Types of Stresses Influencing Rock Behavior
 Compression – rocks push or squeeze
against one another
 Tension – rocks are pulled apart
 Shearing – portions of a plate of the
edges may break away in different
directions which can cause earthquake
 Confining – crust becomes compact
because there is equal stress from all
directions
Continental Drift Theory – the earth used to
have only one supergiant land mass where all
continents came from; Pangaea; 200 years ago
Alfred Wegener – developed the concept and
hypothesized the continental drift theory.
Strong Evidences of the Continental Drift
Theory (Wegener)
1. Similarity of fossils found in different
continents
2. Presence of tillites in areas whose present
climates do not suggest glacial formation
3. Presence of coal seams in polar regions
4. Continuity of rock layers found in different
continents
5. Similarity of rock types in different
continents
Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598) – observed and
presupposed that the shapes of the continents on
both sides of the Atlantic Ocean seem to connect
to each other
Edward Suess – also recognized the existence of
Gondwanaland. Suess is better known to have
proposed the existence of Tethys Sea, the only
recognized body of water during those ancient
times
Arthur Holmes – a British geologist who
suggested the idea of thermal convection as the
driving force for the movement of continents;
suggested that thermal convection works like a
“conveyor belt” where the pressure that goes up
could break apart a continent
Plate Tectonics – causes earthquakes,
volcanism, and mountain-building; this plate
motion causes them to collide, pull-apart, or
scrape against each other. “Tectonic” refers to
the deformation of the crust as a consequence
of plate interaction
7 Major Plates
Pacific
Eurasian
North American
South American
Indo-Australian
Antarctic
African
Plate Boundaries
Destructive Boundaries – also known as
convergent boundary; they are driven by
compressional forces; two possible landforms,
Trenches, and Volcanoes and Mountains
Constructive Boundaries – also known as a
divergent boundary; are where plates move away
from each other
Collisional Boundary – plates move toward
each other but resists subduction & buckle and
fold
Constructive Boundary – plates are moving
alongside each other
Crustal Deformation
1) Folding – type of Earth movement
resulting from the compression of rock
strata (or rock layers); folding results from
compressional forces because of high
temperature and pressure from the
interior of the Earth
2) Faulting – another type of Earth
movement that forms cracks or fractures
on the rocks. The movement is caused by
low temperatures that make rocks brittle.
Mountains formed from faulting produce
sharp peaks. They are called “block
mountains”
Seafloor Spreading – was developed by
geologists Harold Hess (1895-1982) and Robert
Dietz (1914-1995). They coined the term
“seafloor spreading” and showed how it aligned
with the then unaccepted ideas of the continental
drift
- It is a continuous process where tensional
forces on both sides of the plates cause
them to constantly move apart
LANDFOMRS ALONG PLATE BOUNDARIES
 Mountains – landform that rises above
the surrounding remain in a limited area,
generally higher than 600m.
 Hills – height lower than 600m.

Types of Mountains
 Fold Mountains – formed when two
tectonic plates push together at their
border
 Fault-back Mountains – formed by the
movement of large crustal blocks when
forces in the Earth’s crust push it together
 Dome Mountains – formed from rising
magma that pushed the overlying rock
layers upward
 Plateau Mountains – formed by erosion
and usually found near folded mountains
Volcanic Mountains – starts out as a simple
crack in the Earth called a volcanic vent
Volcano – a mountain that extends down to a
pool of magma between the crust and mountain
 Cinder Cone Volcano – simplest type of
volcano built from particles and blobs of
lava ejected from a single vent
o Paricutin (Mexico)
o Capulin (New Mexico)
o La Porunita (Chile)
o Sunset Craters (Arizona)
 Crater Volcano – formed when a cone
volcano collapses into the magma
chamber forming a caldera
o Taal Volcano (Philippines)
o Newberry Caldera (Oregon)
o Mt. Everest (Nepal)  Highest - sea
level to the peak of the mountain
o Mauna Kea (Ecuador)  Tallest –
base to the peak of the mountain
(regardless the sea level)
 Shield Volcano – built almost entirely of
fluid lava flows
o Mauna Loa (Hawaii)
o Skjaldbreidur (Iceland)
o Mt. Karthala (Comonor)
o Erta Ale (Ethiopia)
 Composite or Stratovolcano – generally
made of higher viscous magma/lava
material which accounts for their steep
sides and tall structures
o Mt. Fuji (Japan)
o Mt. Mayon (Philippines)
o Mt. Cotopaxi (Ecuador)
o Mt. St. Helens (Washington)
Mountain Range – a group or chain of
mountains that are close together and are usually
separated from other mountain ranges by passes
and rivers
Ocean Trenches – long, deep, depression on the
ocean floor
Destructive-Island Arcs – curved landforms
that result from oceanic to oceanic convergence
& rogeny
Constructive-Rift Valley – how land regions
that forms where Earth’s tectonic plates move
apart
Oceanic Ridges – continuous underwater
mountain range
Earthquake – trembling or shaking movement of
the Earth’s surface
Types of Body Waves
1) P-waves – fastest kind of seismic wave
that can move through rock and fluid
2) S-waves – slower than p-waves and can
only move through solid rock
Types of Body Waves
1) Love Wave – fastest surface wave named
after A.E.H. Love, moves the ground side-
to-side
2) Rayleigh Wave – named after Lord
Rayleigh (John William Strutt), rolls along
the ground just like a wave rolls across an
ocean
Stratification – layering of rocks due to crustal
movement, displacement of soil, and distribution
of terrain
Absolute Dating – dating method uses unstable
elements to determine the exact age of a rock
through radiometric dating
Relative Dating – dating method requires one to
know basic principles such as law of
superposition, unconformities, etc., provides the
correct sequence of events and not the actual
numerical dates of the rocks
Fossils – is the remnant or trace of an organism
of past geologic ages that has been preserved in
the Earth’s crust
Paleozoic Era - era of old life, ages of
invertebrates, divided into seven periods;
Cambrian, Ordovian, Silurian, Mississippian,
Pennsylvanian, and Permian
Mesozoic Era – divided into three periods;
Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, known as the era of
reptiles
Cenozoic Era – era of recent life, era of
mammals