HOW OLD lS THE AGE OF THE EARTH?

Question

I believe the age of the earth is 5,981 years old as i explained in the bottom of my documenatation ( http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=76296974&blogID=136883008&Mytoken=47AD1062-6B67-45D1-85567866F97D3985501923828 )

But what do you think? and what about the dinosoars?

Thanks

Answer 1

How Old Is The Earth?

The generally accepted age for the Earth and the rest of the solar system is about 4.55 billion years (plus or minus about 1%). This value is derived from several different lines of evidence.

Unfortunately, the age cannot be computed directly from material that is solely from the Earth. There is evidence that energy from the Earth's accumulation caused the surface to be molten. Further, the processes of erosion and crustal recycling have apparently destroyed all of the earliest surface.

The oldest rocks which have been found so far (on the Earth) date to about 3.8 to 3.9 billion years ago (by several radiometric dating methods). Some of these rocks are sedimentary, and include minerals which are themselves as old as 4.1 to 4.2 billion years. Rocks of this age are relatively rare, however rocks that are at least 3.5 billion years in age have been found on North America, Greenland, Australia, Africa, and Asia.

While these values do not compute an age for the Earth, they do establish a lower limit (the Earth must be at least as old as any formation on it). This lower limit is at least concordant with the independently derived figure of 4.55 billion years for the Earth's actual age.

The most direct means for calculating the Earth's age is a Pb/Pb isochron age, derived from samples of the Earth and meteorites. This involves measurement of three isotopes of lead (Pb-206, Pb-207, and either Pb-208 or Pb-204). A plot is constructed of Pb-206/Pb-204 versus Pb-207/Pb-204.

If the solar system formed from a common pool of matter, which was uniformly distributed in terms of Pb isotope ratios, then the initial plots for all objects from that pool of matter would fall on a single point.

Over time, the amounts of Pb-206 and Pb-207 will change in some samples, as these isotopes are decay end-products of uranium decay (U-238 decays to Pb-206, and U-235 decays to Pb-207). This causes the data points to separate from each other. The higher the uranium-to-lead ratio of a rock, the more the Pb-206/Pb-204 and Pb-207/Pb-204 values will change with time.

If the source of the solar system was also uniformly distributed with respect to uranium isotope ratios, then the data points will always fall on a single line. And from the slope of the line we can compute the amount of time which has passed since the pool of matter became separated into individual objects. See the Isochron Dating FAQ or Faure (1986, chapter 18) for technical detail.

A young-Earther would object to all of the "assumptions" listed above. However, the test for these assumptions is the plot of the data itself. The actual underlying assumption is that, if those requirements have not been met, there is no reason for the data points to fall on a line.

Answer 2

The age of almost all meteorites, including ones which originated on the Moon and other planets is roughly 4.54 Ga (billion years). These meteorites represent the original "stuff" our solar system formed from, including the Earth itself. The oldest bits of rock found on Earth are around 3.8 Ga, but this is primarily because the Earth is constantly recycling old rocks - so it is hard, if not impossible to find rocks as old as the Earth itself.

By the way the person who started this question is a nutter, one of those end-of-days fundamentalist christians who thinks that his dogmatic religion is the only "right" one and takes everything written in the Bible literally. Don't bother looking at his(her?) blog unless you want to be insulted at her(his?) ignorance of reality.

I'd like to see the person who started this post's "proof" indicating the age of the Earth, and I would like you to explain how if the Earth is less than 6,000 years old we can measure the abundancy of isotopes of uranium, thorium, and other daughter products in rocks and all the data we have indicates that all but the youngest rocks (near volcanoes) are well over a million years old, and some 4000 times that (4 billion)?! If we only took a few samples and dated them - fair enough, we could be wrong. However, we have dated well over 1 million rocks and nearly all are older (by a factor of at least 10,000) than your date of 5,981 years!! And, you base your estimate on one (non-primary) source!!! What gives?!

I admit I was sceptical of radioactive dating techniques when I first learnt of them. Now that I have got my head around how the process works and I practice the techniques myself as a geologist, I can only wonder how so many people out there still disregard the information we provide to them.

Answer 3

the generally accepted age for the Earth and the rest of the solar system is about 4.55 billion years (plus or minus about 1%). This value is derived from several different lines of evidence.

Unfortunately, the age cannot be computed directly from material that is solely from the Earth. There is evidence that energy from the Earth's accumulation caused the surface to be molten. Further, the processes of erosion and crustal recycling have apparently destroyed all of the earliest surface.

The oldest rocks which have been found so far (on the Earth) date to about 3.8 to 3.9 billion years ago (by several radiometric dating methods). Some of these rocks are sedimentary, and include minerals which are themselves as old as 4.1 to 4.2 billion years. Rocks of this age are relatively rare, however rocks that are at least 3.5 billion years in age have been found on North America, Greenland, Australia, Africa, and Asia.

While these values do not compute an age for the Earth, they do establish a lower limit (the Earth must be at least as old as any formation on it). This lower limit is at least concordant with the independently derived figure of 4.55 billion years for the Earth's actual age.

The most direct means for calculating the Earth's age is a Pb/Pb isochron age, derived from samples of the Earth and meteorites. This involves measurement of three isotopes of lead (Pb-206, Pb-207, and either Pb-208 or Pb-204). A plot is constructed of Pb-206/Pb-204 versus Pb-207/Pb-204.

If the solar system formed from a common pool of matter, which was uniformly distributed in terms of Pb isotope ratios, then the initial plots for all objects from that pool of matter would fall on a single point.

Over time, the amounts of Pb-206 and Pb-207 will change in some samples, as these isotopes are decay end-products of uranium decay (U-238 decays to Pb-206, and U-235 decays to Pb-207). This causes the data points to separate from each other. The higher the uranium-to-lead ratio of a rock, the more the Pb-206/Pb-204 and Pb-207/Pb-204 values will change with time.

If the source of the solar system was also uniformly distributed with respect to uranium isotope ratios, then the data points will always fall on a single line. And from the slope of the line we can compute the amount of time which has passed since the pool of matter became separated into individual objects. See the Isochron Dating FAQ or Faure (1986, chapter 18) for technical detail.

A young-Earther would object to all of the "assumptions" listed above. However, the test for these assumptions is the plot of the data itself. The actual underlying assumption is that, if those requirements have not been met, there is no reason for the data points to fall on a line.

The resulting plot has data points for each of five meteorites that contain varying levels of uranium, a single data point for all meteorites that do not, and one (solid circle) data point for modern terrestrial sediments. It looks like this:

Answer 4

This is an utterly stupid question. Go back to Fundamentalism School, the earth is exactly 6,000 years old according to their narrow-minded way of thinking. As for the dinosaurs, they lived to about the age of 70 years old before they were killed in the flood. Noah realized that the ark would sink with all their combined weight.

Answer 5

does everybody fairly cares? i mean is it gonna make your existence more desirable helpful if its a thousand million or 5 hundred years old. no individual fairly comprehend the age of the earth , those who say they do is a liar. the earths age is only a theory or wager

Answer 6

The earth was formed around the same time as our sun,which some estimate around 5 billion years give or take a few million years,then again no one will ever prove or disprove it

Answer 7

the earth has been shown to be about 4.5 billion years old. there are no dinosaurs in the bible. but they were definitely here.

Answer 8

if the earth slows down every day it must have been spinning fast. the wind would blow the dinos into the sea

Answer 9

4.6 Billion years... 5981 must be the age of the first civilization...

Answer 10

Dood u can not emagine the number.U just cannot count them.It is probably BILLIONS and BILLIONS of years old...