potassium-argon dating

/peuh tas"ee euhm ahr'gon/, Geol.

a method for estimating the age of a mineral or rock, based on measurement of the rate of decay of radioactive potassium into argon.

[1965-70]

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Method for determining the age of igneous rocks based on the amount of argon-40 in the rock.

Radioactive potassium-40 decays to argon-40 with a half-life of about 1.3 billion years, making this method useful for dating rocks that are billions of years old. A more sophisticated method, called argon-argon dating, provides a more accurate estimate of the original potassium-40 content by means of the ratio of argon-40 to argon-39 in the rock, thus yielding a more accurate age determination. See also dating.

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      method of determining the time of origin of rocks by measuring the ratio of radioactive argon to radioactive potassium in the rock. This dating method is based upon the decay of radioactive potassium-40 to radioactive argon-40 in minerals and rocks; potassium-40 also decays to calcium-40. Thus, the ratio of argon-40 and potassium-40 and radiogenic calcium-40 to potassium-40 in a mineral or rock is a measure of the age of the sample. The calcium-potassium age method is seldom used, however, because of the great abundance of nonradiogenic calcium in minerals or rocks, which masks the presence of radiogenic calcium. On the other hand, the abundance of argon in the Earth is relatively small because of its escape to the atmosphere during processes associated with volcanism.

      The potassium-argon dating method has been used to measure a wide variety of ages. The potassium-argon age of some meteorites is as old as 4,500,000,000 years, and volcanic rocks as young as 20,000 years old have been measured by this method.

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