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Could the potassium argon method of radiometric dating be used to date rocks that are estimated to have formed 1000 years ago?
Wiki User
∙ 8y ago
No. Potassium decays to argon, and geologists measure argon as the daughter material. The half life is too long for 1000 years to give sensible results.
Wiki User
∙ 8y ago
Wiki User
∙ 8y agoPotassium argon dating is most reliable for rocks formed over 100 000 years ago. 1000 years is a tiny amount for rock formation and K-Ar would give meaningless results.
Wiki User
∙ 8y agoPotassium argon dating is most reliable for rocks over 100 000 years old. 1000 years is a tiny amount geologically, and K-Ar dating would give meaningless results.
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The radiometric dating of an igneous rock provides .?
the date for which the rock formed
How do you measure the age of volcanic rock?
It can be estimated if the ages of rocks in layers above and below the volcanic rock are known. It can be measured reasonably precisely using uranium-lead radioisotope dating as well as techniques based on alpha particle damage to crystals formed in the rock.
The absolute age of a rock is the approximate number of years ago that the rock formed. The absolute age of an igneous rock can best be determined by?
It is best determined by radiometric dating techniques which measure the decay of radioactive elements.
What happens when a potassium ion and a flouride ion combine?
Potassium fluoride of KF is formed.
How old is earth and how did scientists find this out?
4.543 billion years. The best estimate for Earth's age is based on radiometric dating of fragments from the Canyon Diablo iron meteorite. From the fragments, scientists calculated the relative abundances of elements that formed as radioactive uranium decayed over billions of years
When is the radiometric clock set in the lifetime of a rock?
The radiometric clock is set when the rock is formed. Because this is when it sets, radiometric dating is used by geologist to find out when the rock was formed.
The radiometric dating of an igneous rock provides .?
the date for which the rock formed
What type of dating involves half-lives and can tell in which geologic period a rock was formed?
This is called absolute, isotopic, or radiometric dating.
How old are the Luna maria?
Radiometric dating of moon rocks from the maria indicate that they formed about 3.16 to 4.2 thousand million years ago.
What types of rocks are used in radiometric dating?
From a granite, a common mineral used for radiometric dating is the biotite mica component. For this mineral is among the last to form - as it forms at the lowest temperature compared to the other components of granite.This mineral contains potassium, 40K, which may be dated by the Potassium-Argon method. By radioactive decay, a small portion of the 40K decays to Argon. (The remainder of the potassium decays to a Calcium.)This Ar component is held in the mineral crystal, and by measuring the quantities of K and Ar, the age of the biotite is determined. [to an accuracy of about 1%.] For none of the Ar would be entrained in the previous molten state.All the K in your body is also susceptible to this decay!
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.
In order for radiometric dating to be accurate what must be true about the daughter material at the time a rock formed?
There must be more daughter isotopes than parent isotopes for a rock to be younger
How do you measure the age of volcanic rock?
It can be estimated if the ages of rocks in layers above and below the volcanic rock are known. It can be measured reasonably precisely using uranium-lead radioisotope dating as well as techniques based on alpha particle damage to crystals formed in the rock.
The absolute age of a rock is the approximate number of years ago that the rock formed The absolute age of an igneous rock can best be determined by?
It is best determined by radiometric dating techniques which measure the decay of radioactive elements.
How can fossils be used to determine the relative ages?
They are able to tell the order in which events occured, NOT how long ago they occured.Identify the order in whicih rock units formed(:rocks makes babys with apenis
The absolute age of a rock is the approximate number of years ago that the rock formed. The absolute age of an igneous rock can best be determined by?
It is best determined by radiometric dating techniques which measure the decay of radioactive elements.
How are the ages of rocks estimated?
There is a wealth of dating techniques for rocks. Very young materials (mostly soft sediments) are dated via 14C-dating, warve counting, tree-ring counting, lichenometry (sizes of lichen), thermoluminescence and stuff like that but for actual rock material one usually takes biostratigraphy or radiometric dating. Biostratigraphy is a relative dating technique and can be applied only to sedimentary rocks and very slightly metamorphosed sediments as it relies on the identification of specific fossil materials that were only present at a given relatively short period of time in the geologic past. In that way one can for example define that a rock is Jurassic or Cretaceous when one finds a belemnite or it has to be paleozoic if there are trilobites etc. The absolute ages are mostly derived from radiometric dating which relies on measuring the isotopic composition and certain element ratios in the rock. Common rock dating techniques are U-Pb dating, Rb-Sr, Ar-Ar, U-Th disequilibrium and others. Radiometric dates do not necessarily give an information about when the rock was formed (crystallized from a magma) but may instead bear information about when the rock experienced metamorphism or cooled down below a certain temperature.
