Which method determines the relative age of Earth's sedimentary layers based on their organization? Scientists think the continents once formed a large, single landmass that broke apart and the continents slowly drifted to their present locations. What is the name given to this hypothesis? Directions: Read the passage "Wegener Observations" in the box below. Use the passage to answer any questions that follow.

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Relative dating of rock layers – Special Sources
The age of a rock is determined by stratigraphy , a branch in geology which studies the chronology of events and changes, along with the development of organisms, which have determined the development of the Earth from when it became an independent spatial body until today. The age, or the chronology of geological creations and events is determined using relative and absolute age. In determining the relative age of a rock, the data from sedimentary rocks are generally used. Relative age of magmatic and metamorphic rocks is determined according to their relation with sedimentary rocks. The determination of the relative age of a rock is based on the principle of original horizontality of the sediments, principle of superposition, principle of original lateral continuity, principle of cross-cutting relationships, principle of inclusions, principle of biological succession and the lithology of a rock. Photo 1.


Telling Time at Grand Canyon National Park
Lake Turkana has a geologic history that favored the preservation of fossils. Scientists suggest that the lake as it appears today has only been around for the past , years. The current environment around Lake Turkana is very dry.



Our planet inherits a large number of artifacts and monuments bestowed upon us by older historic civilizations. These remains are subjected to dating techniques in order to predict their ages and trace their history. This ScienceStruck post enlists the differences between the absolute and relative dating methods. Although both relative and absolute dating methods are used to estimate the age of historical remains, the results produced by both these techniques for the same sample may be ambiguous.