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Why can carbon-14 be used to date a 40000 year old tree but U-Pb cannot?
Wiki User
∙ 15y ago
C14 is continuously made in the atmosphere by the effects of solar radiation on Nitrogen14. There is an equilibrium up there between how quickly C14 is made and how quickly it decays to C12 because the gases circulate.
Obviously this circulation stops when a C14 molecule gets incorporated into a plant or something that ate the plant. Over time the C14 in a tree disappears while C14 in the iar keeps gettin renewed. Our dating technique relies on the difference between how much C14 is left in the tree compared to what can be found in the air.
I dont think the same can be said of U. It and other heavy elements are not airborne and were in any case made in a dying sun. Therefore the ratio of Pu, U, Pb and other heavy elements is the same whether in a tree or in the soil that the tree grew up in. So while any U that found its way into the tree will have decayed, the U in the soil will have decayed too. Therefore our C14 (which relies on measuring differences) cannot be used.
Full disclosure:
I have MSc Molecular Biology but I am NOT an expert in carbon dating.
Double check before you rely on this information as gospel.
Wiki User
∙ 15y ago
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