If Earth Is Old, It Should Have Frozen | The Institute for Creation Research

If Earth Is Old, It Should Have Frozen

Secular speculations insist Earth coalesced into its current state over four billion years ago, leaving one huge problem: the young sun would have been so dim that Earth would have frozen. Secular astronomers have long invoked methane gas to defray this dilemma, called the "faint young sun paradox." A recent study revealed two new reasons to totally reject methane as a rescuing device, leaving this paradox stronger than ever.

According to a University of California Riverside (UCR) news release, "For at least a billion years of the distant past, planet Earth should have been frozen over but wasn't."1 Life forms that left fossils fitted to these "ages" clearly show that Earth wasn't frozen, but perfectly suited for life from the time of its earliest rock deposits. A methane-packed atmosphere might have generated enough of a greenhouse effect to insulate the planet for life to survive those long ages.

Publishing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, three researchers associated with the NASA Astrobiology Institute revealed a key oversight that decades-worth of methane-embracing models apparently overlooked.2 Their new and more realistic model of biogeochemical cycles in an early Earth's oceans revealed plenty of methane-destroying sulfate.

Lead author of the study and UCR graduate student Stephanie Olson told UCR Today, "You can't get significant methane out of the ocean once there is sulfate."1

Without oxygen, Earth would have no ozone to shield even a faint sun's UV radiation. Radiation slaughters methane molecules and damages DNA. Since life thrived when currently fossilized creatures roamed Earth, oxygen was certainly around at the time.

But that means oxidation reactions occurred. On continents, these reactions would have turned iron into rust and pyrite into sulfate. Erosion would have transported loads of sulfate to oceans, where even a smidgeon of it would directly destroy methane. And insufficient methane in the oceans means too little methane for the atmosphere to warm things up.

UCR wrote that this study revealed "that during the billion years they assessed, sulfate in the ocean limited atmospheric methane to only 1 to 10 parts per million—a tiny fraction of the copious 300 parts per million touted by some previous models."1

At least 300 parts of methane per million parts of other gases might rescue an early-Earth scenario from the faint young sun paradox. But 10 parts per million falls woefully short. However, this analysis revealed a second reason to reject the idea that methane could rescue an early Earth from freezing over.

Single-celled marine life was around back then, supposedly making all the methane. But in today's oceans, tiny cells extract energy much more efficiently from sulfate than by processing complex organics to make methane.3 Ancient cells would have preferred sulfate and produced too little methane.

Methane to the rescue? Not anymore, according to this recent secular science.

Over the years, researchers described an array of scenarios to salvage the faint young sun paradox, but none satisfy. A 2012 study imagined the existence of an ancient solar wind that flowed about 1,000 times faster than observed today, enough to warm Earth.4 But that scenario would merely replace the faint young sun paradox with equally vexing questions. What would have caused the sun to break wind with just the right force for just the right duration to keep Earth at just the right temperature for just the right time for life to survive?

The faint young sun paradox's dogged persistence reveals a fundamental misstep. Instead of tossing up extremely unlikely or impossible Earth-based or sun-centered scenarios to explain a billion years of Earth history, why not question the billion years? A recently created Earth suffers no such painful paradox.

References

  1. Nealon, S. Methane Muted: How Did Early Earth Stay Warm? UCR Today. Posted on ucrtoday.ucr.edu September 26, 2016, accessed October 8, 2016.
  2. Olson, S., C. T. Reinhard, and T. W. Lyons. 2016. Limited role for methane in the mid-Proterozoic Greenhouse. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 113 (41): 11447-11452.
  3. Deppenmeier, U. 2002. The unique biochemistry of methanogenesis. Progress in Nucleic Acid Research and Molecular Biology. 71: 223-283.
  4. Schirber, M. "Baby Fat" on the Young Sun? Astrobiology Magazine News. Posted on astrobio.net February 13, 2012, accessed October 11, 2016. 

Image credit: © NASA. Adapted for use in accordance with federal copyright (fair use doctrine) law. Usage by ICR does not imply endorsement of copyright holders.

*Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Article posted on October 24, 2016.

The Latest
NEWS
''Super-Puff'' Exoplanets: Evidence of Youth?
Astronomers have inferred the presence of a fourth exoplanet in the Kepler-51 star system.1,2 They made the discovery when the third exoplanet...

NEWS
A Fresh Start
"That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit...

NEWS
January 2025 ICR Wallpaper
"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind." (Isaiah 65:17 NKJV) ICR...

NEWS
All Things New
"And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful."...

ACTS & FACTS
Creation Kids: Neptune
by Renée Dusseau and Susan Windsor* You're never too young to be a creation scientist and explore our Creator's world. Kids, discover...

ACTS & FACTS
Theodore Roosevelt National Park: Testimony to the Receding Flood
by Tim Clarey, Ph.D., and Mike Mueller, M.S.* Nestled next to Medora, North Dakota, and 45 miles east of Glendive, Montana, Theodore Roosevelt National...

ACTS & FACTS
A Great Year of Development! 2024 Year in Review
The Institute for Creation Research had another outstanding year advancing creation science in 2024! We’ll use this opening issue of Acts &...

APOLOGETICS
Mice That Prey on Scorpions and Tarantulas
Don’t underestimate the ferocity of a humble-looking little mouse—especially if it lives inside Grand Canyon. Although various mice...

ACTS & FACTS
The Courage of Conviction
Several years ago, a young pastor assumed leadership of his father’s church. The church was located in a large city with an increasing population...

ACTS & FACTS
Gene Complexity Showcases Engineered Versatility
In the early days of molecular genetics in the 1960s and ’70s, researchers widely held that a gene could be defined as a single, discrete entity...