Rock Layers and Relative Age

Have students underline each agent as they read about erosion. On the rock layers diagram, have them begin at the bottom layer and decide where the intrusion and fault fit last.

Put layers, a fault and an intrusion in order from oldest to youngest using superposition. The directions on the page read: Read the text. Write fault or intrusion in each box under the diagram. Then number the layers and events from oldest to youngest. An answer key is included.

Yes, both. We made it for 6th Grade Earth science, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens with weathering and rock layers. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

Weathering breaks rock into smaller pieces where it sits. Erosion moves the broken pieces away, and the four agents on the sheet are water, wind, ice and gravity.

It says that in undisturbed layers, the oldest layer is at the bottom and the youngest is at the top, because each layer settles on top of the last one.

Index fossils come from a species that lived for a short time over a wide area. The same index fossil in two places shows that the layers are about the same age.