Below is the online edition of In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood,
by Dr. Walt Brown. Copyright © Center for Scientific Creation. All rights reserved.
Click here to order the hardbound 8th edition (2008) and other materials.
1. Large rocks ejected from Earth had correspondingly large spheres of influence that expanded as other matter—aided by water vapor and aerobraking—gently merged around those “rock seeds.” This allowed the capture of even more matter, eventually forming “fluffy” comets, very low density asteroids, and TNOs. [Spheres of influence are explained on page 306.]
2. Irregular moons have high eccentricity and inclination and very low mass. Most astronomers recognize that irregular moons are captured asteroids, but admit that captures are too improbable. So, how did they occur?
Pages 341–382 explain how, for years after the flood, the radiometer effect and aerobraking (from the abundant water vapor in the solar system) produced those captures. At least 43 moons in the solar system are irregular; one of the largest is Saturn’s Enceladus, whose “strange behavior” is explained on page 353. Mars’ two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos, are probably captured asteroids.
3. A 1-megaton hydrogen bomb releases 4.184 × 1022 ergs of energy. Therefore, it would take the explosion of 5,000 trillion hydrogen bombs to release 2.2 × 1038 ergs of energy!
However, most of the energy in the subterranean water was generated continually over many weeks (not one big explosion) and was focused up through the rupture and expelled into space. Comets, asteroids, TNOs, irregular moons, and meteoroids have great kinetic and potential energy.
4. See "Why Do We Have Radioactivity on Earth?" on page 121, and Endnote 33 on page 141.
5. Earth’s polar moment of inertia is 8.068 × 1044 gm cm2. Of course, we do not know how much Earth’s spin slowed during this period of tidal pumping. However, if the Earth rotation slowed by 3 minutes (from a 23 hours and 57 minutes per day to today’s 24 hours per day), the energy lost from Earth’s rotational kinetic energy and gained as heat in the subterranean water would have been “Burning,” in this context, is defined as the rapid chemical reaction of oxygen with a fuel, releasing heat and light.
6. A. A. Vostrikov et al., “The Effect of Thermal Explosion in a Supercritical Water,” Technical Physics Letters, Vol. 27, 2001, pp. 847–849.
7. Burning hydrogen (H) to produce water (H2O) did not result in a net increase in energy, because the energy gained (57.8 kcal/mole) equaled the energy spent in dissociating the oxygen in the first place.
8. E. U. Franck, “Experimental Studies of Compressed Fluids,” High Pressure Chemistry and Biochemistry, editors R. van Eldik and J. Jonas (Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1987), pp. 93–116.
u E. U. Franck, “Fluids at High Pressures and Temperatures,” Pure & Applied Chemistry, Vol. 59, No. 1, 1987, pp. 25–34.
9. “It was established that water participates in the conversion process on a chemical level: in particular, oxygen from water molecules is involved in the formation of carbon oxides. Even in the absence of added molecular oxygen, the process of naphthalene [C10H8] and bitumen in a certain temperature interval exhibited an exothermal character. Upon adding O2 into SCW, the oxidation reaction may proceed in a burning regime with self-heating [spontaneous combustion] of the mixture. Under certain conditions, the self-heating process may lead to the thermal explosion effect accompanied by ejection of the substance from the reactor, which is explained by the high rate of hydrocarbon burning in SCW.” A. A. Vostrikov et al., “The Effect of Thermal Explosion in a Supercritical Water,” Technical Physics Letters, Vol. 27, No. 10, 2001, p. 847.
10. “Scientists analyzing the first samples returned from a comet announced startling news this week. They are finding not the unprocessed [noncrystalline] ‘stardust’ thought to have glommed together in the frigid fringes of the early solar system, but bits of [crystalline] rock forged in white-hot heat.” Richard A. Kerr, “Minerals Point to a Hot Origin for Icy Comets,” Science, Vol. 311, 17 March 2006, p. 1536.
11. “Because stars consume large amounts of [deuterium] and no process creates it in significant amounts, the amount of deuterium in the universe declines steadily.” Ron Cowen, “Too Much Deuterium?: A Chemical Mystery in the Milky Way,” Science News, Vol. 170, 9 September 2006, p. 172.
12. Arthur N. Strahler, Physical Geology (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1981), p. 551.
u Before the flood, some men learned how to forge implements of bronze (about 88% copper and 12% tin) and iron. This noteworthy achievement (Genesis 4:22) involved more than just isolating copper, tin, and iron from rocks; it also involved combining them in solid solutions to achieve superior chemical, mechanical, and physical properties. Today, we have very large, already concentrated ore deposits of many other metals besides copper, tin, and iron.
13. Lon Abbott and Terri Cook, Geology Underfoot in Southern Arizona, (Missoula, Montana, Mountain Press Publishing Company, 2007), pp.233–247.
14. Robert Kerrich, “Nature’s Gold Factory,” Science, Vol. 284, 25 June 1999, pp. 2101–2102.
15. A. C. Barnicoat et al., “Hydrothermal Gold Mineralization in the Witwatersrand Basin,” Nature, Vol. 386, 24 April 1997, pp. 820–824.
u Robert R. Loucks and John A. Mavrogenes, “Gold Solubility in Supercritical Hydrothermal Brines Measured in Synthetic Fluid Inclusions,” Science, Vol. 284, 25 June 1999, pp. 2159–2163.
16. “Salt deposits in deep oceanic areas are considered to be deposits from hot brine originating at great depths in the earth during tectonic movements.” V. I. Sozansky, “Origin of Salt Deposits in Deep-Water Basins of Atlantic Ocean,” The American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, Vol. 57, March 1973, p. 589.
u “Salt is not an evaporitic formation or a derivative from volcanic rock; it is a product of degasification of the earth’s interior. The salt precipitated from juvenile hot water which emerged along deep faults into a basin as a result of change in thermodynamic conditions. ... the water-salt composition of the ocean and atmosphere is the product of degassing of the earth’s interior.” V. B. Porfir’ev, “Geology and Genesis of Salt Formations,” The American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, Vol. 58, December 1974, p. 2544.
17. From a biblical perspective, harmful radioactive decay did not exist at the end of creation, because all God made was “very good” (Genesis 1:31).
18. Larry Vardiman, Steven A. Austin, John R. Baumgardner, Steven W. Boyd, Eugene F. Chaffin, Donald B. DeYoung, D. Russell Humphreys, and Andrew A. Snelling, “Summary of Evidence for a Young Earth from the RATE Project,” Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth, editors Larry Vardiman, Andrew A. Snelling, and Eugene F. Chaffin (El Cajon, California: Institute for Creation Research, 2005), pp. 735–772. [This was a highly publicized, $1,500,000, 8-year research project. Because these researchers mistakenly say there is a heat problem, some people believe that the Earth required millions of years to cool.]
u Two coauthors of the above study apparently were unaware that the hydroplate theory explains this heat removal.
v “I also pointed out that heat is not merely a problem for accelerated decay, but also for all Creation or Flood models I know of. ” D. Russell Humphreys, “Young Helium Diffusion Age of Zircons Supports Accelerated Nuclear Decay,” Ibid., p. 68.
v “All creationist models of young earth history have serious problems with heat disposal.” Andrew A. Snelling, “Radiohalos in Granites,” Ibid., p. 184.