Earth age

Posted by cougar on Nov 11, 2002 at 12:02
(63.228.205.209)

Re: continuing a previous argument.... (John Wright)

Of course, now we know (well, most of us) that radiometric dating permits the accurate determination of absolute dates. The first radiometric dating was done in 1905; it and subsequent measurements confirmed that the Earth was several billion years old. Currently the best estimate of the age of the Earth is 4.55 billion years. It should be understood that estimating the ages of rocks using radiometric dating is an entirely separate technique from the radiocarbon (C-14) method for dating organic remains. Radiometric dating of rocks is based on the decay of long lived isotopes of Potassium, Thorium, and Uranium. Radiocarbon dating is based on the decay of the short lived C-14 isotope and is irrelevant to determining the age of the Earth.




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