Dating fossils and rock

For example, shells, wood, and other material found in the shoreline deposits of Utah’s prehistoric Lake Bonneville have yielded absolute dates using this method.These distinct shorelines also make excellent relative dating tools.Metamorphic rocks may also be radiometrically dated.However, radiometric dating generally yields the age of metamorphism, not the age of the original rock.Relative dating techniques provide geologists abundant evidence of the incredible vastness of geologic time and ancient age of many rocks and formations.However, in order to place absolute dates on the relative time scale, other dating methods must be considered.

This comes from the fact that sediments are laid down in water or on the surface of the earth in layers so the first is the oldest and next is younger.Development of the geologic time scale and dating of formations and rocks relies upon two fundamentally different ways of telling time: relative and absolute.Relative dating places events or rocks in their chronologic sequence or order of occurrence.If a geologist claims to be 45 years old, that is an absolute age.Superposition: The most basic concept used in relative dating is the law of superposition.