Pieces of the Past
Any impression or trace of a prehistoric organism preserved in rock.
What is:
a Fossil
What principle states that in an undisturbed sequence of sedimentary rock, the oldest layers are at the bottom and the youngest layers are at the top?
What is:
The Principle of Superposition
The term for a rock's specific, measurable age in years before the present is known as its?
What is:
Absolute Age
Geologic Time is set up based on which two factors?
What is:
Major changes in life forms and Mass Extinctions
What processes have to occur to for the best odds of a Fossil forming?
What is:
rapid burial shortly after death.
A sequence of four undisturbed rock layers, labeled E, F, G, and H from bottom to top. Which layer is the oldest?
What is:
Layer E?
What is the natural process is used to determine the absolute age of rocks and minerals?
What is:
Radioactive Decay?
What division of the Geologic Time Scale is the largest unit of time?
What is:
An Eon
Studying fossils provides evidence about what 2 aspects of Earth's Past?
What is:
Past Life & Environments
What does the principle of Original Horizontality state?
What is:
Sediments are laid down in flat-horizontal Layer's.
What happens to a radioactive isotope (parent isotope) during the process of radioactive decay?
What is:
It slowly breaks down into a stable daughter atom
Which term represents the smallest unit of time often defined by regional variations in life forms within the Geologic Time Scale?
What is:
An Epoch
A fossilized fern found in Antarctica tells us what about the past Antarctic environment?
What is:
It was warmer more humid and suitable for plant life.
What is the main difference between relative age dating and absolute age dating?
What is:
Relative determines order of events & Absolute determines age in years.
If a sample has a one to one ration of parent and daughter atoms how many half-lives have occurred?
What is:
One Half-Life
The Geologic Time Scale is primarily divided based on:
What is:
Major geological and biological events
A scientist who specializes in the study of fossils to understand past life and environments is called a:
What is:
A Paleontologist
Principle of Uniformitarianism suggests that?
What is:
Processes observed today (like erosion and weathering) happened in the past and at similar rates.
The definition of half-life in the context of radiometric dating.
What is:
The time it takes for half of the parent isotope to decay into the daughter isotope.
Show the correct order of time divisions from largest to smallest (4 divisions include: Period, Eon, Epoch, Era)
What is:
Eon -> Era -> Period -> Epoch