Old Trees, Problem for YEC

[Doug]

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BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian scientists said on Tuesday they have discovered a group of fossilized swamp cypress trees preserved from 8 million years ago which could provide clues about the climate of pre-historic times.

Instead of petrifying -- turning to stone -- the wood of 16 Taxodium trees was preserved in an open-cast coal mine allowing geologists to study samples as if they were sections cut from a piece of living wood.

"The importance of the findings is that so many trees got preserved in their original position in one place," Alfred Dulai, geologist at the Hungarian Natural History Museum said.

"But the real rarity about these trees is that ... their original wood got preserved ... they did not turn into stone."

Read the rest here.

[Savonarola]

Old anything is a problem for YECs. That's why they discount radiometric dating: it's a cure-all. Unless I've misunderstood, these trees pose no more problem for YECs than old rocks or fossils.

On the other hand, piecing together records based on tree rings is much more damning to the YEC. See what your friend Dave Matson has to say about it. It should also be noted that this reconstruction can serve as a check for radiocarbon dating, and -- much to the dismay of YECs -- it shows that science works.

Even better that we can count not only tree rings but varves, ice layers, and coral layers for longer-term comparison.


The thin black line is the "baseline" established by counting layers. Notice that every single dating method produces ages that reasonably correspond to said baseline.

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

All the sciences support the same "theories" - must be an aetheist plot.

[Dardedar]

DAR
Another problem for YEC (and even the old earthers). Life isn't supposed to have been around for more than a few thousand years:

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August 7, 2007
Ancient microbes revived in lab

Microbes locked in Antarctic ice for as much as eight million years have been "resuscitated" in a laboratory.

Researchers melted five samples of ice from the debris-covered glaciers of Antarctica which range in age from 100,000 years to eight million years.

When given nutrients and warmth, the microbes resumed their activity - although younger microorganisms grew more successfully than the older ones.

link

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

So just in case we destroy everything above a single cell, old earth is gearing up to start over again. That's sort of comforting. Sort of.