Uranium–uranium dating

²³⁸U, with a half-life of about 4.5 billion years, decays to ²³⁴U through emission of an alpha particle to thorium-234 (²³⁴Th), which is comparatively unstable with a half-life of just 24 days. ²³⁴Th then decays through beta particle emission to protactinium-234 (²³⁴Pa). This decays with a half-life of 6.7 hours, again through emission of a beta particle, to ²³⁴U. This isotope has a half-life of about 245,000 years. The next decay product, thorium-230 (²³⁰Th), has a half-life of about 75,000 years and is used in the uranium-thorium technique. Although analytically simpler, in practice ²³⁴U/²³⁸U requires knowledge of the ratio at the time the material under study was formed and is generally used only for samples older than the ca. 450,000 year upper limit of the ²³⁰Th/²³⁸U technique. For those materials (principally marine carbonates) for which these conditions apply, it remains a superior technique.[1]

Unlike other radiometric dating techniques, those using the uranium decay series (except for those using the stable final isotopes ²⁰⁶Pb and ²⁰⁷Pb) compare the ratios of two radioactive unstable isotopes. This complicates calculations as both the parent and daughter isotopes decay over time into other isotopes.

In theory, the ²³⁴U/²³⁸U technique can be useful in dating samples between about 10,000 and 2 million years Before Present (BP), or up to about eight times the half-life of ²³⁴U. As such, it provides a useful bridge in radiometric dating techniques between the ranges of ²³⁰Th/²³⁸U (accurate up to ca. 450,000 years) and U–Pb dating (accurate up to the age of the solar system, but problematic on samples younger than about 2 million years).