/ English Dictionary |
DATING
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Use of chemical analysis to estimate the age of geological specimens
Synonyms:
dating; geological dating
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("dating" is a kind of...):
chemical analysis; qualitative analysis (the act of decomposing a substance into its constituent elements)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dating"):
potassium-argon dating (geological dating that relies on the proportions of radioactive potassium in a rock sample and its decay product, argon)
carbon-14 dating; carbon dating; radiocarbon dating (a chemical analysis used to determine the age of organic materials based on their content of the radioisotope carbon 14; believed to be reliable up to 40,000 years)
rubidium-strontium dating (geological dating based on the proportions of radioactive rubidium into its decay product strontium; radioactive rubidium has a half-life of 47,000,000,000 years)
Derivation:
date (assign a date to; determine the (probable) date of)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb date
Context examples:
Scientists typically rely on radioactive carbon (carbon 14) dating to determine the ages of sediments.
(A new study is the first to measure the time lags between changing ocean currents and major climate shifts., University of Cambridge)
A science based on the exact calendar dating of annual growth rings in wood.
(Dendrochronology, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)
The new fossil mammal is named Vintana sertichi, dating from the Late Cretaceous, approximately 66 million years ago.
(Scientists discover fossil of bizarre groundhog-like mammal on Madagascar, NSF)
The background is the most ancient light in the history of the cosmos, dating back to 380,000 years after the big bang.
(First Stars Formed Later Than We Thought, NASA)
Dating of the material, which is thought to be early concrete, suggested it was between 10,000 and 12,000 years old, which would fit the rough timeline of when Atlantis is said to have existed.
(Researchers Claim to Have Found Mythical City of Atlantis in Spain, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
Dating methods that determine time without ambiguity to a known level of accuracy.
(Absolute dating, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)
A "calendar" of the past has revolutionized the dating of geologic archives, identifying ages of geologic periods based on astronomy.
(Deep-sea sediments lead to new understanding of solar system, National Science Foundation)
Radiocarbon dating of minute leaf and wood fragments preserved in the cave's ice indicates that its glacier is at least 10,500 years old, making it the oldest cave glacier in the world and one of the oldest glaciers on Earth outside the polar regions.
(Ice cave in Transylvania yields window into region's past, NSF)
Dating from three o'clock yesterday.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
An environmental remnant of the past (pollen grains, tree rings, lake sediments, pack rat middens, ice cores, coral skeletons) that assist researchers in deciphering past climate conditions through the use of scientifically proven dating techniques.
(Paleoenvironmental proxy, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)