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The story of Zircon Crystals and Earth's age in a Nutshell.
How tiny Zircon Crystals - Zirconium silicate (ZrSiO4) helped determine the age of the Earth (at approximately 4.5 Billion years old since the crust cooled), with Radiometric U-Pb (Uranium-Lead) dating.
Zircon Crystals trap Uranium Atoms in its crystal structure and naturally repel Lead Atoms when the crystal forms. Once the crystal structure is formed, nothing is able to escape. Over time the isotopes of Uranium start to transmutate into other elements in a process that is referred to as a decay chain.
An Uranium Atom first transmutates into a Thorium Atom (which takes a few billion years). Thorium is far more unstable, and in less than a month it turns into Protactinium. Within a minute Protactinium Atoms transmute again, and so the transmutation continues down the decay chain. At the end of the radioactive decay chain, the initial trapped Uranium Atoms finally decays into stable Lead (Pb) Atoms, which will remain Lead forever. The decay rate and time associated with each transmutation is constant in the Universe, which makes it possible to calculate the age of the crystal with Radiometric dating.
As Zircon Crystals are tough, it is the oldest geological time-capsules that survived in Earth's dynamic and ever-changing crust since it cooled. As nothing can get in or out of the Zircon Crystal structure, it is the most accurate way of geological dating.
By comparing the Uranium to Lead ratio in Zirconium silicate crystals on Earth, from Moon samples and from visiting Meteorites, Scientists were able to calculate that the Earth is 4.54 billion years old. The error margin is 50 million years, which is small considering the time-scale.
The background history of Radiometric dating:
In 1896 Henri Becquerel and Marie Curie discovered that certain isotopes undergo spontaneous radioactive decay, transforming into new isotopes. Atoms of a parent radioactive isotope randomly decay into a daughter isotope. Marie Curie won a Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry for her work.
About Lead:
The spin-off from trying to date the Earth by finding the Uranium to Lead ratio in Zircon crystals, was that the Scientist Clair Patterson discovered the unusually high amount of toxic Lead in the environment when he tried to analyse the Zircon in a Mass Spectrometer. This was due to the widespread use of Lead-based fuel, Lead-based paint, etc.
Our bodies require metals like Iron in the blood to transfer Oxygen through the body. The body is fooled and assumes that Lead is a good metal, but Lead not only destroys cells, but also blocks the signals of Neuroreceptors in the Brain.
After a lifetime of persistence and mounting evidence, Clair Patterson eventually won the case against the large Oil Companies that tried to discredit his findings. Since then the widespread use of Lead in everyday products were banned (which is why we now use unleaded fuel to power our vehicles).
Interesting reading:
More about isotopes and the Radiometric dating process.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_lead_dating
earthsky.org/earth/this-zircon-crystal-is-the-oldest-piec...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_transmutation
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiometric_dating
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decay_chain
Thank you to Sumarie for letting photograph her beautiful Zircon Crystal specimen.
Photo usage and Copyright:
Medium-resolution photograph licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Terms (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). For High-resolution Royalty Free (RF) licensing, contact me via my site: Contact.
Martin
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Seen in Captol Reef N.P. along Grand Wash, a spur road off the 10 mile Scenic Drive which follows along what's known as the Waterpocket Fold.
This fold, a giant buckle in Earth's crust, stretches across south-central Utah, is home to an eroded jumble of colorful cliffs, massive domes, soaring spires, stark monoliths, twisted canyons and graceful arches. It is also the home of the free-flowing Fremont River. There are also two unpaved spur roads, suitable for passenger vehicles, which lead into the Grand Wash and Capitol Gorge
We visited there from Escalante, Utah, along SR 12, where we stayed for about a week, using it as a jumping off point to visit various National and State Parks, including this one, Capitol Reef National Park. (12-03-24-7636)
One of my favorite back roads. The morning fog was just starting to lift as I drove down Turri road. I watched in delight as moving bands of light painted the fields. I never tire of this drive home.
CSUF Geology Collection located in a classroom. I was given access to shoot the collection before it was covered for building seismic retrofit installations.
Ghost lead inspired figure. I am aware that the lead in the game is African American, but unfortunately at the time I made these I couldn't get a hold of one of Vic's recon heads in black so I used the dark flesh lookin' one.
-Custom Briick Affliction Armor set
-Custom sculpted and painted minfig.cat helmet
-Custom modified and painted Brick Army Kriss Vector
-Custom painted Eclipsegrafx drifter legs w/ sculpted knee pads
-Custom Eclipsegrafx recon head
Thanks for taking the time to check out my work.
-Andrew
*On a side note.... I graduated college last Friday!*
New Haven Railroad EMD FL-9 locomotive 2051 & another FL-9 lead what appears to be the Pennsylvania Railroad Senator in yard at Boston, Massachusetts, ca 1960's. As you can see this is a very large passenger car yard. In the background I see a Schlitz Beer Ad sign.
This photo came from the Internet and the photographers name was not provided. Any credit for this photo must be provided to the original photographer.
Copyright Disclaimer under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for the purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.
Lead has been used in many Indian and African traditional remedies for centuries with varying degrees of success and failure.
Most pencils now contain no lead but it is etched in British culture. Thanks for viewing.
Held On Till May is a post pop-punk band from Pretoria, South Africa, est 2015. With a band name inspired by the iconic Pierce The Veil, and originating from a country with an almost none existent alternative music scene, the bar has never been raised higher for these 4 guys.
This Eden is lovely!!!!!
She's wearingher own bodysuit, Perk Colette's jacket, Live Work Play Giselle skirt and her sister's purse. Lillith will be mad when she finds out that Eden took that purse.... XD
Conrail 6615 and two C30-7As lead Chicago-bound TV-9 through CP 123 during the winter of 1988.
Carl Weber Jr photo, Enrique Contreras collection
You have to be devoted to have a child on a lead rein - children who are too young to ride independantly get led on a lead rein. It usually means a lot of running.....
A lead, left at the right angle of the fence that stops you walking straight into the river instead of using the bridge.
Queensland University of Technology researchers scanned 40 hectares of Ningaloo Reef, the largest existing fringing reef in the world, over 30 minutes, 100 metres above the sea surface.
Lead researcher Associate Professor Felipe Gonzalez said the data would help build a fingerprint of the reef,...
www.dronewatchdogs.com/ningaloo-reef-captured-sky-drone-d...
Lead and brass. Water and Light. In and Out. Up and Down. Circle and Line.
The temple lamp comes from Madurai, Tamil Nadu. The water pipe from Hertfordshire. Both are old and have supplied light and water to people. Many of those are long dead. Have they gone up or down, far away, disappeared, or returned in some other form?
Metal processing is the major industry in this part of Baiyin using the lead, copper and silver wrested from the ground nearby. I have no idea just what was going on inside these brutalist structures but the plume says a lot about Chinese industry in the remoter areas. I note from the recent satellite photos that this works has now closed and is largely demolished.