Home / Teaching Documents, Lecture Notes and Tutorials / Teaching Documents about Geochronological Methods

About.com: Dating Archaeological Sites and Artifacts. An annotated link list.

Michael Benton, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, UK: Accuracy of Fossils and Dating Methods (an ActionBioscience.org original interview, American Institute of Biological Sciences).
Still available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Marshall Brain, HowStuffWorks, Inc.: How Carbon-14 Dating Works.

School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol:
Your Planet Earth.
A library of talks on earth sciences and evolutionary topics that may be of interest to earth sciences and education professionals as a basis for engagement and outreach shows in schools. Go to:
The History of Life. Powerpoint Presentation.
Geological Time. Powerpoint Presentations.
Websites outdated. Links lead to versions archived by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Rick Cheel, Department of Earth Sciences, Brock University: Geologic Time and Historical Geology and the history of the continents. Powerpoint presentations.

Jeff Crabaugh (University of Wyoming), The Science Education Resource Center (SERC), Carleton College: Teaching Geoscience with Visualizations: Using Images, Animations, and Models Effectively, Radioactive Decay and Absolute Age Determinations.
This web page provides access to a number of visualizations and supporting material illustrating the concept of radioactive decay and its central role in radiometric dating. Visualizations include cross-linked series of diagrams, static illustrations, and photos.

Deer Creek High School, Edmond, USA:
12.1 The Fossil Record Permineralization, part 3. Lecture notes, Powerpoint preservation.

J. Dodick and N. Orion (2006): Building an understanding of geological time: A cognitive synthesis of the "macro" and "micro" scales of time. PDF file, in C. Manduca and D. Mogk, eds., Earth and Mind: How Geologists Think and Learn about the Earth: Geological Society of America, p. 77-94.

Brandon Dugan and Carrie Masiello, Rice University, Houston, TX:
Evolution of the Earth. Lecture notes, Powerpoint presentations.
! You may navigate from here, e.g.:
Lecture 2, Dynamic and Evolving Earth.
Lecture 3, Dynamic and Evolving Earth. Many paleogeographical maps!
Lecture 8, Understanding Geologic Time.
Lecture 25, Late Paleozoic Earth History.

Steven Dutch, Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay: Power Point and Photographic Slides. Go to: Geologic Time and Earth History . Powerpoint presentation.
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Earth Science Australia: Geological time.

Earth Science Teachers´ Association (ESTA).
The aim of the Association is to advance education by encouraging and supporting the teaching of Earth sciences at all levels, whether as a single subject such as Geology, or as part of Science or Geography or other courses. See for instance:
Resources. A wide range of resources available to help support the teaching of Earth Sciences.

Richard B. Firestone, Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, and Justin Matis:
The Berkeley Laboratory Isotopes Project.
Information about the Periodic Table of the Isotopes. Provided by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine. Go to:
Nuclear Science Glossary. This glossary focuses on radioactive decay.
See also here.
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Deborah Freile, New Jersey City University: Historical Geology. An investigative course of geological and biological aspects of Earth History as developed through the use of fossil evidence and the principles of stratigraphy, geochronology, and the geology of structures. PowerPoint slides for lecture, e.g.:
Geologic History.
Relative Age.
Absolute Age. Snapshot taken by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Mark Gregory, Sydney: Carbon 14 Dating Calculator. To find the percent of Carbon 14 remaining after a given number of years, type in the number of years and click on Calculate.

Tom P. Guilderson, Paula J. Reimer, Tom A. Brown: The Boon and Bane of Radiocarbon Dating. Abstract, Science, Vol 307, Issue 5708, 362-364; 2005.

Hakai Magazine (part of the Tula Foundation):
Advances in Geochronological Methods.
Archived by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Richard Harter, The Talk.Origins Archive: Changing Views of the History of the Earth. This web site gives a summary of the way scientists have determined the age of the Earth.

! hhmi BioInteractive (The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)).
BioInteractive is a leading provider of free classroom resources and professional development for high school and undergraduate biology educators.
! EarthViewer. This interactive module allows to explore the science of Earth's deep history, from its formation 4.5 billion years ago to modern times. Excellent!

Tom Higham, Radiocarbon Laboratory, University of Waikato, New Zealand: The Radiocarbon WEB-Info. This resource is designed to provide online information concerning the radiocarbon dating method. Radiocarbon dating is the technique upon which chronologies of the late Pleistocene and Holocene have been built.

J.C. Hunziker et al. (1992): Thirty-two years of geochronological work in the Central and Western Alps: a review on seven maps. In PDF.

The Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin.
Courses & Catalogs. Go to: Time Scales
Lecture notes, Powerpoint presentation.

! C. King (2022):
Exploring Geoscience across the globe. In PDF (42 MB), Excellent!
Provided by The International Geoscience Education Organisation (IGEO). Chapters that may be of interest:
Chapter 3.2 (starting on pdf-page 30): e.g. Relative dating, Absolute dating.
Chapter 4.1.2.2 (starting on pdf-page 56): e.g. Sedimentary processes.
Chapter 4.3 (starting on pdf-page 115): e.g. Atmospheric change.
Chapter 4.4.1 (starting on pdf-page 122): e.g. Evolution.

! Eduardo A.M. Koutsoukos (2007): Stratigraphy: Evolution of a Concept. PDF file; In: Koutsoukos, Eduardo A.M. (ed.) Applied Stratigraphy. Series: Topics in Geobiology, Vol. 23.
See also here (Google books).

Vanessa LeBeau, larsonjewelers.com: Earth Science Guide to Fossil Dating. A link directory.
This expired link is available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Sonjia Leyva, College of Natural & Social Sciences, Department of Geosciences and Environment, California State University, Los Angeles:
The Geophile Pages. These pages are designed to help everyone explore the wonders of geology and oceanography. Go to:
Lessons. Lectures presented in classes. You can also navigate from ! here. See for example:
Earth History.
Geologic Time.
Powerpoint presentations.

Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, Texas:
Absolute Impact Ages and Cratering as a Function of Time. Powerpoint presentation, with contributions from Timothy D. Swindle Donald D. Bogard David A. Kring.

Justin Matis and Richard B. Firestone, Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley: Glossary of Nuclear Terms. With animated images to illustrate the nuclear decay.
This expired link is available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Andrew MacRae, The Talk.Origins Archive: Radiometric Dating and the Geological Time Scale. Circular Reasoning or Reliable Tools? This website discusses the way radiometric dating and stratigraphic principles are used to establish the conventional geological time scale.
Snapshot provided by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Space Physics Research Laboratory, Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: GLOBAL CHANGE I. The University of Michigan's Global Change Curriculum offers an innovative approach in undergraduate science and social science education as part of the Program in the Environment. In three interdisciplinary, team-taught courses the topic of Global Change from physical and human perspectives are examined. The courses are aimed at first and second year students who want to understand the historical and modern aspects of Global Change. Go to: Clocks in Rocks: Isotopes and the Age of Earth (van der Pluijm).
Websites outdated. The link is to versions archived by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

The University of Michigan: Global Change, Physical Processes:
Global Change 1 Fall 2011 Schedule . Go to:
! Clocks in Rocks: Isotopes and Age of Earth.

! Nils-Axel Mörner (ed., 2014): Geochronology - Methods and Case Studies. Open access, by InTech. Chapters published July 25, 2014 under CC BY 3.0 license.
This book includes a combination of methodological presentations and related case studies, from where we learn about practical problems and achievements. Earths evolutionary history is built up by geochronology, i.e. time benchmarks upon which the geological history is built up step by step over its total time period of about 4.5 billion years. The first marker in this history is the Jack Hills zircon from Australia dated at about 4.4 GA. The most detailed records come from seasonal changes within annual varves. Stratigraphy provides the basic chronological ordering of layers by layers. The radiometric techniques implied the introduction of absolute age determinations.

Barbara W. Murck et al. (2008): Visualizing Geology , Chapter 3:
How Old is Old? The Rock Record and Geologic Time. Powerpoint presentation. See also:
Barbara W. Murck and Brian J. Skinner (2015): Visualizing Geology, 4th Edition.

Basin Research Group of Department of Earth Sciences, National Central University Taiwan:
! Chronostratigraphy and Geological Time. In PDF.

Carl R. Nave, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Georgia State University, Atlanta: HyperPhysics. HyperPhysics is an exploration environment for concepts in physics which employs concept maps and other linking strategies. Go to: Radioactive Dating, and Radioactive Half-Life. See also: Radioactive Decay Calculation.

William L. Newman, USGS Geologic Information - General Interest Pubs, U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey: Geologic Time. This online edition contains chiefly all text from the original book in its entirety.

Paul Eric Olsen, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia College of Columbia University (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory): Unraveling Geological Time. Lecture 2, Online Course EESC V1001, "Dinosaurs and the History of Life".

Dennis O´Neil, Behavioral Sciences Department, Palomar College, San Marcos, California: Record of Time.
Now recovered from the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.
An introduction to the nature of fossils and paleoanthropological dating methods.

John Pojeta and Dale A. Springer, American Geological Institute AGI, (in cooperation with the Paleontological Society): Evolution and the Fossil Record. This non-technical introduction to evolution aims to help the general public gain a better understanding of one of the fundamental underlying concepts of modern science. Go to: Dating the Fossil Record.

Quizlet.com study tools:
! Search for Geochronical Methods.

Radiocarbon.
Radiocarbon is the main international journal of record for research articles and date lists relevant to ¹⁴C and other radioisotopes and techniques used in archaeological, geophysical, oceanographic and related dating.

Bruce Rueger, Department of Geology, Colby College, Waterville, ME:
Radiometric Methods for Dating Rocks. Lecture notes, Powerpoint presentation.

! M.D. Schmitz and K.F. Kuiper (2013): High-precision geochronology Elements, 9.
See also here.
"... High-precision geochronology is integral to testing hypotheses regarding the correlation, causes, and rates of events and processes in Earth history. Recent studies have sought to reconcile very precise, but apparently conflicting, ages for the same geological samples and events using different chronometers ..."

! M. Schobben et al. (2019): Interpreting the carbon isotope record of mass extinctions. Free access, Elements, 15: 331–337.
Note figure 2: Temporal distribution of large igneous provinces (LIPs) and mass extinctions since the Ordovician.
Figure 3: The biogeochemical carbon cycle.
"... carbon isotopes are not a panacea for understanding all aspects of mass extinctions. Most, perhaps all, extinction crises coincide with large-scale volcanism and disturbance to the long-term carbon cycle ..."

R.B. Schultz, Department of Geography and Geosciences, Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, IL: Geologic Time and Earth History. Powerpoint presentation.

Hartmut Seyfried, Institut für Geologie und Paläontologie, University of Stuttgart, Germany:
Online lectures on Sequence stratigraphy. Lecture outlines, in PDF.
This expired link is now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

S. Shen et al. (2022): How to Build a High-Resolution Digital Geological Timeline?. In PDF, Journal of Earth Science, 33: 1629-1632.

UCLA SIMS: U-Pb zircon geochronology. This page provides a short tutorial leading through some steps that are required for obtaining U-Pb zircon ages.

! U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), U.S. Department of the Interior: Geochronology, Geochemistry and Tracer Studies. The variety of geochronological tools or methods.

U.S. Geological Survey and the National Park Service: USGS Geology in the Parks, What is Geologic Time? See also: Geologic time scale.

Department of Health, Safety and Environment, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC: Radioactive Decay Calculator. This website offers the following features: isotope databank containing the half-life of 116 isotopes; equations for radioactive decay, timed decay, and timed solid disposal. These tools calculate the half-life for selected isotopes; radioactive decay final activity, given the initial activity and decay time; the decay time, given the initial and final activities; and the decay time, given the mass of a solid and the initial activity.

Ben A. van der Pluijm, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI: GLOBAL CHANGE 1, Physical Processes (see also here). Clocks in Rocks: Isotopes and Age of Earth.

Kathie Watson, U.S. Geological Survey: Radiometric Time Scale.

Jennifer M. Wenner, Geology Department, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (website by Digital Library for Earth System Education): How Does Radioactive Decay Work?

! W. White, Department of Geological Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY: Geo Sci 656 Lecture Notes. A set of lecture notes for a course in Geochronology, Radiogenic Isotope Geochemistry and Stable Isotope Geochemistry. You can view and print the following documents using Adobe Acrobat Reader. Go to:
Isotope Geochemistry. The lecture note (Adobe Acrobat Reader Version 3) covers the following topics: Nuclear structure and nucleosynthesis and the origin of the elements, geochronology, isotope ratios as natural tracers and stable isotope geochemistry.
See also here

! Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection: High School Earth Science.
Contributed by John Benner et al. Worth checking out:
Evidence About Earth´s Past.
Earth´s History.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Radiometric dating.
Geochronology.
List of geochronologic names.
Age of the Earth.

WonderQuest Columns: Death starts the stop-watch. Carbon-14 method, briefly explained.

J.R. Wood, Department of Geological & Mining Engineering and Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton:
Earth History. Lecture notes, Powerpoint presentations.

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