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Are rock layers always younger than the faults that cut across them?
Wiki User
∙ 9y ago
If the situation is as simple as the one you have stated, it isn't difficult. Meanwhile, many faults displace laterally, either in compression or tension so that it can appear that younger rocks overlie older ones. See the law of super-position. Compressive faults generally force younger rocks below older, but not always. See subduction zones. Then see ophiolite suites.
Wiki User
∙ 13y ago
Wiki User
∙ 13y agoThe reason the crosscutting feature is always younger than the rock layers it cuts across, is because the rock layers had to be present before the features could cut across them.
Wiki User
∙ 10y agoThe layers were in place before the faulting took place, so they would be older than the fault.
Wiki User
∙ 12y agorelative dating
Wiki User
∙ 13y agoYounger.
Wiki User
∙ 9y agoNo, older.
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Which is the correct answer for this questionThe law of ______states that new rock layers are always deposited on top of existing rock layers.?
New rock layers are always deposited on top of existing rock layers. Therefore, deeper layers must be older than layers closer to the surface. This is the law of superposition.
What name is given to layers of tilted rocks that are overlain by younger more flat lying rock layers?
angular unconformity
Is a fossil older or younger than a another fossil in a lower rock?
According to the geologic Law of Superposition, in undisturbed rock strata, the deepest rock layers are always the oldest. Accordingly, a fossil found in a lower layer of undisturbed rock would be the older.
What happens when a fault moves suddenly?
Faults are breaks in the crust where the crust has moved. The types of dip-slip faults are normal and reverse faults. In both of these, the movement is along the slope of the fault. Sudden movements along these faults can produce fault scarps. Layers of rock being misaligned is evidence of fault movement. Fault creep is caused by slow movement along the fault.In a normal fault, the plates are moving away from each other. This is due to tension. When the fault moves, the footwall rises relative to the hanging wall. Normal faults occur at divergent boundaries, such as ocean ridges. Normal faults can produce fault-block mountains.In a reverse fault, the plates are moving towards each other. This is due to compression. Here, the footwall falls relative to the hanging wall. A thrust fault is a special type of reverse fault, where the angle is shallow. Reverse faults occur at convergent boundaries, like subduction zones.A strike-slip fault is where the two plates move horizontally past each other. The force between them is called shearing. This type of fault is often called a transform fault, because they occur at transform boundaries.
Different layers of the earth?
The compositional layers of the earth are the crust, mantle and core. The physical layers are the lithosphere, asthenosphere, mesosphere, outer and inner core.
How is it that crosscutting feature is always younger than the rock layers in cuts across?
A crosscutting feature is always younger than the rock layers it cuts through because the feature always forms after the rock layers have been formed, making the rock layers older.
What is the relative age relationship of faults to the rocks they cut?
Because the rocks have to be there first, all faults are younger than the rocks they end up cutting across. In regard to sedimentary rock layers, each layer is younger than the one below it.
How is it that crosscuting feature is always younger than the rock layer it cuts across?
A crosscutting feature is always younger than the rock layers it cuts through because the feature always forms after the rock layers have been formed, making the rock layers older.
Is a layer younger or older than the layers it cuts through?
A fault is necessarily younger than faults it cuts through; it could not have happened if the layers were not there first.
How the law of superposition helps scientist determine relative age?
Younger layers are deposited on top of older layers, whether the layer is sedimentary or volcanic. Occasionally faults may result in overthrusts, where a series of older layers may be pushed over the top of younger layers. But this is rare. In general, the older layers will be the lower layers.
Which is older a dike or the rock layers the dike cuts across?
Dikes are always younger than the surrounding rock layers. The same holds true for any kind of intrusion. It will always be younger than anything that it is intruding into. To put it simply, you can't force an object into a bed of rock unless the bed of rock is already there.
Differences between a fault and a fold?
Folds are the when the rock layers bend. Faults are breaks in the rock layers. Folds are called anticlines and synclines. Faults are called reverse faults, normal faults, or strike-slip faults.
What is a dike in volcano?
A body of magma that cuts through (and across) adjacent rock. Similar to a secondary vent but it does not strike through the surface. It then hardens and forms rock. It is always younger than the rocks which surround it.
What is it called when rock forces itself between rock layers and is always younger then ones around it?
An intrusion (:
What is the relative age of a fault that cuts across three horizontal sedimentary rock layers?
Younger than all three sediments.
Is an extrusion older or younger than the rock layer below it?
Extrusion is older than intrusion because, an extrusion is always younger than the rocks below it. An intrusion is always younger than the rock layers around and beneath it. Hope the answers correct ;)
What is superpostioning?
The Law of Superposition states that younger layers of deposition will form on top of older layers of deposition.
