Timeline for How did 19th century scientists estimate the age of the Earth
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
14 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 5, 2022 at 23:44 | comment | added | Alexandre Eremenko | @Stephan Matthiesen: You may be right. All mentioning of "objections to Kelvin based on evolution" that I found is from popular books with no exact references. That's why I asked this question. I read Darvin's Origin of species, and know that all time estimates there are from geological arguments. | |
| Feb 5, 2022 at 22:27 | comment | added | uUnwY | But did the 19th century biologist actually base their estimates on evolutionary rates or other biological considerations? Darwin himself (see the link in @nwr's comment) uses geological rather than biological arguments; I don't think he had sufficiently good estimates of evolutionary rates, only that it must be very slow. Instead, he discusses coastal erosion and finds, "At this rate, on the above data, the denudation of the Weald must have required 306,662,400 years; or say three hundred million years." | |
| Feb 4, 2022 at 2:07 | history | edited | Alexandre Eremenko | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 191 characters in body
|
| Jul 20, 2018 at 15:52 | answer | added | drvrm | timeline score: 2 | |
| Jul 20, 2018 at 15:32 | comment | added | drvrm | The first geologic time scale that included absolute dates was published in 1913 by the British geologist Arthur Holmes.[15] He greatly furthered the newly created discipline of geochronology and published the world-renowned book The Age of the Earth in which he estimated Earth's age to be at least 1.6 billion years.[16] | |
| Apr 14, 2017 at 14:29 | comment | added | K7PEH | Link to recommended book: amazon.com/Rocks-Dont-Lie-Geologist-Investigates/dp/0393346242/… | |
| Apr 14, 2017 at 14:29 | comment | added | K7PEH | Recommendation for a book on the history of the development of the science of Geology out of the quest to discover the age of the Earth. This book is about how the religious people (mostly England at the start) wanted to show evidence for Noah's flood age to prove the veracity of the book of Genesis. Out of this, many of the clergy became the first geologists and changed their beliefs on Earth's age as a result. This is definitely a fun rich historical read and I highly recommend it. It is called "The Rocks Don't Lie -- A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood". Link in next comment... | |
| Apr 13, 2017 at 20:31 | comment | added | user466 | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale#Dating_of_time_scales | |
| Apr 13, 2017 at 5:18 | history | edited | Alexandre Eremenko | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
edited title
|
| Jan 15, 2017 at 17:28 | comment | added | nwr | The Gutenberg site includes a first edition of Origin of Species. See gutenberg.org/files/1228/1228-h/1228-h.htm . Darwin's argument is given in Chapter 9, in the section headed "ON THE LAPSE OF TIME" and is based on coastal erosion. Darwin's argument may have been the result of being given a first edition of Principles of Geology, by Charles Lyell, at the time he set out on his voyage on the Beagle. | |
| Jan 15, 2017 at 9:46 | comment | added | Mauro ALLEGRANZA | More specific: Joe Burchfield, Lord Kelvin and the Age of Earth (1975). | |
| Jan 15, 2017 at 9:45 | comment | added | Mauro ALLEGRANZA | Possible sources : Rachel Laudan, From Mineralogy to Geology: THE FOUNDATIONS OF A SCIENCE, 1650-1830 (1987) and Patrick Wyse Jackson, The Chronologers' Quest: Episodes in the Search for the Age of the Earth (2006). | |
| Jan 15, 2017 at 8:23 | history | edited | Alexandre Eremenko | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 51 characters in body
|
| Jan 14, 2017 at 20:08 | history | asked | Alexandre Eremenko | CC BY-SA 3.0 |