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Mahesh

23/05/23 06:48 AM IST

calcium-41 for radiometric dating

In News
  • A recent study has proposed using calcium-41 as a new method for radiometric dating, similar to carbon-14 dating but with several advantages.
Radio carbon dating
  • Radiocarbon dating, also known as carbon-14 dating, is a method used to determine the age of organic materials that originated from living organisms.
  • It relies on the radioactive isotope carbon-14, which is a variant of the element carbon. Carbon-14 is unstable and undergoes radioactive decay over time.
  • Calcium-41 has a much longer half-life of 99,400 years, allowing for the dating of much older materials compared to carbon-14.
  • Calcium-41 is found in the Earth’s crust, making it available for dating various geological materials, including fossilized bones and rocks.
  • The technique of ATTA enables the detection of calcium-41 atoms with high sensitivity and selectivity, improving the accuracy of dating methods.
    Potential for Extension: The successful application of ATTA to calcium-41 opens the possibility of using similar techniques for other metal isotopes, expanding the range of dating methods available.
  • Calcium-41 and ATTA can be used to study geological processes, such as determining how long rocks have been covered by ice, providing valuable insights into Earth’s history and climate changes.
Limitations with Carbon-14
  • Carbon-14 is an unstable and weakly radioactive isotope of carbon. It has a half-life of 5,700 years and is used to estimate the age of carbon-based materials.
  • Carbon dating using Carbon-14 is limited to objects up to 50,000 years old due to carbon-14's 5,700-year half-life.
Source- The Hindu

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