Isotopes in the earth sciences / Изотопы в науках о земле

Isotopes originated with the emergence of elements in the Universe during the first infinitesimal fraction of a second following the postulated Big Bang now generally accepted as having started the dynamic expansion observed today.l Some remarks concerning this seminal event are in order. It involved an initial and unimaginably violent commencement with accompanying heat generation on a colossal scale. Expansion followed and is evidenced today by the well-known 'red shift' exhibited by many galaxies outside our own and also by Olber's paradox. H. W. M. Olber re-stated this in 1823 after Edmund Halley pointed out that, if space and star numbers were infinite, i.e. if the Universe were a steady-state system which has existed always, then the cumulative effect of radiation should make the night sky very bright and indeed produce a surface temperature for the Earth of 5000K. This is not the case because the red shifts in an expanding Universe result in a reduction in light intensities with increasing distances. The conclusion is that the cosmos has a finite age, the night sky being dark because of expansion from an inception. If time were reversed, the galaxies would coalesce, Universal volume would diminish and the expansion rate would increase. It has been calculated that, when a volume of diameter lO light years resulted, this would double every second and, if the Universe were to be compressed into the volume of a football, then its size would double every 1 X 10-30 s.  <...>