Geological Time

Dating
Absolute and Relative
 
Geologic Time
By examining layers of sedimentary rock, geologists
developed a time scale for dividing up earth
history.
Earlier in the 20th century, radiometric-dating
techniques allowed scientists to put absolute dates
on divisions in the geologic time scale.
In this segment, we will learn how geologists:
• determine the relative ages of rock units,
• how radiometric techniques can be used to date
some rocks.
 
Geological Background: Rocks
• Igneous rocks are formed
by volcanic processes
– Often by cooling of
molten rocks (at
surface or within
Earth’s interior)
– They are important
for radiometric dating
(see K-Ar dating)
Geological Background: Rocks
• Sedimentary rocks are
formed from deposition
of sediments into layers
– Deposited by wind, water,
gravity into layers
– Sediments formed by
erosion of other rocks
– Layers are gradually
hardened over time
– Sedimentary rocks are
important because fossils
are found in these rocks
Geological Background: Rocks
• Metamorphic rocks have
“morphed” into another
kind of rock
• Formerly sedimentary or
igneous
• Changed by heat and
pressure
– Not particularly important
in paleontology
– But pretty!

How Rocks are formed

 Rock Cycle
• Now that you have completed notes about the rock
cycle.
• You will complete a virtual lab activity on the rock
cycle
• Go to www.explorelearning.com
• Work through rock cycle worksheet with the
simulation
How do geologists determine how old rocks are?

Relative dating
Determine whether the
rock is older or younger
than other rocks
Example of Relative Age Dating and Correlation
• Geologists try to determine the order in which
events have happened during Earth’s history.
They rely on rocks and fossils to help them in
their investigation.

• The process of determining whether an event

or object is older or younger than other events
or objects is called relative dating.
• Layers of sedimentary rock, such as the ones
shown below, are stacked liked pancakes.
• As you move from the top to the bottom in
layers of sedimentary rock, the lower layers
are older.

• Superposition is a principle that states that

younger rocks lie above older rocks, if the
layers have not been disturbed.
• Disturbing Forces Not all rock sequences are
arranged with the oldest layers on the bottom
and the youngest layers on top.

• Some rock sequences have been disturbed by

forces within the Earth.

• These forces can push other rocks into a

sequence, tilt or fold rock layers, and break
sequences into moveable parts.
• The geologic column is an ideal sequence of
rock layers that contains all the known fossils
and rock formations on Earth, arranged from
oldest to youngest.

• Geologists use the geologic column to

interpret rock sequences and to identify the
layers in puzzling rock sequences.
• Geologists often find features that cut across
existing layers of rock.

• Geologists use the relationships between rock

layers and the features that cross them to
assign relative ages to the features and the
layers.

• The features must be younger than the rock

layers because the rock layers had to be
present before the features could cut across
them.
• Events That Disturb Rock Layers Geologists
assume that the way sediment is deposited to
form rock layers—in horizontal layers—has
not changed over time.

• If rock layers are not horizontal, something

must have disturbed them after they formed.

• The next slide describes four ways that rock

layers may become disturbed.
• A fault is a break in the Earth’s crust along which
blocks of the crust slide relative to one another.

• An intrusion is molten rock from the Earth’s interior

that squeezes into existing rock and cools.

• Folding occurs when rock layers bend and buckle

from Earth’s internal forces.

• Tilting occurs when internal forces in the Earth slant

rock layers.
Relative Age Dating
How do geologists determine how old rocks are?

Absolute dating -- use

radiometric dating techniques to
determine how long ago the rock
formed in the exact number of
years
*Not all rocks can be dated
absolutely, so combinations of
techniques are used.
 Radioactive Decay
• Absolute dating is any method of measuring the
age of an event or object in years.

• To determine the absolute ages of fossils and

rocks, scientists analyze isotopes of radioactive
elements.

• Atoms of the same element that have the same

number of protons but different numbers of
neutrons are called isotopes.
 Radioactive Decay, continued

•
Most isotopes are stable, meaning that
they stay in their original form.

• Other isotopes are unstable.

Scientists call unstable isotopes
radioactive.
 Radioactive Decay, continued

• Radioactive isotopes tend to break down

into stable isotopes of the same or other
elements in a process called radioactive
decay.
 Radioactive Decay, continued
• Because radioactive decay occurs at a steady rate,
scientists can use the relative amounts of stable and
unstable isotopes present in an object to determine the
object’s age.

• Dating Rocks—How Does It Work? In radioactive

decay, an unstable radioactive isotope of one element
breaks down into a stable isotope. The stable isotope
may be of the same element or of a different element.
 Radioactive Decay, continued

• The unstable radioactive isotope is called

the parent isotope.

• The stable isotope produced by the

radioactive decay of the parent isotope is
called the daughter isotope.
 Radioactive Decay, continued

• The rate of radioactive decay is constant,

so scientists can compare the amount of
parent material with the amount of
daughter material to date rock.

• The more daughter material there is, the

older the rock is.
 Radiometric Dating

• Determining the absolute age of a

sample, based on the ratio of parent
material to daughter material is called
radiometric dating.

• If you know the rate of decay for a

radioactive element in a rock, you can
figure out the absolute age of the
rock.
 Radiometric Dating, continued
• A 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 decrease by one-half.
 Half Life
Is the time it takes for one half of the parent
material to become daughter material.
1 HL= 50% parent 50% daughter
2 HL= 25% parent 75% daughter
3 HL= 12.5% parent 87.5% daughter
4 HL= 6.25% parent 93.75% daughter
So if the HL of an isotope is 10,000 years how
old is the object if 4 HL have occurred?
If the initial sample mass is 1
kg after 5 half lives how much
parent material is there and
how much daughter material is
there?
Step 1. 1kg divided by 2 is .5 kg
Step 2. 0.5 kg divided by 2 is 0.25 kg parent
material and 0.75 daughter material.
Step 3. 0.25kg divided by 2 is 0.125 kg parent
material and 0.875 kg daughter material.
Step 4. 0.125kg divided by 2 is 0.0625 kg parent
material and 0.9375 kg daughter material.
Step 5. 0.0625 kg divided by 2 is 0.03125 kg
parent material and 0.96875 kg daughter
material.
 Types of Radiometric Dating
• Scientists use different radiometric-dating
methods based on the estimated age of an object.
There are four radiometric-dating techniques.

• Potassium-Argon Method Potassium-40 has a

half-life of 1.3 billion years,
 
and it decays
leaving a daughter material of argon.

• This method is used mainly to date rocks older

than 100,000 years.
Types of Radiometric Dating, continued

• Uranium-Lead Method Uranium-238

is a radioactive isotope with a half-life
of 4.5 billion years. Uranium-238
decays in a series of steps to lead-206.

• The uranium-lead method can be used

to date rocks more than 10 million
years old.
Types of Radiometric Dating, continued
• Rubidium-Strontium Method The
unstable parent isotope rubidium-87
forms a stable daughter isotope
strontium-87.

• The half-life of rubidium-87 is 49

billion years. This method is used for
rocks older than 10 million years.
Types of Radiometric Dating, continued
• Carbon-14 Method Carbon is normally
found in three forms, the stable isotopes
carbon-12 and carbon-13, and the
radioactive isotope carbon-14.
• Living plants and animals contain a
constant ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12.
Once a plant or animal dies, no new carbon
is taken in. The amount of carbon-14
begins to decrease as the plant or animal
decays.
Types of Radiometric Dating, continued

• The half-life of carbon-14 is 5,730

years.

• The carbon-14 method of radiometric

dating is used mainly for dating
things that lived within the last 50,000
years.
 
 Absolute Dating
• Get Absolute dating worksheet and go to th
e following site and complete
.

• www.explorelearning.com