Thank-you, Jim Foley, for your general examples and explanations
regarding radiometric dating. I can see from your examples how it
is possible to make SOME assumptions which are PLAUSIBLE altho
not PROVABLE.
I have more questions.
Question 1: Is Carbon-14 continually being formed by natural
processes, or did all the C-14 that ever existed in nature get
formed "in the beginning"? If it gets continually formed in
nature then that would not harm an old-earth argument.
If not, with a half life of 5730 years, the world can't be any
older than 57,300 years, using Glenn's statement that the
radioactive material is essentially gone after 10 half-lives.
Even if you use the 20 half-lives that the instructor of a
radiation safety course I just took told us, that's still only
114,700 years.
Question 2: You talked about the ability or inability of certain
isotopes or elements to be part of a certain type of crystalline
lattice structure when it was formed. Would the type of lattice
structure being formed in the first place be in any way dependant
on the earth's atmospheric conditions at the time of formation?
For example, if the 02 content of the atmosphere was 30-35% and
the atmospheric pressure was 30-40 psia could that possibly have
an effect?
Question 3: How bout giving us a lecture on the basics of
isochron dating. I've never heard of that before and would like
to know what it is and how it works.
Joe Reimers