GEOL 003 Lecture 8: Chp. 8 - Geologic Time
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Relative time - which came first, second. Which do you think happened first the deposition of the rocks or the cutting through of those rocks by the river. Rocks at the bottom are the oldest. Older rocks may be cut by younger rocks or features. Younger rocks may be incorporate pieces of older rocks. 18th century - james hutton watch the landscape of this farmland and invented our modern concept of geologic time. Observation : the landscape remained unchanged with the passage of time. The same slow acting geological processes that operate today have operated in the past meaning it takes a long time to influence the earth"s surface significantly( uniformitarianism ) the landscape by forming new mountains (cyclical change) He called these eroded surfaces representing gaps in time, All land should be worn flat (erosion) unless some process renews unconformities. Controversial resulting message - earth must be much older than the commonly accepted age of 6k years.
