Geologic Timeline

Which of these numbers is closets to the age of the earth?

• 4,600 years
• 460,000 years
• 46 million years
• 4.6 billion years

What is the main purpose of the geologic time scale?

• To organize the major eras of Earth's history
• To compare very short and very long periods of time
• To compete with other, non-geologic time scales
• To help understand that the planet is really old

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS1-4

Place the following units in order, from smallest to largest.

• Epoch, period, eon
• Eon, epoch, period
• Period, eon, epoch
• Epoch, eon, period

Generally speaking, which rock layers are the oldest?

• The thinnest ones
• The thickest ones
• The ones furthest from the surface
• The ones closest to the surface

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS1-4

What can you conclude from the fact that there have been just four eons in Earth's history?

• Eons are very short periods of time
• Eons always last less than 1 billion years
• Geologist on began naming eons recently
• There have been at least eight periods in Earth
  's history

What event might mark the end of a period?

• The fact that 100 million years had elapsed since the end of the previous period
• A major geologic change
• The appearance of one new species
• The gradual drifting of the continents 

What can you infer about the Maastrichtian Age from its name?

• That it was the most strict geological age in history
• Nothing--the names of geologic ages are arbitrary
• Rocks from this era were first studied near the city of Maastricht, Netherlands
• That it was an extremely long, complicated age

How would the human time scale be different if we measured it in relative, instead of specific, time? Choose the best answer.

• Days would be longer than months
• One week might be longer or shorter than the next
• No one would know what time it was
• The future would occur before the past and present

What does a stratigraphist study?

• Dinosaurs
• Time
• Rock layers
• The formation of the earth

How does radiometric dating differ from the ages of the geologic time scale?

• Radiometric dating involved absolute dates; the geologic times scale is measured with relative dates
• Radiometric dating can only be used on fossils; the geologic time scale applies only to rocks
• Radiometric dating involves unstable, radioactive isotopes; the geologic time scale deals only with stable rocks and compounds
• Radiometric dating involved relative dates; the geologic time scale is measured with absolute dates