ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Surface layering

Okay kiddo, imagine you have a big box and you want to put lots of small toys inside it. You can't just throw them all in together because they might get mixed up and be hard to find. So, you decide to layer them instead.

Surface layering is kind of like that. It's when you take different things and put them in layers, one on top of the other. But instead of toys, we're talking about things like soil or rocks or sand.

Scientists use surface layering to study things like the Earth's crust or the soil on the ground. By looking at different layers, they can learn lots of things about what's going on beneath the surface.

For example, if you look at a cross-section of the Earth's crust, you might see layers of different types of rock. Each layer tells you something different about how the Earth formed and how it's changed over time. Or if you look at layers of soil in a field, you might be able to see which parts have been plowed or which parts have been affected by water.

So, surface layering is a way of organizing different things by putting them in layers so we can learn more about what's going on underneath.