Unit 5: Discerning Earth History

Big Idea:  The application of age dating techniques provides evidence for an ancient Earth and allows for the interpretation of Earth history which has been the basis of the design and refinement of the geologic time scale.
Learning Targets:

  • I can describe the process of radioactive decay and explain how radioactive elements are used to date the rocks that contain them
  • I can relate major events in the history of the Earth to the geologic time scale, including formation of the Earth, formation of an oxygen atmosphere, rise of life, Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) and Permian extinctions, and Pleistocene ice age
  • I can describe how index fossils can be used to determine time sequence
  • I can determine the approximate age of a sample, when given the half-life of a radioactive substance (in graph or tabular form) along with the ratio of daughter to parent substances present in the sample
  • I can explain why C-14 can be used to date a 40,000 year old tree but U-Pb cannot
  • I can identify a sequence of geologic events using relative-age dating principles

Historical Geology: A Glimpse of the Earth's Past

Historical Geology: A Glimpse of the Earth's Past Creative Adventures, 2002. Full Video 
Discovery Education. Web. 1/2/2016. http://www.discoveryeducation.com.

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