NAME: DEBBIE O.
AGOTILLA TIME: TF
Geologic Time Web quest
Based on
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/explorations/tours/geotime/gtpage1.html
Answer these questions as you progress through this tutorial.
1. Approximately how old is the earth?
The Earth is billions of years old.
2. When did the earliest life appear on earth?
Earliest life appeared on earth 3,900, 000,000 years ago.
3. What is missing when showing the relative order of events in a timeline?
It doesn’t tell the actual dates when each occurred.
4. What is the Law of Superposition?
It states a layer where as more and more layers are deposited, the older rock layers end up
at the bottom of the sequence and the newer ones toward the top. Whatever fossil is at the
bottom of the sequence of rocks is the earliest or oldest and vice versa.
5. Draw a cross-section of a mountain with five basic rock layers and label the oldest and
the youngest layers.
YOUNGEST LAYER
OLDEST LAYER
6. What is a trilobite?
Trilobites ("three lobes") are so called because their bodies are divided into three lobes: a
middle lobe and one on either side. They first appeared about 540 million years ago.
7. Based on the fossils found in the rock layers, put the fossils in order from oldest to most
recent.
Ammonites
Eurypterids
Brachiopods
Trilobites
Very good! You just did relative dating!
8. What process gives us absolute dates of rocks?
RADIOMETRIC DATING
9. What does absolute dating of a rock tell us?
We can determine how old rocks are by analyzing their chemistry since the chemical
composition has changed through time at a certain rate. This process is called radiometric
dating. Using radiometric dating allows us to find accurate ages for particular layers of
rocks.
What type of rock layer is easy to date? Layers between two layers of volcanic ash
because of its chemical composition, volcanic ashes are easy to date, so layers between
them is the rock layer that is easy to date.
10. Explain how the Law of Superposition helps scientists to give absolute dates to rocks and
fossils.
Analyzing layers of fossils can help us determine its absolute date. Like the example
above, fossil layers is between the two volcanic ashes’ layers. Then, we can use the ages
of the two ash layers to narrow down the age of the layer that's in between. Using
radiometric dating, we get an age for the upper volcanic ash layer of 468 million years
(mya = millions of years ago) the lower one is 470 million years old. Using the Law of
Superposition, the layer on the bottom is older and the layer on top younger. So the ages
of "our" layer is in-between these two. It is between 468 and 470 million years old.
Therefore using the position of three, the one in the middle layer will be between the age
of said two layers.
11. What does the Geologic Time Scale represent?
It represents the entire history of the Earth since its formation, roughly 4.6 billion years
ago.
12. What is characteristic of the Pre-Archean (Hadean Eon)?
Pre-Archean refers to the time before the Archean. There is no evidence for life at that
time.
13. What life form evolved during the Archean?
This is a time when the first single-celled organisms, like bacteria, began to evolve.
14. What does Proterozoic mean? Is this accurate? Explain.
Proterozoic means "before animal life" which is actually not accurate, but most of the
organisms were pretty simple. In addition to bacteria, we find things like algae and
unusual worm-like creatures in this era.
15. **Use the Coach Book pg. 237 to complete the Table below.
13. Write out the answer to each question below as you answer them.
Hint: You may see these again!!
(1) Scientific evidence suggests that the Earth is: More than 4 Billion years old
(2) Evidence for past events in Earth's ancient history is provided by: Rocks and Fossils within
them
(3) The Law of Superposition allows us to determine: Which rock layers are the oldest and the
relative age of layers of rocks and fossils in them.
(4) Radiometric dating allows us to determine: Which rock layers are the oldest and the exact or
absolute age of rock layers.
(5) The divisions of time in the Geologic Time Scale represent: Major changes in biodiversity.
