Disciplines

Geochronology

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Branch of Geology

Citation Formats

General Reference

Earth and Environment Atlas. "Geochronology." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-earth.interactiveatlas.org/disciplines/geochronology.

APA Style

Earth and Environment Atlas. (n.d.). Geochronology. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-earth.interactiveatlas.org/disciplines/geochronology

BibTeX

@misc{earthandenvironmentatlas-geochronology,
  author = {Earth and Environment Atlas},
  title = {Geochronology},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-earth.interactiveatlas.org/disciplines/geochronology},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

The discipline that dates deep time itself: the radioactive decay, layered rock and fossil sequences that let geologists put a number of years on an era nobody was alive to clock. It carries this atlas's deep-time history spine.

Facts

Central Question

Geochronology is the science of determining the age of rocks, fossils, and sediments using signatures inherent in the rocks themselves. 1

Scope

Geochronology develops and applies the methods, principally radiometric dating, used to determine the age of rocks, fossils and geological events. 1

Significance

Geochronology anchors the geologic time scale in absolute years and dates events from the age of the Earth to the timing of mass extinctions. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections