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EAS 210 > Chapter 17 - Geologic Time - Concepts and Principles > Flashcards

Chapter 17 - Geologic Time - Concepts and Principles Flashcards

1
Q

What were absolute ages based on?

A

Radiometric dating

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2
Q

What is the oldest pieice of earth ever found, how old is it?

A

Zircon crystal, 4.4 Billion years old

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3
Q

How old is the oldest known rock on earth? Where was it found?

A

4.28 billion years, Quebec nuwagituq

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4
Q

When were humans created? First fossil evidence of human ancestors?

A

1.6 million years, Tertiary period, Cenozoic era, Phanerozoic eon

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5
Q

When were dinosaurs extinct?

A

66 million years ago, transition of the mesozoic to cenozoic era

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6
Q

Name eon’s and dates

A

Precambrian, 4.6 By-545My, Cambrian 545M.y to CURRENT

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7
Q

Name Era’s and dates for important ones pls

A

PRECAMBRIAN: hadean, archean, proterozoic
PHANEROZOIC
paleozoic (started 545m.y ago) - mesozoic - cenozoic (CURRENT, started 66m.y ago)

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8
Q

When did the first ice age begin?

A

1.6 MY AGO same time as first fossil of human species

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9
Q

What can you say about the periods?

A

Not equal in length

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10
Q

History of dating earth

A

Bible said 6k years ago

Gelogical field work began, they started measuring rates of sedimentation, how fast does a glacier move

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11
Q

Relative dating, how does it work?

A

Judghing who is older than who, you know who is older, but you dont know the exact age. Yu can tell a general range, but not exact, just relative to.

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12
Q

What is the principle of sedimentary horizontalality

A

if you deposit a clastic material, most likely it will deposit horizontally

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13
Q

Principle of statigraphic superpostion, what is it

A

When you have horizontally layered things, the things on top are younger than things on bottom
-relative ages

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14
Q

Explain horizontal bedding/folding/anticline/syncline

A

for horizontal bedding, stuff on top is older
but when we see syncline anticline, we could have 3 sections, but the top and bottom one are the same time period due to synclines and anticlines, thus the principle of superposition only works if you understand where you are, where are the folds, some of the rocks could be upside down

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15
Q

define anticline, syncline

A

anticline :Starta slopes downwards, makes an n shape

syncline: opposite, strata slopes upwards, manes a u

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16
Q

Define crossbedding

A

layering within a stratum and at an angle to the main bedding plane

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17
Q

What aare ichnofossils used for?

A

Ichnofossils were used as trace fossils to aid in relative dating (it could be a footprint, feeding trails…)
-HELPS US DETERMINE WHATS UP OR DOWN

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18
Q

What are geopetals used for?

A

TEll us whats up or whats down when relative dating(make a thin section of the rock, look at it, thats what tells u info)

19
Q

3 Types of unconformities

A

Disconformity - wavy line, b/c bedding above and below should be paralel
Angular conformity - angle between bedding and unconformity surface
Nonconformity
-u have an unconformity, and 1 side of the unconformity doesnt have bedding
how do you tell if its an unconformity? there will be rock surrounded by material, the rock that is surronded by material is older, the rock surrounding the boulder is younger

20
Q

What are cross cutting relationships in relative dating

A

anything that is cutting must be younger than what is being cut (dikes are cross cutting)

21
Q

define dike

A

vertical rock between older layers of rock, a geological body which cuts accross

22
Q

What is contact metamorphism in relative dating

A

When a body of magma alters the surrounding country rock. So like magma makes the contact point to make metamorphasis youlo

23
Q

What is lithostratigraphic correlation

A

In areas of adequate exposures, rock units can be traced laterally, even if occasional gaps exist, and correlated on the basis of similarity in rock type and position in a sequence

  • so just looking at the rock bedding of earths crust in surround geological area, the bedding will be around the same
  • ash layers/volcanic ash are very good to tell us the relative time b/c it will be over the same area it occured
24
Q

How does volcanic ash aid in lithostratigraphic correlation (any relative dating)

A
  • ash layers/volcanic ash are very good to tell us the relative time b/c it will be over the whole area that it occured
  • volcanin eruption doesnt give a shit if its a lake or a mountain, will be the same everywhere, kind of gives us a base point
  • the are known as chrono-stragographic markers
25
Q

Compare biostratigraphy correlation

with lithostratographic correlation

A

biostratigraphy is better than lithostratohgraphic correlation b/c bio is looking at fossils, so its over a much larger area than just looking over the bedding of one region

26
Q

What is biostratigraphy correlation

A

looking at fossils
-this region has this kind of fossils, the same fossil occurs over here, but in area A, the fossils are found in the one bed, while the same fossil in area B is in 2 Layers,

27
Q

What is an index fossil

A

-if a species has a short lifespan (say gets extinct after 10m.y), then we can use them to relatively date everything that includes them, and they will have
occured at around that timespan
-if species lived for a very long time, it isnt an index fossil

28
Q

Coloradeu plateau? what is it?

A

Place to see the 3 national parks in US

  • it is large platform with little tectonic activity,
  • grand canyon oldest rocks about 2b.y old
  • lots of angular conformities in grand canyon, which is also max 2600m deep
29
Q

define isotope

A

Atom of an element with a specific number of protons and electrons

30
Q

Define natural radioactivity

A

isotopic changes via spontaneous emission of particles or radiation

31
Q

what is radioactivity

A

when unstable nuclei spontaneously decay

32
Q

3 types of radioactive decay

A

1) Alpha decay, in which unstable parent nucleus emits 2 protons and 2 neutrons
b) Beta decay - electron emmited from nucleus
c) Electron capture - proton captures an electron and is converted to a neutron (which is 1 proton 1 electron)

33
Q

Age equation of radioactive decay

A

T - age of sample
D - Number of atoms of daughter isotope in sample
P - number of atoms in parent isotope
Lambda - decay constant of parent isotope, equal to inverse of radioactive half life of parent isotope times ln(2)

D=P/(e^(lambda*t))

34
Q

What is half life? Is it linear?

A

Each half life represents the time it takes for half of parent element to decay to daughter element
-not linear, curve looks like y=1/x, cuz first half life is a lot of stuff being decayed, second is less stuff, horizontal asymptote, never reaches 0

35
Q

Methods of dating

A

Relatively crude sample, 150$, very accurate
OR
-microbeam – more expensive
-extremely high spatial resolution,high accuracy, 500$

36
Q 
Common half lifes:
Carbon 14
daughter?
Half life?
Effective dating range?
Minerals that can be dated? (this is all wrt carbon 14)
A

carbon 14: daugher is nitrogen 14, half life 5730 yrs, effective dating range 0-100k years, minerals and rocks that can be dated: plants (coal) bone, shells

37
Q

Applications of dating:

dating of igneous rocks

A

BREAK THERES NO ANSWER JUST REMEMBER AN APLICATION OF DATING IS DATING IGNEOUS ROCK

38
Q

Applications of dating:

dating of metamorphic rocks

A

heat it up, reset the clock to age of sample

39
Q

Applications of dating:

dating of fossils and sedimentary rocks

A

can date fossils, old or young, could just use radiation that comes out of sample

40
Q

Applications of dating:

dating of artifacts

A

NO ANSWER JUST REMEMBER artifact dating is an application

41
Q

Applications of dating:

dating of geologic sequences

A

instead of using relative dating, we just use radiation that comes out of sample to get the exact time span

42
Q

Applications of dating:

calibration of geologic time

A

put number on boundaries based on dating of ash layers to put a time between periods

43
Q

Applications of dating:

reconstructing earth through time

A

looking at things like pole wandering, where continents were, date the magnetic strips to determine where the poles were at certain time periods

44
Q

Applications of dating:

reconstructing life through time

A

what organisms were living at what time periods

EAS 210 (24 decks)

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