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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?

• Validating the method
• Each isotope system has its own time range of usefulness depending on the magnitude of the half-life.
• 14C is useful for dating relatively young samples
• 14C useful to around 50,000 years
• An early test of the validity of radioactive-isotope dating used the 14C method to calculate ages for materials