Today’s New Reason To Believe

by Jeff Zweerink

I love mountains! Most of my favorite trips from childhood (and adulthood) involved mountains–backpacking in Bridger Wilderness Wyoming; rafting the Arkansas River through Brown’s Canyon, Colorado; enjoying the ski slopes of Monarch Pass in the Colorado Rockies. All of these destinations, including my most recent excursion to the Grand Tetons (just south of Yellowstone National Park), feature mountain peaks reaching well over 12,000 feet above sea level.

Colter Bay in the Grand Tetons.

Recent research shows that for half of Earth’s history such vistas did not exist. The processes that formed the Earth left it with a surface and interior much hotter than today. Collisions during the late heavy bombardment maintained this hellish state. Extreme heat makes most materials less rigid and sturdy. Consequently, the rocky substance that comprises Earth’s crust was too weak to permit the formation of mountains any larger than about 7,500 feet. Over time, Earth radiated enough heat away that the crust grew much stronger. Between 2.8 and 2.5 billion years ago, it became strong enough to support mountains taller than 7,500 feet.

This dating is significant because of how tall mountains affected Earth’s atmosphere and geochemistry. Around this same time, our planet’s atmosphere changed to a state containing a permanent oxygen component (although initially only a few percent of present levels). Yet the geological record indicates that up to 300 million years elapsed between the time when oxygen-producing bacteria came into existence and when the permanent oxygen component appeared. The simultaneous formation of tall mountains and this atmospheric constituent may help explain this gap.

As I wrote in the January 2009 issue of our new magazine, New Reasons to Believe, the abundance or lack of nutrients affects the activity of oxygen-producing bacteria. In particular, the lack of the element molybdenum severely limits bacterial activity. The erosion of continental crust provides the primary source of this element, and tall mountains greatly facilitate erosion. The increase of molybdenum in the geological record coincides with the time that the crust became strong enough to support mountains above 7,500 feet. Subsequently, the oxygen content of the atmosphere increased to the current 20 percent level that complex life like human beings requires.

Genesis 1 describes a process where God transformed an initially uninhabitable, water-covered world to an environment teeming with life. One overriding purpose of this transformation is to provide an abundant, beautiful place for human beings to reside. The intricate interaction of biological (oxygen-producing bacteria), astronomical (Earth radiating heat away into space), geological (plate tectonics building tall mountains), and chemical (erosion of nutrients like molybdenum) processes fits perfectly with the careful, purposeful progression Genesis 1 describes.

by Jeff Zweerink

I enjoy traveling, whether taking a trip to visit relatives for Christmas or a summertime vacation to witness the beauty of creation. However, any trip with my family (wife and five kids) requires lots of preparation in order to achieve success. Clothes must be packed, bills paid, lodging reserved, and the list goes on. These tasks must also be accomplished in the proper order. Trying to pack clothes after a trip begins is highly unadvisable. Likewise, when the solar system formed, certain events needed to take place before others in order to establish a life-friendly cosmic habitat.

As described in Rare Earth, advanced life depends on plate tectonics. In order for a planet as small as Earth to experience long-standing plate tectonics, it must have a large supply of radioactive nuclei that will emit the heat that drives tectonic activity. These nuclei form in the massive supernova explosions that occur as stars die. However, like packing for a trip, the nearby supernovae that seed the planets with radioactive material must take place at the proper time. If they occur too early (or too close) the supernovae might blow the solar nebula apart and prevent the formation of the solar system. If they occur too late, the planets will have already formed without incorporating the necessary radioactive elements. I have detailed some of the evidence about this fine-tuning in a previous TNRTB.

Astronomers and geophysicists have discovered evidence of such “fine-timing” by looking at meteorites that formed in the early solar system and recently landed on Earth. Some of these meteorites, known as chondrites, record the conditions present in the early solar system because they have not been melted or otherwise processed since their formation. They include different components such as calcium-aluminum inclusions (CAIs) and chondrules. According to most models that incorporate finely timed supernova explosions in the early solar system, these components form at different times. In particular, the chondrules should form later than the CAIs.

The research measured ages of the chondrules at 1.66 million years younger than the CAIs. This number supports models where the aluminum enters the solar nebula shortly after a nearby supernova explosion occurs. It also provides further evidence that the solar system formed between 4.57 and 4.56 billion years ago. The proper timing of events in the early solar system ensured that Earth had all the necessary “clothes” so that the life-essential plate tectonics would continue for the duration of Earth’s trip through this universe.

by Jeffrey Zweerink

Every part of human life experiences ups and downs. The stock market goes up and down just like my energy levels. As it turns out, the amount of life on Earth experiences similar changes.

In fact, scientists have identified five large mass extinction events where a large fraction of life on Earth died. The largest extinction (known as the Permian—Triassic catastrophe) occurred roughly 250 million years ago. “It eradicated almost 95% of all species, 53% of marine families, 84% of marine genera, and approximately 70% of all land species including plants, insects and vertebrate animals.”

Although many models exist to explain the various mass extinctions, some scientists posit that a dramatic decrease in oxygen (either atmospheric or oceanic) caused some extinctions-particularly the Permian—Triassic and the Triassic—Jurassic event nearly 200 million years ago. A pair of Irish scientists developed a novel way to test this low-oxygen model. Throughout the fossil record dating back before 250 million years ago, scientists find evidence of wildfires. These wildfires require a minimum level of oxygen in the atmosphere.

Under carefully controlled environmental conditions, the scientists determined the lowest value for atmospheric oxygen that would have permitted wildfires. Their results indicate that over the last 250 million years, the level of oxygen in the atmosphere remained above 15% (for comparison, oxygen comprises 20.9% of the atmosphere today). Thus, the existence of fossil remains from wildfires argues against the low-oxygen models of extinction causes.

From an apologetic perspective, the causes of extinction events are not particularly important. However, as scientists better understand the course Earth followed from its “formless and void” state to its current highly diverse and populated state, more evidence for fine-tuning and design becomes apparent. RTB expects investigations into the causes of mass extinctions to continue that trend.