Earth’s magnetic field weakens each year impacting carbon-14 production. Less carbon 14 in the past means the tested specimens give off false older dates…”
“National Geographic News”, J. Roach, September 9, 2004
This is a vitally important constant because if the number of radioactive elements were different at any time in the past then the calculations are inaccurate. We can only use the ratios to determine decay rates if the constants remain well—constant. This is a possible fallacy as molecular structures behave differently under extreme conditions.
However, it was found that earth had not reached equilibrium (despite its assumed billions of years of age) and in fact “Radiocarbon was forming at a staggering 28-37% faster than it was decaying”.
Therefore, the question arose regarding the amount of Carbon 14 on earth: how long would it take for the atmosphere to reach a stage of equilibrium? After some calculations of how much Carbon 14 was being produced by the sun on earth they determined that it would take about 30,000 years to reach this equilibrium state. Surely, scientists thought, with a planet 4.5 billion years old the earth had reached equilibrium eons ago.
The region of the earth also differs as to how strong the magnetic field intensity would effect data from samples.
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[…] is known that the earth’s magnetic field has changed (and is decaying still today). This means there were lower levels of carbon 14 in the past which would equate to false older […]