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Dinnertime geology: the present (#1)
"The present" is commonly defined as "1 January 1950".
For historical reasons.
If you read "before present" in the context of radiocarbon dating? The "present" they're talking about is, yes, 1950.
This is strictly also true in geology, where we use e.g. "Ma" to mean "million years ago" - the "ago" is implicit, because we are champions of explicit usage, and refers to the present as defined above - but on the kind of timescale I work with, well, what's sixty years between friends?
For historical reasons.
If you read "before present" in the context of radiocarbon dating? The "present" they're talking about is, yes, 1950.
This is strictly also true in geology, where we use e.g. "Ma" to mean "million years ago" - the "ago" is implicit, because we are champions of explicit usage, and refers to the present as defined above - but on the kind of timescale I work with, well, what's sixty years between friends?