Radiometric Dating Methods
Introduction
I have always wanted to travel the world and discover many new artifacts and fossils that have not been found before. I found myself very interested and passionate about evolution and how our ancestors evolved into modern human. That is when I decided to pursue a career in paleoanthropology because I knew that was a career with many opportunities to travel the world and possibly discover fossils. In college, I have had a lot of hands on field experience in paleontology and it was a place where I was able to apply my knowledge and skills that I have gained throughout college. After I graduated college, this was something I felt that I can do for the rest of my life and I got a job as a Paleoanthropologist.
My first day on the job, …show more content…
In the area where we discovered these fossils, there are known volcanoes that are active or that were active in Ethiopia. Our first dating method we used was radiometric dating, this method relies on the decay of naturally occurring radioactive isotopes (WoldeGabriel, 2009). When we first uncovered the fossils we saw that is was between two layers of volcanic ash and the ash had been deposited in the fossils. Once the dating method was done each fossil dated back to 4.4 million years ago (WoldeGabriel, 2009). To back up the date, I used another method called Biostratigraphic dating which uses the association of fossils in the strata to determine each layer’s approximate age (Shook, 2016). I used this dating method because I found the fossils in two different location and I wanted to figure out if they had any correlation with each other. The layers revealed that they are both 4 million years old, which makes the age of the fossil accurate. Most of Ethiopia is covered by forests, home to many other shrubs, bushes and the Ethiopian rifts. The Afar triangle is another important piece of Ethiopia’s environment, it lies between the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. The rifts have caused the volcanoes in the area to erupt, leaving deposits of ash, which has helped us determine the age of the fossils (WoldeGabriel, 2009).
I have always wanted to travel the world and discover many new artifacts and fossils that have not been found before. I found myself very interested and passionate about evolution and how our ancestors evolved into modern human. That is when I decided to pursue a career in paleoanthropology because I knew that was a career with many opportunities to travel the world and possibly discover fossils. In college, I have had a lot of hands on field experience in paleontology and it was a place where I was able to apply my knowledge and skills that I have gained throughout college. After I graduated college, this was something I felt that I can do for the rest of my life and I got a job as a Paleoanthropologist.
My first day on the job, …show more content…
In the area where we discovered these fossils, there are known volcanoes that are active or that were active in Ethiopia. Our first dating method we used was radiometric dating, this method relies on the decay of naturally occurring radioactive isotopes (WoldeGabriel, 2009). When we first uncovered the fossils we saw that is was between two layers of volcanic ash and the ash had been deposited in the fossils. Once the dating method was done each fossil dated back to 4.4 million years ago (WoldeGabriel, 2009). To back up the date, I used another method called Biostratigraphic dating which uses the association of fossils in the strata to determine each layer’s approximate age (Shook, 2016). I used this dating method because I found the fossils in two different location and I wanted to figure out if they had any correlation with each other. The layers revealed that they are both 4 million years old, which makes the age of the fossil accurate. Most of Ethiopia is covered by forests, home to many other shrubs, bushes and the Ethiopian rifts. The Afar triangle is another important piece of Ethiopia’s environment, it lies between the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. The rifts have caused the volcanoes in the area to erupt, leaving deposits of ash, which has helped us determine the age of the fossils (WoldeGabriel, 2009).