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A radiogenic nuclide is a nuclide that is produced by a process of radioactive decay. It may itself be radioactive (a radionuclide) or stable (a stable nuclide). Radiogenic nuclides (more commonly referred to as radiogenic isotopes) form some of the most important tools in geology. They are used in two principal ways:
The mass of the nuclide (in daltons) is A (m n − E / k) where E is the energy, m n is 1.008664916 Da and k = 931.49410242 the conversion factor between MeV and daltons. half-life column The main column shows times in seconds (31,556,926 seconds = 1 tropical year ); a second column showing half-life in more usual units (year, day) is also ...
In all of the above examples, the initial nuclide decays into just one product. [37] Consider the case of one initial nuclide that can decay into either of two products, that is A → B and A → C in parallel. For example, in a sample of potassium-40, 89.3% of the nuclei decay to calcium-40 and 10.7% to argon-40. We have for all time t:
Secondary radionuclides are radiogenic isotopes derived from the decay of primordial radionuclides. They have shorter half-lives than primordial radionuclides. They arise in the decay chain of the primordial isotopes thorium-232, uranium-238, and uranium-235. Examples include the natural isotopes of polonium and radium.
A nuclide is a species of an atom with a specific number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus, for example carbon-13 with 6 protons and 7 neutrons. The nuclide concept (referring to individual nuclear species) emphasizes nuclear properties over chemical properties, while the isotope concept (grouping all atoms of each element) emphasizes ...
This nuclide was long thought to be stable, but in 2003 it was found to be unstable, with a very long half-life of 20.1 billion billion years; [5] it is the last step in the chain before stable thallium-205. Because this bottleneck is so long-lived, very small quantities of the final decay product have been produced, and for most practical ...
Stable nuclides require approximately equal numbers of protons and neutrons. The stable nuclide carbon-12 (12 C) is composed of six neutrons and six protons, for example. Protons have a positive charge, hence within a nuclide with many protons there are large repulsive forces between protons arising from the Coulomb force. By acting to separate ...
The stable argon isotope 40 Ar is actually more common as a radiogenic nuclide than as a primordial nuclide, forming almost 1% of the Earth's atmosphere, which is regenerated by the beta decay of the extremely long-lived radioactive primordial isotope 40 K, whose half-life is on the order of a billion years and thus has been generating argon ...