Unconformities
This unconformity is made when an igneous or metamorphic rock is eroded, allowing for new sediment to build on top of it.
What is a nonconformity?
This is an example of something we would expect to fossilized easily.
What is a shark tooth, dinosaur bone, etc.?
This is the principle which states that the oldest rock layers are beneath the newer ones.
What is superposition?
This is the idea that Earth's features and its life-forms change quickly in abrupt, violent events.
What is catastrophism?
This type of isotope would be best for dating some of Earth's oldest rocks and fossils.
What is an isotope with a long half-life? (examples accepted)
This unconformity is made when a sedimentary rock is eroded, allowing for new sediment to build on top of it.
What is a disconformity?
A million-year-old bacteria colony would be an example of this type of fossil.
What is a microfossil?
This is the principle which states that rock layers are initially formed in continuous sheets spreading in all directions.
What is lateral continuity?
This is the idea that processes occurring today are similar to processes that occurred in the past. In other words, the Earth is changing constantly in similar ways throughout time.
What is uniformitarianism?
This object might be accurately dated using radiocarbon dating (i.e., carbon-14 dating).
What is a once living organism? (such as a mammoth in ice or a mosquito preserved in amber)
This unconformity is made when an angled sedimentary rock layer is eroded, allowing for new sediment to build on top of it.
What is an angular unconformity?
These three characteristics define an index fossil, the kind of fossil geologists use to identify accurate ages of rock layers through relative age dating.
What are abundance, prevalence, and short existence?
This is the principle which states that all rock layers are initially formed in flat planes, and that they are only folded or deformed after their formation.
What is original horizontality?
This is a type of fossil which gives paleontologists an idea as to how an ancient organism might have moved, lived, or behaved. They are not a fossil of the creature itself, but something left behind by that creature. Provide one good example in your answer.
This is the reason why a sedimentary rock would not be effectively dated using carbon-14.
What is the sedimentary rock's composition, in the sense that carbon would measure the age of the sediments rather than the actual age of the rock after formation?
A diagram depicts a dike which has formed on top of sedimentary rock layers. Through this dike, portions of rock appear visible from beneath the dike. The diagram would then be considered an example of this geological phenomenon.
What is an inclusion?
Two fossils are discovered. One of them appears to be the imprint of a decomposed trilobite, while the other is a replica of the creature composed of rock sediment. The imprint and replica are examples of these two types of fossils.
What are mold and cast?
Suppose we are at the Grand Canyon. This is how we might infer a correlation between rock layers on either side of the landmark. In other words, we are developing a correlation between the layers.
What is superposition, lateral continuity, relative age dating, radiometric dating, absolute age dating, etc.?
What is a half-life?
These are the terms used for the radioactive isotope which decays, and the stable isotope it decays into.
What are the parent and daughter isotopes?
A diagram depicts a sequence of rock layers, which all appear to have a cut/crack in them where some displacement has occurred. The diagram shows an example of this geological phenomenon.
What is a fault?
This is the process through which a fish skeleton might be fossilized.
What is decomposition, burial, mineral replacement, and uplift to the surface? (or similarly phrased, reasonable answer)
This is the reason why radiocarbon dating, in particular, is less useful for dating most rocks as opposed to living organisms.
What is lack of carbon presence? (i.e., there is minimal carbon 14 and carbon 12 exchange in an arbitrary rock)
Part a: This is the comparative age of a rock or fossil with respect to other rocks or fossils.
Part b: This is the actual numerical age of a rock or fossil.
What is relative age?
What is absolute age?
Daily Double!
Bonus Question: These are some things one might discover about ancient organisms based on studies of modern organisms similar to those ancient ones.