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Radio-carbon dating is accurate up to 75,000 years. Why would radio-potassium be more accurate for a...

Radio-carbon dating is accurate up to 75,000 years. Why would radio-potassium be more accurate for a longer date range?
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Answer #1

The radioactive isotope for potassium is potassium-40. It has a half-life of 1.25 x 109 years. It decays to release calcium-40 in some cases and argon-40 in other cases. this is the cause behind abundance of argon in the atmosphere. The decay time is calculated based on potassium-argon dating, which measures both potassium-40 and argon-40 levels. On the other side, radiocarbon dating measures only carbon-14 levels. Measurement of product argon-40 levels sensitizes the technique for longer decay times.

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