(March 6, 2015 at 12:47 am)Neber Wrote:The igneous rock goes from liquid to solid trapping radioactive atoms in it. So the formation of a rock locks in how many radioactive atoms it starts off with.(March 5, 2015 at 11:36 pm)Esquilax Wrote: Let me ask you this: where did the matter that makes up the pyroclastic flow come from? Did it pop into existence 200 years ago? Or did it exist before then, just in a different form that ended up within the volcano?Yeah this is a very interesting thing i was thinking about. How would the formation or in a sense reformation of rock determine the real age of the rock.
Now consider this: carbon dating measures the age of the materials, not the current state of the materials.
Quote:Anyways getting to the point, since i couldn't find too much argument against wrongly dating the rocks due to already being formed i assume there when it undergoes volcanic activity it heats up so much that the actual structure of the rocks changes completely to essentially being formed again at its core but i could be wrong.Lets correct something, igneous rocks is only one way to form a rock. Here is some other ways.
If a rock was reformed, then the concentrations of radioactive isotopes are changed into a new starting values. So the date you get comes when the rock was last formed.
Quote:Regardless though, the dating measurements should show in millions or billions of years according to the current estimates on the age of earth according to current measurements, though i definitely think there's something more complex going on here? My lack of knowledge on the formation of rocks leaves much to be desired here though.
I recommend a good geology book or becoming a geologies (they get to go to the coolest places).
Quote:Another interesting thing to think about would be how do they determine the formation of rocks, i'd assume all rocks should be in essence the age of the earth at ~4.8 billion years,Noooooooooooooooo. Rocks are formed everyday. As you dig deeper underground, the older the rocks will be, assuming they were undisturbed (radioactively). That is why geologist always talk about layers of rocks. You need to need an undisturbed layer of rocks to allow new rocks to form. The new rocks that form make another layer, and so on until you get layers of rocks. The ones at the bottom are older than the ones at the top.
Quote:yet they use rock and sediment around dinosaur fossils to determine the dinosaur ages, measured in the millions of years generally, would be interesting to find the science behind this.
This goes back to the layers of rocks. The dinosaur died in a layer of rock that was being formed of its death. So measuring the layer of rock the dinosaur was surrounded by tells how many millions of years ago the dinosaur died.