[en] An attempt to date deep-sea igneous rocks reliably was made using the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating technique. It was determined that the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar incremental release technique could not be used to eliminate the effects of excess radiogenic ⁴⁰Ar in deep-sea basalts. Excess ⁴⁰Ar is released throughout the extraction temperature range and cannot be distinguished from ⁴⁰Ar generated by in situ ⁴⁰K decay. The problem of the reduction of K-Ar dates associated with sea water alteration of deep-sea igneous rocks could not be resolved using the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar technique. Irradiation induced ³⁹Ar loss and/or redistribution in fine-grained and altered igneous rocks results in age spectra that are artifacts of the experimental procedure and only partly reflect the geologic history of the sample. Therefore, caution must be used in attributing significance to age spectra of fine grained and altered deep-sea igneous rocks. Effects of ³⁹Ar recoil are not important for either medium-grained (or coarser) deep-sea rocks or glasses because only a small fraction of the ³⁹Ar recoils to channels of easy diffusion, such as intergranular boundaries or cracks, during the irradiation. (author)