Radioactivity, What is it Telling Us? Differing Views - 3 of 3

For your consideration...the following is an excerpt from a radio spot on KAPL radio, Jacksonville, Oregon, called " Akin For the Truth". To listen to the entire spot (a few minutes long), click the little microphone icon....Jack

Today we’re going to go ahead and add some basics about radioactivity to what we have recently discussed. Various events (especially melting of the rock such as that seen during a volcanic eruption) will cause the elements in a rock to redistribute. Theoretically, when the rock solidifies it can be thought of as starting a stopwatch. By finding the amount of the parent and daughter isotopes present scientists can determine when the stopwatch started. Therefore, newly formed volcanic rock, if properly dated, must be found to be only as old as the eruption that formed it.

 

Surprise! The RATE Group, a group of scientists dedicated to a focused study to test these assumptions, have found that study of such rocks, known to be only recently formed in volcanoes, have revealed that molten magma actually absorbs argon into its crystal molecular lattice while cooling, and perhaps thereafter.