Geological methods – Rock Archive

How can we tell the age of rocks and fossils?

Written by Ichiko Sugiyama and Dr. Kärt Paiste Knowing the age of different rock layers is paramount to reconstructing past environmental changes and is accomplished by dating rocks with various analytical techniques. Geologic dating methods can be placed into two broad categories: 1) relative dating and 2) absolute dating. Today, we will focus on understandingContinue reading “How can we tell the age of rocks and fossils?”

Rock archive

The main tool in reconstructing Earth’s environmental history is – rocks! In order to explore the rock archive, we must first understand what kind of stories different types of rocks can tell. What is a rock? Rocks are aggregates of smaller constituents, such as minerals or other solid materials (e.g. volcanic glass), which can beContinue reading “Rock archive”