Geochronology is the scientific discipline focused on determining the absolute and relative ages of rocks, minerals, fossils, and geological events, thereby establishing the temporal framework of Earth’s history. It relies on quantitative dating methods, primarily radiometric techniques such as U–Pb, Ar–Ar, Rb–Sr, and Sm–Nd systems, which exploit the known decay constants of radioactive isotopes in specific mineral phases. These data are integrated with stratigraphic principles and chronostratigraphic units to construct calibrated timescales, constrain rates of tectonic, magmatic, and surface processes, and correlate geological records across regions and datasets.
Geologists have solved the mystery of the disappearance from the geological record, millions of years ago, of one of North America's most important waterways: the Colorado River. A paper published in Science shows that the ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 17, 2026
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Geoscientists have long relied on different forms of lead to understand Earth's geological history and how it was created over billions of years. However, there is a mystery that has been puzzling scientists for decades: ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 10, 2026
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48
How can we measure time more than 500 million years into the past? A study recently published in Nature Communications by researchers at the University of Lausanne presents a new geological "rock clock" that allows major ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 17, 2026
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61
Analysis of a volcanic ash tuff layer, only a few millimeters thick and discovered during excavations in 2024, revealed that the fossil-bearing Bromacker rocks are 294 million years old—four million years older than previously ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Mar 11, 2026
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17
Much of our understanding of Earth's past is derived from stratigraphic records exposed in rock outcrops or recovered from drilled cores. These records span immense time intervals, from thousands to billions of years, and ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 5, 2026
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Earth experienced a period of intense, large-scale volcanism during the early Aptian. Around that time, it also experienced widespread ocean deoxygenation during the Oceanic Anoxic Event 1a (OAE1a) as well as the onset of ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 4, 2026
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13
There are many open questions about how our planet formed 4.55 billion years ago: When did plate tectonics start? When did the Earth's mantle begin to vigorously circulate in a process called convection? What was Earth like ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 3, 2026
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61
We know Aotearoa New Zealand is home to many geographically and biologically special features. Yet few of us know it also has its very own measure of "deep time." Known as the New Zealand Geological Timescale, it has just ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 24, 2026
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26
The Great Unconformity is a major gap in Earth's geologic record. The missing layer between Precambrian and Cambrian rocks represents a gap of around a billion years of history. Among much debate surrounding the cause of ...
Scientists from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the CAS Aerospace Information Research Institute, and other institutions, have revised the decades-old lunar crater chronology ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 10, 2026
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