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Unit 3 Vocab
All of unit 3's vocabulary in the Florida Science Fusion book. ^-^
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Uniformitarianism | States that geologic processes that happened in the past can be explained by current geologic processes. |
Climate | Describes the weather conditions in the area over a long period of time. |
Fossil | The trace or remains of an organism that lived long ago, most commonly preserved by sedimentary rock. |
Ice Core | A long cylinder of ice. |
Trace Fossil | A fossilized structure that formed in sedimentary rock by animal activity on or in soft sediment. |
Relative Dating | Determining whether an object or event is older or younger than other objects or events. |
Superposition | The principle that states that younger rocks lie above older rocks if the layers have not been disturbed. |
Geologic Column | An ordered arrangement of rock layers that is based on the relative ages of the rocks, with the oldest rocks at the bottom of the column. |
Uncomformity | A break in the geologic record that is made when rock layers are eroded or when sediment is not deposited for a long period of time. |
Absolute Dating | Determining the actual age of an event or object in years. |
Radiometric Dating | Finding the absolute age of a sample by determining the relative percentages of a radioactive parent isotope and a stable daughter isotope. |
Radioactive Decay | The breakdown of a radioactive isotope into a stable isotope of the same element or of another element. |
Half-Life | The time needed for half of a sample of a radioactive substance to undergo radioactive decay to form daughter isotopes. |