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Calculation of radiocarbon dates. The calculation of radiocarbon dates determines the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon (also known as carbon-14), a radioactive isotope of carbon. Radiocarbon dating methods produce data based on the ratios of different carbon isotopes in a sample that must then ...
Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was developed in the late 1940s at the University of Chicago by Willard Libby, based on the constant creation ...
Radiocarbon calibration. Radiocarbon dating measurements produce ages in "radiocarbon years", which must be converted to calendar ages by a process called calibration. Calibration is needed because the atmospheric 14. C: 12. C ratio, which is a key element in calculating radiocarbon ages, has not been constant historically.
Radiometric dating. Radiometric dating, radioactive dating or radioisotope dating is a technique which is used to date materials such as rocks or carbon, in which trace radioactive impurities were selectively incorporated when they were formed. The method compares the abundance of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope within the material to ...
Isochron dating. An isochron plot of the radiogenic daughter isotope (D*) against the parent isotope (P), all normalized to a stable isotope of the daughter element (D ref). It demonstrates the isotopic evolution as the sample ages from t 0 to t 1 to t 2. Isochron dating is a common technique of radiometric dating and is applied to date certain ...
Uranium–thorium dating, also called thorium-230 dating, uranium-series disequilibrium dating or uranium-series dating, is a radiometric dating technique established in the 1960s which has been used since the 1970s to determine the age of calcium carbonate materials such as speleothem or coral. [1][2] Unlike other commonly used radiometric ...
Argon–argon (or 40 Ar/ 39 Ar) dating is a radiometric dating method invented to supersede potassium–argon (K/Ar) dating in accuracy. The older method required splitting samples into two for separate potassium and argon measurements, while the newer method requires only one rock fragment or mineral grain and uses a single measurement of argon isotopes.
Samples used for radiocarbon dating must be handled carefully to avoid contamination. Not all material can be dated by this method; only samples containing organic matter can be tested: the date found will be the date of death of the plants or animals from which the sample originally came. C content; this can mean conversion to gaseous, liquid ...