Arikay

Quite a few good resources here.

I believe I may have found this link through Mr. Thompson's page, but its very interesting, especially since it was written by a christian.

http://www.asa3.org/ASA/resources/Wiens.html

Lobstrosity

Just out of curiosity, what does electron spin have to do with age?

MortalWombat

The older you get, the harder it is to do the "Electron Spin" at wedding receptions. Or was that the "Electric Slide?"

ExChild

Thank you all very much! I've now added some of these sites to my favorites.. they were very helpful.

By the way, I'll be using this to debate with my mom... she's on my case about going to H-E-double hockey sticks.

If anyone wants to add anything else in the way of advice I'll be much appreciative.
Thanks again.

Tim Thompson

See Luminescence & Radiometric Dating for the long answer. The short answer is that all environment have very low concentrations of radioactive isotopes, which expose materials to low doses for long times. That frees electrons which become trapped in potential wells in a crystal lattice. Normally, those electrons can be knocked loose with light, which is "optically stimulated luminescence". So by exposing some buried crystals to light, you can tell from the total number of electrons detected, how long the crystal has been buried (if you know the average dose over that time).

But in some cases the potential wells are too deep, and the electrons can't be pulled out. Electron spin resonance is the technique that allows for the measurement of the total number of electrons, much as OSL does. It's just more complicated.

Luminescence dating techniques can cover the range from 50,000 years or so, up to 1,000,000 years, filling the gap between radiocarbon and long half-life methods.

ps418

Oops. I didnt read carefully enough. My post only addresses how a given sample of rocks could yield somewhat different dates, depending upon which minerals you date. I agree with Lpetrich that the particular scenario outlined by malookiemaloo is just another YEC myth.

Patrick

malookiemaloo

Patrick,

Thank you very much indeed for your response.

One point. You said that my scenario was 'possible' but then it is just another YEC myth. Is there not a contradiction here?


Alistair

ps418

There is no contradiction at all. I explained that in general it is possible for slowly-cooled igneous rocks to give different dates, depending upon which minerals you date (provided you take the time to date seperate minerals and arent doing a whole-rock date). This is the basis of something called geothermochronometry.

The particular scenario you described -- where someone purportedly sends identical samples of rock to different labs and just happens to get back the wildly different dates he told the labs he expected-- is a completely different story, and I feel quite certain is a YEC myth, just like so many other widespread YEC myths about radiometric dating. If you think it more than a myth, then provide a primary reference so I can check the story out.

Patrick

malookiemaloo

Will do what I can to find out more background but I am not hopeful.

To be honest I thought it lacked credibility but thought I would raise it anyway as my knowledge of this subject is non-existent.

Thanks,


Alistair