Practice question · Multiple choice
The law of superposition says lower layers are older. Give a situation where a strict reading of it produces a wrong date.
Hints
- Someone digs a grave in the year 900 through layers from the year 300. Where does the body end up?
- Ask what superposition assumes about how each layer arrived.
Show the answer
C. Any intrusion: a pit, grave or foundation trench cut from above
Why
Superposition assumes deposition from above and an intrusion violates it by construction, putting a ninth-century burial physically below third-century floors. Recognising cuts is therefore prior to reading the sequence, and it is why Harris matrices record relationships rather than depths.
Practise Stratigraphy and Relative Dating
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More questions on Stratigraphy and Relative Dating
- Replay this section’s formation. Order the events from first to last.
- Match each stratigraphic term to its definition.
- Each observation gives a terminus post quem or a terminus ante quem for the wall. Sort them.
- An object lying deeper than another can still be the younger of the two.
- A pit cut through three layers contains a coin of 200 CE. Why does the coin date the pit rather than the…
- Which processes can put OLDER objects into YOUNGER deposits?