GEOL 101 1nd Edition Lecture 2 Outline of Current Lecture I Intro to Geology II Science and History to Geology III Geologic Time Current Lecture Geology can best be described as the science that follows the understanding of planet Earth Geo is greek for earth There are two types of geology Physical Understanding the processes Earth activates above and below the surface Historical Understanding of the original Earth and how much it has changed overtime There are connections and relationships between the people and the environment While some can be beneficial others can be very harmful Examples of the environment Resources ores water soil etc Natural Disasters landslides volcanoes floods earthquakes Issues pollution alternate energy With many natural disasters occurring all over the world it is crucial to figure out why these things happen and attempt the prevent them to save lives and property HISTORICAL NOTES Earth has been a study for centuries Catastrophism In the 17th and 18th century some thought mountains and canyons were developed by catastrophic events that happened shortly before This is false it can take up to millions of years These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute Modern Geology Uniformitarianism James Hutton in the 1700s was the father of geology and introduced this idea that chemical physical and biological laws today were founded in the past also The present is the key to the past Although some processes we know have occurred in the past cannot be seen today such as Meteor Impacts We cannot see them but they leave scars on Earth The Earth was different in early stages so this idea cannot explain everything For example there was no oxygen on Earth 3 5 billion years ago Time Absolute Dating Using radioactive decay rates scientists can assign close to accurate number dates in Earth s eras For example Dinosaurs died approximately 65 million years ago while radioactive decay rates indicate Earth is approximately 4 6 million years old Relative Dating dates are placed in their proper sequence or order without a number age in years Based on characteristics of rocks we can arrange them from oldest to youngest
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