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The beta electrons leading to calcium, however, are not accompanied by gamma rays, have no characteristic energies and rarely make it out of the rocks or bodies that contain potassium 40.
Beta-minus decay indicates a nucleus with too many neutrons, electron capture a nucleus with too many protons.
IN2P3Potassium 40 has the unusual property of decaying into two different nuclei: in 89% of cases beta-negative decay will lead to calcium 40, while 11% of the time argon 40 will be formed by electron capture followed by gamma emission at an energy of 1.46 Me V.
This 1.46 Me V gamma ray is important, as it allows us to identify when potassium 40 decays.
This is explained by a large jump in the internal rotation (or spin ) of the nucleus during the decay, which almost forbids the transition particularly difficult, therefore making it extremely slow.The decay of potassium into argon produces a gaseous atom which is trapped at the time of the crystallization of lava.The atom can escape when the lava is still liquid, but not after solidification.Along with uranium and thorium, potassium contributes to the natural radioactivity of rocks and hence to the Earth heat.This isotope makes up one ten thousandth of the potassium found naturally.