•How is absolute dating used to

determine the ages of rock?

•Elements have isotopes that can be
used to determine age of rocks.
•Absolute Dating – a method of
measuring the age of an event or
object in years.
•To determine the absolute ages of
fossils and rocks, scientists analyze
isotopes of radioactive elements.
•Isotopes – atoms of the same element
that have the same number of
protons but different number of
neutrons.
•Radioactive Isotopes – isotopes that
decay into other forms in order to
achieve stability.
•Parent Isotope – unstable radioactive
isotope.
•Daughter Isotope – stable isotope
produced by radioactive decay.
•Half-life – the time needed for a
sample of a radioactive substance to
undergo radioactive decay.
When radioactive isotopes breakdown into stable ones, thermal energy is released.
After every half – life, the amount of parent material decreases by one – half.
 –
Parent Isotope Half – Life Stable Daughter
Uranium – 235 704 million years Lead – 207
Potassium – 40 1.25 billion years Argon – 40
Uranium – 238 4.5 billion years Lead – 206
Thorium – 232 14.0 billion years Lead – 208
Lutetium – 176 35.9 billion years Hafnium – 176
Rubidium – 87 48.8 billion years Strontium – 87
Samarium – 147 106 billion years Neodymium - 143
•Radiometric Dating - a technique
which is used to date materials such
as rocks or carbon, in which trace
radioactive impurities were
selectively incorporated when they
were formed.
 a. Uses potassium –
40, which has a
half – life of 1.25
(1.3) billion
years and as it
decays, it leaves
a daughter
material, argon.
This method is
used mainly to
date rocks older
than 100 000
– years.
 –

b. Uses uranium –
238, which has a
half – life of 4.5
billion years.
Uranium – 238
decays in a series of
steps, and
ultimately becomes
lead – 206. The
uranium – lead
method can be used
to date rocks more
than 10 million
years old.
 c. Uses Rubidium –
87, which forms
a stable
daughter
isotope,
strontium – 87.
The half – life of
Rubidium – 87 is
49 billion years.
This method is
used for rocks
– older than 10
million years.
d. Uses in three forms
of carbon: carbon –
12, carbon – 13 and
the radioactive
isotope, carbon –
14. The half – life of
carbon – 14 is 5730
years. It used
mainly for dating
things that live
within the last 50
000 years.
• A knowledge of radioactive half-life is
important because:
a. It enables the dating of artifacts.
b. It allows us to calculate how long we must
store radioactive waste until they become
safe.
c. It enables doctors to use safe radioactive
tracers.
a. It enables the dating of artifacts.
• Half-life is the time it takes for one-half of the
atoms of a radioactive material to
disintegrate.
• Scientists can use the half-life of carbon-14 to
determine the approximate age of organic
objects. They determine how much of the
carbon-14 has transformed. They can then
calculate the age of a substance.
b. It allows us to calculate how long we must store
radioactive waste until they become safe.
• All nuclear reactors produce radioactive waste. The
waste must be stored until it is safe for disposal.
• The rule is that a sample is safe after 10 half-lives.
Thus, we can dispose of waste containing iodine-131
(t½= 8 days) after 80 days.
• We must store the plutonium-239 in spent nuclear fuel
(t½ = 24 000 years) for almost a quarter of a million
years.
c. It enables doctors to use safe radioactive
tracers.
• Doctors use radioactive isotopes as medical
tracers. The nuclei must be active long
enough to treat the condition, but they must
also have a short enough half-life so that they
don’t have time to injure healthy cells and
organs.
 “Stay a little longer. Let me show
you we are worth the trouble.”
-Guzman Nunier Osuna