[April Lexington]

I hate to rain on the parade but all of the elements were created at the exact same time. They have been forming compounds and breaking up ever since. Everything on Earth is the same initial age. If not... where did the new elements come from (other than the fake and unstable ones created in accelerators)...

[AndrewB]

Nevertheless...I’ll have a splash of it with my 12 year old scotch, thank you very much...

[muawiyah]

Given long enough time many isotopes of rather common elements will decay into OTHER STUFF. Then there's stuff like RADIOACTIVE TUNGSTEN ~ it will decay right under your nose and stick alpha particles in your gizzard (and you thought lightbulbs weren't dangerous eh).

Well, anyway, given enough time you get to find out what's stable and what's not stable ~ jus' the way it is. New stuff allatime!

[cynwoody]

I hate to rain on the parade but ... Everything on Earth is the same initial age.

Irrelevant! Are you on Earth? Are you 4.2 billion years old?

Here are some folks posing with 420,000 year old ice cores they drilled out of the 12,000-foot thick Antarctic ice cap.

Why would you freeze your ass off digging up ancient ice? Because it contains tiny bubbles of air, preserved as they were the day they were trapped. That air has been separated from the rest of Earth's air since it was trapped (how long ago depends on how far down). It's interesting to pass it through a mass spectrometer and compare the results to today's randomly mixed air. There is no other way to get such information.

[SatinDoll]

Please clarify your statement, “...all of the elements were created at the exact same time. They have been forming compounds and breaking up ever since.”

You are assuming all compounds, in water and atmosphere, have remained the same over time.

[aruanan]

I hate to rain on the parade but all of the elements were created at the exact same time. They have been forming compounds and breaking up ever since. Everything on Earth is the same initial age. If not... where did the new elements come from (other than the fake and unstable ones created in accelerators)...

I hate to rain on your parade, but water's not an element.