Relative age dating principles
Highland County igneous rock intrudes sedimentary rock (Photograph by Stan Johnson) This light-colored Highland County igneous intrusion cuts through the darker sedimentary rock.Long before geologists tried to quantify the age of the Earth they developed techniques to determine which geologic events preceded another, what are termed "relative age” relationships.
Using this principle any fault or igneous intrusion must be younger than all material it or layers it crosses.
As sediment weathers and erodes from its source, and as long as it is does not encounter any physical barriers to its movement, the sediment will be deposited in all directions until it thins or fades into a different sediment type.
This concept known as the Principle of Lateral Continuity allows us to assume that similar layers of rock or sediment that are separated by a valley or other erosional feature were once continuos.
For a fossil to be a good index fossil, it needs to have lived during one specific time period, be easy to identify and have been abundant and found in many places. If you find ammonites in a rock in the South Island and also in a rock in the North Island, you can say that both rocks are Mesozoic.
Different species of ammonites lived at different times within the Mesozoic, so identifying a fossil species can help narrow down when a rock was formed.
Search for relative age dating principles:
Your ratings and reviews will help other users make the right decision.
In The Cosmic Story of Carbon-14 Ethan Siegel writes: The only major fluctuation [in carbon-14] we know of occurred when we began detonating nuclear weapons in the open air, back in the mid-20th Century.
One reason is because their profile reads like a boring, dating profile shaped turd. I thought I would throw some keywords that would describe what I like to do.
During this time the area went through several names including Kings Prairie Depot, Plymouth, Plymouth Junction (when the southern branch was built in 1880), Gonten (named for the local post master because the Post Service said there were other Plymouths); and finally Monett in 1887 when the area was formally platted and the Monett name was applied to the post office.