TCSS Earth Systems
Unit 3- Concept 1 Sample Assessment Items
SES4. Students will understand how rock relationships and fossils are used to reconstruct the
Earth’s past.
a. Describe and apply principles of relative age (superposition, original horizontality, cross-cutting
relations, and original lateral continuity) and describe how unconformities form.
c. Apply the principle of uniformitarianism to relate sedimentary rock associations and their fossils to the
environments in which the rocks were deposited.
d. Explain how sedimentary rock units are correlated within and across regions by a variety of methods
(e.g., geologic map relationships, the principle of fossil succession, radiometric dating, and
paleomagnetism).
SES6. Students will explain how life on Earth responds to and shapes Earth systems.
d. Describe how fossils provide a record of shared ancestry, evolution, and extinction that is best
explained by the mechanism of natural selection.
1. You can tell that the oldest rocks are at the bottom of an undisturbed rock sequence by using the
principle of
a. uniformitarianism.
b. original horizontality.
c. superposition.
d. cross-cutting relationships.
2. The geologic principle that states that sedimentary rocks are deposited in horizontal layers is the
principle of
a. uniformitarianism.
b. original horizontality.
c. superposition.
d. cross-cutting relationships.
3.
a.
b.
c.
d.
You can tell that a fault is younger than the rock it cuts across by applying the principle of
uniformitarianism.
original horizontality.
superposition.
cross-cutting relationships.
4.
a.
b.
c.
d.
In an undisturbed rock sequence, the youngest rock layer is located
at the bottom of the sequence.
at the top of the sequence.
below the sedimentary rock layer.
below the unconformity.
5.
a.
b.
c.
d.
The relative age of a rock layer that contains inclusions is
older than the source of the inclusions.
older than the layer below it.
younger than the source of the inclusions.
the same as the intrusion that cuts across it.