Published in: Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, volume 14, number 2, 2000, pp. 99-122.

© 2000 Answers in Genesis A. C. N. 010 120 304. All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

Fossilized wood found entombed in a Tertiary basalt flow at Crinum in central Queensland was identified as probably Melaleuca, and yielded a ¹⁴C “age” of about 37,500 years BP and a δ¹³C_^PDB value of −25.69‰ consistent with terrestrial plant organic carbon, and ruling out contamination. A nearby leaf imprint in the basalt was identified as probably Lauraceae. The olivine basalt yielded an averaged K-Ar “model age” of 47.5 Ma, excessively older than the expected “age” of 30 Ma due to excess ⁴⁰Ar*.

The basalt’s incompatible trace and rare earth element, and Nd-Sr isotope, geochemistry are consistent with its tectonic setting, being an intraplate continental alkali basalt derived from a homogeneous mantle source and erupted as the Australian plate moved northwards over a stationary hotspot. A Pb-Pb isotopic linear array which gives an apparent “age” of 5.07±0.27 Ga is probably a primary geochemical feature of the basalt’s mantle source.

In the context of the Creation/Flood model of earth history the fossilized wood is from trees which grew in the immediate post-Flood period. The decelerating Australian plate drifted over a mantle hotspot, a structural weakness in the crust allowing magma to erupt as basalt which engulfed the trees. The fossilized wood’s radiocarbon demonstrates the basalt’s youthfulness and the failure of radioisotopic “dating,” but is consistent with a Flood/immediate post-Flood stronger magnetic field.

Keywords

Fossilized Wood, Basalt, Crinum, Melaleuca, ¹⁴C, K-Ar Model Age, Geochemistry, Isotopic Analyses, Biblical Flood Model

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