A Sediment Core Is Removed from the Floor of an Inland

question 39

Multiple Choice

A sediment core is removed from the floor of an inland sea. The sea has been in existence, off and on, throughout the entire time that terrestrial life has existed. Researchers wish to locate and study the terrestrial organisms fossilised in this core. The core is illustrated as a vertical column, with the top of the column representing the most recent strata and the bottom representing the time when land was first colonised by life.
To assign absolute dates to fossils in this sediment core, it would be most helpful if ________.

• A) you knew the order in which the fossils occurred
• B) the sediments had not been affected by underwater currents during their deposition
• C) volcanic ash layers were regularly interspersed between the sedimentary strata
• D) fossils throughout the column were equally spaced apart