The Age of the Earth: the first radiometric geological time scale (Holmes)
The Age of the Earth: primera escala geológica radiométrica (Holmes)
- Date
- 1913 · confidence high
- Place
- London, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Arthur Holmes
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Arthur Holmes used uranium-lead ratios from rocks of known relative age to put numbers on the geological time scale, obtaining nearly 1.6 billion years for Precambrian rocks from Ceylon. His book set the age of the Earth in billions of years.
Boltwood had dated minerals in 1907; Holmes extended the method to the entire stratigraphic column. The 1913 figures were revised after the discovery of isotopes.
What it led to
- the absolute geological time scale, revised by Holmes in 1947 and 1960
- the definitive undoing of Kelvin's age