rubidium-strontium dating

rubidium-strontium dating

n

(General Physics) a technique for determining the age of minerals based on the occurrence in natural rubidium of a fixed amount of the radioisotope ⁸⁷Rb which decays to the stable strontium isotope ⁸⁷Sr with a half-life of 4.7 × 10¹¹ years. Measurement of the ratio of these isotopes thus gives the age of a mineral, for ages of up to about 4 × 10⁹ years

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Thesaurus

Noun

1.

rubidium-strontium dating - geological dating based on the proportions of radioactive rubidium into its decay product strontium; radioactive rubidium has a half-life of 47,000,000,000 years dating, geological dating - use of chemical analysis to estimate the age of geological specimens

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