Science Rock Dating Quiz
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- Bishop Ussher
- used the bible to date the earth, said that it was about 6000 years old
- Catastrophism
- belief that worldwide events happened to create the earth, earth was 6000 years old, except that radioactive dating is wrong
- James Hutton
- observed sedimentation rates, said that the earth was older than 6000 years old
- Uniformitarianism
- process of the earth still happening today, except that it was slower now, no specific number of how old the earth is
- William Thompson
- assumed earth had been cooling steadily since made, called for 20 million year old earth
- John Joly
- assumed oceans had collected salts from erosion at a constant rate, calls for 90 million year old earth
- the Curies
- discovered radioactive dating, and estimates the earth to be 4.6 billion years old
- Absolute Dating
- gives an actual number, cant be used on all rocks, dependent on interactions of strong and weak nuclear forces
- Radioactive decay
- when a parent gives off an alpha particle (2 pro, 2 neut) from its nucleus and transforms to an entirely different element, comes at a very predicable rate
- one half life
- 1:1
- two half lives
- 1:3
- three half lives
- 1:7
- four half lives
- 1:15
- five half lives
- 1:31
- six half lives
- 1:63
- 1/8 of a half life
- 15:1
- 1/4 of a half life
- 7:1
- 1/2 of a half life
- 3:1
- Relative Dating
- gives ages only to relation to others
- Law of Superposition
- says that the sediment on the bottom is older than the sediment on the top
- Index fossils
- must be widesperad, short lived, easily fossilized and have bones