Dr. Andrew A. Snelling Education PhD, Geology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, 1982 BSc, Applied Geology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, First Class Honours, 1975
Professional Experience
Field, mine, and research geologist, various mining companies, Australia , Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Consultant researcher researcher and writer , Australia, 1983 – 1992 1992 Geological consultant, Koongarra uranium project , Denison Australia PL, 1983 – 1992 1992 Collaborative researcher researcher and writer, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organisation (CSIRO), Australia, 1981 – 1987 1987 Professor of geology, Institute for Creation Research , San Diego, CA, 1998 – 2007 2007 Staff member, Creation Science Foundation (later Answers in Genesis – Australia), Australia), Australia, 1983 – 1998
Founding editor, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal (now Journal of Creation), 1984 – 1998 1998
Researcher and editor, Radioisotopes and the Age of The Earth (RATE), 1997 – 2005 2005
Editor-in-chief, Proce , 2008 Procee edings of th e Six Six th I nternati onal Conferenc Conference e on Creationism
Director of Research, Answers in Genesis, Petersburg, KY, 2007 – present
Professional Professional Affiliations Geological Society of Australia /Geological Society Society of America America /Geological Association of Canada/
Mineralogical Society of America / Society of Economic Geologists /Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits / Creation Research Society /Creation Geology Society Dr. Andrew A. Snelling is perhaps one of the world's leading researchers in flood geology.He worked for a number of years in the mining industry throughout Australia undertaking mineral exploration surveys and field research. He has also been a consultant research geologist for more than a decade to the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for internationally funded research on the geology and geochemistry of uranium ore deposits as analogues of nuclear waste disposal sites..His primary research interests include radioisotopic methods for the dating of rocks, formation of igneous and metamorphic rocks, and ore deposits. He is one of a controlled number permitted to take rock samples from the Grand Canyon.He was also a founding member of the RATE group (Radioisotopes and the Age of The Earth). Andrew completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Geology with First Class Honours at The University of New South Wales in Sydney, and graduated a Doctor of Philosophy (in geology) at The an i u m d e p o s i t , University of Sydney, for his thesis entitled A g e o c h e m i c a l s t u d y o f t h e K o o n g a r r a u r an . Between studies and since, Andrew worked for six years in the exploration Northern Territory, Aus tralia and mining industries in Tasmania, New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and the Northern Territory variously as a field, mine and research geologist. Full-time with the Australian creation ministry from 1983 to 1998, he was during this time also called upon as a geological consultant to the Koongarra uranium project (1983 –1992). Consequently, he was involved in research projects with various CSIRO ( Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), ANSTO ( Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation ) and University scientists across Australia, and with scientists from the USA, Britain, Japan, Sweden and the International Atomic Energy Agency. As a result of this research, Andrew was involved in writing scientific papers that were published in international scientific journals. Andrew Andrew has been involved in extensive creationist research in Australia and overseas, including the formation of all types of mineral deposits, radioactivity in rocks and radioisotopic dating, and the formation of metamorphic and igneous rocks, sedimentary strata and landscape features (e.g. Grand Canyon, USA, and Ayers Rock, Australia) within the creation framework for earth history. As well as writing regularly and extensively in international creationist publications, Andrew has travelled around Australia and widely overseas (USA, UK, New Zealand, South Africa, Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China) speaking in schools, churches, colleges and universities, particularly on the overwhelming scientific evidence consistent with the Global Flood and the Creation.
HOW OLD IS EARTH – EARTH – 10 10 BEST EVIDENCES THAT CONFIRM A YOUNG EARTH ………………………………………... 4 EVIDENCES FROM THE RADIOHALOS
Radiohalos—Mysterious Bullet Holes in Rocks…………………………………………………………………………. 11 Radiohalos—The Mysterious Vanishing Bullets………………………………………………………………………… 12 Radiohalos—Solving the Mystery of the Missing Bullets ………………………………………………………………. 15 Radiohalos in Multiple, Sequentially Intruded Phases of the Bathurst Batholith, NSW, Australia………………… 17 Radiohalos and Diamonds………………………………………………………………………………………………... .38 Radiohalos in the Cooma Metamorphic Complex……………………………………………………………………… 43 Radiohalos in the Shap Granite, Lake District, England England Evidence that Removes Objections to to Flood Geology.. 52 Radiohalos— A Tale of Three Granitic Plutons….…………………………………………………………………….… 62 Implications of of Polonium Polonium Radiohalos in Nested Plutons of the the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite, Yosemite, Yosemite, California California…73 Testing the Hydrothermal Fluid Transport Model for Polonium Radiohalo Formation……………………………… 84
EVIDENCES FROM THE MAGNETIC FIELD
More Evidence of Rapid Geomagnetic Reversals Confirms a Young Earth……………………………………….…89 The “Principle of Least Astonishment”! ... ……………………………………………………………………………… ..93 The Earth’s Magnetic Field and the Age of the Earth….………………… Earth….……………………………………… ……………………………………… …………………….… ….… 94 Fossil Magnetism Reveals Rapid Reversals of the Earth's Magnetic Field………………………………………… .96 ***
Rocks Around the Clock: Do Zircons Contain Reliable Time Stamps and Early Earth’s Secrets? .......................98 Journey to the Center of the Earth……………………………………………………………………………………… 101 Giant’s Causeway Northern Ireland …………………………………………………….……………………………… 102 The Devils Marbles………………………………………………………………………………………………….…… 104 Arches of Utah……………………………………………………………………………………….…………………… 104 Hawaii’s Volcanic Origins—Instant Paradise……………………………………………………………………..…… 105 The Florida Sinkhole Tragedy …………………………………………………………………………….…… ……… .108 Volcanoes—Windows Into Earth’s Past…………………… Past…………………………………… ………………………………… …………………………………. ………………. ...…… . 110 Does Sand Prove Long Ages? …………………………………………………………………………………… …… 112 Thirtieth Anniversary of a Geologic Catastrophe……………………………………………………………………… 113 The Cooling of Thick Igneous Bodies on a Young Earth…………………………………………………………….. .115 Catastrophic Granite Formation…. ……………………………………………………………………..……………… 123 Conflicting ‘Ages’ of Tertiary Basalt and Contained Fossilised Wood ………………………………………………. 132
RAPID ROCKS
Granites … They Didn’t Need Millions of Years of Cooling ….………………………………… ….…………………………………………………… …………………….. ….. 150 “Rapid” Granite Formation?....... ………………………………………………………………………………...……… 152 Towards a Creationist Explanation of Regional Metamorphism…..…………………………………………………. 153 Australia’s Burning Mountain….…………………………… Mountain….……………………………………………… ……………………………………… ……………………………………… …………………… … .166 When Was the Ice Age in Biblical History?... …………………………………………………………………….…… 169
ASTRO GEOLOY
Moon Dust and the Age of the Solar System………………………………………………………… ……….……… 172 Solar Neutrinos—The Critical Shortfall Still Elusive……………………………………………………………...…… 197 Galaxy-Quasar ‘Connection’ Defies Explanation………………… Explanation…………………………………… ……………………………………… ………………………………… …………… 198 Saturn’s Rings—Short-Lived and Young ……………………………………………………………………………… .198 That Matter of the Shrinking Sun………………………………………………………………………………..……… .199
GOLD
A Little Bit of Heaven on Earth….……………………………………………… ……………………………………… 200
CRYSTALS
Shape-Shifting Silicon………………………………………………………………………….………………………… 202 Rubies & Sapphires…………………………………………………………………………….………………………… 205 Microscopic Diamonds Confound Geologists………………………………………………………………………… .207 Creating Opals ……………………………………………………………………………………..…………………… ..208 Diamonds—Evidence of Explosive Geological Processes…………………………………………………………… 209 Growing Opals— Australian Style….…………………………………………………… ……………………………… 211
HOW OLD IS EARTH – EARTH – 10 10 BEST EVIDENCES THAT CONFIRM A YOUNG EARTH #1 Very Little Sediment on the Seafloor
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on October 1, 2012 If sediments have been accumulating on the seafloor for three billion years, the seafloor should be choked with sediments many miles deep.Every year water and wind erode about 20 billion tons of dirt and rock debris from the continents and deposit them on the seafloor .1 (Figure 1). Most of this material accumulates as loose sediments near the continents. Yet the average thickness of all these sediments globally over the whole seafloor is not even 1,300 feet (400 m). m).2Some sediments appear to be removed as tectonic plates slide slowly (an inch or two per year) beneath continents. An estimated 1 billion tons of sediments are removed this way each year . 3 The net gain is thus 19 billion tons per year. At this rate, 1,300 feet of sediment would accumulate in less than 12 million years, not billions of years.This evidence makes sense within the context of the Flood cataclysm, not the idea of slow and gradual geologic evolution. In the latter stages of the year-long global Flood, water swiftly drained off the emerging land, dumping its sediment-chocked loads offshore. Thus most seafloor sediments accumulated rapidly about 4,300 years ago. ago.4 Where Is All the Sediment? Figure 1: Every year, 20 billion tons of dirt and rock debris wash into the ocean and accumulate on the seafloor. Only 1 billion tons (5%) are removed by tectonic plates. At this rate, the current thickness of seafloor sediment would accumulate in less than 12 million years. Such sediments are easily explained by water draining off the continents towards the end of the Flood. Rescuing Devices
Those who advocate an old earth insist that the seafloor sediments must have accumulated at a much slower rate in the past. But this rescuing de vice doesn’t “stack up”! Like the sediment layers on the continents, the sediments on the continental shelves and margins (the majority of the seafloor sediments) have features that unequivocally indicate they were deposited much faster than today’s rates. For example, the layering and patterns of various grain sizes in these sediments are the same as those produced by undersea landslides, when dense debris-laden currents (called turbidity currents) flow rapidly across the continental shelves and the sediments then settle in thick layers over vast areas. An additional problem for the old-earth view is that no evidence exists of much sediment being subducted and mixed into the mantle. #2 Bent Rock Layers
by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling on October 1, 2012 In many mountainous areas, rock layers thousands of feet thick have been bent and folded without fracturing. How can that happen if they were laid down separately over hundreds of millions of years and already hardened?Hardened rock layers are brittle. Try bending a slab of concrete sometime to see what happens! But if concrete is still wet, it can easily be shaped and molded before the cement sets. The same principle applies to sedimentary rock layers. They can be bent and folded soon after the sediment is deposited, before the natural cements have a chance to bind the particles together into hard, brittle rocks. rocks.1The region around Grand Canyon is a great example showing how most of the earth’s fossil bearing layers were laid down quickly and many were folded while still wet. Exposed in the canyon’s walls are about 4,500
feet (1,370 meters) of fossil-bearing layers, conventionally labelled Cambrian to Permian. Permian. 2 They were supposedly deposited over a period lasting from 520 to 250 million years ago. Then, amazingly, this whole sequence of layers rose over a mile, around 60 million years ago. The plateau through which Grand Canyon runs is now 7,000 –8,000 feet (2,150 – 3,450 meters) above sea level. Layers Laid Down Quickly and Bent While Soft
Figure 1: The Grand Canyon
now cuts through many rock layers. Previously, all these layers were raised to their current elevation (a raised, flat region known as the Kaibab Plateau). Somehow this whole sequence was bent and folded without fracturing. That’s impossible if the first layer, the Tapeats Sandstone, was deposited over North America 460 million years before being folded. But all the layers would still be relatively soft and pliable if it all happened during the recent, global Flood. Figure 2: This phenomenon was not regional. The Tapeats Sandstone spans the continent, and other layers span much of the globe. Think about it. The time between the first deposits at Grand Canyon (520 million years ago) and their bending (60 million years ago) was 460 million years! Look at the photos of some of these layers at the edge of the plateau, just east of the Grand Canyon. The whole sequence of these hardened sedimentary rock layers has been bent and folded, but without fracturing (Figure 1).3 At the bottom of this sequence is the Tapeats Sandstone, which is 100 –325 feet (30 –100 meters) thick. It is bent and folded 90° (Photo 1). The Muav Limestone above it has similarly been bent (Photo 2 ). ). Photo courtesy Andrew A. Snelling Photo 1: The whole sequence
of sedimentary layers through which Grand Canyon cuts has been bent and folded without fracturing. This includes the Tapeats Sandstone, located at the bottom of the sequence. (A 90° fold in the eastern Grand Canyon is pictured here.)
Photo courtesy Andrew A. Snelling Photo 2: All the layers through which
Grand Canyon cuts—including the Muav Limestone shown here—have been bent without fracturing. However, it supposedly took 270 million years to deposit these particular layers. Surely in that time the Tapeats Sandstone at the bottom would have dried out and the sand grains cemented together, especially with 4,000 feet (1,220 m) of rock layers piled on top of it and pressing down on it? The only viable scientific explanation is that the whole sequence was deposited very quickly—the young age model indicates that it took took less than a year, during the global Flood cataclysm. So the 520 million years never happened, and the earth is young. Rescuing Devices
What solution do old-earth advocates suggest? Heat and pressure can make hard rock layers pliable, so they claim this must be what happened in the eastern Grand Canyon, as the sequence of many layers above pressed down and heated up these rocks. Just one problem. The heat and pressure would have transformed these layers into quartzite, marble, and other metamorphic rocks. Yet Tapeats Sandstone is still sandstone, a sedimentary rock! But this quandary is even worse for those who deny recent creation and the Flood. The Tapeats Sandstone
and its equivalents can be traced right across North America ( Figure 2 ),4 and beyond to right across northern Africa to southern Israel. Israel.5 Indeed, the whole Grand Canyon sedimentary sequence is an integral part of six megasequences that cover North America. America.6 Only a global Flood cataclysm could carry the sediments to deposit thick layers across several continents one after the other in rapid succession in one event. event .7 #3 Soft Tissue in Fossils
by Dr. David Menton on October 1, 2012 Ask the average layperson how he or she knows that the earth is millions or billions of years old, and that person will probably mention the dinosaurs, which nearly everybody “knows” died off 65
million years ago. A recent discovery by Dr. Mary Schweitzer, however, has given reason for all but committed evolutionists to question this assumption.Bone slices from the fossilized thigh bone (femur) of a Tyrannosaurus rex found in the Hell Creek formation of Montana were studied under the microscope by Schweitzer. To her amazement, the bone showed what appeared to be blood vessels of the type seen in bone and marrow, and these contained what appeared to be red blood cells with nuclei, typical of reptiles and birds (but not mammals). The vessels even appeared to be lined with specialized endothelial cells found in all blood vessels.Amazingly, the bone marrow contained what appeared to be flexible tissue. Initially, some skeptical scientists suggested that bacterial biofilms (dead bacteria aggregated in a slime) formed what only appear to be blood vessels and bone cells. Recently Schweitzer and coworkers found biochemical evidence for intact fragments of the protein collagen, which is the building block of connective tissue. This is important because collagen is a highly distinctive protein not made by bacteria. (See Schweitzer’s review article in Scientific American [December 2010, pp. 62 –69] titled “Blood from Stone.”)Some evolutionists have strongly criticized Schweitzer’s conclusions because they are understandably reluctant
to concede the existence of blood vessels, cells with nuclei, tissue elasticity, and intact protein fragments in a dinosaur bone dated at 68 million years old. Other evolutionists, who find S chweitzer’s evidence too compelling to ignore, simply conclude that there is some previously unrecognized form of fossilization that preserves cells and protein fragments over tens of millions of years. years.1 Needless to say, no evolutionist has publically considered the possibility that dinosaur fossils are not millions of years old. Tyler Lyson, Associated Press A Little Skin: A largely intact dinosaur mummy,
named Dakota, was found in the Hell Creek Formation of the Western U.S. in 2007. Some soft tissue from the long-necked hadrosaur was quickly preserved as fossil, such as the scales from its forearm shown here.An obvious question arises from Schweitzer’s work: is it even remotely plausible that blood vessels, cells, and protein fragments can exist largely intact over 68 million years? While many consider such long-term preservation of tissue and cells to be very unlikely, the problem is that no human or animal remains are known with certainty to be 68 million years old. But if creationists are right, dinosaurs died off only 3,000 –4,000 years ago. So would we expect the preservation of vessels, cells, and complex molecules of the type that Schweitzer reports for biological tissues historically known to be 3,000 –4,000 years old?The answer is yes. Many studies of Egyptian mummies and other humans of this old age (confirmed by historical evidence) show all the sorts of detail Schweitzer reported in her T. rex . In addition to Egyptian mummies, the Tyrolean iceman, found in the Alps in 1991 and believed to be about 5,000 years old, shows such incredible preservation of DNA and other microscopic detail.We conclude that the preservation of vessels, cells, and complex molecules in dinosaurs is entirely consistent with a young-earth creationist perspective but is highly implausible with the evolutionist’s perspective about dinosaurs that died off mill ions of years ago. #4 Faint Sun Paradox
by Dr. Danny Faulkner on Faulkner on October 1, 2012 Evidence
now
supports
astronomers’ belief that the sun’s
power comes from the fusion of hydrogen into helium deep in the sun’s core, but there is a huge
problem. As the hydrogen fuses, it should change the composition of the sun’s core, gradually increasing the sun’s temperature.
If true, this means that the earth was colder in the past. In fact, the earth would have been below freezing 3.5 billion years ago, when life supposedly evolved.The rate of nuclear fusion depends upon the temperature. As the sun’s core temperatures increase, the sun’s energy output should also increase,
causing the sun to brighten over time. Calculations show that the sun would brighten by 25% after 3.5 billion years. This means that an early sun would have been fainter, warming the earth 31°F (17°C) less than it does today. That’s below
freezing.
