Radioactive dating

Overview

This section of the course looks at the techniques available for dating materials using the decay of radioactive elements as a probe of the age of the sample. Radiocarbon dating can be used to accurately date a whole range of organic samples, while on a longer timescale, the ages of rocks can be estimated from their isotopic composition.

Radiocarbon dating

The theory of radiocarbon dating is described in great detail at the WEB-Info site at the Waikato radiocarbon lab. There is also an excellent summary of the applications radiocarbon dating has been put to. I list just a few here:

Dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Work at Stonehenge
Dating of French cave art
The World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE)

Geological dating

The theory of isochron dating is explained here.

Return to the PH320 Homepage

Tony Bird (ajb@astro.soton.ac.uk) May 1996