What radionuclide technique can be used to estimate the age of geological events up to a few bil

What radionuclide technique can be used to estimate the age...

Key Concepts

Radiometric Dating

Radiometric dating is a method used to determine the age of materials by measuring the decay rate of naturally occurring radioactive isotopes. This technique is fundamental in various fields, such as geology and archaeology, as it provides a way to calculate the time elapsed since the formation or alteration of rocks and fossils based on the known half-lives of these isotopes.

Uranium-Lead Dating

Uranium-Lead dating is a specific radiometric dating technique that utilizes the decay of uranium isotopes into stable lead isotopes. It is particularly effective for dating geological events that occurred over a span of billions of years due to the very long half-lives of the uranium isotopes involved, making it one of the most reliable and widely used methods for determining the ages of ancient rocks.

Transcript

00:01 There is no table in your textbook summarizing the different types of applications of radioactive nuclides.

00:08 You simply have to review the textbook and find them for yourself.

00:13 So i'm going to attempt to create a table myself that summarizes the applications of the radioactive nuclides introduced in this chapter, which will be helpful in answering questions 33 to 42.

00:29 Carbon 14 is used for carbon 14 dating or the dating of any object that was once living, such as plants or bones or animals and so forth.

00:45 Any carbon containing artifact can be dated.

00:50 It works up to about 50 ,000 years, but not much longer than that.

00:57 If the object is older than that, then it doesn't work very well.

01:02 Carbon 14 is a beta emitter.

01:06 Uranium 238 can be used for geological dating or the dating of the age and events of related to geology.

01:18 So determining how long ago a geological event occurred or how old a rock is.

01:25 Uranium 238 undergoes a decay series and of all of the decay events that occur, there's beta and alpha emissions.

01:37 Cobalt 60 is used quite extensively for pest control, parasites to eliminate microorganisms in food, and even for cancer applications.

01:50 The cobalt 60 ends up sterilizing the male pest so that they can no longer reproduce.

01:56 It's a gamma emitter.

01:58 Plotonium 238 is used to power pacemakers.

02:02 It's a gamma emitter.

02:04 Iodine 131 is used to measure activity of the thyroid, and it's a beta emitter.

02:14 Another one introduced in the chapter is xenon 133.

02:18 It's used to diagnose respiratory problems.

02:22 It's a gamma emitter.

02:25 And then there's iron 59.

02:27 Iron accumulates in the hemoglobin and can be used to diagnose anemia.

02:32 It's a beta emitter...

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