CONTENTS

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Henry Faul
INTRODUCTION 1
THEORY OF NUCLEAR AGE DETERMINATION 5
THE CARBON-14 CLOCK 9
Carbon-14 Counting 12
Carbon-14 Results 15
THE LONG-LIVED CLOCKS 19
The Rubidium-Strontium Clock 20
The Uranium Fission Clock 24
Plumbology 27
THE AGE OF THE EARTH 27
Analytical Techniques 31
Minerals That Can Be Dated 34
SOME INTERESTING RESULTS 40
The Old Man From Olduvai 40
The Geologic Time Scale 41
Precambrian Stratigraphy 47
AND WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? 48
GLOSSARY 49
APPENDIX 52
SUGGESTED REFERENCES 58

United States Atomic Energy Commission
Division of Technical Information
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 67-60195
1966; 1968(Rev.)

A 14,000-year-old burial site being uncovered in the area of the Aswan Reservoir in Sudan. To determine the age of such ancient remains, archaeologists search for every scrap of associated wood or charcoal that could be used for age measurement of carbon-14, one of the “nuclear clocks” described in this booklet.

NUCLEAR CLOCKS

By HENRY FAUL

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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