Argon-argon dating (Merrihue and Turner)
Datación argón-argón (Merrihue y Turner)
- Date
- 1966 · confidence high
- Place
- Berkeley, California, United States
- Credited to
- Craig Merrihue and Grenville Turner
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Merrihue and Turner irradiated samples with neutrons to convert some potassium-39 into argon-39 and thus measure the whole age from a single gas extraction, rather than analysing potassium and argon separately. It made it possible to date small grains and to heat the sample in steps to reveal its thermal history.
The technique was published in 1966 in the Journal of Geophysical Research; the authors' place of work, Berkeley, is not confirmed with complete certainty.
What it led to
- precision in Cenozoic geochronology
- dating of the eruption of Pompeii and of hominin remains
- calibration of geological time