On the 8th of August, 1916, a discharge of lightning struck a mining car rail line, which conducted the electrical energy deep into the mine shaft. Three workers lost their lives in the explosion; one of them was my wife’s great granduncle.
This piece of family lore actually ties into the question of 14C contamination in coal. Methane builds up in coal mine shafts because methanogenic fungi and bacteria colonize the exposed coal and timbers, so any extracted coal is already tainted. But it is well known that even coal sitting undisturbed deep underground is populated by a pervasive ecosystem of fungi, bacteria, and archaea. Coal seams are porous, fractured, and permeable to groundwater and aquifers. That methane is produced in coal seams has been long recognized in industry, and stable isotope analysis is routine to ascertain biogenic origin. The coal may date back to the carboniferous era, but the subterranean biome lives in situ now. Methane seepage into coal shafts where it builds past the lower explosive limit is enabled by the permeability of coal. Coal is not even remotely close to pristine and hermetically sealed awaiting 14C dating.
Study has moved on from the question of if there is significant biological activity in coal, to much more detailed characterization, aspects of research concerning the potential of utilization and enhancement for commercial exploration and production, understanding of aquifer hydrology and surface influence, and more academic interest in diversity, phylogeny, interaction, and particular habitat preferences of the various microbial species. A great deal of understanding of subsurface biomes has progressed since 1989 when David Lowe was already warning “even with these precautions, considering the ubiquitous occurrence of fungi and microbes (bacteria have been found in a drill hole 3 km underground apparently living on granite!), the use of coal samples as routine 14C laboratory background test samples should probably be avoided.”
It is expected, then, that trace amounts of 14C would be ubiquitous in coal, which may be added to contamination during extraction and handling prior to the lab. Then there is sample preparation. Then there is the AMS itself. AMS is a marvelous piece of technology which yields reliable results, but like any instrument it will have inherent limitations on sensitivity, and will require recurrent zeroing and range calibration. Added together, the actual outcome is pretty much in line with what one would expect, from no significant 14C to very little.
His bio on both the CMI and AiG sites has him stating:
I believe that if we do our homework carefully enough, and without succumbing to bias, we will find that the Book, including a literal 6-day creation, will stand.
Pertinent to 14C dating, in the same article Paul writes:
Carbon-14 dating was the most fascinating method of all. Fossil carbon, with a conventional age of up to 350 million years, repeatedly dated to less than 55,000 radiocarbon years. This is compatible with a date of as low as 4,000 years in real time (the date of the Flood would have to be determined on other grounds). It is incompatible with an age of millions of years, or even realistically with an age of over 100,000 years or so. It basically forces one into accepting a short chronology for life on earth.
@PaulGiem , as this was written back in 2001, I would be interested if you are steadfast on that statement, because I find the assertion of AMS accuracy with vanishingly minuscule 14C way out on the decay asymptote, to be incredibly dissonant with the idea that “radiocarbon years” are an whopping order of magnitude inaccurate in “real time”.