Dating of Antarctic Meteorites

The use of radioactive dating on meteorites removes some of the uncertainties of the process because they have not been on the Earth long enough to be subject to the weathering and other Earth process which might affect the ratios of the constituents of the material. Particularly promising are the meteorites found in Antarctica since they have been well preserved in the ice.

The stony meteorites found in Antarctica are thought to be some of the most ancient, and the least disturbed from the time of their formation. Fraknoi, et al. report that almost all these meteorites have radioactive ages between 4.48 and 4.56 billion years. When the best data and the most accurate values for half-lives are combined, these Antarctic meteorites give an age of 4.54 billion years with an uncertainty of less than 0.1 billion years.