ar in the same specimen, so many billions of polonium atoms had to move into position to explain the radiohalos we see.
Then there is the problem of how fast they must be moved. Polonium-214 atoms decay so quickly they are gone in the blink of an eye! Polonium-218 has a half-life (decay rate) of only 3.1 minutes, while polonium-214 decays in 164 microseconds!4 By comparison polonium-210 atoms are long-lived, with a half-life of 138 days. What unusual forces could have carried so many atoms away from the uranium source so quickly?
Another possibility is to move another element in the uranium-238 decay chain that appears before polonium. For example, the element immediately before the polonium-218, polonium-214, polonium-210 sequence is radon-222. If radon-222 moved into place, then the polonium would not have to be transported. But this presents two problems. First, the travel time is still short: the half-life of radon-222 is only 3.8 days. The radon would still have to be transported from the zircons to the polonium halo sites in only days.
Second, we don’t find a radon-222 decay halo in the polonium radiohalos. Somehow the polonium had to separate from the radon-222 and then concentrate in what would become the polonium radiohalo centers. The location of radiohalos and the different chemical properties of radon and polonium suggest a solution to these problems.
When uranium and polonium radiohalos are observed under the microscope, their radiocenters are actually on the same sheet.5 As explained in the first article, radiohalos are found in the dark flecks within granites, called biotite. These biotite flakes consist of layers and layers of crystal sheets, which can be pulled apart and examined under a microscope.
Water can easily travel down the spaces between these sheets (Figure 7). Changes in the biotite’s color are often evidence that water has seeped between the sheets. That’s the key to the creationist explanation for polonium radiohalos.
When granites crystallize and are cooling, hot waters are left over. This water is capable of seeping along the spaces between the stacked sheets of biotite. As they pass by the zircon, these waters could dissolve any radon-222 atoms that had leaked out of the zircon crystals and transport them between the sheets of the biotite flake.
Though they are very tiny, polonium radiohalos have a huge message that cannot be ignored.
Radon-222 atoms are chemically inert (they do not combine with other atoms). But once they decay, the newly formed polonium-218 atoms would readily combine with other atoms, such as chlorine or sulfur atoms that had dissolved in the hot water and were flowing between the biotite sheets. Polonium chlorides and polonium sulphides don’t dissolve well in water, so as soon as the polonium combines with these other atoms, the molecules drop out of the water. There the polonium would start forming polonium radiohalos.
The water would continue to move many radon-222 atoms past the forming radiocenters, providing a continual supply of new polonium atoms.
Ever since a geologist dismissed this evidence of the Flood, calling it “a very tiny mystery” at a 1981 trial on teaching creationism in Arkansas schools,6 scientists have ignored this mystery. The problem is that secular geologists believe the host granites took millions of years to form, but the process had to be much faster—only hours or weeks—for polonium radiohalos to appear. They shouldn’t exist, according to conventional wisdom! The next and final article will look at the profound implications for all of geology.
Though they are very tiny, polonium radiohalos have a huge message that cannot be ignored. These amazing testimonies to the Flood are found in granites all around the world. And they point to a catastrophic origin for granites, consistent with the biblical timeframe for earth history and God’s judgment during the Flood.