Relative Dating

                                                                         Relative Dating 

During this week we learned how to find a relative date of certain rock formations. We began with learning the Law of superposition which is that the older rocks in a particular formation are usually on the bottom while the younger rocks are on the top of the formation as shown in the picture below. We compared this to a  Snickers bar where the first part that was being made was the Caramel center ( the oldest part of the rock). The peanuts were considered the fossils stuck in the rock and lastly the youngest layer the chocolate shell. 

Then we talked about 

Principle of original horizontality or that sedimentary layers are horizontal, or nearly so when they first become deposited.

and other principles like the principle of lateral continuity which is talks about how sediments move laterally in the movement of the particular rock formations and lastly the principle of cross-cutting relationships which in turn means the rock being the cuts or intrusions found inside of the rock are younger than the rocks they are cut into. This we compared to a wedding cake and the cake being the rock the oldest part and the cutting of the cake being the youngest part

All together this assignment was very helpful in identifying how we can see rock formations and what came first. I enjoyed this activity and would use it in my future classroom to explain the ages of rock formations and would include using examples like the snickers bar and cutting of the cake to better show them the key concepts we learned from this assignment.