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Geology
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Feb 20, 2024
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1/28/24, 12:24 AM
1.2. Geological Time: EOSC 326 99C 2023W2 Earth and Life Through Time
https://canvas.ubc.ca/courses/130823/pages/1-dot-2-geological-time?module_item_id=6194667
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1.2. Geological Time
Age of the Earth
In the western tradition, one of the earliest and most influential figures in the interpretation of
geological time was James Ussher (1581 - 1665), Archbishop of Armagh. An important
historical figure in his own right, Ussher also published a chronology of Earth's history using all
dates mentioned in the Bible to establish a timeline. Using this technique, he established the
first day of creation to be October 22, 4004 BC. This date would make the Earth a little over
6,000 years old!
Figure - James Ussher (1581 - 1665), Archbishop of Armagh.
Image from Wikipedia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/) .
As science continued to develop during the 1700s, people started to become dissatisfied with
Ussher's estimated age for the planet. One such scientist and notable natural historian was
George Louis De Buffon (1707 - 1788). Believing the Earth to have been initially as a hot
molten mass, Buffon heated iron spheres (which he thought was a reasonable model for the
structure of the planet) and calculated the time they took to cool. Using this method Buffon
believed the Earth to be around 75,000 years old.
1/28/24, 12:24 AM
1.2. Geological Time: EOSC 326 99C 2023W2 Earth and Life Through Time
https://canvas.ubc.ca/courses/130823/pages/1-dot-2-geological-time?module_item_id=6194667
2/4
Figure - George Louis De Buffon (1707 - 1788).
Image from Wikipedia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/) .
Irish Geologist John Joly published a paper in 1899 in which he estimated the Earth's oceans
(which he believed to be the same age as the planet) to be about 90 million years old. He
calculated this by estimating how long it would take for the oceans to reach their current salinity
(from an original fresh water state) as salt is added via the erosion of minerals in rocks. (Today
we understand that the Earth's oceans have not been getting increasingly salty with time. As
such, present day salinity levels cannot be used as a gauge to estimate the passage of
geological time.)
Figure - Ocean water. Photo by S. Sutherland.
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