Dating and Nukes
Dating is certainly a very mainstream concept in our generation. However, it can have many other meanings besides romance, and this is one of them. Sorry, no relationship advice here, but don’t worry! There are still many reasons to keep reading, as I wasn’t lying about the nukes.
Bomb pulse dating is a special kind of carbon dating, which is a method of telling how old an object is. It’s widely used by archaeologists to find out the ages of organic matter from 500 to 50,000 years old. Items are dated by measuring their contained carbon-14 (radiocarbon), a special kind of carbon created when the sun's cosmic rays react with nitrogen in our atmosphere.
Carbon-14 has a half-life of around 5,730 years, meaning that its concentration in an object decays by half during that time. Organisms absorb carbon-14 until their death, so researchers compare the amount of carbon-14 left to another non-decaying kind to determine how old they are. The reason for the limitations in the age of samples is that they've either lost too much or too little radiocarbon.
At first glance, bomb pulse dating may seem like an odd concept; after all, fossils don’t explode! Despite this, they have given archaeologists and scientists a very special opportunity. Like the sun, the blasts of nuclear weapons can also produce radiocarbon. As a result of their countless detonations and tests, nukes doubled the amount of carbon-14 on Earth from 1955 to 1963. This has had many unintended effects on carbon dating and has revolutionized the way it is used.
Because of the added 'nuclear' carbon-14, bomb pulse dating has given researchers the ability to date not just ancient objects but modern ones as well. It even works on humans! With this technique, researchers can conduct analyses about how the different parts of our bodies age and make breakthroughs in forensics and medicine, among other fields. Even trees were affected by the bomb pulse. When dated, they showed layers measured with a larger amount of carbon-14 as a result of nuclear explosions.
This technique won’t last forever as the surplus carbon-14 in the atmosphere is being consumed quickly. When radiocarbon levels go back to normal, bomb pulse dating will become obsolete.
For all their negative consequences, nukes have shown some good through their impact on carbon dating. In spite of this, it’s a good thing they haven’t been used recently. Although it should still be used while available, bomb pulse dating is a worthwhile sacrifice. Needless to say, though, please don’t try it on your crush.
To those who are interested in hearing more about big blasts and their consequences, check out this article by Nathan Hao on pre-nuke steel!
Sources:
Nuclear Bombs Made It Possible to Carbon Date Human Tissue | Smart News| Smithsonian Magazine.
Carbon-14 dating | Definition, Method, Uses, & Facts | Britannica
Radiocarbon Bomb Pulse Dating: A Guide for Forensic Casework
