Mount St. Helen Radiometric Dating Controversy. Najwa syuhada & Faizah The article is about a geologist, Dr. Stephen Austin who carried out investigation on the age of a volcanic rock called dacite from mount st helen and there are several claims that could be obtained from this experiment. Firstly, it is stated that the age of the sample of lava dome from Mount St. Helens is 10 years old but from the experiment that had been carried out by Geochron Laboratories of Cambridge from the sample that was given by Dr Austin but, the result from his findings is contradict with the real age of the sample which is ranged from 0.35-2.8 million years. Next, the reliability of the radiometric dating method of measuring the earth’s age is questioned. Radioisotope is widely perceived as the “gold standard” of dating methods and the ‘proof’ for millions of years of earth history. But when the method tested on rocks of known age it fail. So this developed the curiosity about to what extend does the radioisotope method is reliable. …show more content…
The creationist believe that the earth’s age is between 6000 to 10000 years as it was written in the Genesis. But the geologist who need the evidence to prove everything claimed had a different idea. They strongly believe that the radioisotope dating is the best and the right way to measure the earth’s age and they had agreed on the age of the earth which is 4.5 billion years. But with the result of the experiment, the method of radioisotope dating is being doubt and the reliability is being questioned. The geologist might have to find the explanation on the result they had