TNRTB Archive – Retained for reference information
Geologists have applied multiple dating techniques to an Arizona geological feature, resulting in concordant dates that argue against a young Earth. Young-earth creationists (YECs) often insist that radioisotope dating cannot be trusted because different radioisotope techniques can give different results. Frequently scientists employ multiple dating techniques to verify a questionable date. Scientists recently dated a lava dam on the Little Colorado River in Arizona using a luminescence technique, two different radioisotope chains, and paleomagnetic field directions. All four methods yielded consistent results, giving an age of around 20,000 years—clearly older than the 6-to-10-thousand-year age of the earth proposed by YECs. While radioisotope dating does occasionally give inaccurate results, those exceptions do not negate the vast amount of well-verified evidence for a much older Earth.
Wendell Duffield et al., “Multiple Constraints on the Age of a Pleistocene Lava Dam Across the Little Colorado River at Grand Falls, Arizona,” Geological Society of America Bulletin 118 (2006): 421-29.
