Undercover_in_SF t1_ja8gno5 wrote on February 27, 2023 at 4:57 PM

Reply to comment by Skarr87 in How is radioactive dating used to determine historical greenhouse gas levels and temperatures? by pog_irl

Since O16/O18 ratio is stable, does this let you go back farther than C14 carbon dating?

Skarr87 t1_ja8kwp4 wrote on February 27, 2023 at 5:24 PM

Oxygen isn’t used for dating the samples. The oxygen ratio is for temperature. The stability of this isotopes means that we can be confident they haven’t changed since being deposited. To date the cores we use layers, chemistry, and radiometric dating.

Undercover_in_SF t1_ja8l334 wrote on February 27, 2023 at 5:26 PM

Thanks for clarification!