SES 4UI - Internet Research Assignment:
Methods of Dating Objects
Use the internet to answer the following questions.
1. How old did humans think the Earth was prior to 1800? How did they obtain this value?
2. Explain James Hutton’s Principle of Uniformitarianism?
3. Lord Kelvin was an extremely influential scientist in the mid 1800’s- what was his calculated age of the Earth?
How was he proven wrong?
4. List the 6 Relative Dating Principles.
5. What is an unconformity? Use the video on the following page to help you understand unconformity.
http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/visualizations/es2902/es2902page01.cfm?chapter
_no=visualization
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
What is absolute dating?
What is the difference between absolute dating and relative dating techniques?
What is the difference between the law of superposition and the law of cross-cutting relationships?
What is a half-life?
Identify and describe the various methods of isotopic age determination. For at least 6 difference elements
describe the isotope used for dating, its half-life, its effective date range, and some of the materials it can be
used to date.
11. Explain the process of Carbon-14 dating – use diagrams if you have to.
Helpful Websites:
http://www.geo.ua.edu/intro03/time.html
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/radiometric.html
http://earthsci.org/fossils/geotime/radate/radate.html
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/dating.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiometric_dating