Final answer:
The sentence in question includes an independent clause 'The ground was dry,' which can stand alone, and a dependent clause 'because the area had no rain in weeks,' which cannot.
Step-by-step explanation:
The sentence ‘The ground was dry because the area had no rain in weeks’ contains both an independent clause and a dependent clause. The independent clause is ‘The ground was dry’, which can stand alone as a complete sentence. The phrase ‘because the area had no rain in weeks’ acts as a dependent clause; it starts with the subordinating conjunction 'because' and provides a reason for the ground being dry, but it cannot stand alone as a complete sentence.