Geologic record

The geologic record in stratigraphy, paleontology and other natural sciences refers to the entirety of the layers of rock strata — deposits laid down by volcanism or by deposition of sediment derived from weathering detritus (clays, sands etc.) including all its fossil content and the information it yields about the history of the Earth: its past climate, geography, geology and the evolution of life on its surface. According to the law of superposition, sedimentary and volcanic rock layers are deposited on top of each other. They harden over time to become a solidified (competent) rock column, that may be intruded by igneous rocks and disrupted by tectonic events.

At a certain locality on the Earth's surface, the rock column provides a cross section of the natural history in the area during the time covered by the age of the rocks. This is sometimes called the rock history and gives a window into the natural history of the location that spans many geological time units such as ages, epochs, or in some cases even multiple major geologic periods—for the particular geographic region or regions. The geologic record is in no one place entirely complete for where geologic forces one age provide a low-lying region accumulating deposits much like a layer cake, in the next may have uplifted the region, and the same area is instead one that is weathering and being torn down by chemistry, wind, temperature, and water. This is to say that in a given location, the geologic record can be and is quite often interrupted as the ancient local environment was converted by geological forces into new landforms and features. Sediment core data at the mouths of large riverine drainage basins, some of which go 7 miles (11 km) deep thoroughly support the law of superposition.

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