Bob Goette1
Yes.
In the Summer 1988 issue of Archaeology and Biblical Research, some evidences were touched upon in this column.
This time we cite two interesting items of data from research Dr. Robert Gentry was involved in for the purpose of locating suitable sites for nuclear waste storage. A by-product of his work was data which supports the Idea of a recent creation.
Radiogenic Lead Indicates Youth
He was studying core sections taken at five different depths from about 3000 to 15,000 feet during a drilling operation in granite. He found that the temperature increased with depth – up to 313° C (595°F) at the deepest point. It should be remembered that zircon (ZrSiO4) in these deep core wells contains small amounts of uranium and thorium (bound in lattice sites of the zircon crystal), and that the end product of this radiometric decay series is radiogenic lead (called “radiogenic” since it is produced by the radioactive decay process).
Dr. Gentry says, “If the granites in New Mexico are over a billion and a half years old, as uniformi-tartan geology supposes, this would be time for considerable amounts of lead to be lost from the zircons taken from the deepest (highest temperature) sections of the drill hole. In fact, in this scenario the lead should steadily diminish with increasing depth (due to steadily increasing temperatures). However, ff the earth is only several thousand years old, only negligible lead Loss is expected. In this case the amount of radiogenic lead in the zircons should be about the same regardless of depth.
“Here was a clear-cut test. The results of our investigations were definitive… We found that the radioactive zircon crystals extracted from the granite cores had lost essentially none of their radiogenic lead, even at the bottom of the hole where the temperatures were highest.
This is exceptionally strong evidence that the presumed 1.5 billion-year age of these granites is drastically in error. Specifically, the data are consistent with a several-thousand-year age of the earth.” [Gentry, Robert N., Creation’s Tiny Mystery, Earth Science Associates, Knoxville “IN, 1986, p. 164.]
Helium Absence Indicates Youth
Other experiments with these
BSP 2:1 (Winter 1989) p. 5
deep core well sections were run. This time, the amount of helium was measured. During Me radio-metric decay of uranium to lead, alpha particles are given off. These particles are helium nuclei. Helium, a gas, has been found to migrate out of various minerals, such as zircon, even at room temperature. Hence scientists have generally given up trying to use this system as an accurate radiometric age measurement, even on surface rocks.
If the evolutionary suppositions were correct,, it would be expected that because of the long earth history and the high temperatures of the deep core wells, that there would be extremely little or no helium left here. However, if the creation of the earth were recent [several thousand gears ago), then measurable quantities of helium would be expected.
Gentry’s data indicated amazingly high retention of helium even at 197° C (387° F).
These results add to many others which Indicate a relatively recent creation of the earth.
BSP 2:1 (Winter 1989) p. 6