3

• A brief introduction to Geology

• Engineering Geology
• Engineering Geology as a vital tool for Civil engineers
• Origin of Earth
• Interior structure of Earth
• Rock formation and its classification
44

• Geology is from Greek language in which:

• Geo means earth
• Logos means science

• A science of studying earth

• Earth’s interior
• Earth’s exterior

• Study of earth
• Its origin, structure, composition and
history.
55

• Earth’s Dynamic Nature

• Planet earth, and particularly its crust, is highly dynamic with reference to time (the
geological time-scale).
• Geology studies the magnitude and nature of these changes.
• Study of changes to earth’s crust allows us to consider conditions of the future
(Remember! Any engineering design is always for future)

• Study of Rocks
• Process through which these rocks were formed
• Modeling of earth’s surface, from past-to-present.
• Rocks hold history in their folds, sometimes clearly visible and sometimes
eradicated by later events.

• Study of Earth’s Interior

• Which helps us understand the hazards that underlay the surface on which we live
(Earthquakes).
66

• Physical Geology
• Study of natural processes that modify the earth’s surface.
• Petrology
• Study of composition, structure and origin of rocks.
• Mineralogy
• Study of mineral composition, structure, appearance and occurrence.
• Structural Geology
• Study of rock structures in earth’s crust.
• Stratigraphy
• Study of description and classification of strata in sedimentary rocks.
• Paleontology
• Study of fossils in rocks.
• Mining Geology
• Application of Geology to Mining engineering.
• Engineering Geology
• Application of Geology to Civil engineering.
7

• Engineering Geology is defined by the Association of Engineering

Geologists as:

• The discipline of applying geologic data, techniques, and principles to

the study both of :
a) Naturally occurring rock and soil materials, and surface and sub-surface fluids
and;

b) The interaction of introduced materials and processes with the geologic

environment, so that geologic factors affecting the planning, design, construction,
operation and maintenance of engineering structures (fixed works) and the
development, protection and remediation of ground-water resources are adequately
recognized, interpreted and presented for use in engineering and related practice.
8

• Engineering geology is the application of geological data, techniques

and principles to the study of rock and soil surficial materials, and
ground water.

• This is essential for the proper location, planning, design, construction,

operation and maintenance of engineering structures such as dams,
tunnels, bridges and buildings.

• Engineering geology complements environmental geology, or

hydrogeology.
9

• What does Engineering Geology study?

• ROCK, SOIL AND WATER

• The interaction among these three constituents, as well as with other
engineering materials and structures (Bridges, buildings, tunnels,
dams etc.)
10

1. All engineering works are built in or on the ground.

2. The ground will always, in some manner, react to the construction of

the engineering work.

3. The reaction of the ground (its “engineering behavior”) to the

particular engineering work must be accommodated by that work.
11

Engineering Geology serves civil engineering to provide information in

three most important areas:

 Resources for Construction

 Aggregates, fills and borrows.

 Finding Stable Foundations

 Present is the key to the past –Geology
 Past is the key to the future –Engineering

 Mitigation of Geological Hazards

 Identify problems, evaluate the costs, provide information to
mitigate the problem
12

1. Systematic knowledge of construction materials, their structure and

properties.
2. Information about Erosion, Transportation and Deposition (ETD).
3. Idea about nature of rocks helps in tunneling, road construction and
slop stability
4. Problems with foundations of structures.
5. Knowledge of ground water.
6. Study of geological features like faults, joints, beds, folds etc. helps in
stability of structures.
7. Pre-geological survey of the area concerned reduces the cost of
engineering work.
13
14
15
16
17

• What happens when Civil engineers ignore geology as an

essential tool?
18

• What happens when Civil engineers ignore geology as an essential tool?

19

• Two broad approaches have been adopted to define origin of our solar
system.
1. Evolutionary Theories.
 These theories suggest that during evolution of the sun, planet
formation was a resulting mechanism.

2. Catastrophic Theories.
 As the name suggests, these theories consider some
catastrophes as the mechanism of formation of the solar
system. These catastrophes can be close approach of two
massive stars or their collision.
20

• Most widely followed theories regarding origin of earth are:

1. Nebular Hypothesis.
2. Planetesimal Hypothesis.
3. Gaseous Tidal Hypothesis.
4. Binary Star Hypothesis.
5. Gas Dust Cloud Hypothesis.
21

1. Nebular Hypothesis
• This hypothesis was put forward by Karl, a German scientist in 1755 and endorsed by
Laplace, a French mathematician in 1796. Salient features of this hypothesis are:

• The solar system was formed from a disc-shaped Nebula (A vast cloud of hot gas).
• It states that the origin was in the form of a large, hot and gaseous Nebula which
rotated about its axis.
• Radiation caused the gas to lose energy which resulting in lowering of temperature
of the Nebula thus reducing its size.
• In line with law of conservation of momentum, the rotation of the disc about its
axis had to increase hence causing an increase in the centrifugal force causing a
bulging out of the Nebula at the equatorial zone.
• Cooling and contraction continued over time till the centrifugal force exceeded the
gravitational attraction of the Nebula thus causing it to break apart and scatter.
22

1. Nebular Hypothesis
• The above process kept repeating with time and successive rings of gaseous
material was thrown off from the central core.
• Solidification of these gaseous rings resulted in formation of planets, while in
the gaseous phase, planetoids were formed as a result of similar processes
occurring in these planets.
• The central mass solidified into sun.

• OBSERVATIONS ON NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS

• This theory fails to explain energy distribution within the solar system. Sun
being the biggest part of the solar system ( having a mass of 99.9% of the
solar system) should have attained a maximum angular momentum. However
the maximum angular momentum is distributed in the planets (98%) while the
sun has only 2% of angular momentum thus casting doubts over this theory.
• There was not enough mass in the separated rings to have caused solidification
of the planets because of lack of gravitational force of attraction.
 Nebular
Hypothesis
24

2. Planetesimal Hypothesis
• This hypothesis was proposed by Chamberlin and Moulton in 1904 and its main
points are:

• The sun was present before formation of the solar system.

• A large star passing close enough to the sun subjected the sun to a strong
gravitation pull and caused large chunks of masses to get separated from the
sun. These large chunks of the sun fragmented into smaller pieces upon
cooling and solidified (Planetesimal).
• These planetesimals revolved in orbits around the sun and in the process of
collision and gravitation attraction formed planets.
• OBSERVATIONS ON PLANETESIMAL HYPOTHESIS
• The angular momentum imparted to the planets by the passing star is less than
what actually is observed.
• Space is vast and probability of a close approach of a star to sun is highly
unlikely.
25

3. Gaseous Tidal Hypothesis

• This hypothesis was proposed by Jeans and Jefferys in 1925 and is stated through the
following.

• A very large star progressively moved closer to the sun and the immense
gravitational pull of this star caused a gaseous tide to emerge from the sun.
• When the star continued on its journey, this gaseous tide got detached from the
sun.
• This gaseous tide got divided into ten pieces, nine of which formed planets while
the tenth further subdivided to form planetoids.

• OBSERVATIONS ON GASEOUS TIDAL HYPOTHESIS

• The passing star may be able to detach a gaseous tide from the sun owing to its
gravitation pull but it will be unable to impart the angular momentum to this
gaseous tide, thus putting a question mark on validity of this hypothesis.
• The gaseous mass is more likely to get dispersed into the universe instead of
cooling off and forming the planets.
26

4. Binary Star Hypothesis

• This hypothesis was proposed by Lyttelton in 1938 and its main features are:

• The sun, before formation of the planets had a companion star.

• A large star passed close to this set of stars (sun and its binary or companion)
and caused detachment of a gaseous filament which remained with-in the
gravitational pull of sun and formed the planets.
• Formation of planets is similar to that as explained in the Gaseous tidal
hypothesis.
27

5. Recent Theories
• Since 1943, various theories have been proposed to explain the origin of earth and the
solar system.
• These theories are somewhat similar to the Nebular hypothesis as proposed by Karl
and Laplace.
• These theories sufficiently explain the variation in chemical composition and densities
of planets in relationship with the observations.
• These theories can be summarized as:
• There was a disc-shaped cloud of dust around the sun.
• Planet formation was a result of aggregation of the matter in this cloud. This
happened about 4600 million years ago.
• Close to the sun, only those materials condensed which have higher melting
points such as metals and rock-forming minerals.
• Volatile materials such as water, Methane and Ammonia were dispersed further
away and formed the less denser planets.
• Sun had a considerable magnetic field which acted as a rotating magnet and caused
the outward motion of the gases. Through this mechanism, the sun imparted
angular momentum to the planets which consequently caused the sun’s angular
momentum to diminish.
28

• Knowledge of Earth’s interior is based on very few direct investigations that have
been carried out through boring into the earth’s crust. These bore have been
drilled to depths of a few kilometers.
• These bore hold data has been supplemented with extrapolation techniques to
other depths in addition to more studies on heat-flow characteristics, geostatic
pressure and earthquakes (seismology). These studies reveal characteristics of
earth’s interior to great depths.
• Based on these studies, the earth’s interior has been mapped as show in the
figure in the next slide.
29
30

WHAT ARE ROCKS?

• Any solid mass of mineral or mineral-like matter occurring
naturally as part of our planet

• In common terms, rock usually means a solid block of natural

earth material.
31

PRIMARY CLASSIFICATION
IGNEOUS ROCKS

• Earth’s interior is in molten form.

• Ejection of magma on to earth’s surface occurs in the form of lava.
• Cooling on contact with atmosphere, solidification into mineral crystals
(crystallization).
• Interlocking of mineral crystals into masses of igneous rocks.
32

PRIMARY CLASSIFICATION
IGNEOUS ROCKS
• Igneous rocks are further sub-divided into two types.

• Extrusive Igneous Rocks

• The rocks formed as a result of magma ejecting out of the earth’s crust
and solidifying above the crust.

• Intrusive Igneous Rocks

• These rocks are formed when magma does not eject from the earth’s
surface and solidifies beneath the earth’s crust.
Main Minerals Forming Igneous Rocks
33

PRIMARY CLASSIFICATION
METAMORPHIC ROCKS

• Earth has a very hot interior.

• Metamorphism of rocks occur under high pressure and temperature without
change of state.
• Metamorphism changes the properties of the resulting rocks.
34

PRIMARY CLASSIFICATION
METAMORPHIC ROCKS

Main Minerals Forming Metamorphic Rocks

35

PRIMARY CLASSIFICATION
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
MODE 1
Compacting Sediments

• The name Sedimentary very obviously refers to the origin of these rocks.

• Sediments may be rock particles such as mud, sand or pebbles, which are usually
deposited in the sea by rivers and waves.

• They can also be remains of living things such as plants and animals. Gradually, over
thousands or even millions of years, these sediments accumulate layer-by-layer, forming
thick deposits on land or on the sea floor.

• The weight of the overlying sediments will compact those found below. Over time, the
compacted sediments become sedimentary rocks. Sometimes, these sedimentary rocks
may be uplifted as a result of plate movements forming mountains, e.g., The Himalayas.
36

PRIMARY CLASSIFICATION
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
MODE 2
Crystallization from dissolved
minerals

• This process usually occurs in the shallow parts of the sea or in lakes in desert areas.

• Evaporation is much higher than precipitation.

• The sea or lake contains dissolved minerals such as calcium bicarbonate and calcium-
sulphate. As evaporation takes place, water is lost and the dissolved minerals form
crystals which settle on to the bottom of the sea or lake .

• As evaporation continues, more crystals form and accumulate on the sea or lake floor,
becoming sedimentary rocks.
37

PRIMARY CLASSIFICATION
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS

Minerals forming Sedimentary Rocks

38
39

Rock family Igneous Sedimentary Metamorphic

Crystallized from Erosional debris on Altered by heat

Material origin molten magma. earth surface. and/or pressure.

Underground; and Deposition basins, Mostly deep inside

Environment as lava flows. mainly sea. mountain chains.

Mosaic of Mostly granular and Mosaic of

Rock texture interlocking crystals. cemented. interlocking crystals.

Massive Layered, bedded. Crystal orientation

Rock structure (structureless) due to pressure.

Uniform high Variable low; planar Variable high; planar

Rock strength strength weakness. weakness.

Granite, Basalt etc. Sandstone, Schist, slate etc.

Major types limestone , clay etc.
1. Briefly explain the “Rock cycle”.

2. Draw a comparison between Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic

rocks based on their strength, density, texture and utility as a
construction material.
41

PROPERTIES OF ROCK-FORMING
MINERALS