Abstract
It is known that in the conventional 40 Ar 40 K method for a given error in the 40Ar 40K the precision of the calculated age is time-dependent. This may lead to the erroneous inference to prefer a high age for the reference standard in the 40Ar 39Ar technique. With the formulae we have deduced for estimating the relative error of analytical precision in the 40 Ar 40 K and 40Ar 39Ar techniques, it is easy to show that only the error of the 40Ar and 40K concentrations of the reference standard and the error of the used decay constants are propagating into the 40Ar 39Ar ages. The age of the reference standard has no influence on the 40Ar 39Ar ages. In the 40Ar 39Ar technique, the principal source of interference is Ar produced by irradiation from the isotopes of Ca. A standard like Bern 4 M - which contains practically no Ca (we analysed it by XRF: Mg=0.638%, Al=17.65%, Si=22.90%, K=8.59%, Ca=0.036%, Ti=0.439%, Fe=1.75%, P=33 ppm), has a high K content and shows a very constant plateau -may represent an advantageous reference standard.
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