The study of rock strata is called stratigraphy. The laws of stratigraphy can help scientists understand Earths past. The laws of stratigraphy are usually credited to a geologist from Denmark named Nicolas Steno. He lived in the 1600s. The laws are illustrated in Figure 11.6. Refer to the figure as you read about the laws below. Superposition refers to the position of rock layers and their relative ages. Relative age means age in comparison with other rocks, either younger or older. The relative ages of rocks are important for understanding Earths history. New rock layers are always deposited on top of existing rock layers. Therefore, deeper layers must be older than layers closer to the surface. This is the law of superposition. You can see an example in Figure 11.7. Rock layers extend laterally, or out to the sides. They may cover very broad areas, especially if they formed at the bottom of ancient seas. Erosion may have worn away some of the rock, but layers on either side of eroded areas will still match up. Look at the Grand Canyon in Figure 11.8. Its a good example of lateral continuity. You can clearly see the same rock layers on opposite sides of the canyon. The matching rock layers were deposited at the same time, so they are the same age. Sediments were deposited in ancient seas in horizontal, or flat, layers. If sedimentary rock layers are tilted, they must have moved after they were deposited. Rock layers may have another rock cutting across them, like the igneous rock in Figure 11.9. Which rock is older? To determine this, we use the law of cross-cutting relationships. The cut rock layers are older than the rock that cuts across them. Geologists can learn a lot about Earths history by studying sedimentary rock layers. But in some places, theres a gap in time when no rock layers are present. A gap in the sequence of rock layers is called an unconformity. Look at the rock layers in Figure 11.10. They show a feature called Huttons unconformity. The unconformity was discovered by James Hutton in the 1700s. Hutton saw that the lower rock layers are very old. The upper layers are much younger. There are no layers in between the ancient and recent layers. Hutton thought that the intermediate rock layers eroded away before the more recent rock layers were deposited. Huttons discovery was a very important event in geology! Hutton determined that the rocks were deposited over time. Some were eroded away. Hutton knew that deposition and erosion are very slow. He realized that for both to occur would take an extremely long time. This made him realize that Earth must be much older than people thought. This was a really big discovery! It meant there was enough time for life to evolve gradually. When rock layers are in the same place, its easy to give them relative ages. But what if rock layers are far apart? What if they are on different continents? What evidence is used to match rock layers in different places? Some rock layers extend over a very wide area. They may be found on more than one continent or in more than one country. For example, the famous White Cliffs of Dover are on the coast of southeastern England. These distinctive rocks are matched by similar white cliffs in France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Denmark (see Figure 11.11). It is important that this chalk layer goes across the English Channel. The rock is so soft that the Channel Tunnel connecting England and France was carved into it! Like index fossils, key beds are used to match rock layers. A key bed is a thin layer of rock. The rock must be unique and widespread. For example, a key bed from around the time that the dinosaurs went extinct is very important. A thin layer of clay was deposited over much of Earths surface. The clay has large amount of the element iridium. Iridium is rare on Earth but common in asteroids. This unusual clay layer has been used to match rock up layers all over the world. It also led to the hypothesis that a giant asteroid struck Earth and caused the
Output: A key bed of clay from around the time the dinosaurs went extinct led to the hypothesis that the extinction was caused by a