Geology 11 Mendoza Handout 1: Introduction to Geology 1st sem AY 2015-2016

WHAT IS GEOLOGY?
Geology is the study of the Earths materials, the processes that shape it, and the resources that could be
obtained from it.

GEOLOGY AS A DISCIPLINE
1.the relevance of time
2.the issue of scale
3.the complexity of replicating natural systems and phenomena in the laboratory
BRANCHES OF GEOLOGY

Physical geology - examines earths rocks and minerals and seeks to understand the hundreds of processes
that operate beneath or upon its surface

Volcanology Mineralogy
Seismology Petrology
Environmental Geology Geomorphology
Engineering Geology Geophysics
Mining Geology Geochemistry
Petroleum Geology Planetary Geology

Historical geology - understand earths origin and how it changed through time.

Paleontology
Stratigraphy
Geochronology

BASIC CONCEPTS IN THE HISTORY OF GEOLOGY

1. Catastrophism
- proposed by Baron Georges Cuvier
- sudden, worldwide catastrophes are the agents of change that alter the physical features of the Earth over
time and that the latter remains unchanged in between these periods of upheavals
- widely accepted by theologians in the early 1800s due to similarity with Biblical events

2. Uniformitarianism
- proposed by James Hutton (The Father of Modern Geology)
- The present is the key to the past.
- the Earth is continuously modified by geologic processes that have always operated throughout time (at
different rates). The physical, chemical and biological laws that operate today also operated in the past.