ARKY 205 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Morphometrics, North Magnetic Pole, Archaeomagnetic Dating
4 Mar 2016
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Map quiz monday next week (10% of final grade) Carbon dating: carobn14 is a radioactive substance with a half-life of 5730 years. Good to date things that are 50000 years old. As living organisms take in carbon dioxide, we will have the same ratio of carbon 12 and 14 as what is in the atmosphere. We can only start carbon dating when something or someone dies because that"s when they stop breathing and taking in new carbon. We can count back year by year through time by looking at the rings that accumulate on trees over time. Shows the uniqueness of the years the tree has lived. No patterns or repetition, although trees of the same species in the same area will produce relatively similar ring patterns. Solar flares incorporate more radioactive carbon into the air. The industrial revolution put more non-radioactive carbon into the air. The testing of nuclear weapons puts more radioactive carbon into the air.
