VIZUALIZING EARTH HISTORY

By Loren E. Babcock

Chapter 3

Geologic Time
 Geologic Time Scale
Compare relative age dating and numerical age dating.

Relative age dating (Older vs. younger)

Relative age dating is a technique of establishing a
chronology of events arranged in sequential order.

Relative dating puts events in sequence using Nicholas Stenos

principles of superposition, original horizontality, and original
lateral continuity; applying Charles Lyells principles of
cross-cutting relationships and included fragments; and
also applying William Smiths principle of biotic succession.
 Geologic Time Scale
Compare relative age dating and numerical age dating.

Numerical age dating Numerical age dating is a technique

of establishing when events occurred according to how
much time has elapsed since their occurrence.

Numerical age will involve in calculating many thousands,

millions, or billions of years ago an event occurred. Numerical
age dating techniques include counting tree rings,
counting layers of ice drilled from glaciers,
and counting sediment layers in ancient lakes.
 Geologic Time Scale
Understand the various techniques of stratigraphic correlation.

Stratigraphy Stratigraphy is the study of layered rocks,

including their compositions, origins, geometric
relationships, and ages.

Correlation Correlation is defined as matching of strata

from one location to another.

The goal of studying stratigraphy and correlation is to try

to match rock units from one place to another to determine
their environment of formation and deposition.
 Geologic Time Scale
Understand the various techniques of stratigraphic correlation.
 Geologic Time Scale
Understand the various techniques of stratigraphic correlation.
 Geologic Time Scale
Understand the various techniques of stratigraphic correlation.
 Geologic Time Scale
Understand the various techniques of stratigraphic correlation.
 Geologic Time Scale
Understand the various techniques of stratigraphic correlation.

Correlating Rock Units

Rock units can be correlated, using relative age dating techniques,

on the basis of their lithology (lithostratigraphy) or on the basis of
criteria that are proxies for geologic time (chronostratigraphy).

Fossils, variations in chemical isotopes, variations in physical

properties (such as radioactivity levels), and sequences of
unconformity-bounded strata are some of the variables that
provide an understanding of the relative timing of events in
geologic history, and which can be used to correlate strata
from one place to another.
 Geologic Time Scale
LITHOSTRATIGRAPHY

Lithostratigraphy involves the correlation of rocks on the basis of

lithology, or rock type.

The lithology of a rock usually involves some combination of the rock

composition, grain or crystal size, and color.

Lithostratigraphic units can be correlated according if they are

composed of sandstone, shale, conglomerate, limestone, or granite,
for instance, but commonly additional qualifiers are needed to
help distinguish one unit from another.

Color of a rock is often used as a guide to correlation.

 Geologic Time Scale
LITHOSTRATIGRAPHY

Lithostratigraphy Stratigraphic correlation on the basis of rock type.

Formation Fundamental unit of lithostratigraphy; it has a

definable top and bottom, and is mappable across
geographic space.
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BIOSTRATIGRAPHY

Biostratigraphy Zoning of stratigraphic layers, and

arrangement of those layers according to relative time of
deposition, using the ranges of fossils.

Zone (biozone) A stratigraphic interval defined by its fossil

content, and usually given the name of a characteristic fossil
present in that interval.
Geologic Time Scale
BIOSTRATIGRAPHY
 Geologic Time Scale
CHEMOSTRATIGRAPHY

Chemostratigraphy
Correlation of strata using
ratios of chemical isotopes.

Isotopic excursion A
positive or negative shift in the
isotopic ratio of an element as
recorded through a succession
of stratigraphic layers.
 Geologic Time Scale
SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHY

Unconformity - A surface of erosion or non-deposition.

Sequence stratigraphy - Correlation of strata on the basis

of erosion surfaces that separate packages of sediments
or sedimentary rocks called depositional sequences (sequences).
 Geologic Time Scale
SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHY

Unconformities fall into three basic kinds:

nonconformities,

angular unconformities, and

disconformities
 Geologic Time Scale
SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHY

Distinguish the three types of unconformities.

Nonconformities occur where sedimentary strata have been deposited

over top of crystalline (igneous or metamorphic) rock.

Angular unconformities occur when horizontally parallel strata are

deposited on tilted and eroded layers that may be
either vertical or at angle to the overlying horizontal layers.

Disconformities are unconformities between parallel layers

of sedimentary rocks which represents a period of
erosion or non-deposition.
 Geologic Time Scale
SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHY
 Geologic Time Scale
SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHY

Understand how events in Earth history are dated.

Eustatic (sea level) Global sea level.

Sequence (depositional sequence) A relatively

conformable package of sedimentary strata that are
bounded below and above by unconformities or their
equivalent conformities.
 Geologic Time Scale
OTHER CORRELATION TECHNIQUES
Measurements of the geophysical properties
of rocks are also indicators of lithology.

Gamma-ray profile - Sedimentary rocks emit varying amounts of

gamma rays depending on the amount of radioactive uranium,
thorium, and potassium they contain.

Gamma-ray profile can be used to correlate strata exposed at

the surface, or ones penetrated by drilling into the
subsurface.
Geologic Time Scale
Geologic Time Scale
 Geologic Time Scale
OTHER CORRELATION TECHNIQUES

Polarity directions Measuring polarity directions recorded

in rocks from the time the rocks were formed.

Earths polarity has switched many times during this planets

long history, and the sequence of normal and reversed
polarity episodes provides a good basis for the correlation of strata.
 Geologic Time Scale
OTHER CORRELATION TECHNIQUES
 Geologic Time Scale
Understand the geologic time scale.

The geologic time scale is a chronology, or calendar

of Earth history.

Units of geologic time are not natural or followed a

preset plan (or chapter outline) that Earth adhered to.
Geologic time units have been defined and named
by geologists who recognized that Earth
has passed through a series of stages, each
having its own distinct characteristics.

The switchover from one stage to the next, or the

boundary point between two time units, must be
arbitrary but based on sound scientific reasoning.
 Geologic Time Scale
Geologic time scale A
chronology of Earth history.
 Geologic Time Scale
Geologic time scale A chronology of Earth history.

GSSP - Acronym for Global Standard boundary

Section and Point, an internationally ratified point
in strata marking the boundary between two
time-rock (chronostratigraphic) units, and their
equivalent time units.

Chronostratigraphic unit - A time-rock

unit; the tangible representation of a
geologic time (geochronologic) unit.
 Geologic Time Scale
Distinguish geologic time units from chronostratigraphic units.
CHRONOSTRATIGRAPHY

System - The fundamental unit of chronostratigraphy.

Period - The unit of geologic time equivalent to a system.

Eons, eras, periods, and epochs are formally defined

units of geologic time. They are abstract entities, just
like minutes and hours.

The geologic time scale shows abstract time

units in their correct order, and hierarchically arranged.
 Geologic Time Scale
CHRONOSTRATIGRAPHY

Correlation techniques used to establish chronostratigraphic

units must be time-parallel, meaning that they must define units
representing the same instant (in geological terms)
everywhere in the world.

Biostratigraphic units (biozones or zones) qualify as

time-parallel units because biological evolution and
extinction is a non-repeating process. Each species
has had only one time of appearance on Earth, and
each has gone extinct or eventually will do so only once.
 Geologic Time Scale
CHRONOSTRATIGRAPHY

Chemostratigraphic profiles record variations in chemical isotopic

ratios locked into sediments through geologic time. Details of the
sine-wave pattern of positive and negative excursions
provide a virtual fingerprint for time units.

Sequence-stratigraphic units, or sequences, are bounded by

disconformities of short duration (geologically speaking).
They are commonly the result of rapid global sea level changes,
which means disconformities of equivalent age appear in
stratigraphic sections around the world.
 Geologic Time Scale
CHRONOSTRATIGRAPHY

Lithostratigraphic units, especially formations, are, for the most

part, not time-parallel.

Formations usually represent a sedimentary facies, the type of

sediment deposited in one area (say a beach, a reef, a lake,
or a stream), and are not directly tied to time intervals.

In the world today, many different sedimentary

facies coexist in time, and this was also true
in the geologic past.
 Geologic Time Scale
GEOCHRONOLOGY

Parent - In a radioactive decay series, an unstable isotope that

decays, or transforms, into a daughter product.

Daughter - Isotope formed from the

radioactive decay of a parent isotope.

Geochronology refers to the dating of rocks according to

their numerical ages. Geochronologic dating involves
laboratory analyses of radiometric isotopes.
In radioactive decay, a radiogenic parent isotope
changes through one or more steps, each referred to
as a daughter product, until becoming a stable end product.
 Geologic Time Scale
GEOCHRONOLOGY

Radioactive decay occurs in a number of ways.

Three processes useful in geochronology are called
alpha decay, beta decay, and electron capture.

Alpha decay is a type of nuclear fission, in which the parent

splits into two daughter products. It tends to occur in
isotopes that have large atomic numbers.

Beta decay is of two forms. In neither one does the atomic

mass of a nucleus change. Emission of a beta particle
(an electron, -), and the emission of an electrons
antiparticle, which is called a positron (+).
 Geologic Time Scale
GEOCHRONOLOGY

In electron capture, a parent nucleus captures one

of its own electrons and then emits a neutrino. The atomic
mass of a nucleus does not change. Potassium-40 (40K)
transforms to argon-40 (40Ar) by means of electron capture.

Half-life - the amount of time it takes for one-half of the

parent to decay to a daughter product is called a half-life.
Geologic Time Scale
GEOCHRONOLOGY
 Geologic Time Scale
GEOCHRONOLOGY

After one half-life, 50% of the parent remains,

and 50% of the atoms have become a daughter
product. After two half-lives, 25% (or half of the
50% amount) of the parent remains, and 75% of
the atoms have become a daughter product.
After three half-lives, 12.5% (or half of the 25%)
of the parent remains, and 87.5% of
the atoms have become a daughter product.
Further decay continues in the same way.