One way that scientists figure out what was occuring in ancient times is by looking at the types of sedimentary rock that has formed. If an area has sedimentary rocks formed entirely from fine clay particles, that shows that: 1 The rock formed in a place like the middle of a lake bed where water that had been moving faster became very slow.

2 The rock formed in an area with fast moving water that carried away all of the larger particles.

3 The rock must have formed during a volcanic eruption.

4 the rock was found at the bottom off a cliff that dropped a lots of different sized particles