What makes radioactive decay useful for dating rocks and minerals?
It is useful because it is one of the few processes in nature that occurs at a steady, predictable rate. Also the properties of minerals that make them a closed system (it is difficult for atoms to diffuse out) enables radioactive decay to be used. • Explain the different shades of meaning between the terms relative age, absolute age, and radiometric age. Relative age means one only knows that one thing is older than another, but cannot determine by how much time. An absolute age implies that one knows the actual time of creation of the rock, but this is not usually the case because a number of factors affect the accuracy of a radiometric age, including leakage, delayed cooling, and resetting of dates by heating. The radiometric age is the age given by a radiometric date, and needs to be interpreted in light of the rocks known history. • Why are many different isotopes used in dating rocks instead of just one? Different isotopes have different half-lives, which makes them useful for di
