笔者从文学、物理学、地球科学到地质年代学论及时间点和时间段的定年问题。同位素地质年代学定年起源于欧洲，已有近百年的历史相当成熟，但只能测定地质事件峰值（时间点）迄今的年龄；我们倡导的构造地质年代学速率法定年为近年的探索，可以直接测定地质事件过程（时间段）历经的年龄。同位素地质年代学定年与构造地质年代学定年两者相互补。

The dating problem of time and duration from literature, physics, geosciences to geochronology was discussed. Although the isotopic geochronological method, after nearly a century of development, is now a mature approach to the time point measurement of a geological event, it is incapable of measuring its duration. A structural geochronology approach was thus proposed recently which could be used to measure the event duration directly. These two methods are complementary to each other.