THE ORIGIN OF THE EARTH: 1
This is the story of the discovery of certain amazing microgeologic facts—which clearly establish that the granite undergirding our continents was made quickly and in solid form.
CONTENT: Origin of the Earth: 1
The Discovery: What it reveals
Rocks and Granite: Background information
Halos in the Granite: The small radiohalos which were a mystery
Polonium 218 Halo: An astounding discovery
Page numbers without book references refer to the book, ORIGIN OF THE EARTH, from which these facts are summarized. An asterisk ( * ) by a name indicates that person is not known to be a creationist. Of over 4,000 quotations in the set of books this Encyclopedia is based on, only 164 statements are by creationists.
THE DISCOVERY
Because it is the foundation rock undergirding every continent in the world, granite is, in some respects, the most important rock on the planet.
Evolutionists theorize that our world was the result of a collision, a spin-off from the sun, or condensation of gases in outer space. After a long age at molten temperatures, our planet is supposed to have gradually cooled—and rocks formed from the liquid.
Robert V. Gentry, a Tennessee researcher, has made several astounding discoveries. One of them establishes the fact that those basement rocks did not originate from a gradual cooling of lava, but came into existence in their present solid form!—p. 13.
That theory completely disproves every possible variation of stellar and earth origins, and shows that our world was created entirely at one time!—p. 13.
Gentry's research establishes the fact that all of this granite came into existence in solid form within less than three minutes time. Yet if this is so, then all the rest of the world had to be brought into existence just as rapidly. How can we be sure of that? If the granite had suddenly appeared in less than three minutes, while the rest of the world was molten rock, then the granite would have melted. Therefore our world—all of it—came into existence within that same three minutes. No cooling down occurred.—p. 13. It is, indeed, an astounding discovery. Here are further details:
ROCKS AND GRANITE
Types of rocks. There are several types of rocks, but we will especially give our attention to granite. It is a hard crystalline rock which tends to be light colored. With crystals large enough to be seen, granite is an attractive mixture of very light quartz and feldspar crystals, along with some darker crystals which are usually mica and hornblende.
Granite is very solid and hard because it tends to have no cracks or seams. Unlike most other rocks, granite can support great weight because it does not easily crack.
Rhyolite is chemically similar to granite, but has much smaller crystals.—p. 14.
More on granite. Granite is original and underived. A key factor is that granite, when melted and rehardened, changes into rhyolite. —But nothing, when melted and rehardened changes into granite! For this reason, it is impossible for scientists to artificially produce granite.
Another special quality of granite is that it never contains any fossils. But this is understandable, since granite is a Creation rock,—whereas the sedimentary strata rocks were formed during the Genesis Flood, after the Creation of our world occurred.—p. 14.
How thick is granite? Granite is the bedrock undergirding all continents. Until quite recently, it was speculated that the granite would extend down into the earth to a distance of about 4.35 mi [7km], where the Conrad discontinuity occurs. But recently it has been discovered that the granite keeps going down, far below the Conrad discontinuity. It may continue on down to the 20-mile [32 km] depth.—p. 15.
Yet Gentry's research shows that all that granite came into existence within just three minutes. Here is the story of the discovery:
HALOS IN THE GRANITE
Halos in the granite. Working with microscopes in the late 1800s, scientists found small halos in granite. These are tiny, colored concentric circles ("concentric" means circles within circles, as in a bull's eye).
But the scientists could not figure out what caused them. Gentry finally solved the riddle, and that unveiled the discovery to us.
When cut exactly through the middle of the halo, there would be a small grain in the center. It was found that the halos were not flat circles, but tiny spheres etched in the rock around the central grain.—p. 15.
Colored halos. It was not until radioactive elements were discovered, about the beginning of our century, that scientists realized that these grains and their halos were the result of radioactivity.—p. 15.
What is radioactivity? Certain chemical elements (radioactive elements) continually disintegrate and emit several types of radiation from their nuclei: alpha, beta, and gamma radiation. These are small radioactive particles which are continually shot out from the element, until they are all gone. Of these three, only the alpha particles develop halos.—p. 16.
Joly's research. Working earlier in the century, *John Joly, an Irish researcher, tried to figure out the cause of these halos. Granite includes tiny pieces of biotite, which is a dark mica. Joly found that the halos in that mica were the easiest to observe, because they were the easiest to slice for examination under a microscope.
By the time Joly began his work, it was known that, during radioactive decay, each radioactive parent element changes into another one (a daughter element). The whole thing is called a chain, and each member of the chain is an isotope.—p. 16.
What is this decay chain? There are many radioactive isotopes in nature, but only three are at the very top of decay chains. We will here especially give our attention to the uranium 238 chain.
Uranium 238 begins a radioactive decay chain which ends with lead 206, which is stable without any more radioactivity.—pp. 16-17.
Alpha particles make the halos. Joly discovered it was only the alpha particles which made the halos. The halos are formed where the alpha particles stop.—p. 17.
The uranium 238 halos. Of the several halos which are produced in the granite, all are formed by only eight alpha particles (the other particles shot off are not alphas, hence leave no halos).—p. 18.
The half-life clock. There is a clock hidden in each halo. That is what makes Gentry's discovery so important. We can actually know how long it took for each halo to form.—p. 18.
Henderson studies the halos. *G.H. Henderson, in eastern Canada, studied the halos for ten years in the 1930s. Four of the halos he worked with he labeled the A, B, C, and D halos.—p. 18.
Gentry becomes interested. Robert Gentry wanted to do his doctoral research on radioactive halos, but was refused permission because such research might conflict with evolutionary theories about the age of the earth. So he went to Nova Scotia and examined Henderson's slide collection. After a third refusal by Georgia Tech, Gentry dropped out of school and began studying the halos on his own. Eventually, he was able to obtain a position at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in northeastern Tennessee. He used its multimillion dollar facilities for over a decade.—p. 19.
The D halos first. Gentry began his research with the D halo, which was the shortest.
It is of crucial importance that you understand that it is not necessary for the parent element to be uranium 238. The chain could start with one of the elements further down the decay line. At the Creation, not only was uranium 238 made, but also many daughter elements. Each of these, in turn, became the parent of its own chain of radioactive decay. For example, polonium 218 (further down the complete U-238 chain) can begin its own chain, without having uranium 238 as the starter of the polonium 218.
Gentry found that the D halo was caused by uranium 238, and therefore was not important. But he discovered that the A, B, and C halos were not the result of uranium decay, that is, not the daughters of a U-238 chain. This was a key discovery.—p. 19.
The A, B, and C halos. At first, Gentry had liked the D halos because their emitted particles made dark trails. But the A, B, and C halos left no trails.—Then Gentry realized that it was the A, B, and C halos which were important, because they were completely extinct! Time wise, they had totally ended their half-lives. Although once radioactive, they had entirely changed into lead.
Gentry was now on the verge of making his big discovery.—pp. 19-20.
Extinct and identified. Obviously, the A, B, and C halos must have very short half-lives. And during the time they were radioactive, the granite had become solid. But what were they?
Keep in mind that there are trillions and trillions of these halos in the granite of Planet Earth! Whatever time it took for those halos to form would tell how long it took for the granite in the world to become solid.
Finally, Gentry identified Henderson's A, B, and C halos. The A halo was polonium 210 (Po-210); the B halo was Po-214; the C halo was Po-218.—p. 20.
Isotopes of Polonium. These three are called isotopes, because they are three types, or forms, of the same element, polonium. They could come from U-238, but they could be parents on their own.—p. 20.
Henderson's theory. Gentry found that Henderson had written a paper. In it, he said that he assumed that the A, B, and C halos were daughters of U-238, because otherwise their presence in the granite would destroy the evolutionary age-of-the-earth theories.
Henderson assumed the three halos were caused by U-238 seeping through tiny cracks in the granite.—p. 20.
Research not completed. Although Henderson said that he did not have time to check out whether his idea was correct, he assumed he must be right. Then he died.—p. 20.
Henderson incorrect. Careful investigations by Gentry established that the polonium halos (A, B, and C) could be primary (from a polonium parent), and not secondary (from a polonium daughter of a uranium 238 parent). Gentry had access to specialized equipment which clarified this.
Most of the time the halos were isolated, with no other uranium halos nearby, with no evidence of contamination from uranium flows, and not near any cracks—therefore, they had to be primary.—pp. 20-21.
Problems with the A and B halos. Because of a decay chain factor, Gentry could not have total certainty that the A and B halos were always primary.—p. 21.
Problems from non-halo isotopes. For technical reasons, only an alpha-emitting isotope in the uranium chain—which immediately follows another alpha-emitting isotope—could have its half-life clearly identified. Therefore, only the C halo could be used for definite clock purposes.—p. 21.
A, B, and C halos. The A halo (Po-210) has a half-life of 138.4 days, which is remarkably short!
The B halo (Po-214) has a half-life of only 164 microsecond! That is extremely short!—pp. 21, 23.
The C halo (Po-218) has a half-life of three minutes! It is the KEY radioactive element in this study, and can definitely be used to pinpoint the fact that the granite had to be solid at the beginning or, at the latest, by the end of that three-minute period. (Actually, quicker than that, for much of the halo marking on granite is formed within a minute and a half.)—p. 23.
POLONIUM 218 HALO
Polonium 218, the key. Only in Po-218 can we know the beginning and end,—and thus the exact time cycle—of a very short radioactive isotope. In every instance in which we find it, we can know the rock, in which it is isolated, came into existence solid within less than three minutes.
Polonium 218 is an original isotope. Evolutionists declare that all the radioactive elements had to decay from the top of the chain. They say this, hoping that, in this way, to prove their theory that the world is billions of years old.
But this aspect of their theory is also wrong, and for this reason: If all the radioactivity in the U-238 chain began at the same time, at the top of the radioactive ladder (from U-238), then, throughout the world, all the U-238 chain would be in equilibrium today. Instead, we find all levels of disintegration, including lead—which is the final end product.
Thus it is only an assumption that only U-238 was present at the beginning.
In contrast, there is proof that multiplied trillions of Po-218 halos did not originate with uranium or any radioactive substance above polonium 218.—pp. 23, 25-26.
How can a few Po-218 halos provide such amazing proof? All the granite in the world is time dated by the isolated polonium 218 within it. And there is lots of polonium 218!
Using the halo counts he had been able to make in many samples, Gentry estimates there is one octillion Po-218 halos in the world:
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
Some of Gentry's sample rocks contain more than 104 of Po-218 halos / cm3. Imagine a sample of granite in your hand, the size of a golf ball, containing over 10,000 Po-218 halos!—p. 26.
An underlying problem. There is no possible way that the evolutionary theories of stellar and earth origins could be true—if the basement rock of our planet came into existence within three minutes! Keep in mind that, if the granite were made solid, the rest of the world could never have been molten, or it would have melted the granite—and destroyed all the polonium halos. In addition, the molten mass would have melted the granite; and, upon rehardening, it would have become rhyolite—and there would be no granite in the world!—pp. 26-27.
Gentry reclassifies granite. According to the evolutionary theory, granite is officially classified as an igneous rock, that is, a rock formed from lava flows. Molten rock is said to have cooled and formed granite.
But Gentry declares this to be untrue. Granite did not come from molten material, but was formed solid in the beginning! He calls it a "Genesis rock." Granite never has fossils in it, and it can never be produced by scientists from molten materials.—p. 27.
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