Absolute dating and relative dating

Studying the layers of rock or strata can also be useful. If a layer of rock containing the fossil is higher up in the sequence that another layer, you know that layer must be younger in age. This can often be complicated by the fact that geological forces can cause faulting and tilting of rocks.Absolute dating is used to determine a precise age of a rock or fossil through radiometric dating methods.Carbon-14, the radioactive isotope of carbon used in carbon dating has a half-life of 5730 years, so it decays too fast.It can only be used to date fossils younger than about 75,000 years.The Wheeler Formation has been previously dated to approximately 507 million year old, so we know the trilobite is also about 507 million years old.But, how can we determine how old a rock formation is, if it hasn’t previously been dated?Then after another 5,000 years half of the remaining parent isotope will have decayed.

This makes it ideal for dating much older rocks and fossils.

Our planet Earth consists of numerous rocks and formations.

Archeologists, geologists, and anthropologists primarily make use of relative dating techniques to understand the sequence of events, in order to establish the facts such as the time period of formation of planet Earth.

Typically commonly occurring fossils that had a widespread geographic distribution such as brachiopods, trilobites, and ammonites work best as index fossils.

If the fossil you are trying to date occurs alongside one of these index fossils, then the fossil you are dating must fall into the age range of the index fossil. In a hypothetical example, a rock formation contains fossils of a type of brachiopod known to occur between 410 and 420 million years.