The Winslow mail., 1914-04-18
NEW IDEA OF EARTH'S AGE
Radium Has Caused Change in Scien-
lists oponions During the Past
Five Years.

Five 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 means that geologists must
change their calculations materially
as to the age of the earth if they
wish to be taken seriously He says,
according to the New Press, it is a
we'll known fact that if the proper
tion of radium in the interior of the
earth is in any way equal to the
radium in the rocks of the earths sur
face the earth will not grow colder,
as has always been taught, but it
ought to be growing hotter. Calcula-
tions, 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
rate allowed by the radioactive ele-
ments as they disintegrate 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 abun-
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
predominant
Earthquakes and similar terrestrial
events have provided facts from which
the condition Of the earths interior
may be deduced with confidence First,
there is the crust zone, which has
an approximate thickness of 80 miles.
Then comes the stone zone, something
under 100 miles thick and, finally, the
central iron core of the earth, with
density eight times greater than wa
ter. Meteorites contain radium, and
Professors Strut and Holmes say
that no radium is found in the stone
zone or inner core.
1t is supposed that the earth began,
of course, as 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 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 earths 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 zone 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
geologists did not recognize the diff
ficulties presented by the peculiar
makeup of the earths crust. Radium
did not create this difficulty, but il
certainly emphasized it in the atten.
tion Of scientists.
1t can hardly be said that radium
has given blank check on the bank
of time, for it's discovery not only de-
stroyed all the old measurements of
the earth's heat, but it necessitated
new method for getting at it. Every
kind of radioactive mineral, as we'll as
radium, may be regarded as self
contained hour glass; the radioactive
emanations, such as helium, and
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 overabundance OF
time that now confronts him the
recognition of radium means difficult
ties for the geologist and the abso-
e rolyY M a
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 5,O0O0OO,OO0 to S,0OO,-
000,00 years, but what matters few
thousand million of years among ge-
nl0oisfS2