Water Temperature, K-Ar Dating, Temperatures around the Ark, and Heating

It so happens, I was in a discussion with a fellow Catholic (except she accepts Vatican II and "Pope Francis") where K-Ar dating came up.

I can briefly just start by telling you how pre-Creation dates are obtained in K-Ar (potassium - argon) according to Creationist theory. Extra argon, on top of the one obtained (in theory) from potassium comes either from the air or from the lava. The Creationists I read on it attribute to Uniformitarians the theory, this argon from air or from magma prior to eruption argon is depleted (while the lava is cooling down?) well before the millions of years elapse which we are supposed to measure with the method.

I brought up in that discussion the volcano of Hualalai on Hawaii, known eruption in 1801. And the video in which I had learned about it:

Why i believe in a young earth by ex-evolutionist Dr.Grady McMurtry Part 2
15.V.2016 | Arne Karlsen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1Qr9ZZ-Y30

In the video, Grady McMurtry, Bachelor and Master of Science, Doctor of Divinity and Literature, hence Dr is the title he uses, but he is not from Med School as some might assume, tells the story of how creationists took tests, with a robot, from different depths where lava had ran from Hualalai into the sea. Now, citing the numbers from that video, I stated in German and retranslate to English:

• 0.8 miles below surface, the date is 0 million years, within error margin.
• 2 miles down, 12 million years.
• 2.6 miles down, 21 million years.

Ester pointed out (that's the name of her) that with lava being 1400 °C, it doesn't much matter for cooling speed whether water is 20 °C or 4 °C.*

Now, this made me look up cooling principles.

One variable deciding the speed of cooling is indeed difference of temperatures. And 1400 °C - 20 °C = 1380 °C, 1400 °C - 4 °C = 1396 °C, not much different. Supposing of course one deals with subtraction in deciding this factor. I am not a specialist, but suppose we have instead division, as in 1400 °C : 20 °C = factor of 70, 1400 °C : 4 °C = factor of 325.

But one point sticks out to me : temperature of the cooling agent compared to the thing to be cooled is not the only factor. You have quantity of cooling agent too. And you have the inverse ratio of cooling speed to the ratio of temperature isolation between two materials. Water cools faster, because isolates less well, than air. And once temperature is out in the water, you have a lot of convection as well - once we are past the stage where water simply evaporates anywhere near the lava. But that precise evaporation allows water vapour to rise and therefore be replaced by fresh cool water. This obviously more so further out into the sea, meaning the lava 2.6 miles down must have cooled faster than the lava 2 miles down, than the lava 0.8 miles down. For each unit of time, less hot lava get flooded by more fresh water from the side which in its turn evaporated and left place for next gush of water.

One could of course also argue, some would, that the lava collected from the depth of 2.6 miles down could be from earlier than the eruption in 1801. Well, volcanos don't usually go extinct for 21 million years between two eruptions, so, arguably, the lava 2.6 miles down would be if not from the 1801 eruption, at least not too far before that. And it would still be a case of the recent eruption being dated much older depending on how far down it was in the water when the volcano erupted.

Which brings us to the Flood.

If lots of volcanos were let loose along with subterranean waters, the year of the Flood, from Noah entering the Ark to when he stepped out again, would have seen record many eruptions with record much water from all around to cool it down.

So, in a way, consistent lava dates of millions of years in a series of layers in what looks like inland areas, would indicate that the lava is from the Flood.

Also, such a setting would also provide for lower layers dating older and higher layers dating younger, the way they do in Laetoli, for which the other explanation is, the lower layers are very much older than the younger ones. Which is one I find unacceptable and feel obliged to find an alternative to:

The first lava layer has no heat from earlier lava layers to support it and deeper water above it. The second lava layer has the heat from the first lava layer (if any remains) to support it and the hight of that layer plus some intervening sediment later makes it more shallow water. And for the third time the water is even shallower and the lava heat supported from two lava layers below it. And meanwhile, eruptions world wide are also gradually adding heat to the waters overall, so the incoming water is also less cool, this obviously supposing that the temperature difference is one by division rather than by subtraction.

This brings us to the question : how cool was the water before eruptions warmed it up?

Some who had miscalculated the rain needed for the Flood in 40 days, by presupposing all water of the Flood came from rain, and that covering the highest mountains with 15 cubits of water meant covering Mount Everest, had calculated that the rain falling would produce lots of friction heat and therefore not be able to reach the ground without burning everything in its way (including Ark?) instead of watering. I disagree on the conclusion, but the idea of friction heat indicates that the waters need not have been too glacial at first around the Ark.

We can consider the Ark was well insulated, but even so some periods, between the initial friction heat and heat from waters coming from near magma and the new heat from magma after volcanic eruptions, may have been a bit chilly.

I suggest a solution which was preserved in India was tried out or repeated on the Ark : shit from animals was dried and then burned for heat and light.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Val d'Europe
St. Gavin or Gabinus
Priest and Martyr
19.II.2020

Romae natalis sancti Gabini, Presbyteri et Martyris, qui fuit frater beati Caji Papae, atque, a Diocletiano diu in custodia vinculis afflictus, pretiosa morte sibi caeli gaudia comparavit.

PS, I corrected the spelling of Ester, since she uses this German spelling./HGL

PPS, it can be added that some consider Hawaii was created by volcanic eruptions some time comparable to the 21 million years cited./HGL

* 1400 °C = 2552 °F;
20 °C = 68 °F;
4 °C = 39.2 °F. Google's own converter.