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Earth History
Age of the Earth
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Lithosphere | The crust of the earth. It is broke into sections called plates. |
Radioactive Dating | The measuring of material by comparing amount of radioactive form of an element in a rock with the amount of its decay product |
Relative Age | Describes the age of an object in comparison to another object. |
Absolute Age | Tells the actual age of a rock or fossil or how long ago an event occurred. |
Extinction | The disappearance of a species from earth |
Unconformity | A gap or break in the rock layer due to disturbance |
Index fossil | A fossil that is found in the rock layers of only one geological age |
Law of Superposition | A scientific law that states that in undisturbed sedimentary rock layers, older layers of rock lie beneath younger rock layers |