Geological Time Scale

Front 1

Geologist

Back 1

A scientist that studies the Earth's crust as well as the processes and history that shaped it.

Front 2

Paleontologist

Back 2

A scientist that studies fossil remains found on the Earth's surface in order to study primitive life form such as: plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria

Hint 2

What is Ross?

Front 3

Stratigraphy

Back 3

A branch of geology dealing with the arrangement of sedimentary rock layers or strata

Front 4

Which rock layers are the youngest? And what is this method called?

Back 4

The youngest rock layers are usually on the top. It is called the law of superposition

Front 5

What is relative age?

Back 5

Relative age determines the "relative" order of past events but not the absolute.

Front 6

What is important in determining sedimentary rocks relative age?

Back 6

The strata of sedimentary rocks

Front 7

Strata is sometimes....(blank)

Back 7

Disturbed

Front 8

Fossil Record

Back 8

History of life as documented by all fossils, preserved in sedimentary rock strata

Front 9

Fossil Records also provide a (blank) of past events in Earth's geological history

Back 9

Snapshot

Front 10

What are the Characteristics of Index Fossils?

Back 10

1:Easily Recognizable

2: abundant

3: wide geographical distribution

4: live a short time

Front 11

Special fossils called "index fossils" Indicate to geologists the (blank) in geological time

Back 11

Boundaries

Front 12

Index fossils are used to (blank) the age of the rock strata

Back 12

Carrilate

Front 13

What is the most accurate form of dating?

Back 13

Radiometric dating

Front 14

How does radiometric dating work? And what does it rely on?

Back 14

It uses the decay of radioactive elements to find the absolute age of a rock or fossil. It relies on the property of half-life which is the predictable time an element takes to decay

Front 15

All of the Earth's geological history represented on a (blank) time chart

Back 15

Chronological

Front 16

What is the Earth's chronological time chart based on?

Back 16

It is based on rak strata, and the fossil record

Front 17

What parts are in the Precambrian?

Back 17

Hadean, Archean, and Proterozoic

Front 18

What happened during the Precambrian?

Back 18

1: Oldest rock fragment on Earth contains a mineral, zircon, that is 4.4 m.y. (found in Australia)

2: Very primitive life forms: one-celled animals, bacteria, jellyfish.

Front 19

What happened during the Paleozoic Era?

Back 19

1: Life developed rapidly

2: Marine Plants and invertebrates

3: Fish and ferns

4: amphibians

Front 20

What marks the formation of the super continent in the Paleozoic Era?

Back 20

Pangea

Front 21

What happened during the Mesozoic Era (middle life)?

Back 21

(1)Life forms increased including:

Small mammals

Birds

Conifers and flowering.

(2) Rocks in the Petrified Forest in AZ were deposited during this time.

(3) Another mass extinction at the end of Mesozoic

Front 22

What happened in the Cenozoic Era (late life)?

Back 22

We are currently in this Era.

1: Development of:

Large mammals

Human beings

2: Periods of ice ages played a role in the formation of the geological features visible on Earth today.

Front 23

During the Earth's 4.6 billion years, it has suffered how many major mass extinctions?

Back 23

5

Front 24

In which Epoch do we live?

Back 24

Halocene

Front 25

The mass extinction that took out dinosaurs is called?

Back 25

Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction

Front 26

What is an extinction?

Back 26

An extinction is the end of a group of organisms, usually a species.