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Contents of 7.7 How is the absolute age of a rock determined?

7.7 How is the absolute age of a rock determined?

• Measure the isotopic abundance
• An unstable "parent" isotope decays towards a stable "daughter" isotope.
• Assuming each daughter comes from a parent isotope, and that we know the average time it takes to convert, we can use the ratio of the two to calculate the age of the rock they are in.
• Half-life - the amount of time it takes for of the parent to turn into the daughter isotope.

Fig 7.17