Time in Geology

3. Time in Geology
• Time is one of the fundamental concepts
considered in the geological investigations
• There is quite a long time interval and several
geological events occurred in the geological history
• The evolution of a region could be realized only by
the determination of the ages of the rocks
…
3.1. Dating the rocks
• The age of a rock is the time during which that rock
was formed
• There are mainly three methods to determine the
age:
- Relative dating
- Paleontological dating
- Radiometric dating
…
• Relative dating; the rocks units formed during
different geological times can be considered as the
sheets of a book
• The oldest sheet or layer (stratum, pl. strata) is at
the bottom and the youngest at the top which was
defined as the law of superposition
• Therefore the relative age of a unit in this sequence
can be assigned in accordance with the age of other
units in the same sequence based on the
superposition
…
• Paleontological dating; paleontology is a branch of
geology which deals with the fossils
• Fossils are the remnants or traces of ancient animals or
plants embedded within the sedimentary rocks
• The animal assemblage found in the rocks is called fauna,
and the plant assemblage flora; the fauna and flora
collectively are called biota
• Each fossil has a certain time span characterized by its
first appearance (origin) and disappearance (extinction)
in the geological record; therefore each geological time is
characterized by certain fossil assemblages
…
• If the fossil content of a rock could be identified, the age of
this rock can be assigned
• Some fossils cover a wide range in the geological time while
some other a very short time interval
• The latter type fossils are more valuable in dating the rocks
• Such fossils are called marker fossils
• If the fossil characterizes a short time span and also has a
World-wide distribution it is said to be an index fossil or key
fossil
• Using such fossils, the rock sequences in different localities
can be correlated based on their ages
…
• Radiometric dating; an atom is composed of
electrons, protons, and neutrons
• Electrons have a negative charge and protons have
a positive charge
• Since neutron is actually a proton and electron
combined, it has no charge
• Protons and neutrons are found in the center;
nucleus of the atom, and electrons spin around the
nucleus in definite paths, or orbits
…
• Practically all (99.9%) of the mass of an atom is
found in the nucleus, indicating that electrons have
practically no mass at all
• By adding together the number of protons and
neutrons in the nucleus, the mass number of the
atom is determined
• The atomic number is equal to the number of
protons
…
• Atoms of the same element may have different
numbers of neutrons in the nucleus
• Such atoms, called isotopes, have different mass
numbers but the same atomic number
• Some isotopes have unstable nuclei; that is, the
forces which bind the protons and neutrons
together are not sufficiently strong
• As a result, the nuclei spontaneously break apart,
or decay, a process called radioactivity
…
• Radioactive isotopes is referred to as the parent,
and the isotopes resulting form the decay of the
parent are termed the daughter products
• Certainly among the most important results of the
discovery of radioactivity is that it provided a
reliable means of the calculating the ages of rocks
and minerals which contain particular radioactive
isotopes, a procedure referred to as radiometric
dating
…
• The rates of decay for many isotopes have been precisely
measured and do not vary, at least under the physical
conditions that exist in the outer layers of the Earth
• Therefore each radioactive isotope used for dating has been
decaying at a fixed rate since the formation of the rocks in which
it occurs and the products of decay have been accumulating at a
corresponding rate
• For example; when uranium is incorporated into a mineral that
crystallizes from magma, there is no lead (the stable daughter
product) from previous decay; as the uranium in this newly
formed mineral disintegrates, atoms of the daughter product
are trapped and measurable amounts of lead eventually
accumulate
…
• The time required for one-half of the nuclei in a
sample to decay, called its half-life, is a common
way to express the rate of radioactive disintegration
• If the half-life is known, then the ratio between the
amount of daughter product and the amount of
parent will indicate how long the radioactive
«clock» has been operating
• When the quantities of parent and daughter are
equal (ratio 1:1), we know that one half-life has
transpired
…
• Notice that the percentage of radioactive atoms
that decay during one half-life is always the same
• However, the half-life continually decreases
• Thus, as the percentage of radioactive parent
atoms declines, the proportion of stable daughter
atoms rises, with the increase in daughter atoms
just matching the drop in parent atoms
• This fact is the key to radiometric dating
…
• Of many radioactive isotopes that exist in nature,
five have been proven important in providing
radiometric ages for ancient rocks; others are either
rare or have half-lives are too short or much too
long to be useful (Carbon 14Carbon 12; 5730 years)
…
3.2. The geologic time scale
• The geologic time scale subdivides the 4.6-billion-
year history of the Earth into many different units
and provides a meaningful time frame within which
the events of the geologic past are arranged
• The general characteristics of the geologic time
scale can be outlined as follows:
- The geologic time scale is established according to
the records obtained from the rocks (i.e. fossils and
radiometric dating)
…
- The time unit is «one million years» in the geologic time scale
which is an indication of geological processes to be very slow
- The geologic time scale is composed of several divisions and
subdivisions named as Eon, Era, Period, and Epoch; the names
of the divisions are taken from either geographic localities or
geologic events; for example:
- Cambria is the Latin name for Wales
- Ordovices and Silures are tribes lived in Wales
- Devonshire is a locality in England
- Carboniferous comes from the coal deposits of this age
- Perm is locality in Russia (west of Ural mounts)
- Jura is the name given to the mountains at the east of France
- Creta is the Latin word which means chalk
…
• Eons represent the greatest expanses of time; the
eon that began about 542 million years ago is the
Phanerozoic, a term derived from Greek words
meaning “visible life”
• Eons are divided into eras
• The Phanerozoic eon consists of;
- the Paleozoic era (paleo = ancient, zoe = life)
- the Mesozoic era (meso = middle, zoe = life)
- the Cenozoic era (ceno = recent, zoe = life)
…
• Each era of the Phaneroic eon is further divided
into time units known as periods
• Each of the periods is divided into still smaller units
called epochs
• The geologic time scale has not gained its final
shape yet; it is modified and subdivided into
shorter time intervals as new findings are added to
our geological knowledge; the boundaries are
calibrated with the new data provided from the
fossils