Geologic Time

Concepts and Principles

Outline
a. Early concepts of time and search for age of the Earth b. Relative dating and principles c. Radioactivity and absolute dating techniques d. Making of the Geologic Time Scale

Grand Canyon
When looking down into the Grand Canyon, we are really looking at the early history of Earth

Grand Canyon
More than 1 billion years of Earth history is preserved in the rock layers of the Grand Canyon. Reading the rock layers like the pages of a history book, we see periods of mountain building, the advancing and retreating of shallow seas.

But really, how do we know these things?

Grand Canyon
We know these things by
applying the principles of relative dating to the rocks recognizing that present-day processes have operated throughout Earth history
Principle of Uniformitarianism states present is key to the past.

What is time?
We are obsessed with time, and organize our lives around it. Most of us feel we dont have enough of it. Our common time units are
Seconds, hours, days Ancient Time: centuries

Yet, Geological time is in millions and billions of Years!

Concept of Geologic Time

Geologists use two different frames of reference when discussing geologic time
1. Relative dating 2. Absolute dating

Relative Dating: geologic events are place in a

sequential order from their position in the geologic record

It cannot tell how long ago an event occurred It can tell only that one event preceeded another

Concept of Geologic Time

Relative Dating is like a television guide without the program times

You cannot tell what time a program will be shown, but by watching a few shows, you can determine youve missed any.

Relative Geologic Time Scale

Principles used in relative dating were discovered centuries ago and since then have been used to construct relative geologic time scale Major divisions of scale eons eras periods

epochs

Concept of Geologic Time

Dating Method #2: Absolute dating
Uses Radiometric dating to provide actual date in years before present Radiometric dating calculates dates from the
natural rates of decay of various natural radioactive elements present in trace amounts in some rocks

Discovery of radioactivity and use of radiometric dating allows dates to be assigned to divisions within the Geologic Time Scale!

Geologic Time Scale

The geologic time scale is a dual scale: a relative scale an absolute scale

Geologic Time Scale and major geological and biological events in Earth history

Concept of Geologic Time

The concept and measurement of geologic time have changed throughout human history James Ussher (1581-1665) in
Ireland Searched for date of creation by studying recorded history and genealogies in Genesis He announced that Earth was created on October 22, 4004 B.C. For nearly a century, it was considered heresy to say Earth was more than about 6000 years old.

Search for Earths Age

During the 1700s and 1800s Earths age was estimated scientifically
Georges Louis de Buffon
calculated how long Earth took to cool gradually from a molten beginning using melted iron balls of various diameters. Extrapolating their cooling rate to an Earth-sized ball, he estimated Earth was 75,000 years old

Search for Earths Age

John Joly used the amount of salt carried by
rivers to the ocean and the salinity of seawater and obtained a minimum age of 90 million years
Jolys Assumptions: 1. Oceans were initially not saline. 2. Salts were added to the oceans over time by rivers to bring salinity to present level.

Relative-Dating Principles
Naturalists formulated Six fundamental geologic principles to decipher Earth history. The evidence indicated:
Ancient Earth geologic process have occurred for long time Note! We will examine four of the six principles in this lesson.

Relative-Dating Principles
#1) Principle of superposition
Nicolas Steno (1638-1686) In an undisturbed succession of sedimentary rock layers, the oldest layer is at the bottom and the youngest layer is at the top.

Youngest layer

Oldest layer

Relative-Dating Principles
#2) Principle of original horizontality
Sediment is deposited in essentially horizontal layers. If a sequence of sedimentary rock layers is steeply inclined from horizontal must have been tilted after deposition and lithification

Sediment particles settle horizontally in water due to influence of gravity.

Layers were initially deposited horizontal prior to being tilted.

Relative-Dating Principles
#3) Principle of lateral continuity
Sediment extends laterally in all direction until it thins and pinches out or terminates against the edges of the depositional basin.

These lateral layers of the Grand Canyon were once continuous, but have been eroded by the Colorado River.

Relative-Dating Principles
#4) Principle of cross-cutting relationships
James Hutton (1726-1797) An igneous intrusion or a fault must be younger than the rocks it intrudes or displaces
North shore of Lake Superior, Ontario Canada A dark-colored dike has intruded into older light colored granite

The dike is younger than the granite.

Relative Dating of Roadcut in Castaic, CA

Youngest Layer Oldest Layer

The fault crosscuts all rock layers, thus is the youngest event.

Old Earth or Young Earth?

CatastrophismGeorges Cuvier (1769-1832) Earth history was shaped by series of sudden widespread catastrophes; Earth is young.
account for significant and rapid changes in existing life Earth and exterminated

6 catastrophes have occurred corresponding to the six days of biblical creation and Noahs flood.

Young Earth or Old Earth

uniformitarianism
James Hutton- Present-day processes (physical and chemical laws) have operated throughout geologic time. Rates may vary through time.

Roman wall in Scotland- Hutton observed this 1,000 year old wall showed little deterioration. This observation sparked his questioning the idea of a young Earth. Could the Earth be millions, billions years old?

Siccar Point, Scotland: Hutton developed his idea from analysis of these tilted rock layers.

Young Earth or Old Earth

Uniformitarianism and Unconformity
James Hutton also recognized that rock record had gaps due to erosion.

The bottom tilted layers have been eroded and the above layers were deposited on top. The contact between the two layers is the unconformity.

Young Earth or Old Earth

Lord Kelvin (1824-1907)
Aware of high temperatures inside of deep mines and reasoned that Earth was losing heat from its interior Assuming Earth was once molten. Calculated Earths Age as 400-20 million years -temperature of rocks -the size of Earth and -the rate of heat loss Critics viewed this age as too young. Kelvin did not know of the Earths radioactive heat source within Earths core.

Young Earth or Old Earth

discovery of radioactivity Provides method for accurately dating Earths Age.

What is Radioactivity ?
the spontaneous decay of an atoms nucleus to a more stable form. powerful tool to measure absolute ages of rocks and past geologic events

.But how does it work?

First a Review of Atoms

We need to know about atoms and isotopes

Remember that
All matter is made up of atoms An Atoms nucleus consists protons particles with a positive electrical charge neutrons electrically neutral particles electrons negatively charged particles outside the nucleus

Isotopes: A Review
Atomic mass number
= number of protons + number of neutrons

The different forms of an elements atoms

with varying numbers of neutrons are called isotopes

Different isotopes of the same element

have different atomic mass numbers but behave the same chemically

Most isotopes are stable,

but some are unstable

Geologists use decay rates of unstable isotopes

to determine absolute ages of rocks

Isotopes: A Review
Atomic Number= # protons, #electrons Atomic Mass = # protons + # neutrons

How many protons does carbon have? Electrons? Neutrons?

Isotopes: A Review

Carbon has 6 protons, 6 electrons, and 6 neutrons.

Note: Not all atoms of the same element have the same number of neutrons. We call these variable forms of an element isotopes!
Most isotopes are stable, but some are unstable and decay to more stable form.

Radioactive Decay
Radioactive decay is the process whereby an unstable atomic
nucleus spontaneously transforms into an atomic nucleus of a different element

Three types of radioactive decay

Alpha decay Beta Decay Electron Capture

alpha decay
2 protons and 2 neutrons are emitted from the nucleus.

Radioactive Decay
beta decay, a neutron emits a fast moving electron (beta particle) and becomes a proton.

Electron capture decay, a proton captures an electron and converts to a neutron.

Radioactive Decay
Some isotopes undergo only one decay step before they become stable.
Examples:
rubidium 87 decays to strontium 87 by a single beta emission potassium 40 decays to argon 40 by a single electron capture

But other isotopes undergo several decay steps

Examples:
uranium 235 decays to lead 207 by 7 alpha steps and 6 beta steps uranium 238 decays to lead 206 by 8 alpha steps and 6 beta steps

Uranium 238 decay

Half-Lives
half-life
the time it takes for one half of the atoms of the original unstable parent isotope to decay to atoms of a new more stable daughter isotope
length of half-lives for different isotopes of different elements can vary from less than one billionth of a second o 49 billion years!

Geometric Radioactive Decay

In radioactive decay, during each equal time unit, half-life, the proportion of parent atoms decreases by 1/2

Determining Age
.. How does this allow geologists to determine absolute age?
1. Scientists measure the parent/daughter ratio by mass spectrometer 2. knowing the half-life of the parent isotope geologists can calculate the age of a sample

Determining Age
Example:
a rock has a parent/daughter ratio of 1:3 or a ratio of (parent)/(parent + daughter) = 1:4 or 25%, and the half-live is 57 million years, how old is the rock?

25% means it is 2 half-lives old. The rock is 57my x 2 =114 million years old.

What Materials Can Be Dated?

Igneous rocks
As magma cools and crystallizes. radioactive parent atoms separate from previously formed daughter atoms.. as they are the right size . some radioactive parents are included in the crystal structure of cooling minerals

Molten magma with parent and daughter atoms As magma cools, parent atoms are separated out. Radiometric clock resets.

What material can be dated?

What about SEDIMENTARY rocks?

No! The date obtained would correspond to the time of

crystallization of the mineral in an igneous or metamorphic rock

What about METAMORPHIC rocks?

The date obtained would correspond to the time of METAMORPHISM.

Sources of Uncertainty
Must have a closed system No parent nor daughter atoms can have been added or removed from the sample since crystallization.

If daughters escape, the date obtained will be too young. If parents escape, the date obtained will be too old. To minimize error.. use multiple methods.

Long-Lived Radioactive Isotope Pairs Used in Dating

The isotopes used in radiometric dating
need to be sufficiently long-lived so the amount of parent material left is measurable

Such isotopes include: Parents Daughters

Uranium 238 Uranium 234 Thorium 232 Rubidium 87 Potassium 40 Lead 206 Lead 207 Lead 208 Strontium 87 Argon 40

Half-Life (years)
4.5 billion 704 million 14 billion 48.8 billion 1.3 billion Most of these are useful for dating older rocks

Radiocarbon Dating Method

Carbon is found in all forms of life It has 3 isotopes
carbon 12 and 13 are stable, but carbon 14 is not Carbon 14 has a half-life of 5730 years Carbon 14 dating uses the carbon 14/carbon 12 ratio
of material that was once living

The short half-life of carbon 14

makes it suitable for dating material < 70,000 years old

It is not useful for most rocks,

but is useful for archaeology and young geologic materials

Carbon 14
Carbon 14 is constantly forming
in the upper atmosphere

When cosmic rays

strike atoms of upper atmospheric gases, Splitting nuclei into protons and neutrons When a neutron strikes a nitrogen 14 atom it may be absorbed by the nucleus and eject a proton changing it to carbon 14

Carbon 14
The carbon 14 becomes
part of the natural carbon cycle and becomes incorporated into organisms

While the organism lives

it continues to take in carbon 14, but when it dies the carbon 14 begins to decay without being replenished

Thus, carbon 14 dating

measures the time of death

Tree-Ring Dating Method

The age of a tree can be determined
by counting the annual growth rings in lower part of the stem (trunk)

The width of the rings are related to climate

and can be correlated from tree to tree a procedure called cross-dating

The tree-ring time scale

now extends back 14,000 years

Tree-Ring Dating Method

In cross-dating, tree-ring patterns are used from different trees, with overlapping life spans

The End