Name ____________________________________ Date ___________

EARTH’S HISTORY
VOCABULARY
Use Figure 2 to answer the following two questions. Figure 2
10. Interpreting Graphics Which
is older—the sandstone layer or Conglomerate
Dike A? Explain your answer. Sandstone Shale

Batholith

Sill
Fault A
Dike B
Limestone
Dike A
Fault B

11. Applying Concepts Did Fault A occur before or after the deposition
of the layer of conglomerate? Explain your answer.

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epoch Mesozoic geologic time scale period eon era

Geologists have organized the events of Earth’s history and represented them on the
(1) . This record of Earth’s history is divided into units of time, the
longest of which is the (2) , measured in billions of years. The next
longest unit of time, the (3) , is measured in hundreds of millions to
billions of years. The name of one such unit of time is the (4) , which
means “middle life.” The unit of geologic time defined by the abundance or extinction of life-
forms during the time that certain rocks were deposited is the (5) .
An even smaller unit of time, the (6) , is usually measured in terms
of millions to tens of millions of years.

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 carbon films index fossils permineralized remains
cast mineral replacement trace fossils
coal mold
fossils original remains
1. thin film of carbon residue forming a silhouette of the original
organism
2. soft spaces inside an organism are filled with minerals from
groundwater
3. hard, outer cavity in the rock where fossil has been dissolved
4. fossilized tracks and evidence of activity of organisms
5. traces of species that existed on Earth, used to judge climate,
environment, and geologic time
6. minerals or sediments fill a fossil mold
7. totally carbonized remains, now used as fuel source
8. the replacement of hard and soft parts of an organism
9. remains, imprints, or traces of prehistoric organisms
10. entire, complete organism found in amber, ice, or natural tar pit
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_____ 1. shield a. a fossil that is used to date rocks
b. a unit of geologic time that is longer than an
_____ 2. nebula
age but shorter than a period
_____ 3. evolution c. an episode during which an enormous
number of species dies
_____ 4. geologic column
d. a large area of exposed Precambrian rocks
_____ 5. epoch e. a large cloud from which Earth formed
_____ 6. mass extinction f. a theory that a meteorite caused the
extinction of dinosaurs
_____ 7. index fossil
g. the gradual development of new organisms
_____ 8. period from preexisting organisms
h. an ordered arrangement of rock layers
_____ 9. geologic time
scale i. a unit of geologic time that is longer than an
epoch but shorter than an era
_____ 10. impact j. a chart outlining the development of Earth
hypothesis and life on Earth

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_____ 1. ammonite a. a flowering plant or tree
_____ 2. pterosaur b. a shellfish fossil that serves as a Mesozoic
index fossil
_____ 3. cycad c. a reptile that lived in Triassic oceans
_____ 4. angiosperm d. a plant with fernlike leaves in Triassic forests
e. a flying reptile of the Jurassic Period
_____ 5. ichthyosaur

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 1. absolute dating a. time it takes for half of the atoms in an isotope to
decay
2. half-life
b. breaking down of a neutron into a proton and an
3. radioactive decay electron
4. radiometric dating c. principle that Earth processes occurring today are
similar to those that occurred in the past
5. uniformitarianism d. process that uses the properties of atoms in rocks
and other objects to determine their ages
e. calculating the absolute age of a rock by measuring the
amounts of parent and daughter materials in a rock and
by knowing the half-life of the parent material

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_____ 1. original a. folded or tilted rock comes to the surface,
horizontality erodes, and new sediment is deposited
b. sedimentary layer over unstratified rock
_____ 2. disconformity
c. horizontal layers of old sedimentary rock
_____ 3. angular erode, then get covered by new layers
unconformity d. undisturbed sedimentary rock remains in
_____ 4. law of horizontal layers
superposition e. a sedimentary rock layer is older than the
layers above it and younger than the layers
_____ 5. nonconformity below it

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_____ 1. half-life a. two protons and two neutrons emitted by
the nucleus
_____ 2. radiometric dating
b. determining age through comparison of
_____ 3. radiocarbon dating isotopes
c. the time it takes for half a sample of a
_____ 4. varve
radioactive isotope to decay
_____ 5. alpha decay d. using organic remains to date objects
e. banded layers of sediment deposited
annually
MULTIPLE CHOICE

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_____ 1. geologic time scale a. a unit of geologic time by which an era is
divided
_____ 2. period
b. a table that outlines Earth’s development
_____ 3. era c. a unit of geologic time that includes two or
more periods
_____ 4. epoch
d. an ordered arrangement of rock layers
_____ 5. geologic column based on their ages
e. a unit of geologic time by which a period
is divided

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crust crystallize differentiation float granite
lava mantle nickel oceanic crust subduction

1. When Earth formed, the dense minerals iron and were

concentrated in Earth’s core.

2. Minerals with low densities tend to at cooler temperatures

than do denser minerals.

3. The common crustal rock is mainly composed of feldspar,

quartz, and mica, which are minerals with low densities.

4. Less-dense minerals became concentrated near Earth’s surface by

flowing from the hot interior.

5. Denser minerals concentrated below Earth’s surface and formed the rocks that
make up Earth’s .

6. The process by which a planet becomes internally zoned is called

.

7. Earth’s probably formed as a result of the cooling of the

uppermost mantle.

8. Sediment-covered slabs of Earth’s earliest crust were recycled into the mantle at
zones.

9. Less-dense material such as crust has a tendency to on

more-dense material such as the mantle.

10. A difference in density causes the to be lower in elevation

than the less-dense granitic continental crust.

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_____ 1. invertebrate a. fossil that is used to date rocks
b. type of animal that thrived in the Cambrian
_____ 2. stromatolite
Period
_____ 3. shield c. type of deposit common in Precambrian rock
_____ 4. index fossil d. large area of exposed Precambrian rock
e. type of animal that appeared during the
_____ 5. vertebrate Ordovician Period

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Use Figure 1 to answer the following
two questions.

3. Interpreting Graphics Identify

and briefly describe the fossil
shown.

4. During which era did this

organism exist?

Figure 1

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_____ 1. mummification a. fossilized dung or waste
_____ 2. gastrolith b. fossilized remains of an organism found
in very dry places
_____ 3. coprolite c. carbonized residue of plants and fish
_____ 4. petrification d. minerals replace organic material
e. fossilized stone from the digestive system
_____ 5. carbon films of a dinosaur

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_____ 1. nonconformity a. sedimentary rock layers are younger than
layers below
_____ 2. unconformity
b. determining absolute age by comparing
_____ 3. varve radioactive and stable isotopes
c. current geologic processes are the same as
_____ 4. law of crosscutting those that were at work in the past
relationships
d. stratified rock resting on unstratified rock
_____ 5. radiometric dating e. a fossilized mark formed by the movement
of an animal
_____ 6. disconformity
f. a fossil used to determine the age of
_____ 7. trace fossil rock layers
_____ 8. uniformitarianism g. a break in the geologic record
h. a banded layer of sand and silt deposited
_____ 9. law of annually in a lake
superposition
i. a fault or body of rock is younger than any
_____ 10. index fossil other body of rock it cuts through
j. boundary between horizontal layers of
sedimentary rock and younger layers over
an eroded surface
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8. Applying Concepts Look at the timeline in Figure 2. For each
letter, write the name of the geologic era.
A. B.
C. D.

Figure 2 B. 540 to 248

million years ago
D. 65 million years
ago through today
A. 4.56 billion to 540 million years ago

C. 248 to 65 million
years ago

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_____ 1. trace fossils a. an interruption in the geologic record
_____ 2. disconformity b. a layer of sediment deposited annually
c. numeric age of an object
_____ 3. varve
d. the age of an object in relation to other
_____ 4. unconformity objects
e. fossilized animal tracks
_____ 5. index fossil
f. the principle that geologic processes that
_____ 6. nonconformity occurred in the past can be explained by
current geologic processes
_____ 7. absolute age
g. a fossil used to date rock layers
_____ 8. uniformitarianism h. sedimentary rock layers are younger
than layers below
_____ 9. relative age
i. a layer of sedimentary rock over an
_____ 10. law of superposition older, eroded layer of rock
j. a layer of sedimentary rock over
unstratified rock

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Archean liquid water minerals oceans outgassing water vapor

Seawater probably originated largely from the same process of (7) that formed the
atmosphere. A major component of the gas that was vented from early Earth was (8) .
As the early atmosphere and surface of Earth cooled, the water vapor in the atmosphere condensed to form
(9) . During the (10) , rain slowly filled the low-lying areas on
Earth. The low-lying areas were underlain by basalt, and as these basalt-floored basins filled, they formed the
(11) . Rainwater reacted with the (12) exposed at Earth’s sur-
face and dissolved them, making the oceans of the Precambrian salty.

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Directions: Look at the cross-sectional view of the rock layers shown in Figure 1. For each question, decide
which of the two named materials is older. Assume the layers have not been overturned. Write the name of the
older material on the line provided.
5. tan sandstone and Figure 1
brown sandstone
Red sandstone
6. brown sandstone and Dinosaur bone
gray limestone Tan limestone

Gray limestone
7. gabbro dike and
brown sandstone Tan sandstone
Brown
Black shale
8. gabbro dike and Brown
sandstone
sandstone

gray shale Snail fossil

Green shale
9. snail fossil and
trilobite fossil

Gabbro dike
Gray shale
10. snail fossil and
dinosaur bone Trilobite fossil

11. snail fossil and green shale

12. dinosaur bone and red sandstone
13. red sandstone and gray limestone
14. tan limestone and tan sandstone
15. tan limestone and gray limestone
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_____ 1. Precambrian a. an episode during which large numbers of
time species become extinct
b. a large area of exposed Precambrian rock
_____ 2. mass extinction
c. a geologic era that began about 542 million
_____ 3. geologic time years ago and ended about 251 million years
scale ago
_____ 4. Mesozoic Era d. a time period that began with the formation of
Earth and makes up about 88% of Earth’s
_____ 5. impact history
hypothesis e. an ordered arrangement of rock layers
_____ 6. Paleozoic Era f. a division of time that began about 65 million
years ago and includes the present day
_____ 7. evolution
g. a hypothesis that explains why dinosaurs
_____ 8. Cenozoic Era became extinct
h. a description of the sequence and length of
_____ 9. shield Earth’s changes
_____ 10. geologic i. a geologic era known as the Age of Reptiles
column j. the gradual development of new organisms
from preexisting organisms
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