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Name: Owen
Status: Student
Age: 18
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
Can you please explain whether or not the magnetic field of the earth is decaying? If so, at what rate? Can we determine the age of the earth from this rate?


Replies:
Ah, the creationist magnetic dating argument. Yes, measurements taken over the past hundred or so years indicate that the magnitude of the earth's magnetic dipole moment is decreasing. Geologic evidence shows that the earth's magnetic field has switched directions many times, so it's possible that we're approaching another zero point. That doesn't tell us anything at all about the age of the earth.

Richard E. Barrans Jr., Ph.D.
Assistant Director
PG Research Foundation, Darien, Illinois


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