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Carbon Dating I have never trusted the validity of Carbon Dating. It is at best a way to compare the relative age of found items at a particular dig. It is at worst a wild guess at the passage of time. While it may be fine for modern forensics, in which the elapsed time and conditions are fairly narrow in scope, using this method to gauge millenia would seem a fool's errand. Carbon Dating depends on a measure of the ratio of Carbon 14 to the total amount of carbon in a sample. Reportedly, carbon-based organisms (plant and animal) stop incorporating carbon when they die. We have found that Carbon 14 decays away over time, ie, that the ratio of Carbon 14 to total carbon gets smaller. We claim to know all about this rate of decay based on our 50 or so years experience with it, AND we seem to be sure that this rate is a constant. For me, that's a whole lot of assumption with little justification. The scientific community admits that the rate is affected by many factors. So much for a 'constant'. Also, carbon (including Carbon 14) can in fact accumulate within a sample after the death of the organism, which we consider contamination. We think we can tell the difference, sometimes, maybe. For example: It is possible for floodwater or groundwater to deposit carbon into an existing, fossilized organism. We think we have procedures for sorting these changes from the original condition, prior to the flooding or groundwater contamination, sort of. We also think we've learned how to account for oxidation, ordinary moisture, temperature changes, and soil or rock reactivity. Of course, such adjustments depend on our ability to accurately define the soil texture, depth below the soil surface (comparable to when?), the site-specific mean annual temperature and rainfall (based on what? carbon dating?), and the soil pH (again, at what point since the original deposit?). I can appreciate that Carbon Dating may be all we have as a gauge right now, but please, let us not declare it as gospel. It is naive and arrogant to even pretend that we can judge all measure of time from the comparative few nanoseconds in which we've been trying to take a look at it. Next in Sequence Select From Menu |
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