CompuServe Messages

Mike, >> Hey, here's a thought — where does Carbon-14 dating fit into all this? Anyone done anything with that? is that how they tell what geologic time period oil is from? << No, in general oil (and coal, and natural gas) deposits are dated by looking at the age of the rocks they're in. C14 dating could easily confirm or deny a recent origin for oil and coal. If there's any of it there, it's recent origin; if none can be detected, it must be older than about 50,000 years. C14's half-life is 5700 years, so no C14 means oil older than 10-12 C14 half-lives (57-68,000 years). But how much older is impossible to say. The radioisotopes used in other forms of radiometric dating don't occur in useful amounts in petroleum. JSW