Creationist journal paper urges tougher testing at Durupınar, says recent Ark claims have "moved faster than the data"

A paper published Oct. 20 in Answers Research Journal (ARJ), the research journal of the young-earth creationist ministry Answers in Genesis (AiG), argues that several recent claims about the Durupınar Formation near Doğubayazıt in eastern Turkey have outrun the evidence.

The author, Nate Loper, writes that he believes Noah, the Flood and the Ark were real, but that "belief in the biblical event cannot do the work of identifying the modern object." He says he has known Andrew Jones, founder of the U.S.-based group Noah's Ark Scans, for years and does not question the motives of Jones or of Prof. Cenker Atila of Sivas Cumhuriyet University, who leads the officially approved project.

Loper argues that ground-penetrating radar (GPR) records changes in the ground's physical properties rather than taking a picture, so straight reflectors described as walls or corridors could also be bedding, fractures or rock contacts. He says higher soil carbon inside the formation could come from thicker soil, more moisture and more plant growth on the raised mound, and that a hard layer that broke a drill bit at about 4 to 5 meters shows hardness, not what the material is.

The paper also re-examines 1979 laboratory certificates from Galbraith Laboratories commissioned by the late Ron Wyatt. Loper says the interior sample's high calcium content points to carbonate rock and does not chemically resemble published samples of petrified wood, and that the report never separated organic carbon from mineral carbon.

He calls for blind, split samples sent to more than one laboratory, release of the raw radar and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) data to outside analysts, publication of every core log, and agreement in advance on what results would count against the Ark interpretation. He notes that the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) and Associates for Biblical Research (ABR), which also affirm the Flood, have likewise been skeptical of the site.

The paper adds no new laboratory data. As of this check, no wood identification or carbon-14 result has been published from the burnt-wood fragments Atila told an Oct. 15 symposium in Ağrı had been sent to laboratories in France and Turkey, with French results expected in about 15 days. Roughly 366 core samples remain under analysis at Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University (AYBU), and Noah's Ark Scans has said a fuller technical radar report is due in November.