Stenos laws of relative dating

In Assignment 3, we began exploring the age of the Earth. You worked in small groups and as a class to complete the "If Scientists Think. Through presentation and discussion of individual ideas, the class reached agreements as to the best way to complete each of the prompts. Today's assignment will allow you to compare and contrast your ideas to some of the actual methods scientists used to develop an estimation of the age of the Earth. Following this introduction, there are several links to different sites concerning the methods scientists use to assist them in estimating the age of the Earth. You will investigate Steno's Laws, radiometric dating, and then visit an interactive site that will help you better understand how to tell time - with geology!

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Cutler, A. The Seashell on the Mountaintop. New York: Dutton. Levin, H.

Relative dating is the science of determining the relative order of past events i. In geology, rock or superficial deposits , fossils and lithologies can be used to correlate one stratigraphic column with another. Prior to the discovery of radiometric dating in the early 20th century, which provided a means of absolute dating , archaeologists and geologists used relative dating to determine ages of materials.