Radiocarbon dating definition geology

All radiometric dating methods measure isotopes in some way.

Radiocarbon dating measures radioactive isotopes in once-living organic material instead of rock, using the decay of carbon-14 to nitrogen-14.Rodents, for example, can create havoc in a site by moving items from one context to another.Natural disasters like floods can sweep away top layers of sites to other locations.Sedimentary rock is made of particles derived from other rocks, so measuring isotopes would date the original rock material, not the sediments they have ended up in.However, there are radiometric dating methods that can be used on sedimentary rock, including luminescence dating.