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Topic: Relative dating

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	Relative Dating Lab
		This exercise introduces the concept of relative dating of geologic sequences.
		Basically, relative dating means determining which rock units are older and which are younger in some particular geologic setting.
		Unconformities are useful in relative dating because recognizing them allows us to distinguish between the older rocks below the unconformity and the younger rocks above the unconformity.
	www.gpc.edu /~pgore/geology/historical_lab/relativedating.htm (1987 words)

	dating - The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition - HighBeam Research (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-16)
		DATING [dating] the determination of the age of an object, of a natural phenomenon, or of a series of events.
		In relative dating, the temporal order of a sequence of events is determined, allowing the investigator to surmise whether a particular object or event is older or younger than, or occurred before or after, another object or event.
		Stratigraphic dating is accomplished by interpreting the significance of geological or archaeological strata, or layers.
	www.highbeam.com /library/doc0.asp?DOCID=1E1:dating&refid=ip_encyclopedia_hf (2062 words)

	Relative dating - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Before the advent of absolute dating in the 20th century, archaeologists and geologists were largely limited to the use of relative dating techniques.
		Relative dating is used to determine the order of events on objects other than Earth; for decades, planetary scientists have used it to decipher the evolution of bodies in the Solar System, particularly in the vast majority of cases in which we have no surface samples.
		Craters themselves are highly useful in relative dating; as a general rule, the younger a planetary surface is, the fewer craters it has.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Relative_dating (635 words)

	Radiocarbon dating - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring isotope carbon-14 to determine the age of carbonaceous materials up to ca 60,000 years.
		However, aquatic plants obtain some of their carbon from dissolved carbonates which are likely to be very old, and thus deficient in the carbon-14 isotope, so the method is less reliable for such materials as well as for samples derived from animals with such plants in their food chain.
		Standard calibration curves are available, based on comparison of radiocarbon dates of samples that can be independently dated by other methods such as examination of tree growth rings (dendrochronology), ice cores, deep ocean sediment cores, lake sediment varves, coral samples, and speleothems (cave deposits).
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Radiocarbon_dating (1732 words)

	Dating Techniques
		Absolute dating to determine the actual age of an object or stratigraphic layer, and relative dating to tie associated artifacts and layers into the sequence provided by the absolute dates.
		Dates obtained with this method then indicate that the archaeological materials cannot be younger than the tuff or lava stratum.
		Because the materials dated using this method are NOT the direct result of human activity, unlike radiocarbon dates for example, it is critical that the association between the igneous/volcanic beds being dated and the strata containing human evidence is very carefully established.
	www.mc.maricopa.edu /dept/d10/asb/anthro2003/archy/dating/datingtech.html (2175 words)

	Dating Fossils II: Radiometric Dating
		Relative dating has its drawbacks, most notably that the ages we can get from relative dating are very approximate.
		A type of radiometric dating that you might have heard of before is Carbon 14 dating or Oxidizable Carbon Ratio Dating, often simply called "carbon dating".
		The element potassium is found in most rock-forming minerals, and the half-life of the radioactive isotope Potassium 40 is 1.25 billion years, allowing measurable quantities of Argon 40 (its decay element, known as the daughter element) to accumulate in potassium-bearing minerals of almost all ages.
	www.suite101.com /article.cfm/paleontology/38275 (452 words)

	Collapse: Chaco Canyon
		Relative dating does not give archaeology absolute dates that can be tied into a calendar.
		This method of absolute dating is based on the measurement of the radioactive decay of the C-14 atom.
		Seriation is a relative dating method that is used to place types of artifacts (or sites with certain artifact types) into a chronological sequence.
	www.learner.org /exhibits/collapse/chacocanyon_sub.html (882 words)

	Dating Exhibit
		Relative dating is an archeological dating technique which assigns a speculative date to an artifact based upon many factors such as location, type, similarity, geology and association.
		The reliance upon stratigraphy in relative dating, is concerned with how far apart geographically, one tool type or artifact is from another, or which tool type occupies which type of strata.
		Using known processes of change, relative dating can be used to predict the age of artifacts found under a variety of circumstances when absolute techniques are either not available or not conclusive.
	www.mnsu.edu /emuseum/archaeology/dating/dat_relativ.html (614 words)

	Forest:How Do We Know?:Dating
		Prior to the availability of radiocarbon dates (and when there is no material suitable for a radiocarbon date) scientists used a system of relative dating.
		Relative dating methods also do not result in an absolute age - only an indication of whether items are younger or older than each other.
		In order to date a sample of unknown age, the proportion of 14C relative to 12C are carefully determined, then compared to the proportion of a modern, measured sample.
	www.museum.state.il.us /muslink/forest/htmls/how_dating.html (502 words)

	[No title] (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-16)
		Relative age dating determines the age of rock units with respect to one another.
		An understanding of the six basic laws of relative age dating along with careful observation allows geologists to determine the order of events that has occurred in a specific area.
		Part I. The key to understanding relative age dating in the field is the ability to visualize the deposition of layers and the deformation of those layers by geologic processes.
	www.homepage.montana.edu /~esci111/111relativeagedating/radintro.htm (946 words)

	Foundational Concepts : Introduction to Dating Methods
		Dating the age of rocks is critical to reconstructing Earth's history.
		Relative dating places historical events in their correct order but does not yield numerical estimates of how many years ago the events happened.
		The problem is that only some types of rocks and fossils can be numerically dated, so all other evidence of ancient life must be related to age-dated material by the techniques of relative dating.
	www.nmnh.si.edu /paleo/geotime/main/foundation_dating1.html (147 words)

	K-12
		Dating material from the archaeological or geological record beyond 30 000 years can be very difficult indeed unless the depositional situation of the sample is favourable and scientists can remove any contamination.
		There was close agreement between the radiocarbon dates and the dates which had been estimated using the writing styles used on the scrolls, and in some cases the dates recorded on the scrolls themselves.
		Radiocarbon dating is one of the critical discoveries in 20th century science and it provided one of the most important tools for archaeologists in their quest to uncover the past.
	www.c14dating.com /k12.html (2794 words)

	Rock Ages - Utah Geological Survey
		Relative dating places events or rocks in their chronologic sequence or order of occurrence.
		Relative dating techniques provide geologists abundant evidence of the incredible vastness of geologic time and ancient age of many rocks and formations.
		However, radiometric dating generally yields the age of metamorphism, not the age of the original rock.
	www.ugs.state.ut.us /surveynotes/gladasked/gladage.htm (867 words)

	Relative Dating
		Relative dating is used to determine the relative ages of geologic strata, artifacts, historical events, etc. This technique does not give specific ages to items.
		With this background, it is strange that the “standard geologic column” that identifies the rock strata on the earth and assigns very old ages to those strata was developed by Sir Charles Lyell in 1830.
		Consequently, today the dates assigned to the “standard geologic column” are still based upon Lyell’s assignment where index fossils are used to date the rocks and the rocks are used to date the fossils.
	www.allaboutcreation.org /relative-dating-faq.htm (583 words)

	Dinosaur Fossil Dating - Enchanted Learning Software
		Even if the fossils are relatively abundant during the species' heyday, the number of organisms may have been small during the time of its appearance on Earth and during its demise.
		Dating a fossil in terms of approximately how many years old it is can be possible using radioisotope-dating of igneous rocks found near the fossil.
		Radioisotope dating cannot be used directly on fossils since they don't contain the unstable radioactive isotopes used in the dating process.
	www.enchantedlearning.com /subjects/dinosaurs/dinofossils/Fossildating.html (579 words)

	Archaeology Glossary Project: Relative Dating (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-16)
		Relative dating techniques were used predominantly in the first half of this century for lack of more exact, absolute dating techniques.
		Estimates of the relative ages of bones and stones in long sequences are made available by relative dating techniques, and give Archaeologists a useful chronological framework; however, they do not yield the sometimes necessary precise calendar dates.
		Relative dating techniques are discussed in depth by Renfrew and Bahn, with illustrations of stratification in the Indus Valley by Mortimer Wheeler, in Archaeology- theories, methods, and practice (1991; pg 112).
	www.utexas.edu /courses/wilson/ant304/glossary/findlaygloss/relative.html (139 words)

	Pretests and Pre-interviews
		Students might associate absolute dating as being an exact point in time, and think that relative dating is just dating things that they think are relative to their lives.
		Relative dating and absolute dating are different because one uses numbers and one uses time periods.
		Relative dating is using numbers or something, but absolute dating is a concrete time in earth’s history.
	www.msu.edu /~ehlendtc/platetectonics/pre_test_interviews.htm (854 words)

	Dating Rock Art (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-16)
		Dates for the occupation (or other activities) are then assumed to date the associated art (e.g.
		At present the oldest date for Australian rock art is based on this method: at Koonalda Cave on the Nullarbor Plain (South Australia), finger markings and abraded grooves on walls deep underground are probably associated with evidence for flint quarrying around 20,000 years ago (Maynard and Edwards 1971: 75-6).
		The most convincing dated art sequences are those based on a range of data and the complementary use of relative and absolute dating methods.
	www.une.edu.au /Arch/ROCKART/Dating.html (2441 words)

	Service Center Home Page
		As a relative dating method, it can determine the relative age of specimens, but cannot provide a calendrical date unless the fluoride chronology is calibrated with an absolute dating method.
		The relative dates can be used to date contexts that did not contain diagnostic artifacts or that did not provide carbon suitable for radiocarbon dating.
		Relative dates can be used to identify the degree of mixing in contexts that were not obviously mixed or stratified.
	www.nd.edu /~mschurr/fluoride (1013 words)

	Geologic Time: Relative Time Scale
		However, unlike tree-ring dating -- in which each ring is a measure of 1 year's growth -- no precise rate of deposition can be determined for most of the rock layers.
		The evidence for the pre-existence of ancient mountain ranges lies in the nature of the eroded rock debris, and the evidence of the seas' former presence is, in part, the fossil forms of marine life that accumulated with the bottom sediments.
		A diagram correlates or matches rock units from three localities within a small area by means of geologic sections compiled from results of field studies.
	pubs.usgs.gov /gip/geotime/relative.html (933 words)

	Relative Dating/Fossil Lab
		Scientific measurements such as radiometric dating use the natural radioactivity of certain elements found in rocks to help determine their age.
		Relative dating tells scientists if a rock layer is "older" or "younger" than another.
		This relative time scale divides the vast amount of earth history into various sections based on geological events (sea encroachments, mountain-building, and depositional events), and notable biological events (appearance, relative abundance, or extinction of certain life forms).
	www.ccsd.edu /south/science/esci/mrpatrick/lessons/relativedating.htm (1122 words)

	Geochronology
		A relative age is the age of a fossil organism, rock, or geologic feature or event defined relative to other organisms, rocks, or features or events rather than in terms of years.
		A relative age of the original shell can be established by comparing the strontium isotope ratio of the shell material to published data for the time periods where this method is usable.
		Numeric dating involves methods of determining the geologic age of a fossil, rock, or geologic feature or event given in units of time, usually years Numeric dating (also called absolute dating) establishes the ages of samples using radiometric or isotopic methods, and by other means.
	wrgis.wr.usgs.gov /wgmt/common/geochronology.html (1843 words)

	PlanetPapers - Relative Dating
		Relative dating involves placing events in their proper chronological sequence, that is, in the order of their occurrence (Dutch 1998).
		Relative dating gives us a key of how things formed and in what order.
		Relative dating doesn't directly affect the biosphere, but the processes that it reveals to us, does.
	www.planetpapers.com /Assets/433.php (720 words)

	[No title] (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-16)
		Dated Event: The event that is actually dated by a particular dating method (e.g., the death of a tree in dendrochronology).
		Radiocarbon Date Calibration: Converting “radiocarbon years” to calendar years based on a calibration curve, which is derived by taking a series of radiocarbon measurements on things of known ages (e.g., tree rings); calibration is necessary because the amount of 14C produced in the atmosphere has varied throughout the earth’s history.
		Radiocarbon Date “Error Term”: A measure of the precision of a radiocarbon date; like other isotopic dating methods, radiocarbon dating is inherently imprecise because radioactive decay is a random process; this means that you should always think of a radiocarbon date as indicating a range of time, rather than a point in time.
	www.csulb.edu /~mcannon/ANTH140/oh7_Dating.doc (805 words)

	Evolution: the fossil record; Accuracy of Fossils and Dating Methods by Michael Benton, Ph.D.
		Dating in geology may be relative or absolute.
		Relative dating is done by observing fossils, as described above, and recording which fossil is younger, which is older.
		Radiometric dating involves the use of isotope series, such as rubidium/strontium, thorium/lead, potassium/argon, argon/argon, or uranium/lead, all of which have very long half-lives, ranging from 0.7 to 48.6 billion years.
	www.actionbioscience.org /evolution/benton.html (2176 words)

	dating: Relative Dating — FactMonster.com
		However, as the basic principles of relative dating progressed during the course of the 19th cent., investigators were able to correctly determine the relative age of many archaeological and geological materials.
		Stratigraphic dating is accomplished by interpreting the significance of geological or archaeological strata, or layers.
		Stratigraphic dating assumes that the lower layers in any particular profile are older than the upper layers in that profile (“the law of superposition”;) and that an object cannot be older than the materials of which it is composed.
	www.factmonster.com /ce6/sci/A0857690.html (517 words)

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