Meteorites 101

By Doug Dexheimer

An unexpected treat was provided for those who attended our March 5th, 2013 CSA monthly meeting: Tony Kostusik reported on the meteor that had exploded over Russia in the previous week.  He made reference to a number of photos and reports available on the Internet.  Check these links for a wealth of information on the subject:

http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/02/17160360-meteor-lurked-for-thousands-of-years-before-blasting-russia-experts-say?lite

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor

Additionally, Tony brought several metallic meteorites from his own collection, including the following two in particular: 

• An extremely dense one (i.e., unexpectedly heavy for its size) with a smooth exterior.  Found in a debris field in New Mexico where it had landed many years earlier, it is the very first meteorite in Tony’s collection.
• A flat slice of a meteorite from Gibeon, Uganda, Africa.  The slice has been polished and then etched with acid.  A beautiful pattern of crisscrossing crystals is apparent on both the top and bottom of the slice.  The pattern is known as a “Widmanstätten pattern.”

Here’s a photo of “Meteorite Plaza” in Gibeon.  Note the many “chunks of material” displayed.  Tony has a “chunk” similar to these.

"

This link shows some excellent examples of the “Widmanstätten pattern” observed on polished meteorite surfaces.  At first glance the pattern looks much like the surface of commercially available OSB board (i.e., “flakeboard,” or “chipboard”) but it actually consists of fine-grain metallic crystals that grew together as the material cooled.

http://www.meteorlab.com/METEORLAB2001dev/
labphoto/cube.htm       

Here is a cut cube-section of a meteorite which clearly shows the three planes of crystals in the iron/nickel alloy (from the above article).

This link shows the Widmanstätten pattern on a meteorite’s outer surface:

http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/meteorite1.html

Take special note of the following statement from this NASA website: “This triangular pattern in the texture of the iron-nickel meteorites, called the Widmanstätten pattern, formed more than 4.5 billion [ed.: note, “b”], years ago as the metal cooled.”

Another link,

http://mamasminerals.com/pages/Gibeon-Meteorite-Slices%3A-The-Widmanst%C3%A4tten-Pattern-.html,

contains the following deception by an evolutionist astronomer:

Most meteorites with a high iron content -- such as the Gibeon Meteorite -- were formed in the cores of asteroids at temperatures up to and over 2,500°F, and were originally completely molten.

Very gradually -- at a rate of perhaps 18-180°F per million years -- the liquid metal cooled and began to crystallize. In cases where the percentage of nickel to iron in the cooling mixture was "just right," two alloys, Taenite and Kamacite, would form slightly different crystal structures which grew into and over each other.

The resulting intricate designs created by this intergrowth are called “Widmanstätten Figures” and are characteristic of many iron meteorites. Radiometric dating indicates the crystallization of Taenite and Kamacite in the Gibeon Meteorite took place more than four billion years ago!

 

Why do these statements concern this writer, a young-earth creation scientist?  Simply put, the statements are not scientific facts, but imaginary fiction: 

1. They are not based on evidence witnessed by any observer.
2. The events suggested by the statements cannot be replicated by any astronomer -- or anyone else, for that matter. 
3. They are, simply put, wild-eyed guesses, which constitute yet another evolutionary uniformitarian deception.
4. Radiometric dating is not a repeatable or reliable testing technique. 
• Another specimen from the same meteorite may give a totally different age.  Also,
• the starting conditions of the molten meteor are unknown 
• the decay rate and half-life of radioactive elements are not constant and are affected by may outside influences.

A simple search of the website “www.creation.com” reveals no fewer than 6 articles addressing the age of meteorites:

1. Cherry Lewis, The Dating Game: One Man's Search for the Age of ….
   “It was argued that, unlike terrestrial samples, meteorites did not lose helium [ed. note: again, how would one know this?]. However, when ages were obtained that were .…”
   http://creation.com/cherry-lewis-the-dating-game-one-mans-search-for-the-age-of-the-earth-book-review
2. Trial balloons and the age of the earth - Creation
   “The age Patterson calculated was 4.55 billion years, plus or minus 70 million years.9 He also produced a graph of the composition of lead from four meteorites ….”
   http://www.creation.com/trial-balloons-geochronology
3. The young faint Sun paradox and the age of the solar system
   “The 4.6-billion-year age comes from the alleged age of meteorites, and it is assumed that the Sun is the same age. Of course creationists reject the billion-year ….”
   http://www.creation.com/the-young-faint-sun-paradox-and-the-age-of-the-solar-system
4. Radiometric dating age of earth
   Aug 8, 2012 …
   “Since 1955 the estimate for the age of the Earth has been based on the assumption that certain meteorite lead isotope ratios are equivalent to ….”
   http://www.creation.com/radiometric-dating-age-of-earth
5. achondritic meteorites flood bombardment
   May 19, 2012 …
   “4.  Vesta-like achondritic meteorites tell us that impactors during the Flood … teachings about evolution and other long-age assumptions.”
   http://www.creation.com/achondritic-meteorites-flood-bombardment
6. In Brief—Summary of technical article for the layman
   “During 1955 an evolutionary scientist by the name of Patterson2 claimed the age of the earth to be the same as that of meteorites. These he dated at 4.5 billion ….”
   http://www.creation.com/in-brief-summary-of-technical-article-for-the-layman

As you can see, the evolutionist’s supposed age of meteorites is linked to the age of the solar system and the beginning of the universe following the “Big Bang,” whereas young-earth creation scientists believe that all matter was created by the LORD God Almighty about 6,000 years ago.

Evolutionary geologists likewise struggle to devise a possible explanation for the formation of the crystallization pattern in typical red or gray granites.  They posit millions of years as a requirement for the massive hot granite plutons to cool slowly enough to allow crystals to grow to presently observed sizes of up to 1/8 inch across.

However, this writer has in his possession an 8-inch crystal of quartz grown in a laboratory in the Kansas City

Continued in right column.

CSA Monthly Meeting

Tuesday May 7th, 2013

The Scientific and Logical Real

Proofs of Creation

vs

The Scientifically Shallow, Unsound

"Proofs of Evolution"

Part II

by Tom Willis

It cannot be overstated that the textbook proofs of evolution  presented in high school and college classrooms and textbooks are all contrary to real scientific knowledge and experiments. Thus,  all such proofs are not science, but anti-science.  There is no real scientific evidence which favors, much less proves, evolution.  Among  other things, this presentation will show that all textbook, classroom,  and TV "proofs of evolution" are false.

Conversely, real scientific evidence clearly and, as close as "science"  can come to real proof, manifestly supports and/or proves that ALL matter, ALL life, and ALL of the specific "kinds" of life (typically, but wrongly referred to as "species"), were created by a non-material, supremely intelligent, living,  powerful agent that we humans refer to as "God."

(For time & location see box near the end of this newsletter.)

Ω

Coming Events: 2013

• May 10 - Astronomy
• May 25 - 27 - Western Kansas
• June 8 - Photo
• June 20-22 - A Float Trip Down the North Fork of the Black River
• June 29 - Astronomy
• July 20 - Kansas University Natural History Museum
• Not Scheduled - Rock Bridge / Connor’s Cave
• July 27 - Astronomy
• August 9 - Astronomy
• August 17 - Greater KC Fossil Hunt
• Aug. 31 - Sept. 3 - Southeast MO
• Not Scheduled - Safari Zoological Park Caney KS
• September 6 - Astronomy
• October 18 -19 - Ha Ha Tonka
• Not Scheduled KATY Bike Trail
• October 4 - Astronomy
• November 1 - Astronomy
• December 7 - Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge Safari Eagle Days

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Monthly Meetings

(Subject to change slightly)

First Tuesday of each month.

2013

(No sign up or registration necessary.)

• May 7 - “The Scientific and Logical Real Proofs of Creation vs the Scientifically Shallow, Unsound 'Proofs of Evolution' Part II” by Tom Willis
• June 4 - “Vestigial Organs” by Bob Farwell
• July 2 - “Origin of Life” by Kevin Anderson
• August 6 - “The Great Debate” DVD Part 1
• September 3 - “The Great Debate” DVD Part II
• October 1 - “The Great Debate” DVD Part III
• November 5 - “Cave Formation, & Mineral Placement” Bob Farwell, Doug Dexheimer, and Kevin Anderson
• December 2 - “The Star of Bethlehem”, DVD
  Moderated by Bob Farwell

Ω

Local and National Conferences

• International Conference on Creationism,
  Pittsburg, PA Aug. 4 - 8
  http://www.creationicc.org
• Creation Ministries International
  http://www.creation.com

Ω

 

THE 17TH DAY

OF THE MONTH

By Doug Dexheimer

On March 31, 2013 (Julian calendar), we celebrated the resurrection of our Lord.  Now lets take a look at the Jewish calendar.

The Jews celebrated Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, as measured by the lunar calendar. Passover Day started at sundown on that day.  Most of the following information is directly from the K-House newsletter of March 26 (this writer’s comments are added in bold italics for clarification).

 

The 17th of Nisan¹

Jesus had declared that He would be in the grave three days, and yet was to be resurrected "on the morrow after the Sabbath," on the day of the Feast of First Fruits.²

It is interesting that the authorities, anxious to get the body off the cross before sundown, unknowingly were fulfilling God's predetermined plan, “according to the Scriptures.”³

 

There was another high Sabbath on the day following Passover, according to John 19:

 

“It was the day of preparation, and the Jewish leaders didn’t want the bodies hanging there the next day, which was the Sabbath (and a very special Sabbath, because it was the Passover).” (KJV)

 

Noah's flood ended on the 17th day of the 7th month.

 

Genesis 8:4:

“And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.” (KJV)

 

This month becomes the 1st month at the institution of the Passover.⁴ Our new beginning in Christ was on the anniversary of the earth's "new beginning" under Noah!

Israel's new beginning, the crossing of the Red Sea, is believed to have been on the 17th of Nisan.  Also, in their flight after Passover, Israel retrieved the body of Joseph from his tomb.  After Passover, Jesus was retrieved from another Joseph's tomb on this date.

---

¹ Excerpt from “Friday or Wednesday? The Day of Debt” by Chuck Missler
http://www.khouse.org/articles/2000/214/.

² Leviticus  23:10-11.

³ 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.

⁴ Leviticus  23:10-11.

Ω

---

Meteorites 101
Continued from left column.

 

area. A technician stopped the containment chamber's crystallization process when a desired crystal length of up to 36 inches had been obtained… IN A TIME PERIOD OF LESS THAN ONE MONTH!  The crystals were then sliced up to provide tiny quartz crystal drivers for use in timepieces.

My 8-inch specimen was too short and too small to be considered economically useable, and therefore it was destined to become scrap for reprocessing until I surreptitiously snagged it (well, with proper permission, of course).

My point?  Long crystals in meteorites or granite do NOT take millions or billions of years to form.  Under the right conditions, they grow long and beautiful in a very short time.

Ω