Topic: Exogenic Processes

Weathering
 A natural process to split rocks
 Physical disintegration or chemical alteration of rocks

Types of Weathering

 Mechanical weathering - rocks are broken down into smaller pieces without changing
their composition
 Chemical weathering - rocks breakdowns as their minerals change in composition
 Biological weathering - disintegration or decay of rocks and minerals caused by chemical
or physical agents or organisms
 Exfoliation - releases pressure causing the surface of the rock to expand and eventually
crack
 Ice wedging

Temperature
 Affect how the rock expand
 Make the process fast
 Not a major type of weathering

 Salt wedging
 Abrasion - the interaction of rocks with each other; rocks and sediments grinding against
each other

Types of Biological Weathering

 Plant roots
 Lichen and moss - undergo the process of chelation

Chelation - the process when organisms such as lichen and moss produce acids that
breakdown rocks

Types of Chemical Weathering

 Hydrolysis - water reacts with other minerals

Hydration - rock absorbs the water that expands the rock

 Oxidation - oxygen reacts with some minerals, especially those containing iron to form
rust
 Carbonation - carbon dioxide dissolves in water to form carbonic acid; producing acid
rain
Gnarled rock - formation of limestone chemically weathered by acid rain.
 Erosion is the moving of rock material from one place to a new location and this naturally
occurs,

Erosional agents are water, waves, and wind.

The process of erosion; detachment of particles, lifting and transporting

 Mass wasting - a rapid form of erosion; works primarily under the influence of gravity
 Rock falls - occurs when rock becomes dislodged
 Landslides - large amounts of weathered rock materials slide down a hillslope or
mountainside
 Debris and mudflows - form when heavy rainfalls produce large amounts of runoff that
transport eroded soils, sediments, and plant debris downslope
 Slump - separate from the original area without detachment
 Creep - the slowest mass-wasting process
 Deposition - settling down in one area

Topic: Continental Drift Theory

Alfred Wegener
 Proposed the continental drift hypothesis

Facts about Alfred Wegener;

 German polar researcher

 Geophysicist
 Meteorologist

Continental drift hypothesis

 Movement of the earth’s continent
 Drift across the ocean bed

Drifting apart of the supercontinent happened about 200-250 million years ago

Terms

 Pangea - supercontinent; all of the earth; all of the lands

 Panthalasa - all water
 Laurasia and Gondwanaland - two smaller continents; Jurassic period
 Hypothesis - suggested explanation
 Theory - proven

Cretaceous Period
 Continents were separating into land masses
Evidence of Continental Drift Theory
  Continental jigsaw puzzle - remarkable similarity between coastlines of South Atlantic. A
perfect example of the continental jigsaw puzzle: is South America’s and Africa’s
coastlines.
 Fossils match across the seas - fossil plants in India, South Africa, Australia, Antarctica,
and South America are similar to each other and the same goes for the fossil animals.
Example: Mesosaurus and Lystosaurus.
 Rock types and structure match - continuous rock types ad mountains from one
continent to another; evident in the Appalachian Mountains in northeastward of north
America and Caledonian mountains in the British Isles and Scandinavia
 Ancient climate - paleoclimatc

Glacial deposits indicate that near the end of the Paleozoic era (between 200-300 million years
ago) ice sheets covered extensive areas of the Southern Hemisphere

Reasons why the Continental drift hypothesis of Alfre Wegener was rejected;
 Mechanism of continental drift
 Fossil similarities based on land bridges in the past
 Alfred wegener was meteorologist
 Wegener’s calculations were inaccurate

Topic: Plate Tectonic and Boundaries

Plate tectonics
 Earth’s outer shell is divided into several plates

Plate boundaries
 Lithospheric plates move as coherent units

Divergent plate boundaries / Constructive Margins

 Two plates move apart
 Creates new lithospheric crust or oceanic lithosphere
 Located along the crest of oceanic ridges

Convergent plate boundaries / Destructive Margins

 Two plates move together
 Create a mountain system

Transform plate boundaries / Conservative Margins

 Two plates grind past each other

Oceanic ridges
 Seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics
 Has deft of 2600 meters (8500 ft) and rises about two kilometers

Seafloor spreading
 Takes place along a divergent plate boundary
 The mechanism that operates along the oceanic ridge system to create new seafloor

Subduction zones
 The oceanic crust is being consumed
Facts: convergent boundaries can form between two oceanic plates, one oceanic and one
continental plate.

Types of Convergence boundaries

 Oceanic-continental convergence - the leading edge of a continental plate converges

with an oceanic plate; a denser oceanic slab sinks; a continental plate converges with
an oceanic plate the buoyant continental plate remains floating

Subduct - magma - volcanoes

 Oceanic-oceanic convergence - two oceanic slabs converge; denser oceanic slab sinks;
forming land consisting of an arc-shaped chain of small volcanic islands called a
volcanic island arc

One plate subduct - magma rise upwards - volcanic activity - volcanic island - volcanic island
arc

 Continental-continental convergence - an oceanic plate is subducted beneath

continental lithosphere; an Andean type of volcanic arc develops along the margin of the
continent

Brings two continents together - a mountain range system

Topic: Dating, Stratigraphy, and Unconformities

Dating
 Used to determine the age of the deposit

Kinds of Dating

 Relative dating - determines the age of the deposit from youngest to older and in relative
order; this kind of dating doesn’t necessarily or not necessarily determining the absolute
age of the deposit
 Absolute dating - this is a technique of dating where a number is included in determining
the age of the deposit; this kind of dating shows the absolute or specific age of the
deposit; calendar, radiocarbon dates, and a historical investigation were used to obtain
the age of the deposit

Stratigraphy
 Is the study of rock layers
 Identify the succession of the historical events in the earth’s past
 Strata mean layers
Stratifications of rocks occur in sedimentary rocks as they build up through time

Nicholas Steno the father of stratigraphy; was a pioneer of geology.

Four fundamental principles of stratigraphy

 Original horizontality - deposited in a horizontal position

 Cross-cutting relationships - the cut was determined as the younger rock
 Superposition - undeformed sequence of sedimentary rocks; the rocks that are under is
the older one while the rock that is found at the top is the youngest
 Continuity - rock strata extend outward horizontally

Unconformities - represent the period during which deposition ceased, erosion removed;
Conformable - observed layers of rock formed without interruption

Angular unconformity
 Older packages of sediment have been titled

Deposition - erosion - titled

Disconformity
 Two packages of sediment but the lower package is not titled

Deposition - erosion - not titled and still stay horizontal position

Nonconformity
 Separate igneous or metamorphic rocks from overlying sedimentary rocks

Deposition - erosion for a long period

Fact: older sediment is darker compares to new sediment

Topic: Fossils

Paleontologist
 A scientist who studies fossils

Paleo means ancient

Onto means being
Logy means study

Fossilization
 Process of fossilizing a plant or animal that existed in some early age
Types of Fossils

Body Fossils
 Parts of an organism like untouched bones, shells, and leaf imprints

Trace Fossils
 Refers to burrows, casts, and tracks that are evidence of life

Other traces of fossils

 Tracks - refers to animal footprints made in soft sediments that were later lithified
 Burrows - refer to wood, tubes, or rock made by an animal wherein the holes are tilted
with minerals
 Coprolites - refers to a fossil of stomach content which will lead to the information
regarding the food habit of the animal
 Gastroliths - refers to the stones in the stomach of the extinct reptiles

Modes of fossil preservation

 Unaltered - refers to preservation without changes

Examples: entombments, mummification, and refrigeration

 Altered - refers to preservation with changes due to replacement by a mineral and

formation of an imprint

Example: permineralization, replacements, and carbon film

Topic: Geologic History

Geologic History
 The theory states the true age of the earth is about 4.6 billion years old framed at the
same time as the rest of the solar system

Scientists relied on the determination of the age of the rock using the radiometric dating method.

Geologic Time Scale

 Divides up the history of the earth based on life-form that has existed during specific
times since the creation of the planet\these divisions are called geochronologic units
(geo: rock and chronology: time)

Eons: longest subdivision; based on the abundance of certain fossils

Era: next to the longest subdivision; marked by major changes in the fossil record
Periods: based on types of life existing at the time
Epochs: shortest subdivision; marked by differences in life forms and can vary from continent to
continent