Süsinikuaegumise

Süsinikuaegumise, also known as carbon dating, is a scientific method used to determine the age of organic materials. It relies on the radioactive decay of carbon-14, an isotope of carbon. Living organisms continuously absorb carbon from their environment, including carbon-14. When an organism dies, it stops absorbing carbon, and the carbon-14 within its remains begins to decay at a known rate.

The half-life of carbon-14 is approximately 5,730 years. This means that after 5,730 years, half of the original amount of carbon-14 will have decayed. By measuring the remaining amount of carbon-14 in a sample and comparing it to the expected initial amount, scientists can calculate how much time has passed since the organism died. This technique is particularly useful for dating materials up to about 50,000 years old. Beyond this range, the amount of remaining carbon-14 becomes too small to measure accurately. Süsinikuaegumise is widely used in archaeology, paleontology, and geology to date fossils, ancient artifacts, and geological formations. The accuracy of the method can be influenced by factors such as contamination of the sample and variations in atmospheric carbon-14 levels over time, which are often corrected for using calibration curves.