12.3 dating with radioactivity

12.3: Natural Radioactivity and Half-Life

How do we know the age of the surfaces we see on planets and moons? If a world has a surface as opposed to being mostly gas and liquid , astronomers have developed some techniques for estimating how long ago that surface solidified. Note that the age of these surfaces is not necessarily the age of the planet as a whole. On geologically active objects including Earth , vast outpourings of molten rock or the erosive effects of water and ice, which we call planet weathering, have erased evidence of earlier epochs and present us with only a relatively young surface for investigation. One way to estimate the age of a surface is by counting the number of impact craters. This technique works because the rate at which impacts have occurred in the solar system has been roughly constant for several billion years. Thus, in the absence of forces to eliminate craters, the number of craters is simply proportional to the length of time the surface has been exposed. This technique has been applied successfully to many solid planets and moons as shown in Figure 1. Bear in mind that crater counts can tell us only the time since the surface experienced a major change that could modify or erase preexisting craters. Estimating ages from crater counts is a little like walking along a sidewalk in a snowstorm after the snow has been falling steadily for a day or more.

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Formal geologic time begins at the start of the Archean Eon 4. Read less. Related slideshows generalgeologygeochronolgyandageofearth 1. Els history of the earth for learner.

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12.3.1: Radiocarbon Dating- Using Radioactivity to Measure the Age of Fossils and Other Artifacts

The learning objectives in this section will help your students master the following standards:. Unstable nuclei decay. However, some nuclides decay faster than others. For example, radium and polonium, discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie, decay faster than uranium.

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