The Age of the Earth

[BengalbobZilla]

Another good question would be how did water get on the earth?

[x_Bengals_x]

Originally Posted by Ron Mexico

Yeah, I'm sure there will be a religious post or two, but since they're illegal,...I'm just going to report them and have them deleted.

So people can post as long as they agree with you?

[BengalbobZilla]

Originally Posted by x_Bengals_x

So people can post as long as they agree with you?

Religious posts arent allowed...forum rules, has nothing to do with Ron

[Ron Mexico]

Originally Posted by x_Bengals_x

So people can post as long as they agree with you?

Originally Posted by BengalbobZilla

Religious posts arent allowed...forum rules, has nothing to do with Ron

Yeah man...these aren't my rules. I just want to have some sort of discussion about the old school Earth, and how things may have happened. It's common for religious posts to happen when it's something that doesn't necessarily fit into the bible. If religious people would like to post about a super ancient Earth, or lack thereof, then by all means, do so. I would just like for it to not go into a religious debate. Those threads just get deleted.

[Ron Mexico]

Originally Posted by BengalbobZilla

Another good question would be how did water get on the earth?

I have no friggin' clue. I think the best proposed theory about it is that it was transported here by asteroids and comets. There's a lot of water on the planet though, so that would have to be a hell of a lot of asteroids.

OR....when I have no better answer for something,...Aliens.

They probably wanted a new place to go fishing. Crafty bastards....

[crispy]

Originally Posted by Ron Mexico

I have no friggin' clue. I think the best proposed theory about it is that it was transported here by asteroids and comets. There's a lot of water on the planet though, so that would have to be a hell of a lot of asteroids.

OR....when I have no better answer for something,...Aliens.

They probably wanted a new place to go fishing. Crafty bastards....

The water would have to be here before the fish. So did the aliens stock the oceans with the fish or were they willing to wait millions of years for evolution to be able to fish? I would have to say they stocked it, doesn't make any sense at all to wait that long.

[BengalRugby]

Another good question would be how did water get on the earth?

Cynobacteria could have produced oxygen via photosynthesis. In addition, there is this Time article...


By rights, the earth should not be the cosmic garden it is. In a solar system of planets and moons that are solid rock or mostly gas, shrouded in clouds or atmosphere-free, scorchingly hot or bitterly cold, there's only one that's dripping wet. Earthlings like to refer to our home planet as the solar system's water world, and it's a jolly good thing it's as wet as it is, because without plenty of water, life (at least as we know it) would be impossible.

All the same, it's likely our planet was once a far drier, dustier place. You need only look at two of our nearby rocky neighbors — Mercury and Venus — for a reminder of what living so close to the blast furnace of the sun can do to you. Our atmosphere helps us retain the abundant water we do have, but how did it get to us in the first place?
(See iconic images of earth from space.)

One popular theory has long been comets. The solar system swarms with these little rogue bodies — perhaps a trillion of them, according to astronomers' back-of-the-envelope estimates — and shortly after the sun and planets formed, they were everywhere, flying randomly and free to collide with anything in their way. Since comets are essentially dirty snowballs made of rock, gas and water ice, a few crash landings on earth could have provided all the water we needed quite nicely.

But there was a problem with that theory. All of the comets astronomers observed were indeed packed with water ice, but a lot of it was what's known as heavy water, in which the hydrogen in the H2O mix is an isotope known as deuterium, with one proton and one neutron in its nucleus. The hydrogen found in ordinary water has no neutron. Since the overwhelming share of the water in earth's oceans is made with the light hydrogen atom, astronomers calculated that comets could have accounted for only about 10% of what's there. Now, according to a new paper published in the journal Nature, it appears that those scientists may have been wrong — and the reason for their error is that they were simply looking at the wrong comets.

The paper, co-authored by researchers at the California Institute of Technology, is based on observations conducted by the Herschel Space Observatory, a spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency in 2009. Herschel looked specifically at comet Hartley 2, a small comet discovered in 1986 with an estimated diameter of .75 to .99 mi. (1.2 to 1.6 km). Analyzing the chemical composition of Hartley 2's corona — or the gassy veil surrounding the main comet body — Herschel discovered that its concentration of heavy water was only about half that of any comets observed before. While that wouldn't entirely explain earth's particular heavy- and light-water mix, it does bring the chemistry a lot more into line — and gives the cometary explanation for earthly water a big boost.
(Read to see if Venus once had water.)

"Our results with Herschel suggest that comets could have played a major role in bringing vast amounts of water to an early earth," says physicist Dariusz Lis of Caltech, a co-author of the paper.

What distinguishes Hartley 2 from the other comets previously studied — apart from its chemistry — is the place it was born. The trajectory the comet follows in its vast looping swings toward and away from the sun suggests it originated in the Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy bodies circling the solar system some 50 times farther from the sun than the earth is. The trajectory of the other comets makes it likely they are natives of the Oort cloud, a vast swarm of comets completely surrounding the solar system up to 10,000 times more distant than the Kuiper Belt.

It's not clear why Oort comets and Kuiper comets would have different water chemistry, but the time each spent in close proximity to the sun before being gravitationally ejected into deep space may play a role. That, however, is as much of a guess as astronomers want to make. "Our study indicates that our understanding of the distribution of the lightest elements and their isotopes, as well as the dynamics of the early solar system, is incomplete," conceded Caltech planetary scientist Geoffrey Blake.

But if the science is incomplete, it's still more complete than it ever was before — making scientists more certain, too, about how our planet's water was delivered. Getting banged about by comets today could spell the end of all life on earth. But some 4 billion years ago, it may well have spelled the start.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/arti...#ixzz2IKaaOI7J

[XenoMorph]

Originally Posted by BengalRugby

Another good question would be how did water get on the earth?

Cynobacteria could have produced oxygen via photosynthesis. In addition, there is this Time article...


By rights, the earth should not be the cosmic garden it is. In a solar system of planets and moons that are solid rock or mostly gas, shrouded in clouds or atmosphere-free, scorchingly hot or bitterly cold, there's only one that's dripping wet. Earthlings like to refer to our home planet as the solar system's water world, and it's a jolly good thing it's as wet as it is, because without plenty of water, life (at least as we know it) would be impossible.

All the same, it's likely our planet was once a far drier, dustier place. You need only look at two of our nearby rocky neighbors — Mercury and Venus — for a reminder of what living so close to the blast furnace of the sun can do to you. Our atmosphere helps us retain the abundant water we do have, but how did it get to us in the first place?
(See iconic images of earth from space.)

One popular theory has long been comets. The solar system swarms with these little rogue bodies — perhaps a trillion of them, according to astronomers' back-of-the-envelope estimates — and shortly after the sun and planets formed, they were everywhere, flying randomly and free to collide with anything in their way. Since comets are essentially dirty snowballs made of rock, gas and water ice, a few crash landings on earth could have provided all the water we needed quite nicely.

But there was a problem with that theory. All of the comets astronomers observed were indeed packed with water ice, but a lot of it was what's known as heavy water, in which the hydrogen in the H2O mix is an isotope known as deuterium, with one proton and one neutron in its nucleus. The hydrogen found in ordinary water has no neutron. Since the overwhelming share of the water in earth's oceans is made with the light hydrogen atom, astronomers calculated that comets could have accounted for only about 10% of what's there. Now, according to a new paper published in the journal Nature, it appears that those scientists may have been wrong — and the reason for their error is that they were simply looking at the wrong comets.

The paper, co-authored by researchers at the California Institute of Technology, is based on observations conducted by the Herschel Space Observatory, a spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency in 2009. Herschel looked specifically at comet Hartley 2, a small comet discovered in 1986 with an estimated diameter of .75 to .99 mi. (1.2 to 1.6 km). Analyzing the chemical composition of Hartley 2's corona — or the gassy veil surrounding the main comet body — Herschel discovered that its concentration of heavy water was only about half that of any comets observed before. While that wouldn't entirely explain earth's particular heavy- and light-water mix, it does bring the chemistry a lot more into line — and gives the cometary explanation for earthly water a big boost.
(Read to see if Venus once had water.)

"Our results with Herschel suggest that comets could have played a major role in bringing vast amounts of water to an early earth," says physicist Dariusz Lis of Caltech, a co-author of the paper.

What distinguishes Hartley 2 from the other comets previously studied — apart from its chemistry — is the place it was born. The trajectory the comet follows in its vast looping swings toward and away from the sun suggests it originated in the Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy bodies circling the solar system some 50 times farther from the sun than the earth is. The trajectory of the other comets makes it likely they are natives of the Oort cloud, a vast swarm of comets completely surrounding the solar system up to 10,000 times more distant than the Kuiper Belt.

It's not clear why Oort comets and Kuiper comets would have different water chemistry, but the time each spent in close proximity to the sun before being gravitationally ejected into deep space may play a role. That, however, is as much of a guess as astronomers want to make. "Our study indicates that our understanding of the distribution of the lightest elements and their isotopes, as well as the dynamics of the early solar system, is incomplete," conceded Caltech planetary scientist Geoffrey Blake.

But if the science is incomplete, it's still more complete than it ever was before — making scientists more certain, too, about how our planet's water was delivered. Getting banged about by comets today could spell the end of all life on earth. But some 4 billion years ago, it may well have spelled the start.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/arti...#ixzz2IKaaOI7J

I believe a Couple Big Ice comets landed here and became the water we have today. It could explain some of the Super Deep areas of the ocean as well.

[duke0476]

Originally Posted by BengalRugby

Another good question would be how did water get on the earth?

Cynobacteria could have produced oxygen via photosynthesis. In addition, there is this Time article...


By rights, the earth should not be the cosmic garden it is. In a solar system of planets and moons that are solid rock or mostly gas, shrouded in clouds or atmosphere-free, scorchingly hot or bitterly cold, there's only one that's dripping wet. Earthlings like to refer to our home planet as the solar system's water world, and it's a jolly good thing it's as wet as it is, because without plenty of water, life (at least as we know it) would be impossible.

All the same, it's likely our planet was once a far drier, dustier place. You need only look at two of our nearby rocky neighbors — Mercury and Venus — for a reminder of what living so close to the blast furnace of the sun can do to you. Our atmosphere helps us retain the abundant water we do have, but how did it get to us in the first place?
(See iconic images of earth from space.)

One popular theory has long been comets. The solar system swarms with these little rogue bodies — perhaps a trillion of them, according to astronomers' back-of-the-envelope estimates — and shortly after the sun and planets formed, they were everywhere, flying randomly and free to collide with anything in their way. Since comets are essentially dirty snowballs made of rock, gas and water ice, a few crash landings on earth could have provided all the water we needed quite nicely.

But there was a problem with that theory. All of the comets astronomers observed were indeed packed with water ice, but a lot of it was what's known as heavy water, in which the hydrogen in the H2O mix is an isotope known as deuterium, with one proton and one neutron in its nucleus. The hydrogen found in ordinary water has no neutron. Since the overwhelming share of the water in earth's oceans is made with the light hydrogen atom, astronomers calculated that comets could have accounted for only about 10% of what's there. Now, according to a new paper published in the journal Nature, it appears that those scientists may have been wrong — and the reason for their error is that they were simply looking at the wrong comets.

The paper, co-authored by researchers at the California Institute of Technology, is based on observations conducted by the Herschel Space Observatory, a spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency in 2009. Herschel looked specifically at comet Hartley 2, a small comet discovered in 1986 with an estimated diameter of .75 to .99 mi. (1.2 to 1.6 km). Analyzing the chemical composition of Hartley 2's corona — or the gassy veil surrounding the main comet body — Herschel discovered that its concentration of heavy water was only about half that of any comets observed before. While that wouldn't entirely explain earth's particular heavy- and light-water mix, it does bring the chemistry a lot more into line — and gives the cometary explanation for earthly water a big boost.
(Read to see if Venus once had water.)

"Our results with Herschel suggest that comets could have played a major role in bringing vast amounts of water to an early earth," says physicist Dariusz Lis of Caltech, a co-author of the paper.

What distinguishes Hartley 2 from the other comets previously studied — apart from its chemistry — is the place it was born. The trajectory the comet follows in its vast looping swings toward and away from the sun suggests it originated in the Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy bodies circling the solar system some 50 times farther from the sun than the earth is. The trajectory of the other comets makes it likely they are natives of the Oort cloud, a vast swarm of comets completely surrounding the solar system up to 10,000 times more distant than the Kuiper Belt.

It's not clear why Oort comets and Kuiper comets would have different water chemistry, but the time each spent in close proximity to the sun before being gravitationally ejected into deep space may play a role. That, however, is as much of a guess as astronomers want to make. "Our study indicates that our understanding of the distribution of the lightest elements and their isotopes, as well as the dynamics of the early solar system, is incomplete," conceded Caltech planetary scientist Geoffrey Blake.

But if the science is incomplete, it's still more complete than it ever was before — making scientists more certain, too, about how our planet's water was delivered. Getting banged about by comets today could spell the end of all life on earth. But some 4 billion years ago, it may well have spelled the start.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/arti...#ixzz2IKaaOI7J

Angels tears?

[XenoMorph]

Originally Posted by duke0476

Angels tears?

Why are angels that sad?

[Morning Star]

i think creation is 4000-5000 years old..The earth was without form we He made creation..How long the earth was without form or void.I do not know!

[RhythmicGeek]

Originally Posted by Stewy

As a Geoscientist, many things about the age of the Earth fascinate me, and here are some of them in no particular order.

Plate Tectonics:
#1 - The fact that the Earth is in constant renewal. Mountains have risen and their sediments deposited in the sea. Those deposits then becoming rocks after being buried then being uplifted themselves only to be eroded once more.
#2 - Inversion of Sediments - Mountains being eroded and ocean sediments/oceanic crust ending up as mountain tops. Deep Water carbonate rocks at the crest of the alps and Himalaya's.
#3 - The fascinating shape of the continents through time. Pangea and Gondwana are only two configurations of the continents. because of the destruction of sediments through time we really have no record of older continental accumulations, but they had to have happened. I wonder what the world was like back then. Most Earth weather is driven by the effects of ocean current on the atmosphere. During these conglomerations there would be no West to East ocean currents for millions of years. Would there be super storms? Would there be any big storms? It's fascinating.
#4 - The Plate Tectonic Cycle is so efficient at destruction that we have no confirmed age on the Earth older than 3.8 billion years (Australian Cratonic rocks). We only know the Earth's true age from Asteroids.

However, the most fascinating thing about the age of the Earth is that educated, intelligent people still believe it's 6,000-10,000 years old.....

I think about this stuff often.

In a very simplified way of saying it, we came from rocks (which came from space dust, but we'll start with terra for these purposes). The molecules in rocks of old are what give out bodies substance. Those minerals create our structure.

Living here, with the Appalachians, the Blue Ridge, etc., I think about the days when those mountains would have made the Himalayan mountains look like the Rockies in comparison. All those minerals, all that sediment, we each carry a bit of that in us because of the cycles that take place on earth.

Just something I find neat.

[duke0476]

Originally Posted by BengalsFan024

Why are angels that sad?

Morning Star

[BengalbobZilla]

Originally Posted by Morning Star

i think creation is 4000-5000 years old..The earth was without form we He made creation..How long the earth was without form or void.I do not know!

take your religion elsewhere

[neek]

Originally Posted by BengalbobZilla

take your religion elsewhere

Just "it's" religion? I would recommend taking everything elsewhere.

[BengalbobZilla]

Originally Posted by neek

Just "it's" religion? I would recommend taking everything elsewhere.

true...in fact i think it did

[Beaker]

Originally Posted by BengalbobZilla

Another good question would be how did water get on the earth?

Hydrogen, the most common element in the universe combined with oxygen, the by product of anaerobic cyanobacteria over millions of years.

[Beaker]

Originally Posted by Morning Star

i think creation is 4000-5000 years old..

You thought wrong.

[RhythmicGeek]

Originally Posted by Beaker

Hydrogen, the most common element in the universe combined with oxygen, the by product of anaerobic cyanobacteria over millions of years.

Throw them together with a little combustion that was occurring for millennia and voila, water.

[XenoMorph]

Originally Posted by Morning Star

.I do not know!

This should be your Answer Every Time.... Because this would have been correct.

[BengalbobZilla]

Originally Posted by BengalsFan024

This should be your Answer Every Time.... Because this would have been correct.

no it just needs to stay quiet

[Ron Mexico]

Originally Posted by crispy

The water would have to be here before the fish. So did the aliens stock the oceans with the fish or were they willing to wait millions of years for evolution to be able to fish? I would have to say they stocked it, doesn't make any sense at all to wait that long.

They brought the fish....of course. Aliens LOVE going fishing. Having a few brews with their buds while they wait for a snag. Sitting there all grey and slimy with those big creepy eyes,...but hey...they know how to have fun.

They probably took all of the fish from another planet that didn't have as much awesome water. Then they cloned them simply using ther brains, and BAM....the Earth has fish.

Man, I'm a genius.

[XenoMorph]

Originally Posted by Ron Mexico

They brought the fish....of course. Aliens LOVE going fishing. Having a few brews with their buds while they wait for a snag. Sitting there all grey and slimy with those big creepy eyes,...but hey...they know how to have fun.

They probably took all of the fish from another planet that didn't have as much awesome water. Then they cloned them simply using ther brains, and BAM....the Earth has fish.

Man, I'm a genius.

[crispy]

Originally Posted by Ron Mexico

They brought the fish....of course. Aliens LOVE going fishing. Having a few brews with their buds while they wait for a snag. Sitting there all grey and slimy with those big creepy eyes,...but hey...they know how to have fun.

They probably took all of the fish from another planet that didn't have as much awesome water. Then they cloned them simply using ther brains, and BAM....the Earth has fish.

Man, I'm a genius.

Not so much! Everyone knows the greys are not slimy.....it's common knowledge.

[Stewy]

Originally Posted by Nebuchadnezzar

Why inject this into this thread? It makes no sense to bait anyone so you and your buddies can make fun of them.

Meh sorry - I don't go into specific forums - I just click new posts and reply where I want to reply, so I didn't realize this wasn't in the VIP forums. *shrugs*

I'm not really sorry actually because I meant what I said, but I should have paid more attention to where it was posted so I'll apologize for that.