Question
Question: What is the law of superposition and how can it be used for relative dating rocks?...
What is the law of superposition and how can it be used for relative dating rocks?
Solution
This is the process of determination of the past events by their relative order without the determination of their absolute age. This process helps in putting geologic events in chronological order without requiring that a specific numerical age be assigned to each event.
Complete answer:
The law of superposition states that the youngest Rock will always be on top and the oldest Rock will remain on the bottom through which the relative ages came that is arranged by the depth of the rocks. The bottom layer must be older that had to be laid down first and the layers on top must be younger. The determination of the relative ages of rocks can be presumed ages of the fossils which are found in the sedimentary layers which consist of the simplest fossils that are assumed to be older. The layers are assumed to be younger if the sedimentary layer found on the top of the sedimentary layer consists of the more complex fossils. said to be stratigraphically disordered if they are in violation of the law of superposition in which the older for sale occurs above a younger fossil. All sedimentary systems consist of stratigraphic disorder virtually at a coma scale which is a common feature of the fossil record.
Additional information:
Relative dating helps in the arrangement of the geological events and the rocks which are left behind in a sequence. Fossils are used in the determination of the organism about how the organism lived and preserved. It is placed within some context and the age of the fossil can be determined by comparing it to other fossil species from the same period. Principles of original horizontality, cross-cutting relationships, and superposition allowed the events to get ordered at a single location.
Note:
Relative dating includes geochronology which helps to determine the past events and does not help with the absolute age of the fossil. Absolute dating is done through radiometric dating which can only determine the order of the series of events.