Investigation of dating techniques
Potassium/Argon Dating (K/Ar)
Potassium/Argon (K/Ar) dating is used widely in geomorphology to date eruptions of volcanic rocks. The method relies on the build up of argon gas within mineral crystals as potassium decays with a half-life of 1.25 billion years.
Argon dating is simple and reliable for dating eruption‘s of potassium rich rocks, such as, andesite and rhyolite. However in Low potassium rocks it is very hard to date with this method as much of the argon in the rocks was already present in the original magma and was not the result of radioactive decay since the lava cooled. K/Ar dating provides very useful information about the ages volcanic rocks as young as several thousand years old.
K/Ar has also been used used to calibrate other dating methods to assess eruption frequencies and thus volcanic hazards to determine erosion rates over the time by measuring the mass lost from dated lava flows.
RELEVANT RESEARCH with K/AR dating
In this study there is a construction and essential parameters of an Argon extraction line and magnetic mass spectrometer for potassium Argon dating. Great attention is paid to the ascertainment of geological reliability of radiometric ages. The isochron methods are used mostly for dating Pliocene basalt. The limitations of pure mathematical treatment of the experimental data are pointed out and geological interpretations of ISochron ages are discussed. The uncertainty of error estimation of isotopic ratio and potassium concentration measurements is emphasized
Citation:
Balogh, Kadosa . (1985). K/Ar dating of Neogene volcanic activity in Hungary: Experimental technique, experiences and methods of chronological studies. ATOMKI Koezlemenyek, 27(3), 277-288.
In this study in improved version of K/Ar for samples younger than half 1 million years old has been improved. In this new method radiogenic Argon was determined by the Peak comparison method with the new mass spectrometer and potassium by the flame emission spectrometry, in which lithium internal standard and peak integration were adopted. The ages of these samples obtained were in good agreement with known values the error only being about 5%. The new method suggests that K/Ar age of the 0.05 ma ideal basaltic rock can be determined within 15% error.
Citation:
Matsumoto, Akikazu, Uto, Kozo, & Shibata, Ken . (1989). K-Ar dating by peak comparison method. Chishitsu Chosajo Geppo, 40(10), 565-579.