Geol Time Quiz

Front 1

How is geologic time split up?

Back 1

Relative and absolute age dating

Front 2

What is relative age dating?

Back 2

Placement of age, comparatively

Front 3

What is absolute age dating?

Back 3

quantified data

Front 4

Who is the "father of geology" by discovering relative age dating? When did he "discover" geologic time, and where did he discover it?

Back 4

James Hutton
1700
Siccar Point, Scotland

Front 5

What is uniformitarianism?

Back 5

The geologic processes happening today also happened in the past.
"The present is the key to the past"

Front 6

What are the five rules/laws of relative dating?

Back 6

Rule of Horizontality
Law of Superposition
Law of crosscutting relationships
Law of inclusion
Faunal succession

Front 7

What is the rule of horizontality based upon?

Back 7

flatlying layers

Front 8

What is the law of superposition based on?

Back 8

layers beneath layers are older

Front 9

What is the law of crosscutting relationships based upon?

Back 9

Faults going through layers are younger

Front 10

What is the law of inclusion based on?

Back 10

Inclusions are older (fragments of conglomerate are older than conglomerate)

Front 11

What is faunal succession based on?

Back 11

Fossils (remains of ancient organsims)
dinosaurs are older than mammoths

Front 12

What are two conditions necessary to preserve fossils?

Back 12

Hard parts (bones, teeth)
Rapid burial

Front 13

What are trace fossils?

Back 13

Indicators of ancient life, not the plant or animal itself (tracks, imprints)

Front 14

What are index fossils?

Back 14

Fossils that are widespread in a relatively short time span (mostly marine organisms)

Front 15

What is fossil correlation?

Back 15

Fossil comparison (from two areas)

Front 16

What are unconformities?

Back 16

a significant gap in the depositional record/sequence, "missing time"

Front 17

What are the three types of unconformities?

Back 17

Disconformity, Non-conformity, and angular unconformity

Front 18

What is a disconformity?

Back 18

Occurs between flat-lying sedimentary rocks
eroded
never deposited
significant time break (few million years)

Front 19

What is a non-conformity?

Back 19

Older metamorphic or intrusive igneous rocks are overlain by younger sedimentary strata

Front 20

What is an angular unconformity?

Back 20

An unconformity in which the older strata dip at an angle different from that of the younger beds.

Front 21

What is absolute age dating?

Back 21

putting numbers on "material,"
uses radioactive dating

Front 22

What is different about oxygen-16 and its isotope, oxygen-18?

Back 22

oxygen-16 has 8 neutrons (8+8) and oxygen 18 has 10 neutrons (8+10)

Front 23

What is the relationship between parent isotopes and daughter isotopes?

Back 23

parent isotopes decay to daughter isotopes at a known rate

Front 24

What is the "known rate" of an isotope?

Back 24

a half life

Front 25

What is the half-life of carbon-14? What is its dating range? What does it decay into?

Back 25

The half-life is 5,730 years. The dating range is 100-70,000 years. It decays into organic material (nitrogen).

Front 26

What are the three conditions of radioactive dating?

Back 26

1. Know the starting amount of a parent material, or starting ratio.

2. A closed system (minerals)

3. Choose appropriate methodology: Not too old, not too young, right ingredients

Front 27

What does C14 decay into?

Back 27

N14

Front 28

What are the 2 main eons? When did they begin and end?

Back 28

Precambrian: 542-4500 MA
Phanerozoic- present-542 MA

Front 29

What are the three eras of the Phanerozoic period?

Back 29

Paleozoic
Mesozoic
Cenozoic

Front 30

When did the Cenozoic era begin? What are the two periods? When did our period begin

Back 30

65 MA
Quaternary (1.5 MA) and tertiary

Front 31

What are the three periods of the Mesozoic era?

Back 31

Triassic (251 MA), Jurassic, and Cretaceous (ended 65 MA)

Front 32

What are the 7 periods of the Paleozoic era?

Back 32

Cambrian (542 MA), Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, Permian (ended 251 MA)

Front 33

(book) Describe the significance of the angle of repose.

Back 33

The steepest slope at which material remains stable (25-40 degrees)

Front 34

(book) How are earthquakes related to landslides?

Back 34

An earthquake and its aftershocks can dislodge enormous volumes of rock and unconsolidated material, in the form of landslides.

Front 35

(book) When the discharge of a river increases, what happens to the river's velocity?

Back 35

The river's velocity also increases.

Front 36

(book) What typically happens to channel width, channel depth, velocity, and discharge from the point where a stream beings to the point where it ends? Briefly explain why these changes take place.

Back 36

All of the factors increase. Discharge is a function of width, depth, and velocity. If discharge increases, some other factor must also increase: (width or depth, or faster flowing water). For example, the width and/or depth of the channel will increase in order to handle additional water.

Front 37

(book) What is settling velocity? What factors influence settling velocity?

Back 37

Settling velocity is the speed at which a particle falls through a still fluid. The larger the particle, the more rapidly it settles toward the stream bed.