How to do relative dating

Contents:
  1. WHO'S ON FIRST? A RELATIVE DATING ACTIVITY
  2. WHO'S ON FIRST? RELATIVE DATING (Student Activity)
  3. Relative dating

Relative dating is a science which deals with the comparative study of events from the past. The absolute age of these events need not inevitably be known. It is composed of rocks and sediments deposited over millions of years. The layers are horizontally placed.


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Thus, it follows the principle of horizontality. While some of the layers are uplifted, most of the landform is left undisturbed by nature. It is the evidence of Earth's history over such a long span of time. It is a perfect example of superposition layers deposited one above the other and lateral continuity undisturbed and covering large distances. Relative Dating Techniques in Geology. Geology refers to the study of the rocks and sediments that to a great extent compose the Earth. This oldest relative dating technique in the branch of geology, as the name suggests, focuses mainly on the strata.

It concentrates mainly on the placement of the strata as well as its chronological sequence. The principle of superposition is the core principle used in this method. Strata is the layered arrangement or soil or rocks which lie parallel, one above the other. Each layer has a unique layer and consists of different sediments or material. The principle of superposition states that the layer which lies at the bottom is older than the one on top of it. In stratigraphic relative dating, the succession of layers can be seen as the timeline of its formation or deposition. However, this is mainly applicable to an undisturbed arrangement of rocks.

Most of the rock arrangements are disturbed by natural forces, such as wind and water, which result in unconformity in the sequence of rocks. Layers get deposited above one another, over time, and fossils get trapped in these layers. When we find two fossils in the same strata of soil, we assume that both fossils were deposited during the same time period. If an animal fossil is found, and the time during which it lived is known, it helps us understand the time period of any other fossil found in the same strata.

WHO'S ON FIRST? A RELATIVE DATING ACTIVITY

Animals evolve rapidly, and these evolution's are reflected by the variations in their bones or teeth. When they die, their remains get fossilized and are used by scientists to determine the era in which they lived. These fossils are then used as standards to determine the age of other fossils. They are called 'Index fossils'. An example can be fossils of some species of monkeys found alongside fossils of human species. This technique of relative dating mainly works on the principle of chemical changes taking place in the fossils.

When remains of living beings get buried into sediments and turn to fossils, the bacteria present in the soil breakdown the proteins and fats from the bones. Most of the nitrogen contained in these fossils gets depleted progressively. Ground water percolates into these rocks and deposits its component elements such as fluorine, uranium, etc.

WHO'S ON FIRST? RELATIVE DATING (Student Activity)

The amount of fluorine in the fossils thus increases. Sequence the remaining cards by using the same process. When you finish, you should have a vertical stack of cards with the top card representing the youngest fossils of this rock sequence and the "TC" card at the bottom of the stack representing the oldest fossils.

Starting with the top card, the letters should be in order from youngest to oldest. Return to top Procedure Set B: Each card represents a particular rock layer with a collection of fossils that are found in that particular rock stratum. All of the fossils represented would be found in sedimentary rocks of marine origin. Figure 2-A gives some background information on the individual fossils. The letters on the other cards have no significance to the sequencing procedure and should be ignored at this time.

Find a rock layer that has at least one of the fossils you found in the oldest rock layer. This rock layer would be younger as indicated by the appearance of new fossils in the rock stratum. Keep in mind that extinction is forever. Once an organism disappears from the sequence it cannot reappear later.


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  • Use this information to sequence the cards in a vertical stack of fossils in rock strata. Arrange them from oldest to youngest with the oldest layer on the bottom and the youngest on top. This will enable your teacher to quickly check whether you have the correct sequence. Three-lobed body; burrowing, crawling, and swimming forms; extinct NAME: Many were large a few rare species were 5 feet in length ; crawling and swimming forms; extinct NAME: Primitive form of chordate; floating form with branched stalks; extinct NAME: Jellyfish relative with stony Cnidaria calcareous exoskeleton found in reef environments; extinct NAME: Multibranched relative of starfish; lives attached to the ocean bottom; some living species "sea lilies" NAME: Primitive armored fish; extinct NAME: Shelled, amoeba-like organism NAME: Snails and relatives; many living species NAME: Clams and oysters; many living species NAME: The study and comparison of exposed rock layers or strata in various parts of the earth led scientists in the early 19th century to propose that the rock layers could be correlated from place to place.

    Finding the key bed in these situations may help determine whether the fault is a normal fault or a thrust fault. The principle of inclusions and components explains that, with sedimentary rocks, if inclusions or clasts are found in a formation, then the inclusions must be older than the formation that contains them. For example, in sedimentary rocks, it is common for gravel from an older formation to be ripped up and included in a newer layer.

    A similar situation with igneous rocks occurs when xenoliths are found. These foreign bodies are picked up as magma or lava flows, and are incorporated, later to cool in the matrix. As a result, xenoliths are older than the rock which contains them. The principle of original horizontality states that the deposition of sediments occurs as essentially horizontal beds. Observation of modern marine and non-marine sediments in a wide variety of environments supports this generalization although cross-bedding is inclined, the overall orientation of cross-bedded units is horizontal.

    Relative dating

    The law of superposition states that a sedimentary rock layer in a tectonically undisturbed sequence is younger than the one beneath it and older than the one above it. This is because it is not possible for a younger layer to slip beneath a layer previously deposited. This principle allows sedimentary layers to be viewed as a form of vertical time line, a partial or complete record of the time elapsed from deposition of the lowest layer to deposition of the highest bed. The principle of faunal succession is based on the appearance of fossils in sedimentary rocks.

    As organisms exist at the same time period throughout the world, their presence or sometimes absence may be used to provide a relative age of the formations in which they are found. Based on principles laid out by William Smith almost a hundred years before the publication of Charles Darwin 's theory of evolution , the principles of succession were developed independently of evolutionary thought.

    The principle becomes quite complex, however, given the uncertainties of fossilization, the localization of fossil types due to lateral changes in habitat facies change in sedimentary strata , and that not all fossils may be found globally at the same time. The principle of lateral continuity states that layers of sediment initially extend laterally in all directions; in other words, they are laterally continuous. As a result, rocks that are otherwise similar, but are now separated by a valley or other erosional feature, can be assumed to be originally continuous.

    Layers of sediment do not extend indefinitely; rather, the limits can be recognized and are controlled by the amount and type of sediment available and the size and shape of the sedimentary basin. Sediment will continue to be transported to an area and it will eventually be deposited. However, the layer of that material will become thinner as the amount of material lessens away from the source. Often, coarser-grained material can no longer be transported to an area because the transporting medium has insufficient energy to carry it to that location.

    In its place, the particles that settle from the transporting medium will be finer-grained, and there will be a lateral transition from coarser- to finer-grained material. The lateral variation in sediment within a stratum is known as sedimentary facies. If sufficient sedimentary material is available, it will be deposited up to the limits of the sedimentary basin. Often, the sedimentary basin is within rocks that are very different from the sediments that are being deposited, in which the lateral limits of the sedimentary layer will be marked by an abrupt change in rock type. Melt inclusions are small parcels or "blobs" of molten rock that are trapped within crystals that grow in the magmas that form igneous rocks.

    In many respects they are analogous to fluid inclusions.

    INTRODUCTION

    Melt inclusions are generally small — most are less than micrometres across a micrometre is one thousandth of a millimeter, or about 0. Nevertheless, they can provide an abundance of useful information. Using microscopic observations and a range of chemical microanalysis techniques geochemists and igneous petrologists can obtain a range of useful information from melt inclusions.

    Two of the most common uses of melt inclusions are to study the compositions of magmas present early in the history of specific magma systems.