Potassium-argon dating Potassium-40 is a radioactive isotope of potassium that decays into argon-40. The half-life of potassium-40 is 1.3 billion years, far longer than that of carbon-14, allowing much older samples to be dated.

What is similar to carbon dating?

They include potassium-argon dating, thats useful for rocks over 100,000 years old. Theres also uranium-lead dating, which has an age range of 1-4.5 million years old.

What Cannot be dated using C-14?

What can be dated? For radiocarbon dating to be possible, the material must once have been part of a living organism. This means that things like stone, metal and pottery cannot usually be directly dated by this means unless there is some organic material embedded or left as a residue.