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  • Cited by 15
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
December 2009
Print publication year:
2006
Online ISBN:
9780511617782

Book description

The debate over the age of the Earth has been ongoing for over two thousand years, and has pitted physicists and astronomers against biologists, and religious philosophers against geologists. The Chronologers' Quest tells the fascinating story of our attempts to determine the age of the Earth. This book investigates the many novel methods used in the search for the Earth's age, from James Ussher and John Lightfoot examining biblical chronologies, and from Comte de Buffon and Lord Kelvin determining the length of time for the cooling of the Earth, to the more recent investigations of Arthur Holmes and Clair Patterson into radioactive dating of rocks and meteorites. The Chronologers' Quest is a readable account of the measurement of geological time. It will be of great interest to a wide range of readers, from those with little scientific background to students and scientists in a wide range of the Earth sciences.

Reviews

"...interesting and accessible to a general audience ... Jackson lays out the information clearly and chronologically, making it an excellent resource for researchers."
Sky & Telescope

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Contents

Bibliography
Bibliography
General works consulted
Adams, Frank DawsonThe Birth and Development of the Geological Sciences (New York: Dover Publications, 1954)
Albritton, Claude C. Jr, The Abyss of Time: Changing Conceptions of the Earth's Antiquity after the Sixteenth Century (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1986)
Brush, Stephen G.Transmuted Past: The Age of the Earth and the Evolution of the Elements from Lyell to Patterson (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996)
Dalrymple, G. BrentThe Age of the Earth (Stanford University Press, 1991)
Ellenberger, FrançoisHistory of Geology 1: From Ancient Times to the First Half of the XVII Century (Rotterdam: A. A. Balkema, 1996)
Ellenberger, FrançoisHistory of Geology 2: The Great Awakening and its First Fruits – 1660–1810 (Rotterdam: A. A. Balkema, 1999)
Geikie, ArchibaldThe Founders of Geology (New York: Dover Publications, 1962)
Gillispie, Charles C.Genesis and Geology (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1996)
Good, Gregory A. (ed.) Sciences of the Earth: an Encyclopedia of Events, People, and Phenomena (2 vols) (New York & London: Garland Publishing, 1998)
Haber, Francis C.The Age of the World: Moses to Darwin (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1959)
Harper, C. T. (ed.) Geochronology: Radiometric Dating of Rocks and Minerals (Stroudsburg PA: Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, Inc., 1973)
Holland, Charles HepworthThe Idea of Time (Chichester: J. Wiley & Sons, 1999)
Holmes, ArthurThe Age of the Earth (London & New York: Harper & Brothers, 1913)
Hurley, PatrickHow Old is the Earth? (London: Heinemann, 1960)
Lewis, Cherry L. E. & Knell, Simon J. (eds.), The Age of the Earth: from 4004 bc to ad 2002 (London: Geological Society Special Publication 190, 2001)
Mather, Kirtley F. (ed.), Source Book in Geology 1900–1950 (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1967)
Mather, Kirtley F. & Mason, Shirley L. (eds.), A Source Book in Geology 1400–1900 (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1970)
Oldroyd, David R.Thinking About the Earth: a History of Ideas in Geology (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1996)
Schneer, Cecil J. (ed.) Toward a History of Geology (Cambridge MA & London: MIT Press, 1969)
Thompson, Susan J.A Chronology of Geological Thinking from Antiquity to 1899 (Metuchen NJ & London: Scarecrow Press, 1988)
Ward, Dederick C. & Carozzi, Albert V.Geology Emerging: a Catalog Illustrating the History of Geology (1500–1850) from a Collection in the Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Library, 1984)
York, DerekIn Search of Lost Time (Bristol: Institute of Physics Publishing, 1997)
York, Derek & Farquhar, Ronald M.The Earth's Age and Geochronology (Oxford: Pergamon, 1972)
Young, Davis A.Christianity and the Age of the Earth (Thousand Oaks CA: Artisan Sales, 1988)
Chapter 2. Biblical calculations
Allen, Thomas, A Chain of Scripture Chronology; from the Creation of the World to the Death of Jesus Christ. In VII. Periods (London: Printed by Thomas Roycroft for Francis Tyton and for Nathanial Ekins, 1659)
D[rake], R[oger], Sacred Chronologie, drawn by Scripture Evidence al-along that vast body of Time, (containing the space of almost four thousand Years) From the Creation of the World, to the passion of our Blessed Saviour (London: Printed by James and Joseph Maxex for Stephen Bowtell, 1648)
Lightfoot, John, A Few, and New Observations, upon the Booke of Genesis. the most of them certaine, the rest probable, all harmelesse, strange, and rarely heard off before (London: Printed by T. Badger, 1642)
Lightfoot, John, The Harmony of the Foure Evangelists; among themselves, and with the Old Testament (London: Printed by R. Cotes from Andrew Crooke, 1644)
Nisbit, William, A Scripture Chronology, wherein the principall Periods of Time from the Creation of the World to the death of Christ, are included, and many questions of great importance resolved (Printed for Joshua Kirton, 1655)
Ussher, James, Annales veteris testamenti, a prima mundi origine deducti: una cum rerum Asiaticarum et Aegyptiacarum chronico, a temporis historici principio usque ad Maccabaicorum initia producto (London: Printed by J. Flesher for L. Sadler, G. Bedell and J. Crook & J. Baker, 1650)
Ussher, James, The annals of the world deduced from the origin of time, and continued to the beginning of the Emperour Vespasians reign, and the totall Destruction and Abolition of the temple and common-wealth of the Jews: containing the historie of the Old and New Testament, with that of the Macchabees, also the most memorable affairs of Asia and Egypt, and the rise of the empire of the Roman Caesars under C. Julius, and Octavianus: collected from all history, as well sacred, as prophane, and methodically digested (London: Printed by E. Tyler, for J. Crook, and for G. Bedell, 1658).

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