How many pages would be in the “A History of the Earth” book if each page represented 10,000 years of Earth history?

One of the most difficult things for the human brain to comprehend is the depth of geologic time because it is challenging to visualize the magnitude of numbers like a million or billion. This lab explores concepts in relative dating, absolute age dating, and fossil succession to explore how geologists structure Earth’s vast history.

PART 1: Understanding Geologic Time:

Use the https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/explorations/tours/geotime/gtpage1.html webpage to answer the following questions:
⦁ How many pages would be in the “A History of the Earth” book if each page represented 10,000 years of Earth history?

⦁ For the events listed below, fill in how many years ago the event happened, and what page it would be on in the “A History of the Earth” book.
Event Years ago Page # in book
Formation of the Earth and Moon
Earliest life appears

Early land plants

Largest mass extinction

Dinosaur extinction

Early hominid “Lucy”

⦁ What is the difference between relative date and absolute date?

⦁ What is the Law of Superposition?

⦁ Fill in the following information for the fossils shown in step 7 of the activity.
Fossil Fact about the organism Date the fossil:
Trilobite
First appeared:
Brachiopods
Height of diversity:
Eurypterids
Went extinct:
Ammonites
Went extinct:

⦁ Which of the fossils is the earliest ?

⦁ What is radiometric dating, and what does it tell us?

⦁ Based on the data from the radiometric dating of the volcanic ash layers, what is the age range for the layer of rock the ammonite fossils are found in?