How accurate is carbon 14 dating
25-Jan-2020 23:54
Scientists at the Lamont-Doherty Geological Laboratory of Columbia University at Palisades, N.
Y., reported today in the British journal Nature that some estimates of age based on carbon analyses were wrong by as much as 3,500 years.
In principle, any material of plant or animal origin, including textiles, wood, bones and leather, can be dated by its content of carbon 14, a radioactive form of carbon in the environment that is incorporated by all living things.
Because it is radioactive, carbon 14 steadily decays into other substances.
Therefore they have sought ways to calibrate and correct the carbon dating method.'' But at earlier times, the carbon dates were substantially younger than the dates we estimated by uranium-thorium analysis,'' he said.