Surtsey: A Young-earth Laboratory | The Institute for Creation Research
Surtsey: A Young-earth Laboratory

Surtsey is an island volcanically formed just 45 years ago off the coast of Iceland. Science Illustrated has highlighted this unique island in its May/June 2008 issue. “Surtsey always provides surprises,” remarked one of the life scientists who study it. “We discover about 20 new species each year.”

Surtsey’s rapidly growing ecosystem is a goldmine for researchers who maintain that the Genesis Flood occurred some 4,000+ years ago. But creation critics have long maintained that the earth couldn’t possibly have recovered from a worldwide flood in such a short time. Many thousands of years would be needed to repopulate and foliate such a devastated environment, they say. However, a more famous land mass, Mount St. Helens, has proven that claim false.

The insect population on Surtsey, for instance, is “burgeoning” and there are five gull species plus “seven other bird species.” Mosses, lichens, and an evergreen shrub thrive on the island. Together, about 60 plant species have become established there—in less than a half-century.

Science Illustrated stated that certain geological processes are occurring faster than believed possible. For example, loose volcanic ash has become the hard and glassy mineral palagonite tuff. Geologists have thought this process alone took thousands of years, and yet it has happened on Surtsey in a matter of decades.

“The data offered up by Surtsey over the past four decades provides new insights into how barren land sprouts life,” the article states. Like Mount St. Helens’ recovery, research on Surtsey is providing valuable information regarding questions of land reclamation after the Flood.

But in spite of compelling evidence such as that found on Surtsey, compromising Christians—embracing corrupt hybrid theories of creation—call on leading young-earth organizations like the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) to “admit” that the earth is 4.6 billion years old. Their rationale: If ICR scientists would give up this “silly notion” of a young earth, then thousands of scientifically literate individuals would embrace Christianity.

This is something, however, that researchers who conduct good science cannot do when phenomena like Surtsey continue to add to the growing body of evidence for a young-earth and a recent, global Flood.

Reference

An Island Laboratory. Science Illustrated. May/June 2008, 42-47.

* Mr. Sherwin is Science Editor.

The Latest
NEWS
Designed Deep-sea Vertebrates
Creationists marvel that God has designed creatures both small and big to inhabit a variety of punishing habitats. These examples include the bacteria...

CREATION.LIVE PODCAST
Beauty for Beauty's Sake! | Creation.Live Podcast: Episode 17
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? Or is beauty an objective standard? Where do our ideas of beauty even come from?   Hosts...

NEWS
Fire Sensory Capabilities of the Venus Flytrap
Fascinating discoveries have been made regarding the amazing Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula).1 For example, all parts of this amazing plant...

CREATION PODCAST
What Really Swallowed Jonah? | The Creation Podcast: Episode...
The book of Jonah contains the historical account of the prophet Jonah. In verse 17 of chapter 1, the text states that the Lord prepared a great...

NEWS
More Flood Evidence
Paleontologists recently discovered the partial fossils of two new species of dinosaur just outside of Casablanca. As stated in a Science Direct article,...

NEWS
New York Times Editorial: Big Bang Unraveling?
Two physicists have suggested in a recent New York Times guest editorial that Big Bang cosmology ‘may be starting to unravel.’1...

NEWS
Your Functional ''Yolk Sac''
For decades, evolutionists pointed to dozens of ‘useless artifacts’ of the human body to make their questionable case for evolution. But...

NEWS
The Beauty of Creation: Created for God’s Own Glory
Have you ever wondered why a sunset on a beach is captivating, snowcapped mountains are breathtaking, and a valley filled with wildflowers is enchanting? Scripture,...

CREATION PODCAST
Devastating, Dangerous, and Deadly Bacteria? | The Creation Podcast:...
Bacteria are everywhere! While we can't see them with the naked eye, these little critters are everywhere, even in and on your body! Some of...

NEWS
Pre-Flood Reptile Fossil Discovered With Baleen
Baleen whales (suborder Mysticeti) are amazing filter-feeding mammals of the sea. They belong to a group called the Cetacea. Evolutionists suggest they...