How old is the earth?

[goku]

if the earth is billions of years old, why is the ocean still getting saltier?

[Qfwfq]

Because it still rains on the mountain tops.

[Fishteacher73]

The oceans oare not of a uniform salinity. There are masive currents driven by these variances that cycle the oceans and help drive evrything from weather paterns to ocen currents.

[Tormod]

if the earth is billions of years old, why is the ocean still getting saltier?

 

Which one?

[goku]

it's simple, rain collects salt and other minerals then runs into the ocean (or oceans you nitpicker).

the sun evaporates the water leaving the salt and minerals behind.

how long has this been happening?

[Tormod]

I was not nitpicking. While the seas are salty the salinity varies. Also, giant fresh water lakes are *not* salty, and fjord arms which received a lot of smelted glacier water in the summer is brackish and almost fresh (I spend my summer holidays next to one of those).

 

The salinity process has gone on for a few billion years. Originally oceans were freshwater.

 

Lakes are freshwater because they are mostly the result of a ground cycle, whereas oceans are salty because the salt is deposited by rivers.

[goku]

how do you know it has been happening for a few billion years?

was you there to see it start?

do you say billions of years because scientists say billions of years?

did you know that one billion years is ruffly 8,760,000,000,000 hours?

[rockytriton]

sheesh, I think the WRONG people are spreading the word about these forums to their friends....

 

:Alien:

[Boerseun]

how do you know it has been happening for a few billion years?

was you there to see it start?

do you say billions of years because scientists say billions of years?

did you know that one billion years is ruffly 8,760,000,000,000 hours?

Goku - everyone here is entitled to an opinion.

 

If you don't agree with the 'billions of years' being held as the accepted age for planet Earth, give us scientific evidence to support your view.

 

Baseless statements being nothing more than unverifiable personal beliefs and opinions belongs somewhere else. Maybe you can open up a thread in the 'Strange Claims' forum, something to the effect of 'Earth is six thousand years old because I say so'.

 

The best geologic evidence at hand places Earth's age in the 4.5 billion year age bracket. Go read up some.

[rockytriton]

Here's your scientific proof:

:Alien:

 

I think the baptist churches are spreading the news of science-forums.com (sorry IrishEyes)!

[Tormod]

was you there to see it start?

do you say billions of years because scientists say billions of years?

 

You know, you should read a book called "Ice Age" by John Gribbin. Good stuff. Or James Repcheck's "James Hutton and the Discovery of Earth's Antiquity".

 

did you know that one billion years is ruffly 8,760,000,000,000 hours?

 

Does this fall under "amazing facts" or "math show and tell"?

[rockytriton]

Does this fall under "amazing facts" or "math show and tell"?

 

I'm still trying to figure out what "ruffly" means, I don't see it in the dictionary :Alien:

[Buffy]

I'm still trying to figure out what "ruffly" means, I don't see it in the dictionary :Alien:

Its a reference to the mathematical indeterminant quantity "barksilon" which is slightly larger than "epsilon"...

 

Woof,

Buffy

[Little Bang]

Rocky, could you explain why the Bible is so much more accurate than say a text on Archaeology?

[rockytriton]

Because this man says so:

 

heh, it was actually a bit of sarcasm.

[Turtle]

___Darn! I stubbed my toe on someone"s book when I came in here! :rant: Clean-up on aisle 5! :eek:

____Oh, that's right; I'm the mop man. If I dipped my mop in an ocean during an ice age, it comes out saltier than if I dip now. Depending on which ocean I dip & when, the salinity varies both up & down.

___Lakes do get salty, e.g. The Great Salt in Utah (a shadow of its former self Lake Bonneville, as in Bonneville salt flats) & then there is the Dead Sea.

___The current melting of ice in Greenland is actually making the surrounding ocean less salty, & even threatens to shut off the worldwide underwater conveyor of salt water (I think we have a thread here somewhere on that cycle).

___Finally, (or until I think of something else), where rain falls affects salinty too; rain doesn't just fall on land & when it falls over an ocean (yes I know that's where it started largely) it reduces the salinity.

___Finally, finally :eek:, ocean salinity is no help in determining the Earth's age; if I recall the primary evidence for the 4.5 billion years derives from the analysis of the decay of elements. :eek:

[rockytriton]

It could also be due the the great Morton® Salt Tanker spill of '72 where two large ships carrying salt collided and spilled millions of tons of salt into the sea. :rant: