Relative dating bill nye simple

Relative dating is a science that geologists and archeologists use to determine the chronological sequence of geological events, i.

Great introductory worksheet of fossils, and relative dating.

It tells whether a geological event is older or younger than another depending on their interrelationships and not actual numerical years, i. In determining relative ages, we use principles of relative dating, i. Others are original horizontality, lateral continuity, and faunal succession. Also, baked and chilled margins, uniformitarianism, and unconformities will be handy in determining age relationships.

The discovery of radioactivity in the 20th century opened a window to radiometric dating methods that give actual age. Today, we will discuss relative dating meaning and how to determine relative ages, i. We will also examine its significance and how it differs from absolute dating radiometric. Relative dating is the science of placing events, rocks, minerals, fossils, geological structures, or features in order of their occurrence chronological sequence in a geological record, depending on their relationship.

For example, relative dating will tell you if a lava flow is older than sedimentary strata, a fault is younger than a granite intrusion or a conglomerate is older than sandstone. However, you will not know when and for how long any events happened, i. However, to establish the relative ages, you must acknowledge the sequences or order in which events happened.

We apply various basic relative age dating principles, laws, techniques, or methods in geology to help us establish the order in which events happen, i. These principles help us determine relative ages or what is older than the other or what preceded the other and interpret geologic history. These are also the principles of stratigraphy, a branch of geology and Earth Sciences that studies layered rocks strata and their arrangement or layering.