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Sedimentary Strata as Diaries of Environmental Change. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 4 page paper provides an overview of the process of creation of sedimentary strata and the impacts in assessing environmental events of the past. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: MH11_MHSedSec.rtf
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about events in the environmental history of the Earth has been the source of some debate, especially surrounding issues of absolute dating and the completeness of the sedimentary record.
At the same time, this theory is supported by principles of superposition and faunal succession and relative dating in sedimentary strata. In order to understand the basis for the
argument that sedimentary strata creates a diary of environmental change, it is necessary to understand the spectrum of events that occur in the creation of sedimentary strata and the impacts
that these have on what can be later interpreted. Geologists, including Cuffey (1999) describe the stratification of the Earth and its interpretation as the stratigraphic record, which provides
detailed information about the environmental changes through an assessment of the formation and composition of sedimentary rock. The principle of superposition defines the process that occurs when natural things
die or when inorganic matter is spread by natural means (Benton, 1993). Over time, layers of matter accumulate, with the older layers being buried under the new layers.
Essentially, geologists look at the historical order of environmental processes by looking at a segment of stratified earth and moving sequentially back to the top, noting the changes. In conjunction
with this theory is Williams Smiths principle of faunal succession, which asserts that when living things die and decompose, they do so in a manner that is predictable and vertical
(Benton, 1993). If untouched, dead animals, bones, and other organic matter will become a part of the layers, and the finding of fossilic remains provides a predictive element relate
to the process of superposition. The concept of relative dating of fossilic remains, then, is based on the stratification of rock layers and the succession or superposition of
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