See Also: rubidium-strontium dating(encyclopedia)
rubidium(medicine)
rubidium(dictionary)
rubidium radioisotopes(medicine)
Strontium-85(medicine)
strontium(encyclopedia)
strontium(dictionary)
strontium-90(medicine)
strontium-89(medicine)
Strontium-87m(medicine)

rubidium-strontium dating (sh)




Method of estimating the age of rocks, minerals, and meteorites from measurements of the amount of the stable isotope strontium-87 formed by the decay of the unstable isotope rubidium-87 that was present in the rock at the time of its formation.

The method is applicable to very old rocks because the transformation is extremely slow: the half-life, or time required for half the initial quantity of rubidium-87 to disappear, is approximately 48.8 billion years. See also dating.