Strontium Ratio Variation in Marine Carbonates

In 1948, geologist F. E. Wickman predicted that the decay of 87Rb (a rubidium isotope) in the earth’s crust and mantle would be reflected in a related increase in the 87Sr/86Sr (two strontium isotopes) in seawater as well as in strontium-bearing marine precipitates.1 This would seem a perfectly reasonable prediction within the millions-of-years paradigm that the academic geological community of the time preferred. This allowed plenty of time for the isotropic distribution of 87Sr and 86Sr in seawater and the associated marine sediments.2,3

Several challenging questions arise from these studies:

1. How is it possible for the relative natural abundance of 87Sr and 86Sr to be virtually the same today as it was 560 million years ago? If the only source of 87Sr in the crust and thus in seawater is the decay of 87Rb, shouldn’t the ratio of 87Sr/86Sr have steadily increased over a half-billion-year-plus timespan?

2. Why do Burke and his co-authors throw away similar-aged samples with low strontium content or high insoluble content in order to obtain tighter clustering of the 87Sr/86Sr ratio?

3. Do the dramatic gyrations of the 87Sr/86Sr ratio better fit catastrophic mixing over a much shorter time interval?

4. The maximum value that the seawater 87Sr/86Sr ratio can reach in this model is 0.720 if contributions only come from sialic (crustal) rocks. Yet, values of 0.748 and 0.930 are observed in modern isochrons constructed from crustal rocks.8,9

5. Finally, stratigraphic dating was apparently used to establish the time frame during which each group of marine deposits was set down. How do we know that a certain rock layer was laid down 100 million years ago? We’re told we “know” how old the rock layer is because of the fossils it contains, and we “know” how old the marine deposits are because of the rock layer they occur in. This is circular reasoning at its clearest and not acceptable science.

http://www.drvernoncupps.com/nuclear-physicist-drvernoncupps-bio/

Dr. Vernon Cupps:

Dr. Cupps obtained a B.S. with Honors in Physics from the University of Missouri in 1969 and a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics from Indiana University in 1987. From 1980 to 1987, he was employed as a Research Assistant at the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility. He has been an officer in US Navy and worked as an applied physicist in a DOD material analysis laboratory. Between 1987 and 1988, Dr. Cupps filled a postdoctoral fellowship with Rutgers University. During this time, he helped plan, set up, and run experiments to probe the reaction mechanisms for pion absorption on nucleii, polarization responses of the nuclear continuum, and precision measurements of the (p,p) and (p,d) scattering cross sections at LAMPF in Los Alamos, NM. Since 1988, he has been employed at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory where he manages the Radionuclide Analysis Facility, serves as liaison physicist to the Research Division, performs various Health Physics functions for the Fermilab ES&H Section, and serves as the Quality Assurance representative for the Fermilab ES&H Section.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.