Ice Cores

There are a number of ice core projects posted on the web, GIST2 and Taylor Dome are two examples if anyone cares to read up on them. I would be interested to hear any creationists take on these projects as they essentially give you a 100000 year view of eathh history, by the simple approach of annual ice/snow accumulation (correlated with various radio isotope techniques). How does this fit in with the 6000 year old earth, and where is the flood event?

Hi,94000 years of ice layers were laid down at creation and the flood was not world wide.How can there only be 100 000 years worth of ice layers if the Earth is 4.6 billion years old? Thats a lot of missing ice. Maybe it didn't snow for a long time.Brian

Interesting assertion. Can you refer me to the biblical passage where is states that? Or are you simply making that factoid up?

Hi,I am not aware of a biblical passage that states this explicitly, it was an explanation that's all.Why is there only 100 000 years of history in the ice cores?Brian.

It varies as to who drilled the hole, and where they hit the bedrock. Search for GISP2 in google and read all about it...

Hi, new guy! Brian is playing devil's (or creto's?) advocate with you to some extent.Brian, there's only a couple hundred thousand years' worth of dates in ice cores because the layers get so compacted and smeared out by the ice flowing. An ice cap gets warmer down near the bedrock, due to the Earth's internal heat, and the deep ice is under more pressure, so that it "keeps slip-sliding away." R B Alley's book The Two-Mile Time Machine is a pretty good intro to ice coring from one of the major participants.

Sharkbrother - I've asked a few creationists to tell me where that seawater-ice layer is in any of those ice cores - you would think that spike in chlorides would show up pretty nicely. They never seem to answer me, though.

Not much in the Bible regarding ice ... 'cept maybe this from Job, Chapter 37:5 God's voice thunders in marvelous ways;
he does great things beyond our understanding.
6 He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth,'
and to the rain shower, 'Be a mighty downpour.'
7 So that all men he has made may know his work,
he stops every man from his labor. [1]
8 The animals take cover;
they remain in their dens.
9 The tempest comes out from its chamber,
the cold from the driving winds.
10 The breath of God produces ice,
and the broad waters become frozen.
11 He loads the clouds with moisture;
he scatters his lightning through them.
12 At his direction they swirl around
over the face of the whole earth
to do whatever he commands them.
13 He brings the clouds to punish men,
or to water his earth [2] and show his love.Sounds like something from the Persian Captivity, huh?Peace.

And don't you also occasionally have warmer periods that melt the ice down to the surface, and have periods where the land mass moves closer to the equator, again melting the ice? Aren't the longer cold periods often interspersed with short warm periods that wipe out the topmost ice layers, making the ice column shorter in layers than the actual number of years that have passed?Adding this to the problems you mentioned, a record of over 100,000 years is pretty amazing.--Percy

Hi,I was playing the advocate a little, but I was sincerely puzzled why only 100 000 years. I was going to say that it snows 15 or 16 times a year! LOL It must be very painful on the brain being a creo apologist.I think science is an amazing thing and shows how wonderful we humans are, just wish I could understand it a bit more. I always go reptilian with a math or science prob, yet an ex lecturer I had said that my essay and presentation of Nagajuna's Buddhist philosophy of sunyata was exceptionally good.Horses for courses.Brian.PS. welcome to the forum Sharky.

That's true, too, but the thing that gives you nice annual layers in Greenland or Antarctica is that it only melts in the month or two when it's both daytime and summer. Essentially the whole year's accumulation of snow gets glazed over by partial melting all at once, and you end up with still somewhat snowlike stuff covered with a crust of ice.
One of the really neat things in Alley's book is that they found volcanic ash that was a chemical match to that from Pompeii 1900 and something layers down - within 7 years, IIRC, of the actual date of the Vesuvius eruption. That makes it a little tougher for creationists to say, "But maybe there were fourteen winters and summers every year!"