dating

Introduction & Top Questions
General considerations
- Distinctions between relative-age and absolute-age measurements
- The global tectonic rock cycle
- Determination of sequence
- Correlation
  - Principles and techniques
  - Geologic column and its associated time scale
Absolute dating
- Principles of isotopic dating
- Evaluation and presentation schemes in dating
  - Origin of radioactive elements used
  - The isochron method
  - Analysis of separated minerals
  - Model ages
  - Multiple ages for a single rock: the thermal effect
- Instruments and procedures
  - Use of mass spectrometers
  - Technical advances
- Major methods of isotopic dating
  - Uranium–lead method
    - Double uranium-lead chronometers
    - Importance of zircon in uranium-lead dating
  - Rubidium–strontium method
    - Dating simple igneous rocks
    - Dating minerals
    - Dating metamorphic rocks
  - Samarium–neodymium method
  - Rhenium–osmium method
  - Potassium–argon methods
  - Fission-track dating
  - Carbon-14 dating and other cosmogenic methods
  - Uranium-series disequilibrium dating
    - Thorium-230 dating
    - Lead-210 dating
Principal cosmogenic and uranium-thorium series radioisotopes

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

Morrison Formation

Learn how the radiometric rubidium-strontium dating technique is used to determine the age of rock particles

crustal generation and destruction

Steno's four laws of stratigraphy

Grand Canyon rock layering

isochron diagram

titanite discordia

For Students

Morrison Formation

dating: Media

geochronology

Videos

Learn how the radiometric rubidium-strontium dating technique is used to determine the age of rock particles

Learn how the radiometric rubidium-strontium dating technique is used to determine the age of rock particles

The process of rubidium-strontium dating, a radiometric dating technique used to...

Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Images

Morrison Formation

Morrison Formation

Layered strata in an outcropping of the Morrison Formation on the west side of Dinosaur...

Ankyman

crustal generation and destruction

crustal generation and destruction

Three-dimensional diagram showing crustal generation and destruction according to...

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Steno's four laws of stratigraphy

Steno's four laws of stratigraphy

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Grand Canyon rock layering

Grand Canyon rock layering

The steep walls of the Grand Canyon contain a number of layers of sedimentary rock...

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

geologic time

geologic time

The stratigraphic chart of geologic time.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Source: International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS)

isochron diagram

isochron diagram

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

titanite discordia

titanite discordia

Titanite discordia diagram showing the uranium-lead isotopic data for collection...

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

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