CroninProjects.org/ Vince/ Course/ PhysGeol/ Geologic-Time.html/

Outcrop along Salsbury Crags near Edinburgh, Scotland, that James Hutton studied as he formed his ideas of geologic time in the late 1700s.

This resource is under construction, and is subject to never-ending renovation. Check back before any upcoming quiz on this material to see if anything new has been added.

Geologic Time

Homework

The homework assignment that was distributed in class last week (Feb 26 and Mar 2)

is available in the following document: CroninProjects.org/Vince/Course/PhysGeol/Homework-GeologicTime.docx

and involves composing one (and only one) page of text related to a short paper published recently in Science

Hoffmann, D.L., and 14 others, 2018, U-Th dating of carbonate crusts reveals Neandertal origin of Iberian cave art: Science, v. 359, issue 6378 (23 February 2018), p. 912-915.

That paper is available online via the Baylor library e-journals -- search for "Science Magazine"
Your homework is due via email attachment on or before Monday, March 12.

Reading

Read and study chapters 9 (all) and 22 (Sections 22.1-2 & 22.4-9)

Notes and Handouts

Notes on geologic time (PDF file)
Diagram of human evolution from divergence with chimpanzees and bonobos (pdf file, ~3 MB)
From mammals to humans (pdf file, ~263 KB)
Length scales in nature (pdf file, ~766 KB)
Thumbnail sketch of Earth history

Presentation files

CroninProjects.org/Vince/Course/PhysGeol/GeolTime-words1.pdf (X MB)

CroninProjects.org/Vince/Course/PhysGeol/GeolTime-words2.pdf (X MB)

Smart Figures

9.? — Relative dating: https://goo.gl/BiFVHa

9.? — Relative dating: https://goo.gl/Okfrm6

9.13 — Applying principles of relative dating: https://goo.gl/w4HtAw

9.18 — Fossil ranges: https://goo.gl/dUqgP3

9.21 — Half life: https://goo.gl/DFHxZg

22.10 — The formation of continents: https://goo.gl/uVIk9X

22.12 — The major geologic provinces of North America: https://goo.gl/RDXNEA

22.15 — Connection between ocean circulation and the climate in Antarctica: https://goo.gl/7nRRRF

22.17 — Major provinces of the Appalachian Mountains: https://goo.gl/b2Deug

22.28 — Relationships of vertebrate groups and their divergence from lobefin fish: https://goo.gl/Ly53xz

Vocabulary to learn

Consult your textbook or lecture notes for definitions. Remember that the best general source of definitions in geology is the AGI Glossary of Geology.

alpha decay	amphibians	angular unconformity	beta decay	brachiopods
conformable contacts	cross-cutting relationships	deep time	dinosaurs	disconformity
electron capture	elements	fault contacts	fossil assemblages	fossil succession
geologic record	half life	inclusion	index fossil	isotope
mammals	mass spectrometer	mollusc	neutron	nonconformity
nucleus	nuclide	numerical dating	original continuity	original horizontality
plants	proton	radioactive	range zone	relative dating
reptile	sedimentary contact	shark	stable nuclide	stratum (sing.) and strata (pl.)
superposition	trilobite	unconformable contact	unconformity	unstable nuclide

Study Questions

Note that any of the vocabulary words listed above is "fair game" for a question on any quiz that includes this material.

Geologic time study questions: Geologic time
Questions about Earth's origin, Earth's interior and geologic time

Some dates you should know

(kyr = thousand years; Myr = million years; Gyr = billion years)

Oldest fossil evidence of Homo sapiens (our species): 200-250 kyr
Oldest fossil evidence of a hominin (Australopithecus): ~5 Myr
Beginning of the Cenozoic: 65 Myr
Marked by a great extinction that eliminated the dinosaurs, probably triggered by impact of an asteroid +/- eruption of flood basalts in Siberia
Beginning of the Mesozoic: 250 Myr
Marked by the greatest mass extinction in the past half-billion years
Beginning of the Paleozoic, end of the Precambrian: 541-542 Myr
Marked by the first appearance of fossils with hard parts
Oldest evidence of life on Earth: 3.5-3.8 Gyr
Age of Earth: 4.5-4.6 Gyr
Age of the Universe (since the Big Bang): 13.8 Gyr

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