YEC and Carbon 14 in Diamonds

Young Earth Creationist (YEC) organizations make claims regarding carbon dating of diamonds. These claims cite the presence of Carbon-14 in diamonds, which are supposedly billions of years old, as evidence against the reliability of radiometric dating and for a young Earth. The argument is that C14 has a relatively short half-life (around 5,730 years), so it should be undetectable in samples older than about 100,000 years if the dating methods are accurate. However even then C14 would far outdate a 6,000 years old paradigm. After only two half-lives of carbon-14 (which is 11,460 years  total), a sample will have 25% of the original amount of carbon-14 remaining, almost twice a 6,000 year belief.

The well established scientific consensus is that 

YEC interpretations contain errors. Here's a breakdown of the issues:

• Diamonds are not dated using Carbon-14 dating. Carbon-14 dating is only effective for materials up to around 50,000-60,000 years old because after that, the amount of C14 remaining is too small to measure accurately. Diamonds are far older than this, with formation ages often in the billions of years. Scientists use other radiometric dating methods with much longer half-lives (like Rubidium-Strontium, Uranium-Lead, or Potassium-Argon dating) to determine the age of diamonds and the Earth.

• The presence of C14 in diamonds is due to contamination or in-situ production. Even if a diamond initially contained no C14, trace amounts can be introduced over time through several mechanisms:

• Contamination: During sample preparation and analysis, modern carbon containing C14 can contaminate the diamond. Despite rigorous cleaning procedures, it's incredibly difficult to eliminate all traces of modern carbon.

• In-situ production: C14 can be produced within the diamond crystal lattice itself through nuclear reactions involving other radioactive elements (like Uranium and Thorium) that may be present as impurities, or through neutron capture by Nitrogen impurities within the diamond. These processes are independent of the diamond's formation age.

• Machine Background: Highly sensitive techniques like Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) used to detect C14 have an inherent background signal. Very low levels of detected C14 can be close to or within this background noise.

• YEC claims often misrepresent or misunderstand the scientific data and methodologies. They may focus on isolated studies or data points without considering the broader body of evidence and the well-established limitations of Carbon-14 dating. They also oversimplify complex analytical procedures and potential sources of error.

• The scientific community has addressed the issue of C14 in ancient materials. Researchers have published studies investigating the sources of this C14, concluding that contamination or in-situ production are the explanations for the low levels detected.

In summary, the presence of trace amounts of C14 in diamonds does not invalidate the established methods for dating very old materials, nor does it provide evidence for a young Earth. The claims made by YEC organizations regarding this issue are based on a misunderstanding of radiometric dating principles and the potential sources of C14 in ancient samples.

It's important to rely on the vast body of peer-reviewed scientific literature in geology and geochronology for accurate information on the age of the Earth and the methods used to determine it. These methods consistently point to an Earth that is approximately 4.54 billion years old, and diamonds with formation ages spanning billions of years.

Even if YEC holds to its position and ignores the evidence they are left with the fact that only two half-lives of carbon-14 (11,460 years), defeats their position by a factor of two.