RELATIVE DATING

AND ABSOLUTE
DATING
RELATIVE DATING
Refers to the orther in which events occured.

Geologist used field observations to determine

relative ages.The determine which layer of rock
is younger or older.
ABSOLUTE DATING

• Refers to the age in years.

PRINCIPLE USED TO
DETERMINING RELATIVE AGE:
•Principle of Original Horizontality
•Principle of Superposition
•Principle of Cross-Cutting
•Principle of Faunal Succession
•Principle of Lateral Continuity
 ORIGINAL
HORIZONTALITY
Sediments are
deposited in flat
layers if not yet
disturbed they
maintain original
horizontality.
 SUPERPOSITION
Largest and heaviest rock
layer that settled first at
the bottom is the oldest
rock layer.

Heaviest-deepest-oldest

Lightest- settled on top-

youngest
 CROSS-CUTTING RELATIONSHIP
A fault or dike- a slab rock
cuts through another rock.

Magma intrudes to a rock

Fault is younger than the

rock
 LAW OF FAUNAL SUCCESSION
First recognized by
William Smith

Different strata contain

particular assemblage of
fossils by which rocks
maybe identified and
correlated over long
distances
 LATERAL CONTINUITY
Layers of sediments are
continious.

Layers with same rocks

but seperated by a valley
or erosion are initially
continuous.
 ABSOLUTE AGE/DATING
•Is the used of records of radioactive
delay in rocks.
•Radioactive decay happens
whenunstable isotopes or elements
decompose spontaneously.
ISOTOPES
•Atoms of the same
element(same number of
proton) but with different
number of neutrons.
HALF-LIFE
•Is the time taken for the
radioactivityof a specified
isotope to turn to half of its
original value.