Stratigraphy (study of rock layers) A tug-of-war as rocks got sorted into geological periods in the new science of stratigraphy en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Geological_map_of_Great_Britain.jpg MurchisonSedgewick

Two Kinds of Ages Relative - Know Order of Events But Not Dates Civil War Happened Before W.W.II Bedrock in Wisconsin Formed Before The Glaciers Came Absolute - Know Dates Civil War World War II Glaciers Left Wisconsin About 11,000 Years Ago

RELATIVE DATING FIRST Relative Dating: Putting geologic events into proper order (oldest to youngest), but without absolute ages. We use a number of principles and laws to do this

STENO’S PRINCIPLES OF RELATIVE DATING (1669)

Principles of Relative Dating Principle of horizontality Principle of superposition Principle of crosscutting relations Principle of Inclusion Principle of faunal succession

Law of Original Horzontality Sedimentary units and lava flows are deposited horizontally.

Horizontally bedded sedimentary strata as seen from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon illustrating the immensity of geologic time. It took hundreds of millions of years for these strata to be deposited as layers of sediment that were eventually converted into rock. THE GRAND CANYON

Law of Superposition the layer below is older than the layer above.

THE GRAND CANYON Kaibab Limestone Toroweap Formation Coconino Sandstone Hermit Shale Supai Group

Law of Cross-cutting Relationships A rock is younger than any rock across which it cuts.

An basalt dike cutting through granite. The basalt dike is younger than the granite. (Photo taken on Cadillac Mountain, Bar Harbor, Maine by E. L. Crisp, August, 2005).

PRINCIPLE OF INCLUSION The Principle of Inclusion: a rock body that contains inclusions of preexisting rocks is younger than the rocks from which the inclusions came from. Which is older, a cake or the ingredients that are used to make the cake?

index fossil short-lived organism; points to narrow range of geologic time fossil assemblage group of fossils associated together

Law of Faunal Succession Index fossils are used to correlate age- equivalent strata via the Principle of Faunal Succession. Index fossils have the following characteristics: –Short geologic time range. –Wide geographic distribution –Abundant –Easily recognizable

PRINCIPLE OF FAUNAL SUCCESSION Although rocks may be correlated based on physical correlation and superposition, this can only be done in a limited area where beds can be traced from one area to another. Also if we are correlating over a large area (from region to region, or continent to continent), it is unlikely that we can use physical correlation because rock types will change.

To correlate over large regions and to correlate age-equivalent strata, geologists must use fossils. The use of fossils to correlate sedimentary strata is based on the work of William Smith (1812), the first to accurately state and use the Principle of Fossil Succession. The Principle of Faunal Succession states the assemblages of fossils succeed themselves in a definite and determinable order and the age of sedimentary strata can be determined by their contained fossils.

PRINCIPLE OF FOSSIL SUCCESSION The Principle of Fossil Succession is based on the following: –Life has varied through time. Of course this implies that evolutionary change has occurred over time. –Because biologic diversity has varied over time, fossil assemblages are different in successivley younger strata. –The relative ages of fossil assemblages can be determined by superposition.

Radiometric dating: Discovery Henri Becquerel ( ) In 1896, Discovery of radioactivity paved the way for the precise dating of events in the geological record

Pioneers Arthur Holmes ( ) Ernest Rutherford ( ) Rutherford figured out a technique to date the age of rocks in 1904 Holmes developed this kind of ‘radiometric dating’ still further. In 1913 Holmes dated some rocks from Ceylon to 1600 million years

Oldest Rock Oldest rocks on Earth are the Acasta Gniess of northern Canada 4030 million years old © NASA Acasta Gneiss Zircon mineral

Oldest Grain Ma zircon grain © NASA Ancient mineral grain found at Jack Hills, Australia Mineral grain eroded from first crust and then deposited in a new rock Dates the Earth’s first crust to around 4404 million years

earliest life cyanobacteria: primitive single- celled organisms found in Australia and dated at 3.7 billion years old

radiometric dating as minerals crystallize in magma; they trap atoms of radioactive isotopes in their crystal structures radioactive isotopes will decay immediately and continuously as time passes, rock contains less parent and more daughter uses continuous decay to measure time since rock formed only possible since late 1890’s -- radioactivity discovered in 1896

The rate of decay from parent to daughter isotope depends on its half life. The half life is the amount of time needed for half the parent isotope to decay to daughter isotope Half life: 0 Half life: 1 Half life: 2 Linear Exponential HALF-LIFE

Radiometric Dating: Half-Life

have nuclei that spontaneously decay daughterparent radioactive isotopes -- emit or capture subatomic particles parent: decaying radioactive isotope daughter: decay daughter

example: Uranium 238 decay to Lead 206 (stable) several steps (each has its own half-life)

most common dating systems uranium-thorium-lead dating (previous example) U-238, U-235, Th-232 each of these decays through a series of steps to Pb U-238 to Pb-206half-life = 4.5 by U-235 to Pb-207half-life = 713 my Th-232 to Pb-208half-life = 14.1 my potassium-argon dating K-40 to Ar-40half-life = 1.3 by … argon is a gas--may escape (ages too young--daughter missing) rubidium-strontium dating Rb-87 to Sr-87half-life = 47 by

carbon-14 to nitrogen- 14 dating C-14 to N-14 half-life about 5700 years Used to date artifacts (human remains or evidence thereof) Only accurate to about 40,000 years

Formula for radioactive decay Amt remaining = initial amt (1/2) n n = number of half-lives. Or you can use the arrow method

Half-life Examples Fluorine-21 has a half-life of seconds. If you start with g of fluorine-21, how many grams would remain after 60.0 s? GIVEN: t ½ = 5.00 s m i = g m f = ? total time = s WORK: n = 60.00s ÷ 5.00s =12 m f = m i (½) 5 m f = (25 g)(0.5) 5 m f = g

Fluorine-21 has a half-life of seconds. If you start with 25 g of fluorine-21, how many grams would remain after s? GIVEN: t ½ = 5.00 s m i = 25 g m f = ? total time = s WORK: n = 60.00s / 12.00s = 5 = number of half-lives Go 5 arrows. 1  1/2  1/4  1/8  1/16  1/32 1/32(25g) = g remains

Half-life problems Nitrogen-13 emits beta radiation and decays to carbon-13 with a half-life of 10 minutes. If you start with 2.00g of Nitrogen-13 how much will remain after 40 minutes.

The half-life of oxygen-19 is 30 seconds, What fraction of the original isotope will remain after 4 min? If it takes 11.1 days for grams of radon- 222 to decay down to 5.00 grams, what is the half-life of radon-222?

Radon-222 has a half-life of 3.8 days, and decays to produce Polonium-218. (a) If you started with an 8.00 gram sample of radon-222, and 19 days goes by, how much radon-222 will be left? (b) How long will it take for the 8.00g of radon-222 to be reduced to.125 gram? Remember the half-life is 3.8 days. (c) If you start with 8.00g, what percentage remains after 7.6 days? (d) If the ratio of parent isotope to daughter isotope is 1:7, how many half-lives have passed?

basic geochronological assumptions decay constants constant through geological time igneous rocks are most reliable for dating …metamorphism may cause loss of daughter products… …sedimentary rocks will give ages of source rocks… system closed to adding or subtracting of parent/daughter -- good reasons to believe this is correct from nuclear physics -- measurements of decay sequences in ancient supernovae yield the same values as modern lab measurements -- isotopic system and type of mineral (rock) are important -- careful procedure is essential to correct analysis