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https://exhibits.library.illinois.edu/s/rbml/item/4007
- Title
- Studies for students: the elements of the geological time-scale
- Description
- In the same year that Walcott published his influential calculation for the age of the Earth and its eras, Henry Williams proposed, in his “Studies for students: the elements of the geological time-scale” (Journal of Geology, 1893), the new science of “geochronology”. This new discipline would encompass studies “in which the geological time-scale is applied to the evolution of the earth and its inhabitants” with a clear distinction between time concerned with “human chronology” and “geochronology”. Using a similar approach to Walcott, Williams attempted to bring quantitative rigor to the time-scale with the concept of a “geochrone”. His table shown here relates one “geochrone” to the duration of sediment deposition for the Eocene Epoch, and all other eras are ratioed to this unit. As with the other examples shown in this section, Williams’ methods were, as recognized at the time, inadequate to the task at hand. Yet they collectively show a growing desire to place absolute numbers on a hitherto relative history.
- Call Number (click link to view in library catalog)
- 550.5 JG
- See Also
- Full Text Available at JSTOR
- Authors
- Williams, Henry
- Date
- 1893
- From the Exhibit
- In Search of Lost Time: Earth’s Chronology
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Location
- Chicago
- Language
- English
- Rights
- This item was originally published in the Journal of Geology. Intellectual property rights, including copyright, may reside with the materials' creator(s) or their heirs. This content was downloaded from JSTOR on 4/4/2023. JSTOR terms and conditions of use can be found here: https://about.jstor.org/terms/.
- Type
- Text
- Medium
- Article
- Bibliographic Citation
- Williams, Henry. “Studies for students: the elements of the geological time-scale”. Journal of Geology 1, no. 3 (1893): 283-295.