Geologic Time: Concepts and Principles

INTRODUCTION
Time is what sets geology apart from most of the other sciences, and an appreciation of the
immensity of geologic time is fundamental to an understanding of both the physical and biologic history
of our planet. so vast is the span of time recorded in the history of the earth that is generally
distinguished from the more modest kinds of time by being called geologic time.
Most people have difficulty comprehending geologic time since they tend to view time from the
perspective of their own existence. Ancient history is what occurred hundreds or perhaps thousands of
years ago, and yet when geologists talk in terms of ancient geologic history, they mean events that
happened millions or even billions of years ago.
Geologist use two different frames of reference when speaking of geologic time. Relative dating
involves placing geologic events in a chronologic order as determined from their position in the rock
record. Relative dating will not tell us how long ago a particular event occurred, only that one event
preceded another. The various principles used to determine relative dating, such as superposition and
cross-cutting relationships, were discovered hundreds of years ago and since then have been used to
develop the relative geologic time scale. These principles are still widely used and will be discussed later
in this chapter.
Absolute dating results in specific dates for rock units expressed in years before the present.
Radiometric dating is the most common method of obtaining absolute age dates. It is based on the natural
decay of various radioactive elements that occur in trace amounts in some rocks. Not until the discovery
of radioactivity near the end of the last century could ages in years before the present be accurately
applied to the relative geologic time scale. Today the geologic time scale is really a dual scale: a relative
scale based on rock sequences fitted to an absolute scale based on radiometric dates expressed as years
before present (Table 2-1).
This chapter has two objectives. The first is to establish the concept of geologic time as one of the
three cornerstones of historical geology; the other two will be discussed in chapter 5 and 6. One of the
major contributions of historical geology is the realization of the immensity of time. The second objective
is to introduce the major underlying principles of historical geology that allow the reconstruction of
geologic history. Without an appreciation of the vastness of time and a firm understanding of basic
geologic principles, the history of the earth becomes nothing more than a recitation of seemingly
unrelated facts.

EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEPT OF GEOLOGIC TIME

The concept of geologic time and the way it is measured have changed over the years. For example, early
Christian theologians were mostly responsible for formulating the idea that time is linear rather than
circular. St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D. ) stated that the Crucifixion was a unique event from which

all other events could be measured, thus establishing the idea of the B.C. and A.D. time scale. This prompted
many religious scholars and clerics to try to establish the date of creation by analyzing historical records
and the genealogies found in Scripture.
A famous and influential Christian scholar, James Ussher (1581-1665), Archbishop of Armagh,
Ireland, is generally credited as being the first to calculate the age of the earth based on genealogies
described in genesis. Ussher stated in 1650 that the earth was created on October 22, 4004 B.C. this date
was later reproduced in many editions of the Bible and incorporated into the dogma of the Christian
church. For nearly a century thereafter, it was considered heresy to assume that the earth and all its
features were more than about 6000 years old. Thus, the idea of a very young earth provided the basis for
most chronologies of earth history prior to the eighteenth century.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries several attempts were made to determine the age
of the earth based on scientific evidence rather than on revelation. For example, the French zoologist
Georges Louis de Buffon ( 1707-1788 ), assumed the earth formed as a molten ball and gradually cooled
to its present condition, he heated iron balls of various diameters to their melting point, measured how
long it took for the iron balls to cool to the surrounding temperature, and extrapolated his results to
account for the cooling rate of the earth. From these experiments he determined that the earth required at
least 96000 years to cool to its present temperature. Later he revised this estimate downward to 75000
years based on experiments using mixtures of metallic and nonmetallic substances.
This age contrasted sharply with the much younger age based on Scripture. However, during
Buffons time it was very risky to publish views that seemed to contradict Church doctrine, so to escape
censure, Buffon acknowledged his theory as pure philosophical speculation; his close connection with the
French Court provided him with additional protection.
Other equally ingenious attempts at calculating the age of the earth were tried. For example,
geologists reasoned that if rates of deposition could be determined for various sedimentary rocks, they
might be able to calculate the time required to deposit a given thickness of rock. They could then
extrapolate how old the earth was from the total thickness of sedimentary rock in the earths crust.
However, even for the same type of rock, rates of deposition vary. Furthermore, it is impossible to
estimate how much rock has been removed by erosion, or how much a rock sequence has been reduced by
compaction. As a result of these uncertainties, estimates ranged widely---from less than a million years to
over a billion years.
Another attempt at determining the age of the earth involved calculating the age of the oceans. If
the ocean basins were filled very soon after the origin of the planet, then they would be only slightly
younger than the earth itself. The best known calculations for the oceans age were made by the Irish
geologist John Joly in 1899. He reasoned that the earths ocean waters were originally fresh and their
present salinity was the result of dissolved salt being carried into the ocean basins by rivers. By
measuring the present amount of salt in the worlds rivers, and knowing the volume of ocean water and its
salinity, Joly calculated it would have taken about 90 million years for the oceans to reach their present
salinity level. This age was too young by a factor of 50, mainly because there was no way to account for
recycled salt, continental salt deposits, or salt incorporated into clay minerals deposited on the sea floors.

Although each of these historical methods yielded age considerably younger than we now know
the earth to be, such attempts did change the way naturalists perceived the age of the earth and
represented a significant milestone in our understanding of earth history.

FUNDAMENTAL GEOLOGIC PRINCIPLES

The seventeenth century was an important time in the development of geology as a science because of the
widely circulated writings of the Danish anatomist Nicolas Steno (1638-1686). Steno observed the
present day processes of sediment transport and deposition during stream flooding near Florence, Italy.
These observations allowed him to determine the manner in which sedimentary rock layers formed and
served as the basis for three fundamental principles of geology. While these principles may now seem
self-evident, their discovery was an important scientific achievement and absolutely essential for
interpreting geologic history.
Stenos Principles
Steno noted that flooding streams spread out across their floodplains and deposited layers of sediment that
buried floodplain-dwelling organisms. Subsequent flooding events produced new layers of sediments that
were deposited or superposed layers became sedimentary rock. Thus, in a vertical succession of
sedimentary rock layers, the oldest layer is at the bottom and the youngest layer is at the top. This
principle of superposition is the basis for relative age determinations of strata and their contained fossils.
Since sedimentary particles settle from water under the influence of gravity, Steno reasoned that
sediment layers were deposited essentially horizontally (the principle of original horizontality). Therefore,
a sequence of sedimentary rock layers that is steeply inclined from the horizontal must have been tilted
after deposition and lithification.
Stenos third principle, the principle of lateral continuity, states that when sediment layers are
deposited, they extend laterally in all directions until they thin and pinch out, or terminate, against the
edge of the depositional basin. The grand canyon in Arizona beautifully illustrates Stenos three
principles.

Leonardo da Vinci-----Geologist
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is known to most people as the painter of such masterpieces as The Last
Supper and the Mona Lisa. Many people are also aware that da Vinci was a great engineer, scientist, and
inventor. What may not be as well known are his contributions to geology. His powers of observation,
imagination, and sound reasoning led him far beyond the beliefs of his time. His writings abound with
references to geology, and his sketches show a sound fundamental knowledge of the geology of
landscapes.
Among this contributions was the recognition that fossils were the remains of once-living
organisms and that they indicated changes in the distribution of land and sea. Da vinci correctly reasoned
that fossil shells found in the hills many miles from the sea could not have traveled that distance in the 40

days and nights of the Deluge. Furthermore, they could not have been deposited there by the rising waters
of the Noachian Flood since they do not occur with any other debris that surely would have been carried
by a flood.
Much of da Vincis professional engineering had to do with canals and rivers, and from these
studies he realized that most valleys were eroded by the rivers occupying them. He also recognized that
the material carried by streams to the sea was eventually cemented into sedimentary rock and later
uplifted to form mountains.
From his study of river processes, da Vinci came to the conclusion that the earth must be older
than 6000 years. In fact, based on observations of how slowly river deposits form, he concluded that the
deposits of the Po River required 200.000 years to accumulate, and that amount of time was only a small
portion of all geologic time.
In terms of his understanding of geologic concepts and principles, Leonardo da Vinci was indeed
a Renaissance man.

ESTABLISHMENT OF GEOLOGY AS A SCIENCE---THE TRIUMPH OF UNIFORMITARIANISM

OVER NEPTUNISM AND CATASTROPHISM
Stenos principles were significant contributions to early geologic thought, but the prevailing concepts of
earth history continued to be those that could be easily reconciled with a literal interpretation of Scripture.
Two of these ideas, neptunism and catastrophism, were particularly appealing and accepted by many
naturalists. In the final analysis, however, another concept, uniformitarianism, became the underlying
philosophy of geology because it provided a better explanation for observed geologic phenomena than
either neptunism or catastrophism.
Neptunism and Catastrophism
Neptunism was a concept proposed in 1787 by the German professor of mineralogy Abraham Gottlob
Werner (1749-1817). Although Werner was an excellent mineralogist, he is most remembered for his
incorrect interpretation of earth history. He believed that all rocks, including granite and basalt, were
precipitated in an orderly sequence from a primeval, worldwide ocean (Table 2-2). The oldest, or
Primitive rock, were all unfossiliferous igneous and metamorphic rocks that supposedly formed entirely
by precipitation from seawater. Since they are found in the cores of mountain ranges, Werner reasoned
they must have been the earliest rocks precipitated from the sea. As the ocean waters subsided, the
transition rock were deposited. These rocks contain fossils and include the first detrital and chemical
rocks. Werner believed that the fossils in the transition rocks marked the time the earth became suitable
for habitation. The next rocks in werners sequence, the secondary rocks, included a variety of
fossiliferous detrital and chemical rocks, as well as basalt layers. The youngest, or Alluvial rocks,
consisted of unconsolidated sediments. A fifth category of rock included volcanic; these rocks, such as
pumice and lava, were still being produced by volcanoes but were not considered important by Werner.
Werners subdivision of the earths crust by supposed relative age attracted a large following in
the late 1700s and became almost universally accepted as the standard geologic column. Two factors

account for this. First, Werners charismatic personality, enthusiasm for geology, and captivating lectures
popularized the concept. Equally important was the fact that neptunism included a worldwide ocean that
could easily be reconciled with the biblical deluge.
However, in spite of werners personality and arguments, his Neptunian theory failed to explain
what happened to the tremendous amount of water that once covered the earth. An even greater problem
was Werners insistence that all igneous rocks were precipitated from seawater. To Werner, all volcanoes
were recent and had no importance in earth history. He believed that volcanic eruptions were the result of
combustion of buried coal seams and therefore that volcanoes could not have occurred until after the
deposition of coals, which were categorized among his secondary rocks. It was this failure to correctly
recognize an igneous origin for basalt that led to the downfall of neptunism.
From the late eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century the concept of catastrophism,
proposed by the French zoologist Baron Georges Cuvier (1769-1832), dominated European geologic
thinking. Cuvier explained the physical and biologic history of the earth resulting from a series of sudden
widespread catastrophes. Each catastrophe accounted for significant and rapid changes in the earth,
exterminating existing life in the affected area. Following a catastrophe, new organisms were either
created or migrated in from elsewhere.