Claim CD221:
An upper limit for the age of the oceans is obtained by dividing the
amount of an element dissolved in the sea by the amount added each year by
rivers. These calculations yield the following figures:
| Element | Years to Accumulate |
| sodium | 260,000,000 |
| magnesium | 45,000,000 |
| silicon | 8,000 |
| potassium | 11,000,000 |
| copper | 50,000 |
| gold | 560,000 |
| silver | 2,100,000 |
| mercury | 42,000 |
| lead | 2,000 |
| tin | 100,000 |
| nickel | 18,000 |
| uranium | 500,000 |
Source:
Morris, Henry M., 1974. Scientific Creationism, Green Forest, AR: Master
Books, pp. 153-155.
Response:
- The numbers in the table are residence times, or the average time
that a small amount of an element stays in the sea water before being
removed. They are not times that it takes the element to accumulate,
and individual atoms may stay much briefer or longer than those times.
Elements in the ocean are in approximate equilibrium between sources
adding them and mechanisms removing them.
A detailed analysis of sodium, for
example,
shows that,
within measurement error, the amount of sodium added matches
the amount removed.
- Morris left aluminum off the list. It would show (according to Morris's
reasoning) that the earth is only 100 years old.
Links:
Matson, Dave E., 1994. How good are those young-earth arguments?
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/hovind/howgood-yea.html#proof13
Stassen, Chris, 1997. The age of the earth.
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-age-of-earth.html#ocean
References:
Further Reading:
Burton, J. D. and D. Wright, 1981. Sea water and its evolution. In: The
Evolving Earth, ed. L. R. M. Cocks. London: British Museum, 89-101.
created 2003-4-21, modified 2004-12-20
