History of Earth

Stratigraphy, Relative Dating

and Absolute Dating

Teacher
Nash

2020
© Lysippos/Wikimedia Commons;Bob Wick, Bureau of Land Management California/J Wynia
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, the learners will be able to:

1. Describe how layers of rocks (stratified rocks) are formed.

2. Describe the different methods (relative and absolute dating) to determine the
age of stratified rocks.
3. Explain how relative and absolute dating were used to determine the
subdivisions of geologic time.
4. Describe how the Earth’s history can be interpreted from the geologic time
scale.
DISCOVER
DISCOVER
How Layers of Rocks are Formed?
Stratigraphy – the study of rock layers and layering.
Stratification – process in sedimentary rocks are arrange in layers.
Steps in Formation of Stratified Rocks
1. Weathering - in-situ breakdown of rock and its eventual
transformation into sediments.
2. Erosion - separation or removal of weathered and unweathered
rocks and soil from its substrate due to gravity or transporting
agents like wind, ice, or water.
3. Deposition - process by which sediments settled in certain place
after being eroded.
4. Compaction - deposited sediments begin to stick to one another
cemented together with clay, other minerals and fossils, and
compacted creating layers of sedimentary rocks.
How Layers of Rocks are Formed?
How Layers of Rocks are Formed?

© Quebrada de Cafayate
Methods to Determine the Age of Stratified Rocks
1. Relative Dating

2. Absolute Dating
Methods to Determine the Age of Stratified Rocks
1. Relative Dating - Method of
arranging geological events based on the
rock sequence. Determining how old
something is compared to something else.
Use words like “older” or “younger” instead
of exact numbers. It cannot provide the
actual numerical dates of rocks.

e.g. Rock A is older than Rock B.

Methods to Determine the Age of Stratified Rocks
• In the early mid-1600s, a Danish scientist,
Nicholas Steno, studied the relative positions of
sedimentary rocks.
• He discovered that they settle based on their
relative weight or size in fluid.
Methods to Determine the Age of Stratified Rocks
Beds – any slight changes in
the particle size or composition
may result in the formation of
layers.
Layering or bedding – a
distinct quality of sedimentary
© MUHAMMAD QASIM.
rocks.
* Geologic time scale is based Strata – layers of rocks.
on the rocks record.
Steno’s Laws of stratigraphy or Principles of Relative Dating.
1. Law of Superposition – When sedimentary
rock layers are deposited, younger layers are
on top of older deposits.

© Rising Tide Project, Coastal Carolina University.

© Wilson44691.
Steno’s Laws of stratigraphy or Principles of Relative Dating.
2. Law of Lateral Continuity – states that rock
layers extend laterally or out to the sides.
These layers may cover broad surfaces.
Erosion may have worn away some parts of
the rock, but the layers on either side of the
eroded areas still match.
© JoJ Wynia.

© Rising Tide Project/ Coastal Carolina University.

Steno’s Laws of stratigraphy or Principles of Relative Dating.
3. Law of Original Horizontality – sedimentary
rock layers are deposited horizontally.
However, many layered rocks are no longer
horizontal. If they are tilted, folded, or broken,
it happened later.

© Quizlet.

© Rising Tide Project/ Coastal Carolina University. © LumenLearning.

Steno’s Laws of stratigraphy or Principles of Relative Dating.
4. Law of Cross-Cutting Relationships – If an
igneous intrusion or faults cuts through
existing rocks, the intrusion/fault is younger
than the rock it cuts through.

© National Park Service.

© Rising Tide Project/ Coastal Carolina University.

Concept Check!
Arrange the rock layers from the oldest to the youngest rock layer.

© Bismarck Public Schools.

 • Sediments are deposited horizontally. This is original
horizontality.
• The oldest sedimentary rocks are at the bottom of the
Summary
sequence. This is the law of superposition.
• Rock layers are laterally continuous. This is the law of
lateral continuity.
• Rock B cuts across rock A. Rock A must be older. This is
the principle of cross-cutting relationships.
• A gap in a rock sequence is an unconformity.
Principles of Relative Dating.
UNCONFORMITIES
- are surfaces of erosion that separate
younger rocks from older one.
- e.g. if a sedimentary rock forms and is
exposed to the elements, it would begin to
weather away and erode into sediments.
After some time, news sediments deposit on
that eroded surface, forming a new layer of
rock.
© John Gordon.
Types of Unconformities
1. Angular unconformity - is produced when
sedimentary rock is deposited on tilted or
angled beds. Angular unconformities form
after beds that have been deformed through
crustal deformation processes have been
eroded horizontal allowing new sediment to be
deposited on top of the much older tilted
strata.

© James St. John

© Tarbuck and Lutgens.
Types of Unconformities
2. Nonconformity - unconformity that
cuts into an igneous or metamorphic body
and which is overlain by sedimentary
rock.

© Tarbuck and Lutgens.

© Pinterest © Prof. Sean Tvelia Sufffolk/ County Commuity College.

Types of Unconformities
3. Disconformity - beds of the rock
sequence above and below the
unconformity are parallel to one another,
but there is a measurable age difference
between the two sequences. The
disconformity surface represents a period
of nondeposition and/or erosion.

© Doug Sherman.

© Prof. Sean Tvelia Sufffolk/ County Commuity College.

Types of Unconformities
4. Paraconformity – beds above and
below the unconformity contact are
parallel with no discernable erosion, but
whose ages are vastly different.

© Pinterest.

© Prof. Sean Tvelia Sufffolk/ County Commuity College.

Applying relative Dating principles

© Tarbuck and Lutgens.

Concept Check!
What types of Unconformities formed in the following rock strata?

© Thomas McGuire. © S. Sutherland.

A B
 Unconformity Type Description

A boundary between non-sedimentary rocks (below) and sedimentary

Nonconformity
rocks (above)

A boundary between two sequences of sedimentary rocks where the

Summary
Angular unconformity underlying ones have been tilted (or folded) and eroded prior to the
deposition of the younger ones.

A boundary between two sequences of sedimentary rocks where the

Disconformity underlying ones have been eroded (but not tilted) prior to the deposition
of the younger ones.

A time gap in a sequence of sedimentary rocks that does not show up as

Paraconformity
an angular unconformity or a disconformity.
Methods to Determine the Age of Stratified Rocks
2. Absolute Dating/Radiometric Dating

o A method that gives an actual

date of the rock or period of an
event.
o Determine the age of rocks by
measuring its radioactive decay.
o Use numbers (Unit: in millions of
years or million years ago)
o Only works for Igneous Rocks.

© Buzzle.com.
Methods to Determine the Age of Stratified Rocks
2. Absolute Dating/Radiometric Dating

o A radioactive isotope in the rock

decays into a stable daughter
isotope.
o The decay occurs at a predictable
rate, so the age of the sample
could be determined.

© Bioninja.
Methods to Determine the Age of Stratified Rocks
2. Absolute Dating/Radiometric Dating

Half –life - radioisotopes decay at a constant rate and the time taken for hal
the original radioisotope to decay.

• Different radioisotopes have different half lives and are thus useful for dating
different types of fossilized remains.

© Cuthbert Short.
Methods to Determine the Age of Stratified Rocks
2. Absolute Dating/Radiometric Dating
Half-Life of Common Isotopes
Parent Isotope Half-Life Stable Daughter
Uranium-235 704 million years Lead-207

Potassium-40 1.25 billion years Argon-40

Uranium-238 4.5 billion years Lead-206

Thorium-232 14.0 billion years Lead-208

Lutetium-176 35.9 billion years Hofnium-176

Rubidium-87 48.8 billion years Strontium-87

Samarium-147 106 billion years Neodymium-143

How is it done?

© Beverly Biology.
How is it done?

© Beverly Biology.
How is it done?

© Beverly Biology.
Absolute Dating is Done Through
1. Potassium – Argon method uses K-40; half-
life 1.3 billion years; daughter material Argon.;
used to date rocks older than 100 000 years.
2. Uranium – Lead method uses U-238; half –
life 4.5 billion years; U-238 to Pb-206; used to
date rocks more than 10 million years old.
3. Rubidium – Strontium method uses Rb-87;
half-life 49 million years; Rb-87 to Sr-87; used
for rocks older than 10 million years.
4. Carbon – 14 for organic remains could date
up to 60, 000 years.

© Bioninja.
 Relative Dating
• Can help us estimate the time span between major
earthquakes, storms, tsunamis etc.
• Can help us determine the order that life forms
Summary
developed on Earth.
Absolute Dating
• Help us determine the age of the Earth
• Help us determine when specific events in the history of
the Earth happened (ex. Extinction of the Dinosaurs)
The Geologic Time Scale
• This scale describes the relationships between
the events that happened throughout the Earth’s
history.
• It could be revised as more rocks that can be
dated are discovered and are found with fossil-
bearing sedimentary rocks.
• Shows the geologic time intervals based on the
geologic rock records.
• It is calibrated by integrating results from relative
and absolute dating.
The Geologic Time Scale
How the Geologic Time Scale is Calibrated

• Raw data composed of strata or layers are

reviewed.
• The unique succession of events in the layers
is recognized based on the laws of relative
dating leading to a chronological order of
events.

© Andrew MacRae..
The Geologic Time Scale
Relevance of Relative Dating

• Relative dating would provide strata with ages

and indicate the occurrences of fossils.
• Relative dating would confirm the succession of
events in the layers that would establish the
chronological series of events.

© Andrew MacRae..
The Geologic Time Scale
Relevance of Absolute Dating

• Absolute dating would provide ages based on

radiometric dating of igneous rocks.

• Absolute dating would determine the age of the

ash layers and the occurrences of the volcanic
eruptions.

© Andrew MacRae..
© Andrew MacRae..
Fossils
*Time intervals in the stratigraphic record are
represented by a unique set of index fossils and fossil
assemblage
Fossils – remnant of ancient animal or plant that has
been preserved in rock.

An Index Fossil must have the ff.

1. It must have had hard parts which favor
fossilization.
2. It must have lived over a short period of time,
before it evolved into a different creature. That
means Scientists know that they lived and became
extinct during a set time period. They’re not found
in every layer, just one layer.
© Bicentennial Baby.
3. It must have a good distribution and lived all over
the planet.
Fossils
Example of Index Fossils
1. Ammonites – common during Mesozoic Era
(245 Mya to 65 Mya) and got extinct during
the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction
(65Mya). AMMONITES © BRECK P. KENT/NAT
GEO IMAGE COLLECTION.
2. Brachiopods (Mollusk—like marine animals)
– first appeared during the Cambrian (540
Mya – 500 Mya) and some of which still
survive.
3. Graptolites (widespread colonial marine
hemichordates) – lived from Cambrian
period (540 Mya – 505 Mya) to the early to
BRACHIOPODS © Natural History Museum.
mid-Carboniferous (360 Mya -320 Mya). See
image: Early Paleozoic Brachiopods
Dolerorthis.
4. Trilobites – common during the Paleozoic
(540 Mya – 245 Mya). Evolved at the GRAPTOLITES © UKRI.
beginning of Paleozoic and went extinct
during the late Permian (248 Mya).

TRILOBITES © UKRI.
Concept Check!
Four outcrops of rock are examined in different
locations of a state. The rock types and the fossils
they contain are illustrated in the adjacent diagram.
Which fossil would be the best choice to use as an
index fossil for these rocks?

a. Fossil 1
b. Fossil 2
c. Fossil 3
d. No data yet

© SERC.
Thank you!

Announcements: