WorksheetsRelative Dating Rules Review
Total questions: 20
Worksheet time: 10mins
The main idea of the principles of stratigraphy is that:
The Grand Canyon is the best place to study geology.
Geologists use simple rules to understand the history of rock layers.
Dinosaurs and mammoths lived at the same time.
Rocks are like a messy pile of laundry.
Which law is compared to a stack of laundry or a layer cake?
Law of Lateral Continuity
Law of Superposition
Law of Cross-Cutting Relationships
Law of Original Horizontality
According to the Law of Superposition, where would you find the oldest rocks?
At the very top of a rock layer stack.
In the middle of a rock layer stack.
At the bottom of a rock layer stack.
Only in areas where volcanoes have erupted.
A geologist finds a mammoth fossil in a layer above a dinosaur fossil. What does the Law of Superposition tell them?
The mammoth is older than the dinosaur.
The dinosaur is older than the mammoth.
The fossils are the same age.
A volcano must have mixed up the layers.
The word "strata" is a fancy term for:
Fossils
Rock layers
Geologists
Canyons
The Law of Original Horizontality states that sediments are naturally deposited in:
Tilted and folded layers
Flat, horizontal layers
Big, messy piles
Vertical columns
What force is responsible for the Law of Original Horizontality?
Wind
Water
Gravity
Earthquakes
If you see rock layers that are bent or "folded like a bent-up rug," what do you know?
They were formed that way.
They are the youngest layers.
They were originally flat, but were bent after they formed.
They must be igneous rocks.
The passage compares sediments settling in water or wind to:
Pouring sand into a fish tank
Slicing a birthday cake
Finding two halves of a photo
Stacking a pile of laundry
"Horizontality" in the law's name refers to layers being:
Old
Tilted
Cut
Flat
The Law of Cross-Cutting Relationships helps determine the:
Exact age of a rock in years.
Order of events.
Original color of the rock.
Type of fossils in a layer.
If a fault (a crack) slices through three layers of rock, what is true?
The fault is older than all three layers.
The fault is the same age as the top layer.
The fault is younger than all three layers.
The fault is older than the bottom layer but younger than the top layer.
The passage compares an igneous intrusion (magma pushing up) to:
Sticking a candle into a cake.
Frosting on top of a cake.
A layer of cake.
The pan the cake was baked in.
A feature that "cuts" is always ______ the rock layers it cuts through.
Older than
The same age as
Younger than
Softer than
Which of these is an example of a "cutting" feature?
A fault
An igneous intrusion
A river carving a canyon
All of the above
The Law of Lateral Continuity explains why:
Rock layers are always flat.
The same rock layers can be seen on both sides of a canyon.
The oldest rocks are at the bottom.
Fossils are found in rocks.
What does "lateral continuity" mean?
Layers are stacked from oldest to youngest.
Layers are cut by younger features.
Layers were originally flat.
Layers spread out over a large area.
According to the passage, the Grand Canyon was formed after the rock layers were deposited. What "cut" the canyon?
A giant fault
An igneous intrusion
The Colorado River
A series of earthquakes
The law of lateral continuity compares the two sides of the Grand Canyon to:
A sliced cake
Two halves of a torn photograph
A pile of laundry
A stack of pancakes
Which two laws best explain what happened after layers were already formed?
Superposition and Original Horizontality
Cross-Cutting Relationships and Lateral Continuity (as seen in the canyon)
Superposition and Lateral Continuity
Original Horizontality and Superposition
