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Earth's Past Voc
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Absolute Age | uses the decay of radioactive elements to find the numerical age in years, of a rock or object |
| Angular Unconformity | sedimentary layers are deposited on top of tilted of folded sedimentary layers that have been eroded |
| Body Fossil | the original tissue of the organism is preserved. |
| Cast | a fossil copy of an organism made when a mold of the organism is filled with sediment or mineral deposits |
| Catastrophism | the idea that conditions and organism on Earth change in quick, violent events |
| Carbon Film | the fossilized carbon outline of an organism or part of an organism |
| Correlation | matching rocks and fossils from separate location |
| Crosscutting Relationships | when the rocks move along a fracture line |
| Fossil | the preserved remains or evidence of ancient living things |
| Geologist | a scientist who studies the Earth's crust as well as the processes and history that shape it |
| Half-Life | the time required for half of the parent isotopes to decay into daughter isotopes |
| Inclusion | a piece of an older rock that becomes part of a new rock |
| Index Fossil | represents species that existed on Earth for a short length of time, were abundant, and inhibited many locations |
| Isotope | atoms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons |
| Law of Superposition | explains that the newest rock layers will be on top of the older ones, unless some types of disturbance occurs. |
| Mold | the impression in a rock left by an ancient organism |
| Paleontologist | scientist that studies fossils |
| Radioactive Decay | the process by which an unstable element naturally changes into another element that is stable |
| Trace Fossil | the preserved evidence of the activity of an organism |
| Unconformity | a surface where rock has eroded away, produced a break, or gap, in the rock record |
| Uniformitarianism | states that geologic processes that occur today are similar to those that have occurred in the past |