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Uranium–lead dating, abbreviated U–Pb dating, is one of the oldest [1] and most refined of the radiometric dating schemes. It can be used to date rocks that formed and crystallised from about 1 million years to over 4.5 billion years ago with routine precisions in the 0.1–1 percent range. [2] [3] The method is usually applied to zircon.
Fig. 1 – Zircon grains in real life (Coin for scale) Detrital zircon geochronology is the science of analyzing the age of zircons deposited within a specific sedimentary unit by examining their inherent radioisotopes, most commonly the uranium–lead ratio. Zircon is a common accessory or trace mineral constituent of most granite and felsic ...
Zircon is extremely useful for geological dating: when forming, it collects tiny imperfections of uranium, but never lead. It follows that if lead is present in zircon, it must have come from decay of the uranium present. (The process is known as U-Pb dating.) The team measured the concentrations and isotopic compositions of foreign elements ...
Uranium–lead dating is often performed on the mineral zircon (ZrSiO 4), though it can be used on other materials, such as baddeleyite and monazite (see: monazite geochronology). [23] Zircon and baddeleyite incorporate uranium atoms into their crystalline structure as substitutes for zirconium , but strongly reject lead.
Lead–lead dating is a method for dating geological samples, normally based on 'whole-rock' samples of material such as granite.For most dating requirements it has been superseded by uranium–lead dating (U–Pb dating), but in certain specialized situations (such as dating meteorites and the age of the Earth) it is more important than U–Pb dating.
Uranium–lead dating. This technique measures the ratio of two lead isotopes (lead-206 and lead-207) to the amount of uranium in a mineral or rock. Often applied to the trace mineral zircon in igneous rocks, this method is one of the two most commonly used (along with argon–argon dating) for geologic dating.
One way uranium isotopes are used is to date rocks from millions to billions of years ago. This is through uranium-lead dating. This technique uses zircon samples and measures the lead content in them. Zircon incorporates uranium and thorium atoms into its crystal structure, but strongly rejects lead. Thus, the only sources of lead in a zircon ...
Hadean zircon is the oldest-surviving crustal material from the Earth's earliest geological time period, the Hadean eon, about 4 billion years ago. Zircon is a mineral that is commonly used for radiometric dating because it is highly resistant to chemical changes and appears in the form of small crystals or grains in most igneous and metamorphic host rocks.