How do we assess the published K-Ar Age data of volcanic rocks?


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How do we assess the published K-Ar Age data of volcanic rocks?

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There are lots of ways to guesstimate ages, and geologists knew the earth was old a long time ago and I might add that they were mostly Christian creationist geologists. But they didn’t know how old. Radiometric dating actually allows the measurement of absolute ages, and so it is deadly to the argument that the earth cannot be more than 10, years old. Radiometric methods measure the time elapsed since the particular radiometric clock was reset.

Radiocarbon dating, which is probably best known in the general public, works only on things that were once alive and are now dead.

Ar-Ar dating on mineral separates of stages I, II and III yields plateau ages of ± Ma, ± Ma and ± Ma, respectively. Sericite separates from stage II assemblage also yield an Ar-Ar isochron age of ± Ma, similar to the Ar-Ar plateau age.

Events Methods in high-precision geochronology U-Pb isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry ID-TIMS geochronology is often coined the “gold-standard” in geochronology. This is because 1 the decay constants of U are better known than any other long-lived parent nuclide, 2 the dual decay of U and U allow the evaluation of closed-system behavior, 3 because the standard, or tracer, against which ages are calculated can be calibrated with high precision and accuracy, and 4 because the mass spectrometry can be carried out with a high degree of precision and accuracy.

Despite these benefits, there are significant improvements being made to both the U-Pb ID-TIMS method and its intercalibration with other dating methods. Much of my own work in this regard has been carried out as part of the NSF-funded EARTHTIME network, whose goals are in part to forge a community based initiattive arriving at intercalibration between different dating methods at the 0.

Details of this initiative can be found here: Schoene B, Condon D. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 5: