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Encyclopedia of Scientific Dating Methods pp 1–9Cite as

Uranium–Lead, Extraterrestrial, Early Solar System

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Synonyms

Uranium–lead cosmochronology

Definition

The science of relating events that transformed a cloud of interstellar gas to our solar system to time, by means of using decay of uranium isotopes 238U and 235U to lead isotopes 206Pb and 207Pb.

Introduction

Stars and their planetary systems form by gravitational collapse of dense parts in large interstellar molecular clouds. It is thought that, about 4.57 billion years ago, our solar system formed by a similar process. The early history of our solar system cannot be observed directly, but it is recorded in the very early minerals and rocks that were removed from the ongoing process of accretion before formation of the planets, and thus escaped geological reworking. These primitive rocks are preserved in several non-planetary environments – in asteroids that experienced only moderate heating, in comets – and as interplanetary dust particles floating in space. The asteroids that were extensively melted are thought to be the sources of...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, 0200, Canberra, Australia

    Yuri Amelin

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  1. Yuri Amelin
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Correspondence to Yuri Amelin .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography and Earth Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

    W. Jack Rink

  2. Department of Medical Physics and Applied Radiation Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

    Jeroen Thompson

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Amelin, Y. (2013). Uranium–Lead, Extraterrestrial, Early Solar System. In: Rink, W., Thompson, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Scientific Dating Methods. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6326-5_204-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6326-5_204-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6326-5

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