1.
absolute dating: any method of measuring the age of an event or object in years.
2.
catastrophism: the idea that geologic change happens suddenly
3.
half-life: the time required for half of a sample of radioactive isotope to break down by radioactive decay to form a daughter isotope.
4.
law of crosscutting relationships: the principle that a fauilt or body of rock is younger than any other body of rock that it cuts through.
5.
paleontology: the scientific study of fossils
6.
radioactive decay: the process in which a radioactive isotope tends to break down into a stable isotope of the same element or another elemtn.
7.
radiometric dating: a method of determining the age of an object by estimating the relative percentages of a radioactive (parent) isotope and a stable (daughter) isotope
8.
relative dating: any method of determining whether an event or object is older or younger thanother events or objects
9.
sedimentary rock: a rock that forms from compressed or cemented layers of sediment
10.
superposition: a principle that states that younger rocks lie above older rocks if the layers have not been distrubed
11.
unconformity: a break in the geologic record created when rock layers are eroded or when sediment is not deposited for a long period of time
12.
uniformitarianism: the idea that the same geologic processes that shape earth today have been at work during all of Earth's history.