Radiokarbonaatioa

Radiokarbonaatioa, also known as radiocarbon dating, is a scientific method used to determine the age of organic materials. It relies on the principle of radioactive decay of carbon-14, a naturally occurring isotope of carbon. When living organisms are alive, they constantly exchange carbon with their environment, maintaining a relatively consistent ratio of carbon-14 to stable carbon isotopes. Upon death, this exchange ceases, and the carbon-14 within the organism begins to decay at a known rate, with a half-life of approximately 5,730 years. By measuring the remaining amount of carbon-14 in a sample and comparing it to the initial atmospheric concentration, scientists can calculate how long ago the organism died. This technique is invaluable in archaeology, paleontology, and geology for dating artifacts, fossils, and geological formations up to around 50,000 years old. Beyond this limit, the amount of carbon-14 remaining becomes too small to measure accurately. Calibration curves, developed by dating samples of known age, are used to correct for variations in atmospheric carbon-14 levels over time, thus improving the precision of the dates obtained.