What Affect Would Several Miles Of Ocean Have On A Body/bones When It Comes To Radiocarbon Dating?
It seems there are several factors that must be considered when radiocarbon dating something. There is a lot of discussion regarding global warming. Would the temperature influence the process? If the body/bones/item was buried under several feet of earth wouldn’t the pressure and interaction with the soil influence the process? There was probably less carbon dioxide and more oxygen in the air in the past. Wouldn’t that influence things somewhat?
Yeah, you’re right, but most of these factors ARE taken into consideration, eg. the depth from which the fossil has been extracted. But I’m pretty sure that the concentration of 02 in the past has never been taken into account. I think that there must not have been a very large difference, must have been more or less the same. That is why, the figure given is approximately that much and is not an exact one.
Hope that helps.
No it would not – I’m an earth scientist….
None. It might be different for “EFFECT,” though. Buy a dictionary.
No.
Radiocarbon dating uses something called ‘closure temperatures’. This temperature is the warmest a rock can be and still allow for the radioactive byproduct to migrate out of the crystal. (Lowest temp is for Hydrogen scattering and that is 100C Oxygen and Carbon are higher; so in a fault, hydrothermal deposit, or volcano you would have some loss of byproducts (but knowing the geology could give you another stratigraphic date.))
Radioactivity has a half-life; that means half the material will be gone after that amount of time. But to get it all gone is a very long time. However the byproduct is still there, and the rock is too cool to allow the newly formed element to migrate out.
So in a lab the rock is pulverized and sanadine; mica; zircons etc are pulled out and then dissolved with Tetra-hydrofluride (or another fun Fluorine compound) and the resulting elements are sent on their merry way through a Gas Spectrometer or Gas Chromatography. As the elements travel they split into like elements and the resultant peaks can be calculated to give the total. Radioactive isotope plus byproduct gives original amount of radioactive element at time of crystal formation or closure temperature reached.
Know the half life time, figure out the ratio of Radioactive isotope to daughter byproduct and you get your date.
yes it would