Radiometric dating, radioactive dating or radioisotope dating is a technique which is used to date materials such as rocks or carbon, in which trace radioactive impurities were selectively incorporated when they were formed.
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The use of radiometric dating was first published in 1907 by Bertram Boltwood and is the principal source of information about the absolute age of rocks and other geological features, including the age of fossilized life forms or the age of the Earth itself, and can be used to date a wide range of natural and man-made materials.
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Together with stratigraphic principles, radiometric dating methods are used in geochronology to establish the geologic time scale.
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Radiometric dating is used to date archaeological materials, including ancient artifacts.
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Different methods of radiometric dating vary in the timescale over which they are accurate and the materials to which they can be applied.
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Basic equation of radiometric dating requires that neither the parent nuclide nor the daughter product can enter or leave the material after its formation.
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Accurate radiometric dating generally requires that the parent has a long enough half-life that it will be present in significant amounts at the time of measurement, the half-life of the parent is accurately known, and enough of the daughter product is produced to be accurately measured and distinguished from the initial amount of the daughter present in the material.
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Precision of a Radiometric dating method depends in part on the half-life of the radioactive isotope involved.
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The age that can be calculated by radiometric dating is thus the time at which the rock or mineral cooled to closure temperature.
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Radiometric dating has been carried out since 1905 when it was invented by Ernest Rutherford as a method by which one might determine the age of the Earth.
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Uranium–lead radiometric dating involves using uranium-235 or uranium-238 to date a substance's absolute age.
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Uranium–lead Radiometric dating is often performed on the mineral zircon, though it can be used on other materials, such as baddeleyite and monazite.
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Rubidium-strontium Radiometric dating is not as precise as the uranium-lead method, with errors of 30 to 50 million years for a 3-billion-year-old sample.
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Relatively short-range Radiometric dating technique is based on the decay of uranium-234 into thorium-230, a substance with a half-life of about 80,000 years.
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Luminescence dating methods are not radiometric dating methods in that they do not rely on abundances of isotopes to calculate age.
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Absolute radiometric dating requires a measurable fraction of parent nucleus to remain in the sample rock.
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