RELATIVE AND

ABSOLUTE
DATING
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the lesson, you will be able to:
a. describe different methods of determining the age of stratified
rocks;
b. explain how relative and absolute dating were used to determine
the subdivisions of geologic time;
c. describe how index fossils are used to define and identify
subdivisions of the geologic time scale; and
d. describe the history of Earth through geologic time.
HISTORY OF THE
EARTH
UNIFORMITARIANISM
It states that the present is the key to the past, which is based on the
principle that natural laws have remained the same throughout time.
Therefore, it could be said that the same natural laws that impact
the Earth today had the same impact million years ago.
Using this idea as an overarching principle of the history of Earth,
it can be deduced that the order of geologic events that created
landforms such as mountains or plateaus.
By doing this we may know what happened before.
Good examples are the reshaping of a
coastline by a tsunami, deposition of
mud by a flooding river, the devastation
wrought by a volcanic explosion, or a
mass extinction caused by an asteroid
impact.
RELATIVE DATING
Is used to determine whether an
object or event is older or
younger than other objects or
events.
SEDIMENTARY ROCK
Formed layer and are useful information in relative dating
because:
 They are formed from fragments of other types of rocks.
 New sedimentary rock layers are almost always flat.
 Fossils are deposited in the sedimentary layers of rock.
To deduce the geologic history of Earth,
there are certain ideas or laws that need
to be considered:
Law of Original horizontality
Law of superposition
Principle of crosscutting relations
Idea of unconformities.
LAW OF ORIGINAL
HORIZONTALITY
 This means that the sedimentary rocks are originally
formed in horizontal layers.
 This can be seen in any river or lake where sediment will
settle to he bottom in layers.
 If the layers of rock are inclined or tilted at an angle, the
event that caused them shift happened after they were
deposited.
 Horizontality occurs in an area of land that forced to bend,
usually from forces inside the Earth pushing on them.
LAW OF SUPERPOSITION
It states that in any undisturbed
sequence of layers of rock, the oldest
layer would be at the bottom, and the
youngest would be at the top.
PRINCIPLE OF CROSSCUTTING
RELATIONS.
This idea states that any rock or fault
that cuts across other rocks is younger
that those it cuts across.
When layers of rocks are cut by
another event, maybe a lava flow, the
original rock layers are older and the
intrusion is younger.
IDEA OF UNCONFORMITIES
are surfaces of erosion that separate younger
rocks from older ones.
the existing rock is lost and unrecoverable
can occur because of wind, water, or friction
when other rocks scrape along them, like when
glacier slides over the landform.
ABSOLUTE
DATING
ABSOLUTE DATING
Is the method of measuring the
absolute age of an event or object.
To determine the absolute ages of
rocks and fossils, scientists analyze
isotopes of radioactive elements.
ISOTOPES
 are atoms of the same element that have similar number of protons
but different numbers of neutrons.
 Most isotopes are stable in that they stay in their original form.
 Other isotopes are unstable, in that they break down into stable
isotopes or other elements. They are called radioactive.
 Parent Isotope- unstable radioactive isotope
 Daughter Isotope- produced by the radioactive/parent isotope
The rate of radioactive decay is constant,
that is why comparing the amount of
parent material with the amount of
daughter material is important in dating
rocks
Therefore, the more daughter material
there is, the older the rock.
HALF-LIFE
Is the time needed for half of a sample
of a radioactive substance to undergo
radioactive decay. After every half-life,
the amount of parent material decreases
by one-half.
RADIOMETRIC DATING
Is another dating method achieved by
determining the absolute age of a sample based
on the ratio of parent material to daughter
material. Therefore, knowing the rate of decay
for any radioactive element could help in
figuring out the absolute age of Rock.
FOUR RADIOMETRIC-
DATING METHOD
Based on the estimated age of an object:
Potassium-argon
Uranium-lead
Rubidium-strontium
Carbon-14 method
POTASSIUM-ARGON
METHOD
Uses potassium-40, which has a half-
life of 1.3 billion years (gigaannum or
Ga) and as it decays, it leaves its
daughter material, argon. This method
is used mainly to date rocks, which
older than 100 000 years.
URANIUM- LEAD METHOD
Uses uranium-238, which has a half-life
of 4.5 Ga. Uranium-238 decays in a
series of steps, which ultimately
becomes lead-206. The uranium-lead
method can be used to date rocks,
which are more than 10 million years
old.
RUBIDIUM- STRONTIUM
METHOD
Uses rubidium-87, which forms a

stable daughter isotope strontium-87.
The half-life of rubidium-87 is 49
Ga.This method is used for rocks
which are older than 10 million years
(megaannum or Ma).
CARBON-14 METHOD
 Uses radioactive isotope carbon-14, which has a half-life
of 5 730 years. Living plants and animals contains a
constant carbon-14 to carbon-12 ratio. Once a plant or
animal dies, no new carbon is taken in. The amount of
carbon-14 begins to decrease as plant or animals decays,
which could be compared to the amount of carbon-12.
 The carbon-14 method of Radiometric dating is used
mainly for dating things that lived within the last 50 000
years.
GEOLOGIC
TIME SCALE
A relative ages of rocks can be found
using the law of superposition and the
idea of crosscutting relations.
However, aside from these, there is
another way to find the relative ages of
rocks, which is through the use of
index fossils.
FOSSIL
 Is the remnant of any ancient animal or plant that has been
preserved in cystallized rocks.
 The age of the fossil is equal to the age of the rock from where it is
found.
 Index fossils serves as guide or indicators of certain geologic
periods.
 If two rocks anywhere on the planet contain the same index fossil,
then it can be said that those rocks are from the same period.
GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE
 The system used by scientists to relate stratigraphy and time to any geologic
events.
 They have divided the 4.6 Ga of Earth’s rich history into different span of
time
Time span:
Age – (million of years)
Epoch – (tens of millions of years)
Period- ( one hundred million years)
Era-(several hundred million years)
Eon- (half a billion years)
EARTH’S
PAST
The vast bulk of Earth’s
history occurred during the
Precambrian-about 88% or
roughly 4.1 billion years Of all
the perceived harshness of the
primordial Earth.
HADEAN ERA
was considered a chaotic eon mainly due to the
meteorites that constantly bombarded Earth, causing
severe volcanic activities. Hadean came from Hades,
which means “hell”. During this eon , the ocean and
atmosphere were formed and the core, the crust was
also stabilized.
ARCHEAN EON
Lasted for 1.3 Ga
It was characterized as the period when Earth became warm but the
atmosphere contained only methane, with little to no oxygen.
Most of Earth was still covered with water.
Continent formation was presumed to begin during the Archeon
eon, but not until the mantle cooled.
Characterized by an orange atmosphere primarily due to the
abundance of methane.
The ocean were green due to the abundance of iron and stromalite-
field shoreline.
PROTEROZOIC EON
Lasted for 1.9 Ga, lasting almost half the
age of Earth.
Is when the atmosphere began to have
oxygen, eukaryotes diversified,
multicellular animals appeared, and the
continents began to drift away.
PALEOZOIC ERA
Fossils of marine invertebrates, which
lived near shallow water, were formed
in sedimentary layers. Fossils of
trilobites and brachiopods were also
found preserved in rocks.
MIDDLE PALEOZOIC ERA
Marine life forms had developed shells. During Devonian period,
animals began to breathe air as amphibians came out of the sea.
Land plants, such as giant ferns and marsh plants, also began to
develop during this period.
Reptiles started to appear. They appeared much like their
amphibian ancestors but were different in that they were able to lay
their eggs on land.
Scientist believed that the remains of these plants formed the huge
coal deposits in many parts of the world.
MESOZOIC ERA
Was marked by the breakup of the major
landmasses.
The largest creatures that existed during this
era were believed to be descendants of the
primitive reptiles that survived throughout the
Paleozoic era. They were called dinasours.
CENOZOIC ERA
Mountains were uplifted and new life forms started
appearing.
Volcanic activities became widespread, forming immense
flows of lava and basalt.
Warm-blooded animals, such as marsupials like kangaroo,
and primitive mammals roamed the land.
It was during this period that human left their marks on
land, as observed in the stone tools that were used.