5 min listen
How do you tell the age of a fossil?
ratings:
Length:
5 minutes
Released:
Apr 16, 2020
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
(Apr 16, 2020) Unlike organic material, which can be dated using carbon-14, stone and fossils often contain no carbon, or may be older than the carbon method can track. Radioactive potassium dating measures the ratio between a radioactive variety of potassium and the substance it breaks down into, argon gas. That can age material back billions of years. One problem: you need the gas to have been trapped in bubbles of volcanic ash.
Martha Foley and Curt Stager discuss the problems of reading the geological clock.
Martha Foley and Curt Stager discuss the problems of reading the geological clock.
Released:
Apr 16, 2020
Format:
Podcast episode
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