GEOL 103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Henri Becquerel, Geologic Time Scale, Analytical Chemistry
Document Summary
Geologic time scale largest subdivision of time, 100-1000 million years. Parent element decays to stable daughter element at a known rate. Discovered ~1896 by henri becquerel first used to date minerals in 1905 isotopes: an element with a varying number of neutrons with but the same number of protons. Stable: never changes in its atomic mass, never transforms into a different element radioactive: spontaneously decays (loss of protons and neutrons) Parent isotope: undergoes decay and becomes radioactive. Daughter isotope: product of decay, a different element from the parent isotope due to proton loss. Daughter atoms or parent atoms have escaped the crystal. Daughter atoms escape: the crystal will seem younger than it is. Parent atoms escape: the crystal might seem older than it is. Nothing goes in or out after the system forms. All daughter atoms produced by radioactive decay are present.
