Evolution? How?

4.5 billion. Sheesh, at least start with something accurate.



Yeh, and if the Easter Bunny hopped up and bit your leg you might get rabies, so what.

From the US Geological Survey:

AGE OF THE EARTH
So far scientists have not found a way to determine the exact age of the Earth directly from Earth rocks because Earth's oldest rocks have been recycled and destroyed by the process of plate tectonics. If there are any of Earth's primordial rocks left in their original state, they have not yet been found. Nevertheless, scientists have been able to determine the probable age of the Solar System and to calculate an age for the Earth by assuming that the Earth and the rest of the solid bodies in the Solar System formed at the same time and are, therefore, of the same age.

The ages of Earth and Moon rocks and of meteorites are measured by the decay of long-lived radioactive isotopes of elements that occur naturally in rocks and minerals and that decay with half lives of 700 million to more than 100 billion years to stable isotopes of other elements. These dating techniques, which are firmly grounded in physics and are known collectively as radiometric dating, are used to measure the last time that the rock being dated was either melted or disturbed sufficiently to rehomogenize its radioactive elements.



Ancient rocks exceeding 3.5 billion years in age are found on all of Earth's continents. The oldest rocks on Earth found so far are the Acasta Gneisses in northwestern Canada near Great Slave Lake (4.03 Ga) and the Isua Supracrustal rocks in West Greenland (3.7 to 3.8 Ga), but well-studied rocks nearly as old are also found in the Minnesota River Valley and northern Michigan (3.5-3.7 billion years), in Swaziland (3.4-3.5 billion years), and in Western Australia (3.4-3.6 billion years). [See Editor's Note.] These ancient rocks have been dated by a number of radiometric dating methods and the consistency of the results give scientists confidence that the ages are correct to within a few percent. An interesting feature of these ancient rocks is that they are not from any sort of "primordial crust" but are lava flows and sediments deposited in shallow water, an indication that Earth history began well before these rocks were deposited. In Western Australia, single zircon crystals found in younger sedimentary rocks have radiometric ages of as much as 4.3 billion years, making these tiny crystals the oldest materials to be found on Earth so far. The source rocks for these zircon crystals have not yet been found. The ages measured for Earth's oldest rocks and oldest crystals show that the Earth is at least 4.3 billion years in age but do not reveal the exact age of Earth's formation.

The best age for the Earth (4.54 Ga) is based on old, presumed single-stage leads coupled with the Pb ratios in troilite from iron meteorites, specifically the Canyon Diablo meteorite. In addition, mineral grains (zircon) with U-Pb ages of 4.4 Ga have recently been reported from sedimentary rocks in west-central Australia.

ci
This is the formation that includes an enhanced ratio of C12/C13 in the carbonaceous fraction. This is the first indication of life on the planet, this single formation. We do not have an abundance of very early data, and the first data is nothing more than carbon ratios. Our next indications of cells and actual LIFE ,is almost a billion years later
The piece of zircon , of the oldest fragment of the ancient craton that CI referred to is memorialized in geo books as W74/2-36 from the Jack Hills Conglomerate inWest Oz. A Sensitive High-Resolution Ion MicroProbe was used (affectionately called the SHRIMP). The "exact date based on lead/lead 207Pb/206Pb was an age of 4404+/- 8MA (thats a 2 sig deviation)( date is accurate for NEXT TUESDAY){ Wilde, Zhao and Sung 2002)in . GONDWANA RESEARCH} The neat thing about this grain is that its date was taken from the outer section of the crystal. It has a deeper core crystal over which the outer zirc has enucleated. So it may be older , but hell 4.4 BY, aint bad for govt funded research. "Craton" has been synonumous with the stable central continental core about which continental drift has smashed new belts of mafic and acidic rocks from subduction or mountain building. So the story may be that we will find a piece of some Craton from this planet that closely aligns its dates with the meteorites that presumably came from our outer neighbors. Still, 4.5 aint bad
The Isua is a complex area of W Greenland. The geologic column goes from banded iron formations on the bottom (indicating free oxygen in the water basin) then came some volcanic layers topped off by meta sedimentary calcium silicates and metagraywackes. The fossil carbon ratios come from the upper dated units .Until science can definitively answer that yes, 3.7/8 is the beginning of life, we have this "circumstantial evidence" whichis, I offer, a damn site more carefully and scientifically determined than that by Archbishop USSHER

Seems to be the place for this:

Usshering in the Millennium

by Russell Seitz
The 6,000th anniversary of Earth's creation (4004 B.C. - A.D. 1997) is about to be celebrated by congregations that revere geochronology's founder, the good and great Archbishop Usher. Their enthusiasm seems bound to spill over into their congressional districts, with obvious ramifications for the funding of geophysical research. So it may be prudent to amend geochronology to fit a Biblically Correct 6,000-year format, at least for the fiscal year to come.

25 Oct. 4004 B.C.: Encounter with Nemesis knocks Lucifer out of Oort Cloud.

1 Nov. 4004 B.C.: Earth still largely molten; Adam and Eve invent asbestos waders.

3714 B.C.: The first biotechnologist, Cain, invents cyanobacteria.

3554 B.C.: Komatiitic lava inundates earliest crust; Noah's Ark incinerated.

3264 B.C.: Methuselah begins to notice passage of geological time.
3124 B.C.: Archaean stratiform sulfide deposits form, making Bronze Age possible.

2844 B.C.: Tired of reading graphic granite, Imhotep invents hieroglyphs.

2584 B.C.: Earliest sedimentation; discovery of slate leads to stone tablets.

2444 B.C.: Breathable atmosphere develops; first sermon preached.

2384 B.C.: Descendants of Tubal Cain inaugurate banded Iron Age. Sphinx starts to fossilize.

2024 B.C.: Nimrod the Hunter erects the Geosyncline of Babel.

1914 B.C.: Advent of diapirism; Lot's wife turned into first salt dome.

1794 B.C.: Children of Ham split from Israelites. insisting that the Burgess Shale fauna are kosher; chowder invented.

1704 B.C.: Charshumash the Hittite bitten by first vertebrate; lawyers emerge from slime.

1624 B.C.: Samson attempts perovskite synthesis; laboratory of the Philistines implodes.

1444 B.C.: War of the Chaldean Succession Pangea broken up in accordance with the Treaty of Uruk.

1334 B.C.: Shang Empire abandons efforts to invent compass when China drifts over south magnetic pole.
1264 B.C.: Moses invents hydrofracturing opening of Red Sea rift drowns Egyptian Army.

1194 B.C.: Odysseus runs aground on Gondwanan Riviera; Circe founds Club Teth.

1104 B.C.: Ezekiel see de pterodactyl 'way up in de middle ob de air.

1024 B.C.: Goliath stepped on by irate Barosaurus; David takes credit.

794 B.C.: Jonah swallowed by Carcharas megalodon.

564 B.C.: Pythagoras publishes Air-Earth-Fire-Water phase diagram.

454 B.C.: Marble deposits form in Greece; Parthenon erected.

338 B.C.: Aristotle concludes that quartz is just another polymorph of ice, like diamond or pearls; this is known as the Wisdom of the Ancients.

48 B.C.: All of Gaul is divided into three parts by the collision of Corsica with the European Plate.

The Year Zero: Nothing much happened, there being none.

A.D. 31: Miracle of the Loaves and Ichthyosaurs.

A.D. 70: Paul, formerly Saul the Tarser, undergoes identity crisis on the road to Damascus and writes Epistle to the Cephalopods.

A.D. 344: Vanguard of Attila the Hun perishes when Romans breach Gibraltar escarpment, flooding the Mediterranean Desert.

A.D. 494: Snakes evolve and are driven out of Ireland.

A.D. 974: Lief the Unlucky is lost with all hands when his dragon ship is spotted by an amorous Kronosaurus.

A.D. 1066: William the Conqueror invades England by walking through northern France.

A.D. 1215: Magna Carta eaten by Velociraptor.

A.D. 1324: Gunpowder and plate armor introduced; dinosaurs hunted to extinction.

A.D. 1384: Dante Alighieri describes core-mantle boundary.

A.D. 1444: Flowering plants appear; War of the Roses commences.
A.D. 1484: Leonardo da Vinci designs Archaeopteryx.

A.D. 1492: Mesoamerica emerges, thwarting Columbus's discovery of Japan; the Santa Maria is attacked by ammonites.

A.D. 1522: Hernan Cortes uses asteroid impact to conquer Aztec Empire.

A.D. 1588: Spanish Armada frustrated by continuing absence of English Channel.

A.D. 1636: Earliest primates appear; Harvard founded.

A.D. 1664: An English primate becomes Primate of Ireland; Archbishop Ussher successfully deduces last four out of ten digits of the age of the Earth.

A.D. 1688: Hapsburg Iceboat Armada invades England via London-Bruges canal; Inquisition burns Isaac Newton at the stake for alchemy.

A.D. 1754: Gibbons evolve and write masterpieces like The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

A.D. 1776: Washington's Mastodon Cavalry routs Hessians at Battle of Hudson Canyon.
A.D. 1835: Charles Darwin, attacked by giant ratite in Galapagos, returns home a convinced Neptunist.

A.D. 1846: A milestone in ape evolution is passed; birth of a son to Bishop and Lady Wilburforce.

A.D. 1867: COSMOS superstar Alexander Von Humboldt wins the Napoleon III Peace Prize for sabotaging the Baltimore Gun Club's lunar cannon.

A.D. 1894: Awed by extent of glaciation, Cecil Rhodes proposes Capetown-to-Cairo bobsled run.

A.D. 1914: Younger Dryas sea-level rise unleashes U-boats into the Atlantic; Holy Roman Empire wins World War 1.

A.D. 1948: Harry Truman proposes using ice to contain Stalin; Cold War begins, ending Last Interglacial.

A.D. 1954: Glaciers retreat from Fulda Gap; de Gaulle invades Russia.

A.D. 1957: Civil Rights Movement challenges Jim Cro-Magnon laws.

A.D. 1961: Rachel Carson links DDT to Glyptodonts' decline.

A.D. 1969: Last sighting of saber-toothed tiger in Central Park; Elizabeth Taylor divorces Proconsul.

A.D. 1971: Andy Warhol paints Campbell Soup cans on walls of Lascaux caverns.
A.D. 1983: Australopithecus wins the America's Cup.

A.D. 1988: Homo habilis volunteers to serve as Pat Robertson's running mate.

A.D. 1990: Last Neanderthals perish in siege of Kremlin.

A.D. 1991: Saddam Hussein discovers fire; Holocene tar sands form in Kuwait.

A.D. 1997: Citing black smoker emissions, the EPA bans continental drift. Thermophilis wins Nobel Prize for sequencing its own DNA while trapped in amber.
N.B.: As all dates except the first are +/- 2.3 billion years, the author strongly advises against using this chronology for purposes of exegesis or the calibration of carbon-14 dating.

Inspiration for this column was a remark made at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union Inst spring by the late Cesare Emilinni, a renowned geochemist. Russell Seitz works on issues related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction at the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University.
http://www.ees.nmt.edu/Geol/classes/geol102/ussher.html


P

Pauligirl, That is f-u-n-n-y! LOL

boy thyre stokin up the fires of Gehenna for you kid.

You ever been to Gahanna . . . dull little town, prices too high . . . everybody with any sense moves to Columbus . . .

Is there really a G ahenna Ohio? (not sure of spelling) Is there a burning landfill there? That would be so , like awsomely Biblical.

THOU PISSETH ME OFF< THEREFORE THEE SHALT BE SENT TO THE FIRES OF GEHENNA IN OHIO,


Well, keep the perps from causing too much ruckus. Ive gotta go on a short trip to mid Argentina to site some core holes. Be back in a week or less.

This is something I have trouble with, how do they figure out that the half-lives are this long? What sciences do they use to come up with these numbers?

Oh, and yes there really is a Gahanna Ohio... I live about thirty minutes from it.

They just make it up. Don't worry about it. And all those big words Farmerman uses in his posts, those are just strung together to make his posts sound "scientific". But it's all a bunch of hooey.

I am genuinely curious...do they find the age by using equations for graphs and predicting off a curve? At least that was the procedure I was under the impression of...I guess is, what exactly do they measure, that will give the date? And how is this reliable?

Ok, sorry.



Many different forms of dating are used to redundantly check findings, so we should probably figure out which technique you are interested in first. Radioactive decay is one method, but the techniques for this are different depending on which element is decaying.

Thunder, in simple terms, radiometric dating more or less involves comparing the ratios of certain isotopes known to have a constant rate of decay against other stable isotopes within the same sample. Think of it this way; a rock starts out with a pound of a particular radioactive isotope, and a ton of other stuff. The radioactive material has a half-life of 750.000 years. In 1.5 million years, the rock would weigh the same, but there would be only 4 ounces of that particular isotope, 12 ounces of whatever isotope the radioactive isotope decays into, and the ton of other stuff. The precision of contemporary sampling and analysis techniques permits the very accurate detection and measurement of mind-bogglingly minute quantities of stuff, allowing for a very high degree of certainty in establishing the probable age of that rock; by the time the isotope in question has decayed to a point beyond measurement, you could be talking - depending on the particular isotope - into the billions of years. That's an oversimplification, but I think that should convey the general idea.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.wku.edu/~alan.anderson/Greece/Knossos/26-070BalconyoftheGuardsorShields-Knossos.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.wku.edu/~alan.anderson/Greece/Knossos/26.html&h=355&w=500&sz=91&tbnid=4QqkIuE65EMJ:&tbnh=90&tbnw=127&hl=en&start=4&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dshields%2B%2Bat%2Bknossos%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG
these shields,behind the red pillars, reveal infomation about cell division that is yet to be analysed.

Apart from stretching the page, your link doesn't work, Algis . . . and your statement about the images which you failed to link is a statement from authority--your own unsubstantiated authority--completely without merit. Next time ya wanna link images, hit preview first to make sure it works, and while you're at it, learn how to imbed links, like this . . .

That's "embed", you silly-turbaned typographically challenged twit

imbed

verb -dd- US

embed

from freesearch.co.uk . . .

Kinda strange for you to propose a Briticism over an American usage, feather brain . . . and that's a towell, not a turban . . .

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Imbed \Im*bed"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Imbedded; p. pr. & vb. n.
Imbedding.] [Pref. im- in + bed. Cf. Embed.]
To sink or lay, as in a bed; to deposit in a partly inclosing
mass, as of clay or mortar; to cover, as with earth, sand,
etc.


Source

Perplexing isn't it. The Earth is somewhere between 4.5 to 6 billion years old, everything evolved from single cell sea varmints, and man was once a monkey. I am unable to comprehend how after the passing of some much time, how is it possible that we still have single cell sea varmints and monkeys here on Earth? I wonder how that could be possible? Very perplexing.