Cupcake Geology Lab

Introduction:

As we’ve learned so far, Earth has many different rock layers that make up the crust. These layers get deposited one at a time and at different rates and volumes. Geologists take sediment cores to determine what type of rock and how much of it are beneath the surface. Today we will be taking cores just like a geologist, only using a cupcake. You will figure out the “rock” composition of your cupcake and determine how old your cupcake might be!

Question:

How old is the cupcake? What is the composition?

Hypothesis:

Procedure:

Everyone will need to get a cupcake, a straw, a ruler, a paper towel, and some colored pencils. You will be taking 3 cores of your cupcake and recording the color, the thickness of each layer, and the location of your core on the cupcake figure in the “data” section. Here’s the step by step procedure:

  1. Dip the end of your straw into the dish of cooking oil
  2. Slowly insert your straw into the middle of your cupcake. Once it hits the bottom, slowly pull it out. You now should have a core in your straw.
  3. Now blow lightly on the other end of the straw over your paper towel, so that the core comes out and is on your paper towel.
  4. Measure in centimeters from the bottom of the cupcake the thickness and color of each layer and record in the “data” section.
  5. Repeat steps 1-5 twice more, taking your cores to the left and to the right of your first cupcake core.
  6. Once you have filled in your data table, predict (drawn in) what you think the stratigraphy of the cupcake looks like.
  7. Calculate how old each of your cupcake cores are using the table provided.

Data:

Core #___Core #___Core #___

Color Thickness(cm) Color Thickness(cm) Color Thickness(cm)

______

______

______

______

______

Data Analysis:

Color age table:

Color / Earth Age (per cm)
White frosting (surface layer) / 17, 000 years
Yellow (sand) / 5,000 years
Orange (carbon) / 500,000 years
Blue (granite) / 45,000 years
Green (quartz) / 70,000 years
Red (peat) / 5,000 years

Core #1:

Thickness (cm) x color age/cm = partial age

______x ______= ______

______x ______= ______

______x ______= ______

______x ______= ______

______x ______= ______

Total core age = ______

Core #2:

Thickness (cm) x color age/cm = partial age

______x ______= ______

______x ______= ______

______x ______= ______

______x ______= ______

______x ______= ______

Total core age = ______

Core #3:

Thickness (cm) x color age/cm = partial age

______x ______= ______

______x ______= ______

______x ______= ______

______x ______= ______

______x ______= ______

Total core age = ______

Total average age of cupcake = ______

Questions:

  1. How old was your cupcake?
  1. What rock layer would you expect to find fossils?
  1. Were there any layers that seemed out of order? Which ones?
  1. Explain a geological process that could have created this layering.
  1. Compare your cores- how were they alike? How were they different? What could cause this?
  1. Cut open your cupcake along the 3 rock cores you collected- is the stratigraphy like you predicted? What is different?
  1. Where on Earth would you expect to find your cupcake?

Kristin Schild, Dartmouth GK-12 Program