Absolute Dating Establishing the Age of Objects. 1. Which best explains how geologic time scales can...
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Transcript of Absolute Dating Establishing the Age of Objects. 1. Which best explains how geologic time scales can...
Absolute DatingEstablishing the Age of
Objects
1. Which best explains how geologic time scales can help scientists study the evolution of life on Earth?
A They describe the existence of rocks before there was life on Earth.B They show that geological features have evolved at the same rate as
organisms.C They compare the life histories of species that have used rocks as
habitats.D They correlate the existence of life on Earth with geological events.
2. Which source of water pollution includes oil and gasoline discharge from automobiles and storm sewer drainage?
A agricultureB bacteriaC sedimentationD urban runoff
What is it?• Establishing the age of an object by the
number of years it has existed• Remember what an isotope is?
– Unstable isotopes are radioactive
• Radioactive decay-isotopes breaking down from unstable to stable isotopes
• See Figure 1 on page 442
Parent Isotope
Radioactive Isotope of one Element
Daughter Isotope
Stable Isotope of one or more Elements
Constant Rate of Change
The More Daughter Material, the Older the Rock is.
http://www.inspiration.com/diagrams/up_images/radioactive_big.gif
Radiometric Dating
• Half-life-the time it takes one-half of a radioactive sample to decay
• Types of Radiometric dating– Potassium-Argon Method
– Uranium-Lead Method
– Rubidium-Strontium Method
– Carbon-14 Method
•How long would it take to spend one million dollars?On each day you can only spend half of what you start the day with.•If on January 1 you start with 1 million dollars, on what day will you end up with only one dollar or less?•Using the same rule, how long will it take to spend one hundred dollars?
•How old would an object be if the following fractions of carbon-14 remained;
•1/4, 1/8, 1/32, 1/64
•The half-life of carbon-14 is 5,730 years
Half-life Lab• What does your graph
look like?• Compare your results
with some one sitting next to you.
• What can you explain about half-life?
http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/GRAPHIC0/GenGeology/Halflife.gif