NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/talk/origins/16693

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-25 | 3.6 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!news.service.uci.edu!ucivax!bvickers
From: [e-mail] (Brett J. Vickers)
Subject: Re: Moon Dust
Nntp-Posting-Host: valentine.ics.uci.edu
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Newsgroups: talk.origins
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Brett J. Vickers)
Organization: Univ. of Calif., Irvine, Info. & Computer Sci. Dept.
Lines: 73
Date: 25 Jan 93 19:15:53 GMT
References: <[e-mail]>

In article <[e-mail]> rlg@omni (Randy garrett) writes:
>One piece of evidence advanced for a young universe concerns
>the depth of dust on the moon.  In my younger years, I remember
>quite a bit of concern about the depth likely to be encountered
>on the moon.  Many people expected 20 - 40 feet of the stuff
>based on calculated accumulations.  Fortunately for Neil
>Armstrong, there turned out to be much less -- of order
>a few inches.  Anyone know what the accepted reconcilation
>of the discrepancy is?

From Chris Stassen's FAQ on the age of the earth:

--------------------------------
3. Accumulation of meteoritic dust on the moon

This argument:    A single measurement of the rate of meteoritic dust
influx to the earth gave a value in the millions of tons per year.
While this is negligible compared to the processes of erosion on the
earth (a shoebox-full per acre per year), there are no such processes
on the moon.  The moon must receive a similar amount of dust (perhaps
25% as much per unit surface area due to its lesser gravity), and
there should be a very large dust layer (about a hundred feet thick)
if the moon is several billion years old.

Morris says, regarding the dust influx rate:

    "The best measurements have been made by Hans Pettersson,
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
     who obtained the figure of 14 million tons per year (1)."
     (Morris, 1974, p. 152)

Pettersson stood on a mountain top and collected dust there with a
device intended for measuring smog levels.  He published calculations
which measured the amount of nickel he collected, assumed that nickel
was only present in meteoritic dust, and assumed that some percentage
of meteoritic dust was nickel, to get his final figures (that first
assumption was wrong and caused his published figures to be a vast
overestimate).

Pettersson's calculation resulted in the a figure of about 15 million
tons per year.    He believed that estimate to be an over-estimate, and
indicated in the paper that 5 million tons per year was a much more
likely figure.

Much more accurate measurements were available, from satellite
penetration data (no possibility of earthly contamination), by the
time Morris published _Scientific Creationism_.  These more accurate
measurements give the value of about 18,000 to 25,000 tons per year.
These measurements agree with levels of meteoritic dust levels trapped
in sediments on earth.    (That is, they are verified by an independent
cross-check.)

Morris chooses to pick obsolete data with known problems, and call it
the "best" measurement available.  His calculations are based on a
figure that is nearly three orders of magnitude too high.  With the
proper values, the expected depth of meteoritic dust on the moon is
less than one foot.

For further information, see (Dalrymple, 1984, pp. 108-111) or
(Strahler, 1987, pp. 143-144).

This argument also appears in the following creationist literature:

    (Baker, 1976, p. 25)
    (Brown, 1989, pp. 17 and 53)
    (Jackson, 1989, pp. 40-41)
    (Jansma, 1985, pp. 62-63)
    (Whitcomb and Morris, 1961, pp. 379-380)
    (Wysong, 1976, pp. 166-168)

--
Brett J. Vickers
[e-mail]