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MODULE 3 – Earth Science Subject Teacher:

UNIT 3- THE EARTH’S HISTORY

Learning Objectives:
a. Explain how relative and absolute dating were used to determine the subdivisions of
geologic time scale.

Lesson 3.1. History of the Earth

How did scientists trace the history of the Earth?

- All the processes that you’ve learned require long periods of time to create a noticeable
change in the Earth’s surface. You can just imagine how long it would take to create an
ocean as vast as the Pacific Ocean if the ocean floor moves away at about 10 cm/year. It
is then important to know the history of the earth to learn the complexities of its past and
be able to make use of it to understand the present.

 Relative Dating
- Using relative dating requires one to know the basic principles such as law of superposition,
principle of original horizontality, principle of cross cutting relationships, and unconformities.
It means identifying which rock units formed first, second, third, and so on.
- It tells the sequence in which events occurred, not how long ago they occurred.

A. Law of Superposition
- This is the most basic principle in relative dating. It
states that in an undeformed sequence of sedimentary rock,
the layers found on the top are the youngest rocks and the
layers at the bottom are the oldest rocks. It may seem too
obvious, but this principle has only been clearly stated in 1669
by the Danish anatomist, geologist and priest, Nicolaus Steno.

B. Principle of Original Horizontality

- Steno stated that an
undeformed sequence is
the one where the layers
are still in a horizontal position. Principle of original
horizontality states that sediments are deposited in a
horizontal position. E.g. the rock layers of Grand Canyon
are in the horizontal position and have not been
deformed.

C. Principle of Cross-Cutting Relationship

- This principle determines which events happened
first depending on which rocks were affected.
You will notice in the figure that fault A is older than
the conglomerate, but younger than the
sandstone. This is because the fault has cut cross
the sandstone and yet the conglomerate was
unaffected.

D. Unconformities
 - Throughout Earth’s history, the deposition of
sediment has been interrupted again and again. All
such breaks in the rock record are termed
unconformities. An unconformity represents a long
period during which deposition stopped, erosion
removed previously formed rocks, and then deposition
resumed. Unconformities are important features
because they represent significant geologic events in
Earth history. Moreover, their recognition helps us
identify what intervals of time are not represented in
the rock record.
- There are three basic types of unconformities:
angular unconformities, disconformities, and nonconformities. Perhaps the most easily
recognized unconformity is an angular unconformity. It appears as tilted or folded sedimentary
rocks that are overlain by younger, more flat-lying strata. An angular unconformity indicates
that during the pause in deposition, a period of deformation (folding or tilting) and erosion
occurred.

 Absolute Dating
- Absolute age of a rock or object is different from
relative age. With absolute age dating, scientists
determine the absolute age of a rock in millions of
years before present rather than just the age of the
rock relative to the rock units around it. This
information helps geologists develop more precise
geological history models for the rocks and regions
they study.
- Absolute age is generally determined using a technique called radiometric dating, which
uses radioactive isotopes or parent isotopes (unstable isotopes) of elements in the rock to
estimate the age of the rock.
- Isotopes are elements that have the same number of protons but different number of
neutrons. Some isotopes are unstable and decay (break down into other isotopes) over
time. This process is called radioactive decay. In radioactive decay, a particle (e.g., a
neutron, electron, or x-ray photon) is emitted from a radioactive atom, called the parent
atom. After the particle is emitted the parent atom is altered to form a different isotope
(often a different element) called the daughter atom. To be useful for radiometric dating,
the daughter isotope atom should not be radioactive (i.e., it should not disappear once it
has formed).
- Scientists have studied and measure the radioactivity of different elements in the lab to
calculate the rate of decay for each isotope. Though the rate of decay varies between
 isotopes from milliseconds to billions of years, each isotope decays at a regular and
predictable rate. This is called the half-life of the isotope.
- The half-life is defined as the amount of time it takes for half of the atoms of the
radioactive parent isotope to decay to atoms of the daughter isotope. The half-life is
independent of the number of atoms at a given time; for example, it takes the same
amount of time for the amount of parent isotope to decrease from 100% to 50% as it takes
for the amount of the parent isotope to decrease from 50% to 25% of its original value.

When a rock initially forms there are generally very few daughter atoms present in
the rock; thus, if we know the length of the half-life for a particular radioactive
isotope and we measure the amount of parent and daughter isotope in a rock, we
can then calculate the age of the rock. This is the basis for radiometric dating. The
concentrations of the different isotopes are measured using an instrument called an
isotope ratio mass spectrometer.

 Fossils
- Aside from rocks, geologists use the remains of living organisms in understanding the history
of the earth. Some fossils are formed from parts of an organism and this is called body
fossils. And some are fossils that give signs or clues that life was present at that time, these
are called trace fossils.
- These fossils contain a lot of information about the past such as the kind of organisms that
lived in the past, the environment where those organisms lived and the evolution of those
organisms as their environment changed. But not all organisms turned into fossils therefore
scientists cannot learn everything about the life on earth in the past.
- There are also fossils that are used to determine the age of a rock. These are index fossils
and these are only found in rocks of particular
age. The organisms that turned into index fossils
have a relatively short life, spanning from a few
million years to a few hundred million years.
Index fossils are also found in most of the
common rocks around the word and are easy
to identify.
- The methods used for dating the age of rocks
are also used for fossils. Absolute dating is more
commonly used since it can give exact
numerical dates for the age but relative dating
can also be used to determine which fossils are
older.

 Geologic Time Scale

- The geologic time scale is the “calendar” for events in Earth history. It subdivides all time
into named units of abstract time called in descending order of duration: eons, eras,
periods, epochs, and ages. Eons represent the longest amount of time. There are two main
eons in the history of the earth, Phanerozoic and the Precambrian eon. Eons are followed
by eras and the end of an era is marked by a change in life form on earth. Then these eras
are further divided into periods that are characterized by a less profound change in life
forms. And finally, the epochs, the smallest unit in the geologic time scale.
- The enumeration of those geologic time units is based on stratigraphy, which is the
correlation and classification of rock strata. The fossil forms that occur in the rocks,
however, provide the chief means of establishing a geologic time scale, with the timing of
the emergence and disappearance of widespread species from the fossil record being
 used to delineate the beginnings and endings of ages, epochs, periods, and other
intervals.

- The change in life form between two separate divisions can sometimes be associated with
mass extinctions. The names used in the subdivisions were based on the rock types that
characterize them of the location where the rocks were first described. For example,
Cretaceous, a period in Mesozoic era was derived from the word Creta meaning “chalk”
since during that period, there were excessive deposits of biogenic sedimentary rock
chalk. Another is the Pennsylvanian period, which was named after the state of
Pennsylvania where most rocks of the same age are widespread.
 CONCEPTS AT A GLANCE

1. Relative dating is used to determine which samples are older while absolute dating gives
numerical date for the samples. Both are the methods used by geologists to determine the
age of rocks and fossils.
2. Absolute dating is a method which uses unstable elements to determine the exact age of a
rock.
3. The geologic time scale divides the history of the earth into four: eons, eras, periods, and
epoch. The ongoing phase on the earth’s history is the Phanerozoic eon, Cenozoic era,
Quaternary period, and Holocene epoch.

Reference/s:

Sia, S.R. and L.A. Cortez.(2016).Earth and life science.Quezon Ave., Quezon City.Sibs Publishing House,
Inc.
Cosscience1 / Lesson 9-01 geologic time and maps. (n.d.). cosscience1 / FrontPage. Retrieved from
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01%20Geologic%20Time%20and%20Maps
Geologic time scale. (2018, October 26). NPS.gov (U.S. National Park Service). Retrieved from
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/geology/time-scale.htm
Geologic time | Periods, time scale, & facts. (n.d.). Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/science/geologic-time
Overview of relative and absolute dating – Introductory physical geology laboratory manual – First
Canadian edition (v.3 – Jan 2020). (2020, January 8). OPENPRESS.USASK.CA – An Open Academic
Publishing Platform. Retrieved from https://openpress.usask.ca/geolmanual/chapter/overview-of-
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