The Consistency of Radiometric Dating in the Geologic Record

The total number of radiometric age determinations that have been made on geologically significant samples now exceeds about 300,000. This total, which includes many duplicate determinations by different investigators using different techniques, is being augmented at the rate of about 15,000 per year. Nevertheless, estimates of the ages of geological eras have not changed significantly since the first few dozen determinations were made more than 50 years ago. Consequently, the level of confidence that can be assigned to the specific ages on the radiometric time scale is much greater than is generally realized.