Should We Trust the Dates?

We often hear about rocks that are millions of years old. But should we trust these dates?

Well, dating methods are based on assumptions. If any one of these unprovable assumptions is wrong, then the dates are also wrong. And there’s evidence that these assumptions are wrong!

Forty years ago, we had the eruption of Mount St. Helens, a volcano in Washington state. A new lava dome eventually formed. But when scientists dated the ten-year-old rock with a dating method, they were in for a shock. The rock was supposedly three hundred and fifty thousand years old! Worse: minerals in the rock dated over two million years!

Clearly, we shouldn’t trust the dating methods.

Dig Deeper

• Lasting Lessons from Mount St. Helens
• Mt. St. Helens