Page 78 - BV17

78 Radiocarbon Dating: Tool or Magic Wand?

gin and destiny of the Earth’s Magnetic Field their carbon from the well water, carbon that
(Barnes, Thomas G., “Origin and Destiny of the has lost most of its C14 content by being aged
Earth’s Magnetic Field,” Technical Monograph in the ground for many years. This apparent
number 4, Second Ed., 1983, p. 17), the mag- aging is known as the Seuss effect. Plants,
netic field is decaying as a first order exponential and the animals that feed on them, are influ-
with a half life of 1,400 years, a number much enced by the amount of “old carbon” in their
less than the 5,700 year half life of C14. immediate environment. Studies of soil and
water conditions show that CO2 concentra-
The consequence of this decay is that tion in water under grasslands is approxi-
there is a corresponding exponential; increase of mately 1,000 times greater than CO2
the generation rate of C14. Using present condi- concentrations in water in equilibrium with
tions as a reference will result in an increase in air.
the apparent age of older samples. The cosmic
ray flux is an unknown for past ages. The Forest areas showed an increase of
eleven-year sun-spot cycle also has a cyclic ef- CO2 concentrations in both soil and water
fect on the generation rate. Dilution of C14 in the 100 times that of rain water (Encyclopedia
atmosphere is caused by burning of hydrocarbon Britannica, Macropedia, Vol. 7, p. 733).
fuel or by release of C12 from CO2 sinks Therefore, both plants and animals from
(Ginenthal, op cit., pp. 178-180) as the result of zones with high concentrations of old carbon
atmosphere and hydrosphere warming. The two will provide specimens that appear older by
main sinks for old carbon are the Arctic tundra, conventional C14 standards than they actu-
which absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere, and ally are. There are also assumptions of ages of
methane hydrate, a frozen mixture of methane certain rock formations. Yet, radiocarbon
and water found in the tundra and the ocean. dating old wood samples extracted from the
Geological location is probably one of the big- rock show dates radically different from the
gest variables in the C14 process, yet it seems to assumed age.
be systematically ignored.
An example is a partly burned but
A few examples include a living tree unfossilized branch found in Cretaceous
growing next to an airport dated as being 10,000 limestone in Texas that was dated as
years old (Huber, Bruno, “Recording Gaseous 12,800+/-200 years B.P. (Before Present)
Exchange under Field Conditions,” The Physi- (Found by Wilbur Fields of Joplin, MO; ra-
ology of Trees, K.V. Thinmann, ed., new York, diocarbon dating: UCLA-2088, 10/23/78).
1958, p. 194), and living aquatic plants from Spruce wood, described as being in near nor-
Montezuma Well in Arizona, which shows ap- mal condition, taken from the buried forest of
parent ages from 17,300 to 24,750 years (Ogden, Upper Michigan, was dated at 10,200 years
J. Gordon III, “Radiocarbon and Pollen Evi- B.P. Other fossil wood found along the north
dence for a Sudden Change in Climate in the shore of Lake Superior shows similar dates.
Great Lake Region 10,000 Years Ago,” Quater- The relatively narrow dates for fossil wood is
nary Paleoecology, New Haven, CT., 1967, p. a problem for some researchers who have
119). Why the erroneous numbers? It is assumed definite presuppositions about the time pe-
that the tree by the airport has obtained carbon riod of certain fossils. Wood found around
from the exhaust fumes of aircraft which diluted the carcass of a baby mammoth, Dima, was
the natural C14 in the atmosphere. The plants at dated between 9,000 and 10,000 years B.P.
Montezuma Well are evidently getting much of Samples of the carcass tissue were dated at

The Berean Voice September-October 2002