How did the layers of the Earth form?

The crust itself is composed of many layers, which are the ones we can see at the surface. Most continents have a crystalline core, known as a 'kraton'. Every continental kraton is then draped in many layers of sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rock. The most dramatic layers, like those in the mountain ranges above Santa Barbara, are often sedimentary rocks, which formed as long-gone mountain ranges eroded away and the resulting sediments were deposited somewhere else on the continent. A change in tectonic plate motion then caused those sedimentary layers to be brought up to where we can see them today.

Explanation: