Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
argon-40
References
Britannica AI Icon

argon-40

isotope
Written by
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Information Architects maintain a master list of the topics included in the corpus of  Encyclopædia Britannica, and create and manage the relationships between them.
The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last updated

Quick Summary

Argon-40 (⁴⁰Ar) is a stable isotope of the noble gas argon. While argon-36 and argon-38 are more common in the universe, argon-40 constitutes 99.60% of argon found on Earth. This abundance is primarily due to the radioactive decay of potassium-40 (⁴⁰K) into argon-40. This process, which has been occurring since Earth's formation, allows argon-40 to slowly escape from rocks into the atmosphere. The decay of potassium-40 to argon-40 is a key principle used in potassium-argon dating to determine the age of rocks and minerals.123

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
4 Britannica Sources
  1. argon
  2. dating - Potassium–argon methods
  3. isotope
  4. potassium-argon dating

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.