Question
Download Solution PDFIn 1910, who applied the newly developed method of radioactive dating to minerals in the first attempt to quantitatively estimate the age of the Earth?
Answer (Detailed Solution Below)
Detailed Solution
Download Solution PDFThe correct answer is Arthur Holmes.
Key Points
- Arthur Holmes was a British geologist who made pivotal contributions to the study of the age of the Earth.
- His work established the basis for the geological timescale, which is commonly used today.
- In 1910, Holmes, then a student, made one of the earliest uses of radioactive dating to study the age of the Earth - he did this by applying radioactivity to the dating of rocks.
- Holmes used uranium-lead dating to analyze a mineral, known as pitchblende.
- The quantitative results were not precise by today's standards, but this marked a significant first step in chronometric dating in geology, and Holmes remained a major advocate for radioactive methods in geochronology.
Additional Information
- Friedrich Mohs was a German geologist and mineralogist, best known for developing the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, a qualitative scale characterizing scratch resistance of various minerals.
- Clair C Patterson was an American geochemist, Patterson developed the uranium-lead dating method into lead-lead dating and, by using lead isotopic data from the Canyon Diablo meteorite, he calculated an age for the Earth of 4.55 billion years, which is very close to the currently accepted age.
- Alfred Wegenerwas a German polar researcher, geophysicist, and meteorologist, Wegener is best known for his theory of continental drift (that the continents slowly move across the Earth's surface), later replaced by the theory of plate tectonics.
Last updated on Jul 1, 2025
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