Question

what does the law of superposition tell us
the relative age of rocks
or the absolute age of rocks

Answer 1

The law of superposition is a geological principle that helps determine the relative age of sedimentary rocks and sediment layers. According to this law, in an undeformed sequence of sedimentary rocks, the oldest layers are at the bottom, and the youngest layers are at the top. This means that when you observe rock strata, you can infer which layers were deposited first and which were deposited later.

However, the law of superposition does not provide information about the absolute age of the rocks (i.e., the exact number of years since they were formed). Absolute age dating requires other methods, such as radiometric dating, which measures the decay of radioactive isotopes in the rocks.

In summary, the law of superposition helps us understand the relative ages of rocks, but not their absolute ages.