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I think the main thing to keep in mind here is that this claim was made by creationists who were hoping to invalidate something called the GISP2 ice core from Greenland, which shows 110,000 annual layers. Snow accumulates in the area of southern Greenland, where the planes were found, at a depth of 7 feet per year, while it accumulates one foot per year where the ice core was drilled. What's more, Kent Hovind is apparently not quite clear about the meaning of the "layers" answer he got.

This article by David Seely, The GISP2 Ice Core: Ultimate Proof that Noah's Flood Was Not Global, addresses all the points you raised and some additional ones. It explains several methods that are used for dating ice cores in Greenland and Antarctica (which presumably you understand is the one of the driest places on earth and therefore where annual layers are very thin). It also explains the details of the claims of a couple of creationists and the errors they have made. It's quite a comprehensive discussion of the subject and yes, it discusses the planes too and explains the likely reasons why they were buried so deeply.

Cognitive Dissonance? Does that apply here? From p 258, (top right paragraph) did you catch the part where your evodunce says
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Add to
these melt layers the actual annual layers,
which near the top show up as several lines
within the space of a few inches, and you
can have an off the cuff estimate of “hundreds
of lines.”

Several lines within the space of a few inches are annual layers! How old indeed must these aircraft be! They were buried 263 feet deep. He goes on to say
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Bob Cardin
told me that it was because the average snow
accumulation in that area is c. 7 feet/year
(7 x 50 = 350 feet deep). If you allow for some
compression, it is easy to understand how
the planes got buried 250 feet deep.
But he never reconciles the 7 feet/year with several actual annual layers occurring within a few inches. I guess in his mind there's no need.

He's not finished. The occurrence of several actual annual layers - not just "melt layers" - was found near the surface. He says
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And, of course, as one goes
down the core, the snow/ice is compressed
more and more so that each foot of ice represents
greater and greater lengths of time.
One wonders if Hovind's figure might not be a tad low for the evoage of these aircraft.

Reading the article wasn't a total waste of time. Led me to Oard's fine article on the Greenland ice interpretations.

I also discovered how overrated the "correlations" are.
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Sulfate concentrations from continuous biyearly sampling of the GISP2 Greenland ice core provide a record of potential climate-forcing volcanism since 7000 B.C. Although 85 percent of the events recorded over the last 2000 years were matched to documented volcanic eruptions, only about 30 percent of the events from 1 to 7000 B.C. were matched to such events. Several historic eruptions may have been greater sulfur producers than previously thought. There are three times as many events from 5000 to 7000 B.C. as over the last two millennia with sulfate deposition equal to or up to five times that of the largest known historical eruptions. This increased volcanism in the early Holocene may have contributed to climatic cooling.
( from http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/264/5161/948 ) 85% sounds impressive, but 30% is rather the opposite. And getting discrepancies in the amount of sulfur raises questions also.
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Do you cross-check the things you read on AiG? When I research a subject I try to get as much information from different sources as I can. Believe it or not, Talk Origins is never the last word for me.
Good to have your word on that. Other evidence is generally lacking.

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I want to find out what other people are saying and what the general scientific consensus seems to be. I highly recommend it as a truth-finding methodology.
A plug for the consensus? And on a politicized global warming-related topic, even. If one values truth, this would seem to be a hazardous attitude.

Dark Matter + Dark Energy = Dark Truth

"We find that such evidence demonstrates that the ID argument is dependent upon setting a scientifically unreasonable burden of proof for the theory of evolution." - Judge Jones Kitzmiller case
http://www.talkreason.org/articles/Falsify.cfm

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