"Sediments formed billions of years ago in a now alien atmosphere sit thousands of kilometres under our feet, subtly modulating the length of the day."
Banded iron formations are fascinating - while browsing around I noticed an example on the relevant Wikipedia page of a rock that has layers that are thought to correspond to a day-night-cycle. The rock is 3.5 billion years old!
The idea that we have things to correspond to individual days from 3.5 billion years ago is stunning.
> Earth turned faster at the end of the time of the dinosaurs than it does today, rotating 372 times a year, compared to the current 365, according to a new study of fossil mollusk shells from the late Cretaceous. This means a day lasted only 23 and a half hours, according to the new study in AGU’s journal Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology.
I'm curious, how do they decide that the earth spun faster on it's axis rather than the earth taking longer to orbit the sun?
It blurs the line between science and bullshit. For example in
Scientifics say the Doomsday clock is 2:30 minutes before Midnight
Scientifics say this wall painting is 40.000 years old
Which one is reliable? Which one should a young Earth creationist believe? Are 40.000 years real years or some kind of metaphor? Is that number reliable?
Seems incredible hubris to think we can reverse-calculate to 14 billion years ago with sub-second accuracy when science can't even predict if it'll rain tomorrow.
When it was published we were 29.6 percent past the 243 year average cycle time. Now we are more than 32 percent past. No, it's not a big difference but we are meaningfully further along than when it was written ;-)
To prove the earth is not 10k years old, you could simply prove that it is 4.5G years old, though. The inability to prove a negative is only valid for binary issues, this seems binary but is actually a statement about a value on a continuum - the age of the earth.
EDIT - obviously in the context of last-thursdayism being used in the article, this doesn't work...
> Geological evidence ... indicate that 620 million years ago the day was 21 hours, says Mardling.
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