Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
Histogram of Holmes' solutions for the Age of the Earth.
The shaded values are those Holmes considered 'anomalous' and
preferred not to use in the calculation, although they actually made
little di¬erence to the final age.
tially the same model still used today for calculations of the age
of the Earth.
When being presented with one of his many medals for out-
standing achievements in geology, Holmes described how his
greatest disappointment, his work on the potassium-calcium
decay system, turned into his greatest satisfaction, that of dat-
ing the age of the Earth from Nier's isotope data. The model
used was fundamentally the same on both occasions, only the
isotope system was di¬erent. We do not know whether
