Rocks Older Than The Solar System

Examining The Thorium Lead Dating Method

 

By Paul Nethercott

August 2013

 

Introduction

How reliable is radiometric dating? We are repeatedly told that it proves the Earth to be billions of years old. If radiometric dating is reliable than it should not contradict the evolutionary model. According to the Big Bang theory the age of the Universe is 10 to 15 billion years.¹ Standard evolutionist publications give the age of the universe as 13.75 Billion years. ^{2, 3}

 

Standard evolutionist geology views the Earth as being 4.5 billion years old. Here are some quotes from popular text: “The age of the Earth is 4.54 ± 0.05 billion years.” ⁴ “The Solar System, formed between 4.53 and 4.58 billion years ago.” ¹ “The age of 4.54 billion years found for the Solar System and Earth.” ¹ “A valid age for the Earth of 4.55 billion years.” ^{5, 6}

 

Evolutionists give the age of the galaxy as “11 to 13 billion years for the age of the Milky Way Galaxy.” ^{1, 7} Let us remember this as we look at the following dating as given in secular science journals.

 

 

1. Uranium–Thorium–Lead Isotope Data

These rocks from the Marble Bar area of the Pilbara Craton, Western Australia, were dated ⁸ in 2011 using the Uranium/Lead and Thorium/Lead dating methods. The article claims that the true age is 3.4 billion years old. ⁸ If we put the ratios from a table ⁹ in the article into Microsoft Excel and run the values through Isoplot ¹⁰ we get ages between 5 and 100 billion years old! How can a rock be 85 billion years older than the Big Bang explosion? Of all the samples, 45 are older than the Earth, 23 are older than the Galaxy and 17 are older than the Universe.  There is a 75 billion year spread of dates between the youngest and the oldest ages.

Table 1

 

Table 2

 

 

2. Uranium, Thorium and Lead Geochronology

These rocks from the Kola Peninsula in Russia were dated ¹¹ in 2011 using the Uranium/Lead and Thorium/Lead dating methods. The article claims that the true age is 350 million years old. ¹¹ If we put the ratios from a table ¹² in the article into Microsoft Excel and run the values through Isoplot we get ages between 269 and 5,140 million years old! There is an 1,100 percent difference between some dates. That percentage difference equals almost 5,000 million years!

 

Table 3

 

 

3. The Uranium, Thorium and Lead Compositions

These rocks from the Morocco and France were dated ¹³ in 2007 using the Uranium/Lead and Thorium/Lead dating methods. If we put the ratios from a table ¹⁴ in the article into Microsoft Excel and run the values through Isoplot we get ages between 2 and 92 billion years old! How can a rock be 75 billion years older than the Big Bang explosion? Of all the samples, 53 are older than the Earth, 13 are older than the Galaxy and 6 are older than the Universe.  There is a 90 billion year spread of dates between the youngest and the oldest ages.

 

Table 4

 

 

4. Rubidium/Strontium and Uranium/Lead Systematics

These rocks from the Kola Peninsula in Russia were dated ¹⁵ in 2011 using the Uranium/Lead and Thorium/Lead dating methods. The article claims that the true age is 2075–2100 million years old. ¹⁵ If we put the ratios from a table ¹⁶ in the article into Microsoft Excel and run the values through Isoplot we get ages between 2 and 10 billion years old! Of all the samples, 45 are older than the Earth, 23 are older than the Galaxy and 17 are older than the Universe.  There is a 75 billion year spread of dates between the youngest and the oldest ages.

 

Table 5

 

 

5. Cu–Pb–Zn–Ag Mineralisation

These rocks from the Democratic Republic of Congo were dated ¹⁷ in 2009 using the Uranium/Lead and Thorium/Lead dating methods. The article claims that the true age is 520 million years old. ¹⁸ If we put the ratios from a table ¹⁹ in the article into Microsoft Excel and run the values through Isoplot we get ages between 0.1 and 200 billion years old! How can a rock be 185 billion years older than the Big Bang explosion? Of all the samples, 96 are older than the Earth, 42 are older than the Galaxy and 35 are older than the Universe.  There is a 198 billion year spread of dates between the youngest and the oldest ages.

 

 

Table 6

 

 

 

6. Uranium-Lead Age Of Baddeleyite

This meteorite was dated ²⁰ in 2011 using the Uranium/Lead and Thorium/Lead dating methods. The article claims that the true age is 4.1 billion years old. ²¹ If we put the ratios from a table ²² in the article into Microsoft Excel and run the values through Isoplot we get ages between 0.1 and 165 billion years old! How can a rock be 150 billion years older than the Big Bang explosion? Of all the samples 11 are older than the Universe.  There is a 125 billion year spread of dates between the youngest and the oldest ages.

 

Table 7

 

Table 8

 

 

7. Mesozoic Lithosphere Destruction

These rocks from the North China Craton were dated ²³ in 2001 using the Uranium/Lead and Thorium/Lead dating methods. The article claims ²⁴ that the true age is 125 million years old. If we put the ratios from a table ²⁵ in the article into Microsoft Excel and run the values through Isoplot we get ages between 5 and 44 billion years old! How can a rock be 30 billion years older than the Big Bang explosion? Of all the samples, 40 are older than the Earth, 15 are older than the Galaxy and 12 are older than the Universe.  There is a 40 billion year spread of dates between the youngest and the oldest ages.

 

Table 9

 

If we use isotopic formulas ^26-29 given in standard geology text we can arrive at ages from the Rb/Sr and Nd/Sm ratios listed in the article. The formula for Rb/Sr age is given as:

                  [1]

 

Where t equals the age in years. l equals the decay constant. (87Sr/86Sr) = the current isotopic ratio. (87Sr/86Sr)₀ = the initial isotopic ratio. (87Rb/86Sr) = the current isotopic ratio. The same is true for the formula below.

 

 

       [2]

 

If we put the ratios from this table ³⁰ in the article into Microsoft Excel and use these formulas we get ages between 116 and 125 million years old! The Uranium/Lead ratios give ages between 5 billion and 44 billion years old!

 

Table 10

 

 

8. SHRIMP Uranium/Lead Geochronology

These rocks from Western Australia were dated ³¹ in 2001 using the Uranium/Lead and Thorium/Lead dating methods. The article claims that the true age is 3 billion years old. ³¹ If we put the ratios from a table ³² in the article into Microsoft Excel and run the values through Isoplot we get ages between 2 million and 24 billion years old! How can a rock be 10 billion years older than the Big Bang explosion? Of all the samples, 18 are older than the Earth, 3 are older than the Galaxy and 2 are older than the Universe.  There is a 24 billion year spread of dates between the youngest and the oldest ages.

 

Table 11

 

Table 12

 

Table 13

 

 

 

9. The Beverley Uranium Deposit

These rocks from the North Flinders Ranges, South Australia., were dated ³³ in 2010 using the Uranium/Lead and Thorium/Lead dating methods. The article claims that the true age is 400 million years old. ³⁴ If we put the ratios from a table ³⁵ in the article into Microsoft Excel and run the values through Isoplot we get ages between 1 million and 20 billion years old! How can a rock be 5 billion years older than the Big Bang explosion? Of all the samples, 6 are older than the Earth, 3 are older than the Galaxy and 2 are older than the Universe.  There is a 20 billion year spread of dates between the youngest and the oldest ages. In table 15 we can see the percentage difference between the Thorium dates and the other three dating ratios used. The difference is almost 600,000 percent!

 

Table 14

 

Table 15

 

 

10. Isotopic Systematics of the Goalpara Ureilite

This meteorite was dated ³⁶ in 1994 using the Uranium/Lead and Thorium/Lead dating methods. The article claims that the true age is 4.55 billion years old. ³⁶ If we put the ratios from a table ⁹ in the article into Microsoft Excel and run the values through Isoplot we get ages between 5 and 173 billion years old! How can a rock be 160 billion years older than the Big Bang explosion? Of all the samples, 123 are older than the Earth, 77 are older than the Galaxy and 71 are older than the Universe.  There is a 168 billion year spread of dates between the youngest and the oldest ages.

 

Table 16

 

 

11. Middle Atlas Peridotite Xenoliths

These rocks from Morooco were dated ³⁸ in 2009 using the Uranium/Lead and Thorium/Lead dating methods.  If we put the ratios from a table ³⁹ in the article into Microsoft Excel and run the values through Isoplot we get ages between 3 and 14 billion years old! How can a rock be as old as the Big Bang explosion? Of all the samples, 3 are older than the Earth, 1 are older than the Galaxy and 1 are older than the Universe.  There is a 6 billion year spread of dates between the youngest and the oldest ages.

 

 

Table 17

 

 

 

12. A Precise 232Th/208Pb Chronology

These rocks from Inner Mongolia were dated ⁴⁰ in 1993 using the Uranium/Lead and Thorium/Lead dating methods. The article claims that the true age is 555 million years old. ⁴⁰ If we put the ratios from a table ⁴¹ in the article into Microsoft Excel and run the values through Isoplot we get ages between 400 million and 55 billion years old! How can a rock be 40 billion years older than the Big Bang explosion? Of all the samples, 170 are older than the Earth, 34 are older than the Galaxy and 19 are older than the Universe.  There is a 75 billion year spread of dates between the youngest and the oldest ages.

 

Table 18

 

 

13. Age of the MET 78008 Ureilite

This meteorite was dated ⁴² in 1994 using the Uranium/Lead and Thorium/Lead dating methods. The article claims that the true age is 4.56 billion years old. ⁴² If we put the ratios from a table ⁴³ in the article into Microsoft Excel and run the values through Isoplot we get ages between 5 and 90 billion years old! How can a rock be 65 billion years older than the Big Bang explosion? Of all the samples, 63 are older than the Earth, 32 are older than the Galaxy and 29 are older than the Universe.  There is a 75 billion year spread of dates between the youngest and the oldest ages.

 

Table 19

 

Table 20

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

 

Yuri Amelin states in the journal Elements that radiometric dating is extremely accurate: “However, four 238U/235U-corrected CAI dates reported recently (Amelin et al. 2010; Connelly et al. 2012) show excellent agreement, with a total range for the ages of only 0.2 million years – from 4567.18 ± 0.50 Ma to 4567.38 ± 0.31 Ma.” ^44-46

 

To come within 0.2 million years out of 4567.18 million years means an accuracy of 99.99562%. Looking at some of the dating it is obvious that precision is much lacking. The Bible believer who accepts the creation account literally has no problem with such unreliable dating methods. Much of the data in radiometric dating is selectively taken to suit and ignores data to the contrary.

 

 

References

1              http://web.archive.org/web/20051223072700/http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/age.html

The age of 10 to 15 billion years for the age of the Universe.

 

2              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_universe

 

3              http://arxiv.org/pdf/1001.4744v1.pdf

Microwave Anisotropy Probe Observations, Page 39, By N. Jarosik

 

4              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_Earth

 

5              http://sp.lyellcollection.org/content/190/1/205

The age of the Earth, G. Brent Dalrymple

Geological Society, London, Special Publications, January 1, 2001, Volume 190, Pages 205-221

 

6              The age of the earth, Gérard Manhes

Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Volume 47, Issue 3, May 1980, Pages 370–382

 

7              http://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0506458v1.pdf

The age of the Galactic disk, By E. F. del Peloso and L. da Silva

Astronomy & Astrophysics, Manuscript no. 3307, February 2, 2008

 

8              U–Th–Pb Isotope Data, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2012, Volume 319-320,

Pages 197-206

 

9              Reference 8, page 199

 

10           http://www.bgc.org/isoplot_etc/isoplot.html

 

11           U–Th–Pb Geochronology, Gondwana Research, 2012, Volume 21, Pages 728–744

12           Reference 11, page 735

 

13           The U, Th and Pb Compositions, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 2009, Volume 73,

Pages 469–488

 

14           Reference 13, page 475, 476

 

15           Rb–Sr and U–Pb Systematics, Lithology and Mineral Resources, 2011, Volume 46, Number 2,

Pages 151-164

 

16           Reference 15, page 156, 158

 

17           Cu–Pb–Zn–Ag Mineralisation, Mineral Deposita, 2010, Volume 45, Pages 393-410

 

18           Reference 17, page 393, 394

 

19           Reference 17, page 397, 398

 

20           Uranium-Lead Age Of Baddeleyite, Journal Of Geophysical Research, 2011, Volume 116,

                Page 1-12

 

21           Reference 20, page 7

 

22           Reference 20, page 6

 

23           Mesozoic Lithosphere Destruction, Contributions Mineral Petrology, 2002, Volume 144,

Pages 241-253

 

24           Reference 23, page 243

 

25           Reference 23, page 246

 

26           Radioactive and Stable Isotope Geology, By H.G. Attendon, Chapman And Hall Publishers, 1997. Page 73 [Rb/Sr], 195 [K/Ar], 295 [Re/OS], 305 [Nd/Nd].

 

27           Principles of Isotope Geology, Second Edition, By Gunter Faure, Published By John Wiley And Sons, New York, 1986. Pages 120 [Rb/Sr], 205 [Nd/Sm], 252 [Lu/Hf], 266 [Re/OS], 269 [Os/OS].

 

28           Absolute Age Determination, Mebus A. Geyh, Springer-Verlag Publishers, Berlin, 1990.

Pages 80 [Rb/Sr], 98 [Nd/Sm], 108 [Lu/Hf], 112 [Re/OS].

 

29           Radiogenic Isotope Geology, Second Edition, By Alan P. Dickin, Cambridge University Press, 2005. Pages 43 [Rb/Sr], 70 [Nd/Sm], 205 [Re/OS], 208 [Pt/OS], 232 [Lu/Hf].

 

30           Reference 23, page 245

 

31           SHRIMP U–Pb Geochronology, International Earth Science, 2002, Volume 91, Pages 406-432

 

32           Reference 31, pages 414, 416, 423

 

33           The Beverley Uranium Deposit, Economic Geology, 2011, Volume 106, Pages 835-867

 

34           Reference 33, pages 846

 

35           Reference 33, pages 866

 

36           Isotopic Systematics of the Goalpara Ureilite, Gcochimica et Cosmochimtca Acta, 1995,

Volume 59, Number 2, Pages 381-390

 

37           Reference 36, page 384

 

38           Middle Atlas Peridotite Xenoliths, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 2010, Volume 74,

Pages 1417-1435

 

39           Reference 38, page 1425

 

40           A Precise 232Th-208Pb Chronology, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 1994, Volume 58,

Number 15, Pages 3155-3169

 

41           Reference 40, page 3160-3163

 

42           Age of the MET 78008 Ureilite, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 1995, Volume 59,

Number 11, Pages 2319-2329

 

43           Reference 42, page 2324

 

44           Dating the Oldest Rocks in the Solar System, Elements, 2013, Volume 9, Pages 39-44

 

45           Amelin, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2010, Volume 300, Pages 343-350

 

46           Connelly, Science, 2012, Volume 338, Pages 651-655

 

 

 

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