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Helium dating

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: helium dating
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Method of dating that depends on the production of helium during the decay of radioactive isotopes of uranium and thorium. Because of this decay, the helium content of any mineral or rock capable of retaining helium will increase during the lifetime of that mineral or rock, and the ratio of helium to its radioactive progenitors then becomes a measure of geologic time. Fossils may also be dated by helium dating. The relatively large amount of helium produced in rocks may make it possible to extend helium dating to rocks and minerals as young as a few tens of thousands of years old.

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Wikipedia: Helium dating
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Helium dating may refer to the traditional uranium-thorium dating or uranium-thorium/helium dating.[1]

A relatively new dating method, tritium-helium dating has been developed for determining rates of oxygen utilization in the ocean.[2]

References

  1. ^ http://www.geo.arizona.edu/~reiners/arhdl/longer.htm U-Th/He dating, the University of Arizona Geochronology Lab
  2. ^ http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/sci;196/4287/291 W. J. Jenkins, Tritium-Helium Dating in the Sargasso Sea: A Measurement of Oxygen Utilization Rates, Science 15 April 1977: Vol. 196. no. 4287, pp. 291 - 292
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