Background: Before absolute dating of rocks was developed in the 20th century, geologists had
to rely on relative age dating, which places geologic events in their order of occurrence. The
method begins with the careful drawing and description of strata (the geologic cross section or
profile). Relative age dating assumes that the lower layers in any particular cross section are
older than the upper layers in that cross section (“the law of superposition”) and that an object
cannot be older than the materials of which it is composed. Igneous rocks are dated according to
whether they caused metamorphism in the surrounding rock (proof that they intruded into the
preexisting rock), whether they cross cut preexisting rocks, or whether sediments were deposited
on them after they were formed. The profile from one location is then compared with profiles
from surrounding sites to determine the geologic history of a larger area. If fossils are present in
the rocks, they may also be used to correlate rock layers across large distances and, now that
absolute time has been established, to determine the age of the rocks.
How? In this process, you will study the rocks and events in a geologic cross section and put
them in the correct order from oldest to youngest. In order to do your best on this activity, you
must understand a few of the basic principles that are applicable to relative age relationships
between rocks:
Principle of superposition: in a sequence of undeformed sedimentary rocks, the oldest beds are
on the bottom and the youngest are on the top.
Principle of original horizontality: sedimentary layers are horizontal, or nearly so, when
originally deposited. Strata that are not horizontal have been deformed by movements of
the Earth’s crust.
Principle of faunal succession: groups of fossil plants and animals occur in the geologic record
in a definite and determinable order. A period of geologic time can be recognized by its
respective fossils.
Principle of crosscutting relations: geologic features, such as faults, and igneous intrusions are
younger than the rocks they cut.
Principle of inclusion: a rock body that contains inclusions of preexisting rocks is younger that
the rocks from which the inclusions came from.
The easiest way to do relative age dating is to work from oldest to youngest. Try to find the
oldest rock (usually located near the bottom) in the diagram below and work your way up. Your
first example is the diagram below. Review the principle of original horizontality and the
principle of superposition and you will see that the only possible answer to this puzzle is that
layer A is the oldest and layer D is the youngest.