Relative Dating
Which law states that material on the bottom is older than material above it?
Law of Superposition
What is the half-life of Potassium - 40 written in standard notation?
1,300,000,000 (otherwise known as 1.3 billion years!)
How long ago did the Cambrian Period begin?
542 million years ago
On which page of the ESRT can you find the location of North America 458 million years ago?
Which law states that layers are initially deposited in horizontal layers and may experience deformation after they have been deposited?
Law of Original Horizontality
If a sample contains 25% of the Uranium 238 it started with, how many half-lives has it gone through?
2 half lives
During with Era did the earliest birds appear?
Mesozoic
Which page of the ESRT contains information about life on Earth during the Mesozoic Era?
ESRT Page 8
Which law states that a feature that cuts across rock layers is younger than the layers it cuts across?
Why can't Carbon-14 be used to date objects older than approximately 50,000 years?
Which four periods have an uninterrupted rock record in New York State?
Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian
Which page of the ESRT indicates that we live in the Manhattan Prong Region of NY State?
ESRT Page 2
Which law states that layers are originally deposited in uninterrupted layers?
Law of Lateral Continuity
How old is a rock that has undergone 4 half lives of Carbon-14?
22,800 years old
In which epoch and period could the earliest fossil of a vascular plant be found?
Late Silurian
Which page of the ESRT states that limestones, shales, sandstones, and dolostones were deposited in NY state during the Cambrian Period?
ESRT Page 3
What law states that a gap in the geologic record indicates erosion between times of deposition. Time is literally missing between layers because these layers were removed.
Law of Unconformities and Missing Time
According to the Earth Science Reference Tables, which radioactive element formed at the time Earth's origin has just reached about one half-life?
Uranium -238
How many NY index fossils are listed as part of the group "Brachiopods"? What are their names?
2. Eospirifer and Mucrospirifer
On which page of the ESRT can you find information about the disintegration product (stable daughter atoms) of Rubidium-87?
ESRT Page 1