Chapter 8 Review By Courtney Walton

Uniformitarianism Hutton theorized this – Learned by studying the present He thought if learned the present he could learn about past Uniformitarian's is huttons principle it is that current geological process, such as volcanism and erosion are the same process that were in work in the pat

Relative vs. Absolute Age Absolute age is the numeric age. Relative age indicates that one layer is older or younger than another layer but doesn’t indicate the rocks age in years Difference is absolute age tells numeric number relative does not

Carbon dating use Helps to find the age of bones, wood, shells, and other organic remains. C-14 dating and radiocarbon dating

Isotopes Rocks generally have radioactive material they act as neutral clocks – Atoms of the same element, that have different numbers of neutrons are called isotopes Radioactive isotopes have nuclei that emit particles and energy at a constant rate regardless of surrounding conditions

Half Lives Radioactive decay happens at a relatively constant rate that is not changed by temp, pressure, other environment – Scientist determined that the time it takes to for half the amount of particular radioactive isotope to decay is always the same and can be determined for any isotope – Half life= the time it takes half the mass of a given amount of radioactive isotope to decay into its daughter isotope

Radiometric Dating, The method of using radioactive decay to measure absolute age.