Many researchers had gauged how long Mars took to form using the steady decay of
radioactive hafnium - 182 to tungsten - 182, but the answers were all over the place.
Not exact matches
During their investigations, the research team came to the surprising result that has been published in the journal Geology: 2.7 billion years ago, seawater contained an unusually high abundance of the
radioactive isotope
Hafnium 176 but a comparably low abundance of the
radioactive isotope Neodymium 143, similar to what can be observed in present day seawater.
Tungsten contains one isotope of mass 182 that is created when an isotope of the element
hafnium undergoes
radioactive decay, meaning its elemental composition changes as it gives off radiation.