Relative dating methods in archeology

In addition to being tilted horizontally, the layers have been faulted (dashed lines on figure).Applying the principle of cross-cutting relationships, this fault that offsets the layers of rock must have occurred after the strata were deposited.

In addition to being tilted horizontally, the layers have been faulted (dashed lines on figure).Applying the principle of cross-cutting relationships, this fault that offsets the layers of rock must have occurred after the strata were deposited.

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The age of the fossil must be determined so it can be compared to other fossil species from the same time period.

Understanding the ages of related fossil species helps scientists piece together the evolutionary history of a group of organisms.

A fossil can be studied to determine what kind of organism it represents, how the organism lived, and how it was preserved.

However, by itself a fossil has little meaning unless it is placed within some context.

These changes typically occur so slowly that they are barely detectable over the span of a human life, yet even at this instant, the Earth's surface is moving and changing.

As these changes have occurred, organisms have evolved, and remnants of some have been preserved as fossils.Sometimes sedimentary rocks are disturbed by events, such as fault movements, that cut across layers after the rocks were deposited.This is the principle of cross-cutting relationships.The study of strata is called stratigraphy, and using a few basic principles, it is possible to work out the relative ages of rocks.Just as when they were deposited, the strata are mostly horizontal (principle of original horizontality).However, the age of each fossil primate needs to be determined so that fossils of the same age found in different parts of the world and fossils of different ages can be compared.There are three general approaches that allow scientists to date geological materials and answer the question: "How old is this fossil?Geologists have established a set of principles that can be applied to sedimentary and volcanic rocks that are exposed at the Earth's surface to determine the relative ages of geological events preserved in the rock record.For example, in the rocks exposed in the walls of the Grand Canyon (Figure 1) there are many horizontal layers, which are called strata.Second, it is possible to determine the numerical age for fossils or earth materials.Numerical ages estimate the date of a geological event and can sometimes reveal quite precisely when a fossil species existed in time.