Carbon-14 Dating Confirms Earth is Young

Carbon-14 Dating - Solar Rays Hitting Earth

Carbon-14 dating confirms the Bible's account of history that fossils are only thousands of years old.

How Carbon Dating Works

Carbon-14 forms in the atmosphere and is absorbed by plants.
High in the atmosphere carbon-14 forms from nitrogen-14.
Carbon-14 combines with oxygen to form radioactive CO².
Radioactive CO² is consumed by the plants.
Radioactive plants are consumed by animals.
Upon death the animal will have the same ¹²C:¹⁴C ratio as the atmosphere.
Carbon-14 has a half-life of about 5,730 years.
The ¹²C:¹⁴C ratio of a fossil can be measured and compared to the present ¹²C:¹⁴C ratio and the known decay rate to estimate the age of a fossil.

After 10 half-lives all the carbon-14 in a fossil will be gone.

After 10 half-lives all the carbon-14 in a fossil will be gone. If a fossil contains carbon-14, then the fossil is less than 60,000 years old.

Unproved Assumptions

#1: The starting amount of ¹⁴C is known.

Many factors would prevent the sample from consuming ¹⁴C during its lifetime thereby reducing the starting quantity of ¹⁴C. Not only do some plants discriminate CO² that contains ¹⁴C, but the ¹⁴C content changes considerably with latitude. If a plants (or animals that eat those plants) consume less ¹⁴C then they will carbon date to an older age.

#2: No ¹⁴C in the fossil has been lost.

Any loss of carbon-14 during fossilization or from exposure over the years would cause the sample to carbon date to an older age. In permineralization the minerals fill in the empty spaces to form a fossil, but in petrification the minerals completely replace the original cellular material and the ¹⁴C.

#3: The current 1T:1 ratio always been the same.

The biosphere currently contains 1 trillion carbon-12 atoms for every 1 carbon-14 atom (1T:1). The pre-Flood world contained much more plant life (as seen in massive coal seams). This means the past ¹²C:¹⁴C ratio was much larger before the Flood and fossils will have much less ¹⁴C.

#4: Earth's magnetic field has not changed.

Evidence from ancient pottery and lava flows indicate the magnetic field was stronger in the past. The stronger magnetic field would have shielded Earth from cosmic rays and solar flares resulting in less ¹⁴C production.

#5: Atmospheric ¹⁴C is at equilibrium.

Since the atmosphere has not yet reached equilibrium, it is not yet 30,000 years old. www.answersingenesis.org

Today more ¹⁴C is forming in the atmosphere than is decaying. Equilibrium should have been reached after 30,000 years, but since the 1940's it has been known that the atmospheric ¹⁴C is not yet at equilibrium. This means the atmosphere is not yet 30,000 years old. The lower ¹⁴C content in the past will cause fossils to carbon date to much older ages.

The Evidence: Carbon-14 in Fossils, Coal, & Diamonds

C14 Cretaceous Budden Canyon Formation Shell and Wood

A. A. Snelling, Radiocarbon Ages for Fossil Ammonites and Wood in Cretaceous Strata near Redding, California, Answers Research Journal 1 (2008): 123-144.

A fossilized ammonite and piece of wood in the Lower Cretaceous Budden Canyon Formation near Redding, California are assigned an age of 112 million to 120 million years old according to the geologic column.

Not only do trees not grow where ammonites live (indicating catastrophic burial conditions), but the sample carbon dated to an uncorrected 'age' of 48,710 and 42,390 years BP respectively.

C14 Jurassic Hornton Quarries Wood Sample AiG

A. A. Snelling, Young Radiocarbon Date for Ancient Fossil Wood Challenges Fossil Dating, Creation Ex Nihilo, March 2000

Fossilized wood samples from the Early Jurassic Hornton Quarries in southern England are assigned an age of 189 million years according to the geologic column.

They carbon dated to uncorrected ‘ages’ ranging from 20,700 to 28,820 years BP.

C14 Middle Triassic Hawkesbury Sandstone

A. A. Snelling, Dating Dilemma: Fossil Wood in ‘Ancient’ Sandstone, Creation Ex Nihilo, June 1999

A petrified wood inclusion in the Middle Triassic Hawkesbury Sandstone was assigned an age of 225-230 million years according to the geologic column.

It carbon dated to an uncorrected 'age' of 33,720 ± 430 years BP.

A. A. Snelling, Radiocarbon in an ‘ancient’ fossil tree stump casts doubt on traditional rock/fossil dating, Creation Ex Nihilo, September 1998

A coalified stump found in the Upper Permian coal bed in Sydney, Australia was assigned an age of 250 million years according to the geologic column.

It carbon dated to an uncorrected 'age' of 33,700 ± 400 years BP.

A. A. Snelling, Radiocarbon Ages for Fossil Ammonites and Wood in Cretaceous Strata near Redding, California, Answers Research Journal 1 (2008): 123-144.

Ten coal samples from Eocene, Cretaceous, and Pennsylvanian geological formations that supposedly formed 40 million to 300 million years ago.

They carbon dated to uncorrected 'ages' ranging from 48,000 to 50,000 years BP.

Lindgren, J. et al. 2011. Microspectroscopic Evidence of Cretaceous Bone Proteins. PloS ONE. 6 (4): e19445.

Unfossilized tissue of a mosasaur bone from the Maastrichtian Phosphatic Chalk of Ciply, Belgium was carbon dated to an 'age' of 24,600 years BP.

These dinosaurs supposed to have lived 70 million years ago.

Not only does the presence of carbon-14 indicate this fossil is not millions of years old but this is just one of several cases that the dinosaur fossil was not even completely fossilized indicating a recent burial.

J. R. Baumgardner, “14C Evidence for a Recent Global Flood and a Young Earth,” in Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth: Results of a Young-Earth Creationist Research Initiative, eds. L. Vardiman, A. A. Snelling, and E. F. Chaffin (El Cajon, California: Institute for Creation Research, and Chino Valley, Arizona: Creation Research Society, 2005), pp. 587–630.

Diamonds are the the hardest known naturally occurring substance and the chemical construction make them highly resistant to contamination.

Significant levels of carbon-14 found inside diamonds indicate they have an uncorrected 'age' of 55,000 years BP. Diamonds supposedly formed 1 to 2 billion years ago deep inside the earth, but since they contain carbon-14 that means they must be less than 60,000 years old.

Fossils from all strata contain ¹⁴C that cannot be explained by contamination. This evidence confirms that they are only thousands of years old.

Description	Location	Chronostratigraphic Unit		Carbon Date	pMC
Unfossilized Mosasaur Bone	Ciply, Belgium	Cretaceous	70 Ma	24,600	5.10
Fossilized Ammonite	Redding, California	Cretaceous	120 Ma	48,710	0.28
Fossilized Piece of Wood	Redding, California	Cretaceous	120 Ma	42,390	0.59
Fossilized Wood Samples	Southern England	Jurassic	189 Ma	20,700	8.18
Petrified Wood Inclusion	Sydney, Australia	Triassic	230 Ma	33,720	1.69
Coalified Stump	Sydney, Australia	Permian	250 Ma	33,700	1.70
US DoE Coal Sample	Kentucky, USA	Pennsylvanian	318 Ma	44,489	0.46
US DoE Coal Sample	Texas, USA	Eocene	56 Ma	48,022	0.30
US DoE Coal Sample	North Dakota, USA	Eocene	56 Ma	51,374	0.20
US DoE Coal Sample	Montana, USA	Eocene	56 Ma	48,893	0.27
US DoE Coal Sample	Utah, USA	Cretaceous	145 Ma	57,104	0.10
US DoE Coal Sample	Arizona, USA	Cretaceous	145 Ma	52,245	0.18
US DoE Coal Sample	Pennsylvania, USA	Pennsylvanian	318 Ma	54,935	0.13
US DoE Coal Sample	Pennsylvania, USA	Pennsylvanian	318 Ma	51,798	0.19
US DoE Coal Sample	Illinois, USA	Pennsylvanian	318 Ma	48,302	0.29
Diamonds	Namibia, Africa	Proterozoic	1,000 Ma	52,717	0.17

The “chronostratigraphic unit” is the name assigned to the layer of rock. The age given in million years (Ma) is an assumption based on the belief in evolution (not science). The carbon years before present (YBP) have not been corrected with the assumptions above and don't conflict with a 6,000 year old earth. Any percentage modern carbon (pMC) above 0.01 support the biblical age of the earth and is proof that fossils and rock layers are not millions of years old.