Exam 11: Geologic Time

What are the mass and charge of an alpha particle?

The ______is the idea or concept that ancient life forms succeeded each other in a definite, evolutionary pattern and that the contained assemblage of fossils can determine geologic ages of strata.

In an undeformed sequence of sedimentary rocks, each bed is older than the one above and younger than the one below. The preceding is a statement of the law of______ .

______dating based on radioactivity are very important for studying Precambrian geologic history because______ in such strata.

What is amber?

A child from down the street from your house brings an object that looks like a bone, and says "look, I found a dinosaur bone." Which of the following would not be useful in evaluating their claim?

Which of the following denotes the divisions of the geologic time scale in correct order of decreasing lengths of time beginning with the longest time interval and ending with the shortest?

An______ is an erosional unconformity with parallel beds or strata above and below.

What is the name of a Phanerozoic era that means ancient life?

When a radioactive isotope decays by electron capture, the electron______ .

In the last few years improvements in technology have allowed geologists to date single grains of some minerals in rocks. A geologist separates 5 grains of the mineral zircon, which can be dated by the Uranium- lead method, and the crystal retains parent and daughter through weathering, erosion, and deposition. Thus, dating each mineral grain only gives the age of the source rock that was eroded, to produce that sand, from which the zircon grain is derived. The 5 grains yield ages of 160, 110, 2020, 66, and 162 million years. What do these ages tell you about the age of the sedimentary strata?

After two half- lives, there is ______percent of radioactive material remaining.

One method to obtain the absolute age of a sedimentary rock is to obtain a radiometric date on an interbedded ______rock.

If you observe a disconformity, you would infer that the region had experienced______ .

The principle of lateral continuity proposes that sedimentary rock layers continue in all directions until they grade into a different rock type or thin out on the edge of a basin is important because______ .

Examine the words and/or phrases below and determine the relationship among the majority of words/phrases. Choose the option that does not fit the pattern.

Rare, but complete preservation of organism occurs in______ .

One reason that Catastrophism was popular was______

Who made the first clear statement of the law of superposition? When?

An unconformity involving older metamorphic rocks and younger sedimentary strata is termed a ______.