Why do archeological sites always get deeper underground with time? If ground gets on top of them, it must have came from somewhere else. Why no locations seem to rise with time, rather than sink?
In: 6
Stuff gets deeper over time as soil builds up on top of it. This can be from plants and animals decaying on top of the site and turning into soil, or the soil can arrive from wind, water, and other factors bringing it in from somewhere else.
Some locations do rise with time, which is how we get accessible dinosaur fossils on the surface even though they died millions of years ago. This happens when erosion removes soil from the site.
We see the former case much more than the latter because a layer of soil can preserve things underneath, while the factors that remove soil from a site can also destroy the site itself.
Latest Answers