Because no worldwide or even continental unconformity exists in Earth’s sedimentary layers, those layers must have been deposited rapidly. (An unconformity represents a time break of unknown duration—for example, an erosional surface between two adjacent strata.) Parallel layers (called conformities) imply continuous, relatively rapid deposition. Because unconformities are simply local phenomena,a one can trace continuous paths from the bottom to the top of the stratigraphic record by simply moving around these time breaks. The sedimentary layers along those paths must have been deposited rapidly and continuously as a unit.b
Frequently, two adjacent and parallel sedimentary layers contain such different index fossils that evolutionists conclude they were deposited hundreds of millions of years apart. However, because the adjacent layers are conformable, they must have been deposited without interruption or erosion. [For an explanation of how conformable layers can have such different fossils, see pages 194–204.] Often, in sequences showing no sign of disturbance, the layer considered older by evolutionists is on top! [See "Out-of-Sequence Fossils" on page 11.] Evolutionary dating rules are self-contradictory.c