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

Snelling, A.A. 2018. Radiohalos as an exploration pathfinder for granite-related hydrothermal ore veins: A case study in the New England Batholith, Eastern Australia. In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism , ed. J.H. Whitmore, pp. 567–580. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Creation Science Fellowship. RADIOHALOS AS AN EXPLORATION PATHFINDER FOR GRANITE-RELATED HYDROTHERMAL ORE VEINS: A CASE STUDY IN THE NEW ENGLAND BATHOLITH, EASTERN AUSTRALIA Andrew A. Snelling , Answers in Genesis, PO Box 510, Hebron, KY 41048 USA, asnelling@answersingenesis.org ABSTRACT It has been proposed that Po radiohalos were formed from Po derived by 238 U decay in the radiocenters of nearby 238 U radiohalos which was transported by hydrothermal fluids released from granite plutons as they cooled. Thus, since the same hydrothermal fluids have concentrated metals into economic ore veins in some granites, it has also been proposed Po radiohalos could potentially be used as an exploration pathfinder tool for discovering new ore veins associated with granites. This study in the New England Batholith, eastern Australia, found that Mole Granite samples proximal to known hydrothermal ore veins contained extremely high numbers of Po radiohalos, in contrast to a distant sample that contained almost 90% fewer Po radiohalos. However, in the Hillgrove Granite which also hosts hydrothermal ore veins, all samples contained moderate-high numbers of Po radiohalos similar to those in barren granite plutons elsewhere in the batholith. This is because the Hillgrove ore veins were not produced from the hydrothermal fluids expelled from that cooling pluton, but were precipitated from hydrothermal fluids as distant granitoid plutons cooled in a later magmatic event. Thus, the extremely high numbers of Po radiohalos in Mole Granite samples proximal to known ore veins successfully indicated their proximity to those ore veins. Therefore, Po radiohalos proved to be a reliable pathfinder for the hydrothermal ore veins. This strategy applied to the Stanthorpe Granite found two out of six samples with high to very high numbers Po radiohalos, potentially pinpointing areas for follow-up exploration for possible hydrothermal ore veins. Further detailed sampling work is recommended to develop this exploration tool. Nevertheless, since the same hydrothermal fluid flows responsible for the Po radiohalos were responsible for forming the ore veins, then the ore veins must have formed in the same very rapid timescale, within weeks, a timescale fully compatible with the biblical chronology of earth history. KEY WORDS radiohalos, granite plutons, hydrothermal fluids, ore veins, exploration pathfinder, New England Batholith, Hillgrove Granite, Mole Granite, Stanthorpe Granite Copyright 2018 Creation Science Fellowship, Inc., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA www.creationicc.org 567 INTRODUCTION Radiohalos are minute circular, colored or darkened, radiation- damaged areas in some minerals, resulting from α-emissions from central radioactive mineral inclusions (Gentry 1973, 1974). Often concentric darkened rings are distinguishable within the darkened circular areas. It has been demonstrated that the radii of these rings correspond to the energies of specific α-particles in the 238 U decay series and their travel ranges (Gentry 1984). Thus, a fully- developed 238 U radiohalo should have eight visible concentric rings which correspond to the eight α-decay steps in the 238 U decay series. It has also been determined that such a halo requires between 500 million and 1 billion α-decays to be fully-developed and darkened (Gentry 1988). Among the variant radiohalos are many one, two and three ring halos whose rings correspond to the α-particles emitted by the three isotopes of polonium in the 238 U decay series – 210 Po, 214 Po, and 218 Po, respectively. This makes for a dilemma, because such halos were thus only parented by these three Po isotopes, yet they have half-lives of only 138 days, 164 microseconds, and 3.1 minutes, respectively. The realization that these Po radiohalos put apparently impossible time limits on the separation and transport of these Po isotopes to parent radiohalos independent of 238 U radiohalos led Gentry (1988) to suggest that the Po radiohalos were God’s “fingerprints of creation,” evidence that the host granites were apparently created by divine fiat. Snelling (2000) reviewed the literature on radiohalos. He then recognized the spatial association of Po radiohalos to 238 U radiohalos meant that the Po which parented the adjacent Po radiohalos may have been derived from the 238 U decay products in the radiocenters of the 238 U radiohalos. He also observed that many radiohalo-hosting biotite flakes had been hydrothermally altered. Furthermore, many of the host granites had intruded into fossil- bearing sedimentary layers that therefore were deposited during the Flood, so the granites themselves had to form subsequently during the Flood and could thus not be creation rocks as postulated by Gentry (1988). Consequently, Snelling and Armitage (2003) and Snelling (2005) proposed that hydrothermal fluids infiltrating along the cleavage planes within biotite flakes dissolved 226 Ra, 222 Rn and the Po isotopes emanating from 238 U decay within the zircon radiocenters of the 238 U radiohalos.At conducive sites down flowwithin the same biotite flakes the Po isotopes were deposited and concentrated in what became the radiocenters for 218 Po, 214 Po and 210 Po radiohalos as the Po isotopes decayed. Hydrothermal fluids are typically Cl- rich and are known to be capable of dissolving 226 Ra, 222 Rn and the Po isotopes, the latter particularly bonding with Cl (Snelling 2005). Hydrothermal fluids also carry S, and because Po behaves