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vocab
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| UNIFORMITARIANISM | A foundational principle in geology and earth science asserting that the natural processes, forces, and physical laws that shape the Earth today. |
| FOSSIL | The preserved remains, impressions, or traces of organisms (plants, animals, or other life forms) from a past geological age. |
| TRACE FOSSIL | A type of fossil that provides evidence of the activity or behavior of an ancient organism, rather than a preserved part of the organism itself. Examples include footprints, burrows, trackways, and coprolites |
| CLIMATE | The long-term average of weather conditions in a particular area, including temperature, precipitation, and humidity, over a period of decades or longer. |
| ICE CORE | A long, vertical cylinder of ice drilled from glaciers or ice sheets. These cores contain layers of snow and ice that have accumulated over thousands of years, |
| RELATIVE DATING | A method of sequencing geological events or strata to determine their chronological order |
| SUPERPOSITION | A fundamental principle stating that in undisturbed sedimentary rock layers, the oldest layer is at the bottom, and each subsequent layer upward is younger. |
| UNCONFORMITY | A break or gap in the geologic record, representing a period of erosion or non-deposition rather than rock formation. It separates older, lower rocks from younger, upper rocks. |
| GEOLOGIC COLUMN | A chart or model that organizes all known rock formations and fossils in chronological order, usually pieced together from different locations to represent a full, idealistic sequence of Earth's history. |
| ABSOLUTE DATING | A scientific method used to determine the exact, chronological age (in years) of a fossil, rock, or artifact, rather than just its relative age compared to other objects. |
| RADIOATIVE DECAY | The spontaneous, predictable process by which an unstable atomic nucleus (parent isotope) releases radiation to become a different, more stable element (daughter isotope). |
| HAIR-LIFE | The constant, unchanging time required for exactly half of the radioactive parent atoms in a sample to decay into stable daughter atoms. It is unaffected by environmental conditions. |
| RADIOMETIC DATING | A specific type of absolute dating that calculates the age of materials by measuring the ratio of radioactive parent isotopes to stable daughter isotopes |
Created by:
Walter Daniels
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