Earth's

History
 How did scientists trace
the history of Earth?

✣ All the processes that have been discussed

require long periods of time to create a
noticeable change on Earth's surface.
✣ It is then important to know the history of
Earth to learn the complexities of its past
and be able to use it to understand the
present.
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 learning the history of Earth
involves reading a lot of rocks
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 Rocks
✣ Rocks, especially sedimentary rocks,
contain a lot of information about Earth's
past.
✣ It holds the key to most of the geologic
processes that happened on Earth and also
the key uncovering how of life on Earth
evolved.
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 geologic time scale
✣ But discoveries are worthless if there is no
time perspective.
✣ Thus, one of the most important
contributions of geologists to mankind is the
geologic time scale, which holds a history
that is exceedingly long.

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 geologic time scale
✣ The geologic time scale divides the history
of Earth into different blocks of time by
using relative dating.
✣ Since geologists use rocks to understand
Earth's history, relative dating places these
rocks in their proper sequence of formation.

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How did scientists trace
the history of Earth?

-With relative and absolute

dating, geologists are able to
trace the history of Earth.

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 What is Relative dating?
✣ Placing a sample in an
approximate time
period compared to
other samples with
known ages is called
relative dating.

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 Relative dating
✣ Relative dating does
not give accurate
numerical dates
✣ It only tells that an
event preceded the
other.

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 Relative dating
✣ This method is still widely used today
alongside a more accurate method called
absolute dating, which uses radioactive
elements.

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requires one to know the basic principles
such as law of superposition, principle of
original horizontality, principle of cross-
cutting relationships, and
unconformities.
 Nicolaus Steno
✣ The earliest attempt to order geologic events
was done by Nicolaus Steno in 1669 when he
described the following three laws that
placed samples in time:
✣ 1. Law of Superposition,
✣ 2. Law of Original Horizontality, and
✣ 3. Law of Cross-Cutting Relationships
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the Law of Superposition

✣ The law of superposition is the most basic

principle in relative dating.
✣ It states that in an undeformed sequence of
sedimentary rock, the layers found on the
top are the youngest rocks and the layers at
the bottom are the oldest.

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 the Law of Superposition
✣ The figure shows
the simple layering
in the Law of
Superposition that
occurs when layers
are left
undisturbed.

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Law of Original Horizontality
✣ Along with the law of superposition, Steno
stated that an undeformed sequence is the
one where the layers are still in a horizontal
position.
✣ This follows the principle of original
horizontality, which states that sediments
are deposited in a horizontal position.
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 Law of Original Horizontality
This illustrates how uneven layers are still horizontal
even after base-layer bending and folding has taken
place.

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 Principle of Cross-Cutting
Relationships
✣ The principle of cross-cutting relationships
determines which events happened first
depending on which rocks are affected. The
geologic layer that cuts another is younger
than the layer it cuts through.

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 Unconformities
✣ An unconformity is a
surface within several
layers of sediment
where there is a
missing sedimentary
layer. This is usually
found between
younger and older
rock layers. 22
 Unconformities

✣ There are three basic types of

unconformities: angular unconformity,
disconformity, and nonconformity.

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 Angular unconformity

✣ Angular unconformity is
characterized by having tilted
or folded sedimentary rocks
below younger, horizontal
layers of rocks.

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 Disconformity

✣ Disconformity is determined
where there are missing
parallel rocks layers.
✣ Erosion takes place and
removes the younger top
layers and then deposition
would once again happen.

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 Nonconformity

✣ Nonconformity is
characterized by an igneous
or metamorphic rock found
below a sedimentary rock.

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 Using these principles for
relative dating, one can
determine the order of
events but remember that it
does not give a time
element as to when they
happened.

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For a much more accurate method of
determining the history of Earth,
geologists make use of absolute dating.
This method uses unstable elements to
determine the exact age of a rock.
 Absolute Dating

✣ The second method to study geological time

is done by the chemical and radiological
testing of different isotopes (forms of the
same element) within rock and mineral
samples.

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 Isotopes
✣ Isotopes are elements
that have the same
number of protons but
different number of
neutrons.
✣ Most isotopes are stable
but some may be
unstable.
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 Isotopes
✣ This is because the
forces that bind the
protons and neutrons in
the nucleus of the
isotope are not strong
enough to hold them
together, resulting to
radioactive decay.
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 Isotopes

✣ The unstable isotopes

are called radioactive
isotopes or parent
isotopes.

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 Radioactive Isotopes

When these parent

isotopes undergo
radioactive decay, new
isotopes known as
daughter products are
formed.

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 Radioactive Isotopes
The time it takes for one-
half of the nuclei in the
sample to decay is called
half-life.

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 half-life
✣ The time it takes for one-half of the nuclei
in the sample to decay is called half-life.
This amount of time is fixed for each kind
of radioactive isotope no matter what
physical conditions it is subjected to.

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 half-life
✣ The ratio of parent-daughter isotope
determines how many half-lives have
passed. If it is 1:1, then one half-life has
passed; if it is 1:3, then two half-lives have
passed; and if 1:7, then three half-lives have
passed, and so on.

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 radiometric
dating
✣ Therefore, knowing the half-
life of the radioactive isotope
and its parent-daughter ratio,
geologists can exactly
determine the age of the
sample. This method is called
radiometric dating.
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 radiometric dating
✣ It uses five radioactive isotopes to determine the
age of ancient rocks. For dating rocks that are
about a million years old, rubidium-87, thorium-
232, and the two isotopes of uranium (U-238 and
U-235) are used. The fifth radioactive isotope is
potassium-40, which has a half-life of 1.3 billion
years old. With these, determining the accurate
age of rocks became easier.
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 radiocarbon dating
✣ For dating events that are
more recent, radiocarbon
dating is used.
✣ This method use carbon- 14.

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 Carbon-14
✣ Carbon-14 has a half-life of
5730 years and can be used
to date back events up to 75
000 years. All organisms
contain a small amount of
carbon-14, which is
proportional with the
carbon-12.
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 Carbon-14
✣ When an organism dies, the carbon-14 decays and
is no longer replaced.
✣ The amount of carbon-14 left in the sample is then
compared to the amounts of carbon-12 present
and radiocarbon dates can now be determined.

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 Carbon-14
✣ This method has been particularly useful for
anthropologists, archeologists, historians, and
geologists dealing with much more recent events.

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Aside from rocks, geologists also use the
remains of living organisms in
understanding Earth’s history.
 fossils
✣ Some fossils are formed from parts of an organism
(body fossils). And some are fossils that give signs
or clues which life forms were present at that time
(trace fossils).

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Body fossil example

✣ A wall of large dinosaur

bones (permineralized
remains) from the
Jurassic period on
display at Dinosaur
National Monument,
Colorado.

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Trace fossil example: MOVEMENT TRACES

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 fossils
✣ Fossils contain a lot of information about the
past- the kind of organisms that have lived,
the environment where organisms lived, and
the evolution of organisms as their
environment changed.

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 fossils
✣ But not all organisms turned into fossils,
therefore, scientists cannot learn everything
about the past using fossils alone.

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 INDEX FOSSILS
✣ There are also fossils that are used to
determine the age of a rock. These are index
fossils and these are only found in rocks of a
particular age.
✣ Also known as guide fossils, indicator fossils, or
zone fossils, they are used to identify periods of
geological time.
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INDEX FOSSILS

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INDEX FOSSILS

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 INDEX FOSSILS
✣ The organisms that turned into index fossils
have a relatively short life- spanning from a
few million years to a few hundred million
years.
✣ Index fossils are also found in most of the
common rocks around the world, which makes
them easier to identify.
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 FOSSILS
✣ The methods used for dating the age of rocks
are also used for fossils.
✣ Absolute dating is more commonly used since
it can give exact numerical dates for the age but
relative dating can also be used to determine
which fossils are older.
✣
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Thank you!