Question A: If the gastropods listed in line 3 and line 6 were collected from shale containing leaf fossils what would their possible age be? Question B: Could you use radiocarbon dating to assign a numerical date/age to this rock unit? Explain

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Physics

Carla Richmond

23 October, 13:43

Question A: If the gastropods listed in line 3 and line 6 were collected from shale containing leaf fossils what would their possible age be? Question B: Could you use radiocarbon dating to assign a numerical date/age to this rock unit? Explain

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Damien Campos · Answer 1

A) There are missing details here, but generally gastropod fossils date back to the Late Cambrian (497-485 milion years ago).

b) No, it is not possible, because radiocarbon dating method has a limit of approximately 40000-50000 years. This is due to the fact that the carbon-14 half-life is about 5700 years: this is the amount of time after at which we have only 50% left of the initial amount of carbon-14. After 50000 years, the amounf of carbon-14 left is less than 1%, therefore it becomes too hard to measure it accurately and this is why it is impossible to measure a date for the fossil.