The Varves! Proof of an old earth and verification of 14C dating accuracy.

URL https://barryhisblog.blogspot.com/p/the-varves.html

One of the clearest falsifications of a young earth comes from lake varves. 

The word varve comes from Swedish, and means an annual layer such as those that are found deposited in the beds of lakes. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varve

How do we know that a lake varve is indeed an annual deposit, one per year? Well, soil particles settle slowly in lakes, more slowly when the water is relatively warm. The finest particles only settle when the weather is coldest, and what we see in each varve is a cycle of larger and smaller particles. But the real clincher is the organic matter. Every year a distinct sequence of pollen grains settle, one after the other reflecting the yearly cycle of the local flora where different plants and trees produce pollen at different times of the year.

The organic matter within each varve can be 14C dated, and the varve count can thereby be used to calibrate 14C dating. The carbon isotope ratios correlate very closely with the varve count (the number of years that have passed since the varve was laid down). 

Lake Suigetsu is the best known and most thoroughly researched source of lake varves, and has provided 14C calibration going back some 60,000 years. See https://thenaturalhistorian.com/2012/11/12/varves-chronology-suigetsu-c14-radiocarbon-callibration-creationism/

Young earth creationists' only 'answer' to this is that varves are not necessarily annual. But they cannot explain the grain size and organic material cycles. Nor can they explain the correlation between carbon isotope ratios and varve counts. Another thing they cannot explain is how 60,000 layers could have been laid down since the Flud. That's 15 'fake' varves being laid down every year, on average, over 4,000 years. Something nobody has ever observed.

What prompted me to write this was an article from the BBC Science section, reporting a study of lake deposits from a lake in Canada, which provides evidence of known historical events and conditions. These would not make sense if the varves they obtained the evidence from were not real annual varves. See https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66132769

We can recognise varves. They are annual.

And I haven't even gone into fossilised varves, which go way, way back before Lake Suigetsu's 60,000 year history!