Geologic

Time and
Earth
History

Two Conceptions of Earth

History:

Catastrophism
Assumption: Great Effects Require Great
Causes
Earth History Dominated by Violent Events
Uniformitarianism
Assumption: We Can Use Cause And Effect to
Determine Causes of Past Events
Finding: Earth History Dominated by Smallscale Events Typical of the Present.
Catastrophes Do Happen But Are Uncommon

Uniformitarianism
Continuity of Cause and Effect
Apply Cause and Effect to Future Prediction
Apply Cause and Effect to Present Technology
Apply Cause and Effect to Past
Uniformitarianism
The Present is the Key to the Past

Ripple Marks, Bay Beach

Fossil Ripple Marks, Baraboo

Range

Modern Mud Cracks

Fossil Mud Cracks, Virginia

Two Kinds of Ages

Relative - Know Order of Events
But Not Dates
Civil War Happened Before W.W.II
Bedrock in Wisconsin Formed Before
The Glaciers Came
Absolute - Know Dates
Civil War 1861-1865
World War II 1939-1945
Glaciers Left Wisconsin About
11,000 Years Ago

Superpositi
on:
Mindoro
Cut,
Wisconsin

Geologic
Map

Fossils
Remains of Ancient Plants
And Animals, Evidence of Life

Commonly Preserved:
Hard Parts of Organisms:
Bones
Shells
Hard Parts of Insects
Woody Material

Rarely Preserved
Soft or Easily Decayed Parts of
Organisms:
Internal Organs
Skin
Hair
Feathers

Types of Fossils

Original Material
Casts & Molds
Replacement (Petrified Wood)
Carbonized Films (Leaves)
Footprints, Tracks, Etc.
Trace Fossils Our only preserved
record of behavior of fossil organisms

Dinosaur
Tracks,
Texas

Rubbing
Rock?
Wisconsi
n

Rubbing
Rock?
California

Pseudofossils
Look Like Fossils But Aren't
Dendrites
Concretions

Pseudofossils

Natural or Sculpture?

Johannes Beringers Fossils

Beringer
s Book

Where Fossils Occur

Almost Exclusively in Sedimentary Rocks
Heat of Melting or Metamorphism Would
Destroy Almost Every Type of Fossil
Rare Exceptions:
Some Fossils in Low-grade Metamorphic Rocks
Trees Buried by Lava Flow

To Be Preserved, Organisms Have to Be:

Buried Rapidly After Death
Preserved From Decay

Fossil Tree in Lava Flow,

Hawaii

Good Index Fossils

Abundant
Widely-distributed (Global
Preferred)
Short-lived or Rapidly
Changing

Correlation

The Geologic Time Scale

Quaternary

Latin, fourth

1822

Tertiary

Latin, third

1760

Cretaceous

Latin creta, chalk

1822

Jurassic

Jura Mountains, Switzerland

1795

Triassic

Latin, three-fold

1834

Permian

Perm, Russia

1841

Carboniferous

Carbon-bearing

1822

Devonian

Devonshire, England

1840

Silurian

Silures, a pre-Roman tribe

1835

Ordovician

Ordovices, a pre-Roman tribe

1879

Cambrian

Latin Cambria, Wales

1835

Absolute Ages: Early

Attempts
The Bible
Add up Dates in Bible
Get an Age of 4000-6000 B.C. For
Earth
John Lightfoot and Bishop Ussher 4004 B.C. (1584)
Too Short

Absolute Ages: Early

Attempts

Salt in Ocean
If we know rate salt is added, and how
much salt is in ocean, can find age of
oceans.
Sediment Thickness
Add up thickest sediments for each
period, estimate rate.
Both methods gave age of about 100
million years
Problem: Rates Variable

Age of The Sun

If sun gets its heat from burning or other
chemical reactions, could only last 10,000
years or so.
Best 19th century guess: sun was slowly
contracting.
Problem: only 30 million years ago, sun would
have extended out to earth's orbit!
Geologists wanted more time, but you can't
fight the laws of physics...
Sun actually gets its energy from nuclear
reactions and can keep going for billions of
years
The Geologists were right after all. Go Team.

The Fundamental Rule

of Absolute Ages
The Earth is older than everything
on or in it
-Except its atoms
-All ages are minimum ages

Radiometric Dating: Half-Life

Present Radiometric Dating

Methods
Cosmogenic
C-14 5700 Yr.
Primordial
K-Ar (K-40) 1.25 B.Y.
Rb-Sr (Rb-87) 48.8
by
U-235 704 M.Y.

The
Geologic
Time
Scale

Some Geologic Rates

Cutting of Grand Canyon
2 km/3 m.y. = 1 cm/15 yr
Uplift of Alps
5 km/10 m.y. = 1 cm/20 yr.
Opening of Atlantic
5000 km/180 m.y. = 2.8 cm/yr.
Uplift of White Mtns. (N.H.) Granites
8 km/150 m.y. = 1 cm/190 yr.

Some Geologic Rates

Movement of San Andreas Fault
5 cm/yr = 7 m/140 yr.
Growth of Mt. St. Helens
3 km/30,000 yr = 10 cm/yr.
Deposition of Niagara Dolomite
100 m/ 1 m.y.? = 1 cm/100 yr.

1 Second = 1 Year
35 minutes to birth of Christ
1 hour+ to pyramids
3 hours to retreat of glaciers from
Wisconsin
12 days = 1 million years
2 years to extinction of dinosaurs
14 years to age of Niagara Escarpment
31 years = 1 billion years

Were The Dinosaurs

Failures?

Dinosaurs: 150,000,000 years

Recorded History: 5000 years
For every year of recorded history,
the dinosaurs had 30,000 years
For every day of recorded history,
the dinosaurs had 82 years
For every minute of recorded history,
the dinosaurs had three weeks