Talk:Absolute dating

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[edit] Additional Methods

I cleared up some things in the overall definition. It seemed to focus more on relative dating than absolute dating. There are several more absolute techniques available, I'll add them in when I have the time to pull out my text book from Principles of Archaeology. Sheora 08:59, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Archeological emphasis

I'm surprised that this article on absolute dating refers only to the field of archeology, as if geologists don't have much use for absolute ages of objects, materials, and events! I don't have time to edit right now, so if anyone finds this before I get back here, feel free to broaden the focus of this article to all of earth science, as well as archeology. -- BlueCanoe 23:36, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure if this holds true to the field of history elsewhere, but where I'm from the terms absolute and relative dating also applies to the dating of historic events. 62.148.34.4 04:46, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Copyvio

I removed a paragraph which appeared to be a copy of from here. -- Balster neb 16:34, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Added longer introduction and definition, edited formatting, added some text on carbon-14 dating

This is the first thing I have edited, so I apologize if I have forgotten to do something properly.

I added a longer introduction, some alternative terms, and a bit of a discussion about radiocarbon dating. There is a great deal more that can be said about absolute dating, but I am afraid that I don't know that much about other techniques off the top of my head. I just saw this one while surfing around and thought that I should add a little something. Mander 19:25, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Please give references for the following statements

This is also true of the heartwood of a tree, which will appear younger than the outer rings of the same tree because it has had less time to incorporate carbon-14 into its makeup.

...plants take in carbon–14 as they absorb carbon dioxide.

people use them as firewood, after which they become part of the archaeological record.

Jclerman 21:01, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Most precise dating method?

What is the most precise dating method availible today? I heard carbon dating is only good for things 60,000 years old. If there are other methods which are used for older objects, does this insinuate that carbon dating is more precise for newer objects? Inforazer 20:38, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

This entry would be greatly improved by including tree ring dating (bristlecone pine and European oaks) and Greenland ice core dating (esp. GRIP and GISP cores from Summit Camp) which provide accurate absolute dates for the most recent 8,000 years or more and are used extensively in climatological studies. Phaedrus7 (talk) 02:10, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Article improvements

Expanding on the comments above, this article, although dealing with scientific processes doesn't handle this difficult subject well, making quite a few subjective, vague comments. Statements such as "Because the half-life of carbon-14 is short, the older a specimen is the greater the margin or error becomes." are incorrect, or at least non-sequiturs or ineptly explained. Another example is "Radiation levels do not remain constant over time." If one already understands the concept, this is comprehensible, but for someone who does not, it omits crucial information, e.g., how drastically and how frequently this factor comes into play. Statments like "has been very useful in this regard" don't convey much information. Useful how? When? As opposed to what? Most troubling, the article doesn't provide a framework to understand the larger, more difficult problems with absolute dating, i.e., how combinations of dating are chosen and how they affect accuracy.

This subject is too complicated to be dealt with piecemeal. I suggest someone take it on themselves to rewrite the whole thing, incorporating, however much of the existing material.

24.130.11.114 (talk) 03:39, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Would a world-wide natural disaster effect radioactive decay?

Historical documents can help verify the absolute date of an object, but beyond the beginning of recorded history, how can we verify the accuracy of our radioactive decay-based dating process? Perhaps some world-wide disaster created an abundance of radioactive decay. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.7.193.93 (talk) 01:31, 15 April 2008 (UTC)