Lesson Objective

In this lesson, we will explore the composition of our atmosphere. We will also take a look at the role water and heat energy play in climate and weather.

Previously we covered...

The geologic time scale developed as a relative scale based upon observations of rock strata.

The age of terrestrial rock strata has been determined by radioactive dating methods.

These methods use naturally radioactive isotopes with known half-lives to determine the age of rocks.

The age of the Earth is 4.5 billion years old based upon measuring the age of extraterrestrial sources such as meteorites and moon rocks that formed at the same time as the Earth.