Page 40 - The Restless Earth Fossils
P. 40

so Many Fossils, so little time  3













































                            Above is an example of angular unconformity at the Olympic Coast
                            in the state of Washington, with sharply dipping vertical rock layers
                            deposited during the Miocene Era underneath horizontally bedded
                            gravel deposited during the Pleistocene Era.




                          unconForMities: gliMpses oF deep tiMe

                          The figure above shows a gash that exposes the rocks under the
                          ground  at  the  Olympic  Coast  in  Washington  State.  The  lowest
                          set of layered rocks lie vertical to the ones above them. When the
                          lower  rocks  were  formed  in  some  ancient  sea,  they  must  have
                          lain horizontally—for as long as it takes to deposit sediments that
                          thick.  (Remember  Steno’s  principle  of  original  horizontality.)








        RE_Fossils2print.indd   39                                                             3/17/09   8:59:28 AM
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