Geochronologists can pin down dates in deep time more accurately than ever before. Rex Dalton talks to the researchers who are rewriting the details of Earth's history. By fine-tuning their techniques, researchers are refining their ability to measure ever more precisely the ticking of Earth's geological clock. For decades, geologists and palaeontologists have had only ball-park estimates for when major events happened in the history of life on Earth. Now a series of new methods has radically improved their understanding of time long gone. With unprecedented precision, researchers are now arguing over whether date estimates are off by as little as 100,000 years — remarkably accurate for events that may have occurred hundreds of millions of years ago.
展开▼
