Dating techniques used
The dating techniques used to date Pompeii’s destruction would have heavily been the use of Potassium Argon dating to date the ash that Vesuvius produced during the eruption as it is the only viable way to test the age of the pumice stone. Potassium Argon dating works based off the principal that the radioactive isotope of Potassium, Potassium-40 (K-40), decays to the gas Argon as Argon-40 (Ar-40). By using this knowledge scientists are able to date the rock based off of how much Potassium is left in the substance.
Another way to date the period in which Pompeii was from would be to use Thermo-luminescence dating on the vast amounts of pottery found at Pompeii to get a date as to when the pottery could have come from. Thermo-luminescence dating works “by means of measuring the accumulated radiation dose, of the time elapsed since material containing crystalline minerals was heated.” |