Claim CD231:
The high pressures found in oil and gas wells are proof of a young earth.
If the earth were old, the pressures would have bled off by now.
Source:
Response:
- The high pressures show that the oil and gas are
trapped by
rock impermeable enough to hold such reservoirs for many millions of
years. If the assumptions (young earth and leaky rocks) behind the
claim were true, the pressures never would have built up in the first
place.
- A geological event which could cause oil and gas to migrate into a
reservoir could have occurred relatively recently. Even if the oil
field is young, that does not mean the oil, much less the earth, is
young.
Links:
Matson, Dave E., 1994. How good are those young-earth arguments? A close
look at Dr. Hovind's list of young-earth arguments and other claims.
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/hovind/howgood-yea2.html#proof18
created 2003-4-21, modified 2003-8-8