Front

What is relative dating?

Back

A method used to determine the age of rocks and fossils by comparing them to other rock layers, ordering them from oldest to youngest.

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS1-4

Front

What is radiometric dating?

Back

A technique used to date materials by measuring the decay of radioactive isotopes, providing a specific age.

Tags

NGSS.HS-PS1-8

Front

What does the Law of Superposition state?

Back

In a sequence of undisturbed sedimentary rocks, the oldest layers are at the bottom and the youngest are at the top.

Front

What is the Principle of Original Horizontality?

Back

The principle that sedimentary rocks are deposited in horizontal layers; if they are found tilted, they were disturbed after deposition.

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS1-4

Front

What is the Law of Faunal Succession?

Back

A principle stating that fossil organisms succeed one another in a definite and recognizable order, allowing for relative dating.

Front

What is the significance of naturally occurring radioactive elements in dating?

Back

They are used in radiometric dating to determine the age of rocks and fossils based on their decay rates.

Tags

NGSS.HS-PS1-8

Front

What is carbon dating?

Back

A form of radiometric dating that uses the decay of carbon-14 to estimate the age of organic materials up to about 50,000 years.

Tags

NGSS.HS-PS1-8

Front

What is the difference between relative age and radiometric age?

Back

Relative age indicates whether one rock is older or younger than another, while radiometric age provides a specific numerical age.

Front

What is an isotope?

Back

Variants of a particular chemical element that have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons.

Front

What is half-life?

Back

The time required for half of the radioactive atoms in a sample to decay into a stable form.

Tags

NGSS.HS-PS1-8