Historical geology is one of the two major divisions in the study of geology. The other major division is physical geology. Historical geology includes the physical, chemical, and biological history of the earth.
Geologists study rock formations and the fossil record to gain information about the geologic history of the earth. Historical geology uses the principle of uniformitarianism to interpret the geologists' data. The principle of uniformitarianism states physical and chemical processes that produce rock formations and fossils have been similar throughout history but the process rates can vary. This means that geologists can use information from recent geological events to understand how the historical geological record was formed.
Historical geology is often represented by the geologic time scale. The geologic time scale places the major events of the earth's evolution in chronological order. The units of geologic time scale are the geologic eon, era, period, and epoch. Eon is the largest unit and epoch is the smallest.
No comments:
Post a Comment