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kevinmorais
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Can we Carbon Date a Gas or must it always be a solid?
As long as the gas has been totally isolated from the atmospheric CO2 over the millennia, the Carbon 14 content can be relied on not to have changed. Plants lock it in more reliably.kevinmorais said:Can we Carbon Date a Gas or must it always be a solid?
That's OK, Thank YouDaveE said:You can measure carbon isotopes in CO2 in a GC/MS. Here is one paper that does that (chosen at random from google search):
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bms.1200120913
Edit: oops this wasn't CO2, it was "organic gasses".
Thanks But My Question was Answered :)Vanadium 50 said:Maybe. Which gas and date since when, i.e. what event?
Yes, gases can be carbon dated using a technique called radiocarbon dating. This method measures the amount of carbon-14 in a gas sample to determine its age.
Carbon dating for gases can be accurate up to about 50,000 years. Beyond this time frame, the amount of carbon-14 in a gas sample becomes too small to measure accurately.
Carbon dating can be used on any gas that contains carbon, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and carbon monoxide. However, it is most commonly used on organic gases, such as those produced by living organisms.
Carbon dating works by measuring the amount of carbon-14 in a gas sample. Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope of carbon that decays at a known rate. By comparing the amount of carbon-14 in a sample to the amount of stable carbon isotopes, scientists can determine the age of the gas.
Carbon dating for gases has some limitations, including the need for a large sample size and the potential for contamination. Additionally, it can only be used to date samples up to 50,000 years old and is not as accurate as other dating methods for more recent samples.