Rocks Older Than The Earth

By Paul Nethercott

May 2012

 

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.

 

 

Broken Hill, New South Wales

These rocks were dated ⁸ in 1981 using the ⁴⁰Ar / ³⁹Ar dating method. According to the dates obtained, many of the rocks are older than the Earth and Solar System. Some of the rocks are as old as the galaxy itself.  The author of the article comments:

 

“It has been argued already that the high initial ages in the release patterns of both hornblende and plagioclase can be translated into a concentration of excess 40Ar. Concentrations for those samples analysed by the 40Ar / 39Ar spectrum method are given in Table 5, and can be used to estimate the partition coefficient of Ar between hornblende and plagioclase.” ⁹

 

“Excess 40Ar was incorporated into minerals during the 520-Ma event at a temperature of about 350°C.” ¹⁰

 

There is no way of proving this assumption. It is just an excuse for such ridiculous ages of geological system that supposedly formed between 1,600 and 500 million years ago. ¹¹ The data in tables 1 to 6 shows ages ¹² greater than the age of the Solar System.

 

Table 1

Ages from 4,802 to 7,473 million years old.

 

Table 2

Ages from 4,637 to 7,015 million years old.

 

Table 3

Ages from 4,704 to 5,373 million years old.

 

Table 4

Ages from 4,861 to 9,588 million years old.

 

 

Table 5

Ages from 4,777 to 7,653 million years old.

 

Table 6

Ages from 5,459 to 9,852 million years old.

 

The data in table 7 shows ¹³ ages older than the Earth and Solar System.

 

Table 7

Ages from 5,300 to 7,300 million years old.

 

 

Ages In The Allende Meteorite

This dating was done in 1983 ¹⁴ and gave ages between 2,990 and 8,880 million years old. ¹⁵ The author discusses the problem and proposed solutions:

 

“The existence in the Allende meteorite of coarse-grained Ca-Al-rich inclusions (CAI) with 40Ar/39Ar apparent ages exceeding the age of the solar system was reported by Jessberger and Dominik [1] and Jessberger et al. [2] and confirmed by Herzog et al. [3].” ¹⁶

 

Table 8

Ages from 2,990 to 8,880 million years old.

 

 

Below [Table 9] we can see some more dating ¹⁷ that was done on the same meteorite by Herzog in 1980. He give three possible reasons ¹⁸ why the dates are in such conflict with the standard evolutionary model:

 

1

“The coarse-grained Ca-Al-rich inclusions are really older than 4.6 G.y., associated with in situ decay of K in pre-solar dust.”

 

2

“The excess Argon 40 and Argon 36 could be due to atmospheric contamination.”

 

3

“The excess 40 and the trapped 36 may have come from the degassing of matrix and/or rim material sometime in the interval 3.6 - 4.1 G.y. ago.”

 

Table 9

Ages from 5,100 to 8,500 million years old.

 

 

U-Th-Pb, Sm-Nd And Rb-Sr Model Ages

Below we can see some more dating ¹⁹ that was done on some Moon rocks by Oberli in 1978. Oberli states ²⁰ that the U-Th-Pb data is concordant but the Neodymium dates are uncertain. Again it is just an arbitrary choice he makes as to which date is certain and which date is not.

 

Table 10

Ages from 4,240 to 8,375 million years old.

 

 

Gerontology Of The Allende Meteorite

This article appeared ²¹ in Nature magazine in 1979. Jessberger admits that the wildly discordant ages cannot be due to normal processes:

 

“In the Allende meteorite several elements are found to have an isotopic composition that cannot be due to radioactive or spallation or fractionation processes.” ²²

 

“In the most widely accepted theory a supernova triggered the collapse of the solar nebula, and the anomalously high ages would be due to an enhanced 40K/39K isotopic ratio produced in the explosive carbon burning shell of the supernova? In another, controversial interpretation these ages could have chronological significance, as here the presolar grains are relicts from various old stellar nucleosynthetic and condensation processes unrelated to the formation of the Solar System.” ²²

 

He then quotes several ^{23, 24, 25} science journals for an explanation. He thinks the ages could be residue from an ancient supernova or contamination for pre galactic dust not related to the formation of the Solar System. Again, like Oberli his solution is totally unprovable. How would you test such a hypothesis? Some of the dates are older than the galaxy. How do we know that Earth rocks have not been contaminated in such a way? During the formation of the Solar System, the Earth might have absorbed such materials. His choice of “true” ages is just guess and not provable science.

 

Table 11

Ages from 1,460 to 7,680 million years old.

 

Table 12

Ages from 4,470 to 11,010 million years old.

 

Pre Cambrian Earth Rocks

This dating ²⁶ was done in 2005 at the Heidelberg University in Germany. The author comments on the cause for such absurd dates:

 

“The bulk 40Ar/36Ar ratio is more radiogenic than atmospheric composition, indicating—in addition to an atmospheric component— the presence of a slight but detectable contribution of an excess 40Ar component, i.e., 40Ar trapped from an external source, because it cannot be due to in situ decay of 40K. This circumstance is indicated by the very high apparent ages (up to 5 Ga) of the irradiated type I shungite (Appendix Table A1).” ²⁷

 

Below we can see some of the dates ²⁸ given in the article. Several dates are older than the theory of evolution allows:

 

Table 13

Ages from 4,843 to 5,804 million years old.

 

 

Mount Isa, Queensland

These rocks were dated in 2006 by Mark Kendrick ²⁹from the University of Melbourne. The data in tables 12 to 17 shows ages ³⁰ of Earth rocks from 4,700 to 10,000 million years old.

 

Table 14

Ages from 4,804 to 5,620 million years old.

 

Table 15

Ages from 4,760 to 6,442 million years old.

 

Table 16

Ages from 4,805 to 9,969 million years old.

 

Table 17

 

Table 18

 

Table 19

Ages from 4,844 to 5,418 million years old.

 

 

Conclusion

Brent Dalrymple states:

 

“Several events in the formation of the Solar System can be dated with considerable precision.” ³¹

 

Looking at some of the dating it is obvious that precision is much lacking. He then goes on:

 

“Biblical chronologies are historically important, but their credibility began to erode in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when it became apparent to some that it would be more profitable to seek a realistic age for the Earth through observation of nature than through a literal interpretation of parables.” ³²

 

The Bible believer who accepts the creation account literally has no problem with such unreliable dating methods. Much of the data in Dalrymple’s book 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              Excess 40Ar in metamorphic rocks from Broken Hill, By T. Mark Harrison

Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 1981, Volume 55, Pages 123 - 149

 

9              Reference 8, Page 141

 

10           Reference 8, Page 147

 

11           Reference 8, Page 124

 

12           Reference 8, Page 128 – 133

 

13           Reference 8, Page 137

 

14           Ages in Allende Inclusions, By I. M. Villa

Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 1983, Volume 63, Pages 1 – 12

 

15           Reference 14, Page 5

 

16           Reference 14, Page 1

 

17           39Ar -40Ar Systematics Of Allende Inclusions, Page 3, By G. F. Herzog

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc1980/pdf/1155.pdf

 

18           Reference 17, Page 2.

 

19           U-Th-Pb, Sm-Nd And Rb-Sr Model Ages, Page 833, By F. Oberli

                http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc1978/pdf/1289.pdf

 

20           Reference 19, Pages 832, 834

 

21           Gerontology of the Allende meteorite, By Elmar K. Jessberger

Nature, 1979, Volume 277, Pages 554 - 556

 

22           Reference 21, Page 554

 

23           Cameron, A, G. W. & Truran. J. W. Icarus, 1977, Volume 30, Page 447.

 

24           Clayton D, D, Nature, 1975, Volume 257, Page 36.

 

25           Clayton D. D., Earth Planetary Science Letters, 1977, Volume 36, Page 381.

 

26           Argon isotope fractionation, By Mario Trieloff

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 2005, Volume 69, Number 5, Pages 1253–1264

 

27           Reference 26, Page 1254

 

28           Reference 26, Page 1263

 

29           Evaluation of 40Ar–39Ar quartz ages, By M.A. Kendrick

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 2006, Volume 70, Pages 2562–2576

 

30           Reference 29, Pages 2573-2575

 

31           The Age Of The Earth, By G. Brent Dalrymple, 1991, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, Page 10.

 

32           Reference 31, Page 23

 

 

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