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Unit 7
Earth's history
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Uniformitarianism | A principle that geologic processes that occurred in the past can be explained by current geologic processes. |
| Fossil | The trace or remains of a living organism that lived long ago, most commonly preserved in sedimentary rock. |
| Trace fossil | A fossilized structure, such as a footprint or 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 cylinder of ice obtained from drilling through ice caps or ice sheets; used to study past climates. that is based |
| Relative dating | Any method of determining whether an event or object is older or younger than other 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. |
| Geologic column | An ordered arrangement of rock layers that is based on the relative ages of the rocks in which the oldest rocks are at the bottom. |
| Absolute dating | Any method of measuring the age of the 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. |
| Half-life | The time required for half of a sample of a radioactive isotope to breakdown by radioactive decay to form a daughter isotope. |
| 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. |