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Unit 7
Earth History
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| uniformitarianism | A principle that geologic process that occurred in the past can be explained by current geological processes. |
| fossil | The trace or remains of an organism that lived long ago, most commonly preserved in sedimentary rock. |
| trace fossil | A fossilized structure, such as a footprint or a coprolite, that formed in sedimentary rock by animal activity on or within soft sediment. |
| climate | The weather conditions in an area over a long period of time. |
| ice core | A long period of climatic cooling during which the continents are glaciates repeatedly. |
| relative dating | Any method of determining whether an event or object is older or younger than older events or objects. |
| superposition | A principle that states that younger rocks lie above older rocks if the layers have not been disturbed. |
| unconformity | A break in the geologic record created when rock layers are eroded or when sediment is not deposited for a long period of time. |
| fossil | The trace or remains of an organism that lived long ago, most commonly preserved in sedimentary rock. |
| geologic column | An ordered arrangement of rock layers that is based on the relative ages of the rocks and in which the oldest rocks are at the bottom. |
| absolute dating | Any method of measuring the age of an event or object in years. |
| radioactive decay | The process in which a radioactive isotope tends to break down into a stable isotope of the same element or another element. |
| radiometric dating | A method of determining the absolute age of an object by comparing the relative percentages of a radioactive parent isotope and a stable daughter isotope. |