Earth’s History

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 Earth’s History
• Planet Earth is approximately
4.5 X 109 years old
–Rocks of the crust provide clues
to Earth’s past
• By analyzing these clues we can
infer events from the past
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 Earth’s History
• Principle of Uniformitarianism
– Major assumption in geology
– Events in the past occurred the same way
that they are occurring today. Examples
Include:
• Weathering/erosion
• Deposition
• Volcanism
• Plate tectonics 3
 Geologic Time
• Plate motions
and mountain
building events
can be placed
on the geologic
time scale
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 Geologic
Time
Geologists
have divided
Earth’s history
into time units
based on the
the fossil record
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 Geologic Time
• A study of the fossil record shows
– A great variety of plants, animals, and
simpler life forms have lived on Earth in
the past
– That life forms have evolved through
time
– Most life forms of the geologic past have
become extinct
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Geologic Dating

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 There are two types of
Geologic Dating
• Absolute
–Determines how many years old
something is
• Relative
–Used to determine if one thing is
younger or older than another
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Tools used to determine
Absolute Age Relative Age
• Using radiometric • Law of superposition
dating • Use of index fossils
• Correlation of rock
layers

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Relative Dating

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Law of Superposition

• Sediments are laid down

underwater in horizontal layers
and form sedimentary rocks

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 Law of Superposition
• In a series of sedimentary rocks the
bottom layer is the oldest and the top
layer is the youngest
– Lower layers must be in place before
younger rocks can be deposited on top of
them
– Exception: when something occurs to
overturn layers
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Grand Canyon

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GRAND CANYON- LAW OF SUPERPOSITION

YOUNGEST ON TOP
OLDEST ON BOTTOM
 Law of Superposition
• Rock layers are older than folds found in them
– Layers were there before they were folded

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Folds/Tilted

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Law of Superposition
• Rock layers are older than
faults found in them
• This is logical: you can’t break a
rock if it does not exist; so rock
containing a fault must be older
than the fault
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Law of Superposition
• Fossils are generally the same
age as the rock layers in which
they are found
– Animal remains are deposited
along with the sediments that will
turn into sedimentary rocks

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 Law of Superposition
• Igneous intrusions are younger than the
rock that they cut through or flow out of

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Igneous Intrusion - Cross
Cutting

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 Unconformity
• When a new rock layer is formed
atop an eroded surface

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Upper Silurian
Carbonates

Tilted
Ordovician
Shales and
Sandstones

unconformity

Taconic Unconformity
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Practice: what happened here?

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 Correlation
• Matching
similar rock
layers in
different
locations to
see if they
formed at the
same time 28
Which fossil might be found in Devonian
rock layers?
 Volcanic Ash Falls
• Can also be used to correlate rock layers
over a large area
• Ash is a good indicator because:
– The ash from one explosion has distinct
characteristics
– ash can be deposited around the globe
– The event occurs at one, geologically brief, time
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 Fossils
• Naturally occurring preserved remains
or impressions of living things
• Generally only hard parts get
preserved
– Bones, teeth, shells
• Hard parts are replaced by naturally
occurring minerals
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 Eurypterus
NY State
Fossil

Silurian
index
fossil
 Fossils
• Can be a mold (impression)
–Ex: footprint
• Or a cast
–Ex: filled in footprint

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 Fossils (Cont)
• Other types
– Ice
– Tar
– Carbonaceous film
– Amber
– Imprints
– Petrified

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 Fossils
• Generally found in
sedimentary rock
layers
Why don’t fossils
exist in most igneous
or metamorphic
rock?

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 Fossils
• The living organism
that made the fossil
lived during the time
the rock layer was
forming
– i.e. when the sediment
was being deposited

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 Fossils
• Fossils can provide
information about
ancient environments
– Marine fossils
indicate a marine
environment, wooly
mammoths indicate a
cold environment,
etc…

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 Fossils
• A study of the fossil record shows:
– A great variety of plants, animals and
simpler life forms have lived on Earth
in the past
– That life forms have evolved through
time
– Most life forms of the geologic past
have become extinct 44
 Index Fossils
• Index Fossils--used to date rock
layers (strata)
– Fossils from creatures that existed for
a geologically short period of time
• Ex. less than 2.0 x 107
– Fossils from creatures that had a wide
geographic distribution
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 Location A Location B Location C

Rock layer 1 W W W Z

Rock layer 2 W Z Y Z

Rock layer 3 W X X X Z

Which letter would make a good index fossil?

Absolute Dating

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Radioactive Decay
• When an unstable radioactive
element changes into a stable
element

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 Example

Unstable Radioactive Isotope Stable Decay Product

Carbon 14 (C14) Nitrogen 14 (N14)

Uranium 238 (U238) Lead 206 (Pb206)

Parent Daughter

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 Radiometric Dating
Half life: The time required for 1/2 of a parent
material to break down to daughter material

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• Another look

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Radiometric Dating
• The age of objects can be
determined by measuring the
relative amounts of radioisotope
and decay products

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 Radiometric Dating
• The half lives of radioisotopes
vary depending upon the isotope
–Examples:
• C14 = 5,770 years
• U238 = 4,500,000,000 years
• Rb87 = 47,000,000,000 years

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• Carbon 14 is used to date
biological remains
– Carbon is incorporated into the
cells of living organisms and
begins to decay when the
organism dies
• Uranium 238 is used to date
rocks
– Larger half life
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Half Life
Practice
Problems
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• If half the K -40 of a rock has
decayed into Ar-40, how old
is the rock?

• How many years would it

take for 75 % of a sample of
K-40 to disintegrate?

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 How old are:
• A sample that has ½ c-14
and ½ n-14?
• A sample that has ¼ K-40
and ¾ Ar-40?
• A sample that has ½ U-
238 ½ Pb-206?
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 How old are:
• A sample that has 1/8 Rb-87
and 7/8 Sr-87?
• A sample that has ¼ C-14
and ¾ N-14?
• A sample that has ¾ C-14
and ¼ N-14?
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 What fraction remains of:

• A 50 billion year old sample has

____ Rb-87 and ____ Sr-87.

• A 2.6 billion year old sample

has____ K-40 and ____Ar-40.

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 This is so boring

Stranz should take a break ;)

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