Rock & Fossil Correlation/Relative Dating

Front

What is the relative age of a rock?

Back

The age determined by the things around it.

Front

What is the difference between absolute and relative dating?

Back

Absolute dating provides a specific date or age, while relative dating places events in order without exact dates.

Front

What does uniformitarianism mean?

Back

Geologic processes that occur today are similar to those that occurred in the past.

Front

What are constructive forces?

Back

Natural forces like water, ice, gravity, wind, and tectonic plate movement that build up landforms.

Front

What is a fossil?

Back

Traces or remains of organisms that lived long ago.

Front

What is catastrophism?

Back

The theory that Earth's features are shaped by sudden, short-lived, and violent events.

Front

What is superposition in geology?

Back

In undisturbed layers of rock, the oldest layers are at the bottom and the youngest are at the top.

Front

What is correlation in geology?

Back

The process of matching rocks and fossils from separate locations to establish their age and history.

Front

What is an unconformity?

Back

A gap in the geological record that represents a period of erosion or non-deposition.

Front

What is radioactive dating?

Back

A method used to determine the age of rocks and fossils based on the decay of radioactive isotopes.