INTEGBI N33 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Depositional Environment, Megalosaurus, Petrifaction
31 Mar 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
An undisturbed sequences of sediments with oldest layer on the bottom. Sediment accumulates in layers if undisturbed (can tell order by layers) If undisturbed, layers will show traces (fault lines, lava flow) The present is the key to the past . Geological processes acting today are the same as the ones in the past. I. e. erosion is the same now as in the past, so we can use what we know now to help understand the past. Everything we see in the rock record can be explained by processes we see now, given enough time; however, does not mean all rates of processes are the same. A fossilized neanderthal bone will never be found in the same stratum as a fossilized megalosaurus, for example, because neanderthals and megalosaurus lived during different geological periods, separated by many millions of years. Allows for strata to be identified and dated by the fossils found.
