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Could the potassium-argon method of radiometric dating be used to date rock that is estimated to be formed 1000 years ago?
A small correction first. Radiometric dating techniques do not date the whole rock. K-Ar dating, for example, dates the last time that the particular mineral you are working with, passed through its crystallization point from a previously hotter condition. Lavas which chill quickly are good for study, whilst some other metamorphoses have a long cooling curve and a less certain date. Commonly, one of the micas is used for this as they contain a reasonable quantity of K. However, the half-life for this dating method is about 1.5x109 years. The presence of an 40Ar decay is signalled by the emission of a positron (inverse beta decay); but in 90% of the decays, 40Ca is formed, with an electron emission (beta decay). In practice, after only 1000 years, the target decay signal would be difficult to separate from the background noise, for very little 40Ar would have yet formed.
How would you date a sample rock that you suspect as being one of the earliest on earth?
You would use a radioactive isotope with a long half life. Good luck!
Which rocks give the most reliable radiometric date?
Igneous rocks such as granite and basalt usually give the most reliable radiometric dates, as they form by cooling and solidifying from molten rock. These rocks contain minerals that are good at retaining radioactive isotopes and are less likely to have been altered or contaminated over time. Sedimentary rocks can also be dated, but the dates are usually less reliable due to potential reworking of older material.
Which isotope would be best for measuring the age of a rock layer estimated to be about one million years old?
Geologists use radioisatope pairs to determine the age of rocks about 1 million years old. one pair is 238u which spontaneously decays to 206pb.
Explain how geologists use fossils to date sedimentary rock layers?
Geologists use fossils to date sedimentary rock layers through relative dating. They examine the types of fossils present in different layers and compare them to known fossil sequences to determine the age of the rocks. This method relies on the principle that certain fossils are characteristic of specific time periods and can be used to estimate the relative age of the rock layer they are found in.
Only good for dating objects as far back as about 4000 years?
Carbon dating.Answer 2 OOPs wrong, as the half life of C14 is 5730 years.Off hand I can't think of a dating method (that is used) with such a short usefulness.
What is radiometric dating?
Any technique which dates a material based on the known decay rate of a radioactive component of the material is a form of radiometric dating. There are many radioactive elements and thus many applications of the basic principle. Examples: Archeologists may employ the well known method of carbon 14 dating. The technique measures the radioactivity of carbon 14 in a biological sample that may have been preserved for hundreds of years or tens of thousands of years. Knowing that the carbon 14 has a half life of 5,730 years allows the estimation of the age of the object based on the fraction of carbon 14 remaining. Uranium-lead dating is an established radiometric dating technique. Very old rocks have been dated by measuring the amount of lead in the mineral zircon (ZrSiO4) which forms with radioactive uranium that takes more than 4 billion years to decay. By this method, the age of the Earth has been estimated to be about 4.6 billion years. This figure is in good agreement with the age of meteorites and the age of the Moon as determined independently. See also related links.
Is 10 a good time to start dating?
no, it is not, wait a couple of years
Could the potassium-argon method of radiometric dating be used to date rock that is estimated to be formed 1000 years ago?
A small correction first. Radiometric dating techniques do not date the whole rock. K-Ar dating, for example, dates the last time that the particular mineral you are working with, passed through its crystallization point from a previously hotter condition. Lavas which chill quickly are good for study, whilst some other metamorphoses have a long cooling curve and a less certain date. Commonly, one of the micas is used for this as they contain a reasonable quantity of K. However, the half-life for this dating method is about 1.5x109 years. The presence of an 40Ar decay is signalled by the emission of a positron (inverse beta decay); but in 90% of the decays, 40Ca is formed, with an electron emission (beta decay). In practice, after only 1000 years, the target decay signal would be difficult to separate from the background noise, for very little 40Ar would have yet formed.
Radiometric dating or carbon dating which is more accurate?
Carbon dating (also called radiocarbon dating) is a very useful archeological tool, but it does have its limitations. Dates derived from carbon dating aren't exact, and they always have a margin of error. For example, a particular object that has been dated might a radiocarbon age of 4500 years, plus or minus 30 years. The margin of error depends on the object, but for samples younger than 10,000 years, the uncertainty is usually at most 40 years. For older samples, the uncertainty period can be several centuries. The reason that carbon dating isn't exact is due to two reasons. First of all, our instruments used to detect the amount of radioactivity in samples aren't perfect. Second of all, in the real world, many events can influence and distort the amount of Carbon-14 present in a sample. Events such as volcanic eruptions can increase or reduce the amount of Carbon-14. Scientists need to account for this with a margin of error. In addition, carbon 14 decays with a half life of about 5,700 years and, even with good quality samples, dating can only go back to around 60,000 years. To date anything older than that, scientists need to rely upon other dating methods, like relying upon other isotopes such as potassium and argon. See the links below for more information. The first one describes the process of carbon dating in general, and the second one discusses the accuracy of carbon dating.
How does radioactive dating relate to fossils and radioactive waste?
There are a number of types of radiometric dating. Carbon-14 dating, which is perhaps best known, can only be used for things some thousands of years old at most, and so is not particularly useful for fossils. Other types of radiometric dating, however, are good for hundreds of thousands or millions of years, and these are very useful for fossils. In fact they can be used to estimate the ages of various kinds of rocks. Radioactive waste is a pollutant that affects some radiometric dating techniques, skewing them. For example, above ground nuclear testing in the 1950s and 1960s produced waste carbon-14, almost doubling the amount in the atmosphere for some time. This would make samples from that period appear too new. Most radioactive materials in nuclear waste or pollution would not have this sort of effect, however. In order to influence radiometric dating, the material measured has to be part of the pollution or has to be generated from it. Carbon-14 results from a collision of a neutron with nitrogen-13 (a hydrogen atom is also generated). But this happens in the upper atmosphere as a result of cosmic rays. There are very few sources of neutrons on Earth, with uranium-235 probably being the most common. So ordinary nuclear waste from such sources as power plants will not usually skew carbon-14 dating. On the other hand, the isotopes other than carbon-14 that are used in radiodating may be among those in nuclear waste. Among the isotopes that might be affected are those used in iodine-xenon dating, rubidium-strontium, and potassium-argon dating. Nuclear pollutants might include these isotopes in them, and so exposure would possibly skew results. There are other forms of pollution that affect carbon dating. Burning of fossil fuels increases the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere without increasing the amount of carbon-14. This would make some samples from the period after about 1700 appear too old.
What is the important of dates?
The importance of radiometric dating is that it allows us to tell how old some things are. There are different methods of radiometric dating, and they apply to different things and they have different lengths of time, at least as regards the age of a sample, that they can speak to. For instance, in radiocarbon dating, there really isn't a way to date something to 100,000 years or more. It is only accurate to a period of time less than that. But with uranium-lead radiometric dating, certain rock samples can be dated back billions of years. A link is provided to the Wikipedia article on radiometric dating to get you more information. If something is a bit fuzzy, come back to WikiAnswers and post more good questions like this one. -IT CAN REVEAL THE ABSOLUTE AGE OF A FOSSIL-
What isotope is best for dating very old rocks?
Uranium-lead dating is often used for dating very old rocks, as it has a long half-life of about 4.5 billion years. This allows for dating rocks that are millions to billions of years old with good accuracy.
Is there an 13 year old dating sight?
No, this is not a good age yet to be dating, wait 1 or 2 more years, in between time you will have made a lot of new friends that will also start dating at 14 or 15 years of age.
What are relative dating and absolute dating?
Absolute dating is the process of determining an approximate computed age in archaeology and geology.Relative dating is determined by comparing its placement with that of fossils in other layers of rock.
Would you care if after breaking up with your boyfriend of 7 years you found out that right before you guys started dating he had sex with one of your good friends and they never told you?
If it was a good, fun 7 seven years, and it was beforeyou and your (now ex boyfriend) started dating its fine.
Why is carbon dating only good back to 70000 years?
Beyond 70,000 years there is too little 14C remaining to make accurate measurements.
