Unconformities

In addition to creating joints and faults, the stresses of tectonic plate movement can also result in other types of strain. This can make it initially more difficult to obtain clear information from a geological record, but ultimately reveals a great deal more about geological history than more easily discernible features. Two primary concepts upon which the science of geology are founded are ideas that layers of rock initially occur in "flat" layers, parallel to the Earth's surface, and that younger layers of rock remain closer to the surface unless otherwise disturbed (Alden 2010). This would produce a highly conformed geological record; the unconformities that exist in reality define the disturbances of geological history.

The most obvious and earliest discovered and described type of unconformity is the angular unconformity, in which the rocks below a certain level have hall been tilted in a similar direction and sheared off at...
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