Fission Tracks in Zircons: Evidence for Abundant Nuclear Decay | The Institute for Creation Research

 
Fission Tracks in Zircons: Evidence for Abundant Nuclear Decay

Download PDFDownload Fission Tracks in Zircons: Evidence for Abundant Nuclear Decay PDF

RATE II: Radioisotopes and the Age of The Earth: Results of a Young-Earth Creationist Research Initiative, (Volume II), L. Vardiman et al., eds. (San Diego, CA: Institute for Creation Research and the Creation Research Society, 2005)

Abstract

Fission tracks are a physical record of in situ nuclear decay, their density being directly proportional to the amount of nuclear decay that has occurred. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the amounts of fission tracks in zircon grains in targeted rock units (that is, their fission track “ages”) matched the radioisotope “ages” of those rocks. Stratigraphically well-constrained volcanic ash or tuff beds located in the Grand Canyon-Colorado Plateau “type section” of the Flood strata record were chosen—the Cambrian Muav and Tapeats tuffs from the western Grand Canyon (early Flood), Jurassic Morrison Formation tuff beds, southeastern Utah (middle Flood), and the Miocene Peach Springs Tuff, southeastern California and western Arizona (late Flood or post-Flood). The fission track “ages” of zircon grains separated from samples of these tuff units were determined by a specialized professional laboratory using the external detector method and a zeta (ζ) calibration factor. The observed fission track densities measured in all the zircons (and thus the fission track “ages”) from the samples of the Jurassic and Miocene tuffs, and in some of the zircons from the Muav and Tapeats tuffs, were found to exactly equate to the quantities of nuclear decay measured by radioisotope determinations of the same rock units. Though thermal annealing of fission tracks had occurred in some zircon grains in the two Cambrian Grand Canyon tuffs, the U-Pb radioisotope system had also been thermally reset, the resulting reset ages in both instances coinciding with the onset of the Laramide uplift of the Colorado Plateau. The fact that the thermal annealing of the fission tracks and the thermal resetting of the U-Pb radioisotope system in those zircon grains were exactly parallel is unequivocal confirmation that the radioisotope ratios are a product of radioactive decay, in just the same way as the fission tracks are physical evidence of nuclear decay. Furthermore, because the resetting of the U-Pb radioisotope system in zircons will only occur at elevated temperatures, the fact that it has been reset in these zircons could therefore be due to them having been heated by accelerated nuclear decay. Even so, in spite of this thermal annealing and resetting, there remains sufficient strong evidence to conclude that both the fission tracks and radioisotope ratios in the zircons in the Cambrian Grand Canyon tuff beds record more than 500 million years worth (at today’s rates) of nuclear and radioisotope decay during deposition of the Phanerozoic strata sequence of the Grand Canyon-Colorado Plateau region. Given the independent evidence that most of this strata sequence was deposited catastrophically during the year-long global Flood about 4500 years ago, then 500 million or more years worth (at today’s rates) of nuclear and radioisotope decay had to have occurred during the Flood year about 4500 years ago. Thus, the fission tracks in the zircons in these tuffs are physical evidence of accelerated nuclear decay.

fission tracks, nuclear decay, thermal annealing, zircons, RATE II

For Full Text

Please see the Download PDF link above for the entire article.

The Latest
NEWS
Dino Footprints Down Under
Dinosaur trackways1 are once again making the news. Australia is the setting of a remarkable series of dinosaur tracks attributed to ornithischian...

NEWS
April 2025 ICR Wallpaper
"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things...

NEWS
Human Evolution and the Inner Ear
The vain attempt by evolutionists to make an evolutionary connection between people and ape-like ancestors continues. This time, it is in regard to...

CREATION PODCAST
Defending the Faith with a Rocket Scientist | Creation.Live Podcast:...
How do engineering principles, biological complexity, and a solid understanding of apologetics work together to further the cause of Christ? Why...

NEWS
Aerobic and Anaerobic Hot Spring Bacteria
God designed a domain of prokaryotes called Archaea that thrive in harsh and extreme environments. In 1969, two microbiologists, Thomas Brock and Hudson...

CREATION PODCAST
The Soulless Hominid Theory: A Fatal Flaw in Old Earth Creationism...
Welcome to the second episode in a series called “The Failures of Old Earth Creationism.” Many Christians attempt to fit...

NEWS
Humpback Whale Calls Echo Creation
There is nothing simple about the system of communication called language, whether animal or human.1 Human language is a very sophisticated...

NEWS
Mary Parker, Creation Ministry Partner of Dr. Gary Parker, Is...
Mary Parker, the wife and co-laborer of Dr. Gary Parker, went home to be with her Lord on March 20, 2025. Dr. Parker was a popular and effective...

NEWS
Plants Rely on Quantum Mechanics
Scientists will probably never fully understand photosynthesis as additional research uncovers even more fascinating mysteries.1,2 ICR’s...

NEWS
Martian Polar Ice Cap ''Surprisingly Young''?
A team of German planetary scientists has concluded that a three-kilometer-thick northern polar ice cap on Mars has a “surprisingly young”...