Hi, Sophophile.
Science also says that what can't happen today, couldn't have happened yesterday.
This is why science would deny Jesus walking on water, not to mention His resurrection.
Unless you just want to say that Jesus walking on water was a miracle and can never be supported by science. Unlike "embedded age" which is never mentioned in the Bible and is neither support by science or scripture.
Therefore, and by the authority of the Scriptures, I say science can take a hike.
Most of the stuff you claim isn't supported by scripture either.
If you see a tree with 9000 rings, and you are taught that a tree grows one ring per year, you are going to assume that tree is 9000 years old. If you are taught that a tree can grow as many as two rings, you are going to assume that tree is 4500-9000 years old. If you are taught that a tree can grow as much as three rings, you are going to assume that tree is 3000-9000 years old, etc.Easy ---
Let me introduce you to a little thing call dendrochronology.
Factors influencing growth. Most people think that trees add a ring for every year of growth. To a great extent this is true, but there is more. Ring formation is as much a function of
moisture as any annual cycle; years with greater-than-average rainfall result in thick rings whereas years with less-than-average rainfall result in thin ones. Many scientists have been very successful in reconstructing past weather and climatic conditions and patterns by assessing tree ring widths. Coniferous trees have proven to be the best and easiest, but not the only, trees with which to work.
Trees also add one ring for each rainy season within a year. If the climate of a particular region is wet year-round, as in the tropics, rings tend to be very thick and almost indistinguishable. If the climate of an area has two distinct rainy seasons separated by periods of no rain, trees will add
two rings per year. Now, here's a problem to consider. How might one interpret tree rings if an area with bimodal rainfall experiences an anomolous year in which there is only one rainy season? Clearly, dendrochronology isn't as easy and clearcut as it might seem at first glance.
Problems affecting growth. Complicating the interpretation of tree rings are other factors, three of the most common of which are burning, sloping terrain, and multiple trunks.
Forest fires can burn off the bark and outer rings on one side of a tree and thereby affect the tree's growth, and hence ring formation, in following years. "False rings" can make life difficult for dendrochronologists.
Slopes can affect the centricity of tree ring formation. It is not at all unusual to find trees with thicker rings on one side of the tree than on the other. In those cases were trees are growing on stable slopes, the rings tend to be thick on the downslope side. On unstable slopes, where landslides have disturbed vegetation, rings tend to be thicker on the upslope side. Trees with
multiple trunks, junipers, for example, pose special problems. Growth patterns above points of bifurcation are usually different from that below the fork although the ages of the two segments might well be the same.
Uses. Dendrochronology has its widest application in
archaeological and
forestry studies. Archaeologists study the ring patterns in timbers they find during excavation of prehistoric and historic sites. They do so principally to determine the ages of sites, but increasingly are concerned with understanding past environmental (climate) conditions.
Dendrochronolgy has also been compared with Carbon 14 dating and has helped us calibrate the radiocarbon dating method. Using dendrochronology we have been able to go back at least 12,000 years and C14 has verified this measurement.
DENDROCHRONOLOGY:
annual layers of wood
History:
A.E. Douglas, astronomer, founder of tree-ring science and University of Arizona Tree-ring Laboratory. Interested in sunspots and climate
- 1901 rediscovered CROSSDATING, Living trees, small rings 21 rings inside bark, but in stump small, small rings 11 in from bark (tree cut 10 yr ago). (1737 Fr. Duhamel and Buffon frost-ring for 1709)
- 1914 Carnegie Inst. Wash. funded dating beams from archeological site, Aztec NM. Developed 100 yr "Floating Chronology." National Geographic Soc. grant to develope master chronology
- 1922 Sequoia Chronology shows 22-yr sunspot cycle.
- 1929 Charred Beam HH-39 tied in Floating Chronology.
- 1937 Laboratory of Tree Ring Research established at UA
Wood Morphology
- Bark, Phloem, Cambium, Xylem
- Late Wood: dense, dark; deposited in late summer/fall
- Early Wood: large cells and thin walls, spring
Principles
- species must have clearly defined annual rings
- species must have Circuit Uniformity
- rings must vary from year to year
Techniques:
- Tree Coring, stumps, slabs
- Ring Counting: often false rings or missing rings in one tree
- precision (repeated counting)
accuracy (true date)
- Crossdating: process of matching rings of trees in an area based on patterns of ring widths produced by regional climate. More accurate age than ring counting Methods of Crossdating:
- sample with increment borer, core glued to board
- count rings under dissecting scope
- skeleton plotting: graphical technique for matching
- plot small rings as wide lines on paper
- paste graph paper strips together and pattern match
- prepare local chronology by matching trees
- standardization: de-trending individual growth curves
- calibaration and verification: producing a climatic history
- combine local curves to produce regional chronology
Calibaration and Verification
Experimental Design
- sensitivity: variability in ring width (better crossdating)
complacency: lack of variability
COMPLACENTSENSITIVE
World's Oldest Living Things
Tree Ring Growth Model
- Rt = f(Gt, Ct, D1t, D2t, Et)
- Gt = Age-related growth trend
Ct = Climate-related growth
- Dendroclimatology: precipitation, temperature, atm. pressure, runoff. e.g., Large forest fires in AZ and NM after dry springs associated with El Niño events. Swetnam and Betancourt (1990)
D1t = Disturbance-ralated growth due to local factors within the stand
- Dendroecology: pollution insects (e.g., tussock moth, spruce budworm), air pollution
D2t = Disturbance-ralated growth due to regional factors outside the stand
- Dendrochronology Dating fires, floods, earthquakes, volcanism, erosion & deposition rates.
- Dating of archeological sites: date when tree died that was used for construction beams = "vegas." Chaco Canyon main construction period AD 1030 - 1100, spruce and fir transported > 75 km (Betancourt et al., 1986)
Et = "Error" Variations due to factors other than Gt, Ct, D1t, D2t,
Application (
Ct)
Radiocarbon Dating of Tree Rings:
Radiocarbon dating assumes a constant ratio of 14C/12C in the atmosphere. Dating of tree-rings shows that this ratio has fluctuated through time. U-Th dates on Barbados Corals corroborate the treering chronology and extend it to 30K, max deviation, 3.5 K too young, about 20 K (Bard et al., 1990)
Radiocarbon Dating of 20-yr, 10-yr and 1-yr ring intervals
North America
- Bristlecone Pine
Giant Sequoia
Douglas Fir
Europe: (Ireland, Scotland, England, Germany)
"Delta C fourteen"
Deviations expressed as difference between measured 14C and amount that would result in 1:1 radiocarbon-calendar age:
0-100 ya.14C age too old (subtract yrs from 14C date)100-700 ya.14C age too young (add years to 14C date)700-2500 ya.14C age too old (subtract years from 14C date)2500-8000 ya.14C age too young (add years to 14C date)
Variations in the ratio of 14C/12C
- Rc = f(A, I, S, V)
- Atomic Bomb tests doubled 14C concentration in atm.
- Industrial Revolution has increased 12C concentration in atm. by 1/3
- Solar variability
- Variations in Earth's Geomagnetic Field
From
http://www.geo.arizona.edu/palynology/geos462/09dendrochron.html
http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/cbaresrep/pdf/077/07701006.pdf
Heavy rainfall does not cause more rings to form, it causes wider rings to form.
