The Age of the EarthThis is a definitive, masterly history and synthesis of all that has been said (by theologians and scientists) and is known (to science) about the question, How old is the Earth? It explains in a simple and straightforward way the evidence and logic that have led scientists to conclude that the Earth and the other parts of the Solar System are not several thousand years old, as some today would have it, but four and one-half billion years old. It is a fascinating story, but not so simple as single measurement. Our universe is a large, old, and complicated place. Earth and other bodies have endured a long and sometimes violent history, the events of which have frequently obscured the record that we seek to decipher. Although in detail the journey into Earth's past requires considerable scientific skill, knowledge, and imagination, the story is not so complicated that it cannot be explained to someone who wants to know and understand the basic evidence. This book, then, has been written for people with some modest background in science, but at a level that will allow the material to be useful and accessible to those without a deep knowledge of geology or physics or mathematics. |
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Contents
| 1 | |
| 12 | |
| 79 | |
The Direct Evidence | 125 |
Samples from a Sister Planet | 193 |
Visitors from Space | 257 |
The Hourglass of the Solar System | 305 |
Indirect Evidence | 357 |
What We Know and Do Not Know | 396 |
Glossary | 447 |
Index | 461 |
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Common terms and phrases
accumulation addition amount Apollo Apollo 14 Ar-Ar Archean atoms basalt basins bodies breccia calculated chemical chondrites composition consistent constant contain cooling craters crust crystallization dating decay deposited determined diagram early Earth elements Equation estimate evidence evolution example fall formation formed Galaxy Geological gneisses granitoid Group growth half-life heat Holmes impact indicate initial iron isochron isotopic known lava lead less lunar mare mass material measurements metamorphism meteorites method minerals Moon nature nuclides observed occur ocean older oldest orbit origin parent physical Planetary planets precise present primarily probably processes production radioactive radiometric range ratio Rb-Sr reasonable relative represent rocks samples Science sedimentary similar Sm-Nd Solar System stars surface Table temperature tion types U-Pb units universe volcanic Wasserburg
Popular passages
Page xvii - The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance.
Page 12 - Mathematics may be compared to a mill of exquisite workmanship, which grinds you stuff of any degree of fineness ; but, nevertheless, what you get out depends on what you put in ; and as the grandest mill in the world will not extract wheat-flour from peascods, so pages of formulae will not get a definite result out of loose data.
Page 35 - It seems therefore, on the whole, most probable that the sun has not illuminated the earth for 100,000,000 years, and almost certain that he has not done so for 500,000,000 years. As for the future, we may say with equal certainty that inhabitants of the earth cannot continue to enjoy the light and heat essential to their life for many million years longer, unless new sources, now unknown to us, are prepared in the great storehouse of Creation.
Page 28 - ... a globe of iron of an inch in diameter, exposed red-hot to the open air, will scarcely lose all its heat in an hour's time; but a greater globe would retain its heat longer in the proportion of its diameter, because the surface (in proportion to which it is cooled by the contact of the ambient air) is in that proportion less in respect of the quantity of the included hot matter; and therefore a globe of...
Page 210 - That this is not so is due to a number of factors, the most important of which is the part played by kinship in perpetuating group cohesiveness.
Page 33 - Energy' forces upon us the conclusion that within a finite period of time past the earth must have been, and within a finite period of time to come must again be, unfit for the habitation of man as at present constituted, unless operations have been, and are to be, performed, which are impossible under the laws governing the known operations going on at present in the material world.
Page 38 - We must allow very wide limits in such an estimate as I have attempted to make ; but I think we may with much probability say that the consolidation cannot have taken place less than...
Page 28 - ... a globe of red hot iron equal to our earth, that is about 40,000,000 feet in diameter, would scarcely cool in an equal number of days, or in about 50,000 years. But I suspect that the duration of heat may, on account of some latent causes, increase in a yet less proportion than that of the diameter ; and I should be glad that the true proportions were investigated by experiments.
Page 43 - I am not led to differ much from his estimate of 24,000,000 years. But until we know something more than we know at present as to the probable diminution of thermal conductivity with increasing temperature, which would shorten the time since consolidation, it would be quite inadvisable to publish any closer estimate.
Page 53 - ... increase of saltness in them, I will not dispute it ; but shall observe that such a supposition would by so much contract the age of the world, within the date to be derived from the foregoing argument, which is chiefly intended to refute the ancient notion, some have of late entertained, of the eternity of all things; though perhaps by it the world may be found much older than many have hitherto imagined.
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Age of the Earth |
| Author | G. Brent Dalrymple |
| Edition | reprint |
| Publisher | Stanford University Press, 1991 |
| ISBN | 0804723311, 9780804723312 |
| Length | 474 pages |
| Subjects | › › Science / Earth Sciences / Geology |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |