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What does relative dating provide for the age of a layer or fossil?
Wiki User
∙ 10y ago
estimate or approximation
Wiki User
∙ 10y ago
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What do scientists use to date exact age of fossils?
For relatively recent fossils, dating by carbon 14 is the most accurate method. For older fossils it is necessary to analyse the geological layer in which they are found; fossils located in an undisturbed geological layer of a certain age, are the same age as the layer in which they are found, necessarily.
What principle is a geologist applying when deciding that a fossil in a mud layer is older than a fossil in a sandstone layer above it?
Which principle is a geologist applying when deciding that a fossil in a mud layer is older than a fossil in a sandstone layer above it.
How can you prove the age of a fossil?
I can answer part of this question. If they can scientists use carbon dating to find the closest age of the fossil. If carbon dating is not possible they use a different technique such as this: If they look at the layers of the rocks, the rocks before and after the layer of rock the fossil was found in, can show an estimate of how old the fossil can be if they know the age of the rock layers before and after its layer.
Can the principles of relative dating be used to determine the date a rock layer was deposited?
Yes, if you know the dates of deposit of the layers above and below.
What are the comparative uses of relative versus absolute age in determination of rock units?
Relative Age- is basically the determination of the relative order of past events without knowing their absolute age. This is done through the observation of fossils, lithology's, and the Law of superposition. These observations can be used to correlate one stratigraphic column with another. For example if you find an Index Fossil (which is a fossil used to identify geologic periods) such as Bathyurus extans in a stratigraphic layer then you can conclude that the layer was deposited during the Ordovician period between 488 and 433 million years ago. Also through the Law of superposition you can conclude that any rock layer above will be younger than 433 million years and any rock layer below will be older than 488 million years. Absolute age- is the determination of an approximate computed age using physical or chemical properties of a rock. Some examples are Radiocarbon dating and Potassium-Argon dating. These dating techniques give an actual computed value for the age of a rock. These values are usually associated with an error correction. For example on the Geologic Time Scale the Early Cambrian period is assigned a value of 542.0 +/- 1.0 in millions of years on the geologic time scale. Relative Age is allot more commonly used than absolute dating because absolute dating is expensive and time consuming. The ages obtained from relative dating are more than sufficient to support the geologic analysis of an area.
What does relative dating provide for the age of a rock layer or fossil?
estimate
How do you tell how old a fossil is by the rock layer?
by relative dating or radiometric dating
What is the method of dating fossil by their position in rock layer?
relative dating
What type of dating would be used to determine the age of rocks by using the fossil?
By using the geologic time scale. Certain organisms are only found during certain times and if a fossil of one of these organisms is found then you can determine the relative age of the fossil.
What is the simplest dating method used by paleontologists?
Relative Dating, its where the paleontologists date the fossils according to the layer of soil that the fossil was found compared to other fossils that were carbon dated that were in the same soil layer.
How relative dating works?
Relative dating is how scientists determine how old a species is by looking at the undisturbed layers of rock. The deeper down the layer is the older the fossil is. (:
Why are index Fossil helpful for performing relative dating?
Because they give us the best estimate of how old all the other fossils are in that sedimentary layer.
What do geologists use to determine the relative ages of a rock?
Relative dating refers to the process of determining the age of a rock, feature, or fossil by comparing it to the rocks around it. To use relative dating, you need to look at the order each rock layer was deposited.
What are the fallacies of fossil dating?
One of the biggest fallacies of fossil dating is that they use the rock layer to help determine the age of the fossils, but the fossils are also used to help determine the age of the rock layer.
Why are sedimentary rocks important to relative dating?
because relative dating gets a really close estimate of how old sedimentary rock is.(the layer of course!)
What process compares one rock layer with other in sequence?
Relative dating...
What process compares one rock layer with other in a sequence?
Relative dating...
