Chapter 8

Fossil records, stratification, Geological time and dating

 Historical geology refers to the construction of an orderly sequence of

geologic events through out the 4 to 5 billion years of the earth's history.
 Paleontology is a historical geology devoted to the study of ancient life on
fossil evidence.
 Fossils provide important evidence to determine what happened in Earth
history and when it happened.
 fossil can be:
(a) Fossilized Actual Organism
 it is extremely rare to find actual remains of organisms. however, in areas of
very dry and cold climates the chance of an organism to remain intact (with
out decay) is very high. E.g. mammoths found preserved in permafrost
areas.
(b)Hard Parts of animals
 the hard parts of animals are more likely to be preserved. This is
particularly true for organisms having chitinous or phosphatic skeletons.
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Cont’d
(c) Petrified or mineralized remains of organisms
 in most fossils the hard parts of the former organisms become replaced by
various minerals (commonly silica, calcite and pyrite) giving a reasonably
exact reproduction of the organism.
(d) Trace fossils
 Includes moulds or casts, worm borings, trails etc.
Note: normally the remains of an animal or plant are totally destroyed, but
fossils can be preserved under certain conditions.
1. Rapid Burial: which prevents immediate disintegration of the remains by
physical, chemical (oxidation), and biological factors.
2. Presence of Hard parts: organisms have a much better chance of
preservation as part of the fossil record if they have hard parts.
Law of Fossil Succession
 The fossils present in a rock exposure can be used to determine the ages of
rocks very precisely.
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Cont’d
 Detailed studies of many rocks from many places reveal that some fossils
have a short, well-known time of existence.
INDEX FOSSILS
 An index fossil is an easily identifiable fossil with a wide geographic
occurrence but limited and restricted span of time on earth.
 The fossils discovered in sedimentary rocks belong to a certain period of
the earth's evolution and used to determine the age of the rock.
 but not all fossils are suitable for age determination. Physical properties of
index fossil;
o it has wide geographic distribution
o it has short span of time
o it has identifiable typical structural features.
 e.g. Trilobites for the Lower Paleozoic, Foraminifera for the Upper
Paleozoic, and Ammonites for the Mesozoic.

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 Stratigraphy
 Stratigraphy is a branch of Historical Geology which studies the vertical
and lateral relationships of stratified rocks.
 studies the arrangement and succession of strata
 Stratigraphy has three systematic phases:
1. Description- of strata as they occur in sequence in local areas,
2. Correlation- stratigraphic relations of various localities. It is the
establishment of equivalency among sediments of one locality with those of
other localities.
 Correlation can be carried based on:
 physical sedimentary features
 index fossils, or
 combination of both
3. Interpretation - stratigraphic record, i.e. both rocks and their contained
fossils, in terms of the past history of the earth.

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Cont’d
 There are five basic principles of stratigraphy.
1. Original Horizontality
 layers of sediment are generally deposited in a horizontal position.
 Sedimentary layers found tilted at an angle to the horizontal some force must
have acted on them after they were deposited.
2. Superposition
 This principle states that sedimentary layers are stacked/ load one on top of
another, the oldest layers are found at the bottom.
3. Crosscutting Relationships
 This is applied to rock units and geological structures that are not necessarily
horizontal.
 A fault that cuts a rock layer, for example, must be younger than that layer.
4. Included Fragments
 this states that a fragment of one rock included within another must be older
than the rock that contains it. E.g. A pebble in a conglomerate must be older
than the conglomerate.
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Cont’d
5. Fossil Succession
 in thick sequences of sedimentary rock the fossils they contain change in a
systematic fashion.
 This pattern is repeated throughout the world, and thus by finding
distinctive fossils geologists can correlate rocks in widely separated areas
and determine that they have the same relative age.

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 Geological time and dating
GEOLOGIC TIME
 The time scale provides a framework for arranging events of geologic past.
 fundamental importance in understanding the geologic history of ancient
geologic events.
 to understand ancient rocks and geologic events, we must understand
present day processes and their results. This concept is generalized in
Uniformitarianism: stated that processes that operated in the past are still
operating at present, and later modified as " the present is the key to the
past".
 Geologic history is determined from interpretation of the way rocks were
formed and the dating of these events.
 Rocks and events can, then be placed on a time scale.

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 Cont’d
 Fig, geological time scale

570 m.y-0 Age of

mamals
P
r Age of
2.5-570 m.y.
e reptiles
c
a Age of
m amphibi
3.8-2.5 b.y.
b ans
r
i Age of
a4.6-3.8 b.y. fishes
n Age of
invertebr
ates
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Cont’d
 Eons: represent the greatest expanses of geological time.
 The eon that begins about 570 m.yrs ago is called “phanerozoic” means visible
life.
 About 88 percent of Earth’s 4.6 billion-year history is represented by
Precambrian time.
 Why are the eons of Precambrian time not divided into numerous eras and
periods???
 Life was soft body, thus fossil record was insufficient. Besides, Precambrian
rocks are buried beneath younger rocks and/ or altered by metamorphism.
Dating
there are two types of geologic age determinations:
1. Relative dating
 which relates only whether one event in earth history came before or after
another event, i.e., specific years are not considered.
 This is the task of placing rock units and geologic events in their proper
sequence.
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Cont’d
 The relative age of rock units or geologic events are determined based on
one or a combination of the following stratigraphic principles:
1. The Law of Superposition
 states that in undeformed sequence of sedimentary rocks, each bed is older
than the one above it.
 However, this law can not be applied to sedimentary sequences, which have
been greatly distorted either tectonically or by other processes after their
deposition.
2. The law of Original Horizontality
 refers to the fact that layers of sediment are generally deposited in a
horizontal position.
 When layers of rocks have been deposited without interruption, we say they
are conformable. However, Everywhere, the deposition of sediment has
been interrupted many times. All such breaks in the rock record are termed
unconformities.

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Cont’d
 Unconformities represent a long period during which deposition ceased/
ended, erosion removed previously formed rocks, and then deposition
resumed.
angular unconformity
 Uncoformity where the older strata dip at an angle different from that of the
younger beds.

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Cont’d
Disconformities are breaks in the rock record where the strata on both sides
of the unconformity are essentially parallel.
Nonconformity where the break separates older metamorphic or igneous
rocks from younger sedimentary rocks.

Nonconformity

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Cont’d

3. The Law of Original Lateral Continuity

 states that identical stratigraphic sequences exposed on opposite sides of a
valley should be interpreted as remnants of layers that were once
continuous across the area through which the valley was cut.
4. The Law of faunal succession
 states that groups of fossils succeed one another in a definite and
determinable order, and each period of time can be recognized by its
respective fossils.
 When fossils are arranged according to their age by using the law of
superposition on the rocks in which they are found, they show progressive
changes from simple to complex.
 The following vertical succession of fossil records can be recognized in all
continents (from the oldest to the youngest).
 No matter where they are found, individual fossil species always occur in
the same sequence relative to one another.
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Cont’d
 age of Trilobites,
 age of Fishes,
 age of Coal forests,
 age of Reptile,
 age of Mammals, and
 age of Man
5. The Law of Cross Cutting
 states that a rock or any linear feature is younger than the rocks or other
features that it cuts.
 faults and intrusive igneous bodies show crosscutting relations.
 Igneous bodies may cross igneous bodies, faults and igneous bodies may
transect sedimentary layers.
 At the place of junction of igneous bodies or faults, the younger one is
continuous, the older one discontinuous.

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2. Absolute dating method
 is the actual age of an event stated in specific years and refers to specific
dates of rock units using radioactive dating.
 Radioactivity is the transformation of one element into another by the
emission of particles or radiation from the atomic nuclei.
 Radioactive elements usually develop from magma, which contains
solution of elements. Certain chemical elements such as U and Th have
unstable nuclei which undergo constant, spontaneous disintegration that
eventually results in various more stable end products.
 as a result of radioactivity, the radioactive parent element change into
daughter element which have lower energy level than their respective
parent nuclides.
 The amount of radioactive nuclide which decays within any period of time
is proportional to the amount of the elements (nuclides) present. The rate is
dependent only on the number of the radioactive atom present, regardless of
the physical conditions (temperature, pressure or chemical environment).
 3 types of radioactive decay: alpha, beta and electron capture
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Cont’d
 In the process of radioactive decay, the nucleus of parent radioactive atom
emits either an alpha particle (He nucleus), or beta particle (electron or
energy in the form of gamma radiation), and transformed into stable
daughter isotope or new element.
 Example U23892 + alpha Th23490 + He42
 Each individual atom of a particular radioactive isotope (element) has the
same probability of decaying within a given time period.
 The rate of disintegration or the rate of decay of isotopes is usually
expressed in terms of half-life. Halve-life is the time required for one half of
the nuclei in a sample to decay to stable daughter nuclides.
 After one half-life, half of the radioactive atoms have decayed to the stable
daughter product. The number of radioactive parent atoms and stable
daughter product atoms are the same.
 For example, if the ratio of radioactive parent to stable daughter product in a
given sample is 1:1 and the half-life is 5 million years, the age of the sample
becomes 5 million years. However, for the same hypothetical isotope if …...
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Cont’d
the parent-daughter ratio is 1:7, the age of the sample becomes 15 million.
And if the parent-daughter ratio is 1:15, the age of the sample becomes 20
million.
 Sedimentary rocks can seldom /rarely be dated directly by radiometric
means
 because the particles composing most sedimentary rocks come from
rocks of diverse ages.
By contrast, the crystals in an igneous rocks all form at about the same time.
 Absolute dates for sedimentary layers are usually determined by examining
their relationship to igneous rocks.
 We use an instrument called mass spectrometer to count the isotopes.
 radioactive elements with a fast rate of decay are used to date young rocks
and events (e.g. C14 with a half-life of 5730years), while those with a slow
rate are used for old rocks and events (e.g. Rb87 with a half-life of 47
billion).

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Cont’d
isotopes Half-life of Effective dating range Minerals and other materials that can be
parent (yrs) dated

parent daughter

U-238 Pb-206 4.5 billion 10 million - 4.6 billion Zircon, uraninite

K-40 Ar-40 1.3 billion 50,000 - 4.6 billion Muscovite, biotite, hornblende, whole
volcanic rocks

Rb-87 St-87 47 billion 10million - 4.6 billion Muscovite, biotite, K-feldspar, whole
metamorphic or igneous rocks

C-14 N-14 570m 100 - 70,000 Wood, charcoal, peat; bone and tissue;
shell and other calcium carbonate;
ground water, ocean water and glacier
ice containing dissolved carbon dioxide.

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 Thank you
wish you the best!!!

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