• absolute dating

    TITLE: dating (geochronology): Model ages
    SECTION: Model ages
    Since the Earth was formed, the abundance of daughter product isotopes has increased through time. For example, the ratio of lead of mass 206 relative to that of mass 204 has changed from an initial value of about 10 present when the Earth was formed to an average value of about 19 in rocks at the terrestrial surface today. This is true because uranium is continuously creating more lead. A...
    TITLE: geologic history of Earth: The pregeologic period
    SECTION: The pregeologic period
    ...It is taken to be the time when these bodies formed and, by inference, the time at which a significant part of the solar system developed. When the evolution of the isotopes of lead-207 and lead-206 is studied from several lead deposits of different age on Earth, including oceanic sediments that represent a homogenized sample of the Earth’s lead, the growth curve of terrestrial lead can...
  • alpha decay

    TITLE: alpha decay
  • excitation energy

    TITLE: excitation
    ...to discrete higher energy levels by supplying appropriate excitation energies. Nuclear excitation energies are roughly 1,000,000 times greater than atomic excitation energies. For the nucleus of lead-206, as an example, the excitation energy of the first excited state is 0.80 million electron volts and of the second excited state 1.18 million electron volts.