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From: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: Re: Orphaned Response
Message-ID: <650@cybvax0.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 1-Aug-85 16:26:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: cybvax0.650
Posted: Thu Aug  1 16:26:48 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 3-Aug-85 20:39:30 EDT
References: <387@iham1.UUCP> <14600030@hpfcrs.UUCP>
Reply-To: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Organization: Cybermation, Inc., Cambridge, MA
Lines: 20

In article <14600030@hpfcrs.UUCP> lief@hpfcla.UUCP (lief) writes:
> If an organism (fossil) is found in rock strata, and one wishes to get the
> age of the organism, what are the steps he goes through to arrive at a figure?
> My concern is that he would look at the age of the rock strata, and assume
> that since that organism was found within that rock strata, it too must be of
> the same age.  In otherwords, if I were to be buried by some inorganic matter
> that was 2 billion years old, and my fossils were found within this matter 1
> million years later, would scientists be able to say that I was 1 million
> years old, or would they say I am over 2 billion years old?

There are two major ways these sorts of things can happen.  The first,
intrusion, is when a hole occurs in an old layer and is filled by something
newer.  The second (that you describe) is a form of conglomeration.  Both
are easily identifiable by the nature of the formation and the types of
rock.  Intrusion will often cut across layers with sharp borders between the
intrusive rock and the parent matrix.  Conglomeration produces characteristic
rock that contains both old and new material.
-- 

Mike Huybensz		...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh