Strontium isotope dating

Michael O’Leary dons a Tyvek suit before entering the clean room.

Early attempts at Rubidium-Strontium dating made use of the fact that the Sr-87/Sr-86 ratio in rubidium-poor samples was about 0.7.

The method is applicable to very old rocks because the transformation is extremely slow: the half-life, or time required for half the initial quantity of rubidium-87 to disappear, is approximately 50 billion years.

Rubidium 87 decays to Strontium 87 with a half life of xx my.

Rubidium is directly below potassium in the periodic table, while strontium is directly below calcium.