Topic: Radiocarbon Dating

Randall Carlson challenges the overkill hypothesis, arguing that Paleo-Indian hunters could not have exterminated millions of mammoths and other species. He explains how the development of radiocarbon dating in the 1970s revealed that climate shifts at the end of the Ice Age occurred much faster than previously thought. Carlson cites the work of Louis Alvarez on the dinosaur extinction as a pivotal influence on his impact theories.

Michael Cremo explains the technical limitations of various dating methods used in archaeology and geology. He notes that Carbon-14 dating is only effective up to approximately 100,000 years due to its short half-life, necessitating the use of uranium series or potassium-argon dating for older samples. Because these methods often cannot date bone directly, scientists must date the specific layers of volcanic rock or sediment in which the artifacts are embedded.