author
Arthur Holmes
1890–1965
A pioneering geologist, he helped turn Earth's deep past from guesswork into measurable time. His ideas on radiometric dating and mantle convection helped lay groundwork for modern geology and plate tectonics.
1 Audiobook
The age of the Earth
by Arthur Holmes
About the author
Born in Hebburn, England, in 1890, Arthur Holmes became one of the key figures in twentieth-century geology. He studied at the Royal College of Science in London and is widely remembered for bringing radioactive methods into the dating of rocks, helping scientists build a far more reliable timescale for Earth's history.
Holmes was also an early champion of the idea that heat-driven convection inside the Earth's mantle could move continents. That insight was well ahead of its time and later became an important part of the story of plate tectonics. His book The Age of the Earth and later editions of his Principles of Physical Geology helped introduce generations of readers and students to big, bold geological thinking.
He taught and worked in several places during his career, including Durham and Edinburgh, and was eventually appointed Regius Professor of Geology at the University of Edinburgh. By the time of his death in 1965, many of his once-radical ideas had become central to how scientists understand the planet.