absolute dating
Finding actual ages
Absolute dating refers to methods that determine the actual age of geological or archaeological materials, typically expressed in years.
Unlike relative dating, which establishes only sequence, absolute dating provides numerical ages: Carbon-14 testing gave an absolute date of 3,200 years ago.
Radiometric techniques like carbon dating and potassium-argon dating are the most common approaches.
- radiometricMeasuring by radiation
- carbon-14Radioactive isotope for dating
- isotopeElemental variant by mass
- radioactive decayUnstable atoms releasing energy
- decayGradual organic breakdown
half-life · fossils · fossil record · chronology · potassium-argon · uranium-lead · rock samples · radiocarbon · geochronology · time scale · stratigraphy · ice cores · sediment · rocks · archaeological · dendrochronology · tree-rings · calibration
- archaeologyexcavation, dig site, archaeologist, dig, archaeological digs
- historical dating termsBC, AD, BCE, CE, radiocarbon
- Geochronologygeologic time, geologic time scale, time scale, timescale, deep time
- Dating Methodsgeochronology, thermoluminescence, luminescence, tephrochronology
- geologic timeeons, eon, epochs, era, epoch
- ceramic analysispetrography, thin section, cross section
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