Radiometric Dating and
the Age of the Earth
How to tell time:
• Relative Time: putting events
in time order.
• Law of Superposition
• Correlation of rock layers
using fossils.
“There is a wonderful order
and regularity with which
nature has disposed of
fossils and assigned to each
its peculiar stratum.”
William Smith
How to tell time:
• Absolute Time: Determining age in years.
How old is the Earth?
My calculations
show that the
Earth is 6000
years old!
James Ussher
Calculating the Age of the Earth
• Count backwards through the chronology
of the Judeo-Christian Bible
• J. Ussher, The Annals of the World (1658)
• Creation of the Earth began the nightfall
before Sunday, 23 October, 4004 BC
James Ussher,
Archbishop of Armagh
Early attempts to estimate the age of the Earth:
• How long would it take to deposit all the strata?
• How long would it take the oceans to get salty?
At least 75 million
years. Perhaps
much longer?
Thomas Huxley
Early attempts to measure the age of the Earth:
William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) 1824-1907
• Find rate at which heat is escaping from
Earth’s interior.
• Assume Earth started as molten rock.
• How long would it have taken the Earth
to cool to its current temperature?
• 20 to 30 million years.
“When you can measure what you
are speaking about and express it
in numbers, you know something
about it.”
30 million years
is not enough
time!
But how can you
argue with
physics!?
There must be
some mistake!
How could Kelvin
be wrong?
Henri Becquerel (1852-1908)
• 1896 - discovers that uranium emits energetic particles.
• Works with Marie and Pierre Curie to develop theory of
natural radioactivity.
If it’s 1903, then
that Nobel Prize is
for me!
• Radioactivity heats up
surrounding rock.
• Kelvin’s assumption of steady
cooling is wrong, which
invalidates his argument.
• So, how old is the Earth??
Ernst Rutherford and Frederick Soddy (1902)
• Radioactive decay changes atoms from one element to
another.
• The parent isotope decays into a daughter isotope.
• The rate of decay is mathematically constant.
• The daughter isotope accumulates over time.
The progressive
accumulation of daughter
isotopes in a rock could
provide a basis for measuring
geological time.
Ernst Rutherford
Parent isotope
Daughter isotope
Time
Bertram Boltwood (1870-1927)
• Discovers the Uranium - Lead decay series.
• 1907 - Measures the proportions of Uranium (parent) to
Lead (daughter) in minerals from 10 different localities on
three continents.
• Calculates ages from 410 million to 2.2 billion years.
• The Earth is at least 10X older than geologists had
suspected!
Eureka! It works!
hu-hu-mm-hey!
Bertram Boltwood (undated photo)
Basics of Radioactivity
• Atomic nuclei contain protons (+) and neutrons (0).
• Identity of element is given by # of protons.
• Atomic mass = # protons + # neutrons
e-
eNucleus
+
0
+
0
Helium - 2 protons, 2 neutrons
Mass = 4
Basics of Radioactivity
Isotopes
• Atoms with same # protons but different # neutrons.
• Same element, different mass.
0 0 +
+ 0 +
0 + 0
+
0 +
Carbon - 6 protons,6 neutrons
Mass = 12
12C
0 0 +
0 + 0 +
0 + 0
+
0 +
Carbon - 6 protons,7 neutrons
Mass = 13
13C
Basics of Radioactivity
Radioisotopes
• Isotopes that are too massive to be stable.
• At some point in time, they decay to a different isotope.
• Decay emits radiation.
e-
0 0 + 0
0 + 0 +
0 + 0
+
0 +
Carbon - 6 protons,8 neutrons
Mass = 14
14C = radioactive
0 0 + +
0
0 + 0 +
0 + 0
+
0 +
Nitrogen - 7 protons,7 neutrons
Mass = 14
14N = stable
Basics of Radioactivity
The Laws of Radioactive Decay
• Each radioisotope has a constant probability of decay.
• Cannot predict when a single atom will decay.
• Can predict how long it will take half of the atoms in a
sample to decay = half life.
• Each radioisotope has a unique half life.
• Nothing changes the half life.
•Not Pressure
•Not Temperature
•Not Magnetism
Radiometric Dating of Rocks
During formation of Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks...
• Parent atoms are trapped during crystallization of minerals.
• Blocking temperature - mineral becomes a closed system.
• The clock starts as daughter atoms form and remain trapped
in the rock.
Zircon
Zircon grain
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
Pb
Pb
U
Pb
Pb U
Pb
Pb
U
U
Pb
Pb Pb
Pb
Pb
U
Pb
Pb
U
Pb
Pb
Pb
Pb Pb
U Pb
Pb
Pb
U
Pb
U
Pb
Pb
U
Pb
U
Pb
Pb
Pb
Pb
Pb Pb
Pb
Pb
U
U
Pb
Pb Pb
Pb
Pb
T = 2 half lives
(2 billion years old)
Pb
U
Pb
T = 1 half life
(1 billion years old)
U
Pb
U
Pb
Pb
U
Pb
U
U
Pb
Pb
U
U
Pb U
Pb
U
Pb
Pb
U
T = 0 half lives
(rock crystallizes, blocking
temperature reached)
U
U
U
Pb
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
Pb
U
U
Pb Pb
Pb
Pb
Pb
Pb Pb
Pb Pb
Pb
Pb
T = 3 half lives
(3 billion years old)
Mass spectrometer - counts number of atoms of each
isotope in a mineral sample.
Decay series useful for dating rocks
Parent Isotope
Uranium 238!
Uranium 235!
Thorium 232!
Rubidium 87!
Potassium 40!
Carbon 14!
Half Life
4.5 Ga !
.7 Ga !
14 Ga !
48.8 Ga !
1.25 Ga !
5,730 yr !
Stable Daughter! Effective Age Range
Lead 206!
Lead 207!
Lead 208!
Strontium 87!
Argon 40!
Nitrogen 14!
> 100 Ma
> 100 Ma
> 200 Ma
> 100 Ma
> 100,000 yr
0 - 80,000 yr
Lead - Lead dating:
Ratio
207 Pb
206 Pb
increases with increasing
age.
Possible Sources of Error
# Daughter
# Parent
= Age
•Loss of some parent atoms?
•Sample appears older than it actually is.
•Loss of some daughter atoms?
•Sample appears younger than it actually is.
•Addition of some parent atoms? (contamination)
•Sample appears younger than it actually is.
•Addition of some daughter atoms? (contamination)
•Sample appears older than it actually is.
How to check the accuracy of radiometric dates
• Date many samples from different places within
the same rock layer. All dates should be similar.
• Use two different isotope series to date the same
rock. Both dates should be the same.
• When different samples or isotope series give
similar dates for a rock layer, the dates are called
concordant.
The accuracy of radiometric dates is limited by experimental
error and the sensitivity of the instrumentation.
• Radiometric dates are usually reported as + / – some
uncertainty.
•For example 208 +/– 2 Ma
Radiometric dates are used to calibrate the relative time
scale based on fossils to absolute time.
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Radiocarbon Dating
Radioactive 14C isotope
• Commonly used method to date organic material.
• Tissue, wood, bone, tooth, shell, hair, cloth.
• Works for samples younger than 80,000 years old.
• Often used in archeology to date artifacts.
Radiocarbon Dating
CO2
Cosmic rays
p
14 CO2
n
CO2
14
14 CO2
CO2
CO2
14 CO2
CO2
N
C
+ O2 =
14 CO2
CO2
CO2
CO2
14 CO2
CO2 CO
2
CO2
Radiocarbon Dating
14 CO2 / 12 CO2
shell
photosynthesis
14 CO2
12 CO2
14 CO2
12 CO2
14 CO2
12 CO2
Radiocarbon Dating
•Metabolic activity continually replaces carbon in living tissue.
•Maintains same 14 CO2 / 12 CO2 ratio in atmosphere.
•Replenishment stops at death.
•Supply of 14 C begins to decay.
Atmospheric ratio
•Count number of radioactive decay
events per minute.
•Compare to a standard of known age.
14 CO2
12 CO2
0
80,000 years
Shroud of Turin
• Linen burial shroud with
image of bearded man believed to be the burial
shroud of Christ.
• Some characteristics of the
cloth suggest that it is a
Medieval forgery.
• Radiocarbon dating of
small samples of cloth by
three different laboratories
yield C14 dates from the
Middle Ages, between
1260 and 1390.