ACARA II

GEOLOGIC TIME AND FOSSILS

1. Basic Concept

What is Geologic Time

The geologic time scale (GTS) is a system of chronological
dating that relates geological strata (stratigraphy) to time. It is
used by geologists, paleontologists, and other Earth
scientists to describe the timing and relationships of events
that have occurred during Earth's history.
• A product of both relative and absolute dating is the geological time

scale

• The geologic time scale is a “calendar” of Earth’s 4.5 billion year

history

• Subdivides geologic history into units for easy reference

• Originally created using relative dates

• Absolute dates later applied with development of

radiometric dating techniques

Structure of Geologic Time Scale

Eon – the greatest expanse of time

Era – subdivision of Eon

Period – subdivision of Era

Epoch – subdivision of Period

Eons Eras Periods Epochs

Smaller divisions of time

• Eons

– Phanerozoic
(“visible life”) – the most
recent eon, began about
545 million years ago
– Proterozoic
– Archean
– Hadean – the oldest eon
Era – subdivision of an eon
Eras of the Phanerozoic eon

Cenozoic (“recent
Cenozoic (“recent life”)
Mesozoic (“middle life”)
Paleozoic (“ancient life”)
 Know this !

Period – subdivision of an era

Names derived from:

1. “Type” localities (e.g. Jurassic, named after Jura Mountains)

2. Rock characteristics (e.g. Carboniferous, coal-rich rocks in the UK)
3. From various whims (e.g. Silurian, named after Celtic tribe of Wales)

-in other words, a big mess !

One of the most fundamental techniques in geology is dating rocks and

putting geologic events in their proper sequence. There are two ways by

which this can be accomplished. Absolute dating involves being able to

date how many years old a rock is. Although this may sound simple,

determining the numerical age of a rock is difficult to accomplish because

several criteria must be met. Radiometric dating is the most commonly

used way to absolute date a rock. The method is limited because you

can only date a rock which has formed directly from cooling magma

or a recrystallized metamorphic rock. However, even if you cannot tell

the precise age of a rock, you can determine the order in which a series

of geologic eventsoccurred and place a relative age on that rock. This is

called relative dating which is the most fundamental concept ingeology.

Absolute dating techniques have only been around since the late 1960’s,

but geologists have been putting relativeages on rocks since the 1700’s.

Early geologists used the principle of faunal succession and other

principles of relativedating to determine the relative age of a rock. In fact,

fossils and the principles of relative dating were used to create the

geologic time scale long before we knew the absolute age of the earth.
 ACARA II

A. THE PRINCIPLES OF RADIOMETRIC DATING

The fundamental concepts behind radiometric dating areradioactive

decay and half-lives. Certain elements spontaneouslydecay into new

elements over time. Elements which undergo spontaneous decay are know

are radioactive elements. Thereare several ways by which an element may

decay, but they all involve changing the number of protons in the nucleus of

theatom. The time in which half of a radioactive element decays is known as

its half-life. The half-life describes how long ittakes for one half of the original

radioactive element, known as the parent material, to decay into the new

element, known as the daughter product (see Table 1 for examples). This

rate of decay is unique and constant for each radioactive element.Absolute

dating relies on measuring the proportion of parent product relative to the

daughter product to determine the number of half-lives which have elapsed

(Figure 1). When does the clock start? The radioactive decay process starts

right after themineral crystals have formed from cooling magma or

metamorphic recrystallization processes.

Focus : Absolute Dating / Radiometric Dating

Focus Questions :
How to identify from process:
 Radiometric Dating
 Radioactive Decay

Objectives :
  Students will know and explain the difference of Principle of
absolute dating.

Key Words:
 Structur Atom
 C14
 Potasium-Argon
 Sedimentary Rock Dating

Rocks contain valuable information on physical, chemical, and

biological processes in the Earth’s past. It is only through relative and

numerical dating that we can put these processes in the context of time.

Bottom line: Theories can be made on what might have happened in the

Earth’s past, but it is geology that tells us what did happen. Rocks are our

only basis for interpreting the Earth’s history !

To understand this, we must look at the basic structure of an atom

1. Nucleus (a cluster of protons and neutrons)

– Protons – positively charged particles with

1 unit mass

– Neutrons – neutral particles with 1 unit

mass

– plus Electrons – negatively charged

particles with no mass that orbit the nucleus

2. Basic Atomic Structure

– Atomic number

 An element’s identifying number

 Equal to the number of protons in

the atom’s nucleus

– Mass number

 Sum of the number of protons and

neutrons in an atom’s nucleus

– Isotope

 Variant of the same parent atom

 Differs in the number of neutrons

 Results in a different mass number

than the parent atom

For example, carbon-12 has 6 protons and 6 neutrons, whereas carbon-14

has 6 protons and 8 neutrons

Atomic mass
(12 = 6 protons + 6 neutrons)
Atomic number
(6 protons) This is Carbon-12, as seen in
the standard periodic table

Dating an igneous or metamorphic rock using absolute dating is a

somewhat complicated lab procedure, but once you’vedetermined how much

parent and daughter product you have in the rock, determining the age of the

rock involves simplemathematical calculations.

Dating an igneous or metamorphic rock using absolute dating is a

somewhat complicated lab procedure, but once you’ve determined how much

parent and daughter product you have in the rock, determining the age of the

rock involves simple mathematical calculations.

B. Radioactive Decay Occurs Logarithmically By The Formula:

Half-lives elapsed = Ln (ratio of parent) x -1.4426

Where : Ln = natural logarithm

Example: You take an igneous rock and determine that it has 5 grams of
radioactive parent element and 17 grams of daughter product. The radioactive
half-life of the parent element is 300 million years. How old is the rock?

Step 1: What is the total amount of parent and daughter product in the rock?
Add the amount of parent and daughter together

5 grams parent + 17 grams daughter = 22 grams total

Step 2: What ratio of the rock is parent? Divide the amount of parent by the
total amount

5 grams parent / 22 total grams = 0.23 parent ratio

Step 3: How many half-lives have elapsed? Use the formula for logarithmic
decay to determine the number of half-lives

Ln (.23) x -1.4426 = 2.12 half-lives elapsed

Step 4: How old is the rock? Multiply the number of half-lives by the length
of the element’s half-life

2.12 half-lives x 300 million years = 636 million years old

1) Determine the total amount of parent and daughter product and the ratio
of parent element in the following rock samples:

Total amount Parent ratio

Rock A: 1.25 g parent and 2.78 g daughter
product:
Rock B: 2.41 g parent and 8.65 g daughter
product:
2) Determine the number of half-lives which have elapsed in the following
rock samples using the given parent ratios:
Rock D: 0.65 parent __ ____
Rock E: 0.27 parent __________
Rock F: 0.064 parent __________

3) Determine the age of the following rock samples if the radioactive element
Potassium-40 is used (see Table 1) :
a. 2 half lives: ______________ years old
b. 0.2 half lives: ______________ years old

4) A rock sample has 1.36 g of Uranium-238 and 1.67 g of Lead-206.

How old is the rock sample?

5) A rock sample has 0.22 g of Uranium-235 and 1.12 g of Lead-207.

How old is the rock sample?

C. Importance Of Radiometric Dating

1. Not all rocks can be dated by radiometric methods

a. Grains comprising clastic sedimentary rocks are not the

same age as the rock in which they formed (have been

derived from pre-existing rocks)

 b. The age of a particular mineral may not necessarily

represent the time when the rock formed if daughter

products are lost (e.g. during metamorphic heating)

c. To avoid potential problems, only fresh, unweathered rock

samples should be used

2. Rocks from several localities have been dated at more than 3

billion years

3. Confirms the idea that geologic time is immense

Dating of minerals in ash bed and dyke indicates that the sedimentary layers of the
Dakota Sandstone through to the Mesaverde Formation are between 160 and 60
million years old
 ACARA II

THE PRINCIPLES OF RELATIVE DATING

Relative dating involves putting geologic events in order and determining the
age of a rock relative to other rocks. The entiregeologic time scale is based
on the principles of relative dating because until recently, no absolute
numerical ages were known for the earth’s history. Instead, rocks were dated
using names like “Jurassic” or “Cretaceous”, nameswhich refer to specific
periods in earth history when certain fossils are known to have existed. The
principles of relativedating are the rules that guide geologists when they
decipher the geological history of an area. In the following pages, you will
read about these principles and apply them to some simple geologic
cross-sections.

Focus : relative dating

Focus Questions :
How to identify from process:
 Law of superposition
 Principle of original horizontality
 Principle of cross-cutting relationships
 Inclusions
 Unconformity

Objectives :
 Students will know and explain the difference of Principle of
relative dating.
Key Words:
Sedimentary Rock, Igneous Rock, Metamorphic Rock

Principles of relative dating

A. Law of superposition
 Developed by Nicolaus Steno in 1669
 In an undeformed sequence of sedimentary rocks (or layered igneous
rocks), the oldest rocks are on the bottom

Sedimentary rocks form when sediments settle out of the water column and come
to rest at the bottom of a basin, creating layers. In any sequence of undeformed
sedimentary rocks, the rocks at the bottom are older than the ones on the top,
because the rocks at the bottom must have been deposited first. So in the example
in figure 2a, A is the youngest and E is the oldest.
B. Principle of original horizontality

 Layers of sediment are generally deposited in a horizontal position

 Rock layers that are flat have not been disturbed
 Sediments (sand,silt and clay) under the influence of gravity, are
almostalways laid down in horizontal beds. Thus, if you
seesedimentary beds that are tilted, you can assume theyhave
been moved from their original position (Figure 2b).

Undisturbed
(flat lying)

Highly disturbed
(Deformed)
C. Principle of cross-cutting relationships
 Younger features cut a cross older features
 There are two basic types of cross-cutting geologic phenomena: faults
andigneous intrusions. 1. When an earthquake breaks a group of
rocks, a fault forms. Therefore, the rocks must be older than thefault
(Figure 3a). 2. When molten rock (magma) pushes through (intrudes)
a body of rocks, the resulting igneous rocks must be younger than
those rocks which were intruded (Figure 3b). Likewise, lava flows must
be younger than the rocks they flowover.

e.g. fault B is younger than fault A, which is younger than

the layer labelled “sandstone”)
D. Inclusions
 An inclusion is a piece of rock thas is enclosed with in another
rock
 Rock containing the inclusion is younger

 Unconformity

• An unconformity is a break in the rock record produced by erosion

and/or nondeposition of rock units
• Represents “lost time”
• An unconformity is a break in time.Unconformities can occur for a
variety of reasons, butthey always result from an interruption in
sedimentation. There are 3 kinds (Figure 4):

Types of unconformities
• Angular unconformity – tilted rocks are overlain by flat-lying rocks
• Disconformity – strata on either side of the unconformity are parallel
• Nonconformity – metamorphic or igneous rocks in contact with
sedimentary strata
Formation of an angular unconformity

A place where sedimentary beds meet each other at an angle. This results
from oneset of sedimentary beds being tilted during a foldingevent and
eroded off. Later in time, a second set of sedimentary beds are deposited on
top. Faults are notangular unconformities!

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Formation of a disconformity
A distinct break in time within asequence of sedimentary rocks. This results
from aninterruption in the deposition of sediments and theformation of an
erosional surface within a column of sedimentary rocks. Any place on the
earth’s landsurface where erosion is occurring is also consideredto be a
disconformity.
Formation of a nonconformity
Any place where sedimentary rocks come in contact with crystalline rocks
(igneous or metamorphic). Since almost all igneous andmetamorphic rock
forming process occur deep in theearth, they can't occur while sediments are
being deposited.
Several unconformities are present in the
Grand Canyon
EXERCISE

Geologic Cross-sections Hipotesis

Refer to Figure 5 to answer the following questions:

1) Of the rocks A-D, which of the rocks were deposited first?

2) Of the rocks A-F, which of the rocks are the oldest?
3) Which occurred first: The tilting of A, B, C and D or the deposition of
E and F?
4) Which occurred first: The erosion of the Earth’s surface or the
deposition of A, B, C, and D?
5) What type of unconformity is found at the base of rock layer E

Interpretation

Step
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Refer to Figure 6 to answer the following questions

6) Is the fault in Figure 5 older or younger than rocks A-H?

7) Is the fault in Figure 5 older or younger than batholith Y?
8) Which occurred first: Erosion of the Earth’s surface or the fault?
9) Is the lava flow X older or younger than rock F?
10) Which is older, batholith Y or lava flow X?
 11) There are four different unconformities identified in Figure 6.
Identify what types they are and list them below.
*Note: You may use the same unconformity more than once

Unconformity#1:______________Unconformity#2:_____________

Unconformity#3:______________Unconformity#4:_____________

Interpretation

Step
6. ...................................................................................................................................
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Step
7. ...................................................................................................................................
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Step
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Step10. ............................................................................................................................
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Refer to Figure 7 for the following questions:

12) Which rock unit is older, E or F?

13) Which occurred first, lava flow K or lava flow L?
14) Which occurred first, lava flow K or fault M?
15) Which occurred first, the folding of rock units E, G, A, D and F or
the deposition of lava flow L?
 16) Which rock unit is older, J or lava flow K?
17) Which occurred first, the erosion of the Earth’s surface or fault M?

Interpretation

Step
12. ...................................................................................................................................
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Step
13. ...................................................................................................................................
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Step
17. ..................................................................................................................................
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18) Put all 17 geologic events depicted in Figure 7 in the proper sequence
from oldest to youngest
in the spaces providedusing the list of choices below. You will use
each choice only once

19) Label all the unconformities in Figure 7 (there are 5).

20) Lava flow L is dated at 450 million year sold and lava flow K is dated at
75 million years old. Based on those dates, what is the approximately
age range for the following?
Rock A? __________________
Rock C? __________________
Fault M? __________________