Dating Rocks and Fossils Using Geologic Methods
By: Daniel J. Peppe (Department of Geology, Baylor University) & Alan L. Deino (Berkeley Geochronology Center) © 2013 Nature
Education
Using relative and radiometric dating methods, geologists are able to answer the question: how old is this fossil?
Despite seeming like a relatively
stable place, the Earth's surface
has changed dramatically over the
past 4.6 billion years. Mountains
have been built and eroded,
continents and oceans have moved
great distances, and the Earth has
fluctuated from being extremely
cold and almost completely covered
with ice to being very warm and ice-
free. 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.
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. 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.
For example, based on the primate fossil record, scientists know that living primates evolved from fossil primates and that
this evolutionary history took tens of millions of years. By comparing fossils of different primate species, scientists can
examine how features changed and how primates evolved through time. 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?" First, the relative age of a fossil can be determined. Relative dating puts geologic events in chronological order
without requiring that a specific numerical age be assigned to each event. 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.
Relative dating to determine the age of rocks and fossils
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. The study of strata is
called stratigraphy, and using a few basic principles, it is possible
to work out the relative ages of rocks.
Figure 1: Individual rock layers, or strata, can be seen exposed
in the wall of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA.
Just as when they were deposited, the strata are mostly horizontal (principle of original horizontality). The layers of rock at
the base of the canyon were deposited first, and are thus older than the layers of rock exposed at the top (principle of
superposition).
© 2013 Nature Education Photo courtesy of Daniel Peppe. All rights reserved.
In the Grand Canyon, the layers of strata are nearly horizontal. Most sediment is either laid down horizontally in bodies of
water like the oceans, or on land on the margins of streams and rivers. Each time a new layer of sediment is deposited it is
laid down horizontally on top of an older layer. This is the principle of original horizontality: layers of strata are deposited
horizontally or nearly horizontally (Figure 2). Thus, any deformations of strata (Figures 2 and 3) must have occurred after
the rock was deposited.
Figure 2: The principles of stratigraphy help us understand the relative age of rock layers.
Layers of rock are deposited horizontally at the bottom of a lake (principle of original horizontality). Younger layers are deposited on top of
older layers (principle of superposition). Layers that cut across other layers are younger than the layers they cut through (principle of
cross-cutting relationships).
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The principle of superposition builds on the principle of original horizontality. The principle of superposition states that in
an undeformed sequence of sedimentary rocks, each layer of rock is older than the one above it and younger than the one
below it (Figures 1 and 2). Accordingly, the oldest rocks in a sequence are at the bottom and the youngest rocks are at the
top.
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 principle states that any geologic features that
cut across strata must have formed after the rocks they cut through (Figures 2 and 3).
Figure 3: The sedimentary rock layers exposed in the cliffs at Zumaia, Spain, are now tilted close to vertical.
According to the principle of original horizontality, these strata must have been deposited horizontally and then titled vertically after they
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.
© 2013 Nature Education Photo courtesy of Daniel Peppe. All rights reserved.
The principles of original horizontality, superposition, and cross-cutting relationships allow events to be ordered at a single
location. However, they do not reveal the relative ages of rocks preserved in two different areas. In this case, fossils can be
useful tools for understanding the relative ages of rocks. Each fossil species reflects a unique period of time in Earth's
history. The principle of faunal succession states that different fossil species always appear and disappear in the same
order, and that once a fossil species goes extinct, it disappears and cannot reappear in younger rocks (Figure 4).
Figure 4: The principle of faunal
succession allows scientists to
use the fossils to understand the
relative age of rocks and fossils.
Fossils occur for a distinct, limited
interval of time. In the figure,
that distinct age range for each
fossil species is indicated by the
grey arrows underlying the picture
of each fossil. The position of the
lower arrowhead indicates the
first occurrence of the fossil and
the upper arrowhead indicates its
last occurrence – when it went
extinct. Using the overlapping age
ranges of multiple fossils, it is
possible to determine the relative
age of the fossil species (i.e., the
relative interval of time during which that fossil species occurred). For example, there is a specific interval of time, indicated by the red
box, during which both the blue ammonite and orange ammonite co-existed. If both the blue and orange ammonites are found together, the
rock must have been deposited during the time interval indicated by the red box, which represents the time during which both fossil species
co-existed. In this figure, the unknown fossil, a red sponge, occurs with five other fossils in fossil assemblage B. Fossil assemblage B
includes the index fossils the orange ammonite and the blue ammonite, meaning that assemblage B must have been deposited during the
interval of time indicated by the red box. Because, the unknown fossil, the red sponge, was found with the fossils in fossil assemblage B it
also must have existed during the interval of time indicated by the red box.
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Fossil species that are used to distinguish one layer from another are called index fossils. Index fossils occur for a limited
interval of time. Usually index fossils are fossil organisms that are common, easily identified, and found across a large area.
Because they are often rare, primate fossils are not usually good index fossils. Organisms like pigs and rodents are more
typically used because they are more common, widely distributed, and evolve relatively rapidly.
Using the principle of faunal succession, if an unidentified fossil is found in the same rock layer as an index fossil, the two
species must have existed during the same period of time (Figure 4). If the same index fossil is found in different areas,
the strata in each area were likely deposited at the same time. Thus, the principle of faunal succession makes it possible to
determine the relative age of unknown fossils and correlate fossil sites across large discontinuous areas.
Determining the numerical age of rocks and fossils
Unlike relative dating methods, absolute dating methods provide chronological estimates of the age of certain geological
materials associated with fossils, and even direct age measurements of the fossil material itself. To establish the age of a
rock or a fossil, researchers use some type of clock to determine the date it was formed. Geologists commonly
use radiometric dating methods, based on the natural radioactive decay of certain elements such as potassium and carbon,
as reliable clocks to date ancient events. Geologists also use other methods - such as electron spin
resonance and thermoluminescence, which assess the effects of radioactivity on the accumulation of electrons in
imperfections, or "traps," in the crystal structure of a mineral - to determine the age of the rocks or fossils.
All elements contain protons and neutrons, located in the atomic nucleus, and electrons that orbit around the nucleus (Figure
5a). In each element, the number of protons is constant while the number of neutrons and electrons can vary. Atoms of the
same element but with different number of neutrons are called isotopes of that element. Each isotope is identified by
its atomic mass, which is the number of protons plus neutrons. For example, the element carbon has six protons, but can
have six, seven, or eight neutrons. Thus, carbon has three isotopes: carbon 12 (12C), carbon 13 (13C), and carbon 14 (14C)
(Figure 5a).
Figure 5: Radioactive isotopes and
how they decay through time.
(a) Carbon has three isotopes with
different numbers of neutrons:
carbon 12 (C12, 6 protons + 6
neutrons), carbon 13 (C13, 6 protons +
7 neutrons), and carbon 14 (C14, 6
protons + 8 neutrons). C12 and C13 are
stable. The atomic nucleus in C14 is
unstable making the isotope
radioactive. Because it is unstable,
occasionally C14 undergoes
radioactive decay to become stable
nitrogen (N14). (b) The radioactive
atoms (parent isotopes) in any
mineral decay over time into stable
daughter isotopes. The amount of
time it takes for half of the parent
isotopes to decay into daughter
isotopes is known as the half-life of
the radioactive isotope.
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rights reserved.
Most isotopes found on Earth are generally stable and do not change. However some isotopes, like 14C, have an unstable
nucleus and are radioactive. This means that occasionally the unstable isotope will change its number of protons, neutrons, or
both. This change is called radioactive decay. For example, unstable 14C transforms to stable nitrogen (14N). The atomic
nucleus that decays is called the parent isotope. The product of the decay is called the daughter isotope. In the
example, 14C is the parent and 14N is the daughter.
Some minerals in rocks and organic matter (e.g., wood, bones, and shells) can contain radioactive isotopes. The abundances of
parent and daughter isotopes in a sample can be measured and used to determine their age. This method is known as
radiometric dating. Some commonly used dating methods are summarized in Table 1.
The rate of decay for many radioactive isotopes has been measured and does not change over time. Thus, each radioactive
isotope has been decaying at the same rate since it was formed, ticking along regularly like a clock. For example, when
potassium is incorporated into a mineral that forms when lava cools, there is no argon from previous decay (argon, a gas,
escapes into the atmosphere while the lava is still molten). When that mineral forms and the rock cools enough that argon
can no longer escape, the "radiometric clock" starts. Over time, the radioactive isotope of potassium decays slowly into
stable argon, which accumulates in the mineral.
The amount of time that it takes for half of the parent isotope to decay into daughter isotopes is called the half-life of an
isotope (Figure 5b). When the quantities of the parent and daughter isotopes are equal, one half-life has occurred. If the
half life of an isotope is known, the abundance of the parent and daughter isotopes can be measured and the amount of time
that has elapsed since the "radiometric clock" started can be calculated.
For example, if the measured abundance of 14C and 14N in a bone are equal, one half-life has passed and the bone is 5,730
years old (an amount equal to the half-life of 14C). If there is three times less 14C than 14N in the bone, two half lives have
passed and the sample is 11,460 years old. However, if the bone is 70,000 years or older the amount of 14C left in the bone
will be too small to measure accurately. Thus, radiocarbon dating is only useful for measuring things that were formed in the
relatively recent geologic past. Luckily, there are methods, such as the commonly used potassium-argon (K-Ar) method,
that allows dating of materials that are beyond the limit of radiocarbon dating