EARTH HISTORY

AND GEOLOGIC
TIME
 Learning
Competencies
1. Explain how relative and absolute dating were used
to determine the subdivisions of geologic time.
2. Describe how index fossils (also known as guide
fossils) are used to define and identify subdivisions
of geologic time scale.
3. Describe how Earth’s history can be interpreted from
the geologic time scale.
4. Recognize the uniqueness of Earth, being the only
planet in the Solar System with properties to support
life.
• FORMATION OF ROCK LAYERS
• ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE DATING
• GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE
FORMATION OF
ROCK LAYERS
FORMATION OF ROCK LAYERS
1. How are rock layers formed?
2. What does correlation of rock mean?
3. How do geologists correlate rock layers?
PRINCIPLE OF UNIFORMITARIANISM
• The current geologic processes, such as
volcanism, erosion, and weathering are the
same processes that were at work in the
past. – James Hutton
HOW ARE ROCK LAYERS FORMED?
• Stratigraphy – branch of geology that deals
with the description, correlation, and
interpretation of stratified sediments and
stratified rocks on and within the Earth.
• Stratified rocks- layers of rocks
- rock derivative (fragmental or crystalline)
-product of sedimentary processes that
formed layers
• Stratification or Bedding – is the layering that
happens in sedimentary and igneous rocks
formed at the surface of the Earth that
comes from the lava flows or other volcanic
activity.
• Stratigraphic Laws – used by geologist in
conducting relationship of rocks or rock
layers.
PRINCIPLE OF ORIGINAL HORIZONTALITY
• Sediments are deposited in flat layers. If not
disturbed, they maintain original horizontality.
PRINCIPLE OF SUPERPOSITION
• In the sequence of sedimentary rocks, the
layer at the bottom of the sequence is the
oldest, and the succeeding higher levels are
successively younger.
PRINCIPLE OF SUPERPOSITION
• Heaviest-deepest-oldest
• Lightest-settled on top-youngest
PRINCIPLE OF CROSS-CUTTING
RELATIONSHIPS
• Geologic features like faults or igneous
intrusions are younger than the rocks they
cut across.
PRINCIPLE OF INCLUSION
• If rocks or rock fragments are included within
another rock layer, the rock fragments must
be older than the rock layer where they were
embedded.
Fossils – preserved remains or trace of any
once living thing from the past (million years
back)
- Examples: bones, shells, exoskeletons
PRINCIPLE OF INCLUSION
CLASSIFICATION OF FOSSILS
• True form fossils – are entire animals or
plants trapped and preserved in ice, tar, or
other material, such as remains of prehistoric
elephants or mammoths that were frozen in
the Arctic tundra of Siberia and Alaska.
– Shows the complete structure of an organism
TRUE FORM FOSSILS
CLASSIFICATION OF FOSSILS
• Mold fossils – re hallow impressions of
living thing in a rock. The mold reflects only
the shape and surface marking of the
organisms.
MOLD FOSSILS
CLASSIFICATION OF FOSSILS
• Cast fossils – created when mold fossils get
filled with minerals. The minerals harden and
form a replica of the original fossil.
CAST FOSSILS
CLASSIFICATION OF FOSSILS
• Trace fossils or ichnofossils – are
impressions on rocks that showed various
activities. Fossils can be footprints, eggs,
droppings, or nests of animals.
– Showing footprints of animals
TRACE FOSSILS OR ICHNOFOSSILS
FAUNAL SUCCESSION
• Faunal Succession – rock layers contain
fossils that can be used to identify and
correlate rocks.
• Fauna – animal life
• Flora – plant life
UNCONFORMITY
• Describe a layer of rock that have been
deformed or eroded before another layer is
deposited, resulting in rock layer
mismatching.
THREE CATEGORIES
1. Angular Unconformity
2. Disconformity
3. Nonconformity
THREE CATEGORIES
UNCONFORMITIES
• Angular unconformity – younger sedimentary
layers are deposited on top of older, tilted, or
folded layers that have been eroded. This
creates an irregular surface with an angular
relationship between the beds.
UNCONFORMITIES
• Disconformity – a gap in time separates two
parallel sedimentary layers. This can happen
when sedimentation stops, the uppermost
layers erode, then sediment deposition
resumes.
UNCONFORMITIES
• Nonconformity – sedimentary layers are
deposited on top of weathered bon-
sedimentary rocks like igneous or
metamorphic rocks. This creates a distinct
boundary.
CORRELATION
• The process of showing that rocks or
geologic events occurring at different
locations are of the same age.
TYPES OF CORRELATION
1. Physical Correlation – color, texture, types
of minerals contained within a stratum
(layer)
2. Fossil Correlation – fossils with unique
characteristics such as life span and
features.
- estimate the age of the rocks or
rock layer that contain the fossils.
METHODS OF CORRELATING ROCKS
1. Rock types and its characteristics
2. Index fossil
3. Bed rocks
RELATIVE AND
ABSOLUTE DATING
RELATIVE AND ABSOLUTE DATING
1. How do geologists determine the age of
stratified rocks?
ABSOLUTE DATING RELATIVE DATING
• Use of numeric • Give an idea of the
value order of geologic
• Quantitative method events
• Radiometric method • Qualitative method
• Used to tell the age • Stratigraphic method
of rocks • Use sedimentary
rocks
• Does not give the
true age of rocks
RELATIVE DATING
• Relative Dating – places events or rocks in
their chronological sequence or order of
occurrence without knowing their actual age.
- geologists used field observation to
determine relative ages
- determine which layer of rock is
younger or older
PRINCIPLES USED IN DETERMINING
RELATIVE AGE
• Principle of Original Horizontality
• Principle of Superposition
• Principle of Cross-Cutting Relationship
• Principle of Faunal Succession
• Principle of Lateral Continuity
PRINCIPLE OF LATERAL CONTINUITY
• Layers are continuous until encounter solid
bodies that block their deposition.
• The Grand Canyon is a good example of
the principle of lateral continuity, which
states that rock layers extend laterally,
or out to the sides
PRINCIPLE OF LATERAL CONTINUITY
ABSOLUTE DATING
• Absolute Dating – determines the actual ages
of rocks and events. The method used in
absolute dating is based on the decay rate of
certain radioactive isotopes within fossils, rocks,
and artifacts.
- use of records of radioactive decay in
rocks
- radioactive decay happens when unstable
isotopes/ elements decompose spontaneously
ABSOLUTE DATING
• Isotopes – atoms of the same element/same
number of proton but with different number
of neutrons
HALF-LIFE
• Half-life – the time taken for the radioactivity
of a specified isotope to turn half of its
original value.
HALF-LIFE
Radioactive Isotopes Disintegration Half-life

Carbon-14 5,7000 years


Potassium-40
 1,300,000,000 years


Uranium-238
 4,500,000,000 years

Rubidium-87
 49,000,000,000 years
HALF-LIFE
• Parent Material – unstable isotope,
radioactive
• Daughter Material – stable element, decay
product
HALF-LIFE
• Example: Carbon-14 among animals.
Death 1st H.L 2nd H.L 3rd H.L 4th H.L

Parent 100% 50% 25% 12.5% ….

Material

Daughter 0% 50% 75% 87.5% ….

Material
RADIOMETRIC DATING
• Radiometric Dating – comparing the
amount of radioactive and nonradioactive
isotopes to determine rock age.
GEOLOGIC TIME
SCALE
GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE
• Geologic Time Scale – serves as the
calendar for events in Earth’s history
– serves as the standard time-line used to
describe the age of rocks, fossils, and the
events that formed them.
The make use of the different mechanisms:
1. Relative Dating – first basis of and for
geologic time scale
2. Radiometric Dating – numerical dates of
rocks were determined
3. Index Fossils – use of marker fossils
reading to determination of organisms
predominantly living at a certain time and
age.
GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE
• Eons – represents the longest
amount/subdivision of time
- subdivided into:
• Eons>Era>Period>Epoch
• Epoch – smallest unit in GTS
GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE
GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE
PRECAMBRIAN
• Hadean – “chaotic eon”
– Came from Hades meaning hell
– During this eon, the ocean and atmosphere were
formed, and the core, as well as the crust, were
stabilized.
PRECAMBRIAN
• Archean eon – the atmosphere contained
mostly methane and little no oxygen. Most of
Earth is covered with ocean.
– Continent formation began during this eon.
PRECAMBRIAN
• Proterozoic – the longest period that lasted
for half the age of Earth.
– The time of great changes: oxygenation of
atmosphere, origin and diversification of
eukaryotic life, appearance of multicellular animal
life, and motion of continental drift.
PHANEROZOIC
• Paleozoic – many fossils were found in
layers of sedimentary rocks. Marine
invertebrate probably lived near the shores
of shallow water.
– Marine life forms had developed shells. The first
animal to succeed in adapting itself to breathe air
was an amphibian.
– Late Paleozoic era marks the appearance of
reptiles.
PHANEROZOIC
• Mesozoic – saw the formation of several
continents. North America began to part from
Europe and probably South America and
Africa began to drift apart as well.
– Largest creatures that existed during this era
were the dinosaurs
PHANEROZOIC
• Cenozoic – mountains were uplifted and ne
life forms started appearing. Warm-blooded
animals, such as marsupials like kangaroo,
and primitive mammals roamed the land.
– During this era, humans left their mark on
land. Some of the earliest records of human
were stone tools.
PHANEROZOIC
PHANEROZOIC