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Introduction To Geology: Phil Murphy

This document provides an introduction to various principles of geology, including principles of relative dating like superposition and cross-cutting relationships. It discusses different conceptions of Earth's history like catastrophism and uniformitarianism. Various methods of absolute dating are also introduced, such as radiometric dating techniques like carbon-14 dating that are used to determine the precise ages of rocks and fossils.

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Joshua Bacunawa
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44 views

Introduction To Geology: Phil Murphy

This document provides an introduction to various principles of geology, including principles of relative dating like superposition and cross-cutting relationships. It discusses different conceptions of Earth's history like catastrophism and uniformitarianism. Various methods of absolute dating are also introduced, such as radiometric dating techniques like carbon-14 dating that are used to determine the precise ages of rocks and fossils.

Uploaded by

Joshua Bacunawa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1

Introduction to Geology

Phil Murphy
[email protected]
2

“Civilisations are what they dig


from the Earth”
Gibbons
Decline and fall of the Roman Empire, 1776
3

“If Kuwait had of grown carrots


no one would have given a damn!”

Senior Source - NSA


4

Why is geology different from other


sciences?
• Often lacks experimental control
• Incompleteness of data
• Methodologies and procedures used to test
problems rather than the generation and testing of
universal laws

• GEOLOGY WORKS
• (everyone wants to drive to Sainsburys)
Principle of Superposition 5

12_04c.jpg
Principle of Original Horizontality 6

12_04e.jpg
7

Two kinds of ages


• Relative - know order of events but not dates
• Napoleonic wars happened before W.W.II
• Bedrock in Scotland formed before the glaciers
came

• Absolute - know dates


• Civil War 1803-1815
• World War II 1939-1945
• Glaciers finally left Scotland About 11,000 Years
Ago
8

Two conceptions of Earth history


• Catastrophism
• Assumption: great effects require great causes
• Earth history dominated by violent events

• Uniformitarianism
• Assumption: we can use cause and effect to
determine causes of past events
• Finding: Earth history dominated by small-scale
events typical of the present.
• Catastrophes do happen but are uncommon
9

Principles of Relative Dating


• Law of superposition
 Undeformed section of sedimentary or
layered igneous rocks
 Oldest rocks are on the bottom
• Principle of original horizontality
 Layers of sediment are generally deposited in
a horizontal position
 Rock layers that are flat have not been
disturbed (deformed)
• Principle of cross-cutting relationships
 Younger features cut across older features
10
Superposition
Strata in the Grand Canyon
11

Horizontality
12

Cross-cutting Relationship
13

Cross-cutting Relationship

Which
crater is
youngest?
14

Cross-cutting Relationships
15

Principles of Relative Dating


• Inclusions
• A piece of rock that is enclosed within
another rock
• Rock containing the inclusion is
younger
• Unconformity
• Break in rock record produced by
erosion and/or non-deposition of rock
• Represents period of geologic time
16

Principles of Relative Dating

• Types of unconformities
 Angular unconformity
• tilted rocks (disturbed) are overlain by flat-lying
rocks

 Disconformity
• strata on either side of the unconformity are
parallel

 Nonconformity
• metamorphic or igneous rocks in contact with
sedimentary strata
17

Angular Unconformity
18

Angular Unconformity
19

Angular Unconformity
20

Uniformitarianism
• Continuity of Cause and Effect
• Apply Cause and Effect to Future - Prediction
• Apply Cause and Effect to Present - Technology
• Apply Cause and Effect to Past –
Uniformitarianism

The present is the key to the


past
21

Ripple Marks - Scarborough


22

Fossil Ripple Marks


23

Modern Mud Cracks


24

Fossil Mud Cracks


25

The makings of good Index Fossils


• Abundant
• Widely-distributed (Global Preferred)
• Short-lived or rapidly changing
26

Correlation
27

The Geologic Time Scale


Quaternary Latin, “fourth” 1822
Tertiary Latin, “third” 1760
Cretaceous Latin creta, “chalk” 1822
Jurassic Jura Mountains, Switzerland 1795
Triassic Latin, “three-fold” 1834
Permian Perm, Russia 1841
Carboniferous Carbon-bearing 1822
Devonian Devonshire, England 1840
Silurian Silures, a pre-Roman tribe 1835
Ordovician Ordovices, a pre-Roman tribe 1879
Cambrian Latin Cambria, “Wales” 1835
28

Absolute ages: early attempts

• The Bible
• Add up dates in Bible
• Get an age of 4000-6000 B.C. for Earth
• John Lightfoot and Bishop Ussher - 4004 B.C.,
October 26th 9 a.m (1584)
• Too short!
29

Absolute ages: early attempts


• Salt in Ocean
• If we know the rate salt is added, and how much salt
is in ocean, we can find the age of oceans.
• Sediment thickness
• Add up thickest sediments for each period and
estimate rate.
• Both methods gave age of about 100 million
years
• Problem: rates variable
30

Radiometric Dating: Half-Life


31

Radiometric Decay
• Parent
• an unstable radioactive isotope

• Daughter product
• the isotopes resulting from the decay of a parent

• Half-life
• the time required for one-half of the radioactive
nuclei in a sample to decay
32

Radiometric Dating
• Principle of radioactive dating
 The percentage of radioactive toms that
decay during one half-life is always the
same (50%)

 However, the actual number of atoms that


decay continually decreases

 Comparing the ratio of parent to daughter


yields the age of the sample
33

Radioactive Decay Curve


34

Radioactive Decay Curve


35

Present Radiometric Dating Methods


Cosmogenic
• C-14  5700 Yr.

Primordial
• K-Ar (K-40) 1.25 B.Y.
• Rb-Sr (Rb-87)  48.8 B.Y
• U-235 704 M.Y.
36

Radiometric Dating
• Sources of error
 A closed system is required
 To avoid potential problems only fresh,
unweathered rock samples should be used

• Carbon-14 (radiocarbon) dating


 Half-life of only 5730 years
 Used to date very recent events
 C14 is produced in the upper atmosphere
37

Some Geologic Rates


Cutting of Grand Canyon
• 2 km/3 m.y. = 1 cm/15 yr

Uplift of Alps
• 5 km/10 m.y. = 1 cm/20 yr.

Opening of Atlantic
• 5000 km/180 m.y. = 2.8 cm/yr.

Uplift of White Mtns. (N.H.) Granites


• 8 km/150 m.y. = 1 cm/190 yr.
38

Some Geologic Rates


Movement of San Andreas Fault
• 5 cm/yr = 7 m/140 yr.

Growth of Mt. St. Helens


• 3 km/30,000 yr = 10 cm/yr.

Deposition of Niagara Dolomite


• 100 m/ 1 m.y.? = 1 cm/100 yr.

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