TOPICAL NOTE 7: RADIOMETRIC & ICE CORE DATING
- W. Cook, Independent Researcher
- Jan 5
- 11 min read
Updated: 11 hours ago
© 2025.
Dating rocks:
Some exposed rocks date from the "beginning" when Earth was created. However, much of the earth’s accessible surface rock was recycled by erosion, reconsolidation, subduction, remelting, and volcanism so it has a variety of ages since it last solidified. These can make choosing a rock sample that is suitable to date radiometricaly challenging. Creation scientists have showed even isochron radiometric dating can produce widely varying dates for different samples from the same rock{1,8} and can give erroneous ages for rocks of known age{2} so they claim conventional scientists’ deep-time models which are based on this data are flawed. Dates for the recently discovered Homo nadeli site finds were measured by several different radiometric methods and produced a huge spread of 33,000 to 849,000 years ago, but a narrower range was reported{3}. Radiometric rock dating requires making unproved assumptions that derive the original parent-daughter radioisotope ratios from the isochron graph, that none were lost or added to the sample over time which cannot be guaranteed due to liquid rock mixing{8,11,12}, and that decay constants have remained constant over time. Topical note 4{3,4} and {9,10} below show that decay constants may be influenced by factors eternal to the atomic nucleus. Studies of radiometricaly dated rocks by creation scientists repeatedly show they have ages that are far too old when compared to their known historical ages{21}.
Radiometric dating was used to date the oldest rocks from the earth, the moon, and extraterrestrial meteorites as 4.5 billion years old. According to modern astronomy the planets in our solar system formed gradually from dust sized debris in the sun’s accretion disk. The asteroid belt is left over material from it that didn’t form a planet because of Jupiter’s gravitational pull broke them up. Many images of accretion disks that surround newly forming stars in the Milky Way have been taken (Genesis 1 commentary).
However, a noteworthy Canadian astronomer recently estimated these stellar accretion disks may have lifetimes of only thousands of years ({4}Topical note 8)! The growing stars and planets in forming stellar systems gravitationally attract the disk debris until it is consumed. According to a process of planetary accretion known as "gravitational instability", planets may form on timescales of only thousands of years by continuously pulling in gas and dust-size particles without smashing into large bodies and breaking up. Our solar system would be just several thousand years older than its accretion disk. This is evidence the radiometric 4.5 billion year age for our solar system that was obtained from dating rocks from Earth, the moon, and meteorites could be far too old.
Dating living things:
Carbon-14 (or 14C) is used to date products of living things that include unlithified wood, bone, and tissues. Carbon-14 is the naturally occurring radioactive isotope of carbon. Free atmospheric radiocarbon-14 reacts with atmospheric oxygen to form radiocarbon dioxide that is then taken up by photosynthetic plants and algae which are consumed by animals. So living and dead organisms contain a measurable amount of radiocarbon-14. It decays with a half-life of 5730 years and is used to date when an organism died and its continued uptake of radiocarbon ceased. Back to 1400BCE radiocarbon dates closely agree with historical dates. However, for dates older than 1400BCE, radiocarbon dating gives excessively ancient ages with the error increasing with age{13,14}. It’s interesting that cabon-14 is found in trace amounts in dinosaur fossils that are allegedly 65 million years old when it should have totally decayed in 100,000 years{21}.
Carbon-14 is produced in Earth’s atmosphere by the action of cosmic rays, which are positively charged high energy protons and atomic nuclei. These high energy charged particles react with atoms in Earth’s atmosphere to produce showers of other subatomic particle, including neutrons that are believed to convert stable atmospheric carbon-13 into radioactive carbon-14{14}. Charged cosmic rays are deflected by Earth’s magnetic field. Extrapolated historical measurements have shown that Earth’s average magnetic field intensity doubled each 1400 years backward in time (Topical note 4{49,50}). So Earth’s stronger magnetic field in the past would have deflected more cosmic rays from space. So the discrepancy between historical and carbon-14 dates would be caused by the resulting lower average production rate of Earth’s atmospheric radiocarbon thousands of years ago.
Why would Earth’s magnetic field asymptotically decay?
Topical Note 4, Why did human lifetimes shorten after the Flood? explains how Noah’s Flood c3200BCE destabilized Earth’s magnetic field and that it has apparently taken 1500 years to restabilize to the weaker modern intensity. Perhaps 1400BCE, the noted historical accuracy breakpoint for radiocarbon dating, is just below the “knee” on Earth’s asymptotic field intensity-vs-date decay curve when field intensity increased rapidly back to the Flood c3200BCE. The record in Genesis 11 of the decrease in maximum human age after the Flood seems to corroborate this. Because Earth’s magnetic field shields humans from high energy cosmic rays that damage genomes, this would account for the maximum human age decrease from over 400 years for those who were born shortly after Noah’s Flood c3200BCE (Genesis 11:12-16) until it gradually stabilized to 120 years c1400BCE by the time of Moses (Deuteronomy 34:7).
Conventional scientists have shown the Earth’s instantaneous magnetic field intensity fluctuates and has even has previously reversed its polarity. This implies atmospheric carbon-14 production has also varied irregularly over long time periods. However, the carbon-14 dating method assumes the atmospheric radiocarbon production rate was the same in the ancient past as it is today. So it doesn’t correct for reduced or irregular production in the past. This of course all assumes a good dating sample was obtained that preserved the original amount of radiocarbon since an organism's death. Some creation scientists refer to published radiocarbon dates as “carbon-14 (or 14C) years” ago to alert readers they are not necessarily historical dates.
Consensus dating is a part of consensus science:
In the early 1900s before radiometric dating was developed, ocean salinity (Na+ and Cl- ion concentration) measurement was considered to be a valid method to estimate the age of the earth{17}. A maximum age of 80-90 million years for the ocean was derived from the salt input rate from rivers and certain assumptions to achieve the measured ocean salinity then{15}. Scientists later discovered radiometric methods gave age ranges for igneous rocks that dated the earth in the billions of years and were more favorable to evolution{17} that a growing number of scientists believed was correct. When radiometric dating methods became scientifically popular a steady state model was proposed that ocean salt content has been roughly constant and therefore is unsuitable for age determination of the earth. So the previous maximum ocean age value from salinity data was disregarded. Yet recognized salinity data that clearly shows the oceans are getting saltier is largely ignored{16,17}. This is consensus science. Creation scientists recently developed an ocean salinity computer model that makes assumptions for sources and sinks of ocean salt that also included the Genesis Flood. They arrived at an age for the ocean in the thousands of years{17}, that is compatible with its origin as recorded in Exodus 20:11 and Genesis 1- early on Earth’s 1st day.
Evidently conventional scientists purposely chose radiometric dating methodology that provided ancient age ranges for rocks, fossils, and ancient archaeological sites because it was consistent with their beliefs in “deep-time” uniformitarian geology and evolutionary speciation. Measured dates that agree with consensus are published for their research{3}. Anomalous dates may be rejected as bad samples or lab analytical errors and not mentioned publicly. This is consensus dating. Scientists are certainly not deliberately trying to be deceptive. However, they have a zeal for sustaining scientific harmony (see Consensus science, Topical note 6). Slanted dating give the appearance of dating uniformity across the natural sciences of geology, evolutionary paleontology, archaeology and astronomy where radiometric dating methods are used. So science textbooks all show a consensus that dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago and the earth and the solar system are 4.5 billion years old. And a 13.5 billion year old universe is in-line with radiometric ages.
However, unfossilized remains of ancient animals were documented starting in the early 1800s. Working in the soft cliffs and cool climate along the English Channel after rainstorms Mary Anning, an avid fossil hunter discovered many. They included ancient cuttlefish with ink sacks that still contained usable ink (after dissolving the dried ink particles), and an excellently preserved ichthyosaur with unfossilized tendons and a clear eye lens that was removed and used as a magnifying glass. Her discoveries were widely circulated, also among British paleontologists (internet sources).
Recently, unfossilized dinosaur discoveries have been scientifically studied and documented: A partially mummified hadrosaur (duckbilled dinosaur) named “Dakota” was discovered in North Dakota in 1999 with some bones, tissues, and skin intact (unmineralized){7}. A completely mummified hadrosaur named “Leonardo” was discovered in Montana in 2001 that is now on display at the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis{7a}. Studies have shown its skin, internal anatomy, and stomach contents in more exquisite detail than any other dinosaur found.
In recent years much published research has dealt with soft pliable tissues, including collagen in connective tissue, that were discovered microscopically in different species of dinosaur fossils. Conventional scientists have claimed these fossils species are over 60 million years old based on radiometric dating and evolutionary assumptions. Recent published experiments measured the degradation of collagen during controlled heating}{21}. Collagen in fossils will become completely degraded at ambient temperature within 10,000 years{20}, despite claims in secular internet articles (which presume the lengthy evolutionary time scale) that it can last over 100 million years{20,22}. Recently, other proteins have been discovered in dinosaur fossils that include hemoglobin and the skin proteins elastin and keratin. Histones still in cell nuclei of some dinosaurs also have been found intact{21}. There is no general scientific agreement of how these soft tissue proteins could survive for millions of years. That they still exist implies they are only thousands of years old{22}. This is consistent with the oldest living things on Earth being less than 10,000 years old that corroborates the Genesis 1 account as being factual.
The linguistic scholar who published his book on The World’s Oldest Alphabet [Hebrew] complained in his video documentary about the difficulty he had to find a publisher because his findings conflicted with conventional historical consensus ({1}, Authorship of the Hebrew Law). His story is only one example of the immense pressure within the conventional scientific community to conform to scientific and dating consensus. “Going with the flow” facilitates good scientific peer relations, getting papers published, and continued research funding.
Glacial ice core dating
Creation scientists claim that that the global Flood recorded in Genesis 7 several thousand years ago produced a single ice age that followed. Details of the ice age from a biblical perspective are explained in Topical note 4, The Ice Age. Earth’s present receding glaciers resulted from this ice age and conventional scientists have analyzed deep ice cores to determine their composition and ages.
Conventional scientists date the Greenland glaciers as 800,000 years old by counting the “annual” layers in deep ice cores they drilled. But these layers have multiple sublayers that make true annual layer counting challenging and questionable{4}. Also, the tremendous weight of the overlying ice at the top of cores compacts the older, lower annual layers close together so they are more difficult to resolve, count, and analyze. Creation scientists argue the bottom ice core layers are greatly over counted so these glaciers are actually much younger.
The Antarctic ice plateau is a “polar desert” with almost no precipitation, that makes “annual” layers in glacial cores from the Antarctic too thin to count. So secular researchers simply assign dates to these glaciers- as a million years old or more. Creation scientists say these assigned dates are meaningless, and imaging of the terrain under antarctic glaciers shows too little erosion from glacial movement for them to be millions of years old. Recently conventional researchers have tried to correlate their proposed many ice ages with long-period axis tilt variations during the earth's orbit around the sun that that presumably cooled the earth at these times and was published in the celebrated “Pacemaker” article{5}. However, a newer study by creation researchers discovered dating discrepancies of signature isotope levels in sea floor sediment cores that were used to date the proposed ice ages in the earlier research{6} so they no longer correspond with earth's orbital tilt variations. So far, no one in the conventional science community has commented on the effect of these dating discrepancies on the astronomical model for ice ages. Creation scientists say this makes support for this theory for many ice ages very questionable, and that cooling due to variations in Earth’s tilt and orbit around the sun is minimal and could not start an ice age.
Lake bed core dating:
Similar counting problems of alleged varves (visible annual layers) caused erroneous dating of a lake bed core in Japan that was used as evidence for an age of over 100,000 years{23}.
A free internet video produced by a scientific creation organization is recommended viewing{19}.
Click on live web links to select internet references:
{1} Genesis 1, note 3, ref {1}: Snelling, "Isochron Discordances...".
{2} Snelling, A.A., “The cause of Anomalous Potassium-Argon Ages for Recent Andesite Flows at Mt. Ngauruhoe, New Zealand and the Implications for Potassium-Argon dating”, Proc 4th ICC, 1998, p503-525. Internet post: A conventional scientist alerts that rock samples with a “zero” age (below 200,000 years) which specifically pertains to newly erupted volcanic rocks will not have enough daughter argon to give a valid date. Such measurements are in the “noise” level of this radiometric dating method.
{3} Dirks, P.H. et al. 2017. The age of Homo nadeli and associated sediments
in the Rising Star Cave, South Africa. eLife. 6: e24231. (Radiometric ages of the site reported an age range of 235-335ka.)
{4} Hebert, J., Creation Science Update, ICR publ, 4-27-18.
{5} Hays, J.D., 1976 (“Pacemaker” article). Science. 194 (4270):1121-1132.
{6} Hebert, J., Creation Science Update, ICR publ, 12-26-16.
{7} https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2007/12/north-dakota-dinosaur-mummy/ (A partially mummified hadrosaur named Dakota was discovered in North Dakota.)
{7a} https://www.childrensmuseum.org/World%E2%80%99s-Most-Complete-Mummified-Dinosaur (A completely mummified hadrosaur named Leonardo was discovered in Montana.)
{8} Cupps, Vernon, February 2020, Acts and Facts (ICR publ.), Nuclear Fission Dating methods Are Unreliable, p11-13.
{9} Jenkoins, J.H. et al, 2010, Analysis of environmental influences in nuclear half-life measurements exhibiting time dependent decay rates, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrophotometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 620 (2-3):332-342. (Variation of nuclear decay constant)
{10} Cardone, F.R. et al, 2009, Piezonuclear decay of Thorium, Physics Letters A. 373 (22):1956-1958. (Influence of external factors on nuclear decay constant)
{11} Cupps, Vernon, June 2020 Acts and Facts (ICR Publ.), Revisiting the Isochron Age Model Part I, p10-13. ({11,12} are a two-part article that fully describes the theory and math behind the isochron dating method and identifies its problems. Dr. Cupps was previously a nuclear physicist at Fermi Lab.)
{12) Cupps, Vernon, July 2020 Acts and Facts (ICR Publ.), Revisiting the Isochron Age Model Part II, p10-13.
{13}https://aip.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1063/1.4984870 (comparing
14C dates with historical dates, The Dated Sample−Target Event Relation, p060006-2)
{14}https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating (Physical and chemical details- proposed production mechanism for atmospheric 14C production)
{15} Joly, J., 1899, An estimate of the geological age of the earth. Scientific transactions of the Royal Dublin Society, New Series, 7(3). Reprinted in Annual report Smithonian Institution, June 30, 1899, pp247-288.
{16} Austin, S.A. and D.R Humphreys, The Sea’s Missing Salt: A dilemma for Evolutionists, Proceedings from the 2nd International Conference on Creation-ism, Pittsburgh, PA, Creation Science Fellowship, Inc. pp17-33, 1990.
{17} Tomkins, J., Cleary, T., December 2021, "Oceans Point to a Young Earth" Acts&Facts magazine, ICR publ.
{18} Bergman, Jerry, January 2019, Did Dinosaurs Come with or without Feathers? Acta&Facts magazine, ICR Publ, p16.
The organization, Is Genesis History? presents this very informative, less than 2hr free creation science video: (Click on the active web link, then click arrow to start video.)
{20} Sherwin, Frank, 2024, Science Scripture and Salvation, KWVE FM radio broadcast of Institute of Creation Research, KWVE FM, November 24. The program cited recent research that collagen in fossil animals becomes completely degraded within 10,000 years. However, secular science internet articles claim collagen must last over 100 million years in fossils because it is found in dinosaur fossils that were dated to be this old. Creation scientists complain such claims use “circular reasoning”.
{21} Thomas Brian, 2024 Science, Scripture and Salvation, KWVE FM radio broadcast of Institute of Creation Research, December 29. The program critiqued radiometric dating of rocks and fossils and explained that soft tissue proteins in dinosaur fossils debunk claims they are 65 million years old.
{23} Hebert, Jake, 2025 Science, Scripture and Salvation, KWVE FM radio broadcast of Institute of Creation Research, August 31.
W. Cook
Independent researcher August 2025
Contact: genesismakessense@gmail.com
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