into the earths atmosphere having a mass of
M(kg) (adapted from Dohnanyi41). His data sources
used to derive this plot are listed in his bibliography.
Unlike Millman, Dohnanyi47 did take into account a
much wider mass range and smaller cumulative
fluxes, as can be seen in his cumulative flux plot in
Figure 3, and so he did obtain a much higher total
influx estimate of some 20,900 tons of dust per year
coming to the earth. Once again, if McCroskys data
on the Prairie Network fireballs were included by
Dohnanyi, then his influx estimate would have been
greater. Furthermore, Dohnanyis estimate is primarily
based on supposedly more reliable direct measurements obtained using collection plates and panels
on satellites, but Millman maintains that such satellite
penetration methods may not be registering the finer
dust particles because they neither penetrate nor
crater the collection panels, and so any influx
estimate based on such data could be
underestimating the true figure. This is particularly
significant since Millman also highlights the evidence
that there is another concentration peak in the mass
range 10-13 to 10-14g at the lower end of the
theoretical effectiveness of satellite penetration data
collection (see Figure 1 again). Thus even Dohnanyis
influx estimate is probably well below the true figure.
Representativeness and Assumptions
This leads us to a consideration of the
representativeness both physically and statistically of
each of the influx measurement dust collection
techniques and the influx estimates derived from
them. For instance, how representitive is a sample of
dust collected on the small plates mounted on a small
satellite or U-2 aircraft compared with the enormous
volume of space that the sample is meant to
represent? We have already seen how Millman
admits that some dust particles probably do not penetrate or crater the plates as they are expected to and so the final
particle count is thereby reduced by an unknown amount. And how representative is a drill core or grab sample from the
ocean floor? After all, arent we analysing a split from a 1-2 kilogram sample and suggesting this represents the tonnes of
sediments draped over thousands of square kilometres of ocean floor to arrive at an influx estimate for the whole earth?!
To be sure, careful repeat samplings and analyses over several areas of the ocean floor may have been done, but how
representative both physically and statistically are the results and the derived influx estimate?Of course, Petterssons
estimate from dust collected atop Mauna Loa also suffers from the same question of representativeness. In many of their
reports, the researchers involved have failed to discuss such questions. Admittedly there are so many potential unknowns
that any statistical quantification is well-nigh impossible, but some discussion of sample representativeness should be
attempted and should translate into some guesstimate of error margins in their final reported dust influx estimate. Some
like Barker and Anders with their deep-sea sediments48 have indicated error margins as high as 50%, but even then
such error margins only refer to the within and between sample variations of element concentrations that they calculated
from their data set, and not to any statistical guesstimate of the physical representativeness of the samples collected
and analysed. Yet the latter is vital if we are trying to determine what the true figure might be.
But there is another consideration that can be even more important, namely, any assumptions that were used to derive
the dust influx estimate from the raw measurements or analytical data. The most glaring example of this is with respect to
the interpretation of deep-sea sediment analyses to derive an influx estimate. In common with all the chemical methods, it
is assumed that all the nickel, iridium and osmium in the samples, over and above the average respective contents of
appropriate crustal rocks, is present in the cosmic dust in the deep-sea sediment samples. Although this seems to be a
reasonable assumption, there is no guarantee that it is completely correct or reliable. Furthermore, in order to calculate
how much cosmic dust is represented by the extra nickel, iridium and osmium con- centrations in the deep-sea sediment
samples, it is assumed that the cosmic dust has nickel, iridium and osmium concentrations equivalent to the average
respective concentrations in Type I carbonaceous chondrites (one of the major types of meteorites). But is that type of
meteorite representative of all the cosmic matter arriving at the earths surface? Researchers like Barker and Anders
assume so because everyone else does! To be sure there are good reasons for making that assumption, but it is by no
means certain the Type I carbonaceous chondrites are representative of all the cosmic material arriving at the earths
surface, since it has been almost impossible so far to exclusively collect such material for analysis. (Some has been
collected by spacecraft and U-2 aircraft, but these samples still do not represent that total composition of cosmic material
arriving at the earths surface since they only represent a specific particle mass range in a particular path in space or the
upper atmosphere.)

However, the most significant assumption is yet to come. In order to calculate an influx estimate from the assumed cosmic
component of the nickel, iridium and osmium concentrations in the deep-sea sediments it is necessary to determine what
time span is represented by the deep-sea sediments analysed. In other words, what is the sedimentation rate in that part
of the ocean floor sampled and how old therefore are our sediment samples? Based on the uniformitarian and
evolutionary assumptions, isotopic dating and fossil contents are used to assign long time spans and old ages to the
sediments. This is seen not only in Barker and Anders research, but in the work of Kyte and Wasson who calculated
influx estimates from iridium measurements in so-called Pliocene and Eocene-Oligocene deep-sea
sediments.49 Unfortunately for these researchers, their influx estimates depend absolutely on the validity of their dating
and age assumptions. And this is extremely crucial, for if they obtained influx estimates of 100,000 tons per year and
330,000-340,000 tons per year respectively on the basis of uniformitarian and evolutionary assumptions (slow
sedimentation and old ages), then what would these influx estimates become if rapid sedimentation has taken place over
a radically shorter time span? On that basis, Petterssons figure of 5-14 million tons per year is not far-fetched!
On the other hand, however, Ganapathys work on ice cores from the South Pole doesnt suffer from any assumptions as
to the age of the analysed Ice samples because he was able to correlate his analytical results with two time-marker
events of recent recorded history. Consequently his influx estimate of 400,000 tons per year has to be taken seriously.
Furthermore, one of the advantages of the chemical methods of influx estimating, such as Ganapathys analyses of
iridium in ice cores, is that the technique in theory, and probably in practice, spans the complete mass range of cosmic
material (unlike the other techniques - see Figure 1 again) and so should give a better estimate. Of course, in practice this
is difficult to verify, statistically the likelihood of sampling a macroscopic cosmic particle in, for example, an ice core is
virtually nonexistent. In other words, there is the question of representativeness again, since the ice core is taken to
represent a much larger area of ice sheet, and it may well be that the cross sectional area intersected by the ice core is an
anomalously high or low concentration of cosmic dust particles, or in fact an average concentration -who knows which?
Finally, an added problem not appreciated by many working in the field is that there is an apparent variation in the dust
influx rate according to the latitude. Schmidt and Cohen reported50 that this apparent variation is most closely related to
geomagnetic latitude so that at the poles the resultant influx is higher than in equatorial regions. They suggested that
electromagnetic interactions could cause only certain charged particles to impinge preferentially at high latitudes. This
may well explain the difference between Ganapathys influx estimate of 400,000 tons per year from the study of the dust
in Antarctic ice and, for example, Kyte and Wasson s estimate of 330,000-340,000 tons per year based on iridium
measurements in deep-sea sediment samples from the mid-Pacific Ocean.
Further Estimates
A number of other workers have made estimates of the meteoritic dust influx to the earth that are often quoted with some
finality. Estimates have continued to be made up until the present time, so it is important to contrast these in order to
arrive at the general consensus.In reviewing the various estimates by the different methods up until that time, Singer and
Bandermann5l argued in 1967 that the most accurate method for determining the meteoritic dust influx to the earth was by
radiochemical measurements of radioactive Al26 in deep-sea sediments. Their confidence in this method was because it
can be shown that the only source of this radioactive nuclide is interplanetary dust and that therefore its presence in deepsea sediments was a more certain indicator of dust than any other chemical evidence. From measurements made others
they concluded that the influx rate is 1250 tons per day, the error margins being such that they indicated the influx rate
could be as low as 250 tons per day or as high as 2,500 tons per day. These figures equate to an influx rate of over
450,000 tons per year, ranging from 91,300 tons per year to 913,000 tons per year.
They also defended this estimate via this method as opposed to other methods. For example, satellite experiments, they
said, never measured a concentration, nor even a simple flux of particles, but rather a flux of particles having a particular
momentum or energy greater than some minimum threshold which depended on the detector being used. Furthermore,
they argued that the impact rate near the earth should increase by a factor of about 1,000 compared with the value far
away from the earth. And whereas dust influx can also be measured in the upper atmosphere, by then the particles have
already begun slowing down so that any vertical mass motions of the atmosphere may result in an increase in
concentration of the dust particles thus producing a spurious result. For these and other reasons, therefore, Singer and
Bandermann were adamant that their estimate based on radioactive Al 26 in ocean sediments is a reliable determination of
the mass influx rate to the earth and thus the mass concentration of dust in interplanetary space.
Other investigators continued to rely upon a combination of satellite, radio and visual measurements of the different
particle masses to arrive at a cumulative flux rate. Thus in 1974 Hughes reported 52 that
from the latest cumulative influx rate data the influx of interplanetary dust to the earths surface in the mass range 10-13 106g is found to be 5.7 x 109 g yr-1,
or 5,700 tons per year, drastically lower than the Singer and Bandermann estimate from Al 26 in ocean sediments. Yet
within a year Hughes had revised his estimate upwards to 1.62 x 10 10 g yr-1, with error calculations indicating that the
upper and lower limits are about 3.0 and 0.8 x 10 10g yr-1 respectively.53 Again this was for the particle mass range
between 10-13g and 106 g, and this estimate translates to 16,200 tons per year between lower to upper limits of 8,000 30,000 tons per year. So confident now was Hughes in the data he had used for his calculations that he submitted an
easier-to-read account of his work in the widely-read, popular science magazine, New Scientist.54 Here he again argued
that
as the earth orbits the sun it picks up about 16,000 tonnes of interplanetary material each year. The particles vary in size
from huge meteorites weighing tonnes to small microparticles less than 0.2 micron in diameter. The majority originate
from decaying comets.

Figure 4. Plot of thecumulative flux of interplanetary matter (meteorites, meteors, and meteoritic dust, etc.) into the earths
atmosphere (adapted from Hughes54). Note that he has subdivided the debris into two modes of origin - cometary and
asteroidal - based on mass, with the former category being further subdivided according to detection techniqes. From this
plot Hughes calculated a flux of 16,000 tonnes per year.
Figure 4 shows the cumulative flux curve built from the various sources of data that he used to derive his calculated influx
of about 16,000 tons per year. However, it should be noted here that using the same methodology with similar data
Millman55 had in 1975, and Dohnanyi56 in 1972, produced influx estimates of 10,950 tons per year and 20,900 tons per
year respectively (Figures 2 and 3 can be compared with Figure 4). Nevertheless, it could be argued that these two
estimates still fall within the range of 8,000 -30,000 tons per year suggested by Hughes. In any case, Hughes confidence
in his estimate is further illustrated by his again quoting the same 16,000 tons per year influx figure in a paper published in
an authoritative book on the subject of cosmic dust. 58
Meanwhile, in a somewhat novel approach to the problem, Wetherill in 1976 derived a meteoritic dust influx estimate by
looking at the possible dust production rate at its source. 59 He argued that whereas the present sources of meteorites are
probably multiple, it being plausible that both comets and asteroidal bodies of several kinds contribute to the flux of
meteorites on the earth, the immediate source of meteorites is those asteroids, known as Apollo objects, that in their
orbits around the sun cross the earths orbit. He then went on to calculate the mass yield of meteoritic dust (meteoroids)
and meteorites from the fragmentation and cratering of these Apollo asteroids. He found that the combined yield from both
crate ring and complete fragmentation to be 7.6 x 10 10g yr-l, which translates into a figure of 76,000 tonnes per year. Of
this figure he calculated that 190 tons per year would represent meteorites in the mass range of 10 2 - 106g, a figure which
compared well with terrestrial meteorite mass impact rates obtained by various other calculation methods, and also with
other direct measurement data, including observation of the actual meteorite flux. This figure of 76,000 tons per year is of
course much higher than those estimates based on cumulative flux calculations such as those of Hughes,60 but still
below the range of results gained from various chemical analyses of deep-sea sediments, such as those of Barker and
Anders,61 Kyte and Wasson,62 and Singer and Bandermann,63 and of the Antarctic ice by Ganapathy. 64 No wonder a
textbook in astronomy compiled by a worker in the field and published in 1983 gave a figure for the total meteoroid flux of
about 10,000 - 1,000,000 tons per year.65
In an oft-quoted paper published in 1985, Griin and his colleagues 66 reported on yet another cumulative flux calculation,
but this time based primarily on satellite measurement data. Because these satellite measurements had been made in
interplanetary space, the figure derived from them, would be regarded as a measure of the interplanetary dust flux.
Consequently, to calculate from that figure the total meteoritic mass influx on the earth both the gravitational increase at
the earth and the surface area of the earth had to be taken into account. The result was an influx figure of about 40 tons
per day, which translates to approximately 14,600 tons per year. This of course still equates fairly closely to the influx
estimate made by Hughes.67
As well as satellite measurements, one of the other major sources of data for cumulative flux calculations has been
measurements made using ground-based radars. In 1988 Olsson-Steel68 reported that previous radar meteor
observations made in the VHF band had rendered a flux of particles in the 10 -6 - 10-2g mass range that was anomalously
low when compared to the, fluxes derived from optical meteor observations or satellite measurements. He therefore found
that HF radars were necessary in order to detect the total flux into the earths atmosphere. Consequently he used radar
units near Adelaide and Alice Springs in Australia to make measurements at a number of different frequencies in the HF
band. Indeed, Olsson-Steel believed that the radar near Alice Springs was at that time the most powerful device ever
used for meteor detection, and be- cause of its sensitivity the meteor count rates were extremely high. From this data he
calculated a total influx of particles in the range 10-6 - 10-2g of 12,000 tons per year, which as he points out is almost

identical to the flux in the same mass range calculated by Hughes. 69,70 He concluded that this implies that, neglecting the
occasional asteroid or comet impact, meteoroids in this mass range dominate the total flux to the atmosphere, which he
says amounts to about 16,000 tons per year as calculated by Thomas et al.71
In a different approach to the use of ice as a meteoritic dust collector, in 1987 Maurette and his colleagues72 reported on
their analyses of meteoritic dust grains extracted from samples of black dust collected from the melt zone of the
Greenland ice cap. The reasoning behind this technique was that the ice now melting at the edge of the ice cap had,
during the time since it formed inland and flowed outwards to the melt zone, been collecting cosmic dust of all sizes and
masses. The quantity thus found by analysis represents the total flux over that time period, which can then be converted
into an annual influx rate. While their analyses of the collected dust particles were based on size fractions, they relied on
the mass-to-size relationship established by Griin et al. 73 to convert their results to flux estimates. They calculated that
each kilogram of black dust they collected for extraction and analysis of its contained meteoritic dust corresponded to a
collector surface of approximately 0.5 square metres which had been exposed for approximately 3,000 years to meteoritic
dust infall. Adding together their tabulated flux estimates for each size fraction below 300 microns yields a total meteoritic
dust influx estimate of approximately 4,500 tons per year, well below that calculated from satellite and radar
measurements, and drastically lower than that calculated by chemical analyses of ice.
However, in their defense it can at least be said that in comparison to the chemical method this technique is based on
actual identification of the meteoritic dust grains, rather than expecting the chemical analyses to represent the meteoritic
dust component in the total samples of dust analysed. Nevertheless, an independent study in another polar region at
about the same time came up with a higher influx rate more in keeping with that calculated from satellite and radar
measurements. In that study, Tuncel and Zoller 74 measured the iridium content in atmospheric samples collected at the
South Pole. During each 10-day sampling period, approximately 20,000-30,000 cubic metres of air was passed through a
25-centimetre-diameter cellulose filter, which was then submitted for a wide range of analyses. Thirty such atmospheric
particulate samples were collected over an 11 month period, which ensured that, seasonal variations were accounted for.
Based on their analyses they discounted any contribution of iridium to their samples from volcanic emissions, and
concluded that iridium concentrations in their samples could be used to estimate both the meteoritic dust component in
their atmospheric particulate samples and thus the global meteoritic dust influx rate. Thus they calculated a global flux of
6,000 -11,000 tons per year.
In evaluating their result they tabulated other estimates from the literature via a wide range of methods, including the
chemical analyses of ice and sediments. In defending their estimate against the higher estimates produced by those
chemical methods, they suggested that samples (particularly sediment samples) that integrate large time intervals include
in addition to background dust particles the fragmentation products from large bodies. They reasoned that this meant the
chemical methods do not discriminate between background dust particles and fragmentation products from large bodies,
and so a significant fraction of the flux estimated from sediment samples may be due to such large body impacts. On the
other hand, their estimate of 6,000-11,000 tons per year for particles smaller than 10 6g they argued is in reasonable
agreement with estimates from satellite and radar studies.
Finally, in a follow-up study, Maurette with another group of colleagues75 investigated a large sample of micrometeorites
collected by the melting and filtering of approximately 100 tons of ice from the Antarctic ice sheet. The grains in the
sample were first characterised by visual techniques to sort them into their basic meteoritic types, and then selected
particles were submitted for a wide range of chemical and isotopic analyses. Neon isotopic analyses, for example, were
used to confirm which particles were of extraterrestrial origin. Drawing also on their previous work they concluded that a
rough estimate of the meteoritic dust flux, for particles in the size range 50-300 microns, as recovered from either the
Greenland or the Antarctic ice sheets, represents about a third of the total mass influx on the earth at approximately
20,000 tons per year.
Scientist(s)
(year)

Technique

Influx
Estimate
(tons/year)

Ni in atmospheric dust

14,300,000

Ir and Os in deep-sea sediments

100,000
(50,000 - 150,000)

Ir in Antarctic ice

400,000

Ir in deep-sea sediments

330,000 - 340,000

Millman
(1975)

Satellite, radar, visual

10,950

Dohnanyi
(1972)

Satellite, radar, visual

20,900

Singer and Bandermann


(1967)

Al26 in deep-sea sediments

456,000
(91,300 - 913,000)

Hughes
(1975 - 1978)

Satellite, radar, visual

16,200
(8,000 - 30,000)

Wetherill
(1976)

Fragmentation of Apollo asteroids

76,000

Satellite data particularly

14,600

Radar data primarily

16,000

Petterson
(1960)
Barker
(1968)

and

Anders

Ganapathy
(1983)
Kyte
(1982)

and

Grn et
(1985)
Olsson-Steel
(1988)

Wasson

al.

Maurette et
(1987)
Tuncel
(1987)

and

Maurette et
(1991)

al.
Dust from melting Greenland ice

4,500

Ir in Antarctic atmospheric particulates

6,000 - 11,000

Dust from melting Antarctic ice

20,000

Zoller
al.

Table 3. Summary of the earths meteoritic dust influx estimates via the different measurement techniques.
Conclusion
Over the last three decades numerous attempts have been made using a variety of methods to estimate the meteoritic
dust influx to the earth. Table 3 is the summary of the estimates discussed here, most of which are repeatedly referred to
in the literature.
Clearly, there is no consensus in the literature as to what the annual influx rate is. Admittedly, no authority today would
agree with Petterssons 1960 figure of 14,000,000 tons per year. However, there appear to be two major groupings -those
chemical methods which give results in the 100,000-400,000 tons per year range or thereabouts, and those methods,
particularly cumulative flux calculations based on satellite and radar data, that give results in the range 10,000-20,000
tons per year or thereabouts. There are those that would claim the satellite measurements give results that are too low
because of the sensitivities of the techniques involved, whereas there are those on the other hand who would claim that
the chemical methods include background dust particles and fragrnentation products.
Perhaps the safest option is to quote the meteoritic dust influx rate as within a range. This is exactly what several
authorities on this subject have done when producing textbooks. For example, Dodd 76 has suggested a daily rate of
between 100 and 1,000 tons, which translates into 36,500-365,000 tons per year, while Hartmann,77 who refers to Dodd,
quotes an influx figure of 10,000-1 million tons per year. Hartmanns quoted influx range certainly covers the range of
estimates in Table 3, but is perhaps a little generous with the upper limit. Probably to avoid this problem and yet still cover
the wide range of estimates, Henbest writing in New Scientist in 199178 declares:
Even though the grains are individually small, they are so numerous in interplanetary space that the Earth sweeps up
some 100,000 tons of cosmic dust every year.79
Perhaps this is a safe compromise!
However, on balance we would have to say that the chemical methods when reapplied to polar ice, as they were by
Maurette and his colleagues, gave a flux estimate similar to that derived from satellite and radar data, but much lower
than Ganapathys earlier chemical analysis of polar ice. Thus it would seem more realistic to conclude that the majority of
the data points to an influx rate within the range 10,000-20,000 tons per year, with the outside possibility that the figure
may reach 100,000 tons per year.
Dust Influx to the Moon
Van Till et al. suggest:
To compute a reasonable estimate for the accumulation of meteoritic dust on the moon we divide the earths
accumulation rate of 16,000 tons per year by 16 for the moons smaller surface area, divide again by 2 for the moons
smaller gravitational force, yielding an accumulation rate of about 500 tons per year on the moon.80
However, Hartmann81 suggests a figure of 4,000 tons per year from his own published work, 82 although this estimate is
again calculated from the terrestrial influx rate taking into account the smaller surface area of the moon.
These estimates are of course based on the assumption that the density of meteoritic dust in the area of space around the
earth-moon system is fairly uniform, an assumption verified by satellite measurements. However, with the US Apollo lunar
exploration missions of 1969-1972 came the opportunities to sample the lunar rocks and soils, and to make more direct
measurements of the lunar meteoritic dust influx.
Lunar Rocks and Soils
One of the earliest estimates based on actual moon samples was that made by Keays and his colleagues, 83 who analysed
for trace elements twelve lunar rock and soil samples brought back by the Apollo 11 mission. From their results they
concluded that there was a meteoritic or cometary component to the samples, and that component equated to an influx
rate of 2.9 x 10-9g cm-2 yr-l of carbonaceous-chondrite-like material. This equates to an influx rate of over 15,200 tons per
year. However, it should be kept in mind that this estimate is based on the assumption that the meteoritic component
represents an accumulation over a period of more than 1 billion years, the figure given being the anomalous quantity
averaged over that time span. These workers also cautioned about making too much of this estimate because the
samples were only derived from one lunar location.
Within a matter of weeks, four of the six investigators published a complete review of their earlier work along with some
new data.84 To obtain their new meteoritic dust influx estimate they compared the trace element contents of their lunar soil
and breccia samples with the trace element contents of their lunar rock samples. The assumption then was that the soil
and breccia is made up of the broken-down rocks, so that therefore any trace element differences between the rocks and
soils/breccias would represent material that had been added to the soils/breccias as the rocks were mechanically broken
down. Having determined the trace element content of this extraneous component in their soil samples, they sought to
identify its source. They then assumed that the exposure time of the region (the Apollo 11 landing site or Tranquillity
Base) was 3.65 billion years, so in that time the proton flux from the solar -wind would account for some 2% of this
extraneous trace elements component in the soils, leaving the remaining 98% or so to be of meteoritic (to be exact,
particulate) origin. Upon further calculation, this approximate 98% portion of the extraneous component seemed to be
due to an approximate 1.9% admixture of carbonaceous-chondrite-like material (in other words, meteoritic dust of a
particular type), and the quantity involved thus represented, over a 3.65 billion year history of soil formation, an average
influx rate of 3.8 x 10-9gcm-2 yr-l, which translates to over 19,900 tons per year. However, they again added a note of
caution because this estimate was only based on a few samples from one location.
Nevertheless, within six months the principal investigators of this group were again in print publishing further results and
an updated meteoritic dust influx estimate.85 By now they had obtained seven samples from the Apollo 12 landing site,
which included two crystalline rock samples, four samples from core drilled from the lunar regolith, and a soil sample.
Again, all the samples were submitted for analyses of a suite of trace elements, and by again following the procedure
outlined above they estimated that for this site the extraneous component represented an admixture of about 1.7%
meteoritic dust material, very similar to the soils at the Apollo 11 site. Since the trace element content of the rocks at the
Apollo 12 site was similar to that at the Apollo 11 site, even though the two sites are separated by 1,400 kilometres, other
considerations aside, they concluded that this

spatial constancy of the meteoritic component suggests that the influx rate derived from our Apollo 11 data, 3.8 x 109gcm-2yr-l, is a meaningful average for the entire moon.86
So in the abstract to their paper they reported that
an average meteoritic influx rate of about 4 x 10-9 per square centimetre per year thus seems to be valid for the entire
moon. 87
This latter figure translates into an influx rate of approximately 20,900 tons per year.
Ironically, this is the same dust influx rate estimate as for the earth made by Dohnanyi using satellite and radar
measurement data via a cumulative flux calculation. 88 As for the moons meteoritic dust influx, Dohnanyi estimated that
using an appropriate focusing factor of 2, it is thus half of the earths influx, that is, 10,450 tons per year. 89Dohnanyi
defended his estimate, even though in his words it is slightly lower than the independent estimates of Keays, Ganapathy
and their colleagues. He suggested that in view of the uncertainties involved, his estimate and theirs were surprisingly
close.
While to Dohnanyi these meteoritic dust influx estimates based on chemical studies of the lunar rocks seem very close to
his estimate based primarily on satellite measurements, in reality the former are between 50% and 100% greater than the
latter. This difference is significant, reasons already having been given for the higher influx estimates for the earth based
on chemical analyses of deep- sea sediments compared with the same cumulative flux estimates based on satellite and
radar measurements. Many of the satellite measurements were in fact made from satellites in earth orbit, and it has
consequently been assumed that these measurements are automatically applicable to the moon. Fortunately, this
assumption has been verified by measurements made by the Russians from their moon-orbiting satellite Luna 19, as
reported by Nazarova and his colleagues. 90 Those measurements plot within the field of near-earth satellite data as
depicted by, for example, Hughes.91 Thus there seems no reason to doubt that the satellite measurements in general are
applicable to the meteoritic dust influx to the moon. And since Nazarova et al.s Luna 19 measurements are compatible
with Hughes cumulative flux plot of near-earth satellite data, then Hughes, meteoritic dust influx estimate for the earth is
likewise applicable to the moon, except that when the relevant focusing factor, as outlined and used by Dohnanyi, 92 is
taken into account we obtain a meteoritic dust influx to the moon estimate from this satellite data (via the standard
cumulative flux calculation method) of half the earths figure, that is, about 8,000-9,000 tons per year.
Lunar Microcraters
Apart from satellite measurements using various techniques and detectors to actually measure the meteoritic dust influx to
the earth-moon system, the other major direct detection technique used to estimate the meteoritic dust influx to the moon
has been the study of the microcraters that are found in the rocks exposed at the lunar surface. It is readily apparent that
the moons surface has been impacted by large meteorites, given the sizes of the craters that have resulted, but craters of
all sizes are found on the lunar surface right down to the micro-scale. The key factors are the impact velocities of the
particles, whatever their size, and the lack of an atmosphere on the moon to slow down (or burn up) the meteorites.
Consequently, provided their mass is sufficient, even the tiniest dust particles will produce microcraters on exposed rock
surfaces upon impact, just as they do when impacting the windows on spacecraft (the study of microcraters on satellite
windows being one of the satellite measurement techniques). Additionally, the absence of an atmosphere on the moon,
combined with the absence of water on the lunar surface, has meant that chemical weathering as we experience it on the
earth just does not happen on the moon. There is of course still physical erosion, again due to impacting meteorites of all
sizes and masses, and due to the particles of the solar wind, but these processes have also been studied as a result of
the Apollo moon landings. However, it is the microcraters in the lunar rocks that have been used to estimate the dust
influx to the moon.Perhaps one of the first attempts to try and use microcraters on the moons surface as a means of
determining the meteoritic dust influx to the moon was that of Jaffe,93 who compared pictures of the lunar surface taken by
Surveyor 3 and then 31 months later by the Apollo 12 crew. The Surveyor 3 spacecraft sent thousands of television
pictures of the lunar surface back to the earth between April 20 and May 3, 1967, and subsequently on November 20,
1969 the Apollo 12 astronauts visited the same site and took pictures with a hand camera. Apart from the obvious signs of
disturbance of the surface dust by the astronauts, Jaffe found only one definite change in the surface. On the bottom of an
imprint made by one of the Surveyor footpads when it bounced on landing, all of the pertinent Apollo pictures showed a
particle about 2mm in diameter that did not appear in any of the Surveyor pictures. After careful analysis he concluded
that the particle was in place subsequent to the Surveyor picture-taking. Furthermore, because of the resolution of the
pictures any crater as large as 1.5mm in diameter should have been visible in the Apollo pictures. Two pits were noted
along with other particles, but as they appeared on both photographs they must have been produced at the time of the
Surveyor landing. Thus Jaffe concluded that no meteorite craters as large as 1.5 mm in diameter appeared on the bottom
of the imprint, 20cm in diameter, during those 31 months, so therefore the rate of meteorite impact was less than 1
particle per square metre per month. This corresponds to a flux of 4 x 10 -7 particles m-2sec-1 of particles with a mass of 3 x
10-8g, a rate near the lower limit of meteoritic dust influx derived from spacecraft measurements, and many orders of
magnitude lower than some previous estimates. He concluded that the absence of detectable craters in the imprint of the
Surveyor 3 footpad implied a very low meteoritic dust influx onto the lunar surface.With the sampling of the lunar surface
carried out by the Apollo astronauts and the return of rock samples to the earth, much attention focused on the presence
of numerous microcraters on exposed rock surfaces as another means of calculating the meteoritic dust influx. These
microcraters range in diameter from less than 1 micron to more than 1 cm, and their ubiquitous presence on exposed
lunar rock sur- faces suggests that microcratering has affected literally every square centimetre of the lunar surface.
However, in order to translate quantified descriptive data on microcraters into data on interplanetary dust particles and
their influx rate, a calibration has to be made between the lunar microcrater diameters and the masses of the particles that
must have impacted to form the craters. Hartung et al.94 suggest that several approaches using the results of laboratory
cratering experiments are possible, but narrowed their choice to two of these approaches based on microparticle
accelerator experiments. Because the crater diameter for any given particle diameter increases proportionally with
increasing impact velocity, the calibration procedure employs a constant impact velocity which is chosen as 20km/sec.
Furthermore, that figure is chosen because the velocity distribution of interplanetary dust or meteoroids based on visual
and radar meteors is bounded by the earth and the solar system escape velocities, and has a maximum at about
20km/sec, which thus conventionally is considered to be the mean velocity for meteoroids. Particles impacting the moon
may have a minimum velocity of 2.4km/sec, the lunar escape velocity, but the mean is expected to remain near 20km/sec
because of the relatively low effective crosssection of the moon for slower particles. Inflight velocity measurements of
micron-sized meteoroids are generally consistent with this distribution. So using a constant impact velocity of 20km/sec
gives a calibration relationship between the diameters of the impacting particles and the diameters of the microcraters.
Assuming a density of 3g/cm3 allows this calibration relationship to be between the diameters of the microcraters and the
masses of the impacting particles.After determining the relative masses of micrometeoroids, their flux on the lunar surface
may then be obtained by correlating the areal density of microcraters on rock surfaces with surface exposure times for

those sample rocks. In other words, in order to convert crater populations on a given sample into the interplanetary dust
flux the samples residence time at the lunar surface must be known.95 These residence times at the lunar surface, or
surface exposure times, have been determined either by Cosmogenic Al 26 radioactivity measurements or by cosmic ray
track density measurements,96 or more often by solar-flare particle track density measurements.97On this basis Hartung et
al.98 concluded that an average minimum flux of particles 25 micrograms and larger is 2.5 x 10 -6 particles per cm2 per year
on the lunar surface supposedly over the last 1 million years, and that a minimum cumulative flux curve over the range of
masses 10-12 - 10-4g based on lunar data alone is about an order of magnitude less than independently derived presentday flux data from satellite-borne detector experiments. Furthermore, they found that particles of masses 10-7 - 10-4g are
the dominant contributors to the cross-sectional area of interplanetary dust particles, and that these particles are largely
responsible for the exposure of fresh lunar rock surfaces by superposition of microcraters. Also, they suggested that the
overwhelming majority of all energy deposited at the surface of the moon by impact is delivered by particles 10 -6 - 10-2g in
mass.A large number of other studies have been done on microcraters on lunar surface rock samples and from them
calculations to estimate the meteoritic dust (micrometeoroid) influx to the moon. For example, Fechtig et al. investigated in
detail a 2cm2 portion of a particular sample using optical and scanning electron microscope (SEM) techniques.
Microcraters were measured and counted optically, the results being plotted to show the relationship between microcrater
diameters and the cumulative crater frequency. Like other investigators, they found that in all large microcraters 100-200
microns in diameter there were on average one or two small microcraters about 1 micron in diameter within them, while
in all larger microcraters (200-1,000 microns in diameter), of which there are many on almost all lunar rocks, there are
large numbers of these smaller microcraters. The counting of these small microcraters within the larger microcraters
was found to be statistically significant in estimating the overall microcratering rate and the distribution of particle sizes
and masses that have produced the microcraters, because, assuming an unchanging impacting particle size or energy
distribution with time, they argued that an equal probability exists for the case when a large crater superimposes itself
upon a small crater, thus making its observation impossible, and the case when a small crater superimposes itself upon a
larger crater, thus enabling the observation of the small crater. In other words, during the random cratering process, on
the average, for each small crater observable within a larger microcrater, there must have existed one small microcrater
rendered unobservable by the subsequent formation of the larger microcrater. Thus they reasoned it is necessary to
correct the number of observed small craters upwards to account for this effect. Using a correction factor of two they
found that their resultant microcrater size distribution plot agreed satisfactorily with that found in another sample by
Schneider et al.100 Their measuring and counting of microcraters on other samples also yielded size distributions similar to
those reported by other investigators on other samples.Fechtig et al. also conducted their own laboratory simulation
experiments to calibrate microcrater size with impacting particle size, mass and energy. Once the cumulative microcrater
number for a given area was calculated from this information, the cumulative meteoroid flux per second for this given area
was easily calculated by again dividing the cumulative microcrater number by the exposure ages of the samples,
previously determined by means of solar-flare track density measurements. Thus they calculated a cumulative meteoroid
flux on the moon of 4 (3) x 10-5 particles m-2 sec-1, which they suggested is fairly consistent with in situ satellite
measurements. Their plot comparing micrometeoroid fluxes derived from lunar microcrater measurements with those
attained from various satellite experiments (that is, the cumulative number of particles per square metre per second
across the range of particle masses) is reproduced in Figure 5.Mandeville 101 followed a similar procedure in studying the
microcraters in a breccia sample collected at the Apollo 15 landing site. Crater numbers were counted and diameters
measured. Calibration curves were experimentally derived to relate impact velocity and microcrater diameter, plus
impacting particle mass and microcrater diameter. The low solar-flare track density suggested a short and recent
exposure time, as did the low density of microcraters. Consequently, in their calculating of the cumulative micrometeoroid
flux they assumed a 3,000-year exposure time because of this measured solar-flare track density and the assumed solartrack production rate. The resultant cumulative particle flux was 1.4 x 10 -5 particles per square metre per second for
particles greater than 2.5 x 10-10g at an impact velocity of 20km/sec, a value which again appears to be in close
agreement with flux values obtained by satellite measurements, but at the lower end of the cumulative flux curve
calculated
from
microcraters
by
Fechtig et al.
Figure
5. Comparison
of
micrometeoroid fluxes derived from
lunar microcrater measurements (crosshatched and labelled MOON) with
those obtained in various satellite in situ
experiments (adapted from Fechtig et
al.99) The range of masses/sizes has
been subdivided into dust and meteors.
Unresolved Problems
Schneider et al.102 also followed the
same
procedure
in
looking
at
microcraters on Apollo 15 and 16, and
Luna 16 samples. After counting and
measuring microcraters and calibration
experiments, they used both optical and
scanning
electron
microscopy
to
determine solar-flare track densities and
derive solar-flare exposure ages. They
plotted their resultant cumulative
meteoritic dust flux on a flux versus
mass diagram, such as Figure 5, rather
than quantifying it. However, their cumulative flux curve is close to the results of other investigators, such as Hartung et
al.103Nevertheless, they did raise some serious questions about the microcrater data and the derivation of it, because they
found that flux values based on lunar microcrater studies are generally less than those based on direct measurements
made by satellite-borne detectors, which is evident on Figure 5 also. They found that this discrepancy is not readily
resolved but may be due to one or more factors. First on their list of factors was a possible systematic error existing in the
solar-flare track method, perhaps related to our present-day knowledge of the solar-flare particle flux. Indeed, because of
uncertainties in applying the solar-flare flux derived from solar-flare track records in time-control led situations such as the
Surveyor 3 spacecraft, they concluded that these implied their solar-flare exposure ages were systematically too low by a

factor of between two and three. Ironically, this would imply that the calculated cumulative dust flux from the microcraters
is systematically too high by the same factor, which would mean that there would then be an even greater discrepancy
between flux values from lunar microcrater studies and the direct measurements made by the satellite-borne detectors.
However, they suggested that part of this systematic difference may be because the satellite-borne detectors record an
enhanced flux due to particles ejected from the lunar surface by impacting meteorites of all sizes. In any case, they
argued that some of this systematic difference may be related to the calibration of the lunar microcraters and the satelliteborne detectors. Furthermore, because we can only measure the present flux, for example by satellite detectors, it may in
fact be higher than the long-term average, which they suggest is what is being derived from the lunar microcrater data.
Morrison and Zinner104 also raised questions regarding solar-flare track density measurements and derived exposure
ages. They were studying samples from the Apollo 17 landing area and counted and measured microraters on rock
sample surfaces whose original orientation on the lunar surface was known, so that their exposure histories could be
determined to test any directional variations in both the micrometeoroid flux and solar-flare particles. Once measured,
they compared their solar-flare track density versus depth profiles against those determined by other investigators on
other samples and found differences in the steepnesses of the curves, as well as their relative positions with respect to
the track density and depth values. They found that differences in the steepnesses of the curves did not correlate with
differences in supposed exposure ages, and thus although they couldnt exclude these real differences in slopes reflecting
variations in the activity of the sun, it was more probable that these differences arose from variations in observational
techniques, uncertainties in depth measurements, erosion, dust cover on the samples, and/or the precise lunar surface
exposure geometry of the different samples measured. They then suggested that the weight of the evidence appeared to
favour those curves (track density versus depth profiles) with the flatter slopes, although such a conclusion could be
seriously questioned as those profiles with the flatter slopes do not match the Surveyor 3 profile data even by their own
admission.,Rather than calculating a single cumulative flux figure, Morrison and Zinner treated the smaller microcraters
separately from the larger microcraters, quoting flux rates of approximately 900 0.1 micron diameter craters per square
centimetre per year and approximately 10 -15 x 10-6 500 micron diameter or greater craters per square centimetre per
year. They found that these rates were independent of the pointing direction of the exposed rock surface relative to the
lunar sky and thus this reflected no variation in the micrometeorite flux directionally. These rates also appeared to be
independent of the supposed exposure times of the samples. They also suggested that the ratio of microcrater numbers
to solar-flare particle track densities would make a convenient measure for comparing flux results of different
laboratories/investigators and varying sampling situations. Comparing such ratios from their data with those of other
investigations showed that some other investigators had ratios lower than theirs by a factor of as much as 50, which can
only raise serious questions about whether the microcrater data are really an accurate measure of meteoritic dust influx to
the moon. However, it cant be the microcraters themselves that are the problem, but rather the underlying assumptions
involved in the determination/estimation of the supposed ages of the rocks and their exposure times.Another relevant
study is that made by Cour-Palais,105 who examined the heat-shield windows of the command modules of the Apollo 7 17 (excluding Apollo 11) spacecrafts for meteoroid impacts as a means of estimating the interplanetary dust flux. As part
of the study he also compared his results with data obtained from the Surveyor 3 lunar-landers TV shroud. In each case,
the length of exposure time was known, which removed the uncertainty and assumptions that are inherent in estimation of
exposure times in the study of microcraters on lunar rock samples. Furthermore, results from the Apollo spacecrafts
represented planetary space measurements very similar to the satellite-borne detector techniques, whereas the Surveyor
3 TV shroud represented a lunar surface detector. In all, Cour-Palais found a total of 10 micrometeoroid craters of various
diameters on the windows of the Apollo spacecrafts. Calibration tests were conducted by impacting these windows with
microparticles for various diameters and masses, and the results were used to plot a calibration curve between the
diameters of the micrometeoroid craters and the estimated masses of the impacting micrometeoroids. Because the Apollo
spacecrafts had variously spent time in earth orbit, and some in lunar orbit also, as well as transit time in interplanetary
space between the earth and the moon, correction factors had to be applied so that the Apollo window data could be
taken as a whole to represent measurements in interplanetary space. He likewise applied a modification factor to the
Surveyor 3 TV shroud results so that with the Apollo data the resultant cumulative mass flux distribution could be
compared to results obtained from satellite-borne detector systems, with which they proved to be in good agreement.He
concluded that the results represent an average micrometeoroid flux as it exists at the present time away from the earths
gravitational sphere of influence for masses < l0-7g. However, he noted that the satellite-borne detector measurements
which represent the current flux of dust are an order of magnitude higher than the flux supposedly recorded by the lunar
microcraters, a record which is interpreted as the prehistoric flux. On the other hand he, corrected the Surveyor 3 results
to discount the moons gravitational effect and bring them into line with the interplanetary dust flux measurements made
by satellite- borne detectors. But if the
Surveyor 3 results are taken to represent
the flux at the lunar surface then that flux
is currently an order of magnitude lower
than the flux recorded by the Apollo
spacecrafts in interplanetary space. In any
case, the number of impact craters
measured on these respective spacecrafts
is so small that one wonders how
statistically representative these results
are. Indeed, given the size of the satelliteborne detector systems, one could argue
likewise as to how representative of the
vastness of interplanetary space are these
detector results.
Figure 6. Cumulative fluxes (numbers of
micrometeoroids with mass greater than
the given mass which will impact every
second on a square metre of exposed
surface one astronomical unit from the
sun) derived from satellite and lunar
microcrater
data
(adapted
from
Hughes106).

Others had been noticing this disparity between the lunar microcrater data and the satellite data. For example, Hughes
reported that this disparity had been known for many years. 106 His diagram to illustrate this disparity is shown here as
Figure 6. He highlighted a number of areas where he saw there were problems in these techniques for measuring
micrometeoroid influx. For example, he reported that new evidence suggested that the meteoroid impact velocity was
about 5km/sec rather than the 20km/ sec that had hithertofore been assumed. He suggested that taking this into account
would only move the curves in Figure 6 to the right by factors varying with the velocity dependence of microphone
response and penetration hole size (for the satellite-borne detectors) and crater diameter (the lunar microcraters), but
because these effects are only functions of meteoroid momentum or kinetic energy their use in adjusting the data is still
not sufficient to bring the curves in Figure 6 together (that is, to overcome this disparity between the two sets of data).
Furthermore, with respect to the lunar microcrater data, Hughes pointed out that two other assumptions, namely, the ratio
of the diameter of the microcrater to the diameter of the impacting particle being fairly constant at two, and the density of
the particle being 3g per cm3, needed to be reconsidered in the light of laboratory experiments which had shown the ratio
decreases with particle density and particle density varies with mass. He suggested that both these factors make the
interpretation of microcraters more difficult, but that the main problem lies in estimating the time the rocks under
consideration have remained exposed on the lunar surface. Indeed, he pointed to the assumption that solar activity has
remained constant in the past, the key assumption required for calculation of an exposure age, as the real stumbling
block - the particle flux could have been lower in the past or the solar-flare flux could have been higher. He suggested
that because laboratory simulation indicates that solarwind sputter erosion is the dominant factor determining microcrater
lifetimes, then knowing this enables the micrometeoroid influx to be derived by only considering rock surfaces with an
equilibrium distribution of microcraters. He concluded that this line of research indicated that the micrometeoroid influx
had supposedly increased by a factor of four in the last 100,000 years and that this would account for the disparity
between the lunar microcrater data and the satellite data as shown by the separation of the two curves in Figure 6.
However, this solution, according to Hughes, creates the question of why this flux has increased a problem which
appears to remain unsolved.In a paper reviewing the lunar microcrater data and the lunar micrometeoroid flux estimates,
Hrz et al.107 discuss some key issues that arise from their detailed summary of micrometeoroid fluxes derived by various
investigators from lunar sample analyses. First, the directional distribution of micrometeoroids is extremely non-uniform,
the meteoroid flux differing by about three orders of magnitude between the direction of the earths apex and anti-apex.
Since the moon may only collect particles greater than 10 12g predominantly from only the apex direction, fluxes derived
from lunar microcrater statistics, they suggest, may have to be increased by as much as a factor of p for comparison with
satellite data that were taken in the apex direction. On the other hand, apex-pointing satellite data generally have been
corrected upward because of an assumed isotropic flux, so the actual anisotropy has led to an overestimation of the flux,
thus making the satellite results seem to represent an upper limit for the flux. Second, the micrometeoroids coming in at
the apex direction appear to have an average impact velocity of only 8km/sec, whereas the fluxes calculated from lunar
microcraters assume a standard impact velocity of 20km/sec. If as a result corrections are made, then the projectile mass
necessary to produce any given microcrater will increase, and thus the moon-based flux for masses greater than 10-10g
will effectively be enhanced by a factor of approximately 5. Third, particles of mass less than 10 -12g generally appear to
have relative velocities of at least 50km/sec, whereas lunar flux curves for these masses are based again on a 20km/sec
impact velocity. So again, if appropriate corrections are made the lunar cumulative micrometeoroid flux curve would shift
towards smaller masses by a factor of possibly as much as 10. Nevertheless, Hrz et al. conclude that
as a consequence the fluxes derived from lunar crater statistics agree within the order of magnitude with direct satellite
results if the above uncertainties in velocity and directional distribution are considered.
Although these comments appeared in a review paper published in 1975, the footnote on the first page signifies that the
paper was presented at a scientific meeting in 1973, the same meeting at which three of those investigators also
presented another paper in which they made some further pertinent comments. Both there and in a previous paper, Gault,
Hrz and Hartung108,109 had presented what
they considered was a best estimate of the
cumulative meteoritic dust flux based on
their own interpretation of the most reliable
satellite measurements. This best estimate
they expressed mathematically in the form
N=l.45m-0.47 l0-13<m<l0-7,
N=9.l4 x l0-6m-l.213 l0-7<m<l03.
Figure
7. The
micrometeoroid
flux
measurements from spacecraft experiments
which were selected to define the mass-flux
distribution (adapted from Gault et al.109)
Also shown is the incremental mass flux
contained within each decade of m, which
sum to approximately 10,000 tonnes per
year. Their data sources used are listed in
their bibliography.
They commented that the use of two such
exponential expressions with the resultant
discontinuity is an artificial representation
for the flux and not intended to represent a
real
discontinuity,
being
used
for
mathematical simplicity and for convenience
in computational procedures. They also
plotted this cumulative flux presented by
these two exponential expressions, together
with the incremental mass flux in each
decade of particle mass, and that plot is
reproduced here as Figure 7. Note that their
flux curve is based on what they regard as
the most reliable satellite measurements.
Note also, as they did, that the fluxes

derived from lunar rocks (the microcrater data) are not necessarily directly comparable with the current satellite or
photographic meteor data. 110 However, using their cumulative flux curve as depicted in Figure 7, and their histogram plot
of incremental mass flux, it is possible to estimate (for example, by adding up each incremental mass flux) the cumulative
mass flux, which comes to approximately 2 x 10 -9gcm-2yr-1 or about 10,000 tons per year. This is the same estimate that
they noted in their concluding remarks:We note that the mass of material contributing to any enhancement, which the earth-moon system is currently sweeping
up, is of the order of 1010g per year.111
Having derived this best estimate flux from their mathematical modelling of the most reliable satellite measurements
their later comments in the same paper seem rather contradictory:If we follow this line of reasoning, the basic problem then reduces to consideration of the validity of the best estimate
flux, a question not unfamiliar to the subject of micrometeoroids and a question not with- out considerable historical
controversy. We will note here only that whereas it is plausible to believe that a given set of data from a given satellite
may be in error for any number of reasons, we find the degree of correlation between the various spacecraft experiments
used to define the best flux very convincing, especially when consideration is given to the different techniques employed
to detect and measure the flux. Moreover, it must be remembered that the abrasion rates, affected primarily by microgram
masses, depend almost exclusively on the satellite data while the rupture times, affected only by milligram masses,
depend exclusively on the photographic meteor determinations of masses. It is extremely awkward to explain how these
fluxes from two totally different and independent techniques could be so similarly in error. But if, in fact, they are in error
then they err by being too high, and the fluxes derived from lunar rocks are a more accurate description of the
current near- earth micrometeoroid flux.(emphasis theirs )112
One is left wondering how they can on the one hand emphasise the lunar microcrater data as being a more accurate
description of the current micrometeoroid flux, when they based their best estimate of that flux on the most reliable
satellite measurements. However, their concluding remarks are rather telling. The reason, of course, why the lunar
microcrater data is given such emphasis is because it is believed to represent a record of the integrated cumulative flux
over the moons billions-of- years history, which would at face value appear to be a more statistically reliable estimate
than brief point-in-space satellite-borne detector measurements. Nevertheless, they are left with this unresolved
discrepancy between the microcrater data and the satellite measurements, as has already been noted. So they explain
the microcrater data as presenting the prehistoric flux, the fluxes derived from the lunar rocks being based on exposure
ages derived from solar- flare track density measurements and assumptions regarding solar-flare activity in the past. As
for the lunar microcrater data used by Gault et al., they state that the derived fluxes are based on exposure ages in the
range 2,500 - 700,000 years, which leaves them with a rather telling enigma. If the current flux as indicated by the satellite
measurements is an order of magnitude higher than the microcrater data representing a prehistoric flux, then the flux of
meteoritic dust has had to have increased or been enhanced in the recent past. But they have to admit that
if these ages are accepted at face value, a factor of 10 enhancement integrated into the long term average limits the
onset and duration of enhancement to the past few tens of years.
They note that of course there are uncertainties in both the exposure ages and the magnitude of an enhancement, but the
real question is the source of this enhanced flux of particles, a question they leave unanswered and a problem they pose
as the subject for future investigation. On the other hand, if the exposure ages were not accepted, being too long, then the
microcrater data could easily be reconciled with the more reliable satellite measurements.
Other Techniques
Only two other micrometeoroid and meteor influx measuring techniques appear to have been tried. One of these was the
Apollo 17 Lunar Ejecta and Micrometeorite Experiment, a device deployed by the Apollo 17 crew which was specifically
designed to detect micrometeorites.113 It consisted of a box containing monitoring equipment with its outside cover being
sensitive to impacting dust particles. Evidently, it was capable not only of counting dust particles, but also of measuring
their masses and velocities, the objective being to establish some firm limits on the numbers of microparticles in a given
size range which strike the lunar surface every year. However, the results do not seem to have added to the large
database already established by microcrater investigations.
The other direct measurement
technique used was the Passive
Seismic Experiment in which a
seismograph was deployed by
the Apollo astronauts and left to
register
subsequent
impact
events.114 In this case, however,
the particle sizes and masses
were in the gram to kilogram
range of meteorites that impacted
the moons surface with sufficient
force to cause the vibrations to
be recorded by the seismograph.
Between 70 and 150 meteorite
impacts per year were recorded,
with masses in the range 100g to
1,000 kg, implying a flux rate of
log N = -1.62 -1.16 log m,
where N is the number of bodies
that impact the lunar surface per
square kilometre per year, with
masses
greater
than
m
grams.115 This flux works out to
be about one order of magnitude
less than the average integrated
flux from microcrater data.
However, the data collected by
this experiment have been used
to cover that particle mass range
in the development of cumulative

flux curves (for example, see Figure 2 again) and the resultant cumulative mass flux estimates.
Figure 8. Constraints on the flux of micrometeoroids and larger objects according to a variety of independent lunar
studies (adapted from Hrz et al.107)
Conclusion
Hrz et al. summarised some of the basic constraints derived from a variety of independent lunar studies on the lunar flux
of micrometeoroids and larger objects. 116 They also plotted the broad range of cumulative flux curves that were bounded
by these constraints (see Figure 8). Included are the results of the Passive Seismic Experiment and the direct
measurements of micrometeoroids encountered by spacecraft windows. They suggested that an upper limit on the flux
can be derived from the mare cratering rate and from erosion rates on lunar rocks and other cratering data. Likewise, the
negative findings on the Surveyor 3 camera lens and the perfect preservation of the footpad print of the Surveyor 3
1anding gear (both referred to above) also define an upper limit. On the other hand, the lower limit results from the study
of solar and galactic radiation tracks in lunar soils, where it is believed the regolith has been reworked only by
micrometeoroids, so because of presumed old undisturbed residence times the flux could not have been significantly
lower than that indicated. The geochemical, evidence is also based on studies of the lunar soils where the abundance of
trace elements are indicative of the type and amount of meteoritic contamination. Hrz et al. suggest that strictly, only the
passive seismometer, the Apollo windows and the mare craters yield a cumulative mass distribution. All other parameters
are either a bulk measure of a meteoroid mass or energy, the corresponding flux being calculated via the differential
mass-distribution obtained from lunar microcrater investigations (lunar rocks , on Figure 8). Thus the corresponding
arrows on Figure 8 may be shifted anywhere along the lines defining the upper and lower limits. On the other hand,
they point out that the Surveyor 3 camera lens and footpad analyses define points only.
Scientist(s)
(year)

Technique

Hartmann
(1983)

Calculated from estimates of influx to the


earth

4,000

Geochemistry of lunar soil and rocks

15,200

Geochemistry of lunar soil and rocks

19,900

Calculated from satellite, radar data

10,450

Lunar orbit satellite data

8,000 - 9,000

Calculated from satellite, radar data

(4,000 - 15,000)

Combination of lunar microcrater and


satellite data

10,000

Keays et
(1970)

al.

Ganapathy et
(1970)

al.

Dohnanyi
(1971,1972)
Nazarova et
(1973)
by comparison
Hughes
(1975)

Gault, et
(1972, 1973)

Influx
Estimate
(tons/year)

al.
with

al.

Table 4. Summary of the lunar meteoritic dust influx estimates.


Table 4 summarises the different lunar meteoritic dust estimates. It is difficult to estimate a cumulative mass flux from
Hrz et al.s diagram showing the basic constraints for the flux of micrometeoroids and larger objects derived from
independent lunar studies (see Figure 8), because the units on the cumulative flux axis are markedly different to the units
on the same axis of the cumulative flux and cumulative mass diagram of Gault et al. from which they estimated a lunar
meteoritic dust influx of about 10,000 tons per year. The Hrz et al. basic constraints diagram seems to have been partly
constructed from the previous figure in their paper, which however includes some of the microcrater data used by Gault et
al. in their diagram (Figure 7 here) and from which the cumulative mass flux calculation gave a flux estimate of 10,000
tons per year. Assuming then that the basic differences in the units used on the two cumulative flux diagrams (Figures 7
and 8 here) are merely a matter of the relative numbers in the two log scales, then the Gault et al. cumulative flux curve
should fall within a band between the upper and lower limits, that is, within the basic constraints, of Hrz et al.s lunar
cumulative flux summary plot (Figure 8 here). Thus a flux estimate from Hrz et al.s broad lunar cumulative flux curve
would still probably centre around the 10,000 tons per year estimate of Gault et al.
In conclusion, therefore, on balance the evidence points to a lunar meteoritic dust influx figure of around 10,000 tons per
year. This seems to be a reasonable, approximate estimate that can be derived from the work of Hrz et al., who place
constraints on the lunar cumulative flux by carefully drawing on a wide range of data from various techniques. Even so, as
we have seen, Gault et al. question some of the underlying assumptions of the major measurement techniques from
which they drew their data - in particular, the lunar microcrater data and the satellite measurement data. Like the
geochemical estimates, the microcrater data depends on uniformitarian age assumptions, including the solar-flare rate,
and in common with the satellite data, uniformitarian assumptions regarding the continuing level of dust in interplanetary
space and as influx to the moon. Claims are made about variations in the cumulative dust influx in the past, but these also
depend upon uniformitarian age assumptions and thus the argument could be deemed circular. Nevertheless, questions
of sampling statistics and representativeness aside, the figure of approximately 10,000 tons per year has been stoutly
defended in the literature based primarily on present-day satellite-borne detector measurements.
Finally, one is left rather perplexed by the estimate of the moons accumulation rate of about 500 tons per year made by
Van Till et al.117 In their treatment of the moon dust controversy, they are rather scathing in their comments about
creationists and their handling of the available data in the literature. For example, they state:
The failure to take into account the published data pertinent to the topic being discussed is a clear failure to live up to the
codes of thoroughness and integrity that ought to characterize professional science.118
And again:
The continuing publication of those claims by young- earth advocates constitutes an intolerable violation of the standards
of professional integrity that should characterize the work of natural scientists.119

Having been prepared to make such scathing comments, one would have expected that Van Till and his colleagues would
have been more careful with their own handling of the scientific literature that they purport to have carefully scanned. Not
so, because they failed to check their own calculation of 500 tons per year for lunar dust influx with those estimates that
we have seen in the same literature which were based on some of the same satellite measurements that Van Till et al. did
consult, plus the microcrater data which they didnt. But that is not all - they failed to check the factors they used for
calculating their lunar accumulation rate from the terrestrial figure they had established from the literature. If they had
consulted, for example, Dohnanyi, as we have already seen, they would have realised that they only needed to use a
focusing factor of two, the moons smaller surface area apparently being largely irrelevant. So much for lack of
thoroughness! Had they surveyed the literature thoroughly, then they would have to agree with the conclusion here that
the dust influx to the moon is approximately 10,000 tons per year.
Pre-Apollo Lunar Dust Thickness Estimates
The second major question to be addressed is whether NASA really expected to find a thick dust layer on the moon when
their astronauts landed on July 20, 1969. Many have asserted that because of meteoritic dust influx estimates made by
Pettersson and others prior to the Apollo moon landings, that NASA was cautious in case there really was a thick dust
layer into which their lunar lander and astronauts might sink.
Early Speculations
Asimov is certainly one authority at the time who is often quoted. Using the 14,300,000 tons of dust per year estimate of
Pettersson, Asimov made his own dust on the moon calculation and commented:
But what about the moon? It travels through spacewith us and although it is smaller and has a weaker gravity, it, too,
should
sweep
up
a
respectable
quan
tity
of
micrometeors.
To be sure, the moon has no atmosphere to friction the micrometeors to dust, but the act of striking the moons surface
should
develop
a
large
enough
amount
of
heat
to
do
the
job.
Now it is already known, from a variety of evidence, that the moon (or at least the level lowlands) is covered with a layer of
dust.
N
o
one,
however,
knows
for
sure
how
thick
this
dust
may
be.
It strikes me that if this dust is the dust of falling micrometeors, the thickness may be great. On the moon there are no
oceans to swallow the dust, or winds to disturb it, or life forms to mess it up generally one way or another. The dust that
forms must just lie there, and if the moon gets anything like the earths supply, it could be dozens of feet thick.
In fact, the dust that strikes craters quite probably rolls down hill and collects at the bottom, forming drifts that could be
fifty
feet
deep,
or
more.
Why
not?
I get a picture, therefore, of the first spaceship, picking out a nice level place for landing purposes coming slowly
downward tail-first and sinking majestically out of sight.120
Asimov certainly wasnt the first to speculate about the thickness of dust on the moon. As early as 1897 Peal121 was
speculating on how thick the dust might be on the moon given that it is well known that on our earth there is a
considerable fall of meteoric dust. Nevertheless, he clearly expected only an exceedingly thin coating of dust. Several
estimates of the rate at which meteorites fall to earth were published between 1930 and 1950, all based on visual
observations of meteors and meteorite falls. Those estimates ranged from 26 metric tons per year to 45,000 tons per
year.122 In 1956 pik123 estimated 25,000 tons per year of dust falling to the earth, the same year Watson 124estimated a
total accumulation rate of between 300,000 and 3 million tons per year, and in 1959 Whipple 125 estimated 700,000 tons
per year.However, it wasnt just the matter of meteoritic dust falling to the lunar surface that concerned astronomers in
their efforts to estimate the thickness of dust on the lunar surface, since the second source of pulverised material on the
moon is the erosion of exposed rocks by various processes. The lunar craters are of course one of the most striking
features of the moon and initially astronomers thought that volcanic activity was responsible for them, but by about 1950
most investigators were convinced that meteorite impact was the major mechanism involved.126 Such impacts pulverise
large amounts of rock and scatter fragments over the lunar surface. Astronomers in the 1950s agreed that the moons
surface was probably covered with a layer of pulverised material via this process, because radar studies were consistent
with the conclusion that the lunar surface was made of fine particles, but there were no good ways to estimate its actual
thickness.Yet another contributing source to the dust layer on the moon was suggested by Lyttleton in 1956, 127 He
suggested that since there is no atmosphere on the moon, the moons surface is exposed to direct radiation, so that
ultraviolet light and x-rays from the sun could slowly erode the surface of exposed lunar rocks and reduce them to dust,
Once formed, he envisaged that the dust particles might be kept in motion and so slowly flow to lower elevations on the
lunar surface where they would accumulate to form a layer of dust which he suggested might be several miles deep.
Lyttleton wasnt alone, since the main proponent of the thick dust view in British scientific circles was Royal Greenwich
astronomer Thomas Gold, who also suggested that this loose dust covering the lunar surface could present a serious
hazard to any spacecraft landing on the moon. 128 Whipple, on the other hand, argued that the dust layer would be firm
and compact so that humans and vehicles would have no trouble landing on and moving across the moons surface.129
Another British astronomer, Moore, took note of Golds theory that the lunar seas were covered with layers of dust many
kilometres deep but flatly rejected this. He commented:
The disagreements are certainly very marked. At one end of the scale we have Gold and his supporters, who believe in a
dusty Moon covered in places to a great depth; at the other, people such as myself, who incline to the view that the dust
can be no more than a few centimetres deep at most. The only way to clear the matter up once and for all is to send a
rocket to find out.150
So it is true that some astronomers expected to find a thick dust layer, but this was no means universally supported in the
astronomical community. The Russians too were naturally interested in this question at this time because of their
involvement in the space race, but they also had not reached a consensus on this question of the lunar dust.
Sharonov,131 for example, discussed Golds theory and arguments for and against a thick dust layer, admitting that this
theory has become the object of animated discussion. Nevertheless, he noted that the majority of selenologists
favoured the plains of the lunar seas (mares ) being layers of solidified lavas with minimal dust cover.
Research in the Early 1960s
The lunar dust question was also on the agenda of the December 1960 Symposium number 14ofthe International
Astronomical Union held at the Puikovo Observatory near Leningrad. Green summed up the arguments as follows:
Polarization studies by Wright verified that the surface of the lunar maria is covered with dust. However, various
estimates of the depth of this dust layer have been proposed. In a model based on the radioastronomy techniques of
Dicke and Beringer and others, a thin dust layer is assumed, Whipple assumes the covering to be less than a few meters
thick.
On the other hand, Gold, Gilvarry, and Wesselink favor a very thick dust layer. Because no polar homogenization of
lunar surface details can be demonstrated, however, the concept of a thin dust layer appears more reasonable. Thin
dust layers, thickening in topographic basins near post-mare craters, are predicted for mare areas.132

In a 1961 monograph on the lunar surface, Fielder discussed the dust question in some detail, citing many of those who
had been involved in the controversy. Having discussed the lunar mountains where he said there may be frequent
pockets of dust trapped in declivities he concluded that the mean dust cover over the mountains would only be a
millimetre or so.133 But then he went on to say,
No measurements made so far refer purely to marebase materials. Thus, no estimates of the composition of maria have
direct experimental backing. This is unfortunate, because the interesting question How deep is the dust in the lunar
seas? remains unanswered.
In 1964 a collection of research papers were published in a monograph entitled The Lunar Surface Layer, and the
consensus therein amongst the contributing authors was that there was not a thick dust layer on the moons surface. For
example, in the introduction, Kopal stated that
this layer of loose dust must extend down to a depth of at least several centimeters, and probably a foot or so; but how
much deeper it may be in certain places remains largely conjectural.134
In a paper on Dust Bombardment on the Lunar Surface, McCracken and Dubin undertook a comprehensive review of
the subject, including the work of pik and Whipple, plus many others who had since been investigating the meteoritic
dust influx to the earth and moon, but concluded that
The available data on the fluxes of interplanetary dust particles with masses less than 104gm show that the material
accreted by the moon during the past 4.5 billion years amounts to approximately 1 gm/cm2 if the flux has remained fairly
constant.135
(Note that this statement is based on the uniformitarian age constraints for the moon.) Thus they went on to say that
The lunar surface layer thus formed would, therefore, consist of a mixture of lunar material and interplanetary material
(primarily of cometary origin) from 10cm to 1m thick. The low value for the accretion rate for the small particles is not
adequate to produce large-scale dust erosion or to form deep layers of dust on the moon. .136
In another paper, Salisbury and Smalley state in their abstract:
It is concluded that the lunar surface is covered with a layer of rubble of highly variable thickness and block size. The
rubble in turn is mantled with a layer of highly porous dust which is thin over topographic highs, but thick in depressions.
The dust has a complex surface and significant, but not strong, coherence.137
In their conclusions they made a number of predictions.
Thus, the relief of the coarse rubble layer expected in the highlands should be largely obliterated by a mantle of fine dust,
no more than a few centimeters thick over near-level areas, but meters thick in steep- walled depressions. The lunar
dust layer should provide no significant difficulty for the design of vehicles and space suits. 138
Expressing the opposing view was Hapke, who stated that
recent analyses of the thermal component of the lunar radiation indicate that large areas of the moon may be covered to
depths of many meters by a substance which is ten times less dense than rock. Such deep layers of dust would be in
accord with the suggestion of Gold.139
He went on:
Thus, if the radio-thermal analyses are correct, the possibility of large areas of the lunar surface being covered with thick
deposits of dust must be given serious consideration.140
However, the following year Hapke reported on research that had been sponsored by NASA, at a symposium on the
nature of the lunar surface, and appeared to be more cautious on the dust question. In the proceedings he wrote:
I believe that the optical evidence gives very strong indications that the lunar surface is covered with a layer of fine dust
of unknown thicknes.141
There is no question that NASA was concerned about the presence of dust on the moons surface and its thickness. That
is why they sponsored intensive research efforts in the 1960s on the questions of the lunar surface and the rate of
meteoritic dust influx to the earth and the moon. In order to answer the latter question, NASA had begun sending up
rockets and satellites to collect dust particles and to measure their flux in near-earth space. Results were reported at
symposia, such as that which was held in August 1965 at Cambridge, Massachusetts, jointly sponsored by NASA and the
Smithsonian Institution, the proceedings of which were published in 1967. 142
A number of creationist authors have referred to this proceedings volume in support of the standard creationist argument
that NASA scientists had found a lot of dust in space which confirmed the earlier suggestions of a high dust influx rate to
the moon and thus a thick lunar surface layer of dust that would be a danger to any landing spacecraft. Slusher, for
example, reported that he had been involved in an intensive review of NASA data on the matter and found
that radar, rocket, and satellite data published in 1976 by NASA and the Smithsonian Institution show that a tremendous
amount of cosmic dust is present in the space around the earth and moon.143
(Note that the date of publication was incorrectly reported as 1976, when it in fact is the 1967 volume just referred to
above.) Similarly, Calais references this same 1967 proceedings volume and says of it,
NASA has published data collected by orbiting satellites which confirm a vast amount of cosmic dust reaching the vicinity
of the earth-moon system.144,145
Both these assertions, however, are far from correct, since the reports published in that proceedings volume contain
results of measurements taken by detectors on board spacecraft such as Explorer XVI, Explorer XXIII, Pegasus I and
Pegasus II, as well as references to the work on radio meteors by Elford and cumulative flux curves incorporating the
work of people like Hawkins, Upton and Elssser. These same satellite results and same investigators contributions to
cumulative flux curves appear in the 1970s papers of investigators whose cumulative flux curves have been reproduced
here as Figures 3, 5 and 7, all of which support the 10,000 - 20,000 tons per year and approximately 10,000 tons per year
estimates for the meteoritic dust influx to the earth and moon respectively - not the tremendous and vast amounts of
dust incorrectly inferred from this proceedings volume by Slusher and Calais.
Pre-Apollo Moon Landings
The next stage in the NASA effort was to begin to directly investigate the lunar surface as a prelude to an actual manned
landing. So seven Ranger spacecraft were sent up to transmit television pictures back to earth as they plummeted toward
crash landings on selected flat regions near the lunar equator. 146 The last three succeeded spectacularly, in 1964 and
1965, sending back thousands of detailed lunar scenes, thus increasing a thousand-fold our ability to see detail. After the
first high-resolution pictures of the lunar surface were transmitted by television from the Ranger VII spacecraft in 1964,
Shoemaker147 concluded that the entire lunar surface was blanketed by a layer of pulverised ejecta caused by repeated
impacts and that this ejecta would range from boulder-sized rocks to finely-ground dust. After the remaining Ranger
crash-landings, the Ranger investigators were agreed that a debris layer existed, although interpretations varied from
virtually bare rock with only a few centimetres of debris (Kuiper, Strom and Le Poole) through to estimates of a layer from
a few to tens of metres deep (Shoemaker).148 However, it cant be implied as some have done149 that Shoemaker was
referring to a dust layer that thick that was unstable enough to swallow up a landing spacecraft. After all, the consolidation

of dust and boulders sufficient to support a load has nothing to do with a layers thickness. In any case, Shoemaker was
describing a surface layer composed of debris from meteorite impacts, the dust produced being from lunar rocks and not
from falling meteoritic dust.But still the NASA planners wanted to dispel any lingering doubts before committing astronauts
to a manned spacecraft landing on the lunar surface, so the soft-landing Surveyor series of spacecraft were designed and
built However, the Russians just beat the Americans when they achieved the first lunar soft-landing with their Luna 9
spacecraft. Nevertheless, the first American Surveyor spacecraft successfully achieved a soft-landing in mid- 1966 and
returned over 11,000 splendid photographs, which showed the moons surface in much greater detail than ever
before.150 Between then and January 1968 four other Surveyor spacecraft were successfully landed on the lunar surface
and the pictures obtained were quite remarkable in their detail and high resolution, the last in the series (Surveyor 7)
returning 21,000 photographs as well as a vast amount of scientific data. But more importantly,
as each spindly, spraddle-legged craft dropped gingerly to the surface, its speed largely negated by retrorockets, its three
footpads sank no more than an inch or two into the soft lunar soil. The bearing strength of the surface measured as much
as five to ten pounds per square inch, ample for either astronaut or landing spacecraft.151
Two of the Surveyors carried a soil mechanics surface sampler which was used to test the soil and any rock fragments
within reach. All these tests and observations gave a consistent picture of the lunar soil. As Pasachoff noted:
It was only the soft landing of the Soviet Luna and American Surveyor spacecraft on the lunar surface in 1966 and the
photographs they sent back that settled the argument over the strength of the lunar surface; the Surveyor perched on the
surface without sinking in more than a few centimeters.152152
Moore concurred, with the statement that
up to 1966 the theory of deep dust-drifts was still taken seriously in the United States and there was considerable relief
when the soft-Ianding of Luna 9 showed it to be wrong.153
Referring to Golds deep-dust theory of 1955, Moore went on to say that although this theory had gained a considerable
degree of respectability, with the successful soft-landing of Luna 9 in 1966 it was finally discarded.154 So it was in May
1966 when Surveyor I landed on the moon three years before Apollo 11 that the long debate over the lunar surface dust
layer was finally settled, and NASA officials then knew exactly how much dust there was on the surface and that it was
capable of supporting spacecraft and men.
Since this is the case, creationists cannot say or imply, as some have, 155-160 that most astronomers and scientists
expected a deep dust layer. Some of course did, but it is unfair if creationists only selectively refer to those few scientists
who predicted a deep dust layer and ignore the majority of scientists who on equally scientific grounds had predicted only
a thin dust layer. The fact that astronomy textbooks and monographs acknowledge that there was a theory about deep
dust on the moon,161,162 as they should if they intend to reflect the history of the development of thought in lunar science,
cannot be used to bolster a lop-sided presentation of the debate amongst scientists at the time over the dust question,
particularly as these same textbooks and monographs also indicate, as has already been quoted, that the dust question
was settled by the Luna and Surveyor soft-landings in 1966. Nor should creationists refer to papers like that
ofWhipple,163 who wrote of a dust cloud around the earth, as if that were representative of the views at the time of all
astronomers. Whipples views were easily dismissed by his colleagues because of subsequent evidence. Indeed, Whipple
did not continue promoting his claim in subsequent papers, a clear indication that he had either withdrawn it or been
silenced by the overwhelming response of the scientific community with evidence against it, or both.
The Apollo Lunar Landing
Two further matters need to be also dealt with. First, there is the assertion that NASA built the Apollo lunar lander with
large footpads because they were unsure about the dust and the safety of their spacecraft. Such a claim is, inappropriate
given the success of the Surveyor soft-landings, the Apollo lunar lander having footpads which were proportionally similar
to the relative sizes of the respective spacecraft. After all, it stands to reason that since the design of Surveyor spacecraft
worked so well and survived landing on the lunar surface that the same basic design should be followed in the Apollo
lunar lander.
As for what Armstrong and Aldrin found on the lunar surface, all are agreed that they found a thin dust layer .The
transcript of Armstrongs words as he stepped onto the moon are instructive:
I am at the foot of the ladder. The LM [lunar module ] footpads are only depressed in the surface about one or two
inches, although the surface appears. to be very, very fine grained, as. you get close to it. It is almost like a powder. Now
and then it is very fine. I am going to step off the LM now. That is one small step for man, one giant leap for
mankind.164164
Moments later while taking his first steps on the lunar surface, he noted:
The surface is fine and powdery. I can - I can pick it up loosely with my toe. It does adhere in fine layers like powdered
charcoal to the sole and sides. of my boots. I only go in a small fraction of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch, but I can
see the footprints. of my boots and the treads in the fine sandy particles.
And a little later, while picking up samples of rocks and fine material, he said:
This is very interesting. It is a very soft surface, but here and there where I plug with the contingency sample collector, I
run into a very hard surface, but it appears to be very cohesive material of the same sort. I will try to get a rock in here.
Heres a couple.165
So firm was the ground, that Armstrong and Aldrin had great difficulty planting the American flag into the rocky and
virtually dust-free lunar surface.
The fact that no further comments were made about the lunar dust by NASA or other scientists has been taken by
some166-168 to represent some conspiracy of silence, hoping that some supposed unexplained problem will go away.
There is a perfectly good reason why there was silence - three years earlier the dust issue had been settled and
Armstrong and Aldrin only confirmed what scientists already knew about the thin dust layer on the moon. So because it
wasnt a problem just before the Apollo 11 landing, there was no need for any talk about it to continue after the successful
exploration of the lunar surface. Armstrong himself may have been a little concerned about the constituency and strength
of the lunar surface as he was about to step onto it, as he appears to have admitted in subsequent interviews, 169 but then
he was the one on the spot and about to do it, so why wouldnt he be concerned about the dust, along with lots of other
related issues.
Overns Testimony
Finally, there is the testimony of Dr William Overn. 170,171 Because he was working at the time for the Univac Division of
Sperry Rand on the television sub-system for the Mariner IV spacecraft he sometimes had exchanges with the men at the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) who were working on the Apollo program. Evidently those he spoke to were assigned to
the Ranger spacecraft missions which, as we have seen, were designed to find out what the lunar surface really was like;
in other words, to investigate among other things whether there was a thin or thick dust layer on the lunar surface. In Bills
own words:

I simply told them that they should expect to find less than 10,000 years worth of dust when they got there. This was
based on my creationist belief that the moon is young. The situation got so tense it was suggested I bet them a large
amount of money about the dust. However, when the Surveyor spacecraft later landed on the moon and discovered
there was virtually no dust, that wasnt good enough for these people to pay off their bet. They said the first landing might
have been a fluke in a low dust area! So we waited until ,.,. astronauts actually landed on the moon. 172
Neither the validity of this story nor Overns integrity is in question. However, it should be noted that the bet Overn made
with the JPL scientists was entered into at a time when there was still much speculation about the lunar surface, the
Ranger spacecraft just having been crash-landed on the moon and the Surveyor soft-landings yet to settle the dust issue.
Furthermore, since these scientists involved with Overn were still apparently hesitant after the Surveyor missions, it
suggests that they may not have been well acquainted with NASAs other efforts, particularly via satellite measurements,
to resolve the dust question, and that they were not rubbing shoulders with those scientists who were at the forefront of
these investigations which culminated in the Surveyor soft-landings settling the speculations over the dust. Had they been
more informed, they would not have entered into the wager with Overn, nor for that matter would they have seemingly felt
embarrassed by the small amount of dust found by Armstrong and Aldrin, and thus conceded defeat in the wager. The
fact remains that the perceived problem of what astronauts might face on the lunar surface was settled by NASA in 1966
by the Surveyor soft-landings.
Moon Dust and the Moons Age
The final question to be resolved is, now that we know how much meteoritic dust falls to the moons surface each year,
then what does our current knowledge of the lunar surface layer tell us about the moons age? For example, what period
of time is represented by the actual layer of dust found on the moon? On the one hand creationists have been using the
earlier large dust influx figures to support a young age of the moon, and on the other hand evolutionists are satisfied that
the small amount of dust on the moon supports their billions-of-years moon age.
The Lunar Regolith
To begin with, what makes up the lunar surface and how thick is it? The surface layer of pulverised material on the moon
is now, after on-site investigations by the Apollo astronauts, not called moon dust, but lunar regolith, and the fine materials
in it are sometimes referred to as the lunar soil. The regolith is usually several metres thick and extends as a continuous
layer of debris draped over the entire lunar bedrock surface. The average thickness of the regolith on the maria is 4-5m,
while the highlands regolith is about twice as thick, averaging about 10m. 173 The seismic properties of the regolith appear
to be uniform on the highlands and maria alike, but the seismic signals indicate that the regolith consists of discrete
layers, rather than being simply compacted dust. The top surface is very loose due to stirring by micrometeorites, but the
lower depths below about 20cm are strongly compacted, probably due to shaking during impacts.
The complex layered nature of the regolith has been studied in drill-core samples brought back by the Apollo missions.
These have clearly revealed that the regolith is not a homogeneous pile of rubble. Rather, it is a layered succession of
ejecta blankets.174 An apparent paradox is that the regolith is both well mixed on a small scale and also displays a layered
structure. The Apollo 15 deep core tube, for example, was 2.42 metres long, but contained 42 major textural units from a
few millimetres to 13cm in thickness. It has been found that there is usually no correlation between layers in adjacent core
tubes, but the individual layers are well mixed. This paradox has been resolved by recognising that the regolith is
continuously gardened by large and small meteorites and micrometeorites. Each impact inverts much of the
microstratigraphy and produces layers of ejecta, some new and some remnants of older layers. -The new surface layers
are stirred by micrometeorites, but deeper stirring is rarer. The result is that a complex layered regolith is built up, but is in
a continual state of flux, particles now at the surface potentially being buried deeply by future impacts. In this way, the
regolith is turned over, like a heavily bombarded battlefield. However, it appears to only be the upper 0.5 - l mm of the
lunar surface that is subjected to intense churning and mixing by the meteoritic influx at the present time. Nevertheless, as
a whole, the regolith is a primary mixing layer of lunar materials from all points on the moon with the incoming meteoritic
influx, both meteorites proper and dust.

Figure 9. Processes of erosion on the lunar surface today appear to be extremely slow compared with the processes on
the earth. Bombardment by micrometeorites is believed to be the main cause. A large meteorite strikes the surface very
rarely, excavating bedrock and ejecting it over thousands of square kilometres, sometimes as long rays of material
radiating from the resulting crater. Much of the meteorite itself is vaporized on impact, and larger fragments of the debris
produce secondary craters. Such an event at a mare site pulverizes and churns the rubble and dust that form the regolith.

Accompanying base surges of hot clouds of dust. gas and shock waves might compact the dust into breccias. Cosmic
rays continually bombard the surface. During the lunar day ions from the solar wind and unshielded solar radiation
impinge on the surface. (Adapted from Eglinton et al.176)
Lunar Surface Processes
So apart from the influx of the meteoritic dust, what other processes are active on the moons surface, particularly as there
is no atmosphere or water on the moon to weather and erode rocks in the same way as they do on earth? According to
Ashworth and McDonnell,
Three major processes continuously affecting the surface of the moon are meteor impact, solar wind sputtering, and
thermal erosion.175
The relative contributions of these processes towards the erosion of the lunar surface depend upon various factors, such
as the dimensions and composition of impacting bodies and the rate of meteoritic impacts and dust influx, These
processes of erosion on the lunar surface are of course extremely slow compared with erosion processes on the earth,
Figure 9, after Eglinton et al.,176 attempts to illustrate these lunar surface erosion processes.Of these erosion processes
the most important is obviously impact erosion, Since there is no atmosphere on the moon, the incoming meteoritic dust
does not just gently drift down to the lunar surface, but instead strikes at an average velocity that has been estimated to
be between 13 and 18 km/sec,177 or more recently as 20 km/sec,178 with a maximum reported velocity of 100
km/sec.179 Depending not ,ony on the velocity but on the mass of the impacting dust particles, more dust is produced as
debris.A number of attempts have been made to quantify the amount of dust-caused erosion of bare lunar rock on the
lunar surface. Hrz et al.180 suggested a rate of 0.2-0.4mm/106 year (or 20-40 x 10-9cm/yr) after examination of
micrometeorite craters on the surfaces of lunar rock samples brought back by the Apollo astronauts. McDonnell and
Ashworth181 discussed the range of erosion rates over the range of particle diameters and the surface area exposed. They
thus suggested that a rate of 1-3 x 10-7cm/yr (or 100-300 x 10-9cm/yr), basing this estimate on Apollo moon rocks also,
plus studies of the Surveyor 3 camera. They later revised this estimate, concluding that on the scale of tens of metres
impact erosion accounts for the removal of some 10 -7cm/yr (or 100x 10-9cm/yr) of lunar material.182 However, in another
paper, Gault et al.183 tabulated calculated abrasion rates for rocks exposed on the lunar surface compared with observed
erosion rates as determined from solar-flare particle tracks. Discounting the early satellite data and just averaging the
values calculated from the best, more recent satellite data and from lunar rocks, gave an erosion rate esti mate of
0.28cm/106yr (or 280 x 10-9cm/yr), while the average of the observed erosion rates they found from the literature was
0.03cm/106yr (or 30 x 10-9cm/yr). However, they naturally favoured their own best estimate from the satellite data of both
the flux and the consequent abrasion rate, the latter being 0.1 cm/10 6yr (or 100 x 10-9cm/ yr), a figure identical with that
ofMcDonnell and Ashworth. Gault et al. noted that this was higher, by a factor approaching an order of magnitude, than
the consensus of the observed values, a discrepancy which mirrors the difference between the meteoritic dust influx
estimates derived from the lunar rocks compared with the satellite data.These estimates obviously vary from one to
another, but 30-100 x 10-9cm/yr would seem to represent a middle of the range figure. However, this impact erosion rate
only applies to bare, exposed rock. As McCracken and Dubin have stated, once a surface dust layer is built up initially
from the dust influx and impact erosion, this initial surface dust layer would protect the underlying bedrock surface against
continued erosion by dust particle bombardment. 184 If continued impact erosion is going to add to the dust and rock
fragments in the surface layer and regolith, then what is needed is some mechanism to continually transport dust away
from the rock surfaces as it is produced, so as to keep exposing bare rock again for continued impact erosion. Without
some active transporting process, exposed rock surfaces on peaks and ridges would be worn away to give a somewhat
rounded moonscape (which is what the Apollo astronauts found), and the dust would thus collect in thicker accumulations
at the bottoms of slopes. This is illustrated in Figure 9.So bombardment of the lunar surface by micrometeorites is
believed to be the main cause of surface erosion. At the Current rate of removal, however, it would take a million years to
remove an approximately 1mm thick skin of rock from the whole lunar surface and convert it to dust. Occasionally a large
meteorite strikes the surface (see Figure 9 again), excavating through the dust down into the bedrock and ejecting debris
over thousands of square kilometres sometimes as long rays of material radiating from the resulting crater. Much of the
meteorite itself is vaporised on impact, and larger fragments of the debris create secondary craters. Such an event at a
mare site pulverises and churns the rubble and dust that forms the regolith.The solar wind is the next major contributor to
lunar surface erosion. The solar wind consists primarily of protons, electrons, and some alpha particles, that are
continuously being ejected by the sun. Once again, since the moon has virtually no atmosphere or magnetic field, these
particles of the solar wind strike the lunar surface unimpeded at velocities averaging 600 km/sec, knocking individual
atoms from rock and dust mineral lattices. Since the major components of the solar wind are H + (hydrogen) ions, and
some He (helium) and other elements, the damage upon impact to the crystalline structure of the rock silicates creates
defects and voids that accommodate the gases and other elements which are simultaneously implanted in the rock
surface. But individual atoms are also knocked out of the rock surface, and this is called sputtering or sputter erosion.
Since the particles in the solar wind strike the lunar surface with such high velocities,
one can safely conclude that most of the sputtered atoms have ejection velocities higher than the escape velocity of the
moon.185
There would thus appear to be a net erosional mass loss from the moon to space via this sputter erosion.
As for the rate of this erosional loss, Wehner186 suggested a value for the sputter rate of the order of 0.4 angstrom ()/yr.
However, with the actual measurement of the density of the solar wind particles on the surface of the moon, and lunar
rock samples available for analysis, the intensity of the solar wind used in sputter rate calculations was downgraded, and
consequently the estimates of the sputter rate itself (by an order of magnitude lower). McDonnell and
Ashworth187 estimated an average sputter rate of lunar rocks of about 0.02/yr, which they later revised to 0.020.04/yr.188 Further experimental work refined their estimate to 0.043/yr, 189 which was reported in Nature by
Hughes.190 This figure of 0.043 /yr continued to be used and confirmed in subsequent experimental work, 191although
Zook192 suggested that the rate may be higher, even as high as 0.08/yr. 193 Even so, if this sputter erosion rate continued
at this pace in the past then it equates to less than one centimetre of lunar surface lowering in one billion years. This not
only applies to solid rock, but to the dust layer itself, which would in fact decrease in thickness in that time, in opposition to
the increase in thickness caused by meteoritic dust influx. Thus sputter erosion doesnt help by adding dust to the lunar
surface, and in any case it is such a slow process that the overall effect is minimal. Yet another potential form of erosion
process on the lunar surface is thermal erosion, that is, the breakdown of the lunar surface around impact/crater areas
due to the marked temperature changes that result from the lunar diurnal cycle. Ashworth and McDonnell 194 carried out
tests on lunar rocks, submitting them to cycles of changing temperature, but found it impossible to detect any surface
changes. They therefore suggested that thermal erosion is probably not a major force. Similarly, McDonnell and
Flavill195 conducted further experiments and found that their samples showed no sign of degradation or enhancement
due to the temperature cycle that they had been subjected to. They reported that

the conditions were thermally equivalent to the lunar day-night cycle and we must conclude that on this scale thermal
cycling is a very weak erosion mechanism.
The only other possible erosion process that has ever been mentioned in the literature was that proposed by
Lyttleton196 and Gold.197 They suggested that high-energy ultraviolet and x-rays from the sun would slowly pulverize lunar
rock to dust, and over millions of years this would create an enormous thickness of dust on the lunar surface. This was
proposed in the 1950s and debated at the time, but since the direct investigations of the moon from the mid- 1960s
onwards, no further mention of this potential process has appeared in the technical literature, either for the idea or against
it. One can only assume that either the idea has been ignored or forgotten, or is simply ineffective in producing any
significant erosion, contrary to the suggestions of the original proposers. The latter is probably true, since just as with
impact erosion the effect of this radiation erosion would be subject to the critical necessity of a mechanism to clean rock
surfaces of the dust produced by the radiation erosion. In any case, even a thin dust layer will more than likely simply
absorb the incoming rays, while the fact that there are still exposed rock surfaces on the moon clearly suggests that
Lyttleton and Golds radiation erosion process has not been effective over the presumed millions of years, else all rock
surfaces should long since have been pulverized to dust. Alternately, of course, the fact that there are still exposed rock
surfaces on the moon could instead mean that if this radiation erosion process does occur then the moon is quite young.
Age Considerations
So how much dust is there on the lunar surface? Because of their apparent negligible or non-existent contribution, it may
be safe to ignore thermal, sputter and radiation erosion. This leaves the meteoritic dust influx itself and the dust it
generates when it hits bare rock on the lunar surface (impact erosion). However, our primary objective is to determine
whether the amount of meteoritic dust in the lunar regolith and surface dust layer, when compared to the current
meteoritic dust influx rate, is an accurate indication of the age of the moon itself, and by implication the earth and the solar
system also.Now we concluded earlier that the consensus from all the available evidence, and estimate techniques
employed by different scientists, is that the meteoritic dust influx to the lunar surface is about 10,000 tons per year or
2x10-9g cm-2yr-1. Estimates of the density of micrometeorites vary widely, but an average value of 19/cm3 is commonly
used. Thus at this apparent rate of dust influx it would take about a billion years for a dust layer a mere 2cm thick to
accumulate over the lunar surface. Now the Apollo astronauts apparently reported a surface dust layer of between less
than 1/8 inch (3mm)and 3 inches (7.6cm). Thus, if this surface dust layer were composed only of meteoritic dust, then at
the current rate of dust influx this surface dust layer would have accumulated over a period of between 150 million years
(3mm) and 3.8 billion years (7.6cm). Obviously, this line of reasoning cannot be used as an argument for a young age for
the moon and therefore the solar system.However, as we have already seen, below the thin surface dust layer is the lunar
regolith, which is up to 5 metres thick across the lunar maria and averages 10 metres thick in the lunar highlands.
Evidently, the thin surface dust layer is very loose due to stirring by impacting meteoritic dust (micrometeorites), but the
regolith beneath which consists of rock rubble of all sizes down to fines (that are referred to as lunar soil) is strongly
compacted. Nevertheless, the regolith appears to be continuously gardened by large and small meteorites and
micrometeorites, particles now at the surface potentially being buried deeply by future impacts. This of course means then
that as the regolith is turned over meteoritic dust particles in the thin surface layer will after some time end up being mixed
into the lunar soil in the regolith below. Therefore, also, it cannot be assumed that the thin loose surface layer is entirely
composed of meteoritic dust, since lunar soil is also brought up into this loose surface layer by impacts.However, attempts
have been made to estimate the proportion of meteoritic material mixed into the regolith. Taylor198 reported that the
meteoritic compositions recognised in the maria soils turn out to be surprisingly uniform at about 1.5% and that the
abundance patterns are close to those for primitive unfractionated Type I carbonaceous chondrites. As described earlier,
this meteoritic component was identified by analysing for trace elements in the broken-down rocks and soils in the regolith
and then assuming that any trace element differences represented the meteoritic material added to the soils. Taylor also
adds that the compositions of other meteorites, the ordinary chondrites, the iron meteorites and the stony-irons, do not
appear to be present in the lunar regolith, which may have some significance as to the origin of this meteoritic material,
most of which is attributed to the influx of micrometeorites. It is unknown what the large crater-forming meteorites
contribute to the regolith, but Taylor
suggests possibly as much as 10% of the
total regolith. Additionally, a further source
of exotic elements is the solar wind, which is
estimated to contribute between 3% and 4%
to the soil. This means that the total
contribution to the regolith from extra-lunar
sources is around 15%. Thus in a five metre
thick regolith over the maria, the thickness
of the meteoritic component would be close
to 60cm, which at the current estimated
meteoritic influx rate would have taken
almost 30 billion years to accumulate, a
timespan six times the claimed evolutionary
age of the moon.
The lunar surface is heavily cratered, the
largest crater having a diameter of 295kms.
The highland areas are much more heavily
cratered than the maria, which suggested to
early investigators that the lunar highland
areas might represent the oldest exposed
rocks on the lunar surface. This has been
confirmed by radiometric dating of rock
samples brought back by the Apollo
astronauts, so that a detailed lunar
stratigraphy
and
evolutionary
geochronological framework has been
constructed. This has led to the conclusion
that early in its history the moon suffered
intense bombardment from scores of
meteorites, so that all highland areas

presumed to be older than 3.9 billion years have been found to be saturated with craters 50-100 km in diameter, and
beneath the 10 metre-thick regolith is a zone of breccia and fractured bedrock estimated in places to be more than 1 km
thick.199
Figure 10. Cratering history of the moon (adapted from Taylor200). An aeon represents a billion years on the evolutionists
time scale, while the vertical bar represents the error margin in the estimation of the cratering rate at each data point on
the curve.
Following suitable calibration, a relative crater chronology has been established, which then allows for the cratering rate
through lunar history to be estimated and then plotted, as it is in Figure 10.200 There thus appears to be a general
correlation between crater densities across the lunar surface and radioactive age dates. However, the crater densities at
the various sites cannot be fitted to a straightforward exponential decay curve of meteorites or asteroid
populations.201 Instead, at least two separate groups of objects seem to be required. The first is believed to be
approximated by the present-day meteoritic flux, while the second is believed to be that responsible for the intense early
bombardment claimed to be about four billion years ago. This intense early bombardment recorded by the cratersaturated surface of the lunar highland areas could thus explain the presence of the thicker regolith (up to 10 metres) in
those areas.It follows that this period of intense early bombardment resulted from a very high influx of meteorites and thus
meteoritic dust, which should now be recognisable in the regolith. Indeed, Taylor 202 lists three types of meteoritic debris in
the highlands regolith- the micrometeoritic component, the debris from the large-crater-producing bodies, and the material
added during the intense early bombardment. However, the latter has proven difficult to quantify. Again, the use of trace
element ratios has enabled six classes of ancient meteoritic components to be identified, but these do not correspond to
any of the currently known meteorite classes, both iron and chondritic. It would appear that this material represents the
debris from the large projectiles responsible for the saturation cratering in the lunar highlands during the intense
bombardment early in the moons history. It is this early intense bombardment with its associated higher influx rate of
meteoritic material that would account for not only the thicker regolith in the lunar highlands, but the 12% of meteoritic
component in the thinner regolith of the maria that we have calculated (above) would take up to 30 billion years to
accumulate at the current meteoritic influx rate. Even though the maria are believed to be younger than the lunar
highlands and havent suffered the same saturation cratering, the cratering rate curve of Figure 10 suggests that the
meteoritic influx rate soon after formation of the maria was still almost 10 times the current influx rate, so that much of the
meteoritic component in the regolith could thus have more rapidly accumulated in the early years after the marias
formation. This then removes the apparent accumulation timespan anomaly for the evolutionists timescale, and suggests
that the meteoritic component in the maria regolith is still consistent with its presumed 3 billion year age if uniformitarian
assumptions are used. This of course is still far from satisfactory for those young earth creationists who believed that
uniformitarian assumptions applied to moon dust could be used to deny the evolutionists vast age for the moon.Given
that as much as 10% of the maria regolith may have been contributed by the large crater-forming meteorites,203impact
erosion by these large crater-producing meteorites may well have had a significant part in the development of the regolith,
including the generation of dust, particularly if the meteorites strike bare lunar rock. Furthermore, any incoming meteorite,
or micrometeorite for that matter, creates a crater much bigger than itself, 204 and since most impacts are at an oblique
angle the resulting secondary cratering may in fact be more important 205 in generating even more dust. However, to do so
the impacting meteorite or micrometeorite must strike bare exposed rock on the lunar surface. Therefore, if bare rock is to
continue to be available at the lunar surface, then there must be some mechanism to move the dust off the rock as quickly
as it is generated, coupled with some transport mechanism to carry it and accumulate it in lower areas, such as the maria.
Various suggestions have been made apart from the obvious effect of steep gradients, which in any case would only
produce local accumulation. Gold, for example, listed five possibilities,206 but all were highly speculative and remain
unverified. More recently, McDonnell207 has proposed that electrostatic charging on dust particle surfaces may cause
those particles to levitate across the lunar surface up to 10 or more metres. As they lose their charge they float back to the
surface, where they are more likely to settle in a lower area. McDonnell gives no estimate as to how much dust might be
moved by this process, and it remains somewhat tentative. In any case, if such transport mechanisms were in operation
on the lunar surface, then we would expect the regolith to be thicker over the maria because of their lower elevation.
However, the fact is that the regolith is thicker in the highland areas where the presumed early intense bombardment
occurred, the impact-generated dust just accumulating locally and not being transported any significant distance.Having
considered the available data, it is inescapably clear that the amount of meteoritic dust on the lunar surface and in the
regolith is not at all inconsistent with the present meteoritic dust influx rate to the lunar surface operating, over the multibillion year time framework proposed by evolutionists, but including a higher influx rate in the early history of the moon
when intense bombardment occurred producing many of the craters on the lunar surface. Thus, for the purpose of
proving a young moon, the meteoritic dust influx as it appears to be currently known is at least two orders of magnitude
too low. On the other hand, the dust influx rate has, appropriately enough, not been used by evolutionists to somehow
prove their multi-billion year timespan for lunar history. (They have recognised some of the problems and uncertainties
and so have relied more on their radiometric dating of lunar rocks, coupled with wide- ranging geochemical analyses of
rock and soil samples, all within the broad picture of the lunar stratigraphic succession.) The present rate of dust influx
does not, of course, disprove a young moon.
Attempted Creationist Responses
Some creationists have tentatively recognised that the moon dust argument has lost its original apparent force. For
example, Taylor(Paul)208 follows the usual line of argument employed by other creationists, stating that based on
published estimates of the dust influx rate and the evolutionary timescale, many evolutionists expected the astronauts to
find a very thick layer of loose dust on the moon, so when they only found a thin layer this implied a young moon.
However, Taylor then admits that the case appears not to be as clear cut as some originally thought, particularly because
evolutionists can now point to what appear to be more accurate measurements of a smaller dust influx rate compatible
with their timescale. Indeed, he says that the evidence for disproving an old age using this particular process is
weakened, but that furthermore, the case has been blunted by the discovery of what is said to be meteoritic dust within
the regolith. However, like Calais,209,210 Taylor points to the NASA report211 that supposedly indicated a very large amount
of cosmic dust in the vicinity of the earth and moon (a claim which cannot be substantiated by a careful reading of the
papers published in that report, as we have already seen). He also takes up DeYoungs comment212 that because all
evolutionary theories about the origin of the moon and the solar system predict a much larger amount of incoming dust in
the moons early years, then a very thick layer of dust would be expected, so it is still missing. Such an argument cannot
be sustained by creationists because, as we have seen above, the amount of meteoritic dust that appears to be in the
regolith seems to be compatible with the evolutionists view that there was a much higher influx rate of meteoritic dust
early in the moons history at the same time as the so-called early intense bombardment.

Indeed, from Figure 10 it could be argued that since the cratering rate very early in the moons history was more than 300
times todays cratering rate, then the meteoritic dust influx early in the moons history was likewise more than 300 times
todays influx rate. That would then amount to more than 3 million tons of dust per year, but even at that rate it would take
a billion years to accumulate more than six metres thickness of meteoritic dust across the lunar surface, no doubt mixed in
with a lesser amount of dust and rock debris generated by the large-crater-producing meteorite impacts. However, in that
one billion years, Figure 10 shows that the rate of meteoritic dust influx is postulated to have rapidly declined, so that in
fact a considerably lesser amount of meteoritic dust and impact debris would have accumulated in that supposed billion
years. In other words, the dust in the regolith and the surface layer is still compatible with the evolutionists view that there
was a higher influx rate early in the moons history, so creationists cannot use that to shore up this considerably blunted
argument.Coupled with this, it is irrelevant for both Taylor and DeYoung to imply that because evolutionists say that the
sun and the planets were formed from an immense cloud of dust which was thus obviously much thicker in the past, that
their theory would thus predict a very thick layer of dust. On the contrary, all that is relevant is the postulated dust
influxafter the moons formation, since it is only then that there is a lunar surface available to collect the dust, which we
can now investigate along with that lunar surface. So unless there was a substantially greater dust influx after the moon
formed than that postulated by the evolutionists (see Figure 10 and our calculations above), then this objection also
cannot be used by creationists.De Young also adds a second objection in order to counter the evolutionists case. He
maintains that the revised value of a much smaller dust accumulation from space is open to question, and that scientists
continue to make major adjustments in estimates of meteors and space dust that fall upon the earth and moon. 213 If this is
meant to imply that the current dust influx estimate is open to question amongst evolutionists, then it is simply not the
case, because there is general agreement that the earlier estimates were gross overestimates. As we have seen, there is
much support for the current figure, which is two orders of magnitude lower than many of the earlier estimates. There may
be minor adjustments to the current estimate, but certainly not anything major.While De Young hints at it, Taylor (Ian) 214 is
quite open in suggesting that a drastic revision of the estimated meteoritic dust influx rate to the moon occurred straight
after the Apollo moon landings, when the astronauts , observations supposedly debunked the earlier gross overestimates, and that this was done quietly but methodically in some sort of deliberate way. This is simply not so. Taylor
insinuates that the Committee for Space Research (COSPAR) was formed to work on drastically downgrading the
meteoritic dust influx estimate, and that they did this only based on measurements from indirect techniques such as
satellite-borne detectors, visual meteor counts and observations of zodiacal light, rather than dealing directly with the dust
itself. That claim does not take into account that these different measurement techniques are all necessary to cover the
full range of particle sizes involved, and that much of the data they employed in their work was collected in the 1960s
before the Apollo moon landings. Furthermore, that same data had been used in the 1960s to produce dust influx
estimates, which were then found to be in agreement with the minor dust layer found by the astronauts subsequently. In
other words, the data had already convinced most scientists before the Apollo moon landings that very little dust would be
found on the moon, so there is nothing fishy about COSPARs dust influx estimates just happening to yield the exact
amount of dust actually found on the moons surface. Furthermore, the COSPAR scientists did not ignore the dust on the
moons surface, but used lunar rock and soil samples in their work, for example, with the study of lunar microcraters that
they regarded as representing a record of the historic meteoritic dust influx. Attempts were also made using trace element
geochemistry to identify the quantity of meteoritic dust in the lunar surface layer and the regolith below.A final suggestion
from De Young is that perhaps there actually is a thick lunar dust layer present, but it has been welded into rock by
meteorite impacts.215 This is similar and related to an earlier comment about efforts being made to re-evaluate dust
accumulation rates and to find a mechanism for lunar dust compaction in order to explain the supposed absence of dust
on the lunar surface that would be needed by the evolutionists timescale216 For support, Mutch217 is referred to, but in the
cited pages Mutch only talks about the thickness of the regolith and the debris from cratering, the details of which are
similar to what has previously been discussed here. As for the view that the thick lunar dust is actually present but has
been welded into rock by meteorite impacts, no reference is cited, nor can one be found. Taylor describes a megaregolith in the highland areas218 which is a zone of brecciation, fracturing and rubble more than a kilometre thick that is
presumed to have resulted from the intense early bombardment, quite the opposite to the suggestion of meteorite impacts
welding dust into rock. Indeed, Mutch,219 Ashworth and McDonnell220 and Taylor221 all refer to turning over of the soil and
rubble in the lunar regolith by meteorite and micrometeorite impacts, making the regolith a primary mixing layer of lunar
materials that have not been welded into rock. Strong compaction has occurred in the regolith, but this is virtually
irrelevant to the issue of the quantity of meteoritic dust on the lunar surface, since that has been estimated using trace
element analyses.Parks222 has likewise argued that the disintegration of meteorites impacting the lunar surface over the
evolutionists timescale should have produced copious amounts of dust as they fragmented, which should, when added to
calculations of the meteoritic dust influx over time, account for dust in the regolith in only a short period of time. However,
it has already been pointed out that this debris component in the maria regolith only amounts to 10%, which quantity is
also consistent with the evolutionists, postulated cratering rate over their timescale. He then repeats the argument that
there should have been a greater rate of dust influx in the past, given the evolutionary theories for the formation of the
bodies in the solar system from dust accretion, but that argument is likewise negated by the evolutionists having
postulated an intense early bombardment of the lunar surface with a cratering rate, and thus a dust influx rate, over two
orders of magnitude higher than the present (as already discussed above). Finally, he infers that even if the dust influx
rate is far less than investigators had originally supposed, it should have contributed much more than the 1.5%s worth of
the 1-2 inch thick layer of loose dust on the lunar surface. The reference cited for this percentage of meteoritic dust in the
thin loose dust layer on the lunar surface is Ganapathy et al.223 However, when that paper is checked carefully to see
where they obtained their samples from for their analytical work, we find that the four soil samples that were enriched in a
number of trace elements of meteoritic origin came from depths of 13-38 cms below the surface, from where they were
extracted by a core tube. In other words, they came from the regolith belowthe 1-2 inch thick layer of loose dust on the
surface, and so Parks application of this analytical work is not even relevant to his claim. In any case, if one uses the
current estimated meteoritic dust influx rate to calculate how much meteoritic dust should be within the lunar surface over
the evolutionists timescale one finds the results to be consistent, as has already been shown above.Parks may have
been influenced by Brown, whose personal correspondence he cites. Brown, in his own publication, 224has stated that
if the influx of meteoritic dust on the moon has been at just its present rate for the last 4.6 billion years, then the layer of
dust should be over 2,000 feet thick.
Furthermore, he indicates that he made these computations based on the data contained in Hughes 225 and Taylor.226This
is rather baffling, since Taylor does not commit himself to a meteoritic dust influx rate, but merely refers to the work of
others, while Hughes concentrates on lunar microcraters and only indirectly refers to the meteoritic dust influx rate. In any
case, as we have already seen, at the currently estimated influx rate of approximately 10,000 tons per year a mere 2 cm
thickness of meteoritic dust would accumulate on the lunar surface every billion years, so that in 4.6 billion years there

would be a grand total of 9.2 cm thickness. One is left wondering where Browns figure of 2,000 feet (approximately 610
metres) actually came from? If he is taking into account Taylors reference to the intense early bombardment, then we
have already seen that, even with a meteoritic dust influx rate of 300 times the present figure, we can still comfortably
account for the quantity of meteoritic dust found in the lunar regolith and the loose surface layer over the evolutionists
timescale. While defence of the creationist position is totally in order, baffling calculations are not. Creation science should
always be good science; it is better served by thorough use of the technical literature and by facing up to the real data
with sincerity, as our detractors have often been quick to point out.
Conclusion
So are there any loopholes in the evolutionists case that the current apparent meteoritic dust influx to the lunar surface
and the quantity of dust found in the thin lunar surface dust layer and the regolith below do not contradict their multi-billion
year timescale for the moons history? Based on the evidence we currently have the answer has to be that it doesnt look
like it. The uncertainties involved in the possible erosion process postulated by Lyttleton and Gold (that is, radiation
erosion) still potentially leaves that process as just one possible explanation for the amount of dust in a young moon
model, but the dust should no longer be used as if it were a major problem for evolutionists. Both the lunar surface and
the lunar meteoritic influx rate seem to be fairly well characterised, even though it could be argued that direct geological
investigations of the lunar surface have only been undertaken briefly at 13 sites (six by astronauts and seven by
unmanned spacecraft) scattered across a portion of only one side of the moon.Furthermore, there are some unresolved
questions regarding the techniques and measurements of the meteoritic dust influx rate. For example, the surface
exposure times for the rocks on whose surfaces microcraters were measured and counted are dependent on
uniformitarian age assumptions. If the exposure times were in fact much shorter, then the dust influx estimates based on
the lunar microcraters would need to be drastically revised, perhaps upwards by several orders of magnitude. As it is, we
have seen that there is a recognised discrepancy between the lunar microcrater data and the satellite-borne detector
data, the former being an order of magnitude lower than the latter. Hughes 227explains this in terms of the meteoritic dust
influx having supposedly increased by a factor of four in the last 100,000 years, whereas Gault et al.228 admit that if the
ages are accepted at face value then there had to be an increase in the meteoritic dust influx rate by a factor of 10 in the
past few tens of years! How this could happen we are not told, yet according to estimates of the past cratering rate there
was in fact a higher influx of meteorites, and by inference meteoritic dust, in the past. This is of course contradictory to the
claims based on lunar microcrater data. This seems to leave the satellite-borne detector measurements as apparently the
more reliable set of data, but it could still be argued that the dust collection areas on the satellites are tiny, and the dust
collection timespans far too short, to be representative of the quantity of dust in the space around the earth-moon system.
Should creationists then continue to use the moon dust as apparent evidence for a young moon, earth and solar system?
Clearly, the answer is no. The weight of the evidence as it currently exists shows no inconsistency within the evolutionists
case, so the burden of proof is squarely on creationists if they want to argue that based on the meteoritic dust the moon is
young. Thus it is inexcusable for one creationist writer to recently repeat verbatim an article of his published five years
earlier,229,230 maintaining that the meteoritic dust is proof that the moon is young in the face of the overwhelming evidence
against his arguments. Perhaps any hope of resolving this issue in the creationists, favour may have to wait for further
direct geological investigations and direct measurements to be made by those manning a future lunar surface laboratory,
from where scientists could actually collect and measure the dust influx, and investigate the characteristics of the dust in
place and its interaction with the regolith and any lunar surface processes.
Conclusions
Over the last three decades numerous attempts have been made using a variety of methods to estimate the meteoritic
dust influx to both the earth and the moon. On the earth, chemical methods give results in the range of 100,000-400,000
tons per year, whereas cumulative flux calculations based on satellite and radar data give results in the range 10,00020,000 tons per year. Most authorities on the subject now favour the satellite data, although there is an outside possibility
that the influx rate may reach 100,000 tons per year. On the moon, after assessment of the various techniques employed,
on balance the evidence points to a meteoritic dust influx figure of around 10,000 tons per year.Although some scientists
had speculated prior to spacecraft landing on the moon that there would be a thick dust layer there, there were many
scientists who disagreed and who predicted that the dust would be thin and firm enough for a manned landing. Then in
1966 the Russians with their Luna 9 spacecraft and the Americans with their five successful Surveyor spacecraft
accomplished soft-landings on the lunar surface, the footpads of the latter sinking no more than an inch or two into the
soft lunar soil and the photographs sent back settling the argument over the thickness of the dust and its strength.
Consequently, before the Apollo astronauts landed on the moon in 1969 the moon dust issue had been settled, and their
lunar exploration only confirmed the prediction of the majority, plus the meteoritic dust influx measurements that had been
made by satellite-borne detector systems which had indicated only a minor amount.Calculations show that the amount of
meteoritic dust in the surface dust layer, and that which trace element analyses have shown to be in the regolith, is
consistent with the current meteoritic dust influx rate operating over the evolutionists timescale. While there are some
unresolved problems with the evolutionists case, the moon dust argument, using uniformitarian assumptions to argue
against an old age for the moon and the solar system, should for the present not be used by creationists.
Acknowledgements
Research on this topic was undertaken spasmodically over a period of more than seven years by Dr Andrew Snelling. A
number of people helped with the literature search and obtaining copies of papers, in particular, Tony Purcell and Paul
Nethercott. Their help is acknowledged. Dave Rush undertook research independentl yon this topic while studying and
working at the Institute for Creation Research, before we met and combined our efforts. We, of course, take responsibility
for the conclusions, which unfortunately are not as encouraging or complimentary for us young earth creationists as we
would have liked.

Solar NeutrinosThe Critical Shortfall Still Elusive


by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on December 1, 1997

Originally published in Journal of Creation 11, no 3 (December 1997): 253-254.


Abstract
Neutrinos have fascinated physicists since they were invented 67 years ago
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[Ed. note: while the argument in this paper was cogent given the information then available, subsequent information has
superseded it, meaning that the shortfall problem seems to have been solved. Therefore creationists should no longer use
this as an age argument see more detail.]
Neutrinos have fascinated physicists since they were invented 67 years ago. In -decay, a nucleus of one element
spontaneously changes into the nucleus of a neighbouring element in the periodic table, emitting an electron (or
sometimes an anti-electron or positron). To their shock, the scientists found that some energy appeared to vanish in
these decays. The solution proposed by Wolfgang Pauli in 1930 was that the missing energy was carried away by a new
particle, so ephemeral as to be almost undetectable. In 1955 Clyde Cowan and Fred Reines proved Pauli right by
observing the neutrino. The problem facing experimenters is that neutrinos are so difficult to detect. For example, on
average, the neutrinos emitted in -decay can typically traverse 100 light-years thickness of lead unscathed! 1Life on
Earth is made possible by the energy from the Sun. It is believed that it takes about a million years for energy (apart from
that carried by neutrinos) supposedly produced by nuclear reactions near the centre of the Sun to make its way to the
surface and be radiated. It takes the neutrinos born in those claimed nuclear reactions about 8 minutes to arrive here, so
they should tell us what is happening at the centre of the Sun today. This is one of the main reasons why physicists have
built large detectors underground to look for solar neutrinos.The first experiment by Ray Davis operated for over twenty
years in the Homestake mine in South Dakota (USA) measured less than half the expected flux of neutrinos. A large tank
was filled with 380,000 litres of dry-cleaning fluid and located in the deep mine to reduce background. The incoming solar
neutrinos convert some of the chlorine atoms in the fluid into argon (this is nearly the inverse of -decay), so the task of
Davis and his team was to measure the number of argon atoms produced. Figure 1 shows the numbers of argon atoms
counted by the experiment over 20 years, the count rate falling well short of that expected.2 They expected an average of
1.5 atoms per day, but only measured an average of about 0.5 atoms per day. Finding one atom of argon in a tank
containing over 1031 atoms of chlorine is not easy, so it was not surprising that some doubted the Davis
result.Subsequently another experiment, in the Kamiokande mine in western Japan, used a very different technique and
confirmed the Davis result. The team of scientists involved observed the scattering of neutrinos on electrons in a large
tank filled with ultra-pure water, the photons produced being detected via amplification of their conversion to a small
electric current. This Japanese experiment was also able to follow the Sun as it traversed the sky, much as a telescope
can track a star, and it confirmed that the Sun does produce neutrinos but the number detected was again too small.Both
experiments were sensitive to neutrinos with relatively high energy supposedly produced in rare nuclear reactions,
whereas the nuclear reactions claimed to produce most solar energy give lower energy neutrinos, which these
experiments would not have recorded. Now that has changed, with new experiments sensitive to those crucial low energy
neutrinos starting to report results. However, these new experiments are also recording too few neutrinos, in this case
about half the expected number.Understandably, the solar astronomers and physicists remain baffled by this consistent
critical shortfall in the neutrinos expected and measured. Since the nuclear reactions they believe are producing the bulk
of the solar energy, and hence the bulk of the associated neutrinos, are very well understood, the predictions of the
expected neutrino flux here on Earth are very reliable. So why are they not detected in sufficient numbers?Now the depth
of the dilemma has intensified. In its first months of operation, a new neutrino detector with unprecedented sensitivity has
confirmed yet again that solar neutrinos are only about half as common as researchers predict when they combine
nuclear physics with profiles of the Suns internal temperature and pressure.3 The Super-Kamiokande detector, a 50
million litre water tank one kilometre underground in the Kamiokande mine, catches roughly 10 neutrinos daily.Since the
efficiency of the claimed nuclear reaction responsible strongly depends on temperature, astronomers could conceivably
explain away the shortfall by positing that the Sun's core is slightly cooler than thought. However, since helioseismology
has pinned down the Suns central temperature (15.6 million degrees Kelvin), this out is no longer viable. Instead,
physicists now favour the hypothesis that neutrinos may oscillate, spontaneously transmutating between different
varieties (electron, muon and tau neutrinos) and thus changing their properties en route from the Suns core to the
Earth.4,5 Allied to this is a recent added twist the neutrinos may supposedly undergo decay but this requires
abandoning the almost sacrosanct relativity principle.6 Only further years of experiments will begin to test these attempts
at explaining this critical shortfall in the solar neutrinos detected.So after 10 years, no one has yet explained all the data
on neutrinos.7 Of course theres one explanation not considered perhaps the reason for the critical shortfall is that
nuclear reactions are not solely responsible for producing the Suns energy. But such an explanation would be tantamount
to an admission that we really dont yet know how the Sun operates, which would clearly be embarrassing. And if we dont
understand how our nearest star operates, how can the astronomers be so sure how all the other stars evolved and now
operate? As candidly admitted by David Malin, head research scientist at the Anglo-Australian Telescope, in a recent
interview on Australian ABC radio, How little we really know!8

Galaxy-Quasar Connection Defies Explanation


by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on December 1, 1997

Originally published in Journal of Creation 11, no 3 (December 1997): 254-255.


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Astronomers have known for decades about the strange connection between the galaxy NGC4319 and the quasar
Markarian 205 (see Figure 1, below).1 Without any explanation so far, astronomers are still baffled, and with good reason.
Figure 1 is a reproduction of an isophote image of the galaxy and quasar made by superposing a number of photographic
plates taken by Halton Arp using the 200-inch Palomar telescope.2 The image clearly shows that a luminous bridge
connects the two objects which is distinct and well away from any pixel
[picture element] bleeding.3
Figure 1: This isophote image of the galaxy NGC 4319 (above) and the
quasar Markarian 205 (below), made by superimposing a number of
photographic plates taken by Halton Arp using the 200-inch Palomar
telescope, clearly shows the luminous bridge connecting the two objects
(north is up, east is left). This photo appears in Arp, Ref. 2 and Arp et al.,
Ref. 3.
So what is baffling about such a clear linkage between this galaxy and its
apparently close neighbouring quasar? The basic problem is that the
galaxy and the quasar have discordant red-shifts, which according to the
standard (Doppler) red-shift interpretation means that the galaxy is
receding at a velocity of 1800km/sec, whereas the quasar is travelling at
21,000km/sec. Thus, according to the Hubble law, the galaxy is 107
million light years away and the quasar is 12 times further away at 1.2
billion light years! Obviously, this simply cannot be, because the galaxy
and the quasar are clearly connected together by a bridge, probably of
luminous gas filaments. They give every appearance of existing together.
Some critics have claimed that the bridge is only an illusion, but Arp and
his colleagues have staunchly defended the reality of this connection for many years, and Arps photography (Figure 1)
has documented it. Ignoring this cosmological anomaly wont make it go away! Perhaps red-shifts may not be connected
with recession velocities and so may not be a reliable index to distances in an expanding universe after all. These are
very fundamental questions to our understanding of the universe. In the words of astronomer William Kaufmann:
If Arp is correct [about red-shifts not being distance indicators], if his observations are confirmed, he will have singlehandedly shaken all modern astronomy to its very foundations. If he is right, one of the pillars of modern astronomy and
cosmology will come crashing down in a turmoil unparalleled since Copernicus dared to suggest that the sun, not the
earth, was at the center of the solar system.4
James Waterhouse is thanked for bringing this unresolved anomaly to our attention, and for providing the reproduction
for Figure 1.
Saturns RingsShort-Lived and Young
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on April 1, 1997

Originally published in Journal of Creation 11, no 1 (April 1997): 1.


Abstract
Creationists have long argued that the rings of Saturn are less than 1 million years old, in spite of evolutionists claims that
the planet is 4.55.0 billion years old, the same as the rest of the Solar System.1 The rings are made up of rock and ice
fragments that are being drawn closer and closer to Saturns surface by the planets gravitational pull.
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Astronomers have long believed that Saturns rings were formed when a moon or comet about 200 km across was
shattered by an impact close to the planet, leaving a mass of debris. This impact, it is suggested, happened no more than
100 million years ago.2It was in 1852 that Otto Struve noted in the Memoirs of the St Petersburg Academy of
Sciences3 there had been changes in the widths of the rings and a progressive decrease in the width of the gap between
the planet and the inner edge of ring B, relative to the combined width of ring A. Old drawings and descriptions were used
to evaluate this ratioHuygens (1657), Huygens and Cassini (1695), Bradley (1719), Herschel (1799) and W. Struve
(1826)results indicating a rapid approach of the inner edges of the rings toward Saturn, while the outer edge of the
outermost ring (ring A) had changed little.Now an international team of scientists (French, US and Canadian) using the
Hubble Space Telescope have shown that the innermost rings are losing water relatively rapidly. Indeed, the water is
disappearing so fast, the team believes that it would all have gone already if the rings were more than about 30 million
years old.4News of the rings mortality didnt come as a surprise to the scientific community.5 Astronomers had suspected
that the rain of microscopic meteorites that pelts every body in the Solar System was rapidly eroding the rings, and they
already had the indirect evidence that ring debris is falling into the planet. But this first direct evidence of the infall could
tell astronomers just how fast the rings are eroding, placing direct bounds on the lifespan of Saturns ringsand, by
extension, the less showy rings of the other giant planets.Thus, astronomers now believe that water evaporates from the
particles making up the rings when micrometeorites crash into them. The fate of the water molecules depends upon their
charge and distance from the planet. Neutral molecules fall back onto the rings surfaces, but charged (ionised) particles
spiral along magnetic field lines. Beyond the outer edge of the inner ring, the field lines carry them away from the planet,
but at lower altitudes the field lines guide them down to Saturn. This result is the first evidence of significant water
precipitation flux from the rings of Saturn onto its atmosphere.6Determining just how fast ring water is streaming into
Saturn and thus how long the rings have been around will take more work and some calculations of how fast the water is
being removed from the stratosphere.7 A high flux would be the most direct evidence that Saturns rings are short-lived.
If Saturns spectacular rings are very young8 and short-lived, then its only by luck, they say, that they are around for
us human beings to marvel at. Furthermore, the catastrophic event needed to make rings as massive as thesethe
shattering of a small moon by a comet or the disruption of a passing giant comet by Saturns gravityis only likely to
happen just once in the planets life-time, say the scientists.This realization that the dazzling rings of Saturn could be a
rare sight9 does not bother us. The evidence is increasingly mounting that the Flood was accompanied by catastrophism
throughout the Solar System (for example, impact cratering), and thus we would expect Saturns rings to be very young.
That Matter of the Shrinking Sun
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on September 1, 1989
Originally published in Creation 11, no 4 (September 1989): 45-47.
We should be skeptical about the Skeptics and their arguments, as this article shows in the matter of the shrinking sun.
Creationists are often accused by evolutionists of not quoting, or referring to, other scientists work accurately or in
context. This is particularly so when the doubts of an evolutionist can be misconstrued to imply hes given up evolution.
Such impressions are never intentional. What our opponents forget is that quoting other scientists work and statements is
common practice, and conventionally such quotes are never intended to imply anything more about the authors beliefs,
etc., than what is so stated in the statements quoted.What is more serious is complete misrepresentation, particularly if a
proper reading of a scientists work clearly indicates that scientists position on the issue being discussed. Under such
circumstances unintentional misrepresentation should never occur. But if misrepresentation does occur, it raises serious
questions about the intent of the scientist quoting anothers statements. In my experience, most creationists try to be
exceptionally careful in this area.
Misrepresentation
However, one would least expect to see blatant misrepresentation in a book whose authors claim that creationists
misquote, make basic errors, misrepresent, etc. But such is the case in the Skeptics book, in the article on page 22
entitled, Is the sun shrinking?
Quite correctly the Skeptic author reported
Gilliland (1981) has examined much of the data available from the early 18 th century up to now. He concluded that the
major change in size has been a periodic oscillation, with the sun shrinking and expanding over a 76 year cycle, with the
last maximum occurring around 1911. However the experimental scatter in the observations (see Gilliland 1981, fig. 3 on
p. 1149) is such that fairly sophisticated mathematical techniques were required to extract this information.
However, when the Skeptic author says that Gilliland stated that there was also the possibility of a steady shrinkage of
about a tenth the rate proposed by Eddy and Boornazian, but that the experimental errors were such that zero shrinkage
was also possible, he is ascribing to Gilliland doubts which Gilliland did not have. This misrepresentation is rather blatant
since Gilliland says in his abstract, or summary of the main points and conclusions in his paper:
A secular decrease of about 0.1 second of arc per century over the last 265 years is also likely from an objective analysis
of the available data (p. 1144).1
This is no claim of possible zero shrinkage. Furthermore, in the body of his paper Gilliland says rather sternly and critically
of his colleagues:
In the partially justified, but perhaps overzealous, criticism of the early Eddy and Boornazian (1979) claims there is a
distinct possibility that much smaller but still fundamentally important (any trend less than -0.004 second of arc per century
is faster than the Kelvin-Helmholtz gravitational contraction rate) secular trends are being inadvertently disclaimed (p.
1150).
Negative Trend
Further down the same page he says:
Given the many problems with the data sets, one is inexorably led to the conclusion that a negative secular solar radius
trend has existed since AD 1700, but the preponderance of current evidence indicates that such is likely to be the case.
And:
Thus, with allowance for possible systematic errors in both the meridian circle and Mercury transit timing observations, a
negative secular trend of solar radius is still supported.
But the misrepresentation and errors dont stop here. The author in the Skeptics article goes on to refer to Stephensons
1970 paper on The Earliest Known Record of a Solar Eclipse2 and says:
In any attempt to use these early records additional complications arise due to the gradual slowing down of the earths
speed of rotation, due to friction from tides. This would lead to an accumulated time error of 8 or 9 hours by July 17, 709
BC, the date of the earliest recorded total eclipse.

Now while the Skeptic author is not attributing this accumulated time error of eight or nine hours by July 17, 709 BC to
Stephenson, his figures are none the less very wrong, since a straightforward reading of Stephensons paper gives the
correct figure:
Accurate computation of an ancient solar eclipse for a given place is limited by the non-uniformity of the Earths rotation
and the tidal recession of the Moon from the Earth. Irregularities in the Earths rotation are chiefly the result of tides, but
other causes are changes in sea level and electromagnetic coupling between the core and mantle of the Earth. A
computation of a solar eclipse which ignores these effects may be in error by up to about 4h in time and 50 per cent in
phase near 1300 BC (p. 651).
Total Eclipse?
The Skeptic author then goes on to give the reader the impression that when Stephenson (1982, p. 161) in fact concludes
that observation supports a rate of shrinkage of about 0.16 seconds of arc per century etc., that observation is the one in
the previous sentence when the Skeptic author says, referring to the total eclipse of July 17, 709 BC, At this time the sun
cannot have been much, if any, larger than at present or the eclipse would not have been a total one.
While this latter statement may be true, the impression left with the reader is that Stephenson on p. 161 of his 1982 paper
on Historical Eclipses3 discusses the total eclipse of July 17, 709 BC. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nowhere
on p. 161 does Stephenson even mention the July 17, 709 BC total eclipse, and when he does talk about a rate of
shrinkage of about 0.16 second of arc per century Stephenson only derives that conclusion from the six total solar
eclipses from AD 1715 to 1925 as well as the observed duration of 30 transits of Mercury. Stephenson only mentions the
July 17, 709 BC total eclipse once in his whole paper, and that is in a table on p. 157 where no mention is made of any
comparison of the suns size between then and now.And what of Stephensons shrinkage rate of 0.16 second of arc per
century? The Skeptic author says the error in this figure is about 0.14 second of arc per century so that there is no solid
evidence of shrinkage and this agrees with Gillilands conclusion. While he is correctly reporting Stephensons shrinkage
result of 0.16 0.14 second of arc per century, it is wrong for both the Skeptic author and Stephenson to say that there is
no solid evidence of shrinkage or that this is essentially a null result (Stephenson, p. 151). Such statements are
misleading at best and dishonest at worst. The calculated shrinkage rate of 0.16 0.14 second of arc per century is not no
shrinkage, but says that there is shrinkage at a rate of somewhere between 0.02 and 0.30 second of arc per century.
This is exactly what Gilliland meant when he said, as quoted earlier, that many colleagues, in their rush to criticize those
who claimed the sun was shrinking, were overlooking or inadvertently disclaiming a much smaller but still fundamentally
important long-term shrinkage trend. Thats why Gilliland confidently suggested a shrinkage rate of almost 0.2 second of
arc per century for the suns diameter (0.1 second of arc per century for the solar radius).
Solid Evidence
To be sure, Stephensons results agree with Gillilands conclusion, but the Skeptic author again misrepresents Gilliland
when he states there is no solid evidence of shrinkage. This agrees with Gillilands conclusion. Gilliland did have solid
evidence of shrinkage and concluded the above small rate of almost 0.2 second of arc per century, very close to
Stephensons 0.16 and within the 0.020.30 range that is the correct Stephenson result, Stephensons misleading
reporting notwithstanding.
So how does the Skeptic author answer his own question: Is the sun shrinking? He says:
To answer the question posed in the title of this sectionthe sun oscillates up and down in size, but there is very little
evidence of steady shrinkage.
Note that the no solid evidence of shrinkage at the end of his previous paragraph has become there is very little
evidence of shrinkage. Of course hes wrong since both authors whose work he has drawn from (i.e. Gilliland and
Stephenson) agree that there is evidence of a shrinkage rate of around 0.160.20 second of arc per century within the
range of 0.020.30 second of arc per century to account for the error margins. Indeed, as we have repeatedly seen,
Gilliland is adamant that one is inexorably led to the conclusion that a negative secular solar radius trend has existed
since AD 1700.
Glaring Errors
How dare the Skeptic author conclude with the comment that any creationist arguments based on such shrinkage should
be treated with caution indeed when in the space of less than one page he, the Skeptic author, has repeatedly and
blatantly misrepresented other scientists conclusions and made glaring errors in order to attempt a refutation of
creationist arguments.We have every reason in fact to be skeptical about the Skeptics and their attempts at answering the
powerful creationist arguments if this is the level of their use and abuse of science, other scientists work, and the ethics of
writing. Unsuspecting readers should be clearly warned not to be fooled.But why should the Skeptic author want the
answer to his question to be that there is no shrinkage of the sun and no solid, or little, evidence of steady
shrinkage?Because even if we take Stephensons bottom-of-the-range figure of a mere 0.02 second of arc per century
(tiny shrinkage indeed), this means that, using the evolutionists own uniformitarian assumption of extrapolating this
shrinkage rate backwards in time, just as they extrapolate further back 1015 billion years to the big bang, only 100
million years ago the sun would have been too large for life to exist on earth!But this wont do for the Skeptic author
who, like other evolutionists, believes life has been on this earth for at least three billion years, so the sun must not be
shrinking. Notice that his conclusion is not based on the evidence, since we have just seen that the solid
evidence does support a small shrinkage rate, but on his a priori commitment to evolution, that is, his starting belief
in evolution before he even looked at the evidence. Yes, we should be skeptical about the Skeptics and their arguments.
GOLD
A Little Bit of Heaven on Earth
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on December 8, 2010; last featured October 13, 2013
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Gold has fascinated people since earliest times. It has always been valued because of its warm color, glistening beauty,
durability, and ease of shaping into exquisite jewelry. Nations have acquired and treasured it, traded and warred over it.
Due to its rarity, golds principal function has been as currency and as the preferred way to store wealth.
Created for Eternity
The gold have many properties that make it so valuable. It does not rust or tarnish. Fire does not destroy gold but only
makes it purer. It can be alloyed to other metals, like copper, to add strength without losing beauty. Gold is easy to shape.
Under the right conditions, 1 ounce (28 g) can be stretched into a wire 60 miles (100 km) long, or hammered into a big
sheet, 100 feet by 100 feet (30 m x 30 m), to cover the dome of a fancy building.Another amazing quality of gold is that it
essentially lasts forever. In fact, we can safely conclude that most of the gold mined since the Flood is still readily
available (in active use or hoarded). The total amount has not changed; it has just been recycled into jewelry, tooth fillings,

computer components, and lots more.This means that we can estimate the total amount of gold that has ever been mined:
about 180,779 tons (164,000 m. tons).1 If gathered into one location, this treasure hoard would fill a seven story office
building, 66 feet (20 m) high and 66 feet square (6 m2).
Primary and Secondary Deposits as a Result of the Flood
During the Flood, catastrophic plate tectonics reshaped and rebuilt the earths crust into multiple new continents with new
mountains.2 At this time, gold returned to rocks near the earths surface. Though the details differ, the processes had a
few things in common. Initially hot acid waters3 in deep crustal rocks dissolved the gold, and molten magma and volcanic
waters carried it toward the surface (Figure 1). This hot material then entered into cracks in the rocks near the earths
surface.

Common Types of Gold Deposits


Primary gold deposits occur where hot acid waters dissolved metals deep in the earth and then rose toward the surface,
carrying the metals with them.Secondary gold deposits occur where rain and other natural forces eroded primary deposits
and then washed the gold to other places (called placer deposits).Some primary deposits are associated with volcanic
activity during the Flood. As the earths plates collided, the plates melted, sending hot magma and hot water toward the
surface. This hot water was rich in gold, copper, and other metals.Other gold deposits are found in pre-Flood rocks. These
deposits were formed during Creation During the Flood, some of these deposits were changed under great heat and
pressure and then pushed to the surface.As it cooled, the gold remained in place, either associated with certain large
granite bodies (often with copper) or in veins and orebodies.4After these primary gold deposits were put in place, heavy
rains and other natural forces eroded many of the rocks. Because gold is very heavy and resistant to corrosion, it settled
out into what are called placer deposits. These secondary gold deposits include the gold particles found at Sutters Mill,
which sparked the California gold rush in 1849.Most placer deposits formed at the end of the Flood when the retreating
waters drastically eroded the landscape. Indeed, most of the Flood-generated primary and secondary deposits formed
during the closing stages of the Flood, especially during the building of the Rockies, Andes, Himalayas, European Alps,
and other related mountain ranges.
Primary and Secondary Deposits During Creation .
That explains Flood-related gold deposits, but we also find gold in pre-Flood sedimentary layers.5 What event could
possibly explain these gold-filled sediments before the Flood washed over the earth?
The answer: the Creation moment.
To properly understand this oft-overlooked period of young history, lets look more closely at perhaps the worlds most
famous gold depositthe Witwatersrand.Until recently the Witwatersrand sedimentary basin of South Africa accounted for
about 40% of all known gold (and 45% of total gold production). Like a great sea reef rising gently above the surrounding
landscape, the Witwatersrand is a ridge running some 60 miles (100 km) in a broad arc across South Africas interior.
Among locals, it is known simply as the reef (or rand in Afrikaans).This is a massive placer deposit, similar to the ones
described above but on a much bigger scale. Placers get their name because water transported the gold particles into
their new place, mingled with silt and sometimes, as in this case, with pebbles too. But how did such a large reef
appear? Secular geologists argue that the Golden Arc was once the edge of a huge inland lake, where gold-laden
sediments settled for millions of years.Separation of land and water . This was a dramatic event in earth history, as the
pre-Flood supercontinent was built. It seems that all land was initially buried under the original globe-covering waters.
Then the supercontinent raised above the ocean surface, water rushed off the land and caused massive erosion,
decimating many of the earlier primary gold deposits, concentrating it into placer deposits.Around 1,700 years later, the
global Flood laid down new fossil-bearing layers atop these deposits, and the mountain-building processes at the end of
the Flood pushed some of these lower layers to the surface.So we have now seen the main periods of history when gold
was deposited. A total of 65% of known, mineable gold deposits are in rocks associated with Creation .6 Less than 2% of
known gold deposits were produced in the post-Creation, pre-Flood rocks. About 33% of the remaining known gold
deposits lie in Flood-related rocks.
Still Being Deposited Today

We see some of these processes at work today, but at a much smaller scale. The Creation and the Flood were one-time
events that produced unique conditions that would never be repeated, vastly increasing the speed and scale of new
deposits.Some might claim that gold in granites and related vein deposits and ore bodies requires more time to form than
was available during the year-long global Flood catastrophe. However, accumulated evidences now indicate granites
formed and cooled rapidly. Metal-laden hot waters would have been expelled from the granites during a crucial, final stage
in the process of their formation, quickly producing deposits of gold and other precious metals.7Furthermore, we can see
gold being deposited rapidly today. At the giant, volcanically produced Ladolam gold deposit at Lihir in Papua New
Guinea, volcanic waters are still depositing gold at a rate of 52 pounds (24 kg) per year.8 At this rate, this giant gold
deposit (containing 3 million pounds [1.3 million kg] of gold) would have formed in about 55,000 years. Ancient ore fluids
had 100-1,000 times more gold in them,9 and the Flood upheaval would have released such volcanic fluids at much faster
rates.All the gold is still available today, just in different types of deposits. Ever since people explored the land of Havilah,
man has mined and treasured gold. In the past, it has usually been the metal of kings, palaces, priests, and temples,
including Israels Tabernacle and Solomons Temple. Nuggets of Knowledge . . .
One cubic foot of gold weighs more than half a ton.
The ocean waters contain an estimated 10 billion tons of gold (along with most other elements). Thats over 1 ton per
person.Pure gold does not easily corrode, it does a good job conducting electricity and heat, and it has a high melting
point at 1,948F (1064C). So it has many applications in medicine, engineering, aerospace, and the chemical industry.
The largest gold nugget ever found was about 25 inches (60 cm) long and 10 inches (31 cm) wide, weighing in at
approximately 160 pounds (72 kg). Two Australian men found the Welcome Stranger in 1869 under a tree, 2 inches
underground. In modern U.S. dollars, it would be worth well over $3.5 million.The largest stockpile of gold today is held at
the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The underground vault holds around 550,000 gold bars total, worth $485 billion
U.S. as of November 2010. (Around 95% of the gold in the Federal Reserve Bank is owned by non-USA governments.)
The vault was built on solid bedrock, which was necessary to support the golds weight of 5,000 metric tons.
CRYSTALS
Shape-Shifting Silicon
Semi-Technical
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on October 1, 2014
Rob Lavinsky, irocks.com
The exotic shapes and vivid colors of crystals
are often what first attract the wonder of
children and draw them into studying geology.
Thats what happened to me. When I was
nine years old on a family vacation in
Tasmaniathe island state off Australias
southeastern coastI saw a piece of shiny
mineral on a mines waste pile. I was instantly
hooked. I eagerly talked about this treasure at
my next grade four show and tell session,
and this chalcopyrite (copper ore) became the
first member of my rock and mineral
collection.
So why do minerals have so many different
shapes and colors? A small set of basic
building blocks were created, out of which the
earth could provide the amazing variety of
minerals we need to build places to live and
grace our lives with beautiful gems.
The marvelous stability and interlocking
properties of minerals, which have such an
amazing variety of applicationsfrom the
yellow paint on our kitchen walls to the glass
in our windows.
The Crucial Role of Silicon Atoms
The earths crust is composed of many
different elements, but 75% of the crust
consists of just two elements: silicon and
oxygen. These are the basic building blocks
of the ground under our feet.When isolated, silicon is invaluable to modern life. For instance, its the basic ingredient in
computer chips. Imagine thatthe most important element in modern technology is the most common on the planet (apart
from oxygen).When silicon combines with oxygen, the true marvel of its versatility shines. Out of nearly 5,000 minerals
known to exist, over 25% are silicates (minerals whose crystals are composed of arrays of atoms based around silicon
atoms). Silicate minerals are so abundant that about 92% of the earths crustal rocks are made up of them.How can so
many shapes and colors come from just one element? The answer is its incredible ability to combine with other elements
in many different ways. Like Tinkertoys, silicon can combine into rows, rings, sheets, or complex three-dimensional
structures.
First, A Little Chemistry
Just as carbon is the basic building block of living things, silicon is the basic building block of the nonliving earth. To
appreciate the wisdom behind their design, its necessary to understand a little basic chemistry.

Figure 1: Elemental Building Blocks


Just as carbon is the basic building block of living things, silicon is the basic building block of the earth. Both elements are
on the same column of the Periodic Table, the only nonmetal elements in this column. Their special properties allow them
to combine easily with other elements.Look closely at the Periodic Table of Elements (Figure 1). Silicon (symbol Si) is
element 14 on the table, and is in the same column as carbon (C), element 6. Silicon and carbon are the only nonmetal
elements in this column, with special properties that allow them to combine easily with other elements.Both carbon and
silicon atoms have spots for eight electrons in their outer shells, but only four of these spots are filled with their own
electrons. This configuration enables other atoms to hook into the empty spots. Carbon, for instance, links together with
oxygen, hydrogen, and other atoms to form the complex organic molecules of life, such as DNA.In the same way, silicon
has four electrons in its outer shell, which it readily shares with oxygen (O) atoms. Oxygen likes to fill all four empty spots,
resulting in a triangular pyramid. The silicon atom is in the middle, and an oxygen atom sits at each of the four corners.
This is an incredibly stable, flexible building material. The chemical formula is technically SiO 4, and the formal name of
this basic building block is the silica tetrahedron.
A Thousand Combinations, for Work and Pleasure
These little pyramid blocks of silica tetrahedra can be linked together and stacked in almost every imaginable
combination. But geologists recognize six major classes: isolated, couplets, rings, chains, sheets, and frameworks (3D
structures).The different combinations make possible the multifaceted shapes of crystals. The colors are more
complicated. Adding other elements produces different colors, though indirectly. The colors arent inherent in the atoms,
but they change the way light passes through the minerals.In most cases, the tetrahedra are formed out of silicon and
oxygen atoms, but sometimes in some terahedra an aluminum atom is substituted for the silicon atom. Other major
elements that frequently join the tetrahedra are iron, magnesium, sodium, potassium, calcium, and to a lesser extent
titanium and manganese. Sometimes trace elements can join, too, like chromium, beryllium, lithium, and boron
producing interesting and colorful variations.Changing the combination of elements gives each mineral not just new
shapes and colors, but also new properties. In fact, the same elements can produce either cheap building materials or
precious gems, depending on their arrangement. While this is not intended to be an earth science lesson, all believers
should become familiar with a few highlights, which will enable them to share the glories of their Creator with people who
dont know Him.
Figure 2
Limitless Possibilities
Silicon form basic four-sided molecule with oxygen that would be the building block of earth. From this single molecule,
called a silcon tetrahedron, there are over two thousand minerals that are essential to modern life and industry.

photos thinkstockphotos.com and Rob Lavinsky, irocks.com


Single (Nesosilicates)
Lets start simple. Single pyramids, or tetrahedra (Figure 2), can be linked by magnesium and iron atoms to form the
dense, green mineral called olivine. Olivine is the major mineral in the earths mantle, which lies between the core and the
outer skin or crust and is 1,796 miles (2,890 km) thick.1 Amazingly, olivine also comes in a gem variety, called peridot.
Another common mineral in this class is garnet. Its beautiful shape, called a dodecahedron, makes it a popular gem. In
this class is another famous mineral, the topaz. At 8 on a scale of 1 to 10, this densely packed gem is the third-hardest
mineral.
Couplets (Sorosilicates)
Another class of silicate minerals consists of couplets (Figure 2) linked by calcium, aluminum, and iron atoms. Many
minerals fall into this class, such as epidote and zoisite (see photos), but none are well-known.
Rings (Cyclosilicates)
Now it starts to get really interesting. Six silica tetrahedra can join into rings (Figure 2). The best-known mineral in this
class is beryl, formed when the rings are linked together by beryllium and aluminum atoms. The six-sided rings produce
distinctive six-sided crystals that can get really massive. The largest crystal ever discoveredof any type of mineralis a
beryl from Madagascar, 59 feet (18 m) long and 12 feet (3.5 m) in diameter.
Beryl is a source of beryllium, a lightweight metal used in special high-tech alloys. Beryl also comes in two beautiful gem
varieties: emerald2 and aquamarine.
Chains (Inosilicates)

When the silica pyramids are joined together in single chains (Figure 2), they form an important class of minerals known
as pyroxenes. The most prevalent example of these is the common black specks, called augite, which appear in basalt
walls on buildings. Another variety of pyroxene, called jadeite, is a major source of the precious gem jade. This mineral is
made by combining with sodium and aluminum. Think about this marvelous transformation: you get green jade by
combining the silicon in computer chips with table salt (sodium) and aluminum!If the silica building blocks are joined
together in double chains (Figure 2), then they form a common type of mineral known as amphiboles. Many different
varieties exist because five different atoms (magnesium, iron, aluminum, calcium, and sodium) can be used to link the
double chains together. If all five atoms are involved, the result is hornblende, a common black mineral, sometimes found
in granites. Another dual-chain mineral, called nephrite, provides another variety of jade.The double-chain crystal
structure can also produce long, thin fibers. Thats what happens in asbestos minerals. Once considered a cheap building
material, asbestos was banned after doctors discovered the fibers can clog lungs. But these same fibers, if woven into
cloth, are still used in fireproof clothing that protects our firefighters. Amazingly, one of the six asbestos minerals
(riebeckite) produces the valuable tigers eye gem.
Sheets (Phyllosilicates)
Silica tetrahedra can also be joined into sheets (Figure 2). What good is a sheet of mineral? These sheets form three of
the earths most common mineralsmicas, talc, and clay minerals. All three are vital to industry.
The black mica (biotite) and the white mica (muscovite) are common in granites and metamorphic rocks, such as schists.
Micas can be peeled apart like the pages of a book, so theyre not always good for building materials or gems.3Muscovite
sheets, because of their transparency and ability to withstand heat, were once used as windows in wood-burning heaters
and stoves.
Another sheet silicate is talc. We get talcum (baby) powder from this mineral.
Common clays are also sheet silicate minerals. We call these clay minerals because they break down easily into clays.
They have an abundance of uses. Kaolinite, for example, is a filler in glossy paper and house paints. When you buy
paint at the store, an essential ingredient is sheets of silica and oxygen atoms connected by aluminum!
Frameworks (Tectosilicates)
The most elaborate form of silica tetrahedra is a
three-dimensional structure called a framework
(see diagram). These are the most abundant
minerals in the earths crust, making up 63% of
its rocks.
One example is quartz, whose chemical formula
is SiO2. This mineral is the basis of the glass
used in windows, bottles, and jars, and lately,
fiber optics. It also comes in gem varieties, such
as amethyst, agate, and opal.4
The other example of framework silica is
feldspar. Along with building materials, this
mineral is also useful in making glass, as well as
soaps, cements, tar roofing, paper, and pottery.
Unlike in quartz, which consists simply of silicon
and oxygen, aluminum atoms must substitute for
some silicon atoms in feldspar. This substitution
results in an imbalance of the electron charge,
which is compensated for by adding potassium
atoms in alkali feldspar, or calcium and sodium
atoms in plagioclase, to restore the balance.
Plagioclase is actually the most common mineral
on earth.
Rubies & Sapphires
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on April 1, 2010; last
featured January 5, 2011
Diamonds may get all the attention, but rubies
and sapphires are the first choice of kings and
the affluent because of their extreme rarity. Only
special conditions, initiated by the Flood, could
have produced these rare beauties.
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In our culture most attention is focused on the
glamour of diamonds, but two colorful gems
rubies and sapphiresare actually much rarer
and more valuable.
Since no one was present to observe how these
precious gems formed, creation geologists are
carefully investigating the chemistry of the gems
and the crime scene where they are found. With
these clues, along with the young history of the
earth, these sleuths have reconstructed an
amazing story of these gems origin.
What Are Rubies and Sapphires?
Rubies and sapphires are varieties of the same
mineral, called corundum. This hard mineral,
composed of aluminum and oxygen (Al 2O3),
comes in many different forms and degrees of
clarity. Only the rarer, clearer crystals are
classified as rubies or sapphires, based on their
color.1

Of most interest is the source of corundums hardness. Corundum is the second hardest natural mineral, after diamonds.
Because of its hardness, corundum is used as a natural grinding material, called emery in powdered form. (Emery is
commonly found in emery boardsthe disposable files used to trim fingernails.)Great heat and pressure were required to
transform the original source materials into this hard mineral. Such an amazing transformation must have occurred in the
heat of the earths interior, but where and when?
Where Are Rubies and Sapphires Found?
The modern location of rubies and sapphires gives us a clue about the place of their formation. We find them in only a few
places, mainly southern Asia and eastern Africa. What took place inside the earth to form these gems and then transport
them to the surface?The answer varies from place to place, but the basic story remains the same. At some point in the
past, source rocks inside the earths crust were subjected to intense pressures and high temperatures, causing the atoms
to recombine into new metamorphic (changed) rocks, which included rubies and sapphires. Later the moving crustal
plates and erupting volcanoes carried these rocks to the surface.The details differ in each place. Some rubies and
sapphires are found in high-grade metamorphic rocks, called gneisses and granulites, located in Sri Lanka, India,
Madagascar, and eastern Africa. In most cases, they formed at depths of 618 miles (1029 km) in the earths crust, as
intense pressures and high temperatures (above 840F [450C]) transformed sedimentary (water deposited) rocks, such
as siltstones and shales, into metamorphic rocks (Figure 1).2The best rubies, however, are found in marbles, particularly
at mines in Myanmar but also in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nepal.3 These marbles formed when heat and
pressure inside the earth changed, or metamorphosed, soft limestone.Sapphires are most commonly found in stream
beds and other secondary deposits.2 To get there, the nearby rocks must have eroded away and washed down to their
current location. The nearby rocks are made of basalts (rocks that came from basaltic magma in the upper mantle). We
might assume that these basalts are the original source of the gems, but they dont have the right chemistry. So where did
these sapphires originate? They must have formed in the metamorphic rocks located in the earths crust, above the
mantle. When the basaltic magma rose up though the crust, it captured the gems along the way. The magma then
carried the gems to the surface. Later, as water and other natural forces broke down the basalts, the sapphires were
released into alluvial deposits, where they are now mined.

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When Were Rubies and Sapphires Formed?
We know the composition of these gems and their location. But what special conditions could have created them in the
first place and then moved them to the surface?Geologists have noticed that ruby and sapphire deposits are closely linked
to major earth movements.4 Furthermore, they have identified three distinct episodes when these gems formed. These
findings help us to place ruby and sapphire deposits at the correct times within the young framework of earth history. The
global Flood, in particular, involved a series of catastrophic plate movements that would explain these gems.5The first
episode was early in the year-long Flood catastrophe, when the African and Indian fragments of the pre-Flood
supercontinent Rodinia rapidly collided.6 Pre-Flood and early Flood sedimentary and igneous rocks were buckled,
squeezed, and heated, transforming them into the metamorphic gneisses and granulites that host the ruby and sapphire
deposits of eastern Africa, Madagascar, India, and Sri Lanka. Then, according to the young model of earth history, when
rapid crustal plate movements were quickly slowing down at the end of the Flood, the Indian plate collided with the
Eurasian plate to form todays Himalaya mountains. Limestones that had been deposited early in the Flood were then
metamorphosed into the ruby-containing marbles of Myanmar, Vietnam, Nepal, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.During this
same period, and extending into the early post-Flood era, residual hotspots in the earths upper mantle generated pockets
of molten basalt around the globe. When the continental plates, now moving much more slowly, drifted over this molten
basalt, the basalt magmas squeezed explosively through the fractured crust, erupting within hours as volcanoes at the
earths surface.7 As this magma passed through the fractured metamorphic rocks, it plucked rock pieces and sapphires

from the walls and carried them to the surface.This catastrophic activity lasted through the final stages of the Flood and on
into the post-Flood era, when new mountains were still rising and volcanoes exploding. Violent weather then rapidly
sculpted the new surfaces. Wherever rocks were exposed to weathering and erosion, the indestructible rubies and
sapphires were liberated from their hosts and washed into alluvial deposits, later to be mined and enjoyed by man.
The post-Flood people who scattered from Babel had migrated across Asia to the places where they would find rubies
and sapphires.If this interpretation is correct, the young age worldview explains why rubies and sapphires are so rare
their formation is restricted to unique conditions .
The Value of Rubies & Sapphires
Rubies and sapphires are the most important colored gemstones in the gem trade, together accounting
for over 50% of global gem production.1
Rubies are far less abundant than blue sapphires of similar quality and thus are of more value.
Flawless, highly prized deep red rubies are seldom larger than three carats, and those that exceed ten
carats are extremely rare.
Large sapphires, in contrast, are relatively common, and numerous stones exceeding 100 carats have
been found. (A carat is the unit of weight for gemstones, which is now internationally defined as equal
to 0.2 gram, or 200 mg, or approximately 0.007 ounce. 2)Transparent raw rubies and sapphires are
commonly cut and faceted. Non-transparent stones of fine color are sometimes smoothly polished, not
faceted, if there is indication that they might be star sapphires or rubies.Rubies and sapphires have
long been part of human history, dating back to Job, an early post-Babel patriarch around 2000 BC.3 Rubies in particular
have been prized by monarchs as a symbol of their wealth and power. In ancient Sanskrit the name for rubies meant
queen of precious stones. In the seventeenth century the King of Bijapur (now in modern India) owned a ruby that
weighed over 50 carats. The German Emperor Rudolph II is reported to have possessed a ruby the size of a hens egg.
Rubies are the worlds most expensive gemstones, the best Burmese rubies being valued more than an equivalent-sized
flawless diamond.1 The world record paid at auction for a ruby is U.S. $3.63 million in 1988 for a 15.97 carat Burmese
ruby (U.S. $227,300 per carat). (By comparison, a 62 carat flawless diamond recently sold for just over U.S. $8 million, or
U.S. $130,000 per carat.) The world record paid at auction for a blue sapphire is U.S. $3 million for a spectacular 62 carat
rectangular-cut royal blue Burmese sapphire.
Microscopic Diamonds Confound Geologists
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on April 1, 1996

Originally published in Journal of Creation 10, no 1 (April 1996): 1-2.


Tiny diamond grains discovered in high-grade metamorphic rocks (gneisses) from south-western Norway may force
geologists to rethink cherished ideas about the Earths continental crust and processes. Discovered by an international
team of Russian, Norwegian, British and US geoscientists,1 the diamond fragments at only 2080 micrometres in size are
too small to see without a microscope. Yet they have formed within the continental crust where they shouldnt have!This
is a spectacular discovery, says diamond expert Stephen Haggerty of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.2
According to all the geology textbooks, diamonds can only form in the Earths mantle at depths of more than 120 km (75
miles), where the exceedingly high pressures and temperatures40 kbar and 900Csqueeze carbon into the
ultracompact crystal structure of diamond. The diamonds then reach the surface when explosive volcanic eruptions force
the molten rock containing them up narrow conduits (pipes) through the crust.However, these Norwegian microdiamonds
just do not comply with the textbooks! Whereas they should have been in volcanic mantle rocks, they were found in
metamorphic rocks. Originally formed as ancient sedimentary deposits on the Earths surface, these layers of sediments
are believed to have been compacted and cooked (400450 million years ago!) when another continent (Laurentia)
rammed into what is now Scandinavia (the ancient Baltica). Although such continental collisions (also expected to have
occurred in a catastrophic plate tectonics Flood model3) are believed to be capable of metamorphosing crustal rocks, they
are considered far too docile for making diamonds. According to Dobrzhinetskaya et al.,4 geothermobarometry, textural
studies and fluid-inclusion analyses indicate that the high-pressure phase of metamorphism that produced these
Norwegian gneisses involved conditions of 1721 kbar and approximately 630820C. However, this is still not nearly
enough to mould carbon into diamond, says Haggerty and conventional wisdom.Significantly, this Norwegian discovery is
not the first, geologists having already reported finding examples of microdiamonds in metamorphic (crustal) rocks twice
before, in 1990 in Kazakhstan5and in 1992 in eastern China.6While skeptical researchers questioned those earlier
reports, this Norwegian discovery makes it harder for the geoscience community to ignore the obvious conclusion that
diamonds may also form in crustal rocks.This really nails it, says Haggerty. According to W. Gary Ernst of Stanford
University,If these are well-documented diamonds, I exult. You cant laugh it off anymore and say its one of a kind.7
Dobrzhinetskaya et al. are cautious in their report and do not speculate how these crustal rocks could have been
subjected to the mantle conditions claimed for diamond formation, yet Dobrzhinetskaya independently tries to explain the
presence of these microdiamonds in these Norwegian metamorphic rocks.8 She suggests that the ancient continental
collision forced pieces of the crust down to mantle depths temporarily, where carbon in the sedimentary layers then turned
into diamonds before the crustal rocks rose back to the surface.While this theory would solve the mystery of how the
diamonds formed, Monastersky9 is absolutely right in pointing out that instead it raises another conundrum. Crustal rocks
have a much lower density than mantle rocks, so therefore most geologists consider continental rocks too buoyant to be
carried down into the mantle. Yet Ernest insists,

We dont think crustal rocks can go down and come bobbing back up, but a few of them must have!
Haggerty, however, suggests that the diamonds might have formed without a trip into the mantle. Industrial researchers,
he notes, have learned how to grow extremely thin diamond films at very low pressures. Therefore, because the
microdiamonds from Norway, Kazakhstan and China are so tiny, he speculates that they may have formed at pressures
found in the crust.
We either have a major tectonic problem, or we have an entirely new way of making diamonds, says Haggerty.10
So should geologists now have to rewrite some basic textbooks as Monastersky concludes? No, not yet, because
Haggerty, Ernst, Monastersky, and even Dobrzhinetskaya all overlook one key issueDobrzhinetskaya et al.11 admitted
that they had not yet identified the microdiamonds in situ in the gneiss (they recovered them from crushed rock), and
therefore they had no indisputable evidence to support either a metamorphic or an alluvial origin for the grains. Thats
righttheres still the possibility these micro-diamonds were deposited in the original sediments (by erosion from source
rocks) before they were metamorphosed!
In any case, the uniformitarian (slow-and-gradual) model of plate tectonics, which involves millions-of-years for continental
collisions, is hard pressed to explain how crustal rocks could go down to mantle depths of 120 km and bob back up again.
On the other hand, catastrophic plate tectonics during the Flood year12 with metres per second crustal movements would
have inevitably resulted in violent continental collisions, the tremendous forces involved buckling crustal rocks to the
extent of ramming some portions down to mantle depths. However, this would be short-lived, for as the crumpled collision
zone relaxed very soon after the impact, the lower density continental crustal rocks thus rammed into the mantle would
rapidly rebound.
No wonder geologists are confounded by these microdiamonds! Perhaps the mystery surrounding them would be easily
solved if they abandoned their uniformitarian presuppositions. Maybe catastrophic plate tectonics during the Flood is the
better model for earth history?
Creating Opals
Opals in monthsnot millions of years!
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on December 1, 1994

Originally published in Creation 17, no 1 (December 1940): 14-17.


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Opals have fascinated people for centuries. As early as the first century AD, the Roman Pliny wrote of opals:
In them you shall see the living fire of ruby, the glorious purple of the amethyst, the sea-green of the emerald all glittering
together in an incredible mixture of light.
Mark Antony loved them, and is thought to have assaulted a senator to get a particularly nice one. Napoleon presented
Josephine with The Burning of Troy, a magnificent red example. Shakespeare called them that miracle and queen of
gems, and Queen Victoria of Great Britain made the new discoveries from far-off Australia a fashion necessity.Prized for
their vivid hues, Australias renowned precious opals command retail prices from US$5 to $3,000 per carat, depending on
quality. The finest opals have become more expensive than many other gems, and Australia is responsible for practically
all of the worlds supply. (Mexico is the only other significant producer.) Coober Pedy, together with Andamooka and
Mintabie, all in South Australia, account for approximately 70 percent of total world production. However, since 1988 the
value of production from Lightning Ridge in New South Wales, with its famed high-quality black opal, has outstripped the
South Australian fields.The opals are said to have formed millions of years ago (30 million years ago at Coober Pedy),
although the host rocks are all claimed to be more than 6570 million years old. And surprising as it may seem, the
ingredients of opal are commonplace stuff. Water in the ground carrying dissolved silica (similar to the glass in windows)
is said to have seeped through beds of sand and grit, where the silica particles are deposited in cracks. As the water
subsequently evaporated, the silica particles became cemented together to form the opal. Light bending around the silica
produces the variety of glowing colours.
Fossils made of opal
Even fossils found in the host rocks have not escaped the percolating silica-rich groundwaters. Occasionally, bones,
seashells and seed pods are found fossilized by having been turned into opal. Perhaps the most famous example in
recent years is Eric the pliosaur (a marine reptile), which was the subject of high-profile public fund-raising by The
Australian Museum in Sydney in order to purchase these opalized bones from the Coober Pedy miner who found them in
1987. Eric is said to be about 100 million years old. No wonder then, in most peoples minds, because of these claimed
time scales, and because of the almost universal perception/indoctrination that geological processes are almost always
slow and gradual, opals must have taken a long time to form in the ground.
Not so, says Len Cram, a Lightning Ridge bush scientist who earned his Ph.D. for his opal research.
Secret of growing opals
Len has discovered the secret that has enabled him to actually grow opals in glass jars stored in his wooden shed
laboratory, and the process takes only a matter of weeks! (See: Snelling, A., Growing opalsAustralian
style! Creation 12(1):1015, 1989.) Lens man-made opals are so good that even experienced Lightning Ridge miners
cant tell the difference between them and opals found in the ground. Furthermore, scientists from Australias CSIRO
(Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) cant distinguish Lens opal from natural opal even under
an electron microscopethey look identical!

No, Len is not about to disclose the formula and flood the world with man-made opals. His quest has always been to find
out how opal forms so as to discredit uniformitarian (slow and gradual) geological theories. He believes the opals took
only a few months to form within suitable portions of the thick sediment layers laid down catastrophically during the Flood,
and his experiments undeniably demonstrate that this was feasible.All it takes is an electrolyte (a chemical solution that
conducts electricity), a source of silica and water, and some alumina and feldspar. The basic ingredient in Lens recipe is
a chemical called tetraethylosilicate (TEOS for short), which is an organic molecule containing silica. The amount of
alumina which turns to aluminium oxide determines the hardness of the opal.The opal-forming process is one of ion
exchange, a chemical process that involves building the opal structure ion by ion (an ion is an electrically charged atom,
or group of atoms [molecule]). The process starts at some point and spreads until all the critical ingredients, in this case
the electrolyte, are used up. Within a matter of weeks of this initial formation, the newly forming opal has beautiful colour
patterns, but it still has a lot of water in it. Slowly over months, further chemical changes take place, the silica gel
consolidating as the water is squeezed out.Len can now grow opal in natural Lightning Ridge opal dirt, the sandy grit in
which the natural opals are found. Once the electrolyte is mixed into the opal dirt, colour starts to form within four to six
days. Seams of opal then actually grow, identical in shape and form to that found in the ground, some with colour and
some without, the process taking about three months. Thus seam opal is not necessarily a sedimentary deposit in
previously existing cracks in the opal dirt. Rather, the chemical reaction which creates the opal makes the seam from the
opal dirt itself where no crack or seam previously existed. Len says this achievement is a world first, and that viscosity
evidently plays a major role in this crucial ion-exchange process.
Rapid opals fit the young timescale
Lens experiments not only provide an explanation of how opals form, but the short timescale of only a matter of years is
consistent with the young age framework and can readily account for the field observations of natural opal in its host
rocks. Furthermore, this means that his short timescale also applies to the fossilization process. The bones of Eric the
pliosaur (for example) need not have taken thousands or millions of years to fossilize. The most likely explanation of their
preservation via opalization is now therefore the same replacement (ion-exchange) process that Len has so graphically
demonstrated in his glass jars, and that takes only months to years.So the evolutionary stories of opal formation and
fossilization slowly over thousands and millions of years have to be rewritten. Since pliosaurs and other creatures need to
be buried catastrophically to ensure their subsequent fossilization, the rock layers hosting the opals and opalized bones
are best explained by catastrophic deposition during the global Flood. Chemical processes then took over to form the
opals in the rock layers and opalize the bones in the months and years that followed.
DiamondsEvidence of Explosive Geological Processes
Evidence of Explosive Geological Processes
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on December 1, 1993
Originally published in Creation 16, no 1 (December 1993): 42-45.
Diamonds have been highly prized throughout history, being regarded as symbols of wealth and power.
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The prized value has a lot to do with the appearance of cut gem-quality diamonds and their hardness. On the scale of
hardness of minerals and natural materials diamonds are rated as the hardesthence their industrial uses. Ironically
however, diamonds are merely one physical form of the element carbon, another being graphite, which is of course quite
soft, black and relatively unattractive. To many it is an enigma that an element like carbon could occur in such starkly
contrasting physical forms.
An Aboriginal myth
Like many other native peoples around the world, the Australian Aborigines have stories about events in their history,
including what had to be geological events. Their stories include one of a flood, the breakup of the continents, and a
morning star.1 Of course, these traditions are usually dismissed as either simply religious beliefs, mythology, or the
primitive explanation of local natural phenomena. Yet it is apparent that these stories, stripped of their grotesque elements
and embellishments, are simply technically unsophisticated eyewitness accounts of real events. Thus it is significant that
the Aborigines in the East Kimberleys of far northern Western Australia have a story associated with the Argyle diamond
deposit which is in their tribal area. They say that the place where the diamond deposit is found is where the Barramundi
(a large fish found in northern Australian estuaries) jumped out of the ground during the Dreamtime (the time in which the
earth received its present form, and cycles of life and nature were initiated).This story of course has generally been
accepted as fanciful native mythology, with no basis in fact, because the diamond deposit is supposed to be millions of
years old. But could it be that these Aboriginal people actually saw this diamond deposit form in the recent past? Since
diamond deposits appear to have formed by what can best be described as explosive volcanism, it would certainly seem
that their description fits such an event.
Diamond deposits
Diamond deposits are found in only a few isolated and
restricted locations around the world where particular rock
types occur. Figure 1 shows the location of the economic
primary deposits, which are located in what are known
geologically as cratonic areas, that appear to be the old
foundational basement rocks on which the continents have
been built.2 Historically, diamonds have been found and mined
in southern Africa, from where sprang the DeBeers empire that
grew to essentially control the world diamond market.
However, today the largest deposits are found in Siberia, but
the worlds largest diamond mine is at Argyle in northern
Western Australia, the deposit whose formation the Aborigines
appear to have witnessed. This mine currently produces 25
million carats of diamonds a year, about 30% of the worlds
production.3Diamond deposits are termed primary when found
in the host rocks that have brought them from deep in the earths interior to the surface. The two host rock types in which
significant quantities of diamond occur are called kimberlite (named after the best-known and earliest-mined diamond
deposits at Kimberley in South Africa) and lamproite. Secondary diamond deposits are formed from these primary host
rocks due to weathering and transportation by surface erosion processes. Because diamonds are so hard they survive

weathering and erosion to end up in either gravels or alluvium, and even on beaches, as along the west coast of Namibia,
southern Africa.
Host rock transport
Careful scientific investigations have revealed that diamonds have come from deep in the earth to the surface extremely
rapidly. Identification of a rock as kimberlite or lamproite does not guarantee that it will contain economic quantities of
diamonds. There are two reasons for this. 4 It is now accepted by most geologists specializing in the study of diamond
deposits that the diamonds themselves are crystals that are foreign to these rocks, that is, they were not part of the
original rock material. Additionally, during the process of bringing the diamonds from inside the earth to the surface, in
these rocks the diamonds may revert to graphite and/or be chemically dispersed and so be eliminated. Therefore, a given
barren kimberlite or lamproite may never have contained diamonds, due to its failure to incorporate diamonds in it before
its passage to the earths surface, or any diamonds originally present may have been completely destroyed during their
passage upwards. Current research has thus shown that kimberlites and lamproites are merely vehicles which transport
diamonds from deep inside the earth to the surface.Kimberlites and lamproites could broadly be classified as volcanic
rocks. They appear to have been produced from molten (and melted) rocks derived from the mantle below the earths
outer crust.5 However, they have unusual compositions that set them apart from other volcanic rocks. The generalized
three-dimensional shape of kimberlite and lamproite rock masses is depicted in Figure 2. 6 This shape is usually called a
pipe, but the uppermost part towards the land surface can be splayed out to make the shape more like a champagne
glass. At depth the pipe narrows down and connects with a system of deep fractures. It is along these fractures that the
molten rock forced its way upwards.
Diamond formationKimberlites and lamproites often
contain fragments of other rocks types that have
been broken off and picked up during the passage of
the molten rock from the earths interior to the
surface. Amongst these foreign rock fragments are
pieces of the probable source rocks that melted to
form the molten masses of kimberlites and
lamproites. Laboratory studies of the minerals in
these rock fragments suggest that they formed at
temperatures of 9001400C (approximately 1630
2500F) and pressures of 5080 kilobars
(approximately 370600 tons force per square inch).
Such conditions evidently exist in the earths upper
mantle at a depth of 150250km (approximately 90
155 miles),7and are also the conditions under which
diamond is known to be stable. At shallower depths,
where temperatures and pressures are lower,
diamonds are not stable and any carbon present will
occur as graphite. This implies that diamonds had to
form at depths of more than 150km (about 90 miles)
below the earths surface in the upper mantle.
Current ideas about diamond formation differ with
respect to the postulated source of the
carbon.8 Some researchers believe that diamonds
form from carbon in methane or other hydrocarbon
gases that ascend through the upper mantle from
deeper inside the earth. Other scientists suggest that
the carbon has come from the earths surface (and
may even be ultimately of biological origin),
presumably having been deeply buried and pushed
to these depths as a result of upheavals in the earths
crust (explainable as due to the Flood).
In either case, it appears that the formation of a
primary diamond deposit depends upon there having
developed diamondbearing horizons at depths
greater than 150km in the root zones of the
continental foundation areas. Below in the upper
mantle proper, localized melting of the rocks
produced molten blobs of kimberlite and lamproite
compositions, which in their molten state were then
lighter (less dense and relatively buoyant) than the
surrounding mantle rocks. As a consequence these
molten blobs (magmas) began to rise along
fractures upwards towards the earths crust. If these
molten blobs passed through diamondbearing
horizons in the continental root zones, then diamond
crystals may have become incorporated into the
magmas, which then transported them into the crust
and up to the earths surface.
A rapid ascent
However, once these blobs of molten magma containing diamonds reached depths of less than 150km (about 90 miles)
below the earths surface they were then in the zone where diamonds are no longer the stable form of carbon under the
ambient temperature and pressure conditions. Consequently, if the magma blobs moved too slowly up through the crust
to the surface, and took too long to cool and harden there, then the contained diamonds would have been converted to
graphite. These magmas would also have contained water and carbon dioxide gas, the water particularly enhancing the
oxygen chemical reactivity of the ascending magma and potentially assisting the rapid oxidation and combustion of
contained diamonds.Laboratory experiments, coupled with other mineralogical and textural features in kimberlites and
lamproites, indicate an ascent rate for these molten blobs of diamondbearing magmas of between 10 and 30km (619

miles) per hour.9 In other words, if these magma blobs began their journey surfacewards at depths of 250km (about 155
miles), picking up diamonds on the way up to 150km (about 90 miles) depth, then they would have needed to reach the
earths surface in only 825 hours!Many people, of course, find it hard to conceive of a geological process like that
occurring so rapidly, particularly as we have been constantly indoctrinated with the slow and gradual, uniformitarian
philosophy. So how is it that these molten blobs of magma made their way through solid rock from depths of around
250km (about 155 miles) or less to the earths surface in a day or less?The magmas had within them components that
produced a driving force for their rapid ascent. First there was the carbon dioxide gas content which would have built up
an explosive gas drive.10 Then there was the water content, which at the magmas temperatures was present as
superheated steam, and would have been responsible for hydraulic fracturing and wedging. 11 Both the carbon dioxide and
water in the magmas were confined under pressure, much like soda in a corked bottle, ready to explosively exploit any
weaknesses in the rocks above them.It is hardly surprising then that most kimberlite and lamproite pipes occur at the
intersections of major deep fracture systems. These fractures extend to within 2km (1.25 miles) of the surface, where they
connect with the root zones of the pipes (see Figure 2 again). But why the change of mode at that depth? As the magmas
rise along the fractures towards the earths surface the temperatures of the surrounding rocks and the confining pressures
progressively fall. Because the magmas have travelled rapidly upwards they have had little time to cool.At the shallow
depth of 2km (1.25 miles) the confining pressures on the magmas were greatly diminished, which allowed the
superheated steam in the magmas to in effect boil. Concurrently, the magmas came in contact with circulating
groundwater, which had also been brought rapidly to boiling point by the heat of the rising magmas. The net result was
explosive releases of energy, which are estimated as equivalent to two or three times the energy released per kilogram of
magma in the Mount St Helens blast of May 18, 1980.12 These decompression reactions which suddenly produced rapid
expansion of the confined gases and steam explosively, like a cork being popped out of a soda bottle, or like a bomb
detonating, punched holes all the way up to the surface. This is how the chimney-like pipes were formed.The explosive
eruptions were very localized and probably very short-lived, but resulted in shattering of the then rapidly cooling
magmas. Thus fragmented, they ended up filling the pipes as broken masses of coarse volcanic ash (or tuffs) whose
grains and fragments were welded together to form hard masses (because of the heat still being released). 13 The
explosiveness and force involved is evident from the fragments of rocks, through which the pipes have been cut, that have
also been included in the pipes. The diamond crystals themselves are thus carried rapidly from their place of formation
deep in the earth into these pipes, where we find them today along with the shattered remains of the magmas that brought
them up to the earths surface.
Conclusions
This evidence for the rapid formation of diamond deposits confirms that there are extremely rapid and catastrophic
geological processes which evolutionary geologists have been forced to concede do occur. Furthermore, the eyewitness
testimony from the Australian Aborigines, distorted by verbal transmission and the mists of time, undoubtedly points to
their having seen the explosive eruption that produced the Argyle diamond deposit, which places its formation therefore in
the very recent post-Flood period. To these undoubtedly awe-struck Aboriginal observers such an eruption could well, in
their technically unsophisticated understanding, look like a giant fish jumping out of water.Todays diamond deposits at
todays land surface are in kimberlite and lamproite pipes that were intruded through strata most of which were
undoubtedly deposited by the Flood. This means that the rapid ascent of molten kimberlites and lamproites and the
explosive volcanism that resulted in the pipes must have occurred late in the Flood, soon after it, or sometime later (after
Babel; in the case of the Argyle event seen by the Australian Aborigines. And of course the 825 hours it took the
magmas to ascend and explosively form the pipes and craters is totally consistent with the young time framework in which
the Flood occurred some 45005000 years ago.
Growing OpalsAustralian Style
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on December 1, 1989
Originally published in Creation 12, no 1 (December 1989): 10-15.
In a dusty old wooden shed on a side street in Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia, a bush scientist trying to
discover the origin of opal has been able to grow opal which is virtually indistinguishable from the mined precious stone.
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Len Crams shed has to be one of the oddest, out-of-the-way research laboratories anywhere in the world. On the walls
are shelves with row upon row of bottles, peanut butter jars, and other containers. Each is covered with a plastic lid and
rubber band with data scrawled over it.The jars and bottles are filled with a milky-coloured liquid, and at the bottom of
each lies a few centimetres of residue. On closer examination, it has the unmistakable colour and flash of the most
beautiful precious opal one could imagine. Yes, man-made opal, grown in the laboratory, over a short period of timenot
millions of years!Lens opals have fooled old miners who have lived in Lightning Ridge all their lives. So skilled has Len
become that he can have them believing his opals are from any one of the various opal fields around the town.Far from
boasting about his extraordinary discoveries, Len is usually reluctant to talk about them. In a town where peoples
livelihoods depend on the real stuff coming from the ground, there is much suspicion about his work. But Lens main
object is not to manufacture opal. Rather, his is purely a quest to find how opal forms.
Other theories upset
His experiments have turned traditional theories about opal upside-down, even challenging accepted ideas of evolutionary
geology and its alleged millions of years for the formation and age of opals. But Len is not a sophisticated scientistjust
10 per cent inspiration and 90 per cent perspiration!Few people know more about opal than Len does. Even scientists
who refuse to acknowledge his work admit he is a world authority on the subject.Len left school when he was 15. Selftaught, with a very analytical and inquiring mind, his formal training came only after he had completed most of his opalgrowing research. This includes an earned Ph.D. (for a thesis on his opal research)academic credentials he says he
needed so that his work would be accepted in scientific circles!Len started his association with opal in Queensland in the
1950s. Even then, he wondered if he could grow opal, and so began his first experiments, using of all things honey and
sulphuric acid. Eventually, in 1962, he moved to Lightning Ridge, in New South Wales, where he began in earnest to
pursue his dream of making opal.Thus began an ongoing scientific adventure. He studied every scientific paper on silica
he could lay his hands on. He went through years of experimentstrial after trial, failure after failure. Each experiment
was carefully recorded. Results were documented. Often discouraged, but still hopeful, he carried on.
CSIRO research
At the same time Len was doing his work in the bush, othersincluding Australias CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and
Industrial Research Organisation)were also doing research on opal. A research team headed by Dr John Sanders of
CSIROs Material Science Division in Melbourne made some major breakthroughs in explaining the colour and

construction of opal.1Using an electron microscope, Dr Sanders found that opal was made up of millions of tiny silica balls
in a regularly arranged pattern. In between each of these balls were found even smaller holes or interstices, through
which light is diffracted, that is, when white light or ordinary sunlight shines through the holes, it is split into colours. In opal
where the balls were small, the colours produced were the darker colours of the rainbowviolet, indigo and blue. When
the balls were large, yellow, orange and red colours were produced. Precious opal is found when the balls are in a
regularly arranged pattern. In potch or common opal there is no set pattern.Dr Sanders and his team produced an artificial
material in 1968 that was comparable to natural opal. They took out patents in England and the United States. However,
like Len Cram, they realized the potential dangers of their work (e.g. if opal could be cheaply produced artificially it would
completely undermine the value of natural opal and thus bring economic ruin to the opal mining industry). They thus tried
to keep a lid on their breakthrough.Meanwhile, Len was eventually able to use the CSIRO research for his own work. He
did more and more experiments, all of which failed to produce resultssuccessful failures. On the wall of his laboratory
he has pinned two sayings around which his work is based: In this laboratory, success is never guaranteed and failure is
never permanent, and Fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom.
Success at last
It was not until 1975 that Len had his first success. He poured a bit of this and a bit of that into a bottle. He gave it a
shake, put it on the shelf, and forgot about it. Sometime later he and a friend were in the shed-laboratory doing something
else when his friend noticed the bottle. On the bottom was a three millimetre (one-eighth inch) growth of precious opal!
Len built on this success. Having now unlocked the door, he could grow the most natural-looking opal anyone could
imagine. On his shelves are Andamooka blue/greens; Coober Pedy whites and crystals; Mexican oranges, and Lightning
Ridge blacksall grown in his shed. The opal is so natural-looking that there are different colour bars with different
patterns, and lines of potch between them. Lens opal looks real, simply because it is real. His process apparently is a
mimicking of the process which formed opal in nature. And Lens opal grows at normal room temperature without any
pressure or mechanical assistance. Furthermore, Lens latest opal looks identical to natural opal even under the electron
microscope. Other attempts at manufacturing opal, including those of CSIRO, look noticeably different.He is a creationist
and claims his experiments discredit uniformitarian geology theories of slow-and-gradual opal formation (evolution) over
thousands and millions of years. While developing his system for growing opals, he learned a great deal about how opal is
formed. Len believes it took only a few months within suitable portions of the voluminous sediment layers laid down
catastrophically by the Great Floodand he says he can prove it.
Evolutionary theory wrong
Current scientific theory, based on the geologists uniformitarian belief in slow and gradual processes over millions of
years, states that opal formation was a sedimentary process.2 Silica gel (a warm water solution supersaturated with silica)
was deposited over millions of years, layer after layer, filling in cracks and spaces in a parent rock, which is often a friable
sandstone, locally (i.e. in the opal mines) called opal dirt. Over millions of years more the gel supposedly slowly dried out
to become hard. It has been suggested that it took around five million years for about a centimetre (a little more than a
third of an inch) of opal to develop, perhaps through rain washing the silica gel into the opal dirt.But Len has proved that
the opal formation process is probably very different to this. In his jars, the first touch of colour appears within 15 minutes!
In three months he gets more than one centimetre (half an inch) of vertical growth. Len says the longest part is the dryingout process, as the water contained within the developing opal structure is expelled over subsequent months and years.
The actual formation of the opal takes only a very short time (only a matter of weeks). The accepted evolutionary theory,
however, says that the water evaporated and the opal formed as the silica gel dried out. This is untrue according to Len.
Natural opal, he says, was not formed by flows of silica gel, but went hard (indurated) under water.Len says that he has
succeeded because he was prepared to look at the scientific problem completely unshackled by evolutionary and
uniformitarian assumptionsan attitude different from that of other scientists.Although some of the scientific theories of
CSIROs Dr Sanders are in conflict with Len Crams, Dr Sanders has described Lens work as remarkable. He has shown
incredible dedication in trying to find how and why opal was formed. The Japanese have made opal but it is nowhere near
the same as those produced by Len, Dr Sanders says. 3 No one else has managed to capture the fire of the precious
opal, or the natural look that Lens opal has.
The recipe
There is no doubt that Len has demonstrated that opal can form quite quickly. All it takes is an electrolyte (a chemical
solution that is electrically charged), a source of silica and water, and some alumina and feldspar. The basic ingredient in
this recipe for making opal is a chemical called tetraethylorthosilicate, or TEOS for short, which is an organic molecule
containing silica. The amount of alumina which turns to aluminium oxide determines the hardness of the opal.The opalforming process is one of ion exchange, a chemical process that involves building the opal structure ion by ion (an ion is
an electrically charged atom, or group of atoms (molecule)). A reasonable analogy would be that of the growth of a crystal
within a chemical solution. When the proper chemical mix is present, a tiny crystal forms in the liquid. Then the crystal
grows larger and larger until the chemicals needed to make it are used up from the solution. Opal is not a crystal, but Len
has shown that it grows in much the same way. The ion exchange process starts at some point and spreads until all the
critical ingredients, in this case the electrolyte, are used up. This initial formation process takes place quickly, in a matter
of months, in Lens laboratory.After the initial formation in a matter of weeks, the opal has beautiful colour patterns, but it
still has a lot of water in it. Slowly over months, further chemical changes take place which consolidate the silica gel.
These changes create varying patterns of colour and squeeze the water out. It is not the initial forming that takes time;
rather, it is this restructuring. Only after the opal has restructured is it stable and useful as a gemstone.
Rapid formation in nature
So now we have a new explanation of how opal is probably formed in nature. At some point in the host rock, the correct
mixture of electrolyte and other ingredients is present. The chemical process starts and expands outward. It transforms
the host sandstone or opal dirt into precious opal through the ion exchange process. As it does, it uses up the electrolyte.
When it is all used up, the process stops and no more precious opal forms. After this initial formation, the silica gel
naturally restructures, becoming more compact, squeezing out water as it does.This simple experimentally verified
process can explain how opal formed in so many different ways. The so-called nobbies (round nodules of opal) of
Lightning Ridge (and probably the crystal blobs in Andamooka) are thus the result of a small pool of electrolyte in which
the opal formation process started. As the opal grew from the centre out, a concretion or roundish shape was created.
The size of the nobby or nodule was probably determined by how much electrolyte was available.One wonders how a
nobby, or a spot of opal in Mexican rhyolite (a volcanic lava rock), could have been formed under the sedimentation
processes of standard evolutionary/uniformitarian theory. Where did the gel come from? How did it travel into the space it
supposedly filled? There are usually no cracks to provide access. Len Crams explanation solves this problem. With the
necessary ingredients already part of the lava rock, the process started from the inside out, transforming the matrix into
precious opal as it proceeded

Seams (or layers) of opal also can be explained in this way. The electrolyte initiates the ion exchange and the process
takes the path of least resistance, that is, along the layering in the host rock.
Transformed into opal
Len has a bottle where he has put opal dirt from Lightning Ridge in the bottom and his solution on top. The layer of opal
formed on top of the opal dirt, but then, strangely, a pocket of precious opal began to grow in the dirt. The opal dirt (or
sandy grit) was literally being chemically transformed into precious opal. In another of his bottles, precious opal has grown
in horizontal layers or seams in the opal dirt, one above the other. Each seam has varying qualities, colour bases and
patterns. Thus seam opal is not necessarily a sedimentary deposit in previously existing cracks in the opal dirt. Rather the
chemical reaction which creates the opal has made the seam where no crack or seam previously existed.There are other
problems with the so-called sedimentation theory which make Lens experimental explanation far more believable. In
some opal fields there are often several large seams of opal deposits, sometimes six or nine metres (about 20 or 30 feet)
across, lying one on top of the other with little space between them. If these opal seams had originally been open cracks
in the host clay, how could this soft clay have stayed suspended for millions of years with large long cracks within it
without collapsing while waiting to be filled with opal? No wonder geologists have difficulty in explaining opal formation in
such occurrences!There is also a lot of natural opal that is impregnated with opal dirt which has a lower specific gravity
than does silica in solution. This opal dirt should thus have floated to the top of the gel if the sedimentation theory were
correct, rather than being caught up in the middle of the opal as is so often the case.Both these observable details
completely discount the evolutionary theory of silica gel sedimentation over millions of years.Potential confirmation of the
comparability of Len Crams experiments with natural opal formation comes from an experienced Northern Territory opal
miner. He recently recounted how after discovering some high grade colourful opal underground, he was dismayed to find
that after only short exposure to sunlight, the opal lost its colourful patterns. 4 This suggests that some mined opal is not
yet stabilized, pointing to recent formation.This fascinating scientific story is not yet complete. The usual explanation for
differences in base colour in opals is the presence of impurities. Lens research has shown that this is not how the base
colour is formed. He has shown that the chemical composition of black opal is identical to that of white or other types.
Rather, it is the structure of the opal which creates the base colour.
Vital creationist research
This again is a revolutionary idea, but as before Len has the proof in the bottles in his laboratory. He has opal growing
where he initially mixed various dyes to make the solutions black. Sure enough, there sits a black liquid on top of a
growing layer of pure clear opal. But in another jar the liquid is clear and the opal is black. Len maintains that every black
opal in Lightning Ridge (and 98 per cent of the worlds black opal comes from Lightning Ridge) was originally whitehe
has seen white opals turn black in his bottles. So much for the old theory that the colours are produced by impurities!All
this sounds exciting but, as always, there is a catch. Len has proved that good stable natural opal hardens while still
underwater, because his opal is slowly doing the same. But he hasnt so far waited the few years or decade necessary for
completion of the process to be able to pour the water off his opal and cut it. Instead, he has siphoned the water off
through a small hole in the plastic top over his jar and allowed the opal to slowly dry out over a number of months. And
here is the catch. The forced drying caused the opal to crack. Len is working on this problem but has not solved it
yet.Lens opal is not yet ready to replace natural opal. He doesnt intend it to. However, what Lens experiments have
done is provide a whole new explanation of how opal is formed, in only a matter of years. His short time-frame
explanation, consistent with the young age framework, can readily account for the field observations of natural opal in its
host rocks. Furthermore, the most likely explanation of the opalization of fossil bones is now therefore the same
replacement (ion exchange) process that Len has demonstrated in his laboratory. The evolutionary textbook story of opal
formation slowly over millions of years is going to have to be rewritten.Research based on creationist presuppositions is
thus not only true and proper research, but continues to contribute to true scientific endeavour.However, there are also
practical applications. Len Crams creationist research into rapid opal formation has now provided a new model and
exploration target in the search for more opal in existing opal fields and, more importantly, for the discovery of new opal
fields.If most of the host sediments were catastrophically deposited recently in the Flood and opal formed rapidly, why
should the uniformitarian geological time-scale, with its millions of years, limit exploration targets for new opal deposits to
so-called Cretaceous sandstones? All sandstone strata that resemble the host rocks of known opal fields such as Coober
Pedy (South Australia) and Lightning Ridge (New South Wales)Cretaceousor Mintabie, South Australia
(Ordovician) should be regarded as prospective, regardless of their inferred uniformitarian geological age.

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