For example, the decay of potassium-40 to argon-40 is used to date rocks older than 20,000 years, and the decay of uranium-238 to lead-206 is used for rocks older than 1 million years. ![]() ![]() These rates of decay are known, so if you can measure the proportion of parent and daughter isotopes in rocks now, you can calculate when the rocks were formed.īecause of their unique decay rates, different elements are used for dating different age ranges. Isotopes are important to geologists because each radioactive element decays at a constant rate, which is unique to that element.
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