© Cedarville University International Conference on Creationism. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of Cedarville University. Humphreys, D.R. 2023. Cause of large post-flood jump in earth’s carbon 14. In J.H. Whitmore (editor), Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Creationism, pp. 280-287. Cedarville, Ohio: Cedarville University International Conference on Creationism. CAUSE OF LARGE POST-FLOOD JUMP IN EARTH’S CARBON 14 D. Russell Humphreys, Creation Research Society, 8125 Elizabethton Lane, Chattanooga, TN 37421, drhumph@swcp.com ABSTRACT There is a need to have a large increase in Earth’s 14C/C ratio during the post-flood Ice Age (Oard, 2021a). Cosmic-ray-generated neutrons in the atmosphere produce most of the 14C, but today’s influx of extrasolar cosmic rays would take too long to build the radiocarbon inventory of Earth up to today’s level (Aardsma 1990). Ordinarily, the Sun does not emit particles of high enough energies, but it occasionally does so during bursts of solar activity. I propose that the same phenomenon which accelerated nuclear decay in the Solar System during the Genesis flood (Humphreys 2014) accelerated nuclear fusion in the Sun’s core during the flood year. The increased heat would increase solar activity greatly. That would cause the Sun to emit particles of high energies during the post-flood Ice Age, in enough quantity to produce the necessary jump in 14C/C. During the centuries afterward, full convection from core to surface would slow and stop, and energetic particle emission from the Sun would nearly stop, leaving extrasolar cosmic rays to generate more 14C at today’s low rate. KEY WORDS Carbon 14, cosmic rays, Sun’s interior, accelerated nuclear fusion, Ice Age. INTRODUCTION Creationists studying carbon-14 dating are generally aware of the need to have a large increase in Earth’s 14C/C ratio during the postflood Ice Age (Oard 2021a), from about 0.5% of today’s ratio in fossils (Baumgardner 2005) to more than 90% of today’s ratio by the time of Moses, 1500 B.C. (Faure and Mensing 2005). Without such an increase, 14C ages from the post-flood Ice Age would stretch back tens of millennia earlier than the Biblical date for the flood. See the Conclusion section, particularly Fig. 9. Today, cosmic-ray-generated neutrons hitting 14N nuclei in the atmosphere produce most of the 14C. With today’s influx of extrasolar high-energy cosmic rays, it would take about 14,000 years to build the radiocarbon inventory of Earth up to today’s level (Aardsma 1990). That is of course much greater than the roughly 4,500 years the Hebrew-text Bible chronology (with no gaps) gives since the Genesis flood. The energy of the cosmic rays (mainly protons) must be high, on the order of a GeV, in order to make the neutrons by blowing apart upper-air nuclei (Overholt et al. 2013). Cosmic rays of that energy are not affected strongly by the earth’s magnetic field, so even the large past variations in the field (Humphreys 1986) cannot be the main explanation for a great burst of high-energy cosmic rays during the Ice Age. Ordinarily the Sun does not emit particles with the necessary energy, but occasional bursts of solar activity appear to have caused jumps of several percent in the 14C/C ratio recorded in tree rings (Brehm et al. 2022). I am proposing that during the post-flood Ice Age, the Sun emitted a pulse of high-energy protons in enough quantity to produce the necessary jump in 14C/C. If the pulse decayed exponentially with a thousand-year time constant, its initial intensity would have to be roughly six times more than today’s influx of extrasolar cosmic rays (Aardsma 1990, p. 13). The cause of the Sun’s burst of energetic particles, I suggest, was the same phenomenon that accelerated nuclear decay in the Earth (Vardiman et al. 2005) and in the Solar System (Humphreys 2014) during the Genesis flood. A weakening of the strong nuclear force would make the nuclear radius larger, allowing increased tunneling through the coulomb barrier (Chaffin 2005). Tunneling can take place in both directions, outward and inward. The latter would increase the rate of nuclear fusion in the Sun’s core. Convection, now confined to the outer third of the Sun, would take place all the way from the core to the surface. That could increase the differential rotation in the upper layers (Kitchatinov 2005) and would increase the duration of the solar magnetic cycle (Humphreys 1990). In turn, that would wrap the Sun’s magnetic lines of force many more times around the Sun than happens in today’s sunspot cycle (Babcock 1961). That would greatly increase solar activity, including the emission of high-energy particles. During the centuries afterward, full convection from core to surface would slow down and stop, reverting to only the outer third. Then particle emission from the Sun would decrease in energy and intensity to today’s levels. I explain the above chain of events in more detail below. ACCELERATED NUCLEAR FUSION IN THE SUN The Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth (RATE) research initiative (Vardiman et al. 2005) found multiple lines of evidence indicating that nuclear decay in the earth was accelerated by a factor of about half a billion during the year of the Genesis flood. I and others in the group felt that the acceleration had also occurred simultane9th 2023
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