EG208

PHYSICAL GEOLOGY
DR. RAPIDAH MAT STAFA
+60123213690
rapidahms@gmail.com
rapidah@ucsiuniversity.edu.my
40549@ucsiuniversity.edu.my
INTRODUCTION
 What is Geology?
■ Geology is the study of Earth— its interior, exterior surface, the minerals, the rocks, the
processes in the formation of those materials, the water that flows, the changes over the
vastness of geological time, and the changes that we can anticipate in the near future.
■ Geology is a science  we use deductive reasoning and scientific methods to understand
geological problems.
■ Geologists study the evidence around them  they are observing the results of processes
that happened thousands, millions, and even billions of years in the past.
■ Geology is displayed on a grand scale in mountainous regions, perhaps nowhere better
than the Rocky Mountains in Canada
■ Geology - understanding the evolution of life on Earth  discovering resources, about
recognizing and minimizing the environmental implications of our use of those resources;
and about learning how to mitigate the natural hazards.
Rocky Mountains in Canada
Who Needs Geology?
 Geology benefits you and everyone else on this planet.
– Clothes, radio, food, car  exist because of what geologist discovered about earth
– Earth can also be a killer  earthquake, flood, other natural disaster.. Thanks to action taken
by scientists
 Ways geology has benefited you and will continue to do so:
1. Supplying things we need – we depend on earth energy resource and raw material for survival
2. Protecting the environment – we depend on energy and metals. Understanding geology can
help in lessen/ prevent damage to environment by using renewable resources
3. Avoiding geological hazards – almost everyone at risk of natural hazard (earthquake,
hurricanes, landslide, volcano eruption, floods, tsunami) – geology can play in mitigating
geological hazards.
4. Understanding our surroundings – natural science involve understanding the physical and
biological universe.
 You might wonder: (1) why there are layers in the rock exposed in the cliffs; (2) why the peaks are so
jagged; (3) why there is a glacier in a valley carved into the mountain; (4) why this is part of a
mountain belt that extends northward and south-ward for thousands of kilometers; (5) why there are
mountain ranges here and not in the central part of the continent.
CONTINENTAL
DRIFT
 Theory of Continental Drift
■ Continent - a pieces of picture puzzle.
■ The continental drift hypothesis was developed in the early
20th century, by Alfred Wegener.
■ Wegener said - continents move around on Earth’s surface and
that they were once joined together as a single supercontinent.
■ While Wegener was alive, scientists did not believe that the
continents could move.
■ Alfred Wegener proposed - continents were once united into a
single supercontinent named Pangaea, meaning all earth in
ancient Greek.
■ He suggested - Pangaea broke up long ago and that the
continents then moved to their current positions. He called his
hypothesis continental drift.
Early Case
for
Continental
Drift
Early Case for Continental Drift
 In early 1900s, Alfred
Wegner noted South
America, Africa, India,
Antarctica, and Australia
have almost identical
rocks and fossils
– Glossopteris
(plant),
Lystrosaurus and
Cynognathus
(animals) fossils
found on all five
continents
– Mesosaurus
(reptile) fossils
found in Brazil and
South Africa only
Distribution of plant and animal fossils that are found on the continents of South America, Africa, Antarctica, India, and Australia give evidence for
the southern supercontinent of Gondwana. Glossopteris and other fernlike plants are found in Permian- and Pennsylvanian-age rocks on all five
continents. Cynognathus and Lystrosaurus were sheep-sized land reptiles that lived during the Early Triassic Period. Fossils of the freshwater
reptile Mesosaurus are found in Permian-age rocks on the southern tip of Africa and South America.
Evidence of Continental Drift
■ Besides the way the continents fit together, Wegener and his supporters collected a great deal of evidence for
the continental drift hypothesis.
■ For one, identical rocks of the same type and age are found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Wegener
said the rocks had formed side-by-side and that the land had since moved apart.
■ Mountain ranges with the same rock types, structures, and ages are now on opposite sides of the Atlantic
Ocean.
■ Ancient fossils of the same species of extinct plants and animals are found in rocks of the same age but are
on continents that are now widely separated.
■ Wegener proposed that the organisms had lived side by side, but that the lands had moved apart after they
were dead and fossilized.. For example, the fossils of the seed fern Glossopteris were too heavy to be carried
so far by wind. The reptile Mesosaurus could only swim in fresh water. Cynognathus and Lystrosaurus were
land reptiles and were unable to swim.
■ Grooves and rock deposits left by ancient glaciers are found today on different continents very close to the
equator.
■ Coral reefs and coal-forming swamps are found in tropical and subtropical environments, but ancient coal
seams and coral reefs are found in locations where it is much too cold today.
 EARTH’S
INTERIOR
Can we just go there?
 Deep interior of the Earth must be studied
indirectly
 Direct access only to crustal rocks and
small upper mantle fragments brought
up by volcanic eruptions or slapped onto
continents by subduction oceanic plates
 Deepest drill hole reached about 12 km,
but did not reach the mantle
 Geophysics is the branch of geology that
studies the interior of the Earth
SE Germany – 10 km drill hole
Earth’s Interior
 Composition: Core, mantle, and crust
 The crust makes up less than 1 percent of
Earth by mass, consisting of oceanic crust
(often more granitic rock) and continental
crust is often more felsic rock.
 The mantle is hot and represents about 68
percent of Earth’s mass.
 Finally, the core is mostly iron metal. The core
makes up about 31% of the Earth.
 Mechanical properties: Lithosphere and
asthenosphere
 The lithosphere is composed of both the crust
and the portion of the upper mantle that
behaves as a brittle, rigid solid.
 The asthenosphere is partially molten upper
mantle material that behaves plastically and
can flow.
Earth’s Interior
■ Compositional Layers
■ 1) Crust (~3-70 km thick)
– Very thin outer rocky shell of
Earth Continental crust -
thicker and less dense
Oceanic crust - thinner and
more dense
■ 2) Mantle (~2900 km thick)
– Hot solid that flows slowly
over time;
– Fe-, Mg-, Si-rich minerals
■ 3) Core (~3400 km radius)
– Outer core - metallic liquid;
mostly iron
– Inner core - metallic solid;
mostly iron
Chernicoff and Whitney (2002)
 Upper layer is crust; two types:
What Is Inside continental oceanic

Earth

Thickest
layer:
mantle

Lowest layer: iron-nickel core

(molten outer core; solid inner core)
01.03.a
Seismic Wave
■ One ingenious way scientists learn about Earth’s interior is by looking at how energy travels from the
point of an earthquake, called seismic waves. There are two that scientists are most interested with in
regards to understanding the interior of the earth.
■ Primary waves (also called P-waves) are fastest,
– traveling at about 6 to 7 kilometers (about 4 miles) per second, so they arrive first at the
seismometer.
– P-waves move in a compression/expansion type motion, squeezing and unsqueezing earth
materials as they travel.
– P-waves bend slightly when they travel from one layer into another. Seismic waves move faster
through denser or more rigid material.
– As P-waves encounter the liquid outer core, which is less rigid than the mantle, they slow down.
This makes the P-waves arrive later and further away than would be expected.
– The result is a P-wave shadow zone. No P-waves are picked up at seismographs 104o to 140o
from the earthquakes focus.
■ Secondary waves (also called S-waves) are about half as fast as P-waves,
– traveling at about 3.5 km (2 miles) per second, and arrive second at seismographs.
– S-waves move in an up and down motion perpendicular to the direction of wave travel.
– This produces a change in shape for the earth materials they move through.
– Only solids resist a change in shape, so S-waves are only able to propagate through solids.
– S-waves cannot travel through liquid.
Seismic Wave cont.
■ As seismic wave behave
like waves…
■ They refracted and
reflected at different
boundaries and zones
and move at different
speeds in the same
period of time
■ we record this on the
surface and observe the
changes and thus
interpret them.
Earth’s Internal Structure
 Seismic waves have been used to determine three
main layers of the Earth: the crust, mantle and core

 The crust is the outer layer of rock that forms a thin

skin on Earth’s surface (granite, feldspars, quartz)

 The mantle is a thick shell of dense rock that

separates the crust above from the core below
(olivine composition)

 The core is the metallic central zone of the Earth

(metallic)
Indirect Study of the Earth's Interior -
Geophysics
■ Seismic Waves
■ Gravity
■ Heat Flow
■ Magnetic Field
 Earthquake - Evidence from
Seismic Waves
 Seismic waves or vibrations from a large earthquake (or
underground nuclear test) will pass through the entire
Earth
 Seismic reflection - the return of some waves to the
surface after bouncing off a rock layer boundary
 Sharp boundary between two materials of different
densities will reflect seismic waves
 Seismic refraction - bending of seismic waves as they
pass from one material to another having different
seismic wave velocities
The Crust
■ Earth’s outer surface is its crust; a cold, thin, brittle
outer shell made of rock.
■ The crust is very thin, relative to the radius of the
planet.
■ There are two very different types of crust, each with its
own distinctive physical and chemical properties.
■ Oceanic crust is composed of magma that erupts on
the seafloor to create basalt lava flows or cools deeper
down to create the intrusive igneous rock gabbro.
■ Continental crust is made up of many different types of
igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. The
average composition is granite, which is much less
dense than the mafic igneous rocks of the oceanic
crust.
Crust and Lithosphere
■ The average crustal thickness in continental areas is
approximately 35 km
■ The Earth’s crust ranges from 5-10km thick beneath the
ocean basins to in excess of 70km beneath the major
mountain ranges.
■ The crust rides upon a relatively stiff layer in the upper
mantle. The combination of the crust and the stiff upper
mantle layer is called the lithosphere.
■ Beneath the lithosphere is a weaker mantle layer, the
asthenosphere
■ The Earth’s lithosphere is divided into approximately 15
rigid plates that can move across the underlying
asthenosphere.
■ The global distribution of earthquakes clearly highlights
the tectonic plate boundaries.
The Crust
 Seismic wave studies indicate crust is thinner and
denser beneath the oceans than on the
continents
 Different seismic wave velocities in oceanic (7
km/sec) vs. continental (~6 km/sec) crustal rocks
are indicative of different compositions
 Oceanic crust is mafic, composed primarily of
basalt and gabbro. Mafic minerals are usually
dark in color and have relatively high specific
gravity greater than 3.0)
 Continental crust is felsic, with an average
composition similar to granite. Felsic minerals are
usually light in color and have specific gravities
less than 3.0.
The Mantle
■ The two most important things about the mantle are:
(1) it is made of solid rock, and (2) it is hot.
■ Scientists know that the mantle is made of rock based
on evidence from seismic waves, heat flow, and
meteorites.
■ Scientists know that the mantle is extremely hot
because of the heat flowing outward from it and
because of its physical properties.
■ The mantle is a dense, hot layer of semi-solid rock
approximately 2,900 km thick.
■ The mantle contains more iron, magnesium, and
calcium than the crust.
■ It is hotter and denser because temperature and
pressure inside the Earth increase with depth.
■ As a comparison, the mantle might be thought of as
the white of a boiled egg.
The Mantle
 Seismic wave studies indicate the mantle, like the
crust, is made of solid rock with only isolated
pockets of magma
 Higher seismic wave velocity (8 km/sec) of
mantle vs. crustal rocks indicative of denser,
ultramafic composition
 Crust and upper mantle together form the
lithosphere, the brittle outer shell of the Earth
that makes up the tectonic plates
 Lithosphere averages 70 km thick beneath
oceans and 125-250 km thick beneath
continents
 Beneath the lithosphere, seismic wave speeds
abruptly decrease in a plastic low- velocity
zone called the asthenosphere
The Mantle Lithosphere
 Crust and upper mantle together form the
lithosphere, the brittle outer shell of the Earth
that makes up the tectonic plates
 Lithosphere averages
 70 km thick beneath oceans and
 125-250 km thick beneath continents
The Asthenosphere
 Beneath the lithosphere, seismic wave
speeds abruptly decrease in a plastic
(ductile) low-velocity zone called the
asthenosphere

 Are low seismic velocities caused by

partial melt, water, density?
The Core
■ The core, is nearly twice as dense as the mantle because
its composition is metallic (iron-nickel alloy).
■ The earth's core is made up of two distinct parts:
– A 2,200 km-thick liquid outer core
– A 1,250 km-thick solid inner core
■ As the earth rotates, the liquid outer core spins, creating
the earth's magnetic field.
■ The important of the core :
– It is thought to be the main reason behind the driving
forces of convective currents in Mantle.
– It is responsible to maintain Earth’s magnetic field.
– If the core stops spinning, the magnetic field will
collapse resulting in destruction of Earth’s surface by
violent solar storms.
The Core
• Seismic wave studies have provided primary evidence for existence and
nature of Earth’s core
• Specific areas on the opposite side of the Earth from large earthquakes do
not receive seismic waves, resulting in seismic shadow zones
Seismic Shadow Zones
 P-wave shadow zone (103°-142° from epicenter) explained by refraction of waves
encountering core-mantle boundary
 S-wave shadow zone (≥103° from epicenter) suggests outer core is a liquid
The Core
 Core composition inferred from its calculated
density, physical and electromagnetic properties,
and composition of meteorites
 Iron metal (liquid in outer core and solid in
inner core) best fits observed properties
 Iron is the only metal common in meteorites
 Core-mantle boundary (D” layer) is marked
by great changes in seismic velocity, density
and temperature
 Hot core may melt lowermost mantle or react
chemically to form iron silicates in this
seismic wave ultralow-velocity zone (ULVZ)