Abstract
EVER since the publication by Nier and his co-workers1 of the relative abundances of the isotopes in twenty-five samples of lead from common lead minerals of various geological ages (Table 1), I have entertained the hope that from these precise data it might be possible to fathom the depths of geological time. The calculations involved are, however, somewhat formidable, and a systematic investigation became possible only recently, with the acquisition of a calculating machine, for which grateful acknowledgment is made to the Moray Endowment Research Fund of the University of Edinburgh. The results have fully justified expectation and indicate that the age of the earth, reckoned from the time when radiogenic lead first began to accumulate in earth-materials, is of the order 3,000 million years.
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References
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HOLMES, A. AN ESTIMATE OF THE AGE OF THE EARTH. Nature 157, 680–684 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/157680a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/157680a0
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