The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1914-04-25
NEW IDEA OF EARTH's AGE
Radium Has Caused Change In scien-
lists oponicns During the Past
Five Years.

rive Years.
II such an authority as Prof. Arthur
Holmes of the Imperial college, South
Kensington, London, has any weight
at all with people, the discovery of
radium a that biologists must
change their calculations materially
as to the age of the earth il they
wish to be taken seriously. He says,
according to the New Press, 1t is a
well known fact that II the proper
ton of radium in the interior of the
earth Is in any way equal to the
radium in the rocks Of the earth's sur
face the earth will not grow colder,
as has always been taught, but 1t
ought to be growing hotter. Calcula-
tons, however, show that the distri-
button of radium as it is found would
be more than enough to keep the tenn
perature Of the earth stationary.
Thorium and uranium also supply a
great amount of heat and must be
taken into account.
In order that the earth should be
neither growing hotter nor cooling at
a rate allowed by the radioactive ele-
ments as they d~isintegrate it Is neces-
sary, he says, to assume that the
earth's store of radium be concen-
trated near the surface. The radio
active elements are found most album
dainty In acid rocks, and their more
basic associates are less rich. These
acid rocks are characteristic of only
the outermost zones of the crust, and
there are many reasons for believing
that with depth the nonacid rocks are
predominant.
Earthquakes and similar terrestrial
events have provided facts from which
the condition Of the earth's interior
may be deduced with confidence. First,
there is the crust zone, which has
an approximate thickness of 80 miles.
Then the stone zone, something
under 100 miles thick. and, finally, the
central iron core OF the earth, with a
density eight times greater than wa
ter. Meteorites contain radium, and
Professors Strut and Holmes say
that these meteors contain the proof
that no radium is found in the stone
one or inner core.
1t is supposed that the earth began,
of course, as a misty, nebulous mass
and that it has become the great mass
it is by the capture of meteors and
greater masses floating in space dur
ing the ages. 1t is very unlikely that
the earth was ever, as 4 whole, in a
molten condition. 1t is surmised by
several English savants that the in
ternal heat probably arose in a great
measure from the condensation of the
mass as it grew.
The temperature would slowly rise
until the fusion point of certain OF
the earth's constituents was reached.
Then the pockets and tongues thus
formed would tend to move away from
the center, and the less heavy, stony
substances would be squeezed out.
ward relatively to a network of the
heavier, rigid metals.
Surrounding the metallic core a
thick one of sandy rocks would be
formed and the radioactive materials
would be concentrated in the stony
layers. When the oceans and the at
mospheres were produced the sedi-
ment rocks appeared for the first time.
and then came the earth's crust with
the rocks that contain most of the
radium and other radioactive ele-
, ments- Before the advent of radium
biologists did not recognize the diff
fculties presented by the peculiar
makeup of the earth's crust. Radium
did not create this difficulty, but it
certainly emphasized it in the atten-
ton OF scientists.
I 1t can hardly be said that radium
: has given a blank check on the bank
2 of time, for its discovery not only de-
stroyed all the old measurements of
. the earth's heat, but 1t necessitated a
new method for getting at 1t. Every
n kind of radioactive mineral, as well as
" radium, may be regarded as a self
t contained hour glass; the radioactive
( emanations. such as hellum, and
v residues such as lead, slowly accumu-
late at the expense of their ultimate
parent uranium.
@ The geologist, who five years ago
was embarrassed by the brevity of the
time allowed to him for the evolution
Of the earth's crust, Is now still more
@ embarrassed by the o-verabundance OF
Q time that now confronts him. The
recognition of radium means Difficult
h ties for the geologist and the abso'
lutte overthrow of every acknowledged
theory as to the earth's age and. de
velopment. The age of the earth, &C
cording to what happens to be radium
varies from 5000, 000, 900 to 5000,
o 900, 900 years, but what matters a few
g thousand million of years among ge
ologists?