Silicon-32 as a tool for dating the recent past

Silicon-32, with a half-life of approximately 140 years, has the potential to fill the dating gap that lies between those chronologies based on the shorter-lived isotopes of ³H and ²¹⁰Pb, and those based on the longer-lived ¹⁴C. Silicon-32 is produced in the atmosphere by cosmic ray bombardment of argon, and falls out on the Earth's surface in precipitation. Silicon-32 methods may be used to date siliceous sediments and sponges, groundwater and glacier ice. Measurement of ³²Si concentrations in these archives is, however, not straightforward. Two methods are available: radioactive-decay counting of the activity of the daughter nucleus, ³²P, and accelerator mass spectrometry, but in both cases the detection of ³²Si pushes the boundaries of the technique. Even the half-life of ³²Si is not known to a precision of better than ±10%. In this paper, we review efforts to determine the isotope's half-life, survey the detection methods and discuss the applications of ³²Si chronology. We show that at least some of the chronometric potential of this radioisotope is close to being realised as a result of recent improvements in methods of measurement.