Steno's Principles

Layer 1 was deposited 5

Intrusion 2 formed 3

Intrusion 3 formed 6

Layer 5 was deposited 2

Layer 4 was deposited 1

Earth cracked at fault B 4

Layers 4, and 5 were the first to happen because before layers can be deformed they have to be deposited (principle of initial horizontality). The order of the layers is 4 then 5 (then 1) because the oldest layers are always on the bottom (principle of superposition). Then intrusion 2 is formed and after that is the fault B. Intrusion 2 was formed before the fault occurred because the intrusion was altered and shifted from its original placement, as did layers 4, and 5 due to the fault (B). Layer 1 happened just before intrusion 3 because it was not impacted by the fault (occurring after the fault) but was broken through by the intrusion. (principle of cross-cutting relationships) The last thing to happen was intrusion 3. You can tell because the path of intrusion 3 shows that all the changes that occurred from fault B happened before the intrusion did. The path of the intrusion swept over all the other disfigured layers.

Age of Earth

Early geologists might have suspected that the Earth was older than 6000 years because of the natural architecture on the Earth. Places like the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon have such detailed and crafted layering and shaping that could not have been as young as 6000. The layers of strata develop by a certain number of years, the number of layers reflecting how old that area of the Earth may be. It's as if we could dig and dig and dig until we reached the first stages of Earth. Each pile of dirt we bring up represents however many years ago. Every shovelful brings us one scoop closer to the beginnings of Earth because everything we're digging up is older and older, every time we're digging deeper. Geologists can look at the strata from places around the world like the Colorado Plateau and use it to measure how long ago the Earth was "born".