The Berkeley Geochronology Center (BGC) is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

geochronology Geochronology is the science of determining the age of rocks, fossils, and sediments using signatures inherent in the rocks themselves. Absolute geochronology can be accomplished through radioactive isotopes, whereas relative geochronology is ...

research institute A research institute, research centre, research center or research organization, is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often i ...

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

. It was originally a research group in the laboratory of

geochronologist Geochronology is the science of determining the age of rocks, fossils, and sediments using signatures inherent in the rocks themselves. Absolute geochronology can be accomplished through radioactive isotopes, whereas relative geochronology is p ...

Garniss Curtis Garniss H. Curtis, (born May 27, 1919 – died December 19, 2012) was a professor of geology at the University of California, Berkeley, geochronologist, volcanologist, geophysicist, and founder of the Berkeley Geochronology Center. In 1960, Curt ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. The center is now an independent scientific research institute with close

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

affiliations and directed by geologist and geochronologist

Paul Renne Paul R. Renne (born 1957 in San Antonio, Texas) is the director of the Berkeley Geochronology Center and also Professor in Residence of geology in the Department of Earth & Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley). Ren ...

, a professor in residence in the department of earth and planetary science at

History

In 1985, Curtis, set to retire in 1989, moved the group from his lab at the university to the basement of the independent Institute for Human Origins (IHO), at the suggestion of American

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

F. Clark Howell. The geochronologists worked separately from the IHO, although IHO contained their bureaucratic infrastructure, until 1989 when they became officially known as the Institute for Human Origins Geochronology Center. In 1994 the group officially split from the IHO based on different viewpoints of their respective missions. Both Curtis and IHO founder,

Donald Johanson Donald Carl Johanson (born June 28, 1943) is an American paleoanthropologist. He is known for discovering, with Yves Coppens and Maurice Taieb, the fossil of a female hominin australopithecine known as "Lucy" in the Afar Triangle region of Hada ...

, were known to have egos that might "clash", but Howell thought that bringing the two research groups together could benefit both. The IHO's mission included publicizing the anthropology of ancient human ancestors to the general public, and the geochronology scientists felt the anthropologists emphasized this at the expense of more basic science, while the paleoanthropologist felt the geochronologists were devoting too much research time and funding to general geology questions not related to the institute's primary mission. The anthropologists had more public recognition in the press, while the geochronologists were obtaining more scientific grant moneys and publishing more scientific papers. The split was acrimonious and garnered negative publicity for some of those involved from their peers in professional organizations, particularly as

Gordon Getty Gordon Peter Getty (born December 20, 1933) is an American businessman and classical music composer, the fourth child of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. His mother, Ann Rork, was his father's fourth wife. When his father died in 1976, Gordon assumed ...

, the single largest donor and a board member of IHO, withdrew funding to the parent institute (IHO) while providing start-up funding to the geochronology group.

Functions

The Institute specializes in fundamental questions of the age of the earth, using state-of-the-art instrumentation to find the age of rocks that will answer questions about

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

and

geobiology Geobiology is a field of scientific research that explores the interactions between the physical Earth and the biosphere. It is a relatively young field, and its borders are fluid. There is considerable overlap with the fields of ecology, evolutio ...

Earth's history The history of Earth concerns the development of planet Earth from its formation to the present day. Nearly all branches of natural science have contributed to understanding of the main events of Earth's past, characterized by constant geologic ...

. The institute is capable of performing gas extraction, and

thermal ionization mass spectrometry Thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) is also known as surface ionization and is a highly sensitive isotope mass spectrometry characterization technique. The isotopic ratios of radionuclides are used to get an accurate measurement for the ele ...

analysis on rocks up to billions of years old using the techniques of

argon–argon dating Argon–argon (or 40Ar/39Ar) dating is a radiometric dating method invented to supersede potassiumargon (K/Ar) dating in accuracy. The older method required splitting samples into two for separate potassium and argon measurements, while the newer ...

and

uranium–lead dating Uranium–lead dating, abbreviated U–Pb dating, is one of the oldest and most refined of the radiometric dating schemes. It can be used to date rocks that formed and crystallised from about 1 million years to over 4.5 billion years ago with routi ...

. BGC also performs

paleomagnetic Paleomagnetism (or palaeomagnetismsee ), is the study of magnetic fields recorded in rocks, sediment, or archeological materials. Geophysicists who specialize in paleomagnetism are called ''paleomagnetists.'' Certain magnetic minerals in rock ...

analysis to establish correlating or independent ages from the fossilized magnetic fields. The staff includes research scientists specializing in various geological periods and areas, in addition to postdoctoral scholars and graduate students. Scientists at BGC have also been active in dating

extraterrestrial materials Extraterrestrial material refers to natural objects now on Earth that originated in outer space. Such materials include cosmic dust and meteorites, as well as samples brought to Earth by sample return missions from the Moon, asteroids and comet ...

such as meteorites.

References

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External links

Berkeley Geochronology Center website
Geochronological institutions and organizations Mass spectrometry Education in Berkeley, California