The eruption that destroyed Pompeii is helping scientists date Earth's history

Automated excerpt

Historical accounts of the eruption nearly 2,000 years ago provide a precise timeline that allowed recalibration of one of the most versatile dating methods. The recalibrated argon-argon dating method, used on eight samples of a potassium-containing volcanic mineral from Vesuvius called sanidine, pegged the eruption at 1,938 ±13 years prior to when the minerals were analyzed in 2025. Renne and his team had previously analyzed sanidine from pumice ejected during the 79 C. E. eruption to ground-truth argon-argon dating.

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