The Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism (2018)

Sanders, R.W. 2018. Creationist commentary on and analysis of tree-ring data: A review. In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism , ed. J.H. Whitmore, pp. 516–524. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Creation Science Fellowship. CREATIONIST COMMENTARY ON AND ANALYSIS OF TREE-RING DATA: A REVIEW Roger W. Sanders , Core Academy of Science, PO Box 1076, Dayton, TN 37321 rsanders4175@gmail.com ABSTRACT This paper 1) reviews the creationist literature concerning the use of tree growth rings in determining the ages of long- lived trees, developing post-Pleistocene chronologies, calibrating radiocarbon dates, and estimating past climates, and 2) suggests positive research directions using these data to develop creationist models of biblical earth history. Only a single author attempted to use tree-ring data to model pre-Flood climate zonation. However, most commentaries and studies focused on dendrochronology and using it to calibrate radiocarbon dates. Of these, most authors either 1) accepted conventional use of rings as annual indicators but rejected cross-matching with dead logs to produce master tree-ring chronologies extending to a date that may predate the Flood, or 2) proposed multiple rings per year reducing the dates to post-date the Flood, or 3) some combination of 1 and 2, or 4) accepted annual rings and cross-matched master chronologies but extended the date of the Flood prior to those chronologies via biblically acceptable gaps. All authors concerned with radiocarbon dating accepted it as reproducible but disagreed concerning the calibration provided by master chronologies, especially that of the bristlecone pine. The main issues raised by those objecting to calibration is that master chronologies are unreliable and the radiocarbon production rate has varied widely from the Flood until now. This paper calls for research into six areas (biblical studies, physiology of tree growth, C-14 flux through time, possible C-14 contamination, geologic and climatic context of Flood/post-Flood, and biogeographic history of dated trees) to attempt to resolve some of these disagreements and unknowns in order to build a consensus dendrochronology calibration model to convert radiocarbon dates into real time. This paper also calls for research to build creationist models of past environments, but this largely depends on first resolving the dendrochronology issues. KEY WORDS tree growth rings, tree-ring dating, dendrochronology, C-14 dating, paleoecology, C-14 flux, bristlecone pine, cli- mate Copyright 2018 Creation Science Fellowship, Inc., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA www.creationicc.org 516 INTRODUCTION In botany class a student learns that as trees grow in girth they produce a characteristic growth ring in the wood that marks one annual increment. The inner circumference of the ring is light- colored, forming in the rapid growth of spring and early summer; the outer circumference is darker and denser, formed during the slower growth of late summer and completes the ring as the tree goes dormant for the winter. Thus, from the outer margin of the dark wood of one ring to the outer margin of dark wood of the adjacent ring is one year’s growth. Of course, this is only a generalization that must be fine-tuned with accurate knowledge of the particular tree species and particular location: mid-season drought can cause a tree to stop and then start growth, making more than one ring in that annual increment, whereas trees in the wet tropics usually grow continuously and have no distinct rings. All this would be of little interest from a creation biology standpoint if it were not for the ability of trees to give a measure of time and past conditions on the earth. This is especially true because certain trees are old enough to potentially support or contradict a Biblical chronology derived from the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, and Kings. Dendrochronology, the science of using tree rings to obtain ages of trees, assumes the growth rings are annual increments unless there is some compelling reason to verify otherwise. Dendrochronologists also generate composite tree-ring chronologies by finding dead trunks and cross-matching rings in their outer parts with rings in the inner parts (i.e., from the earlier formed rings) of living trees or of younger dead trunks. The purpose is to determine the age of, for example, timber used in ancient buildings and, hence, the age of the buildings themselves. Assumptions are also made about the effect of weather conditions on the characteristics of the rings and about extrapolating present conditions into the past. Besides using tree rings to estimate tree ages and obtain extended chronologies, these data are used to interpret past climatic conditions. Interestingly, two events converged to make this all relevant to creationism. In 1961 The Genesis Flood (Whitcomb and Morris 1961) was published and initiated the resurgence of young earth creationism among evangelicals. A few years before this, dendrochronologists discovered and counted the supposedly oldest living tree, an individual of a bristlecone pine (BCP) species ( Pinus longaeva , the Great Basin BCP) called “Methuselah,” in the arid White Mountains of southeastern California near tree line (Earle 2018). It has over 4,600 rings, which, if these represent years, is close to the time when many creationists would date the Flood. Thus, creationists began to think of ways to use dendrochronology to support biblical chronologies and model past environments. However, later in the 1960s dendrochronologists began generating a composite BCP tree-ring chronology called the master BCP’s chronology that now extends to about 9,000 years before present (BP). This is a serious challenge to a Biblical chronology developed from a straight-forward reading of either the Masoretic Text (MT) or the Septuagint (LXX). Therefore, most of the attention on tree rings by creationists has