Renz Dominic O.

Almoite BIO 171 3/27/2021

Week 2: Geologic Time Scale and History of Life on Earth

1. How is relative age different from the actual date of an event?

When we use the relative age of a certain event or an object, we are only looking
at the order or the chronology of the past events (Stanley, 1999). Through relative dating,
we can deduce the sequential order on which how the sequence of events occurred from
the earliest to most recent, but it does not necessarily predict when the event actually
happened, so it does not necessarily tell us how old a certain material is or when the exact
time an event happened in the past.

2. What can radiometric dating tell us about the age of rocks that the Law of Superposition
cannot?
Radiometric dating or radioactive dating is a technique that can be used to
determine the absolute age of materials such as rock, carbon, or fossil samples through
traces of radioactive chemicals present in such material. The half-life of these radioactive
chemicals would be used to determine the age of these materials. The Law of
Superposition, on the other hand, would only tell us the relative age of a material, and
we’ve already mentioned what the relative age is which is the age of a material based
solely on the chronology or the sequence of events that happened in the past which does
not necessarily tell us how old the material is.

3. How can you find the age of a layer of rock that is surrounded by layers of volcanic
ash?
First, determine the radiometric age of the surrounding layers of volcanic ash.
Radiometric age would help us determine the actual age or the closest estimate of the
actual age of the existing layers that surrounded the intervening layer. Then, determine
the age of the intervening layer that is surrounded by the existing layers. The age of the
intervening layer is most probably the intermediate age of these existing layers.

4. What do the periods in the geologic time scale represent?

Periods represent the basic unit of the geologic time scale. Between each period,
specific rock systems are formed. Periods also give us information on the evolution of the
living organisms that thrive during these times since specific kinds of organisms are
extant in a particular geologic period.

5. What do the terms Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic mean?

Paleo- would mean old or ancient, thus this would mean ‘ancient life.’ Meso-
would mean between, thus this would mean ‘middle life.’ Ceno- comes from Greek Kainos
which means ‘new,’ thus this would mean ‘new life.’
References:

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Geologic time". Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Jun. 2020,
https://www.britannica.com/science/geologic-time. Accessed 27 March 2021.

IUPAC, Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book") (1997). Online
corrected version: (2006–) "radioactive dating". doi:10.1351/goldbook.R05082

Stanley, Steven M. (1999). Earth System History. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company. pp.
167–169. ISBN 0-7167-2882-6.