Answer to Question #138383 in Biology for Briana Andrada

Question

What is the age of the Earth? Describe using the two methods of dating.

Answer 1

By dating the rocks in Earth's ever-changing crust, as well as the rocks in Earth's neighbors, such as the moon and visiting meteorites, scientists have calculated that Earth is 4.54 billion years old, with an error range of 50 million years. The main dating method for this is radiomentric.

Another method was offered in 1862. The physicist William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin published calculations that fixed the age of Earth at between 20 million and 400 million years. He assumed that Earth had formed as a completely molten object, and determined the amount of time it would take for the near-surface temperature gradient to decrease to its present value.