When this happens gasses dissolved in the magma are able to come out of solution, forming gas bubbles (the cavities) inside it. When the magma finally reaches the surface as lava and cools, the rock solidifies around the gas bubbles and traps them inside, preserving them as holes filled with gas called vesicles.
He took them to the Argonne National Laboratory, where he was granted time on a late-model mass spectrometer. In a meeting in Wisconsin soon afterward, Patterson revealed the results of his study. The definitive age of the Earth is 4.550 billion years (give or take 70 million years). The current estimate for the age of the earth is 4.54 Â± 0.05 billion years (4.54 Ã 109 years Â± 1%).
Using this method, we arrive at an age for Earth of approximately 6,000 years. Itâs important to realize that the Bible nowhere explicitly states the age of the earthâthis is a calculated number. Another method of determining the age of the earth is to use resources such as radiometric (carbon) dating, geologic cycles, and so forth. By comparing different methods, and seeing if they align, scientists attempt to determine how old the planet is. This is the method used to arrive at an age for Earth of about 4 to 5 billion years. Itâs important to realize that there is no means to directly measure the age of the earthâthis is a calculated number. Both of these methods of determining the age of the earth have potential drawbacks.