Dating, radiochemical

Click Coached Problems for a self-study module on half-life and radiochemical dating. 

In order to radiochemically date a human skeleton, scientists need to compare the decay of carbon-14 in the skeleton with —... 

The Zag meteorite fell in the western Sahara of Morocco in August 1998. This meteorite was unusual in that it contained small crystals of halite (table salt), which experts believe formed by the evaporation of brine (salt water). It is one of the few indications that liquid water, which is essential for the development of life, may have existed in the early solar system. The halite crystals in the meteorite had a remarkably high abundance of 128Xe, a decay product of a short-lived iodine isotope that has long been absent from the solar system. Scientists believe that the iodine existed when the halite crystals formed. The xenon formed when this iodine decayed. For this reason, the Zag meteorite is believed to be one of the oldest artifacts in the solar system. In this lab, you will use potassium-argon radiochemical dating to estimate the age of the Zag meteorite and the solar system. 

Determine the age of the Zag meteorite, using potassium-argon (K-Ar) radiochemical dating. 

Comparing and Contrasting 14C decays to 14N with a half-life of 5730 years. This reaction is used for radiochemical dating of a certain class of terrestrial objects. How many half-lives of 40C have passed since the Zag meteorite formed ... 

Thinking Critically Based on your answer to question 3, explain why radiochemical dating using carbon is an inappropriate technique for dating meteorites. 

Radiocarbon dating is also called radiometric dating or radiochemical dating. ... 

Support for this comes from radiochemical dating of suboxic diagenesis -type nodules... 

Radiochemical Dating of Nuclear Weapon Debris Precipitated from Cyclonic Storms over the California Coast... 

Q Radiochemical dating is often used to determine the age of bones discovered at archaeological sites. Using this technique, these human bones frozen in a glacier were estimated to be from about 3000 B.c. 

A type of radiochemical dating known as carbon dating is commonly used to measure the age of artifacts that were once part of a living organism, such as the human skeleton shown in Figure 25-14. Carbon dating, as its name implies, makes use of the radioactive decay of carbon-14. The procedure rehes on the fact that unstable carbon-14 is formed by cosmic rays in the upper atmosphere at a fairly constant rate. 

The decay process of a different radioisotope, uranium-238 to lead-206, is commonly used to date objects such as rocks. Because the half-life of uranium-238 is 4.5 X 10 years, it can be used to estimate the age of objects that are too old to be dated using carbon-14. By radiochemical dating of meteorites, the age of the solar system has been estimated at 4.6 X 10 years of age. 

Radiochemical dating is a technique for determining the age of an object by measuring the amount of certain radioisotopes remaining in the object. 

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