Geochronologists have tried to pinpoint the age of the 66-million-year-old Deccan Traps, massive lava flows in India that may have helped wipe out the dinosaurs.
By Paul VoosenTo answer questions about the planet’s future, earth scientists look to the past. But for too long, the arbiters of these stories—the geochronologists who date the age of rocks—have been underfunded and uncoordinated.
That could change if the National Science Foundation (NSF) funds a new consortium for geochronology—a major recommendation of a report released today by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM).At a cost of up to $10 million annually, the National Consortium for Geochronology, as the report calls it, would develop new dating