hatersinmyward wrote:...
If you have access to 20,000 y/o records.
As I recall, there are half a dozen different dating methods
besides carbon dating, and they have been applied to the
inspection of ice cores. If a scientist publishes the fact that a
certain layer in a certain ice core is 20,000 years old, that
dating generally is not dependent upon a single method. Or,
if it happens that the published data relied upon a single
method, then multiple other methods can be applied to the
same ice core, to verify the dating process.
All of this is fairly solid, established scientific dating methodology.
Somebody would have to cite massive counter-evidence, in
order to convince me that modern ice core dating is unreliable.
I don't think 2 years is going to matter all that much.
If somebody did verify the presence of a pollen grain in an
ice core that you agreed was about 20,001 years old, then
we would still have to account for the history of the flowering
plants that produced the pollen -- they are not the sort of
low-order botanical species that would have arisen overnight
on a barren earth. That is, unless we chose to accept the
creationist claims that flowering plants were created instantly.
Be sure keep a note in your wallet for future archeologists that may test human remains exposed to high level radiation in Japan while you're at it.
Yes -- external radiation can affect the reliability of some dating
methods -- but not all, in every instance. That is why application
of multiple scientific dating methods is desirable. And that is why
I chose the ice-core example here. The various chemical/atomic
dating methods can then be applied to verify the ice-strata count.
For instance, if the tiny bubbles of gases trapped in the ice core
are thus dated, that analysis can be compared and contrasted
with the examination of other ancient ice samples from elsewhere.
Generally speaking, paleoclimatologists can nowadays provide
fairly accurate guesses as to the age of a certain sample from an
ice core, by examining the atmospheric gases mixtures in the
trapped air bubbles.
On a side note; did you know red clay has been proven the most effective compound when synthesizing artificial life?... Mars is composed primarily of red sediment. Just wanted to throw that out there.
Clays are an interesting study in and of themselves, in their
inherent characteristic of preserving and spreading certain
molecular patterns, etc. But I don't think we will typically
discover fine grained clay layers around deep ocean thermal
vents and their "black smokers." That is the sort of place I'd
go looking for the most primitive extant lifeforms on the planet;
and, by deduction, the probable origin environment for some of
those very primitive/archaic living things.
UD