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Earth Science

Module 3
Lesson 4

TOPIC: Endogenic Processes (Erosion and Deposition) – Part 3

INTRODUCTION:
 Review the rock cycle. Highlight where metamorphic rocks occur in the rock cycle and how it is
related to other types of rocks.
 Review metamorphic rocks and how they are formed.

MOTIVATION:
 What do we mean when we say metamorphic rocks?
 How are metamorphic rocks formed?
Metamorphic rocks are similar to sedimentary rocks in the sense that they are both “recycled” rocks
(derived from pre-existing rocks). Whereas sedimentary processes (weathering, erosion, and deposition) occur
at surface or near surface conditions, metamorphism (the process through which pre-existing rocks are
transformed into metamorphic rocks) normally occur at subsurface conditions (resulting from but not limited to
deep burial). Unlike igneous rocks, there is no melting involved in metamorphism

INSTRUCTION:

1. Metamorphism
 As a response to heat, pressure, and chemically active fluids, minerals become unstable and change
into another mineral without necessarily changing the composition. For example, coal, which is
composed entirely of carbon, will turn into a diamond (also composed of carbon) when subjected to
intense pressure.
 The mineral composition of the resulting metamorphic rock is influenced by the following:
 Mineral composition of the original or parent rock
 Composition of the fluid that was present
 Amount of pressure and temperature during metamorphism

2. Index Minerals for Metamorphic Rocks

 Factors controlling the mineral assemblage of metamorphic rocks include:
 Bulk composition of the original rock
 Attained pressure during metamorphism
 Attained temperature during metamorphism
 Composition of fluid phase that was present during metamorphism
 Certain minerals identified as index minerals are good indicators of the metamorphic environment or
zone of regional metamorphism in which these minerals are formed.
  This is a representation of the progressive metamorphism of shale. It is not necessarily applicable to
all types of parent rocks. Pelitic rocks (e.g. shale) more faithfully preserve the effects of increasing
grade of metamorphism. Some rocks, however, such as pure quartz sandstone or limestone, provide
very little clue as to the intensity of metamorphism.
 Shale can be transformed into a series of metamorphic rocks (slate, phyllite, schist, and gneiss,
respectively) with increasing temperature and pressure conditions. Shale can also be transformed
directly into schist or even gneiss if the change in metamorphic conditions is drastic.

3. Textural changes that occur to rocks when they are subjected to metamorphism
 In general, the grain size of metamorphic rocks tends to increase with increasing metamorphic grade.
With the increasing metamorphic grade, the sheet silicates become unstable and mafic minerals,
such as hornblende and pyroxene, start to grow. At the highest grades of metamorphism, all of the
hydrous minerals and sheet silicate become unstable and thus there are few minerals present that
would show preferred orientation. This is because the fluids from these hydrous minerals are
expelled out due to the high temperature and pressure.

 Most metamorphic textures involve foliation, which is generally caused by a preferred orientation of
sheet silicates (silica minerals with sheet-like structures), such as clay minerals, mica and chlorite.
Slate, phyllite, schist, and gneiss are foliated rocks, are texturally distinguished from each other by
the degree of foliation. Hornfels and granulite are examples of non-foliated metamorphic rocks. In
hornfels, the individual mineral grains are too small, whereas in granulites, the grains are large
enough to be identified in hand specimens (visible without the use of microscopes)

 Differential stress is formed when the pressure applied to a rock at depth is not equal in all
directions. If present during metamorphism, effects of differential stress in the rock’s texture include
the following
 Rounded grains can be flattened perpendicular to the direction of the maximum compressional
force

 When subjected to differential stress field, minerals may develop a preferred orientation. Sheet
silicates and minerals that have an elongated habit will grow with their sheets or direction of
elongation perpendicular to the direction of maximum stress.
 4. Agents of metamorphism and the associated metamorphic processes.

Agents of Metamorphism Metamorphic Processes

 Minerals convert to new high temperature
minerals
 Fluids are released (e.g. clay = mica +
High temperature
H2O)
 Crystals grow larger
 Rocks become weaker and easier to deform
 Minerals may recrystallize into more
compact/stable forms
High pressure
 Platy or elongate minerals may align in a
preferred direction

5. Non-foliated metamorphic rocks are formed when heat is the main agent of metamorphism.
Generally, non-foliated rocks are composed of a mosaic of roughly equi-dimensional and
equigranular minerals.

Classification Metamorphic Processes Parent Rock Common Minerals

Shale, mudstone Quartz, clay minerals
Slate
(feldspars)
Shale, slate, basalt, or Mica, chlorite, talc,
Schist
Foliated (Banded) granite quartz
Shale, schist, granite, Quartz, feldspars
Gneiss sandstone and other rock
types
Quartzite Sandstone Quartz
Non-Foliated (Non-
Marble Limestone, dolomite Calcite
Banded)
Anthracite coal Bituminous coal Crystalline carbon

ENRICHMENT:
Have the learners prepare a simple report explaining the relationship of metamorphism and plate
tectonics (i.e. expected metamorphic grade in a specific tectonic setting).

EVALUATION:

1. True or false: Chlorite is commonly found in high grade metamorphic rocks

2. Other than the attained temperature and pressure during metamorphism, what are the other two factors
that control the mineral composition of a metamorphic rock?
3. Define metamorphism.
4. Define metamorphic grade.
5. Define foliation.
6. Define the role of stress in the formation of foliation?
7. True or false: There is a direct correlation between the grain size of metamorphic rocks and the
metamorphic grade.
8. Is it possible to find fossils in metamorphic rocks?
TOPIC: Endogenic Processes (Continental Drift)

INTRODUCTION:
 How much of the Earth is covered by water?
 What are the ocean basins of the world? What is the largest ocean basin?
 Is there anything peculiar with the shape of the continents on the opposite sides of the Atlantic
Ocean?

INSTRUCTION:

1. Continental Drift Hypothesis.

 How the concept of continental drift came about.
 The idea that continents fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle has been around since the
1600s, although little significance was given to it.
 The continental drift hypothesis was first articulated by Alfred Wegener, a German
meteorologist, in 1912. He proposed that a single supercontinent, Pangaea, separated into the
current continents and moved across Earth’s surface to their present locations. He published his
work through a book entitled ‘The Origin of Continents and Oceans’ in 1915.
 Until the 1950s-60s, it was still widely held that that continents and ocean basins had fixed
geographic positions. As such, scientists were reluctant to believe that continents could drift.
 In the 1960s, the post-war boom in oceanography generated a lot of new data about the ocean
floor. It turned out that the ocean floor was not as flat and featureless as they had originally
thought. The ocean floor was characterized by deep depressions called trenches and a network of
ridges that encircled the globe. These topographic data, together with heat flow measurements,
led to the emergence of the Seafloor Spreading Hypothesis which revived interest in Alfred
Wegener’s idea of drifting continents.

 Animation of continental drift

 The animation is for the learners to visually understand how continental drift occurred.
 https://vimeo.com/14258924

2. Evidence Supporting Continental Drift.

 The fit of the continents

 Opponents of Wegener’s idea disputed his continental fit evidence, arguing that the fit of the
continents’ margins was crude, and that shorelines were continuously being modified by wave
erosion and depositional processes.
  The oceanographic data later on revealed that a much better approach was to fit the continents
together along the continental slope, where erosion would be minimal. In 1965, Sir Edward
Bullard, an English geophysicist, and two of his associates demonstrated that the best fit between
the continents occurs at a depth of approximately 2000 m.
 Even with this method, a perfect fit could not be achieved. The process of stretching and thinning
of the continental margins and sedimentary processes (e.g. erosion, delta formation, etc.) could
explain some of the overlaps.

 Similarity in geological units and structure

 Wegener discovered that rocks on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean were identical in terms of
type and age. He also matched up mountain ranges with the same rock types, structures, and
ages, that were now on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The Appalachians of the eastern
United States and Canada, for example, were just like mountain ranges in eastern Greenland,
Ireland, Great Britain, and Norway. Wegener concluded that they formed a single mountain
range that became separated as the continents drifted.

 Fossil match
 Similar fossils of extinct plants and animals in rocks of the same age were found on different
continents, which are now separated by large bodies of water. Wegener recognized that
organisms were adapted to a specific type of environment and their dispersal could be limited by
biogeographic boundaries (e.g. oceans, mountain ranges, etc.) Wegener argued that these
organisms could not have physically crossed the oceans; rather, the continents were in fact part
of a large contiguous landmass which later on broke apart and drifted.
 Glossopteris flora – ‘seed fern’ that grew only in a subpolar regions, fossils of which were widely
distributed over Australia, Africa, India, and South America (later on discovered in Antarctica). Seeds
were too large to be blown away by wind to different continents.
 Mesosaurus - a freshwater reptile whose fossils were found only in black shales about 260 million
years of age (Permian) in South Africa and Brazil. This land-based reptile could not have crossed the
Atlantic Ocean.
 Lystrosaurus and Cynognathus - land reptiles whose fossils were found across South America,
Africa, India, and Antarctica. With their inability to swim and the continents’ differing climates, the
organisms must have lived side by side and that the lands drifted apart after they became extinct and
fossilized.

 Glacial and paleoclimate evidence

 A glacier is a slowly moving mass or river of ice formed from the accumulation and compaction
of snow on high mountains or in polar areas. As it flows, it carries sediments of different shapes
and sizes, which are then deposited and slowly compacted into a soft sedimentary rock called till
(glacial till). It also creates grooves or scratches called striations in the underlying bedrock.
 Wegener analyzed glacial tills and striations of ancient times and found out that glaciers of the
same period (late Paleozoic age, around 300 million years ago) are located in Australia, South
America, Africa, India, and Antarctica. Except for Antarctica, these countries did not have
subpolar climate that allowed glaciation. Putting the continents together in accordance to
Wegener’s Pangaea shows that the glaciation only occurred in a small region in Gondwana
(around the South Pole) which then moved outward to the aforementioned continents.
 Figure below illustrates the direction of the glacial striations in rocks from South America,
Africa, India, and Australia. At first glance, they would hardly make sense until we rearrange the
continents to form Wegener’s Gondwana.
 Reconstructing the location of ancient glaciers led Wegener to discover that the location of the
current poles was not the same as the ancient ones. His studies showed that South Africa was
originally at the South Pole (300 million years ago), which explains the flow direction of the
ancient glaciers. Fitting the continents together places the northern half of Pangaea closer to the
tropics and was proven correct by fossil and climatological evidences.
  Paleomagnetism and polar wandering
 This group of evidence emerged relatively much later (1950s) with the development of new
technology and the boom in oceanographic studies.
 Paleomagnetism - As magma cools down it starts forming minerals. Some minerals are strongly
magnetic (e.g. magnetite). Below a certain threshold temperature, some of these minerals attain
magnetic properties. The magnetic minerals start to align with the surrounding magnetic field.
The alignment of these minerals becomes fixed once the lava or magma solidifies. Rocks
therefore can potentially preserve or record magnetic polarity (normal vs. reverse), direction or
location of magnetic poles, and the strength of the magnetic field.
 Magnetism of geologically recent rocks is generally consistent with the Earth’s current magnetic
field. When the location of the Earth’s magnetic poles are plotted based on the paleomagnetism
of rocks of different ages, their positions appear to be “wandering” through time (Figure 5) if we
assume a fixed position of the continents. In reality, the magnetic poles have a relatively fixed
position, and it is actually the continents which are moving.

ENRICHMENT:

Other related studies that came out after the continental drift hypothesis has been proven and accepted by the
scientific community. One of these studies led to the identification of the speed of the continents’ movement.
Table 1 shows the rate of movement of some of the continents.

Table 1: Rate of movement of the continents

Continent Speed
Antarctic 2 cm/yr
African 2.2 cm/y
South American 1.5 cm/yr
North American 1.2 cm/yr

1. Compute, in meters, how far these continents will travel in (a) 100 years, (b) 500,000 years and (c) 1
million years. Tabulate the answers.
2. Which continent moves the fastest? Where will it be in 50,000 years?
Table 2: Distance traveled by the continents

Continent Speed Distance Travelled (in meters)

100 years 50,000 years 1 million years
Antarctic 2 cm/yr 2m 1,000m 20,000m
African 2.2 cm/yr 2.2m 1,100m 22,000m
South American 1.5 cm/yr 1.5m 750m 15,000m
North American 1.2 cm/yr 1.2m 600m 12,000m

3. Which continent moves the slowest? Where will it be in 1 million years?

4. Is there a chance that the continents will collide with each other? Explain your answer. If yes, give an
example.

EVALUATION:

1. Why do the continents fit roughly along their coastlines?

2. Define the concept of continental drift.
3. What made early scientists reject Wegener’s continental drift idea?
4. What were the lines of evidence supporting continental drift?
5. True or False: Mountain ranges on the opposite sides of the Atlantic were used by Wegener to support
his continental drift idea.
6. What evidences can prove that two mountain ranges separated by ocean were part of a single mountain
range and that these were once joined together?
7. Give an evidence of continental drift that was discovered after the time of Wegener.
8. Define paleomagnetism.

REFERENCES:

 Carlson, D. H., Plummer, C. C., & Hammersley, L. (2011). Physical Geology: Earth Revealed. McGraw-Hill.
 Earle, S. (n.d.). Geological Renaissance of the Mid-20th Century. Retrieved from
https://opentextbc.ca/geology/chapter/10-3-geologicalrenaissance-of-the-mid-20th-century/
 Earth Reference Data and Models. (n.d.). Continental Drift Activity. Retrieved from
https://Earthref.org/ERDA/1541/
 Monroe, J. S., Wicander, R., & Hazlett, R. W. (2007). Physical geology: Exploring the Earth (6th ed.).
Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole.
 Roose-Snyder, B. (2002). The Caledonides Mountain Range. Retrieved from
http://legacy.earlham.edu/~roosebe/Earlham%20College%20- %20Geology%20211%20-
%20Caledonides.htm.
 Salmingo, E. (2010). Pangaea Animation [Video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/14258924.
 Tarbuck, E. J., & Lutgens, F. K. (2008). Earth: An introduction to physical geology (9th ed.). Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
 Imperial College London. (2013). Rock Library. Retrieved from https://
wwwf.imperial.ac.uk/earthscienceandengineering/rocklibrary/ viewglossrecord.php?Term=pelite
 Monroe, J. S., Wicander, R., & Hazlett, R. W. (2007). Physical geology: Exploring the Earth (6th ed.).
Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole.
 Nelson, S. A. (2011). Metamorphic Mineral Assemblages. Retrieved from
http://www.tulane.edu/~sanelson/eens212/metaminerals.htm
 Nelson, S. A. (2011). Types of Metamorphism. Retrieved from http://
www.tulane.edu/~sanelson/eens212/typesmetamorph.htm
 Nelson, S. A. (2012). Metamorphic Textures. Retrieved from http://
www.tulane.edu/~sanelson/eens212/metatexture.htm
 Royal Society of Chemistry. (n.d.). Metamorphic modelling: simulating metamorphic processes: teacher’s
notes. Retrieved from http:// www.rsc.org/education/teachers/resources/jesei/meta/index.htm
 Tarbuck, E. J., & Lutgens, F. K. (2008). Earth: An introduction to physical geology (9th ed.). Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice Hall.