Gem Crystals Grow Very Rapidly
Using uniformitarian (slow and gradual) assumptions, secular geologists have long believed that crystals cool and form over very long periods of time. There were still questions about what was actually observed that went unanswered. New research caused serious problems for their belief system.
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| Watermelon tourmaline image credit: Flickr / Orbital Joe (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) |
There are some secular scientists who are not content to accept the established narrative and seek answers instead. We have seen that in several cases, their research was inconvenient for one consensus or another. In this case, it was determined that crystals can grow in a fraction of the time that was previously believed. We can also see that the results are in keeping with creation science Genesis Flood models and recent creation.
Today, we have two articles on this subject. The first one is longer and more technical, and the second is easier for people like this child to understand. Let's rock!
Crystal size is traditionally linked to the cooling rate of the magma (molten rock)1. Thus, lavas that erupt from volcanoes cool rapidly within minutes to days to form basalts, which consist of minute crystals mostly only visible under a microscope. In contrast, very large bodies of molten rock that cool and crystallize under the ground are thought to cool more slowly over 100,000-1 million years. The most well-known such rock is granite, with its visible crystals typically up to a centimeter or more (half an inch or so) in size.
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These cooling and crystallization patterns seem straightforward – crystals take time to grow, so rapid cooling limits grain size, while slow cooling permits crystals to grow large. However, it should be noted that geologists have never actually observed the underground cooling and crystallization process. Furthermore, some field observations suggest that the above understanding of grain growth in nature is not so simple. For example, it is not uncommon to find granitic rocks with feldspar crystals known as megacrysts that are several centimeters to even 10 cm (4 inches) in size. Yet they are in large bodies (plutons) that cooled at shallow depths and thus presumably cooled faster than their finer-grained, deeper counterparts.
To read this first article in its entirety, visit "Large Gem Crystals Grew within Hours: Consistent with Rapid Granite Formation on a Young Earth". Now for the next one:
Secular scientists are finding exactly what Flood geologists have predicted all along—huge crystals can and did grow extremely fast. In other words, magmas can cool into minerals in a matter of days!
Geology students are taught that large-crystal igneous rocks called pegmatites1 take vast amounts of time, even millions of years, to solidify and cool. Secular geologists reason that the minerals need a lot of time to nucleate and grow—bigger minerals need big amounts of time, similar to plant growth.
But a new study published in Nature Communications demonstrated that large crystals in pegmatites can grow to massive sizes in just a few days. . . . What they found shocked them:
You can polish off the rest of this article at "Rapid Crystal Growth Supports Flood Model".