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Letters to the Editor Letters to the editor (Figures 9-11) or at the termini of interesting and important, but it is Radiohalos in those strange tubes (Figures 12 also important to test the radio- diamonds and 14); activity of the rock in which the (b) earlier investigators claimed diamond was enclosed and not just Mark Armitage's contribution on that all the Irish7 and German8 the diamond. radiohalos in diamonds1 is a valuable halos were found only along 4. As Brown13 and Dutch14,15 have contribution to radiohalo study, but conduits within the minerals; asked, why is it that only isotopes unfortunately he omitted some very (c) Armitage's Figures 4-6 and all of polonium in the decay series of important information about radio- Gentry's figures showing Po uranium, thorium and plutonium halos necessary in their evaluation (all radiohalos unassociated with have been found to produce of which is included in an earlier cracks or conduits are found in the radiohalos? Of the 26 known paper).2 These items are as follows: mineral biotite. Biotite is isotopes of polonium there are 15 1. Armitage did acknowledge (for composed of crystals in the form not in the decay series of these example, on pages 93 and 100) of sheets. The sheets are only one elements which could be dis- that difficulties exist in explaining molecule thick. Thus in biotite tinguished if they were once the relationship between Po halo- one is never more than one-half a created within minerals and then containing rocks and sediments of molecule thickness away from a allowed to decay. Yet, these other the Flood. The reason this is a cleavage plane, and thus a isotopes are not known. If God concern is that by 1989, a total of substantial crack. It is impossible chose to leave His fingerprint in one third of the sites known to to get away from cracks in biotite! rocks to indicate He created them, have Po halos were from rocks It is also significant that Meier and then He chose the isotopes which conventionally understood to be Hecker9 claim that in the biotites can be produced by natural means. 3 Phanerozoic in age — that is, they studied, although the uranium This seems strange ... to me at Flood-derived rocks. To my and thorium inclusions were found least. knowledge neither Gentry nor any within the matrix of the biotite The facts that: other creationist has published a mineral, the polonium was not. (a) the only known Po halos are careful study of any of these sites This suggests that the polonium of isotopes in the decay series of to determine whether the Po- was transported; and uranium (etc.), containing rocks were magmatic (d)to my knowledge neither (b) the Po halos may occur only intrusions dating from the Flood Gentry nor anyone else has in rocks where uranium (etc.) is (the traditional creationist under- produced pictures or other proof found, standing) or whether they were of a Po halo in a non-biotite (c) the Po halos may occur in solidified rocks of the creation, mineral which is not near a crack, concentrations related to the technically emplaced among cleavage plane or hole in the concentrations of uranium (etc.) in Flood sediments (Gentry's under- the rock, 4 enclosing mineral. standing ). If it turns out that Po 3. As of 1989, a majority of the rocks (d) the Po halos may be occurring halos are found in rocks cooled in which Po halos had been found only along conduits, and from a magma extant at the time were reported to have contained (e) the Po halo inclusions may not of the Flood, then the Po in those uranium.10 It was not possible in be embedded in the crystalline cases is not primordial (unless that earlier study to determine structure of the minerals, strongly God created Po atoms during the from the literature if all the rocks suggests that the polonium in Flood). Po atoms would therefore containing Po halos also contained question is not primordial, but that not have to be primordial when uranium and/or thorium, but the it has been transported into place. found in any other setting (for possibility exists that this is the Even if all these things are example, in a diamond). case. I indicated then11 it needed verified (which I suspect they will 2. Armitage claimed (page 95) that to be studied, as a strong relation- be), that is not to say that the Po halos the Po halo figured in his Figure 4 ship between U and Po is implied have been explained. If we are to (page 96) was located in a region in this. Meier and Hecker12 also conclude that fluids brought in the of the mineral without cracks or claim the frequency of Po halos polonium, then under present fissures. This is similar to they found was directly related to conditions such fluids would be Gentry's claims5,6 and Hender- the uranium concentration in the radioactive. Alpha recoil evidence son's before him. However, rocks they examined. This further should then be found in the rock, but 16 (a) it appears from the figures in suggests a connection between U such seems to be absent. This may his article that all Armitage's and Po. The fact that Armitage in turn suggest that present conditions photographs of possible Po halos found no detectable radioactivity do not typify what was happening in diamonds are along cracks in the diamond he studied is when those fluids were passing CEN Technical Journal 12 (3) 1998 285 through the rock — another case of Creationism, Vol. 2, Technical Symposium, regarding the radiohalos in diamonds. uniformitarianism's failing to explain Sessions and Additional Topics, R. E. Walsh, Wise contends that I 'omitted C. L. Brooks and R. S. Crowell (eds), the past. Creation Science Fellowship, Pittsburgh, some very important information We need more radiohalo studies, Pennsylvania, pp. 101-102. about radiohalos necessary to their such as Armitage's. We need to 16. Gentry, Ref. 5. evaluation', and then proceeds to reiterate four of the points he argued determine most importantly if 17. I encourage my students to 'think weird' as radiohalos were produced during the creationists. Whatever way conventional in the Creation Research Society 1 Flood. Secondly we need to de- science thinks about a problem, consider Quarterly nine years ago . Wise's termine if polonium is secondary (that turning that approach on its head and arguments are old, and have been is, somehow derived from the decay somehow think the opposite way about the succinctly and sufficiently satisfied same problem — or at least in some radically 2 of other atoms, for example, non-conventional fashion. On this topic, for by Robert Gentry . I can do no better uranium). Thirdly, we need to think example, D. Russell Humphreys is con- than to encourage the reader to imaginatively17 to find a solution to sidering the possibility that there was no request a reprint of the issue3 and read radioactive decay occurring at the time the it for him or herself [or read Dr the truly intriguing question of the polonium was being transported. If there was origin of the polonium halos. a significant period of time in the history of Gentry's letter which follows — ed.]. the earth when radioactivity was 'turned off Although the radiohalos in the Kurt P. Wise, then polonium could be transported and diamond I observed4 were not concentrated at special sites in various rocks. identified via ion microprobe Dayton, Tennessee, When the radioactivity was 'turned on' again, UNITED STATES OF then the polonium halos could form. This is analysis, it is possible that they are AMERICA. an example of the kind of imaginative (or parentless with respect to uranium, weird!) thinking in which I believe we need however, parentless polonium References to be engaged. radiohalos in biotites have clearly been identified in that manner.2 1. Armitage, M., 1995. Internal radiohalos in With respect to the diamond, none of Wise's points has any direct a diamond. CEN Tech. J., 9(1):93-101. bearing: 2. Wise, K.P., 1989. Radioactive halos: geological concerns. Creation Research Point 1: It is not clear whether Wise Society Quarterly, 25(4): 171-176. is redefining 'traditional under- 3. Wise, Ref.2. standing' of crystalline rock formation to include the possible 4. Gentry, R.V., 1989. Response to Wise. Creation Research Society Quarterly, formation of diamonds during the 25(4): 176-180. Flood, but many gemologists 5. Gentry, R.V., 1968. Fossil alpha-recoil would doubtless be interested in analysis of certain variant radioactive halos. arguing that point. Science, 160:1228-1230 (p. 1229). Point 2: Only a few of the 'strange 6. Gentry, R.V., 1973. Radioactive halos. tubes' observed in the diamond Annual Review of Nuclear Science, 23:347- even ascended close to the surface 362 (p. 355). of the processed diamond (none 7. Joly, J., 1917. Radio-active halos. Nature, made contact with the surface), 99:456-458, 476-178. and none of the structures which 8. Schilling, A., 1926. Die radioaktiven Hoefe 'shish-kebab' the halos are cracks. im Flusspat von Woelsendorf. Neues 238U halo cross-section. Idealized three- Jahrbuch Fur Mineralogie, Geologie und They appear, rather, to be solid dimensional illustration of a uranium halo Palaeontologie, Abteilung A, 53:241—265. inclusions as well, and again, are obtained by slicing the halo through the not in contact with the surface of 9. Meier, H. and Hecker, W., 1976. Radioactive centre. Each halo ring is identified by the halos as possible indicators for geochemical appropriate isotope and its alpha energy in the diamond.
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