The Fate of Arsenic in Noah’s Flood

Aaron Hutchison and Campbell Bortel

Cedarville University

The Issue of Arsenic and the Flood

• Global Flood would mobilize toxic elements in crust.

• In case of mercury, this has been raised as argument against Flood.

• (Morton, G. R. 1998. The Fish is Being Served with a Delicate Creamy Mercury Sauce. (accessed March 25, 2005). http://home.entouch.net/dmd/mercury.htm [this link no longer active].)

• Mercury in fact poses no threat to Flood model. (Hutchison,

A. R. 2009. Mercury and the Genesis Flood. In Rock Solid Answers: Responses to Popular Objections to Flood Geology, ed. by M. Oard

and J. Reed, pp. 29-44. Green Forest, AR: Master Books.)

• Arsenic potentially bigger issue.

The Issue of Arsenic and the Flood

• Basic Arsenic Chemistry:

• Metalloid: possess some properties of metal and nonmetal.

• Common oxidation states:

• +3

• +5

• In natural waters usually H3AsO3 and H3AsO4 with 1 to 3 missing H. Will refer to these species as arsenic oxide anions.

By Aram Dulyan(User:Aramgutang) - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=108381

The Issue of Arsenic and the Flood

• Arsenic Toxicity:

• Acute Poisoning:

• Extreme GI damage.

• Death.

• Chronic poisoning:

• Numbness and black lesions on extremities.

• Skin and bladder cancer.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

The Issue of Arsenic and the Flood • Arsenic in Groundwater Today:

• WHO limit of 10 ppb for drinking water.

• Serious groundwater contamination in Southeast Asia and South America.

• If As in groundwater killing people today, what about post-Flood world.

Pricture from: By Jayarathina - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23015800

Sources of Arsenic in the Flood

• Total Amount of Arsenic that Flood could mobilize, based on Morton, 1998 and Hutchison, 2009.

• Assume Flood dissolves all As in crust.

• Modern crustal concentrations vary greatly but could take 2.5 ppm to 5.1 ppm as average.

• Assume 4.77 x 1017 m3 rock eroded, with average density of 3300 Kg/m3 .

• Assume 1.4 x 1021 L (current ocean volume) for Flood waters.

• Concentration of 2.81 ppm to 5.73 ppm As in Flood waters.

• Flood had potential to release devastating concentration of arsenic.

Sources of Arsenic in the Flood• More nuanced picture takes into account probable

sources of arsenic in Flood.

• Arsenic today generally found as sulfides or weathering products of sulfides.

• Arsenic sulfides often formed hydrothermally or volcanically.

• We postulate that hydrothermal and volcanic activity were the prime sources of arsenic in Flood.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

Sources of Arsenic in the Flood• Hydrothermal:

• Today hydrothermal fluids often have relatively high arsenic concentrations.

• Hydrothermal vents erupting during Flood would likely release As into Floodwaters and rock layers.

• Catastrophic Plate tectonics also holds that essentially entire ocean crust underwent subduction; the arsenic in that crust would likely be mobilized into hydrothermal fluids (this occurs today).

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

SOURCES OF ARSENIC IN THE FLOOD

• Volcanic:• Today approximately 1.7 x 107 Kg of arsenic a year to atmosphere.

• Greater volcanic activity during Flood than today.

• This atmospheric arsenic would return to surface in rain.

• Ultimately end up in Floodwaters as arsenic oxide anions.

• However, 60-90% of arsenic in volcano likely deposited from gasses subsurface as sulfides.

• Can lead to significant amount of arsenic sulfides in rocks adjacent to volcano

• Along with hydrothermal activity contributes to prevalence of arsenic sulfides.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

SOURCES OF ARSENIC IN THE FLOOD

• Weathering of Crust:

• A great deal of arsenic likely introduced into the continental crust by the processes just discussed.

• However, any arsenic already there would be mobilized by weathering.

• Most likely in form of arsenic oxide anions.

Chemistry of Arsenic in the Flood

• Key question: will arsenic minerals be soluble or precipitated?

• Answer depends on:

• Waters oxidizing (relatively high oxygen content) or reducing (low oxygen content)

• Arsenic as a sulfide or oxide

Chemistry of Arsenic in the Flood

• Arsenic sulfides:

• Arsenic generally in +3 oxidation state

• Minerals:

• Hydrothermal: Arsenopyrite (FeAsS), Arsenian pyrite (FeS2 with 0.2-6 % As), Realgar (As4S4), and Orpiment (As2S3).

• Volcanic: Enargite (Cu3AsS4) and Tennantite(Cu12As4S13)

• Not very soluble in water under reducing conditions.

• Much of the arsenic released by Flood likely remained in this form either till today or until released by more recent weathering.

Chemistry of Arsenic in the Flood• Arsenic sulfides can dissolve under oxidizing conditions.

• Initially releases As+3

• Oxidizes in water to As+5

• This arsenic would be dissolved as arsenic oxide anions.

• Arsenic volcanically released into atmosphere and from direct weathering of crust also is this form.

• This arsenic would be soluble in water.

Chemistry of Arsenic in the Flood

• In oxidizing water, As oxide anions will sorb to Fe and Al oxides.• As+5 sorbs most strongly but both states will do so.

• Most strongly attaches to iron oxyhydroxides: FeOOH, Fe2O3, Fe(OH)3

• As metal oxide precipitates, takes arsenic with it.

• Iron oxyhydroxides used to remove dissolved arsenic from water today.

• Since crust rich in Fe and Al, many of these compounds likely in Floodwaters.

• Major way of lowering concentration of dissolved arsenic in Floodwaters.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Chemistry of Arsenic in the Flood

• Limiting factors for removal of arsenic from Floodwaters by iron oxyhydroxides:

• Organic material, carbonates, phosphates, and silca can compete with arsenic oxides for sorption sites on iron oxyhydroxides.

• This competition occurs to a lesser extent in more acidic water.

• Combination of acid rain and essentially acid mine drainage on a grand scale likely rendered Flood waters acidic.

• Reducing conditions could lead to reductive dissolution of oxyhydroxides.

• If sulfate present (as it would be likely in Floodwaters) it can reduce to sulfide and reprecipitate arsenic.

• Rapid sedimentation of Flood would like bury many ironoxyhydroxides with arsenic before they could undergo reductive dissolution.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Arsenic in Solid Phase

Key:

Boxes represnt precipitated forms of arsenic, showing processes removing the element from the Floodwaters.

Ovals represent the mains sources of arsenic for the Flood waters.

Hydrothermal Vent Volcanic Gas

Arsenic in Air

Volcanic Ash and Particulate Material

Direct Weathering of Crust

As+3

Reducing Conditions

Oxidizing Conditions

As+5As+3

Arsenic Dissolved in W

mal Vent

Arsenic in Sulfide Minerals

Reaction with Sulfides

Ox

Arsenic Dissolved in Water

ic in Air

solved in Water

Oxidizing Co

de Minerals

As+3

As+5

Oxidative Dissolution

Direct Weathering of Crust

Dissolved in Water

Sulfide Minerals

Arsenic Sorbed to solids such as Iron Oxyhroxides, Carbonates, and Clays

As+3

As+5As

Iron, Carbonate, or Clay Minerals

Oxidative Dissolution

Arsenic in Air

Arsenic in Solid Phase

Arsenic Dissolved in Water

Reducing Conditions Oxidizing Conditions

Volcanic Ash and Particulate Material

Hydrothermal Vent Volcanic Gas

Arsenic in Sulfide Minerals

Arsenic Sorbed to solids such as Iron Oxyhroxides, Carbonates, and Clays

As+3

As+3As+5

As+5As+3

Reaction with Sulfides

Iron, Carbonate, or Clay Minerals

Oxidative Dissolution

Reductive Dissolution

Direct Weathering of Crust

Key:

Boxes represnt precipitated forms of arsenic, showing processes removing the element from the Floodwaters.

Ovals represent the mains sources of arsenic for the Flood waters.

Fate of Arsenic in the Flood• Mukherjee and coworkers observed that arsenic contaminated groundwater

today generally originates in sedimentary basins adjacent to mountain ranges.

• Mukherjee, A., S. Verna, S. Gupta, K.R. Henke, and P. Bhattacharya. 2014. Influence of tectonics, sedimentation, and aqueous flow cycles on the origin of global groundwater arsenic: Paradigms from three continents. Journal of Hydrology 518:284-299.

• They concluded this was due to arsenic sulfide minerals deposited during the formation of the mountains undergoing weathering and oxidative dissolution, being deposited in the sedimentary basins sorbed to iron oxyhydroxides, and later undergoing reductive dissolution to permit the arsenic to enter the groundwater.

• We believe this general scheme, while originating in uniformitarian literature, is very consistent with the Flood model.

Conclusions

• A significant amount of arsenic would have been mobilized by Noah’s Flood.

• The concentration of dissolved arsenic in the Floodwaters would not have been devastatingly high.

• Much of the arsenic precipitated as sulfides and never dissolved.

• Much of what was dissolved sorbed to precipitationg Iron and Aluminum oxyhydroxides and was buried by the rapid sedimentation of the Flood.

• The current distribution of arsenic in the environment is directly tied to the geochemistry of the Flood. Therefore modern arsenic poisoning is a result of conditions created by the Flood.