40 40

1A). How old is a rock if the mineral biotite from the rock has 100,000 K atoms and 100,000 Ar
atoms?

 Because of the potassium 40 to argon 40

have passed 1 half life (50%), so the age of the
rock is= 1x1.3 billion

40 40
1B). what if it had instead 125 K atoms and 875 Ar atoms?

.
 Pnow=125 and Dnow= 875
 Proportion of Porg= Pnow(PNow+DNow)
 125 (125/875)= 125/1000 = 0.125
 Meaning it has passed 3 half life, so the age of
the rock is= 3x(1.3)= 3.9 billion

2). If one metamorphic rock (that was a granite before metamorphism) gives a K/Ar date of 280 million
years and a U/Pb date of 1 billion years, what is each date telling us? How old is the rock, and how
are we defining “the rock?”

 Its telling us that before the metamorphic rock formed, it was an

granite that have changed by metmorphism process from granite to
metamorphic rock
 Logically, igneus will be older than metamorphic, so on K/Ar date is
indicating the metamorphic (280 million) year is younger than Granite
given by U/Pb dating
 Metamorphic rock=280 years
 Igneus rock= 1 billion years

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3). Isotopic analysis of a granitic intrusion indicates that 25% of the original K is present. Analysis of a nearby
40
basaltic intrusion indicates that 50% of the original amount of K is present.

 What is the absolute age of the granitic intrusion (in years)

 The age of the granitic intrusion = have passed 3 half

life
 The age of granitic intrusion= 2 X 1.3 = 2.6 billion years

 What is the absolute age of the basaltic intrusion (in years)?

 The age of the Basaltic intrusion = have passed 1half

life
 The age of granitic intrusion= 1 X 1.3 = 1.3 billion years

 Which one is older, basaltic intrusion or granitic? Why?

 In cross cutting law, the one that cuts is younger that

the that get cutted. So basaltic intusion is younger
than granitic intrusion

4A). Pebbles of an igneous rock are incorporated within a conglomerate. The pebbles yield a
radiometric age of 300 million years. What can you say about age of the conglomerate based on this
data?

 The Conglomerat is younger than the pebbles, at which the pebbles is 300
million year
 So the age of the conglomerate is <300 years

4B). The same conglomerate is intruded by a dike that yields a radiometric age of 200 million years.
What can you now say about the possible age range of the conglomerate?

 The pebble is 300 million years

 The conglomerate is < 300 million years
 Dike is 200 million
 Dike is younger than pebble and conglomerate
 The range of conglomerate is 200-399 million year
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5). Would it be possible to use C age dating to estimate the age of a rock containing carbon from the
time of the dinosaurs? Explain. (Dinosaurs became extinct at the end of the Mesozoic. See Fig 9.13)
No. The end of Mesozoic was 65 million years ago. Because the half life 14C is only 5738 years, all
the 14C would have long gone since decayed away. 14C dating is no good past about 50,000 to
100,000 years.

238
6). How many half-lives are required to yield a mineral with 625 atoms of U and 19,375 atoms of
206 238 206 9
Pb? (The half-life for U to Pb decay is 0.71 x 10 years)
625 /(625+19375) =625/(20000) = 0.03125 = 1/32 = 3.125% of parent remains and 5 half lives have
passed. The half-life for 238U to 206Pb decay is 0.71 x 109 years, so 5 x 0.71 x 109 years = 3.55 x 109
years.

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7). Calculate the age of a rock containing the following atoms of radioactive parent element A:
1,125,000 atoms. Stable daughter element B: 34,875,000 atoms. The half-life of element A is 6.25
million years. What is the absolute age of the rock containing these parent and daughter elements?
1,125,000 atom /(1,125,000 atoms + 34,875,000 atoms)
= 1,125,000 atoms/36,000,000 atoms = 0.03125= 1/32
3.125% of parent remains, and 5 half-lives have passed.
5 x 6.25 million years = 31 million years

8). A bone was recently recovered from a site in eastern Africa. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the
14 14
bone contains 12.5% of the original amount of C. How old is the bone? (Half-life of C = 5,730
years)

Parent Daughter Half-life Use

Carbon-14 Nitrogen-14 5,730 years Archaeology

Potassium-40 Argon-40 12,500 million years Geology

Rubidium-87 Strontium-87 48,800 million years Archaeology

Uranium-235 Lead-207 704 million years Geology

Uranium-238 Lead-206 4,470 million years Geology

Thorium-238 Lead-208 14,010 million years Geology

In order to calculate the age of a radioactive material, two things must be known:

a. the abundance of either the parent or the daughter element.

b. the half-life of the parent element

Knowing these two values one can determine the age of a material using the equation:

Age = The Number of half-lives x half-life

Example A:

If a rock today which contains 25% Uranium 235 and 75% Lead 207, determine the age of the rock.

The parent atom in this instance is Uranium 235. Since it is assumed that originally there was 100%
uranium and 0% lead, two half-lives must have passed by. During the first half-life the abundance of
parent atoms was reduced from 100% to 50%. During the second half-life the remaining 50% parent
was reduced to 25% Thus:

Age = 2 X 704 million = 1,408,000,000 years old (1.408 billion years old)

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9). Why is carbon-14 more appropriate then uranium-235 for dating archaeological sites?

-Most geological sites are relatively recent in terms of earth history. Therefore you need something
with a short half life which will decay quickly to determine the age of archaeological material. Also
archaeological material is frequently contains organic material which is made of carbon. Because
carbon has a short half-life and is present in organic material it is the appropriate parent element to
use for dating archaeological sites.

10). You find a rock which contains 75% uranium-235 (U-235) and 25% lead-207 (Pb-207). Refer to
the table above and answer the following questions.

A. Which of the two elements is the parent and which is the daughter?

235. the daughter atom is lead-20 Pb

B. In order for radiometric dating to be accurate, how much lead-207 must we assume was present
when the rock first formed?

We assume that 0% daughter element is present

C. How much uranium-235 must we assume was present when the rock was first formed?

We assume that 100% parent element is present

D. Determine the age of the rock.

The equation for the age of rock is: Age= the number of half-lives x half-life. The number of half-lives
is 0.5 since there is 75% parent present. According to the above table, the half-life of uranium-235 is
704 million years. Therefore the age of the rock is : 0.5 x 704 million years= 352 million years.

11). Refer to the list of half-lives above. What is the half-life of potassium-40?

12500 million years

12). Refer to the list of half-lives above. What is the daughter element produced by carbon-14?

Nitrogen-14

13). Why do we still find carbon-14 in the atmosphere though the half-life is short?

Carbon-14 is continuosly being produced in the upper atmosphere by the interaction of the cosmic ray
on the nitrogen molecules.

14). You determine that there is 12.5% strontium-87 in a substance. What is the parent element? How
much parent is there? How many half-lives does that represent?

The parent is rubidium-877.Assuming the assumptions for radiometric dating are valid, there should
be 87.5 % parent 87.5% corresponds to 0.25 half-lives.