Time Schedule Based on Ocean Water

As noted, geologists concluded that the chemical composition

of sea water and the ocean floor sediments is principally a

product of the weathering of continental rocks. If this

weathering of rocks was a very short time phenomenon, then one

would expect to find far different proportions of elements in sea

water than are found within the average rocks of the continents.

This seems logical since some rocks erode more easily than

others, and therefore easily erodable chemicals should be most

abundant in sea water. Differences in relative chemical

proportions would also be due to other variables, such as the fact

that some elements are not as readily transportable by rivers and

ocean currents as others, and some are less soluble in water than

others.

Nevertheless, if the duration of erosion was long enough,

elements in the sea water and on the sea floor should quite

accurately coincide with the chemical content of continental

masses. Even the hardest of rocks would be eroded, and even the

least transportable of minerals would ultimately be carried by the

rivers to the sea.

Thus when scientists talk about millions of years, on a

world-wide basis, the proportion of one element in the sea water

and on the sea floor to all other elements in the same environment

should be approximately the same ratio as that element to all

other elements in the continental masses, for in a very general

way all the mass must shomhow be conserved. For example, if the

percentage of silicon in the continental masses is 27.5%, then if

the oceans were old enough, the total of all the silicon in the

ocean water and on the ocean floor should be 27.5% approximatey.

Furthermore, if the total quantities of various elements in

the seas and sea floor and the approximate rate of world-wide

erosion could be known, then the length of time required to bring

present elements into the ocean could be estimated. In turn, an

approximate age for the earth might be deduced.

Fortunately, scientists have determined rather accurately the

chemical composition of both the sea water and the land masses.

Sverdrup et al prepared a table (Table I)(5) showing the amounts

of various chemicals that should have entered the oceans during a

period of 260 millions of years. This is the estimated length of

time which would be required to provide the present quantity of

salt in the ocean water, assuming uniform weathering throughout

this period of time.

He mentions an estimate by Goldschmidt in 1933 that

accumulation of the present concentration of salt (NaCl) in

solution would have required weathering of 600 grams of rock for

each kilogram of water in the ocean. Thus according to Table I,

17,000 mg. (17 gr.) of sodium were released and 165,000 mg. (165

gr.) of silicon were likewise released for accumulation in the

oceans for each 600 grams of rock weathered.

With this estimate of potential elements available, one

wonders what is the actual quantity of elements in sea water. An

estimate for each element is given in the second column of Table

I.

For example, in a kilogram of sea water there is on the

average about .5 mg. of aluminum in solution. This is only .001%

of the estimated 53,000 mg. expected if weathering had continued

for as long as 260 million years, the estimated time required to

provide the observed amount of salt.

In fact, after close examination of all the elements listed in

Table I, one concludes there is a total lack of relationship

between the chemicals in the oceans and the continents. For

example, chlorine is 67 times too prevalent in sea water, nickel

is 500,000 times too scarce. Silicon, which is one of the most

common constituents of rocks, should be 50,000 times more

plentiful in ocean water if it were in proportion to that in

continental rocks.

Perhaps one reason for this total disproportion between the

expected volumes of elements in the sea water and their actual

occurrence is that sea water will hold in solution only a tiny bit

of each element. In other words, most of the silicon goes out of

solution to the sea bottom either by precipitation or by the

action of organisms. That sea water is not saturated with silicon

is supported by F.A.J. Armstrong:

Sea water is undersaturated with respect to silica,

although since reported values for its solubility are

somewhat inconsistent, it is not possible to say how

much.(6)

And Kuenen has written:

Under normal conditions sea water is not supersaturated

with any product, and circulation is automatically set up

in areas of excess evaporation, preventing the formation

of excessive concentrations.(7)

Apparently, then, many elements are far too insufficient in

ocean water as compared with the quantities that should be present

if the oceans were millions of years old. And further, the sea

water in general is not saturated with chemical elements.

Therefore the oceans could be very young, because if the

oceans had existed long enough, those elements which are

especially soluble would have reached a saturated condition in

many parts of the world.

Using the unsaturated condition of the oceans, researchers

should be able to measure the age of oceans since an estimate can

be made of the average annual quantity of chemicals flowing into

the ocean from the rivers. Dividing the total quantity of an

element existing in an unsaturated condition in ocean solution by

the quantity of the same element flowing into the ocean should

result in some concept of the ocean's age.

This information is found in Table II.(8) Evidently 2.0 x 10^7

(20 million) years of continental weathering would have been

required to supply all the lithium (Li) presently found in ocean

solution. Presumably, sodium (Na) would have been accumulating

for some 2.6 x 10^8 (260 million) years.

Nevertheless, a very strange fact becomes evident upon careful

study of Table II. Some of the elements are in very short supply

in the oceans. Therefore only 100 years of continental weathering

would have been required for accumulation of the tiny quantity of

aluminum in ocean solution. In fact, nineteen of the elements in

sea water are found in such small amounts that the concentrations

could have accumulated in 1,000 years of continental weathering.

Two conclusions are possible from this startling information:

l. The oceans must be very young because small quantities of

many of the elements are in solution.

2. The oceans must be very young because of the wide

discrepancy of residency periods of various chemicals.

Differential erosion over a relatively short period of time

together with other variables, such as water transportability and

solubility of elements, could account for this wide spread in

residency times.

One other fact should be noted in this regard. Chlorine,

sulphur, bromine and boron exist in much larger amounts (See Table

I) than those which would be supplied while the elements, such as

sodium, with which they are normally associated, were being

weathered from rocks into the ocean waters. Therefore a third

conclusion is possible:

3. That salt (NaCl) and perhaps a number of other chemicals

are in the oceans completely apart from normal rock weathering.