Wonderfest: To See a World in a Grain of Sand

By some measures, modern geology has pushed our knowledge of Earth's birthdate backward in time by a factor of a million: from 4,000 BCE to 4,000,000,000 BCE! Detrital zircon geochronology is a geological dating technique that affords insights into the structure and origin of planet Earth’s diverse components. Even locally, including on Mount Tamalpais, the rocks are speaking to us. Can we really see a world in a grain of sand?

Our speaker, Dr. Owen Anfinson, is Associate Professor of Geology at the Sonoma County campus of California State University.