Nuclear Clocks / Revised

by Henry Faul

Francesco Costagliola

by Henry Faul

CONTENTS

[INTRODUCTION] 1 [THEORY OF NUCLEAR AGE DETERMINATION] 5 [THE CARBON-14 CLOCK] 9 [Carbon-14 Counting] 12 [Carbon-14 Results] 15 [THE LONG-LIVED CLOCKS] 19 [The Rubidium-Strontium Clock] 20 [The Uranium Fission Clock] 24 [Plumbology] 27 [THE AGE OF THE EARTH] 27 [Analytical Techniques] 31 [Minerals That Can Be Dated] 34 [SOME INTERESTING RESULTS] 40 [The Old Man From Olduvai] 40 [The Geologic Time Scale] 41 [Precambrian Stratigraphy] 47 [AND WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?] 48 [GLOSSARY] 49 [APPENDIX] 52 [SUGGESTED REFERENCES] 58

United States Atomic Energy Commission
Division of Technical Information
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 67-60195
1966; 1968(Rev.)

A 14,000-year-old burial site being uncovered in the area of the Aswan Reservoir in Sudan. To determine the age of such ancient remains, archaeologists search for every scrap of associated wood or charcoal that could be used for age measurement of carbon-14, one of the “nuclear clocks” described in this booklet.

By HENRY FAUL