ps418

I've more or less finished my latest article. It is called <a href="http://www.geocities.com/earthhistory/CT.htm" target="_blank">Sea-floor Spreading and the Age of the Earth. Among other things, this article highlights the falsity of the claim that radiometric techniques cannot be verified, and the common YEC claim that geologic processes are merely assumed, a priori, to have operated at the same rates in the past.</a> I'll include the article's conclusion here:

Conclusion

To summarize, past rates of plate tectonics are estimated from spreading-rate histories which are themselves constructed on the basis of absolute-dating methods. They are not simply assumed to have remained constant over time. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that the spreading-rate histories derived independently from radiometric dating and astrochronology are concordant with each other, and both are in turn concordant with current-measured plate velocities. Baksi (1994) notes that "measurements based on the radioactive decay of 40K (half-life of ~1.3b.y.) and variations in the earth's orbital geometry (periodicities of tens of thousands of years), are in agreement with results obtained by space geodetic techniques (averaged over the last decade)" (p.135 ) and that "since the principles underlying these 'dating' techniques are entirely different, it lends credence to the results obtained for sea-floor spreading, arguably the most fundamental process in plate tectonics" (p. 133).

These observations constitute a robust falsification of 'catastrophist' tectonic hypotheses in which the "separation of the continents, rifting of the ocean floor . . . were accomplished by rapid processes, not occurring today" (Nevins, 1976). In fact, the evidence seems to demand that the seperation of the continents occurred via seafloor spreading operating at roughly the same rates currently measured via space geodetic techniques. To argue, as young-earthers and some other catastrophists do, that the ocean basins were actually created in a few months and that current spreading rates "just happen by chance to be a near perfect match with the rates derived from the . . . geologic time scale requires complete abandonment of Occam's razor" (Wise, 1998).


Cheers,

Patrick

Bubba

Thanks Patrick. I'll look forward to reading thw whole article when it's not 11:00 Ohio time.

Bubba

Dr.GH

Good work, and great bibliography, Patrick.

Just one editorial comment:
There is a sentance fragment just ahead of second graphic. "The ages of polarity reversals through the Mesozoic and Cenozoic, see this page."

ps418

Thanks Gary. I noticed this last night but forgot to fix it.

Dr.GH

"..., is not supported by geologic data," and i that the "separation of the continents [and] rifting of the ocean floor . . . were accomplished by rapid processes, not occurring today, initiated by a catastrophic mechanism."

The lower case 'i' is a probable typo.

I had never read the Austin et al., 1994 article. What a load of shit. I am glad you faced it so well.