Dating Methods

With gratitude to a various amount of modern radiometric dating methods, scientists and researchers now have the ability to decipher the age, era, or period of earth’s ancient artifacts, geological strata, or fossils in which it now contains. Even the earth’s formation and existence can be subject to these scientifical dating methods. These methods can be performed on samples as small as one billionth of a gram; unfortunately, most of these experiments require the utilization of special instruments such as a mass spectrometer and can often be costly to conduct. And though radiometric dating methods are rarely one hundred percent accurate, scientist and researchers are still willing to take the risk, for the sake of science or perhaps pure curiosity.

The way in which chronological dating is acquired falls within two methods of examination: Absolute Dating and Relative Dating. (Michels 1973) Generally, scientists use both methods in combination and interrelation with another. Absolute Dating is a method in which the actual age of an object or stratigraphic layer is determined. Relative Dating is a method in which it uses the absolute date to tie associated