Creationist Commentary on and Analysis of Tree-Ring Data: a Review
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Absolute Time Radiometric Dating: the Source of the Dates on the Geologic Time Scale
Absolute Time Radiometric Dating: the source of the dates on the Geologic Time Scale Radiometric Dating • Actually a simple technique. • Only two measurements are needed: • 1. The parent:daughter ratio measured with a mass spectrometer. • 2. The decay constant measured by a scintillometer. Basis of the Technique • Radioactive elements “decay.” Decay occurs as an element changes to another element, e.g. uranium to lead. • The parent element is radioactive, the daughter element is stable. • The decay rate is constant. What is Radioactivity? • Radioactivity occurs when certain elements literally fall apart. • Usually protons and neutrons are emitted by the nucleus. • Sometimes an electron is emitted by the nucleus, which changes a neutron to a proton. • Sometimes an electron is captured. What causes radioactivity? • Carbon-14 is produced by cosmic ray bombardment of Nitrogen-14 in the atmosphere. • All other radioactive elements were produced by supernova explosions before our solar system formed. This is called explosive nucleosynthesis. Common Radioactive Elements, Parents and Daughters • Carbon-14, C14 Nitrogen-14, N14 • Uranium-235, U235 Lead-207, Pb207 • Potassium-40, K40 Argon-40, Ar40 • Uranium-238, U238 Lead-206, Pb206 • Rubidium-87, Rb87 Strontium-87, Sr87 Basis of the Technique • As the parent element decays, its amount decreases while the amount of the daughter element increases. This gives us a ratio of parent:daughter elements. • The decay rate is geometric rather than linear. Unaffected by heat or pressure. Key Term • Half-Life: the amount of time for half the atoms of a radioactive element to decay. Doesn’t matter how many atoms started, half will decay. -
Radiocarbon Dating and Its Applications in Quaternary Studies
Eiszeitalter und Gegenwart 57/1–2 2–24 Hannover 2008 Quaternary Science Journal Radiocarbon dating and its applications in Quaternary studies *) IRKA HAJDAS Abstract: This paper gives an overview of the origin of 14C, the global carbon cycle, anthropogenic impacts on the atmospheric 14C content and the background of the radiocarbon dating method. For radiocarbon dating, important aspects are sample preparation and measurement of the 14C content. Recent advances in sample preparation allow better understanding of long-standing problems (e.g., contamination of bones), which helps to improve chronologies. In this review, various preparation techniques applied to typical sample types are described. Calibration of radiocarbon ages is the fi nal step in establishing chronologies. The present tree ring chronology-based calibration curve is being constantly pushed back in time beyond the Holocene and the Late Glacial. A reliable calibration curve covering the last 50,000-55,000 yr is of great importance for both archaeology as well as geosciences. In recent years, numerous studies have focused on the extension of the radiocarbon calibration curve (INTCAL working group) and on the reconstruction of palaeo-reservoir ages for marine records. [Die Radiokohlenstoffmethode und ihre Anwendung in der Quartärforschung] Kurzfassung: Dieser Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über die Herkunft von Radiokohlenstoff, den globalen Kohlenstoffkreislauf, anthropogene Einfl üsse auf das atmosphärische 14C und die Grundlagen der Radio- kohlenstoffmethode. Probenaufbereitung und das Messen der 14C Konzentration sind wichtige Aspekte im Zusammenhang mit der Radiokohlenstoffdatierung. Gegenwärtige Fortschritte in der Probenaufbereitung erlauben ein besseres Verstehen lang bekannter Probleme (z.B. die Kontamination von Knochen) und haben zu verbesserten Chronologien geführt. -
Forensic Radiocarbon Dating of Human Remains: the Past, the Present, and the Future
AEFS 1.1 (2017) 3–16 Archaeological and Environmental Forensic Science ISSN (print) 2052-3378 https://doi.org.10.1558/aefs.30715 Archaeological and Environmental Forensic Science ISSN (online) 2052-3386 Forensic Radiocarbon Dating of Human Remains: The Past, the Present, and the Future Fiona Brock1 and Gordon T. Cook2 1. Cranfield Forensic Institute, Cranfield University 2. Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre [email protected] Radiocarbon dating is a valuable tool for the forensic examination of human remains in answering questions as to whether the remains are of forensic or medico-legal interest or archaeological in date. The technique is also potentially capable of providing the year of birth and/or death of an individual. Atmospheric radiocarbon levels are cur- rently enhanced relative to the natural level due to the release of large quantities of radiocarbon (14C) during the atmospheric nuclear weapons testing of the 1950s and 1960s. This spike, or “bomb-pulse,” can, in some instances, provide precision dates to within 1–2 calendar years. However, atmospheric 14C activity has been declining since the end of atmospheric weapons testing in 1963 and is likely to drop below the natural level by the mid-twenty-first century, with implications for the application of radio- carbon dating to forensic specimens. Introduction Radiocarbon dating is most routinely applied to archaeological and environmental studies, but in some instances can be a very powerful tool for forensic specimens. Radiocarbon (14C) is produced naturally in the upper atmosphere by the interaction of cosmic rays on nitrogen-14 (14N). The 14C produced is rapidly oxidised to carbon dioxide, which then either enters the terrestrial biosphere via photosynthesis and proceeds along the food chain via herbivores and omnivores, and subsequently car- nivores, or exchanges into marine reservoirs where it again enters the food chain by photosynthesis. -
Isotopegeochemistry Chapter4
Isotope Geochemistry W. M. White Chapter 4 GEOCHRONOLOGY III: OTHER DATING METHODS 4.1 COSMOGENIC NUCLIDES 4.1.1 Cosmic Rays in the Atmosphere As the name implies, cosmogenic nuclides are produced by cosmic rays colliding with atoms in the atmosphere and the surface of the solid Earth. Nuclides so created may be stable or radioactive. Radio- active cosmogenic nuclides, like the U decay series nuclides, have half-lives sufficiently short that they would not exist in the Earth if they were not continually produced. Assuming that the production rate is constant through time, then the abundance of a cosmogenic nuclide in a reservoir isolated from cos- mic ray production is simply given by: −λt N = N0e 4.1 Hence if we know N0 and measure N, we can calculate t. Table 4.1 lists the radioactive cosmogenic nu- clides of principal interest. As we shall, cosmic ray interactions can also produce rare stable nuclides, and their abundance can also be used to measure geologic time. A number of different nuclear reactions create cosmogenic nuclides. “Cosmic rays” are high-energy (several GeV up to 1019 eV!) atomic nuclei, mainly of H and He (because these constitute most of the matter in the universe), but nuclei of all the elements have been recognized. To put these kinds of ener- gies in perspective, the previous gen- eration of accelerators for physics ex- Table 4.1. Data on Cosmogenic Nuclides periments, such as the Cornell Elec- -1 tron Storage Ring produce energies in Nuclide Half-life, years Decay constant, yr the 10’s of GeV (1010 eV); while 14C 5730 1.209x 10-4 CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, 3H 12.33 5.62 x 10-2 mankind’s most powerful accelerator, 10Be 1.500 × 106 4.62 x 10-7 located on the Franco-Swiss border 26Al 7.16 × 105 9.68x 10-5 near Geneva produces energies of 36Cl 3.08 × 105 2.25x 10-6 ~10 TeV range (1013 eV). -
Answers to the Top 50 Questions About Genesis, Creation, and Noah's Flood
ANSWERS TO THE TOP 50 QUESTIONS ABOUT GENESIS, CREATION, AND NOAH’S FLOOD Daniel A. Biddle, Ph.D. Copyright © 2018 by Genesis Apologetics, Inc. E-mail: [email protected] www.genesisapologetics.com A 501(c)(3) ministry equipping youth pastors, parents, and students with Biblical answers for evolutionary teaching in public schools. The entire contents of this book (including videos) are available online: www.genesisapologetics.com/faqs Answers to the Top 50 Questions about Genesis, Creation, and Noah’s Flood by Daniel A. Biddle, Ph.D. Printed in the United States of America ISBN-13: 978-1727870305 ISBN-10: 1727870301 All rights reserved solely by the author. The author guarantees all contents are original and do not infringe upon the legal rights of any other person or work. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author. The views expressed in this book are not necessarily those of the publisher. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Print Version November 2019 Dedication To my wife, Jenny, who supports me in this work. To my children Makaela, Alyssa, Matthew, and Amanda, and to your children and your children’s children for a hundred generations—this book is for all of you. We would like to acknowledge Answers in Genesis (www.answersingenesis.org), the Institute for Creation Research (www.icr.org), and Creation Ministries International (www.creation.com). Much of the content herein has been drawn from (and is meant to be in alignment with) these Biblical Creation ministries. -
René Noorbergen Az Elveszett Fajok Titkai
René Noorbergen Az elveszett fajok titkai 1 AZ ELVESZETT FAJOK TITKAI Írta: René Noorbergen J. R. JOCHMANS KUTATÁSAI ALAPJÁN JÓSIÁS Könyv- és Lapkiadó Egyesület Budapest 1988 2 TARTALOMJEGYZÉK oldal Tartalomjegyzék ............................................................................................. 3 Bevezetés ......................................................................................................... 4 I. Fejezet A kezdet vége ............................................................................................ 6 II. Fejezet A besorolhatatlan termékek - el nem ismert tudás .............................. 40 III. Fejezet Az ősi felfedezők lábnyomán................................................................. 60 IV. Fejezet Fejlett repülés a történelem előtti időben.............................................. 93 V. Fejezet Atomháború a kezdetleges emberek között....................................... 103 VI. Fejezet A barlanglakó ősember talányának megfejtése.................................. 144 VII. Fejezet Az építők titokzatos emlékművei........................................................ 187 Végszó ......................................................................................................... 169 Könyvek jegyzéke ...................................................................................... 172 3 BEVEZETÉS Egyetemi hallgató lépett tanári szobámba, hóna alatt a tudományos színezetű regények tekintélyes csomója, alig néhány perccel azután, hogy befejeztem okkult jelenségekről szóló -
Copyright © 2018 Associates for Biblical Research and Henry Smith
Copyright Specifications: Copyright © 2018 Associates for Biblical Research and Henry Smith Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed. 0. PREAMBLE The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other functional and useful document "free" in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for modifications made by others. This License is a kind of "copyleft", which means that derivative works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense. It complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft license designed for free software. We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free software, because free software needs free documentation: a free program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the software does. But this License is not limited to software manuals; it can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend this License principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference. 1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium, that contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the terms of this License. Such a notice grants a world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration, to use that work under the conditions stated herein. -
Ireland and the Old Testament Revision
Ireland and the Old Testament: Transmission, Translation, and Unexpected Influence 1. Introduction A medieval poem, attributed to the eleventh century poet Mael Ísu Ó’Brolcán, begins as follows: How good to hear your voice again Old love, no longer young, but true As when in Ulster I grew up And we were bedmates, I and you When first they put us twain to bed My love who speaks the tongue of heaven I was a boy with no bad thoughts A modest youth, and barely seven.1 1 Frank O’Connor, “A Priest Rediscovers His Psalm-Book,” in Kings, Lords, and Commons (London: Macmillan, 1961): 12. 1 While at first blush this sounds like a romantic ballad, this medieval work is in fact an ode to a long-lost psalm-book rediscovered by a cleric later in life.2 This lost love which “speaks the tongue of heaven” will be to many an unexpected object of affection in this verse; not only is it surprising that the Bible – and the Old Testament in particular – shows up in poetry of this sort, but that it does so in the hands of a medieval Irish priest runs counter to much popular opinion. If at all, contemporary readers might expect the Gospels to appear here, not least because of the influence of medieval works such as the Book of Kells, and their place in the contemporary landscape of Ireland and Irish tourism.3 Nevertheless, this poem highlights Ireland’s long, rich, and varied history of engagement with the Old Testament, a history that sometimes confirms our preconceptions, while at other times surprising us and confounding our expectations, as with our medieval priest and his unexpected object of affection. -
Scientific Dating in Archaeology
SCIENTIFIC DATING IN ARCHAEOLOGY Tsuneto Nagatomo 1. AGE DETERMINATION IN ARCHAEOLOGY • Relative Age: stratigraphy, typology • Absolute Chronology: historical data • Age Determination by (natural) Scientific Methods: Numerical age (or chronometric age) Relative age 2. AGE DETERMINATION BY SCIENTIFIC METHODS 2-1. Numerical Methods • Radiometric Dating Methods Radioactive Isotope: radiocarbon, potassium-argon, argon-argon, uranium series Radiation Damage: fission track, luminescence, electron spin resonance • Non-Radiometric Dating Methods Chemical Change: amino acid, obsidian hydration 2-2. Relative Methods • Archaeomagnetism & palaeomagnetism, dendrochronology, fluorite 3. RADIOMETRIC METHODS 3-1. Radioactive Isotopes The dating clock is directly provided by radioactive decay: e.g. radiocarbon, potassium-argon, and the uranium-series. The number of a nuclide (Nt) at a certain time (t) decreases by decaying into its daughter nuclide. The number of a nuclide (dN) that decays within a short time (dt) is proportional to the total number of the nuclide at time (t) (Nt): d Nt /dt = -λNt (1) where λ: decay constant. Then, Nt is derived from (1) as Nt = N0 exp(-0.693t/T1/2) (2) …Where N0 is the number of the isotope at t = 0 and T1/2 is its half-life. Thus, the equation from this is: t = (T1/2/0.693)exp(N0/Nt) When the values of T1/2 and N0 are known, we get t by evaluating the value Nt. The radiocarbon technique is the typical one in which the decrease of the parent nuclide is the measure of dating. On the other hand, the decrease of the parent nuclide and increase of the daughter nuclide, or their ratio, is the measure of dating in potassium-argon and the uranium-series. -
Dating Techniques.Pdf
Dating Techniques Dating techniques in the Quaternary time range fall into three broad categories: • Methods that provide age estimates. • Methods that establish age-equivalence. • Relative age methods. 1 Dating Techniques Age Estimates: Radiometric dating techniques Are methods based in the radioactive properties of certain unstable chemical elements, from which atomic particles are emitted in order to achieve a more stable atomic form. 2 Dating Techniques Age Estimates: Radiometric dating techniques Application of the principle of radioactivity to geological dating requires that certain fundamental conditions be met. If an event is associated with the incorporation of a radioactive nuclide, then providing: (a) that none of the daughter nuclides are present in the initial stages and, (b) that none of the daughter nuclides are added to or lost from the materials to be dated, then the estimates of the age of that event can be obtained if the ration between parent and daughter nuclides can be established, and if the decay rate is known. 3 Dating Techniques Age Estimates: Radiometric dating techniques - Uranium-series dating 238Uranium, 235Uranium and 232Thorium all decay to stable lead isotopes through complex decay series of intermediate nuclides with widely differing half- lives. 4 Dating Techniques Age Estimates: Radiometric dating techniques - Uranium-series dating • Bone • Speleothems • Lacustrine deposits • Peat • Coral 5 Dating Techniques Age Estimates: Radiometric dating techniques - Thermoluminescence (TL) Electrons can be freed by heating and emit a characteristic emission of light which is proportional to the number of electrons trapped within the crystal lattice. Termed thermoluminescence. 6 Dating Techniques Age Estimates: Radiometric dating techniques - Thermoluminescence (TL) Applications: • archeological sample, especially pottery. -
Isotope Geochemistry I Lectures & Exercises
Tools and methods Geochronology Methods relying on the decay of naturally occurring radiogenic isotopes: Parent isotope Daughter isotope 1. Potassium-40 -> Argon-40 2. Rubidium-87 -> Strontium-87 3. Uranium-235 -> Lead-207 4. Uranium-238 -> Lead-206 5. Thorium-232 -> Lead-208 Radioactivity Natural and artificial radioactivity Natural radioactivity Isotopes that have been here since the earth formed: 238U, 235U, 232Th, 40K Isotopes produced by cosmic rays from the sun, i.e cosmogenic radionuclides: 14C, 10Be, 36Cl Synthetic radioisotopes Made in nuclear reactors when atoms are split (fission). Produced usinc cyclotrons, linear accererators... 39 39 K (n, p) Ar 19 18 The dawn of radiometric dating “U-Pb” method • Boltwood studied radioactive elements and found that Pb was always present in uranium and thorium ores. Pb must be the final product of the radioactive decay. • In 1907, he reasoned that since he knew the rate at which uranium breaks down (its half-life), he could use the proportion of lead in the uranium ores (chemical dating, isotopes not discovered yet) as a meter or clock. • His observations and calculations put Earth's age at 2.2 billion years. He accumulation method • Based on the fact that 235U, 238U and 232Th emit 7, 8 and 6 α-particles, resp. in their decay to Pb • U and Th concentration can be determined chemically and the current rate of He production can be calculated • The sample is heated to release He and the helium-retention age is calculated Radioactive decay half-lifes, T1/2 • if it is possible to determine the -
Aspartic Acid Racemization and Radiocarbon Dating of an Early Milling Stone Horizon Burial in California Darcy Ike; Jeffrey L. B
Aspartic Acid Racemization and Radiocarbon Dating of an Early Milling Stone Horizon Burial in California Darcy Ike; Jeffrey L. Bada; Patricia M. Masters; Gail Kennedy; John C. Vogel American Antiquity, Vol. 44, No. 3. (Jul., 1979), pp. 524-530. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7316%28197907%2944%3A3%3C524%3AAARARD%3E2.0.CO%3B2-6 American Antiquity is currently published by Society for American Archaeology. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/journals/sam.html. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academic journals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers, and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community take advantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact [email protected].