Stones

[hopalong]

When I do the garden I dig up small stones. How old can these stones be.

[peanut]

just as old as the dirt they are burried in.

[gen2]

1 Find out where you live
2 Locate it on this map geology
3 Match that against a geological timescale epochs
4 Hope your neighbour didn't pick it up on holiday and end up just tossing it over the garden fence.

[Clanad]

Well, actually, they'll be considerably older than the dirt, since they, themselves have not eroded into dirt or sand. Depends on the type of stones and their origins... harder granites are most likely pre-Cambrian in origin while the softer sandstones or limestones are usually Cretaceous... however I'm not an expert on your island's geology... perhaps brachiopod will arrive to enlighten you...

[wendilla]

talking about stones I have always wondered why I can sweep my patio and slabs and no stones but I can go out in the mornig and there are stones there and they are not from next door as no direct neighbours and please dont say aliens left them.

[logman]

Well Irecon their as old as the hills. I use them in my garden in the bottoms of flower pots to help with the drainage.

But I do often wonder how on earth they get under the pedals of my pick up, there was one there the other day the size of a walnut, which is more than just a bit bigger than the cleats of my boots, I'm considering the Alien hypothesis..

[Toureman]

It depends where you live, I live on Anglesey and most of the rocks here are 600 million years old, but as gen2 says they could have arrived in your garden from an outside source, builders, gardeners, etc.