Lorence G. Collins

Petrologist Lorence G. Collins

Lorence Gene "Larry" Collins, born November 19, 1931, in Vernon, Kansas is an American petrologist, best known for his extensive research on metasomatism.

Biography

Exceptional myrmekite development from Alastaro, Finland. More than 60 % of the primary K-feldspar crystals have been replaced by Ca-metasomatism.

Born in Vernon, Kansas, Collins studied geology at the University of Illinois in Urbana, where he earned a B.Sc. with high honours in 1953. This was followed in 1955 with an M.S. and a Ph.D. in 1959. His thesis dealt with the metasomatic origin of magnetite ore deposits in New York State.

In 1960 he took a teaching position at San Fernando Valley State College, now California State University Northridge, which he held for 33 years. He taught mineralogy, petrology and remote sensing. Until 1962 he worked as an assistant professor. In 1962 he became an associate professor,[1] and in 1966 he was promoted to full professor and was the president of the faculty.[2] He retired in September 1993 from academic teaching.

In 1966 he published an article in National Geographic magazine titled: Finding Rare Beauty in Common Rocks.

Since 1972, Collins has been working on the enigmatic mineral intergrowth myrmekite, which led to discoveries in the field of petrology. He especially questions the purely magmatic approach to granite genesis and shows in his research the importance of metasomatic replacements, in some places on a very large regional scale.

Since 1955, Collins is married to Barbara J. Schenck, a botanist, and has five children. Together they have created a website on Californian wildflower identification that covers the four biotopes chaparral, desert, mountains, and northern coast. Lorence Collins is the primary nature photographer on this site. Barbara died on April 30, 2013.

Scientific discoveries

Wartlike myrmekite (center) with tiny quartz vermicules from Temecula, California. Plagioclase in the myrmekite is optically continuous with quartz-free, albite-twinned plagioclase (tan, top). The myrmekite projects into K-feldspar (microcline), black-gray-white, grid-twinning, bottom.

In 1972 Collins started to do research on rocks near Temecula, California. There he came upon the mineral intergrowth called myrmekite where its origin did not fit the usually accepted models as to either being formed by exsolution from primary K-feldspar or by Na- and Ca-metasomatism along the margins of primary K-feldspar. His extensive studies by thin sections, cathodoluminescence, electron microprobe and scanning-electron images supported an entirely different model in which K-metasomatism of primary plagioclase produced the myrmekite.[3] These investigations and the field relationships convinced him of the entirely different origin of myrmekite from that generally believed by most geologists. He subsequently received fierce opposition from the established petrology community. Therefore, he decided to write books, and in 1997 he created his own website and published his findings digitally.

Scope of scientific research

Since his thesis in New York state, Collins has done a tremendous amount of petrological studies in very different geological settings. Having taken roots in California, he naturally centered a lot of his research around the American Southwest, but he also carried out more work on the Northeastern States; outside the United States he worked in Canada (Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario), in Europe (Greece, Ireland, Norway and Scotland), in Azerbaijan, in Iran and in Australia.

The rock types Collins worked on are mainly granitoids, gneisses, augen gneisses, mylonites and metasedimentary rocks.

On his website he so far has authored and co-authored more than 50 scientific articles.[4] (See external links at end of article.) His latest article on this website summarizes his research on the origin of myrmekite and metasomatic granite.

Major results

Microcline (top; black and grid-twinned) penetrates and replaces primary plagioclase (bottom; light-gray, speckled, faintly albite-twinned) along an irregular contact, which also includes veins into the plagioclase. Significantly, remnants of the zoning in the plagioclase are preserved in the microcline, which logically would not happen if the two feldspars crystallized simultaneously from a melt.
Myrmekite with coarse quartz vermicules (white and cream), enclosed in microcline (grid pattern, light gray). Plagioclase of myrmekite is speckled brown (sericite alteration). Microcline penetrates the plagioclase along fractures and encloses some of the coarse quartz vermicules. Similar-sized or smaller islands of quartz occur in the microcline (top) as ghost myrmekite. Wanup Pluton near Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
Myrmekite (white and gray with quartz vermicules) bordering orthoclase (gray; right side). Zoned plagioclase with relatively calcic core (dark gray; left side) and broad, more-sodic, myrmekitic rim (light gray). Many colored grains are biotite and muscovite. Cooma granodiorite, Australia.

The results of Collins' research on myrmekite bear directly on the origin of granite (granitoids). They can be summarized as follows:

An interesting observation concerns the fierce opposition Collins encountered amongst mainstream petrologists although there is no doubt, that metasomatic processes can be very effective as is for instance clearly demonstrated in fenites (K-Na-metasomatism) or in skarns. And two final remarks:

Debate on creationism

Collins is of the Methodist faith and due to his geological training strongly opposed to creationism. He has created a section on creationism within his web site[7] in which he discusses various aspects of creationists' theories concerning literal readings of the Bible or supernatural explanations, and each of these is demonstrated to have originated by natural processes or to have a modern science interpretation. Among these articles are three that present his own Christian philosophy.[8][9][10]

Noachian Flood

In addition to his discussions of creationism in this website, he says that a worldwide Noachian Flood cannot have happened, but that it could have occurred as a large local flood in southeastern Mesopotamia (Iraq) where Noah could have built his ark in the Garden of Eden.[11] The combined flood plains of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers from 80 miles (100 km) north of Baghdad to the Persian Gulf are up to 170 miles (270 km) wide, and the river gradients from Baghdad to the gulf (a distance of 425 miles (680 km)) are less than 1 foot per mile (200 mm/km) and mostly as little as 0.14 feet per mile (30 mm/km). Therefore, the land in this area is so flat that during a huge storm and resulting large flood, water coming from the surrounding mountains in Egypt, Syria, Iran, and Turkey, would have piled up. Villages along natural levees of the rivers would have been inundated under several feet (metres) of water. Moreover, because of the curvature of the earth, no land 85 miles (100 km) away from either sides of the rivers would have been visible from any large boat floating in the water. On that basis, for any survivors of the Flood, the whole world would have been under water, and that part of the earth would have been their whole world.

He and his wife, Barbara, have written an article titled: More Geological Reasons Noah’s Flood Did Not Happen. This article shows that

It is published in the Nov/Dec 2012 issue of the Reports of the National Center for Science Education.

In support of Collins’ opposition to the validity of the mythical worldwide Noachian Flood is information published by Carol Hill and Stephen Moshier.[12] These authors point out that 30,000 feet (9 km) of fossil-bearing sedimentary rock underlie the Garden of Eden where Noah likely built his Ark. Therefore, "destroyed flesh" already had occurred in "Flood deposits" underneath the construction site before Noah could have built the Ark. So, this fact alone negates a worldwide flood model to produce the sedimentary Flood deposits that the creationists promote.

These authors also point out that underlying Mount Ararat are several thousand feet (several km) of fossil-bearing sedimentary rock and note that if all these sedimentary rocks were deposited by the Noachian Flood, then:

The less than one year's time for all of these events to occur is physically impossible. These facts strongly suggest that creationists are wasting their time looking for remnants of Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat.

In the biblical story (Genesis 6-8), the only time in which drying occurred was after more than a year at the end of Flood when Noah and his family could finally leave the ark and step out on dry land. On that basis, there should be places where local lakes evaporated to dryness and produced evaporite minerals. If the biblical story is valid, such deposits should be found only on top of the Flood deposits. Instead, many different, thick, evaporite mineral deposits are found on all continents (e.g., Hallein, Austria, where salt is mined), not on top of the Flood deposits, but at different stratigraphic levels and geologic ages, interlayered with the Flood deposits. These deposits are associated with fossil mudcrack prints in red beds (shales) where flood-plain muds had been exposed to the hot sun and lost their water contents, causing the mud to shrink and create the mudcracks. How can there be many different periods of desert drying conditions in the midst of a worldwide Flood? These observations suggest why a worldwide Flood could not have occurred.[11]

Polonium halos

Polonium halos have been used by creationists as evidence that granite (and the earth) were created almost instantaneously on Day Three of the Genesis Week.[13] This idea was promoted by Robert V. Gentry, a physicist, who studied Po halos in biotite (and fluorite) in granite pegmatites.[14] Polonium (Po) is a natural element which has several different radioactive isotopes, among which are Po-218, Po-214, and Po-210 (with masses of 218, 214, and 210). These isotopes are the last three "daughters" in the eight-step radioactive uranium (U-238) decay scheme before the stable lead isotope (Pb-206) is formed. In each decay step in which a new isotope of different mass is formed, heavy alpha particles (helium nuclei) with a mass of 4 are shot out from the nucleus like high-energy cannonballs. Where polonium is found in biotite mica, these cannonballs damage the biotite lattice structure to produce a glass that is visible as a black halo, provided that enough polonium (about 1,000,000,000 to 10,000,000,000 Po atoms) is originally present at a nucleation point.

The halo radius of damage is different for each of the different polonium isotopes. Therefore, if three, two, or one of the Po isotopes are present, then three different Po-halo ring-type halos might be present with three rings, two rings, or a single ring. Although Po halos are three of the eight possible halos of damage that are created by eight different daughter isotopes where uranium (U-238) is nucleated in zircon or uraninite crystals in a biotite crystal, in some places the three Po halos occur in biotite crystals completely isolated from where uranium has nucleated. This special occurrence of isolated Po halos in biotite is the basis for Gentry's assertion that granite was formed on Day Three nearly instantaneously.

His reasoning is as follows:

Where granite crystallizes from a large body of magma several miles deep in the Earth's crust, the cooling time before biotite first begins to crystallize is thought to be at least 5 million years. On that basis, if the half lives of Po-218, Po-214, and Po-210 are 3.05 minutes, less than 200 microseconds, and 140 days (respectively), no matter how much original polonium could have been present in the initial magma, all these Po isotopes would have decayed to stable lead (Pb-206) long before they could nucleate in late-forming biotite crystals in sufficient quantities to form visible Po halos. Because most granite petrologists believe that large bodies of granite must crystallize from magma, and this model is the generally accepted theory for the formation of granite, Gentry's reasoning is quite logical. For him, the granite containing Po halos cannot have formed from a melt (magma) and must have formed almost instantaneously during Day Three and provided evidence for a literal interpretation of the Bible.

However, research by Collins suggests that not all granite bodies of large size are formed by crystallization from magma (see Major results section above). In some places granite can form at temperatures below melting conditions where former solidified igneous rocks have been deformed and microfractured to open up the system for movements of fluids. In these places, if uranium is relatively abundant in these rocks, it also releases radioactive radon (Rn-222), which is an inert gas that freely moves through the fractures. Because Rn-222 is the precursor to Po-218, its free movement readily facilitates the natural formation of Po halos. That is, in those places where the former igneous rocks have relatively abundant scattered uranium, during the conversion of these rocks into granite by chemical replacement processes, the open system allows radon gas to migrate in fluids to where biotite is being crystallized or recrystallized and where polonium isotopes derived from the nearby radioactive radon can precipitate in the biotite lattice. Therefore, the three different kinds of Po halos can form naturally in biotite during thousands (or millions) of years while deformation and chemical replacements are occurring without any requirement for instantaneous crystallization on Day Three. In all these places where Po halos in biotite crystals occur, Collins has found myrmekite to be associated with the granitic rocks.

Thus, the combination of myrmekite and Po-halos (neither of which can form from a granite magma) becomes a strong indicator that not all granite bodies of large size need be formed from magma.

Durupınar Site

Collins has analyzed claims regarding the Durupınar site, proposed as a candidate for Noah's Ark by David Fasold and Ron Wyatt. Collins found, on the basis of 12 thin sections of various rocks collected at the site by David Fasold, that there is no petrified wood anywhere in this site.[15] Also, Collins’ studies of samples of rusty-looking iron fragments at this site, which Fasold and Wyatt thought were iron-titanium alloys in rivets, washers, and brackets that were forged by Noah in a furnace and were used by him to hold the walls of the Ark together, are actually oxidized titaniferous magnetite (iron oxide) grains that were weathered out of volcanic rocks (andesite and basalt) that are common in this part of Turkey. These magnetite grains were concentrated by flowing streams as magnetite placer deposits in the various sedimentary layers that compose the bogus ark structure. Some of these sedimentary layers are lahars (volcanic mud flows) that contain boulders of the volcanic rocks which the creationists interpreted as remnants of former walls, decking, gunnels, and the bulkhead rim of the Ark. The creationists interpreted that the "Ark" slid down for several miles (km) from higher mountain elevations to its present site: "without having been to the "Ark structure", Collins mistakenly interpreted it to be a natural formation of an eroded doubly-plunging syncline".

Subsequent investigations, however, by other geologists at the site, show that the "Ark structure" is bed rock and that its boat shape likely resulted from erosion by flowing rock debris moving in the slide around the bed rock. Moreover, bisecting the "ark structure" at right angles to its length at its midpoint is a lens of white limestone containing microfossils. This white limestone can be seen in the photo as well as two people standing beyond it to help give a scale to the Ark structure, 515 feet (157 m) long. Surely this lens cannot be a part of Noah's Ark construction. Some of Collins’ investigations are documented in a National Geographic Channel program entitled "The Truth Behind Noah's Ark."

Scientific publications (selection)

References

  1. ↑ "September Promotions Announced for 39 State College Educators". Los Angeles Times. 1962-05-20. p. SF3.
  2. ↑ "VSC Faculty Joins Protest of State 'Bias'". Los Angeles Times. 1966-11-17. p. SF1.
  3. ↑ Collins, L. G., 1988b, Myrmekite --- A mystery solved near Temecula: California Geology, v. 41, no. 12, p. 276-281.
  4. ↑ Article index
  5. ↑ Evolution of a layered diorite-gabbro to become a layered quartz monzonite-granodiorite in the Wanup pluton near Sudbury, Canada
  6. ↑ Metasomatic origin of the Cooma Complex in southeastern Australia
  7. ↑ Articles in opposition to creationism
  8. ↑ Salt, Pepper and Blah
  9. ↑ Christianity and science - are they contradictory?
  10. ↑ A challenge from a person holding a Th.D degree
  11. 1 2 Collins, L. G., 2009, Yes, Noah's Flood May Have Happened but Not over the Whole Earth, Reports of the National Center for Science Education, September–October issue, (in press)
  12. ↑ Hill, C. A., and Moshier, S. O., 2009, Flood Geology and the Grand Canyon: A Critique, v. 61, n. 2, p. 99-115.
  13. ↑ Polonium halos and myrmekite in pegmatite and granite
  14. ↑ Gentry, R. V., 1988, Creation's Tiny Mystery, 2nd ed., Earth Science Associates, Knoxville, 348 pages.
  15. ↑ Bogus Noah's Ark

Further reading

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