AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Earth is estimated to be 4.54 billion years old, plus or minus about 50 million years. Scientists have scoured the Earth searching for the oldest rocks to radiometrically date. In northwestern Canada, they discovered rocks about 4.03 billion years old.

Detailed explanation-2: -So let us place ourselves, a little less than 4 billion years ago, at the end of a geological era called the Hadean. At that time, the Earth had a gigantic ocean, hyperactive volcanoes, embryos of continents.

Detailed explanation-3: -Bottom line: Scientists derived the age of Earth, 4.54 billion years, largely from studying the oldest rocks on our planet and meteorites formed early in the solar system’s history. The determined ages for rocks using radiometric dating.

Detailed explanation-4: -They have examined rocks from the moon and from meteorites, neither of which have been altered by the rock cycle. The same techniques of radiometric dating have been used on those rocks. All the data from Earth and beyond has led to the estimated age of 4.5 billion years for our planet.

Detailed explanation-5: -It is widely accepted by both geologists and astronomers that Earth is roughly 4.6 billion years old. This age has been obtained from the isotopic analysis of many meteorites as well as of soil and rock samples from the Moon by such dating methods as rubidium–strontium and uranium–lead.