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Geology & Earth Sciences vocabulary · Geologic Time & Fossils

Radiometric dating

Meaning in geology & earth sciences, with examples

nounCommon term

In geology & earth sciences, radiometric dating means: A method of finding the age of rocks and minerals by measuring how much of a radioactive element has decayed into its products, using the known rate of decay.

In Turkish: radyometrik yaş tayini, radyometrik tarihleme

How it is used

Gives numerical (absolute) ages in years, unlike relative dating. Common methods include uranium-lead for very old rocks, potassium-argon and argon-argon for volcanic rocks, and carbon-14 for organic material up to about 50,000 years old.

Example sentences

  1. Radiometric dating shows that the oldest rocks in the region are about 500 million years old.

  2. We sent the zircon crystals to the lab for radiometric dating.

Common collocations

  • radiometric dating methods
  • uranium-lead dating
  • radiocarbon dating
  • absolute age
  • half-lifeThe time it takes for half of the atoms of a radioactive isotope in a sample to decay. Each isotope has its own fixed half-life.
  • geologic time scaleThe system that divides the Earth's roughly 4.6-billion-year history into named units such as eons, eras, periods and epochs, based on rocks and fossils.
  • law of superpositionThe principle that in undisturbed layers of sedimentary rock, the oldest layer is at the bottom and each layer above it is younger.
  • index fossilA fossil of a species that lived for only a short time but was widespread and easy to identify, so it is used to date rock layers and match them between areas.

More terms: Geologic Time & Fossils

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