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10 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Fossils |
The remains or traces of prehistoric life. Provides clues to deciphering Earth’s past. Must be 10,000y/o |
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Stratigraphy |
The study of layered rocks, allowing placement of strata into a sequence and helping to reconstruct Earth’s history. |
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Principle of Superposition |
One of Steno’s Laws. States that oldest rocks are located on the bottom, youngest rocks are on the top. |
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Principle of Original Horizontality |
One of Steno’s Laws. States that sediments are deposited in flat, horizontal layers. |
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Principle of Original Lateral ContinuityUn |
One of Steno’s Laws. States that sediments are deposited over a large area in a continuous sheet. |
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Unconformity |
An ancient surface of erosion or non-deposition, separating older rocks from younger rocks. |
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Xenolith |
“Alien Rock” a fragment of the surrounding rock which has broken off during an intrusion and fallen into the magma. The intrusion was not hot enough to melt the deposited country rock, and it became part of the intruded rock. |
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Neptunists |
Believed that all rocks precipitated from major oceans, and that Earth hadn’t changed much from its formation. |
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Vulcanists |
Believed that basalts were volcanic, and that granites were primordial. |
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Uniformitarianism |
The belief that Earth is a dynamic and changing place that undergoes the same chemical and physical processes today as it did as its formation. |
