A wide variety of geochronological tools or methods can be employed to estimate quantitative and qualitative dating of rocks and sediments.
Techniques exist to date all geological materials, from billions of years to historical records.
Quaternary dating provides a record of climate change and geologically recent changes in environment. U-Pb ages of metamorphic minerals, such as zircon, sphene and monazite are used to date thermal events, including terrestrial meteoritic impacts, and to determine thermochronologic histories of terranes. U-Pb ages of zircon in sediments are used to determine the provenance of the sediments. This technique can also be used to determine ages for other geologic processes, such as dolomitization. Tephrochronology dates volcanic ash and tuff, with a range of the last 15 million years.