Principle of original horizontality

Okay kiddo, you know how when you play with your toys, you build towers and castles with blocks? Imagine you build a tower that has four blocks on top of each other. The first block represents the oldest thing, and the fourth block represents the newest thing.

Now, imagine you knock over the tower so that all the blocks fall to the ground. When they land, they will be in a horizontal line. This is because of the principle of original horizontality!

This principle means that when rocks or other materials were first formed or deposited, they were laid down horizontally or flat. This happens because the force of gravity pulls the materials down into a flat layer, just like how your blocks fall in a line when you knock over your tower.

So, if we see rocks or other materials that are now tilted or angled, we know that something happened to them after they were formed or deposited. This could be because of things like earthquakes or mountain-building, which can cause the materials to be pushed or tilted in different directions.

So remember, everything started out flat and horizontal, just like your blocks falling in a line when you knock over your tower!