Relative dating methods estimate whether an object is younger or older than other things found at the site. Absolute dating methods provide more specific origin dates and time ranges, such as an age range in years.

What do you call the relative and absolute dating?

EXPLORE. Geologists often need to know the age of material that they find. They use absolute dating methods, sometimes called numerical dating, to give rocks an actual date, or date range, in numbers of years. This is different to relative dating, which only puts geological events in time order.