CHAP III :

THE EARTH IN THE TIME

 

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 How is Time Divided?
The Geological time scale is a record of the life forms and
geological events in Earth’s history.
Major changes in Earth’s history mark the boundaries
between the sections.
Most sections have been divided because a major organism
developed or went extinct in each section.
 Giving Time a Name
• The largest sections are
called “eons”.
• “Eons” are divided
into “eras” (the 2nd
largest section).
• “Eras” are divided
into“periods”.
• ‘Periods’ are
divided into ‘epochs”.
 Eons
• Largest, most general division
of time.
• 2 Eons
• The eons are: Cryptozoic
(Precambrian) eon and
Phanerozoic eon.
• Precambrian and
Phanerozoic eon both
consists of three eras as
shown in the figure.
 Eras
• Each Eon is broken up into Eras.
• Major eras in Earth’s history:
• Archean (4600 mya - 2500
mya)
• Proterozoic (2500 mya -
540 mya)
• Paleozoic (540mya -
250mya)
• Mesozoic (250 mya
*mya refers to million years ago.
- 65.5 mya)
• Cenozoic (65.5 mya
 Periods
• Each Era is divided into
even more specific blocks
of time called periods.
• Various geologic events
are associated with each
period.
• Each period is again
classified into different
epochs.
 Cryptozoic eon (Precambrian time)
Divided into 2 eras: Proterozoic and Archean era.
• Lasted from 540 million years ago to 4600 million years ago.
• Oldest and longest (covers almost 90% of earth’s history).
• simple organisms- bacteria, algae, protozoa was born.
• Oldest rocks that we know were found in this eon which dates
to about 3.5 billion years old.

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Phanerozoic
 There are two types of Geologic Dating

Absolute : determines how many years old something is
Absolute time finding an exact date for rocks or geologic events in YBP
(years before present)


Relative: used to determine if one thing is younger or older than
another
Relative time :determination of the age of a rock or geologic event by
comparing with other rocks/geologic events

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Time measurement in geology
Either in the Universe or on the Earth one tries to
assign dates to the events. The geochronology is
based essentially on free types of methods
fundamentally different in their principle:
1. Radio chronological methods that provide an
absolute age (mainly for crystalline and
metamorphic rocks);
2. Stratigraphical methods that provide relative
age (sedimentary and metamorphic rocks);
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 Time measurement in geology

3. Paleontological methods that provide by the fossils a

biological age which is compared to the absolute ages
(sedimentary rocks);

Tools used to determine:

Absolute Age Relative Age

Using radiometric Law of superposition
dating Use of index fossils
Correlation of rock layers
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 Radio chronological methods
 They are geological disciplines dealing with age determination based
on the natural decay of unstable radioactive isotope .These methods,
called also isotopic, are based on the nuclear disintegration of
radioactive nuclides.
 Radioactive elements are unstable atoms that give off particles.
Emitting these particles transforms the unstable atoms into
different, more stable elements. This is called radioactive decay, and
it occurs at a constant rate specific to each isotope of each element.
 The original radioactive material is called the parent; the stable
product is called the daughter.
 The rate of decay is described by the half-life of the isotope—the
average time an atom of a radioactive element remains in the parent
state. When the half-life has elapsed, half the parent element will
have decayed into the daughter element.
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Radioactivity :release of high-energy particles
(radioactive particles) from unstable atoms, until they
become stable isotopes (new elements)

Isotope: alternate forms of an element

Radioactive isotope
- an isotope that undergoes radioactive decay
- used to determine absolute age
Examples:

Uranium 238 and Carbon 14

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 Radioactive Decay
radioactive isotopes give off radioactive particles until
they become stable isotopes (new elements)
Example:

Uranium - 238 Radioactive Isotope

Radioactive Decay

Lead-206 Stable Isotope

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Half – Life: amount of time it takes 1/2 the atoms in a given
sample to go through radioactive decay.

Since the Half - Life of every isotope is

1. Unique
2. Always the same time
3. Unaffected by:
Mass, Volume, Temperature &
Pressure

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 16
NOW LET’S GRAPH THE HALF-LIFE OF CARBON 14

28,500
DECAY TIME (YEARS)
4 22,800
3 17,100
2 11,400
1 Half - Life 5,700
0 Half - Lives
0
800

400
MASS OF C14 (G)
 Commonly used radioactive isotopes
Parent Daughter half-life Mineral or Material

Uranium238 Lead 206 4.56 BY Zircon, Uraninite, Pitchblende

Uranium 235 Lead 207 704 MY Zircon, Uraninite, Pitchblende

Potassium 40 Argon 40 1.251 BY Muscovite, biotite, hornblende, K-feldspar,

volcanic rock, glauconite, conodonts
Rubidium 87 Sr 87 48.8 BY K-mica, K-feldspar, Biotite, Metamorphics

Thorium 230 Lead 206 75 KY Ocean sediments

Thorium 232 Lead 208 1.39 BY Zircon, Uraninite, Pitchblende

Carbon 14 Nitrogen 14 5730 yr Wood, bone, shell

KY- thousand years. MY- million years. BY- billion years

Uranium-Lead decay series (U-Pb series)

 Unlike carbon-14 dating, uranium dating cannot be used to date formerly living things;
however, it is the most commonly used method in igneous rock dating because of the abundance
of zircon minerals.
 The subscripts of 235 and 238 are the atomic mass numbers of the element. Though each
isotope has 92 protons in its nucleus, U-235 has 143 neutrons and U-238 has 146 neutrons.
 Igneous rocks, or the magma from which it was formed, often intrudes overlying sedimentary
rocks. By dating the magma, one can get at least a minimum age for the sedimentary rock.
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Radio chronological methods
Depending on the kind of rock studied, radiometric data
can give different kinds of information. Igneous rock is
formed from cooling magma or lava, and it contains small
amounts of radioactive elements. By determining the ratio
of the parent material to the daughter material in the
igneous rock, it’s possible to calculate the rock’s age. As
igneous rock erodes, the eroded particles are deposited to
become sedimentary rock. Dating sedimentary rock by
using radiometric techniques will tell the age of the
original igneous rock, not the time since the sedimentary
rock formed.

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 Stratigraphical methods
Age relations can be deduced from geological structures. To
have a deep understanding, one has to define first the three
fundamental principles of stratigraphy stated by Stenon in
1669.

They are applied to particles deposited in a sedimentary

basin, for instance a sea or a lake, far from the banks.

Stratigraphy is the study of rock layers (strata) and their

relationship with each other.

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Stratigraphy
Sediment settling out of water
collects at the bottom of lakes
As more sediment collects, the
deeper layers are compacted by
the ones above until they harden
and become rock
Animal remains become
embedded in these various layers
Deeper rock forms first and is
older than rock near the surface
Logically, fossils in deeper rock
are older than those above, and
their position within these rock
layers gives them a chronological
age relative to older (deeper) or
younger (surface) fossils
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 Stratigraphy

Fossil animals and plants occur in sedimentary rocks

deposited on oceanic shorelines, one atop the other
Subsequent cracks in the Earth’s surface, weathering,
or erosion by a river open these ancient sedimentary
deposits, exposing their cache of fossils
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Original horizontality principle
Sediments are deposited in layers almost horizontal. Strata
in oblique or vertical position prove the further
deformation of their deposit.
sedimentary rocks form in horizontal layers parallel to Earth’s
surface and will remain that way unless disturbed.
SILT
SAND
CLAY

SILT
CLAY

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 Lateral continuity principle
In a given time, the same sediment is created in all
points of the basin. The deposited layer at the time is
so laterally continuous.

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Principle of superposition:
In an undeformed sequence of sedimentary rocks, each bed is
older than the one above and younger than the one below.
The rule also applies to other surface-deposited materials such
as lava flows and volcanic ashes.

Applying the law of superposition to the layers at

the upper portion of the Grand Canyon, the Supai
Group is the oldest and the Kaibab Limestone is
the youngest
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 Principle of superposition:
Hutton (1788) provided two supplementary principles that
allow the establishment of a relation of age between the
different present formations in a geological structure. They
make intervene, added to the deposit, the concept of erosion
phase that separates two events.
Intersection principle: When a vein is injected in a rock, this
later is an anterior. If the vein does not continue in the second
layer that is superimposed to the first, this layer is the more
recent than the vein. A phase of erosion has preceded its
deposition.
Inclusion principle: If a detrital rock (made of grains from
disaggregation of other rocks) contains particles issued from a
recognizable rock, this later rock is its anterior.
These simple principles contribute fundamentally to the
understanding of sedimentary and tectonic phenomena.
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 Paleontological methods
The paleontological dating is based on the fact that
some living species have only lived in a certain time. If
remainders of fossils are found in a rock, this means
that that rock has formed in the same time. By
crosschecking with radio chronologic dating,
limitations of absolute ages have been assigned to
those times.
Evidently, this method is only applicable if there are
some traces of life in the fossils.

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 The fossilization
The fossilization is a set of phenomena that
mineralize slowly the matter constituting
the living organisms by leaving traces in the
rock. It enters in the general mechanism of
diagenesis, i.e. the transformation of
sediment into rock.

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 Types of Fossilization

1. Preservation or alteration of hard parts

 This is the actual preservation of the hard parts themselves
 Could include shells, bones, exoskeletons, etc…

2. Preservation of the shape

 Mineralization
 The filling of pores with calcium carbonate, silica, or pyrite
 Replacement
 Dissolving of the original material and depositing new material

one ion at a time (ion exchange)

3. Preservation of signs of activity
 Footprints
 Bones of prey

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 Types of Fossilization
After millions of years, most organic matter is either destroyed or
broken. While there are forms of fossilization that will provide
unaltered organic material, most fossils found are changed from
their original composition.

Permineraliz Recrystalliz
Mold Replacem ation
ation
ent

Carbonization Desiccation Amber 30

 Permineralization
 Permineralization occurs when organic material, such as bones
or wood, absorb and hold minerals before decaying themselves.
This results in a drastically different and more stable
composition of fossil than the original organic material.
 These are the kinds of fossils people are most familiar with,
largely due to the fact that most dinosaur bones are a result of
Permineralization.
 Petrified Wood is another great example of Permineralization.

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 Mold
 A mold occurs when organic material is buried by
sediment. Eventually, the organic material decays, leaving a
trace outline of the original organism. In this manner, no
organic material remains.
 These also include fossils of footprints or of textures from
things such as feathers or leaves.
 Sometimes sediment inside a clam will fossilize, giving an
imprint of the clam’s insides. These are called Steinkerns.

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Replacement
 Replacement fossilization is similar to Permineralization in
that a foreign mineral assumes the shape of the organic
material. However it is also similar to Mold fossilization in
that the organic matter is already deteriorated.
 The result is a foreign mineral being molded into the shape
of the original organism. Some of the most interesting
examples involve metals such as iron pyrite replacing the
form of an invertebrate’s shell mold.

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 Recrystallization
Recrystallization occurs when organic material isn’t
chemically stable enough after deposition to maintain
it’s composition. This is most often found amongst
invertebrate shells, which will change from aragonite
to calcite.

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Carbonization
Carbonization occurs when enough pressure is placed
upon organic material that the carbon is left behind in
the rock. Examples are characteristically black and in
the shape of the animal that was deposited.

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 Desiccation
 Desiccation occurs when an animal dies in extremely dry and arid locations,
such as deserts or some caves. Essentially, these conditions create an aseptic
environment, where it is highly unlikely that it will be able to decay.
 These fossils are very rare, due to the fact that they require that the remains
be undisturbed by scavengers and that the environmental factors leading to
desiccation remain constant.
 Desiccation is almost identical to mummification, although it is conducted
by natural conditions and are typically from further back in time.

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 Amber
 Essentially, Amber is tree sap that has hardened after
many millions of years. Occasionally, insects and small
animals would manage to get themselves caught in the
sap, and would be preserved in almost pristine
condition.

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Phanerozoic Eon in brief:

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 conclusion
It’s only by using the dating methods cited above that it
is possible to establish a real chronology of events that
have affected the Earth along its history. These very
different methods complete one another.
For example, the conjunction of stratigaphical criteria,
paleontological and radio chronological dating allow the
wedge in an absolute time of evolution of life on the
Earth. From all these observations made by the world
and from all these methods of dating, they had a scale of
geological times that serves the chronostratigaphical
foundation
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