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 Small-scale
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
Superposition:
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?
Wisconsin
Rubbing
Rock?
California
Pseudofossils
Look Like Fossils But Aren't
Dendrites
Concretions
Pseudofossils
Natural or Sculpture?
Johannes Beringers Fossils
Beringers
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