Session 6 – Evidence for a young earth

In this final session we will examine

several evidences from the earth that show that it cannot

be billions of years old, and that

line up with the earth being young

Sodium levels in the ocean

This is one of the oldest methods around

to get an idea of the age of the earth

(or oceans in this case)

This method was first suggested by Isaac Newton as a way to find the age of the earth

Sodium gets inside the ocean by multiple means; rivers run into the ocean and bring

sodium with them, surface runoffs and ground water also deposit sodium

into the ocean.

The amount of sodium dumped into the ocean annually is 450 million tons.

There are also ways for sodium to leave the ocean

Waves spray water onto the shores and the water eventually evaporates, leaving the salt

behind (on the shore.) There are also different clays within the ocean that absorb

sodium, and one specific mineral called Zeolite can absorb large amounts of sodium.

The amount of sodium that gets out of the ocean is 27% of the sodium that gets put

into the ocean every year.

Measuring the level of salinity of the ocean and calculating how long it would take to reach the present level (assuming zero to

begin with) we get a date of 62 million years

Evolutionary ideas put the oceans forming 3.6-4.0 billion years ago, and because of

this they have to assume there were different situations that solves the problem

throughout history

Sediment levels in the ocean gives us another indicator of age

Every year, water and winds erode around 20

billion tons of sediments from the

continents and deposits them inside the ocean.

These sediments accumulate on the ocean floor, and the average total thickness for the

sediments is 400 meters deep.

There is only one known way to remove these sediments from the ocean, and that is

plate tectonics.

The rate at which ocean floor sediments are removed has been measured at 1 billion tons

per year, the other 19 billion tons stays on the ocean floor. That gives an age of 12

million years for the sediments to build up

Volcanic Measurements

If the earth is billions of years old you would expect there to be

billions of year’s worth of volcanic debris spread

around the earth.

We can measure how fast volcanic material is ejected today, measure how much has been

ejected, and it doesn’t line up with billions of years

“A subsequent calculation, based on a conservative estimate of an average of 1 cubic kilometer of volcanic material per year being ejected by the earth’s volcanoes, suggested

that in 3.5 billion years the entire earth should have been covered by a thick blanket

of volcanic materials reaching a hight of 7 km. (23,000 feet)” – Snellings

But that’s not even dealing with the numbers that we actually observe

The rate that was measure from 1940-1980 measured 3 cubic kilometers per year just

from the massive volcanoes, and that number does not include the dozens of

smaller eruptions that occur in that time period.If we take the observed amounts of eruptions

and assume volcanoes have only been going off for 2.5 billion years, there should be a layer of volcanic material with a thickness of over 19

kilometers on earth, which is 62,000 feet worth of volcanic material.

Instead we only find around 2,500 feet worth, 24 times less than what secular scientists

would predict.

Some appeal to Erosion to Solve this problem

“erosion does not offer a good solution to this inconsistency for the long

uniformitarian geological ages, because erosion would only transfer the volcanic materials from one place to another.”

Dr. Andrew Snellings

Land Erosion

Rain and wind are both slowly eroding away the

continents and mountains here on earth, and the rate

at which this occurs has been accurately measured by

geologists.

Erosion is around 2.4 inches per thousand years for the continents as a whole

Mainstream science says the continents have been exposed to weather for the past 3.5

billion years, assuming that the erosion rates were similar in the past, the continent of

North America would have eroded flat (to sea level) in a mere 10 million years!

If North America had been exposed for 3.5 billion years, it could have

eroded flat 350 times.

Some secular geologists have claimed that the mountains are being uplifted from below, while this does occur it cannot

account for the sedimentary layers high in the mountains that are supposed to be

extremely old

If uplifting is the reason we still have these mountain ranges, erosion should have

eradicated (removed) the ancient sedimentary layers on the mountains.

Some have proposed that the climate may have been dryer in the past, which would

decrease the erosion rate of these mountains. This doesn’t match the data:

“Estimates of global precipitation suggest variable but average, or even slightly wetter, conditions over the past three billion years.”

- Dr. Andrew Snellings

Their models for climate history do not line up with this response of a far dryer climate

Atmospheric Helium Levels

Helium is generated by radioactive decay and escapes into the atmosphere from the

crust of the earthAir in our atmosphere is primarily composed of nitrogen (78.1%) and

oxygen (20.1%), helium only accounts for a small

percentage of air (0.0005%)

That turns into 3.71 billion tones

Every second 13 million helium atoms per square inch escapes into the atmosphere

from the crust of the earth (67 grams), 0.3 million of these helium atoms (1/40th)

manage to escape from the atmosphere.

At this rate it would take 1.8 million years to reach the current level of helium in

the atmosphere.

But the problem gets worse

“Making this helium problem worse for uniformitarians is the discovery that there are

large volumes of helium in the earth’s crust that have not been derived by radioactive

decay, but instead are considering primordial, that is, they have been present inside the

earth since its beginning.” – Dr. Andrew Snellings

That means the rate would be even higher for certain periods of time

The typical response to avoid this evidence for a young earth is to assume that for

billions of years helium escaping from the earth’s crust into the atmosphere managed

to reach escape velocity speeds, and the majority got out of the atmosphere

However, this would require the temperature in the upper atmosphere to be far higher than it is. And the evidence (Faint

sun paradox) says it would be lower if anything

Planetary Magnetic Fields

The most compelling evidence that the earth is thousands of years old like the

Bible says comes from our planets magnetic field.

There are two theories that attempt to explain planetary magnetic fields. The mainstream dynamo theory, and the

creationist rapid decay theory

The magnetic field of the earth is generated by electrical currents flowing inside the outer

core of the earth.

The question is how do these electric currents get

started? And what sustains them once they

are going? We will briefly look at these two theories and how they

say magnetic fields work

Dynamo Theory

The dynamo theory is the mainstream explanation for planetary magnetic fields,

because it’s the theory that allows fields to last for billions of years

According to this theory, during the formation of the earth, the earth’s rotation caused

chemical separation to occur in the outer core, because these chemicals were charged

different complex currents were set up.

These complex currents in the outer core (caused by earth’s rotation) are why we have our magnetic field under the Dynamo theory.

If this theory is correct, the currents in the outer core and the magnetic field will get

stronger and weaker throughout time, and reverse at times too

If the dynamo theory is correct, the magnetic field should last as long as the

earth is spinning

The Rapid Decay Theory is our competing model to explain the origin and function of

the earth’s magnetic field.

This theory is based on the Bible verse 2 Peter 3:5 that suggests that the earth was

made “out of the water and in the water”

According to this theory all the planets originally started off as a mass of water

The molecules inside the water were aligned producing a strong magnetic field.

God then created the earth (and other celestial bodies) out of this water by changing

it into other types of elements

When the transformation occurred, electrical currents in the outer core would be established because the changing of a

magnetic field in the presence of a conductor causes an electric current

According to this theory the magnetic field will decay at a predictable rate due to friction

in the outer core.

This friction exists because the liquid inner core is circulating and rubbing against the

solid mantles above and the solid inner core below. This theory also allows magnetic

reversals to occur under certain conditions.

The first measurement of the earth magnetic field strength was measure by

Karl Gauss in the 1830s

It turns out that the magnetic field is decaying quite rapidly, losing 5% of its total

strength every 100 years

At this rate the magnetic field will completely disappear in A.D. 3391

There is also archaeological evidence that shows the earth’s magnetic field was 40% stronger in A.D. 1000, which matches the

date of decay that we have observed since the 1830s.

How does this show the earth is young? By knowing how fast the magnetic field is

decaying, you can calculate how strong the it would have been in history, and it turns

out that if you go far enough back it causes a serious problem…

“It was calculated that the current could not have been decaying more than 10,000 years;

otherwise its starting strength would have been sufficient to melt the earth. Thus, the earth must be less than 10,000 years old.”

- Dr. Andrew Snellings

“The earth’s magnetic field has been decaying so fast that it couldn’t be more than

about 10,000 years old.” - Dr. Jonathan Sarfati

This causes quite the problem if you believe the earth is old, and so they have answers for

this evidence of a young earth

The dynamo theory allows for something called a magnetic reversal to occur, and we

have strong evidence that they have occurred in the past (we won’t debate that).

Magnetic reversal - Is a change in the Earth's magnetic field that causes the north and south magnetic poles to switch positions.

When this happens the magnetic field will start to increase in strength and regenerate itself, and then it will start decaying again.

Magnetic reversals should also happen slowly according to the Dynamo theory, on

the order of thousands of years.

According to the Rapid Decay theory, magnetic reversals should happen quickly

(weeks) during the worldwide flood.

Plate subduction occurring during the flood would be the cause of these reversals, as the

plates dive down into the mantle and eventually reach the out core.

How long do reversals take?

Inside many lava flows there is a mineral called magnetite, as the name suggests,

magnetite is magnetic and will record the magnetic direction (where the North Pole

is) when the lava solidifies.

If a magnetic reversal is happening at the

time this lava is solidifying, you could

tell by looking at these magnetic crystals and what direction they

are pointing

If the outside point one way, and inside point another, you know a reversal

was happening at the time

Creationists predicted we would find lava flows like this, showing fast magnetic

reversals three years before the first study

“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.” - Dr. Andrew Snellings

If indeed the flood happened, these law flows would cool much quicker underwater

Either way, we are talking weeks! Not thousands of years for these

reversals to happen

The dynamo theory is unable to cope with rapid reversals that we have evidence for,

while the rapid decay theory predicted evidence would be found

Four Points of History to Rapid Decay Theory

1. After creation the magnetic field steadily decreases for 2000 years leading to the flood

2. The flood causes rapid reversals and instability in the magnetic field

3. For 2000 years after the flood the field starts to recover from the catastrophe

4. After that smooth decay like we observe today takes over

Predictive power of the Rapid Decay Theory

Dr. Humphreys who authored the theory has calculated and predicted magnetic strengths

of other planets/moons

These calculations are based on three important factors, the mass of the object,

the size of the core and how well it conducts electricity, and the assumption

that the object was made from water (like we discussed earlier.)

When a theory can make accurate blind predictions (predicting the unknown) it is a

good sign that the theory is true

The Rapid Decay Theory, and the Dynamo Theory both attempted to predict the

magnetic strength of planets Uranus and Neptune. The Rapid Decay predictions were

around 100,000 times the Dynamo predictions, and in 1986 and 1989 Voyager

2 flew by the planets and took the measurements.

“The two rival models were inadvertently put to the test when the Voyager 2 spacecraft flew past these planets in 1986 and 1989.

The fields for Uranus and Neptune were just as Humphreys had predicted.”

– Dr. Jonathan Sarfati

Not only does this model predict the strength of planets that have magnetic fields,

it can predict which planets/moons had a magnetic field in history and no longer do

Dr. Humphreys predicted “Older igneous rocks from Mercury or Mars should have

natural remnant magnetization, as the Moon's rocks do. “Natural remnant

magnetization” means rock magnetization caused by Mar’s formerly strong (and now

non-existent) planetary magnetic field”

the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft had the capability to measure this magnetism

soon after the predictions were made

The spacecraft measured the magnetic surface of mars and confirmed the prediction

The theory also predicts that the moon had a magnetic field in history that has since

decayed away (which has been confirmed.)

The Dynamo Theory fails at predicting the planetary magnetic fields of other planets

in our solar system, and that’s not just according to creationists

“…you would have thought we would have given up guessing about planetary magnetic

fields after being wrong at nearly every planet in the solar system.” (Bagenal, F. "The emptiest

magnetosphere," Physics World, (October 1989), 18-19)

Addressing one last response they haveMagnets of different parts, the North/South Poles are called the dipole parts of a magnet,

but there are also other non-dipole parts that account for 15% of the total strength of

the magnetic field

It has been suggested that while magnetic strength is decreasing in the dipole parts, it is

increasing in the non-dipole parts, and the overall strength of the magnetic field is

staying roughly the same.

However, data from the International Geomagnetic Reference Field shows that

from 1970-2000 the dipole part of the magnetic field lost 235 billion megajoules of

energy, while the non-dipole parts gained only 129 billion megajoules.

Overall the net loss from all parts of the magnetic field was 1.4% in 30 years. At this rate the field would lose half of its energy

every 1465 years. These numbers are consistent with the measurements we

mentioned earlier and show that the earth has to be less than 10,000 years old.

While there is much evidence for a young earth, remember, it is still a new area of

research (which is encouraging that we’ve found so much already.)

Memory Verse

Proverbs 4:7 “Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all

your getting, get understanding.”