Corals and Caves

Estimated old ages for the Earth are frequently based on "clocks" that
today are ticking at extremely slow rates. For example, coral growth
rates were thought to have always been very slow, implying that some
coral reefs must be hundreds of thousands of years old. More accurate
measurements of these rates under favorable growth conditions now show
that no known coral formation need be older than 3,400 years (a). A
similar comment can be made for growth rates of stalactites and
stalagmites in caves (b).

Water from an underground spring was channeled to a spot on a river
bank for only one year. In that time, limestone built up around sticks
lying on the bank. Limestone deposits can form rapidly if the
groundwater's chemistry is favorable. Just because stalactites and
stalagmites are growing slowly today does not mean they must be
millions of years old. Conditions after the flood provided the ideal
chemistry for rapidly forming such features.

a . Ariel A. Roth, "Coral Reef Growth," Origins, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1979,
pp. 88-95.
J. Th. Verstelle, "The Growth Rate at Various Depths of Coral Reefs in
the Dutch East Indian Archipelago," Treubia, Vol. 14, 1932, pp. 117-
126.
b . Ian T. Taylor, In the Minds of Men (Toronto: TFE Publishing,
1984), pp. 335-336.
Larry S. Helmick, Joseph Rohde, and Amy Ross, "Rapid Growth of
Dripstone Observed," Creation Research Society Quarterly, Vol. 14,
June 1977, pp. 13-17.

Techniques That Argue for an Old Earth Are Either Illogical or Are
Based on Unreasonable Assumptions.
To estimate a date prior to the beginning of written records, one must
assume that the dating clock has operated at a known rate, that the
clock's initial setting is known, and that the clock has not been
disturbed. These three assumptions are almost always unstated,
overlooked, or invalid.

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