Scientific Evidence for the Age of the Earth

Introduction

 

 

What do scientists say about the age of the earth? Contrary to some claims, the vast majority of scientists believe the earth is over 4 billion years old. This belief is not based upon some attempt to justify evolution, but is based upon real scientific data. This data consists of isochron dating of meteorites and rocks from the moon, and radiometric dating of the geologic column.

• "The oldest meteorites and lunar rocks are about 4.5 billion years old, but the oldest Earth rocks currently known are 3.8 billion years old." Introduction to the Hadean (University of California Berkley)

• "By probing a tiny grain of zircon, a mineral commonly used to determine the geological age of rocks, scientists from UW-Madison, Curtin University in Australia and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland have found evidence that 4.4 billion years ago, a mere 100 million years or so after the accretion of the Earth." Oldest crystal tells tale of hospitable early Earth (University of Wisconsin, Madison)

• How old is the Earth? 4.6 billion years (4,600,000,000 years)
  Radiometric dating (Uranium, Thorium). Mass spectrometer. The Age of the Earth (Georgia Perimeter College)
• "The earth is estimated to be about ~4.45 billion years old (from dating of meteorites), yet the oldest rocks we find on earth are 'only' ~3.8 billion years old." First Life (Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington)
• "Scientists from UCLA and Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia have found strong evidence for liquid water at or near the Earth’s surface 4.3 billion years ago." Scientists from UCLA and Australia Find Evidence of Water on Earth 4.3 Billion Years Ago (UCLA)
• The Earth is 4.5 Billion years old, that is 4500 Million Years and the oldest rock is about 4 billion years old. The rocks of the Grand Canyon span 1.8 billion years or about 1/2 of all recorded Earth History. Lecture 2 - A Trip Through 1.8 Billion Years of Earth History (University of California Santa Cruz)

For related pages, see

• Scientific Evidence for the Age of the Universe
• Day-Age Genesis One Interpretation
• Biblical Evidence for Long Creation Days
• Is the Young-Earth Interpretation Biblical?

---

Links

Missing Isotopes from Accuracy in Genesis

---

References

1. Your father's blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age-old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers. (Genesis 49:26)
2. Chaboyer, B., P. Demarque, P.J. Kernan, and L.M. Krauss. 1996. A Lower Limit on the Age of the Universe. Science 271: 957-961.
3. Cayrel, R., V. Hill, T. C. Beers, B. Barbuy, M. Spite, F. Spite, B. Plez, J. Anderson, P. Bonifacio, P. Francois, P. Molaro, B. Nordstrom, F. Primas. 2001. Measurement of stellar age from uranium decay. Nature 409, 691-692.
4. Watson, A. 1998. Cosmology: The Universe Shows Its Age. Science 279: 981-983
5. Homan, D.C. and J.F.C. Wardle. 2000. Direct distance measurements to superluminal radio sources. Astrophysical Journal 535: 575-585.
6. Scientific observation shows that erosion of the Grand Canyon takes place at a rate of 1 ft. every 5,000 years. If the Canyon started out flat, it would take 25,000,000 years for the Colorado river to erode 5000 ft of the Grand Canyon. (library.thinkquest.org)
7. Hernstein, et al. 1999. A geometric distance to the galaxy NGC 4258 from orbital motions in a nuclear gas disk. Nature 400: 539-541.
8. Flavio S. Anselmetti, Gregor P. Eberli, and Zan-Dong Ding. 2000. From the Great Bahama Bank into the Straits of Florida: A margin architecture controlled by sea-level fluctuations and ocean currents. GSA Bulletin 112: 829-844.
9. Malin, M.C. and K. S. Edgett. 2000. Sedimentary Rocks of Early Mars. Science 290: 1927-1937. (View pictures from the article)
   Kerr, R.A. 2000. PLANETARY SCIENCE: A Dripping Wet Early Mars Emerging From New Pictures. Science 290: 1879-1880
10. Algeo, T.J., and Watson, B.A., 1995, Calcite, aragonite, and bimineralic ooids in Missourian (Upper Pennsylvanian) strata of Kansas: Stratigraphic and geographic patterns of variation, in Pausé, P.H., and Candelaria, M.P., eds., Carbonate Facies and Sequence Stratigraphy: Practical Applications of Carbonate Models: Permian Basin Section SEPM, Publ. 95-36, p. 141-173.
11. Because of the tidal interaction with the moon, the rotation of the earth is gradually slowing, by about 0.005 seconds per year. About 370 million years ago, each day would have been only 22.7 hours long! Studies of rugose coral fossils that were independently estimated to be 370 million years old revealed that when they were alive a day lasted about 22 hours. This relationship has been confirmed with other coral fossils.
12. If we assumed that all of the minerals which are carried by rivers into the oceans remains trapped in the oceans, then it would take 260 million years for the concentration of sodium to reach its present level (assuming plankton, fish and plants do not adsorb sodium, which they do).

13. Photo courtesy of the National Park Service.

    Huge stalactites, stalagmites, and columns (over 50 feet high and over 30 feet in diameter) exist in the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. The rate of deposition of minerals is such that the structures must be at least 500,000 years old. There is no way to increase the rate of deposition, since increasing the flow of water merely produces a waterfall and decreasing the flow of water produces no deposition. (carlsbad.caverns.national-park.com)
14. Petit et al. 1999. Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica. Nature 399: 429-436.
15. The coral reef at Eniwetok atoll in the Pacific Ocean has been measured to have a thickness of up to 4,610 feet. Even the most optimistic coral growth rates would require that the atoll be over 130,000 years of age.
16. Some bristlecone pine trees in California date back to 2500 BC. But their tree rings have been matched with those of dead trees; this shows that the latter germinated about 7000 BC

Last updated 02/01/08

Home | Answers | Design | Creation | Bible | Slideshows | Theology | Aberrant Theology | Tribulation | Life Issues | Discovery | God's Love | Abortion | Discussion | Links | About us | Contact | Newsletter | e-Card | Webmaster | Personal | Humor | Search