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WalesGeologyQuick questions
F3: Time and Change
Quick questions on Radiometric absolute dating - WJEC A-Level Geology
4short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is the age of the Earth?Show answer
Uranium-lead dating of meteorites and the oldest minerals gives about 4.6 billion years for the Solar System and Earth, the headline result of radiometric dating. Dating zircons. Tiny, robust zircon crystals incorporate uranium but exclude lead at growth, making uranium-lead in zircon the gold standard for the oldest crustal ages. Calibrating the timescale. Volcanic ash layers (bentonites) interbedded with fossil-bearing sediments are dated by potassium-argon, tying numerical ages to the relative, fossil-based timescale.
What is q1?Show answer
Define half-life. [2 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
A mineral has a parent-to-daughter ratio of 1:7 for a system of half-life 50 million years. Calculate its age. [2 marks]
What is q3?Show answer
State two assumptions of radiometric dating. [2 marks]
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