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KELLY ROBERTS
KORBON MCCALL
PROJECT 2
SEPTEMBER 28, 2014
This memo is in response to the assigned project. It will define and describe the Principle
of Superposition. What audience this pertains to will be acknowledged. Also purpose,
placement, and a choice of visuals will help to further define and describe the subject
Audience
The audience for defining and describing the Principle of Superposition includes all
beginning Geology students.
Purpose
Based upon previous experience, I have concluded that in order to understand some basic
principals in Geology, every student must know the Principle of Superposition. It is vital
to understand this concept because it will allow for further study to become clear.
Placement
This principle should be placed in all beginning Geology textbooks. By teaching students
this concept from the beginning it will help to instill a basis for furthering their education
in Geology.
Choice of Visuals
Pictures will be included to help illustrate what students will be taught and what they will
be looking for when applying the Principle of Superposition.
However with most things in science there are exceptions to this rule. If a person is
looking at one area of rock where nothing has altered it in any way, this person would be
able to guess that the bottom layers were laid there before the top layers. Therefore, the
Principle of Superposition applies. If that person comes back after an earthquake and
notices that there has been a change in position, how will they understand? In this case
the earthquake caused one half of the rock to rise up on the other.
There are many other
instances where this rule
might not apply but
knowing this principle
allows the student to
determine what other
phenomena might be
occurring. There are
other times when
knowing this rule would
be critical. In the case of
identifying fossils,
Image depicting thrust fault.
knowing which rock
layer and the age of that layer helps to get an approximate age of the fossil. Knowing the
age of the rock helps to identify the specimen. This principle also helps when identifying
when a time of flood or drought occurred. If a person was looking at a section of rock
layers and noticed that at the top there where marine fossils they could conclude that
before those fossils there was no life present in that area.
http://www.angelfire.com/az3/mohgameil/physical.html
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/tags/normalfault/interesting/
http://planet-terre.ens-lyon.fr/image-de-la-semaine/Img314-2010-05-10.xml