Pet-518 Elements of Geology

Course content

• Definition, significance and basic disciplines.

• Earth as a dynamic terrestrial planet:
• Its shape, composition, surface relief, origin and age.
• Introduction to minerals, rocks and fossils.
• Definitions, method of study , description and classification of rock forming
minerals and major rock types, rock cycle.
• Weathering and Soil.
• Sedimentary rocks and their classification.
• Basic concept of stratigraphy and sedimentation.
• Sedimentary environment and stratigraphic sequences.
• Basic concepts in geodynamics; interior model of earth.
• lithosphere and plate tectonic.
• Deformation of rocks:
• Classification of Fold, Fault and Unconformities.
• Geological Time Scale and significance of Fossils
•
Department of Petroleum Technology University of Karachi
 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Course content
1. An Introduction to Geology
2. Matter and Minerals
3. Earth's Interior
4. Kind of Rocks and Rock Cycle
5. Igneous & Metamorphic rocks
6. Weathering , Mass Wasting and Soil
7. Sedimentary Environments
8. Sedimentary Rocks
9. Principles of Stratigraphy and Sedimentation
10. Crustal Deformation including Plate Tectonics
11. Deformational features of rocks
12. Classification of Fold Fault and Unconformities.
13. Geological Time Scale
14. Fossils and Fossilization
15. Mountain Building and the Evolution of Continents

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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
View of the Planet Earth
• Definition of Geology:

• Geology is classically defined as the study

of the Earth.

• Geology is the study of the Earth, the

materials of which it is made, the structure
of those materials, and the processes acting
upon them.

• It also includes the study of the organisms

which inhabit our planet.

• A very important part of geology is the study

of how Earth’s materials, structures,
processes and organisms have changed
over time.

• .

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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Some Discipline of Geology
• Mineralogy - formation, chemical and physical properties, and
classification of minerals
• Petrology - formation, properties, and classification of rocks
• Sedimentology - genesis, transport, and deposition of
sediment, and the formation of sedimentary rocks
• Structural geology - deformation of earth materials and
resulting geologic structures
• Tectonics - regional to global-scale deformation and structures
resulting from interactions among pieces of the Earth's rigid
outer layer, or lithosphere
• Geomorphology - processes of landform evolution and
landscape development
• Hydrogeology - interrelationships of water and geologic
materials and processes

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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
The two broad areas of the science of geology

• (1) Physical geology,

is the study of Earth materials and structures; the
processes and forces that act upon them; and how these
materials, structures, processes, and forces have changed
over time.

• (2) Historical geology,

which seeks to understand the origin of Earth and its
development through time.
The relationship between people and the natural
environment is an important focus of geology.
This includes natural hazards, resources, and human
influences on geologic processes
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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Physical geology

• Earth materials
atoms, chemicals, metals, oil, gas, rocks,
minerals, salt, gems, coal, sand, gravel, clay, soil,
atmosphere, hydrosphere, organisms, etc.
How do Earth materials affect people?
building materials, fuels, soil to grow food, salt for
food, jewelry, we are made of Earth materials
• Earth processes
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods,
continental drift, weather, climate, landslides,
subsidence and collapse, tides, geysers, erosion,
etc. Any geologic processes recently in the news?
How do these processes affect people?
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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Historical Geology

• How old is the Earth?

• 4.5 to 4.6 billion years (4,500,000,000 to

4,600,000,000 years) Determined through
radiometric dating (Uranium, Thorium).
Using an instrument called a mass
spectrometer.

• Multicellular life
• did not appear until about 1 billion years
ago.
Before this, 3 billion years ago single
celled life only.
• Hard parts like shells don't appear
until 600 million years ago. (Trilobites)

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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Earth at a Glance

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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Introduction to Historical Geology
• Historical Geology is the study of changes to Earth and life
in time and space.
• I. Time
• A. How much time?
• Oldest meteorites and oldest moon rocks are 4.6 billion years
old,4,600,000,000 years.
•
Oldest rocks found so far on Earth are zircon grains from a sandstone
in western Australia, dated at 4.1 to 4.2 bilion years old.

• Previously, the oldest Earth rocks were 3.96 billion years old, from the
Northwest Territories of Canada.
• B. How do we know?
• Radioactive materials serve as geologic clocks.
•
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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Introduction to Historical Geology
• C. What happened on the Earth during this long period of
time?
• Many natural events:
– meteorite impacts volcanic eruptions and lava flows
– mountain building earthquakes erosion
– slow movement of continents (plate tectonics)
– formation and destruction of ocean basins
(plate tectonics)
– glaciations climatic changes

• All of these natural events are still going on today -

• We see evidence in the rock record that these events have been
occurring for a long time.
• Geologists call this uniformitarianism.
• The physical laws governing the universe operate uniformly through
time.

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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Introduction to Historical Geology
• James Hutton (1726-1797) believed that
• "the past history of our globe must be explained by what can be seen to be
happening now."

• Some events which occurred in the past, and left a record in the rocks, ARE
NOT OCCURRING TODAY, or have not occurred in the human lifespan:

• Huge meteorite imapcts

• Large glacial ice sheets
• Other events occur so slowly that they are difficult to measure:
• Plate Tectonics - sea floor spreading, continental drift
• Erosion of mountain ranges
• Still other events are short lived but very catastrophic:
• Volcanic eruptions
• Earthquakes
• Floods
• Mudflows, avalanches, etc (mass wasting)
• Evidence of all of these events is preserved in the geologic record.

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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Geologic record
• D. What do you mean by geologic record?
• The geologic record consists of rock units, each of which
records some event or series of events that occurred in the
past.
• What are rocks?
– Rocks are defined as aggregates of one or more
minerals.
• What are minerals?
– naturally occurring
– inorganic
– solids
– definite chemical composition
– characteristic internal crystal structure (arrangement of
atoms in lattice)

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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Course content
Geologic record
• E. How do rocks form?
• By cooling, hardening, and crystallizing from hot, molten lava
– Igneous rocks
• By forming from the compaction and cementation of sediments
– Terrigenous, clastic or detrital sedimentary rocks
• By forming from the precipitation of dissolved chemicals in
water
– Chemical and biochemical sedimentary rocks
• By forming from accumulated organic matter
– Organic sedimentary rocks (coals)
• By the alteration of pre-existing igneous or sedimentary rocks
by heat and pressure
– Metamorphic rocks

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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Fundamental principles of Geology
• Most sedimentary rocks occur in the form of layers called
beds or strata.
• Each layer is the result of the deposition of sediment
during some natural event (such as a flood or storm).

• A. Steno's Laws Named for Nicholaus Steno

• Principle of Superposition
• Oldest rocks on the bottom
• Younger rocks on top
• Principle of Original Horizontality
• Sediments are deposited in flat layers
• Principle of Original Lateral Continuity
• Sediments are deposited over a large area in a continuous
sheet
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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Other basic principles of Geology
• Principle of intrusive relationships
•
• The intrusion is younger than the rocks it cuts.

• Principle of cross-cutting relationships

• The fault is younger than the rocks it cuts.
•
• Principle of components or inclusions

• Note the irregular erosional surface.

• This is an unconformity.
• The clasts (in the bed above the unconformity)
• are derived from the underlying (older) bed.
• The gravel clasts are older than the layer which contains them.
• The layer containing the gravel must be younger than the layer from
which the clasts originate.

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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Principle of Superposition
• Sometimes papers pile up on my
desk for several weeks before I have
time to put them away.
• The oldest papers are at the bottom
of the pile, the most recent
additions near the top.
• The lowermost objects must be
placed first. Rocks are no different.
This is simple idea behind the
principle of superposition.
• When we examine a series of
undisturbed sedimentary rock
layers we assume the rocks at the
bottom of the stack are the oldest
and the rocks at the top are the
youngest (Fig. ).

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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Principle of Original Horizontality
• Sedimentary rocks are deposited in nearly horizontal
layers (beds; Fig. ). If layers are no longer horizontal they
must have undergone deformation after formation.
The majority of sedimentary rocks are deposited under
water. They may be pushed above sea level and tilted
during the formation of mountains. These processes
expose rocks to weathering and erosion that serves to
erase parts of the geologic record as rock units are worn
away.

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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Course content
• Superposition: A lies below B so A must be the
• oldest unit.
Original horizontality: A, B, and C must have been
deposited as horizontal layers.
Because
they have the same orientation we can probably
consider them a discrete group that experienced a
similar geologic history
Original horizontality: Because A, B, and C are more steeply
tilted than the overlying units they must have been uplifted
and tilted early in the history of the region.

A, B, and C were subjected to weathering and erosion at

Earth's surface. A relatively flat land surface was formed by
erosion. A significant time interval may have passed while
erosion occurred. This eroded surface is known as an
unconformity and is the physical expression of a gap in time.
An unconformity occurs when no beds are deposited or
when part of the rock record is removed by erosion

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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Course content
• Superposition: D must have been deposited after C
as it overlies B and C.
Original horizontality: D was deposited as a
horizontal bed.
Cross-cutting: D must be younger than B and C
because it cuts across the underlying layers.

Original horizontality: D is no longer horizontal so it

must have been slightly tilted after formation. This
would also have increased the inclination of layers A,
B, and C.

Cross-cutting: All layers A through D are cut by the

younger igneous pluton. The pluton contains
inclusions of layers B and C, further indication that it
must have formed subsequent to the deposition of
those beds. We have no evidence to tell us whether E
formed before or after D was tilted

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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Course content

• D and E were subjected to weathering and

erosion at Earth's surface.
• A relatively flat land surface was formed by
erosion.
• A second unconfomity surface is formed.

Superposition: Layers F and G must have been

deposited after E because they lie atop all other
units.
Original horizontality: F and G were deposited as
horizontal beds.
Cross-cutting: F must be younger than D and E
because it cuts across the underlying units. The
river carved a valley through the upper part of G.

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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Principle of fossil succession
• Fossils occur in a consistent
vertical order in sedimentary
rocks all over the world.

• (William"Strata Bill" Smith, late

1700's, England).

• This principle is valid and does

not depend on any pre-existing
ideas of evolution.

• (In fact, Charles Darwin's ideas

on evolution did not appear until
50 years later - 1858).

• Geologists interpret fossil

succession to be the result of
evolution - the natural
appearance and disappearance
of species through time.

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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Geological time Scale

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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
The Rock Cycle and Geological Cycle

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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Course content

Department of Petroleum Technology University of Karachi

 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Course content

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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
PRESENT IS KEY TO THE PAST

PRESENT IS KEY TO THE PAST

• The "present is key to the
past" is a simple but
important statement in
paleontology.
Paleontologists look at
present day organisms to
help interpret fossils.
"Paleo" means old and
"onto" means life.
Present day organisms
help us to understand the
life and environment of
past organisms.

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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Kinds of Rocks

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 Pet-518 Elements of Geology
Course content

Department of Petroleum Technology University of Karachi