ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Back-stripping

Back-stripping is a way of looking at the layers of rock that make up the Earth's surface. You know how when you build a sandcastle at the beach, you start with a big pile of sand and then you make it into a castle shape by taking away sand from some parts and adding it to others? Back-stripping is kind of like that, but with layers of rock instead of sand.

Scientists use back-stripping to figure out how these layers of rock formed over time. They start by looking at the top layer of rock and figuring out how old it is. Then they look at the layer underneath it, and figure out how old that one is too. They keep doing this for all the layers of rock until they get to the very bottom.

Now, here's where the back-stripping comes in. The scientists take away all the layers of rock that are younger than the one they're interested in. That means they're stripping away the layers that built up on top of it. Just like taking away sand from a sandcastle!

Once they've done that, they can look at the layer they're interested in and figure out what was happening at the time it formed. They might see things like fossils of plants or animals, or evidence of a volcano erupting. This helps them understand what the Earth was like a long time ago and how it has changed over time.

So, in summary, back-stripping is like taking the layers of a sandcastle away to see what it looked like before. Scientists use it to understand how the layers of rock on Earth formed and what was happening at the time they were made.