Smith's laws¶

In geology, Smith's laws are two rules, formulated by William Smith (1769–1839), which aid in the determination of geological succession.

Version: v1 · 2026-09-28 · History
Domain-specific #: 12096
Domain group: Natural Sciences
Origin domain: Geology & Earth Sciences
Subdomains: Stratigraphy, Biostratigraphy → Geology & Earth Sciences

Core Idea¶

Smith's laws is treated here as the recurring stratigraphy identity summarized by this source-grounded definition: In geology, Smith's laws are two rules, formulated by William Smith (1769–1839), which aid in the determination of geological succession. In geology, Smith's laws are two rules, formulated by William Smith (1769–1839), which aid in the determination of geological succession. They are fundamental to the production of geological maps. This can be caused by folding that is so severe that the beds are moved past the perpendicular.

Scope of Application¶

Smith's first law. This can be caused by folding that is so severe that the beds are moved past the perpendicular.
Smith's second law. This law allows beds to be identified as belonging to the same stratum even when the horizon between them is not continuous (Jackson, p.
Geological mapping. Smith used these new techniques, together with knowledge he had accumulated as a canal engineer and mineral surveyor, to produce geological maps.
The laws. Both laws were first published by Smith in Strata Identified by Fossils, 1816–1819.
Smith's first law. This states that newer rock beds will lie on top of older rock beds unless the succession has been overturned.

Clarity¶

A clear use of Smith's laws names the carrier, the operative relation, and the conditions under which the source treats the identity as present. The minimal definition is In geology, Smith's laws are two rules, formulated by William Smith (1769–1839), which aid in the determination of geological succession.

Manages Complexity¶

Smith's laws compresses multiple stratigraphy details into a stable diagnostic relation. The source shows both the central mechanism—this can be caused by folding that is so severe that the beds are moved past the perpendicular.—and the practical consequence—overturning of the beds causes the succession order to be reversed. This compression makes cases comparable while leaving parameters, conventions, exceptions, and evidential quality explicit.

Abstract Reasoning¶

Type the carrier. Identify the stratigraphy entities to which the claim applies.
State the relation. Use the source-grounded identity: In geology, Smith's laws are two rules, formulated by William Smith (1769–1839), which aid in the determination of geological succession.
Check operation and conditions. Beds can also be put out of order by an overthrust thrust fault (Jackson, p. 4. Demand recognition evidence.

Knowledge Transfer¶

Within the home domain. Knowledge about Smith's laws transfers literally when a new case preserves the same carrier type, relation, and recognition test. This can be caused by folding that is so severe that the beds are moved past the perpendicular. This law allows beds to be identified as belonging to the same stratum even when the horizon between them is not continuous (Jackson, p. Beyond the home domain. No canonical parent is asserted for Smith's laws.

Neighborhood in Abstraction Space¶

Smith's laws sits in a sparse region of the domain-specific corpus (63^rd percentile for distinctiveness): few abstractions share its structure, so a faithful description tends to retrieve it precisely.

Family — Unclustered & Miscellaneous (2551 abstractions)

Nearest neighbors

Computed from structural-signature embeddings · 2026-10-08