Statistics – Computation
Scientific paper
Oct 1963
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1963gecoa..27.1055l&link_type=abstract
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, vol. 27, Issue 10, pp.1055-1069
Statistics
Computation
4
Scientific paper
Review of the chemical composition and discharge of the rivers of the world has confirmed F.W. (1924, p. 155) estimate of sodium transport by rivers. At the present rate of delivery, all of the sodium dissolved in sea water can be accounted for in a few hundred million years. The new data permit an evaluation of the possible errors in a computation of the age of the ocean by this method. Previously suggested errors are inadequate to account for the discrepancy between the radiometric and geochemical estimates of the age of the ocean. By considering the gross rate of return of sodium to the land as uplifted sediments, however, instead of the net rate over a long period of time, and the sodium content of the metasedimentary rocks, the sodium cycle can almost be balanced. Consideration of the ocean as a long-term steady-state system suggests that the standard geochemical calculation of the total mass of the sediments is unjustified. It concerns only a small part of the total mass that has passed through the cycle of erosion and implies an unreasonably young age for the earth as a geologic system. By accepting direct measurements of the mass of the sediments, however, a method analogous to the standard one permits estimation of the mass of the metasediments.
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