Stratigraphic Principles
and
The Geological Time Scale
The Grand Canyon (after P\Tarbuck& Lutgens,2006)
Definition of Stratigraphy
• The use of interrelationships between layered rock or sediment
to interpret the history of an area or region.
• Makes use of several principles to determine the geologic
history of a locality or a region through correlation.
Principle of Uniformitarianism
• Put forward by John Hutton in the late 1700s
• Simply states that: ‘the physical, chemical and biological laws that
operate today have also operated in the geologic past’.
• Commonly expressed as ‘the present is the key to the past’.
• Many geologists prefer the term ‘actualism’ in place of
uniformitarianism
Aspect of time
• Geology involves time periods much greater than a few thousand years.
How long?
• Geologists needed some ‘clock’ that began running when rocks formed.
• Found shortly after radioactivity was discovered.
• Dating based on radioactivity allows the determination of a rock’s
numerical age (absolute age) given in years.
• Geologists working in the field or in a lab with maps, cross sections and
photographs are more concerned with relative time, the sequence in which
events took place, rather than the number of years.
Key principles of Relative Dating
• Placing rocks in their proper sequence of formation.
• Cannot tell how long ago an event took place, only that it followed one
event and preceded another.
• In order to establish a relative time scale, a few basic principles or rules had
to be discovered and applied.
1. Law of Superposition
2. Principle of Original Horizontality
3. Principle of Lateral Continuity
4. Principle of Cross-cutting relationships
Law of Superposition
• Nicolaus Steno, (1636 – 1686) a Danish anatomist, geologist and priest,
credited with being the first to recognize sequence of historical events in an
outcrop of sedimentary rock layers.
• Steno applied a very simple rule that has come to be the most basic
principle of relative dating – the law of superposition.
• The law of superposition states that in an undeformed sequence of
sedimentary rocks, each bed is older than the one above it and younger than
the one below it.
• Simply put – in an undeformed sequence, the formation young upwards.
Applying the law of
superposition to
layers of exposed
rocks in the upper
portion of the Grand
Canyon (after
Tarbuck & Lutgens,
2006)
Principle of Original horizontality
• Layers of sediment are generally deposited in a horizontal position.
• Rock layers that are flat indicate that they have not been disturbed and thus
still have their original horizontality.
• If folded or inclined at a steep angle, they must have been moved into that
position by crustal disturbances sometime after deposition.
Principle of Lateral Continuity
• An original sedimentary layer extends laterally until it tapers or thins at its
edges.
• This is what is expected at the edges of a depositional environment, or
where one type of sediment interferes laterally with another type of
sediment as environments change.
Principle of Cross-cutting relationships
• When a fault cuts through other rocks, or when magma intrudes and
crystallizes, it is assumed that the fault or intrusion is younger than the
rocks affected.
Illustration of the principle of cross-cutting relationships (after
Tarbuck & Lutgens, 2006)
Unconformities
• Layers of rock that have been deposited essentially without interruption are
said to be conformable.
• An unconformity represents a long period during which deposition ceased,
erosion removed previously formed rocks, and then deposition resumed. In
each case, uplift and erosion are followed by subsidence and renewed
sedimentation.
• Unconformities represent significant events in earth history.
• Recognition of unconformities helps to indicate what intervals of time are
not represented by strata and are thus missing from the geologic record.
Angular unconformity
• Easily recognised
• Consists of a tilted or folded strata that are overlain by younger, more flat-
lying strata.
• Angular unconformity indicates that during the pause in deposition, a
period of deformation (folding or tilting) and erosion occurred.
Disconformity
• More common, but usually far less conspicuous because the strata on either
side are essentially parallel.
• Difficult to identify because the rocks above and below are similar and
there is very little evidence of erosion.
Nonconformity
• A contact in which an erosion surface on plutonic or metamorphic rock has
been covered by younger sedimentary or volcanic rock.
• Generally indicates deep or long-continued erosion before subsequent
burial, because metamorphic or plutonic rocks form at considerable depths.
Illustration of the three types of unconformities in a section through
the Grand Canyon (after Tarbuck & Lutgens, 2006)
Illustration of the Sea level
formation of an angular
unconformity (after A. Deposition
Tarbuch & Lutgens,
2006)
B. Folding and uplifting
C. Erosion
Sea level
D. Subsidence and renewed deposition
Angular
unconformity
at Siccar
Point,
Scotland
Illustration of
nonconformity
(after Tarbuck &
Lutgens, 2006)
Correlation
• Correlation usually means determining time equivalency of rock units.
• Rock units may be correlated within a region, a continent and even between
continents.
• Methods of correlation include:
1. Physical continuity – being able to trace physically the course of a
rock unit
2. Similarity of rock types – correlation made between two
regions by assuming that similar rock types in two regions
formed at the same time
3. Fossils – the presence of fossils in sedimentary rocks is
important for correlation
The Geologic Time Scale
• The whole of geologic history has been divided into units of varying
magnitude which together comprise the Geologic Time Scale
• The geologic time scale divides the 4.5 Ga earth’s history into many
different units.
• Provides a meaningful time frame within which the events of geologic past
are arranged.
• Eons represent the greatest expanses of times.
• Phanerozoic (Grk. – visible life) – rocks and deposits of this eon contain
abundant fossils that document major evolutionary trend.
The Geological Time Scale
(modified from Tarbuck & Lutgens, 2006; Plummer et al, 2005)
Eon Era Period Epoch Approximate age of
base of unit (ma)
Recent
Quaternary (Holocene) 0.01
Pleistocene 1.8
Cainozoic/ Pliocene 5.3
Cenozoic Miocene 23.8
Tertiary Oligocene 33.7
Eocene 54.8
Palaeocene 65.0
Phanerozoic Cretaceous 144
Mesozoic
Jurassic 206
Triassic 248
Permian 290
Carboniferous 354
Palaeozoic Devonian 417
Silurian 443
Ordovician 490
Cambrian 540
Proterozoic 2500
Precambrian
Archaean >4100
Phanerozoic divided into three eras:
• Palaeozoic (Palaeo = ancient, Zoe = life)
• Mesozoic (Meso = middle, Zoe = life)
• Cainozoic (Caino = recent, Zoe = life)
• Each era is subdivided into periods.
• Paleaozoic has six Mesozoic three and Cainozoic two.
• Each of these periods is characterized by a less profound change in life
forms as compared with the eras.
Phanerozoic divided into three eras:
• Periods are divided into smaller units called epochs.
• Seven epochs have been named for the periods of the Cainozoic.
• The epochs of other periods are not usually referred to by specific names.
Rather, terms such as early, middle and late are generally referred to the
epochs of these earlier periods.
Precambrian Time
• The detail of the geologic time scale does not begin unto about 540 ma, the
date for the beginning of the Cambrian.
• The more than 4 Ga prior to the Cambrian is divided into the Archaean
and Proterozoic.
• The vast expanse of time can simply be referred to as the Precambrian.
• Although it represents 88 % of earth’s history, it is not divided into smaller
units as the Phanerozoic.
• The further back in time the geologist goes, the more fragmented the record
and clues become.
