Earth's Geologic History

Comp Sci 6.3

17 cards·by amerinee

What are the 3 types of rocks

Igneous, Metaphoric, Sedimentary

Formed from hot molten rock

Igneous

Above ground, molten rock is called?

Lava

Below ground, molten rock is called?

Magma

Formed when existing rock is put under pressure or heat.

Metamorphic Rock

Most commonly formed from the deposition of particles under water

Sedimentary

What shows evidence of pre-existing life?

Fossils

Name one thing fossils are used to show?

Evolution, they give clues about the environment at the time, used to match rock layers

The process of matching up rock layers between different locations is called?

Correlation

Provides an excellent means of determining the age of a rock formation, or particular timeframe.

Index Fossils

Reveals the order in which past events and processes occurred, orders rocks from oldest to youngest

Geological Clolumn

Who is considered the father of modern geology and came up with the Principal of Uniformitarianism?

James Hutton

Concept of geology that states the present is the key to the past, the processes that are taking place on Earth today are the same from past

Principal of Uniformitarianism

type of time scale that shows the order of events in relation to each other; without providing dates or ages in years

Relative Time Scale

Type of time scale which measures dates and ages in units of time such as years or hundreds of thousands of years

Absolute time Scale

Scientist use this to determine the absolute age of rocks.

Radiometric Dating

The amount of time required for half of a sample of the radioactive isotope to decay

Half-Life