THE BASIC PREMISE
Polonium halos are small spherical "shells" of radiation damage that
surround radioactive inclusions within certain minerals in rocks, which
Gentry has described in his book "Creation's Tiny Mystery." [1] The halos
are formed by alpha particles released during the decay of an isotope.
As an alpha particle nears the end of its path and slows, it causes
disruption of the crystal structure leaving a small damage track.
Over time, repeated decays from the parent isotope will leave
a spherical halo of discoloration. The distance that an alpha particle
travels depends upon the energy of the decay and that, in turn, is a
function of the particular nuclide that decays. Theoretically, then,
the radii of a series of halos that surround a radioactive inclusion
permit identification of the specific decaying nuclides.
Gentry has claimed that certain of these halos indicate that the
granite "basement rocks" of the earth are "the primordial Genesis rocks"
and were created instantaneously about six thousand years ago.
Essentially, Gentry has found that in certain samples of Precambrian
biotite (a mica) the inner ring halos for uranium and other nuclides
in the decay chain which should be producing Polonium 210, Po214 and
Po218 are missing; only the polonium rings for these three isotopes
are present. In addition, Gentry observed little or no uranium
in the radioactive inclusion. His conclusion is that the polonium
must have been primordial and, because of the short half-lves of
the polonium isotopes (138.4 days , 0.000164 sec. and 3.04 minutes,
respectively), the granite, therefore, must have been created in the
solid state in "only a brief period between 'nucleosynthesis' and
crystallization of the host rock." [1, p. 270]
The fact that Gentry has published in Nature, Science and Medical Opinion
and Review leads one to believe that there is a fair amount of support
for his work, but Gentry avoids making direct creationist statements
in these works -- it seems he is only cautiously trying to link the rocks
of the Precambrian to the rocks that existed right after the Earth's
formation - or creation. His book, however, leaves no doubt on his
position:
"Were tiny polonium halos God's fingerprints in Earth's primordial
rocks? Could it be that the Precambrian granites were the Genesis rocks
of our planet?" [1, p. 32]1
THE GEOLOGY
The first curiosity that Wakefield uncovered was that the sites from
which Gentry obtained his samples were not in the older Archean era of
the Precambrian, as one would expect, but in fact were in the
considerably younger (as dated radiometrically and structurally)
Proterozoic era; specifically, the Proterozoic Grenville Supergroup of
the Grenville Province, here in Ontario. This misunderstanding came
about because Gentry is annoyingly vague on exact sites in his book.
One mine, the Silver Crater Mine, is mentioned specifically, while the
remaining sites are described only as being in Madagascar, New Hampshire
and Norway. This tendency towards vagueness also occurs in his Medical
Opinion and Review article, in which he refers to "the Wolsendorf (Bavaria)
fluorite." [2]
After some research, Wakefield tracked down the three sites, all near
Bancroft in southern Ontario. Regarding the first site, the Fission Mine,
it appeared to Wakefield that this was where Gentry obtained his fluorite
samples and some of his biotite. Gentry denied this, saying they had
come from Germany, but Louis Moyd of the Mational Museum in Ottawa indicated
that samples from the Fission Mine were in fact sent to Gentry. I will
break tradition briefly and quote Wakefield exactly,
"it is clear we are dealing with intrusive calcite vein dikes (rocks
containing mostly the mineral calcite and other minerals, such as mica)
that are small in length and width and cut metasedimentary rocks which
still retain bedding planes. Radioactive minerals abound in this
locality. Percolating water from the hill the deposit occupies is strongly
radioactive and was sold in the 1920s for therapeutic purposes."
The second site, the Silver Crater mine, is related to the Fission mine
and is a calcite intrusive of the same origin. Neither of these mines are
in fact granites, a fact Gentry gets wrong. In addition, while Gentry
claims that "halos occur in many mica samples which have not undergone
metamorphism of any kind," the micas of the Silver Crater were indeed
formed during metamorphism under the load of moderate-depthed overburden,
whch has since been eroded off. Gentry's primordial biotite was in
fact metamorphically derived.
The third site, the Faraday mine, I will touch on only briefly.
Gentry emphasizes that the oddity of the halos is that there is no
uranium or thorium in the nucleus at the center of the polonium halos.
Unfortunately for him, the Faraday pegmatite was mined for uranium --
a total of some four million tons of U(3)O(8) ore were mined for a total
of 7.3 million pounds of uranium oxide until the mine's closure in 1984.
The most common radioactive mineral was uranothorite, hence lots of
uranium and thorium.
Gentry's case rests heavily on a "God-of-the-gaps"
approach to the halos; that is, it requires that there be no acceptable
naturalistic explanation for the halos. Once such an explanation is
found, Gentry's case crumbles. One paper that proposes such a
naturalistic explanation is by N. K. Chaudhuri and R. H. Iyer [3].
I make no pretense about being able to understand the model they
present; perhaps those with the necessary background will help out here.
Gentry also has problems with accuracy in his quotation of other
scientific sources. In one case, Gentry (p. 71) refers to a paper by
N. Feather [4], saying that Feather discusses "clear mica (without any
conduits)," but there is no reference to this in Feather's paper.
In another instance, Gentry quotes Steven Talbott for scientific
support and provides a copy of Talbott's article in the appendices
of his book, but Talbott himself states that he has relied on two
sources for HIS information: phone calls with Gentry and "the available
technical literature", which turns out to be based on Gentry's own articles.
What Gentry has in essence done is to reference himself and attempt
to pass this off as independent corroboration.
[1] Gentry, R.V., 1986. Creation's Tiny Mystery. Knoxville, Tenn.
Earth Science Associates.
[2] Gentry, R.V., 1967. "Cosmology and the Earth's Invisible Realm."
Medical Opinion and Review. October, p. 79.
[3] N.K. Chaudhuri and R.H. Iyer, "Origin of Unusual Radioactive Halos,"
Radiation Effects, 1980, vol. 53, pp. 1-6.
[4] N. Feather, "The unsolved problem of the Po-halos in Precambrian biotite
and other old minerals," Comm. to the Royal Soc. of Edinburgh,
no. 11, 1978.
And for a more recent:
In the 6 October 1989 issue of SCIENCE magazine (Vol 246, #1 pp 107-109),
there is a report on work with Radiation Induced Color Halos (RICHs) in
quartz, suggesting a mechanism for the "Po halos" that removes their utility
as Creation Science evidence.
The abstract and first two-and-a-half and last one paragraphs of the report,
giving a summary of the problem and the authors' conclusion:
ABSTRACT
"The radii of radiation-induced color halos (RICHs) surrounding
radioactive mineral inclusions in mica generally correspond closely to
the calculated range of common uranogenic and thorogenic alpha particles in
mica. Many exceptions are known, however, and these variants have led
investigators to some rather exotic interpretations. Three RICHs found
in quartz are identified as aluminum hole-trapping centers. Whereas the
inner radii of these RICHs closely match the predicted range of the most
energetic common alphas (39 micrometers), the color centers observed
extend to 100 micrometers. Migration of valence-band holes down
a radiation-induced charge potential might account for these enigmatic
RICHs. Such RICHs provide natural experiments in ultraslow charge diffusion.
"In 1907 Joly pointed out that microscopic color halos commonly observed
surrounding small inclusions of radioactive minerals were caused by damage
produced by alpha particles emanating from the inclusions. Shortly
afterwards,
Rutherford noted a close correspondence between the radial size of halos and
the energies of the alpha particles. A number of workers have described
and measured these radiation-induced color halos (RICHs) and, from their
sizes, have tried to match them with specific radionuclides in the inclusions.
Although it seems possible to relate the sizes of most of the described halos
to alpha emitters in the U and Th decay chains, there are many exceptions.
Particularly controversial have been two (perhaps artificial) classes of
RICHs referred to as Po halos and giant halos.
"The Po haloes are RICHs that have a size and ring structure apparently
comparable with the range in silicate minerals of alpha particles emmited
by uranogenic Po radioisotopes of mass 210, 214, and 218, although this
interpretation has been challenged. Significantly, rings that can be
attributed to the other five alpha decays in the 238-U seroes seem to be
lacking. That the half-life of 218-Po is 3 min has not deterred some
investigators from proposing separation of Po from its radioactive progenitors
before its inclusion in minerals. Indeed, Po halos have even been offered
as possible evidence of an instantaneous creation.
"Giant halos are anomalous RICHs that have radii extending more than
approximately 47 um from the edge of the inclusion..."
[Their proposal is that aluminum inclusions can create a semi-conductive
area where beta particles can cause diffusion and discoloration over a
very large area]
"...We strongly suspect...that the sizes and structure of giant and Po
RICHs in mica are also artifacts of radiation-induced conductivity and their
explanation requires neither unknown radioactivity nor an abandonment of
current concepts of geologic time."
Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not necessarily
represent those opinions of this or any other organization. The facts,
however, simply are and do not "belong" to anyone.
jwm@sun4.jhuapl.edu or jwm@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu or meritt%aplvm.BITNET
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From: Daniel A Ashlock
To: All Msg #102, Mar-09-92 08:27AM
Subject: Re: Update to the ICR Lawsuit
Organization: Iowa State University
From: danwell@IASTATE.EDU (Daniel A Ashlock)
Message-ID: 1992Mar9.102742@iastate.edu
Reply-To: danwell@IASTATE.EDU (Daniel A Ashlock)
Newsgroups: talk.origins
From Jim L.'s summary (thanks for the effort, Jim):
> G. That defendants acknowledge that a private postsecondary
> educational institution may teach the creation model as being
> correct provided that the institution also teaches evolution.
Here's the lever, guys. Lets all pull on it.
(I) It will be a cold day in hell before the ICR teaches evolution. They
probably mention it lots but they can't "teach" it, it would kill
them.
(II) This judge just told them to teach two substantially contradictory
bodies of knowledge. This sounds like grounds for an appeal by
someone. No other institution offering science degrees contradicts
every single principle it is teaching while offering the "other"
view. Sheesh!
Dan
Danwell@IASTATE.EDU
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From: Daniel A Ashlock
To: All Msg #103, Mar-09-92 08:54AM
Subject: I witness befawha the Lohrd Awhlmighty
Organization: Iowa State University
From: danwell@IASTATE.EDU (Daniel A Ashlock)
Message-ID: 1992Mar9.105417@iastate.edu
Reply-To: danwell@IASTATE.EDU (Daniel A Ashlock)
Newsgroups: talk.origins
In article <1992Mar9.021630.5564@cbnewsm.att.com>, mls@cbnewsm.att.com
(mike.siemon) writes:
> Apparently, Jim Meritt cannot be satisfied UNLESS everyone on the net
> kowtows to HIS preference that all mention of creationism be suppressed
> OR allows Jim Meritt to go on in his ill-digested and discourteous spite
> whenever someone posts something offensive to His Merittoriousness.
If the issue is to be mentioned, both sides should be heard. I witness
before God and any other real or hypothetical hypothetical witnesses that
Jim Merrit has never, to my best knowledge, advocated the supression of
creationism. The above suggestion, then, is a dirty smear and an apology
is in order.
> If Jim would ever deflate his ego enough to allow for courteous dialogue
> with those who disagree with him,
Excuse me, but if anything the problem runs the other way. I've never
seen such nonsense as is posted by creationists. All of it rests on
arrogant, egotistical assumptions that they have the Revealed Word of
God, damn the evidence.
> he might find his contributions more
> acceptable to those who are not simple clones of his own position.
You seem to ignore massive debate within the evolution camp. Clones?
> I, for
> one, wrote him off about three years ago as being not worth the irritation
> of serious engagement when he makes ZERO effort to deal with any statement
> that does not happen to push his particular buttons.
You want him to waste bandwidth commenting on things he isn't
interested in?
> Jim is welcome to
> his obsessions; they are not mine, however much overlap might from time
> to time be observed between his and my perspectives. If he cannot be
> bothered to even acknowledge a different world from his own,
You have evidence for a seperate reality? You seem to be ingnoring the
possibility that one of two views can be substantially superior with reallity
(tm) as an objective arbiter.
> why should
> anyone else talk to him? What we get is Jim shouting back at "preachers"
> who do their own shouting -- there is nothing in this to engage a human
> intelligence. The idiocy of Creationist posturing is well-matched by
> Jim's demonizing of anything that contradicts his orthodoxy. Jim is
> the fundamentalist of talk.origins. I almost feel nervous when he says
> something I agree with.
Excuse me, but not only is Jim right (tm) but he has avowed the doctrine
of accepting new facts and alowing observation to modify conclusions. These
are not the acts of a fundamentalist. Could you define your terms while
avoiding further ironic self contradiction?
> --
> Michael L. Siemon In so far as people think they can see the
> "limits of human understanding", they think
> mls@usl.com of course that they can see beyond these.
> standard disclaimer -- Ludwig Wittgenstein
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From: Stephen C. Miller
To: All Msg #104, Mar-09-92 09:13AM
Subject: Re: 7-day Week
Organization: Indiana University
From: stcmille@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (Stephen C. Miller)
Message-ID: 1992Mar9.121356.1334@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu
Newsgroups: talk.origins
In article
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