Dear Friends of the Kolbe Center,
Glory to Jesus Christ!
For many years, scientists associated with the Kolbe Center have presented evidence that at least one period of accelerated radioactive decay took place on Earth, probably during the Global Flood. At our First International Symposium on Creation in Rome in 2002, atomic physicist Robert Gentry showed that zircon crystals that he had examined contain uranium-238 and its nuclear decay product lead-206. Dr. Gentry went on to explain that the same zircons retained large amounts of helium, formed as a by-product of the uranium to lead decay. Careful measurements of the rate at which helium leaks out of the zircons led Gentry to calculate that, given the amount of helium left in the granite, it could not have formed more than six to eight thousand years ago. Indeed, the amount of volcanic activity at the time of the Flood would have produced extremely high temperatures which would explain how the amount of helium left in the zircons today could easily be the result of only 4500 years of diffusion since Noah’s Flood—in keeping with the literal historical interpretation of the sacred history of Genesis.
More recently, one of our separated brethren, nuclear physicist Dr. Russel Humphries, has demonstrated in a recent publication that:
not only helium, but also argon, can leak from minerals. The hotter the minerals, the faster the leaks.11 Feldspar, a common mineral in the granitic rock . . . contains a lot of potassium, about 0.01% of which is the radioactive isotope potassium-40. Today it decays very slowly into the stable isotope argon-40. Comparing the two isotopes and assuming today’s rate of decay is the basis for the familiar ‘potassium-argon’ dating method, Harrison et al. [critics of creationist arguments for recent accelerated radioactive decay] found that in the deepest, hottest part of the borehole, over 20% of the nuclear-decay-generated argon has leaked out of the feldspar crystals. They also measured how fast argon leaks from the feldspar at various depths in the borehole. Using those data, I show that even assuming that the deepest sample did not get hotter than its present temperature, it would have lost nearly all of its argon in a million years.12 That is why Harrison et al. were forced to assume the temperature was very low until relatively recently. Then, they assumed that some unknown, unspecified source of heat rapidly raised the temperature in just twenty thousand years up to today’s high temperature. Creationist geophysicist Dr John Baumgardner told me that “given the small value for the measured heat conductivity of granite, such a temperature scenario for this site is not defensible, since it violates the simple and well-known physics of heat diffusion.”
Argon data say the site is young
The rock in the borehole is dry, which combined with its low heat conductivity means that its temperature cannot change rapidly. Even if we assume Harrison et al. were correct in postulating a recent (and as yet completely unobserved) intrusion of lava very close to the borehole, the temperature could not have changed by more than 50 Celsius degrees (90 Fahrenheit degrees) over the past five millennia.13 That is a relatively small change. More reasonable uniformitarian heat models14 for the site done by Los Alamos National Laboratory give much smaller changes. That allows us to assume (for simplicity of calculation) that the rock temperature has been roughly constant over those past few thousand years.
The uniformitarian scenario of long ages would leave the rocks with almost no helium and little argon, contrary to the observations of both RATE and Harrison et al.
Then, using Harrison’s own data and equations, I calculate that the feldspar in the rock formation would have lost the observed amount of argon in only 5,100 years, give or take a few millennia according to my estimate of the experimental uncertainty in the data. This age is consistent with results in the Harrison et al. paper, although they wanted to regard the numbers as indicating only the duration of their assumed fast heating pulse after their alleged eons of incredible coolness.
This 5,100-year argon diffusion age is consistent with RATE’s helium diffusion age of (6,000 ± 2,000) years for the same rock formation. So now we have two different age measurements using two different gases from two different types of nuclear decay in two different minerals—and the two methods agree within their error bounds. In contrast, the uniformitarian scenario of long ages would leave the rocks with almost no helium and little argon, contrary to the observations of both RATE and Harrison et al.
This important recent publication adds to the mountain of evidence for accelerated radioactive decay in the past, almost certainly during the Noahic Flood. Skeptics ridicule this hypothesis on the grounds that accelerated radioactive decay and the heat associated with it would have wiped out Noah and his family and the animals aboard the Ark. But these scoffers fail to take into account the supernatural character of the Flood as a divine judgment upon mankind and God’s supernatural provision for the Ark and its passengers. Indeed, we believe that Our Lady of Fatima answered all of the skeptics and showed us the solution to the "heat problem" on October 13, 1917, when during the Miracle of the Sun She instantly dried the water-saturated ground under the feet of 70,000 people, as well as their hair, skin, and clothes. When I asked physicist Dr. Thomas Seiler to calculate the amount of heat that would be required to accomplish this feat, he easily demonstrated that it would have been more than enough to have incinerated the whole crowd!
Here are his estimates:
Water content in each person’s clothes: 1 l
Water content in 1 m² on which each person is standing: 4 l
=> Overall water content per m²: 5 l = 5 kg
=> Energy Q necessary to heat 5 kg of water from 30 °C to 100 °C on the basis of the specific heat capacity of water (which is 4,2 kJ/(kg*K)):
Q = 4,2 kJ/(kg*K) * 5 kg * (100 °C -30 °C) = 1470 kJ = 1470 kWs
The entire heat power of the sun per m² arriving at the earth before entering the atmosphere is 1,4 kW/m². Taking into account all losses through the atmosphere and due to the angle of the earth's surface relative to the sun one obtains 0,7 kW/m² for central Europe. Let us therefore generously estimate 1 kW/m² solar heat power arriving on the ground of Fatima.
If we say that it took 10 s to dry clothes and soil at each m² then the sun would deliver 10 kWs in such a time on each m². However, we need 1470 kWs to dry one m². That means we would need 147 times more heat power than the sun usually radiates. If all happened in only 1 s then the sun would have had to radiate 1470 times stronger than usual.
Since many parts of the clothes would not be directly exposed to the sun, it would take very much more heat power from the sun to bring the necessary heat to somebody's back where the sun doesn't reach directly.
If you want to explain these physical relations without using a formula, you can point out that it takes about 20 min to boil a pot of water containing 5l. The plate of the stove may consume 1 kW which is about the same as the heating power of the sun on 1 m². Therefore, if we want to have the same process not in 20 min but in 10 s then we need 120 times the heating power of the sun. If we want it in 1 s then we need 1200 times the heating power of the sun.
This is therefore a clear case of non-applicability of natural laws to explain a process that definitely happened on earth. The event at Fatima transcends the usual Order of Providence.
So much for "heat problems" when God acts supernaturally!
With gratitude for all of your prayers and support, I am
Yours in Christ through the Immaculata in union with St. Joseph,
Hugh Owen
P.S. Today is a First Saturday. Please be sure to answer Our Lady’s appeal for the First Saturday devotions as described by the Fatima Center at this link.
