how old is the earth?

Answer 1

It's based on several things:

1) dating meteorites. When we find a meteorite from this solar system that has a similar composition to earth, you get many young ages, but the oldest and most common date to 4.6 Ga (billion years).

2) isotope trends. When you look at certain radiogenic isotope ratios that change with time, like Rb/Sr or U/Pb, you find that many rocks with differnt ratios of many ages form a line, and the line traces back to an origin of 4.6 Ga as well.

The oldest life is 3 1/2 Ga, the oldest rock is about 4 Ga, and the oldest date ever found is on the highly durable mineral Zircon from Australia, it's date is 4.2 Ga. So, there is no direct method, it is based on inferences. However, many different inferences lead to the same number 4.559 Ga (to be specific).

You would have to throw out everything we know and love about Geology to accept a young earth view. When you look at the Grand Canyon, how can you say that only took 6000 years to form?

Answer 2

Around 4.6 billion years. Those that say 6000 years know nothing about modern science."Not enough mud on the sea floor" Have you ever seen a core sample taken from the sea floor? it can be hundreds of metres in length!
'A recent Gallup poll concluded that nearly 50% of the American public believes the universe is less than 10,000 years old. Nearly half the population, in other words, believes that the entire universe, the sun and solar system, the Milky Way galaxy, the Andromeda galaxy, and all the billions of other galaxies, all began after the domestication of the dog. They believe this because they rate a particular bronze age origin myth more highly than all the scientific evidence in the world. It is only one of literally thousands of such myths from around the world, but it happened, by a series of historical accidents, to become enshrined in a book – Genesis – which, by another series of historical accidents, has been translated and disseminated to almost every home in the land plus – infuriatingly – every hotel room. Even before science told us the true story of the origin of the world and the evolution of life, there was no reason to believe the Jewish origin myth any more than the origin myths of the Yoruba or the Kikuyu, the Yanomamo or the Maori, the Dogon or the Cherokee. Now, in the 21st century as we approach Darwin’s bicentenary, the fact that half of Americans take Genesis literally is nothing less than an educational scandal.'

Answer 3

Earth was formed around 4.57 billion years ago
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The generally accepted age for the Earth and the rest of the solar system is about 4.55 billion years (plus or minus about 1-2%). 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.

Answer 4

DO ANY THINK THE BIBLE GIVES THE IMPRESSION THAT THE EARTH IS VERY OLD?

Day [ or days and all are one ] is sames as ages or generations Col.1:26; Eph.1:7;

0000 0000 Gen.1:1,2; ALL EXIST TIME AS BILLIONS Job 38:30-32;
0000 0000 Gen.1:3-25; TIME AS HIGH THOUSANDS EARTH PREPARATION
0000 0000 Gen.1:26; THOUSANDS IN TIME FOR THE WORLD IN EARTH. Job 37:12;
1056 0000 Gen.5:3,6,9,12,15,18,21,25,28 IS 1056 years, Noah born.
0600 0000 Gen.7:6 [ AGE 600 ]; Noah #10 son, Gen 9:28,39;
1656 0000 Flood YEAR WITH NOAH 375 DAYS TO DRY LAND Gen.8:21,22;
0000 0000 AFTER THE FLOOD BELOW [ Noah 350 & Shem 502 years ]:
0222 0222 Gen.11:10,12,14,16,18,20,22,24 IS 222 years, Terah born, dies.
0205 0427 Gen.11:32; 12:4; Abraham #20 son. Promised Land covenant.
0430 0857 Exo.7:7 [ Moses 80 ]; 12:40,41; Gal.3:16-18 [ the law ];
0040 0897 Deut.1:3; 29:5; 34:7 [ Moses age 120 dies in 40th year ];
0001 0898 Joshua 5:6,10,12; 14th day in New Year ends 40 years.
0300 1198 Judges 11:26 [ 300 years of Judges to Jair dies, 1198 ];
0029 1227 1Sam.4:15,18; Eli. 1Sam.7:2,13,15; Samuel age 80 at 1307.
0080 1307 Acts 13:20; 450 plus 857 Moses, is 1307 years after flood.
0026 1333 Acts 13:21; Saul 1117 less 40 years is 1077 before Christ.
0040 1373 1Ki.2:10,11; David 1077 less 40 is 1037 before Christ.
0004 1377 1Ki.6:1; 480 plus 897 Moses died, Solomon is 1377 after flood.
0036 1413 1Ki.11:42; Solomon dies. 1037 less 40 is 0997 BCE.
0391 1804 2Ki.25:8; 2Chr.36:20-23; Judah kings end at Babylon #3.
0606 0000 THERE WILL BE NO KING UNTIL THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.
0000 2410 1656 PLUS 2006 CE IS 6072 the world, after Adam created.

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

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%).

Answer 7

Around 4.57 billion years ago is the general consensus among the science community, but how are we really supposed to know since we were not here when it was formed. For all we know it could be older than 4.57 billion years. However, science is always researching that and we may get close but we may never really know.

Answer 8

Widely accepted scientific evidence indicates that the Earth was formed around 4.57 billion years ago

Answer 9

The earth is 4.57 billion years old and the universe about 14.7 billion.

Answer 10

What's important to ask is not how old it is - but how much longer it has to live. It may have existed for 4 billion years, and supported life forms for a few million - but I find it difficult to imagine it supporting us for much more than another 1000 years. It's not a lot of time right?!