EARTH 7 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Carbon-12, Lithostratigraphy, Decay Product
Document Summary
Relative dating: age of rocks compared to other rocks (method used. Absolute dating: figuring out the age of rocks in years (method used. Geological timescale provides a relative and absolute age of information simultaneously. Original horizontality (developed by nicolas steno, also figured out how fossils get into rocks) If sediments are being moved, they will settle horizontally into low lying areas. If it found not horizontally, something (such as tectonic plate shifting) must have occurred. If we see something disrupting layers, we can assume both sides were once continuous (meaning sediments deposited evenly and laterally) Strata form by the accumulated of rock particles, in which the newest are on the top and the oldest are on the bottom. Deep time: james hutton"s insight, which would later be popularized by lyell, into how old earth truly is; no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end . Uniformity: the present is the key to the past.
