Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
University Press, 1991) from where (p. 80) I have taken the half-lives of the decay
series listed. Stephen G. Brush's 'Finding the age of the Earth by physics or by
faith?', Journal of Geological Education 30 (1982), 34-58, contains an in-depth
account of the radioactive methodologies used to derive dates from rocks, minerals
and other geological matter.
The contribution of Bertram Boltwood is discussed in detail by Lawrence
Badash, 'Rutherford, Boltwood, and the age of the Earth; the origin of radioactive
dating techniques', Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 112, part 3
(1968), 157-169; their letters are reproduced in L. Badash (ed.), Rutherford and
Boltwood: Letters on Radioactivity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1969).
A useful and brief account of the development of the uranium decay series is found
in G. M. Henderson, 'One hundred years ago: the birth of uranium-series science', in
B. Bourdon, G. M. Henderson, C. C. Lundstrom and S. O. P. Turner (eds.) Uranium-
Series Geochemistry. Reviews in Mineralogy & Geochemistry 52 (Geochemical
Society and Mineralogical Society of America, 2003), pp. v-x.
John Joly suggested that heat invalidated Thomson's geochronology in the
note 'Radium and the geological age of the Earth', Nature 68, (1903), 526. Joly's
most important works on radioactivity were summarised in his Radioactivity and
Geology (London: Archibald Constable & Co. Ltd, 1909). The history of the Irish
Radium Institute is given in J. Joly, 'History of the Irish Radium Institute
(1914-1930)', Royal Dublin Society Bicentenary Souvenir 1731-1931 (Royal
Dublin Society, Dublin, 1931) pp. 23-32; and in David J. Murnaghan, 'History of
radium therapy in Ireland: the 'Dublin Method' and the Irish Radium Institute',
Journal of the Irish Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons 17, part 4 (1988),
174-176.
Over ten or so years Joly produced a large volume of work on pleochroic
halos which is best read in J. Joly, 'Pleochroic halos', Philosophical Magazine,
Series 6, 13 (1907), 381-383; J. Joly and E. Rutherford, 'The age of pleochroic haloes',
Philosophical Magazine, Series 6, 25 (1913), 644-657; and J. Joly, 'The genesis of
pleochroic haloes', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 217 (1917),
51-79. The validity of Joly's findings was disputed by D. E. Kerr-Lawson,
Pleochroic haloes in biotite from near Murray Bay, Province of Quebec', Toronto
University Studies,
Geology
Series, 24 (1927),
54-70,
and
by
Franz
Lotze,
'Pleochroic haloes and the age of the Earth', Nature 121 (1938), 90.
I owe a great debt of gratitude to Cherry Lewis whose wonderful research
and writings on Arthur Holmes have provided me with much of the information
on the man and his work given here. In 2000 she published the biographical study
The Dating Game: One Man's Search for the Age of the Earth (Cambridge
University Press, 2000), and followed this with 'Arthur Holmes' vision of a
