Geologists met Mid-June at the Goldschmidt Geochemistry Conference to discuss new knowledge in the field. Some of the most interesting work presented at the conference explained new date estimates of earth and lunar formation. Guillaume Avice and Bernard Marty of the University of Lorraine examined ancient gasses trapped in quarts crystal. The specific amounts of different atoms revealed to the geochemists that early estimates undershot the true date. While exact dates of formation are impossible to compose, more exact timings of +/- a few million years are crucial to know. The findings of the researchers changed the date of the earth’s atmosphere’s birth back sixty million years than thought before. This new estimate placed the event at about forty million years after the start of the solar system. Another new, very important change would also be true if the earth’s atmosphere was older: the Moon would be older. The leading theory on lunar formation tells of a Mars-sized object called Thea smashing into the earth. A huge chunk of the earth, with some of Thea, later made the Moon. Because the atmosphere would have to be made after this catastrophic event, the event itself must be sixty million years older.
- Grant Regen
Moon/Earth Formation 60 Million Years Older than Thought
NASA/JPL-Caltech