Carbon-14 in Fossils, Coal, and Diamonds

Carbon-14 (or radiocarbon) is a radioactive form of carbon that scientists
use to date fossils. But it decays so quickly—with a half-life of only 5,730
years—that none is expected to remain in fossils after only a few hundred thousand
years. Yet carbon-14 has been detected in “ancient” fossils—supposedly up to
hundreds of millions of years old—ever since the earliest days of radiocarbon
dating.1

If radiocarbon lasts only a few hundred thousand years, why is it found in all the earth’s diamonds dated at billions
of years old?

Even if every atom in the whole earth were carbon-14, they would decay so quickly
that no carbon-14 would be left on earth after only 1 million years. Contrary
to expectations, between 1984 and 1998 alone, the scientific literature reported
carbon-14 in 70 samples that came from fossils, coal, oil, natural gas, and
marble representing the fossil-bearing portion of the geologic record, supposedly spanning more than 500 million years. All contained radiocarbon.2
Further, analyses of fossilized wood and coal samples, supposedly spanning 32–350
million years in age, yielded ages between 20,000 and 50,000 years using carbon-14
dating.3 Diamonds supposedly 1–3 billion years old similarly yielded
carbon-14 ages of only 55,000 years.4

A sea creature, called an ammonite, was discovered near Redding, California, accompanied by fossilized wood. Both fossils are claimed by strata dating to be 112–120 million years old but yielded radiocarbon ages of only thousands of years.

Even that is too old when you realize that these ages assume that the earth’s
magnetic field has always been constant. But it was stronger in the past, protecting
the atmosphere from solar radiation and reducing the radiocarbon production.
As a result, past creatures had much less radiocarbon in their bodies, and their
deaths occurred much more recently than reported!

So the radiocarbon ages of all fossils and coal should be reduced to less than
5,000 years, matching the timing of their burial during the Flood. The age of
diamonds should be reduced to the approximate time of biblical creation—about
6,000 years ago.5

Rescuing Devices

Old-earth advocates repeat the same two hackneyed defenses, even though they
were resoundingly demolished years ago. The first cry is, “It’s all contamination.”
Yet for thirty years AMS radiocarbon laboratories have subjected all samples,
before they carbon-14 date them, to repeated brutal treatments with strong acids
and bleaches to rid them of all contamination.6 And when
the instruments are tested with blank samples, they yield zero radiocarbon,
so there can’t be any contamination or instrument problems.

The second cry is, “New radiocarbon was formed directly in the fossils when
nearby decaying uranium bombarded traces of nitrogen in the buried fossils.”
Carbon-14 does form from such transformation of nitrogen, but actual calculations demonstrate
conclusively this process does not produce the levels of radiocarbon that world-class
laboratories have found in fossils, coal, and diamonds.7

Dr. Andrew Snelling holds a PhD in geology from the University of Sydney and has worked as a consultant research geologist in both Australia and America. Author of numerous scientific articles, Dr. Snelling is now director of research at Answers in Genesis.