New Mexico Geological Society Annual Spring Meeting — Abstracts

There are many fundamental problems in the geosciences that we cannot adequately address without a highly resolved, calibrated time scale. Temporal relations are often keys to causality arguments in earth history, and our understanding of these processes depends on precise knowledge of rates. Documenting these rates requires precise knowledge of geologic time. Thus, the NSF sponsored Earthtime initiative seeks to achieve a highly precise (ca. ±0.1%) geologic timescale as a basis for reaching a heretofore-unavailable record of several geological and biological processes. The first Earthtime meeting was held Oct. 2003 and brought together nearly 100 scientists of variable background and NSF administrators to assess the need for and plausibility to achieve a highly precise and accurate geological timescale within the next 15 years. An overwhelming cry for the need has brought on the beginnings of research and administration to make the initiative a reality. The geochronology community has identified three beginning agenda items that are required to move forward. Primarily, to achieve our goal a community effort has to be established that utilizes an unprecedented level of data sharing and cooperation. Secondly, a dramatic increase in personnel and equipment is necessary to satisfy the remarkable demand for high quality geochronology data. Lastly, collaborative projects that are supported by peer-review to address Earthtime objectives need to begin immediately.

The New Mexico Geochronology Research Laboratory is spearheading an international effort amongst fifteen 40Ar/39Ar geochronology laboratories to evaluate the present level of data reproducibility between labs. We recognize that it will be impossible to achieve a useful timescale if individual laboratories cannot reproduce each other’s work. Thus far the data are overall encouraging, but have identified analytical and procedural areas that will require improvement. Most encouraging is the level of cooperation that has come of the effort and the genuine lack of concern for potential embarrassment that could result by providing data well outside the mean. This effort is raising the quality of all participating facilities. In addition, a U-Pb geochronology group has begun a similar effort. In deed, it’s a positive change for all of us geochronologists.