Radiokarbodatingissa

Radiokarbodatingissa, known in English as radiocarbon dating, is a scientific method for determining the age of organic materials by measuring the decay of the radioactive isotope carbon‑14 (¹⁴C). The technique relies on the fact that living organisms continually exchange carbon with the atmosphere, maintaining a roughly constant level of ¹⁴C. When an organism dies, it stops exchanging carbon, and the ¹⁴C present in its tissues begins to decay at a known rate, the half‑life of approximately 5,730 years. By measuring the remaining ¹⁴C relative to stable carbon isotopes, scientists calculate the time elapsed since death.

The method was first developed in the late 1940s by Willard Libby and his colleagues. Radiokarbodatingissa has been applied extensively to archaeological, paleontological, and geological samples, allowing dating of items from a few hundred to about 50,000 years old. Calibration curves based on dendrochronology and other independent chronologies adjust for variations in atmospheric ¹⁴C production, improving accuracy.

Key sample requirements include preservation of the original organic material and avoidance of contamination. In practice, the technique often uses accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), which requires smaller sample sizes than earlier radiometric methods. Radiokarbodatingissa remains foundational in establishing historical timelines, although it is complemented by other dating methods such as thermoluminescence, amino acid racemization, and optically stimulated luminescence for different material types or age ranges.