Absolute Dating

Absolute Dating

Multiple Choice

How does absolute age differ from relative age?

• only absolute dating indicates which rock is older than another
• only absolute dating finds the age in years
• only relative dating finds the age in years

Multiple Choice

If you wanted to figure out the exact age of an igneous rock, what technique would you use?

• Relative Dating

• Potassium-Argon Dating

• Carbon-14 Dating

• Law of Superposition

Multiple Choice

If you wanted to find the exact age of Mars, which of the following radiometric methods would you use?

• Carbon-14 Dating

• Uranium-Lead Dating

• Potassium-Argon Dating

Multiple Choice

If you wanted to figure out the exact age of a fossil that is less than 40,000 years old, what technique would you use?

• Carbon-14 Dating

• Potassium-Argon Dating

• Relative Dating

• You Can't. It is not possible

Multiple Choice

If you were looking to find the exact age of a fossil that is at least 1 million years old, what technique would you use?

• Carbon-14 Dating

• Potassium-Argon dating on the igneous intrusions or extrusions near the fossil

• Relative Dating without an index fossil present

• Uranium-Lead Dating on igneous rocks near the fossil

Multiple Choice

The time it takes for 50% of the nuclei in a radioactive sample to decay to its stable isotope is called _____.

• the daughter product
• geologic time
• the half-life
• the half-time

Multiple Choice

The original element that undergoes radioactive decay is known as the...

• daughter element
• half-life
• parent element
• carbon-14

Multiple Choice

If the half-life of a radioactive group of atoms is 100 years, then how old is the rock if there have been two half-lives?

• 25 years
• 200 years
• 400 years
• 800 years