Error propagation related to Pb isotopes

In this session, we show three examples concerning the error propagation of U-Pb isotope data. More detailed accounts of the error analysis of U-Pb isotope data have been documented in literature (Ludwig, 1980 Ludwig, 1998 Ludwig, 2003). 

Example. Sometimes the uncertainty in the decay constant needs to be considered for the age calculations (Mattinson, 1987 Ludwig, 2000). Estimate the age error from in zircons provided 

And the partial derivative of f206 with respect to /Ijjg is 

Since the uncertainties in and 238 independent and random, then the uncertainty in the age of the zircon can be calculated using error propagation for independent random errors as 

Edwards, R.L., Murrell, M.T. and Benjamin, T.M., 1998. Uranium-thorium-protactinium dating systematics. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 62 3437-3452. Holmes, A., 1946. An estimate of the age of the Earth. Nature, 157 680-684. 

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