Yes, its zero the lava cooling to form rock set the potassium-40/argon-40 clock to zero.
How is the potassium-argon clock set?
- Potassium-argon dating, method of determining the time of origin of rocks by measuring the ratio of radioactive argon to radioactive potassium in the rock.
- This dating method is based upon the decay of radioactive potassium-40 to radioactive argon-40 in minerals and rocks; potassium-40 also decays to calcium-40.
How does potassium-40 decay argon-40?
- When an atom of potassium 40 decays into argon 40, the argon atom produced is trapped by the crystalline structure of the lava.
- It can only escape when the rock is in its molten state, and so the amount of fossilized argon present in lava allows scientists to date the age of the solidification.
How does potassium-40 decay?
- The half-life of potassium-40 is 1.3 billion years, and it decays to calcium-40 by emitting a beta particle with no attendant gamma radiation (89% of the time) and to the gas argon-40 by electron capture with emission of an energetic gamma ray (11% of the time).
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