Question

While hiking and you find shell fossils on the peak of the mountain. What do you know has happened in the geological past?

1) There was a shell fossils that walked up the mountain.
2) That there was hikers that carried the shell fossils to the peak of the mountain.
3) That there was uplifting at one point due to an earthquake.
4) You do not know anything about the geological past of the mountain.

Answer 1

Shell fossils on a mountain's peak suggest past geological uplifting that once placed the area under the sea, as indicated by the work of scientists like Robert Hooke and Charles Lyell on Earth's changing geography.

Step-by-step explanation:

When you find shell fossils on the peak of a mountain, it indicates that the area was once underwater. The best explanation is uplifting due to geological processes such as the movement of tectonic plates or earthquakes. This is supported by the ideas of early scientists like Robert Hooke, who recognized that the Earth's geography and physical features have undergone dramatic changes over time, as well as Charles Lyell, whose work on stratification of rock indicated a much older Earth than previously thought. The process of stratification and the study of paleoecology help scientists understand ancient environments, indicating that the fossils were formed in a different environment than they are found in today. The presence of marine fossils far from current oceans attests to significant shifts in Earth's surface over millions of years.