EARTH PROCESSES

EXOGENIC PROCESSES

 WEATHERING
 EROSION AND DEPOSITION
 MASS WASTING

WEATHERING

 Weathering is a process by which rocks are broken into smaller fragments. This process is due to
rocks’ exposure to varying temperature, pressure, substances and biological actions.
 Mechanical and chemical weathering work together to produce fine, loose rock particles called
sediments. Sand, silt and clay are terms used to describe the size of sediment. Gradually, sediments
turn into soil, a highly valuable resource. Soil is composed of weathered rock particles, organic
matter, mineral fragments, water and air.

TYPES OF WEATHERING
 Mechanical Weathering
- Mechanical weathering is a process wherein rocks are broken down into smaller pieces
without changing their chemical composition sue to several factors like fluctuating
temperatures and pressure, and biological activity.
 Chemical Weathering
- Chemical weathering involves the interaction of rock with mineral solutions (chemicals) to
change the composition of rocks.
 Dissolution – dissociation of molecules into ions; common example includes
dissolution of calcite and salt.
 Oxidation – reaction between minerals and oxygen dissolved in water.
 Hydrolysis – change in the composition of minerals when they react with water
 Carbonation – is the mixing of water with carbon dioxide to make carbonic acid. This
type of weathering is important in the formation of caves.

FACTORS AFFECTING WEATHERING

 Climate. Chemical weathering is more effective and rapid in regions with high temperature and
rainfall. Temperature has a significant effect in hastening chemical reactions happening in rocks.
Water plays an important role in mechanical weathering as well as in carrying-out most reactions in
chemical weathering.
 Rock type. Some rocks have different degree of resistance to mechanical and chemical weathering.
Quartzite, a hard but brittle rock, is highly resistant to chemical weathering but less resistant to
mechanical weathering. Some rock types are more susceptible to weathering than others. For
example, marble can be weathered more easily than granite when exposed to similar conditions.
 Rock structure. Weathering agents may enter a rock mass though its joints, faults, folds and bedding
planes. High number of these entry points makes rocks less resistant to both mechanical and chemical
weathering.
 Slope. Weathering is faster in steeper slopes than in less steep slopes.
 Duration of exposure. Rocks that are exposed to weathering agents for a longer period of time is more
likely to weather easily.
EROSION AND DEPOSITON

 Weathering makes rocks smaller and lighter, thus easier to be moved and transported. When rock
particles are moved from one place to another, the process is called erosion. As agents of erosion
carry the rock particles, they lose energy until such point that they can no longer hold them. Rock
sediments are then dropped to certain locations, usually of lower elevation. Deposition is the process
by which sediments are dropped off by agents of erosion.
 Erosion and deposition are facilitated primarily by gravity, along with the other erosion agents- water,
wind, and glaciers.

AGENTS OF EROSION

 Water – Rainwater that does not soak or evaporate runs over the ground, carrying with it rock
particles. This surface runoff eventually enters a body of water such as streams, lakes and oceans. As
water continues to move along, it picks up sediments. Lightweight sediments become suspended in
water and are carried away by water while heavier particles roll along the bottom. Large ocean waves
pound along edges of land, wearing down rocks in it. Sediments deposited in ocean basins may
gradually undergo lithification to form sedimentary rocks.
 Wind – Loose rock and soil particles are carried away by wind and are deposited at other places. Wind
is capable of transporting light particles over large areas thousands of kilometers away. When wind
blows strongly, it may pick larger particles causing sand storm in deserts and arid regions. A dust
storm may take place when fast wind lifts dry and fine soil particles.
 Glaciers – is a large mass of ice and snow that forms in colder parts of the world. As glaciers move
across land, they erode solid rocks and deposit eroded materials somewhere. When ice at the base of a
glacier melts, water penetrates the pores and cracks of the rock beneath it. As water refreezes, rock
fragments are plucked by the ice and are dragged along to different locations. Glacial erosion scars
rock surface forming grooves and striations.
 Gravity – is a major force that drives erosion and deposition. Soil and weathered materials in high
elevations like hills and mountain are pulled down by gravity. Loose rocks on a steep slope may roll
downside and deposit materials at the base. The downslope movement of large amounts of soil and
rock particles due the effect of gravity is called mass wasting or mass movement. Mass wasting can
be slow or fast.

MASS WASTING

 Slow mass wasting occurs gradually. Creep is the slow movement of particles from higher to lower
elevations. It happens very slowly that it is almost unnoticeable, yet it is the most widespread
affecting nearly all slopes with weathered rocks at the surface. Trunk of trees bending to similar
direction in a slope is an indication of soil creep. This effect can be visible only after several years.
Solifluction or soil flow is another form of slow mass wasting. It occurs in tundra regions that have
permafrost, a permanently frozen underground layer that prevent downward movement of water. As
frozen ice melts in the surface during summer, soil becomes water-saturated and heavy such that it
sags downslope due to gravity.
 Falls, flows, slides and avalanches are examples of fast mass wasting. A fall occurs when rock
materials break loose then fall freely through the air. A flow is the movement of water-saturated rock
particles in a slope. When materials slip directly downslope, the movement is called a slide. When the
slide occurs along a curve, it is a slump. Landslide is a general term used to refer to any form or
combinations of large, fast mass wasting events.
 EARTH’S INTERNAL HEAT
Layer Characteristics Chemical composition
Core Very hot
Inner Solid Iron and nickel
Outer Liquid
Mantle Upper layer is partially molten Fe, Mg, Si, O
(asthenosphere)
Crust Solid
Oceanic Basalt Mostly O and Si, less amount of P, Al,
Mn, Mg, Ca. K, Na.

Continental Crystalline rocks like granite Dominated by quartz (SiO2) and feldspars
(metal-poor silicates)

Table 1. Layers of the Earth’s Interior and their Characteristics

 Earth’s temperature increases with depth, but not at a uniform rate (Figure 1). Earth’s geothermal
gradient is 15° to 30°C/km within the crust. It then drops off dramatically through the mantle,
increases more quickly at the base of the mantle, and then increases slowly through the core. The
temperature is approximately 1000°C at the base of the crust, around 3500°C at the base of the
mantle, and approximately 6,000°C at Earth’s center.
 In spite of high temperatures within Earth, mantle rocks are almost entirely solid. High pressures keep
them from melting. The red dashed line in Figure 1 (right) shows the minimum temperature at which
dry mantle rocks will melt. Rocks at temperatures to the left of the line will remain solid. In rocks at
temperatures to the right of the line, some minerals will begin to melt. Notice that the red dashed
line goes further to the right for greater depths, and therefore greater pressures. Now compare the
geothermal gradient with the red dashed line. The geothermal gradient is to the left of the red line,
except in the asthenosphere, where small amounts of melt are present.

Convection Helps to Move Heat Within Earth

 The fact that the temperature gradient is much lower in the main part of the mantle than in the
lithosphere has been interpreted as evidence of convection in the mantle. When the mantle convect,
heat is transferred through the mantle by physically moving hot rocks. Mantle convection is the result
of heat transfer from the core to the base of the lower mantle. As with a pot of soup on a hot stove
(Figure 2), the material near the heat source (the soup at the bottom of the pot) becomes hot and
expands, making it less dense than the material above. Buoyancy causes it to rise, and cooler material
flows in from the sides. Of course, convection in the soup pot is much faster than convection in the
mantle. Mantle convection occurs at rates of centimeters per year.
 Convection carries heat to the surface of the mantle much faster than heating by conduction.
Conduction is heating transfer by collisions between molecules, and is how heat is transferred from
the stove to the soup pot. A convecting mantle is an essential feature of plate tectonics, because the
higher rate of heat transfer is necessary to keep the asthenosphere weak. Earth’s mantle will stop
convecting once the core has cooled to the point where there is not enough heat transfer to overcome
the strength of the rock. This has already happened on smaller planets like Mercury and Mars, as well
as on Earth’s moon. When mantle convection stops, the end of plate tectonics will follow.

Mantle of Mantle Convection

  In the soup pot example, convection moves hot soup from the bottom of the pot to the top. Some
geologists think that Earth’s convection works the same way— hot rock from the base of the mantle
moves all the way to the top of the mantle before cooling and sinking back down again. This view is
referred to as whole-mantle convection. Other geologists think that the upper and lower mantle are too
different to convect as one. They point to slabs of lithosphere that are sinking back into the mantle,
some of which seem to perch on the boundary between the upper and lower mantle, rather than
sinking straight through. They also note chemical differences in magma originating in different parts
of the mantle— differences that are not consistent with the entire mantle being well stirred. They
argue that double-layered convection is a better fit with the observations. Still others argue that there
may be some locations where convection goes from the bottom of the mantle to the top, and some
where it doesn’t.

Why Is Earth Hot Inside?

 The heat of Earth’s interior comes from a variety of sources. These include the heat contained in the
objects that accreted to form Earth, and the heat produced when they collided. As Earth grew larger,
the increased pressure on Earth’s interior caused it to compress and heat up. Heat also came from
friction when melted material was redistributed within Earth, forming the core and mantle.
 There are two major sources of heat flow from Earth’s interior. Heat produced through the radioactive
decay of long-half-life radioisotopes in Earth’s interior (radiogenic heat) accounts for about 58
percent of the present total heat flow. Primordial heat—that is, heat lost as Earth continues to cool
from the heat generated by the accretion processes that formed it—accounts for the remaining internal
heat flow.

Importance of Earth’s Interior Heat Flow

 The present temperature of the mantle just under Earth’s oceanic crust is 1,410°C. The current high
temperature of the upper mantle means that the upper mantle material has a low viscosity (flows more
easily). A familiar analogy would be the difference between a cold stick of butter and a stick of butter
that has been melted in a saucepan.
 The mantle’s low viscosity that tectonic plates in Earth’s crust are able to move relative to another—a
feature of Earth for the past 3.8 billion years transformed Earth from a water world, where only water
existed on its surface, to a planet possessing both surface oceans and surface continents. The
combination of surface oceans and continents and enduring, strong tectonic activity established the
biogeochemical cycles that allowed Earth’s surface temperature to be sustained at an optimal level for
life in spite of the ongoing brightening of the Sun. The same combination has been recycling many of
Earth’s life-essential nutrients. Without Earth’s enduring, strong interior heat flow, at best, only
microbial life could have existed on Earth and for only several million years. In that event, microbial
life never would have been able to physically and chemically transform Earth’s surface environment
so that plants, animals, and humans could exist.

ENDOGENIC PROCESS
ENDOGENIC PROCESSES

 It is associated with the energy originating in the interior of the solid Earth.
 The ground we live on is moving all the time and the forces within the Earth that cause the ground to
move are called ENDOGENIC FORCES.
 MAGMATISM

- Magma is the original material that make up igneous rocks.

- Magmatism happens when a magma is generated and develops into igneous rocks.
- The process can take place either under the surface or on the surface of Earth.

METAMORPHISM

- Process of changing the materials that make up a rock.

- Chemical components and geologic characteristics of the rock changed due to heat and
pressure that are increasing or decreasing.

VULCANISM/PLUTONISM

- Process that usually happens after the magma is formed.

- Magma tries to escape from the source through openings such as volcanoes or existing cracks
on the ground.
- As soon as magma reaches the surface of the earth it is now called lava.

MAGMA

 Magma is a mass of molten material either below or on the earth’s crust from which igneous rocks is
formed by cooling and hardening.
 Magma is less dense than the surrounding country rock.
 Magma rises faster when the density contrast between the magma and the country rock is greater.

MAGMA FORMATION

 The Earth’s Crust and mantle are almost entirely solid, indicating that magma only forms in special
places where pre-existing solid rocks undergo melting. The following are the specific conditions in
order to form magma:
- Decompression melting - Melting due to decrease in pressure. The decrease in pressure
affecting a hot mantle rock at a constant temperature permits melting forming magma. This
process of hot mantle rock rising to shallower depths in the Earth occurs in mantle plumes,
beneath rifts and beneath mid-ocean ridges.
- Flux melting - Melting as a result of the addition of volatiles. When volatiles mix with hot,
dry rock, the volatile decreases the rock’s melting point and they help break the chemical
bonds in the rock to allow melting.
- Heat transfer melting - Melting resulting from heat transfer from rising magma. A rising
magma from the mantle brings heat with it that can melt the surrounding rocks at the
shallower depths. (Marshak, et al., 2013)

Bowen’s reaction series (Carlson, D. H., et al., 2011)

 Certain minerals are stable at higher melting temperature and crystallize before those stable at lower
temperatures. This series explain how minerals are formed under different temperature conditions,
given that all the required elements for certain minerals are present. There are two branches, the
discontinuous and continuous branches which happen simultaneously. The minerals in the
discontinuous branch include olivine, pyroxene amphibole and biotite mica. In the discontinuous
branch, there is only plagioclase, but the Calcium and Sodium content changes from high temperature
to low temperature. A single “parental magma” can produce various kinds of igneous rocks through
magmatic differentiation.
Different Magmatic Differentiation Processes

 Magmatic differentiation is the process of creating one or more secondary magmas from single parent
magma (Tarbuck, E. J. et al., 2014).
1. Crystal Fractionation – a chemical process by which the composition of a liquid, such as
magma, changes due to crystallization. Common mechanism for crystal fractionation is
crystal settling. This means that denser minerals crystallize first and settle down while the
lighter minerals crystallize at the latter stages.
2. Partial Melting - as described in Bowen’s reaction series, quartz and muscovite are
basically the most stable minerals at the Earth’s surface, making them the first ones to
melt from the parent rock once exposed in higher temperature and/or pressure. Partial
melting of an ultramafic rock in the mantle produces a basaltic magma (Carlson, D. H., et
al., 2011).
3. Magma mixing – this may occur when two different magma rises up, with the more
buoyant mass overtakes the more slowly rising body. Convective flow then mixes the two
magmas, generating a single, intermediate (between the two parent magmas) magma
(Tarbuck, E. J. et al., 2014).

Relationship of the Different Igneous Rock Types and the Environment of Formation

a. Basalt and basaltic magma: form when hot rocks in the mantle slowly rise and encounter
lower pressures. This leads to decompression melting (melting due to reduced pressures).
This commonly occurs along places where plates are moving away from each other (i.e.
extensional plate boundaries such as continental rifts and hotspots. This type of magma
has low viscosity, low silica, high iron and low volatile (H2O) contents.
b. Rhyolite and rhyolitic magma: formed by either (1) melting of mantle fluxed by water
and sediments carried into the mantle in subduction zones; and /or (2) interaction of
mantle derived basaltic magmas with continental crust. The magma is highly viscous with
relatively high silica, low iron and high volatile (H2O) contents.
c. Andesite and andesitic magma: Andesitic magmas maybe formed in a variety of ways:
some are formed when water and sediments on the ocean floor are pushed into the mantle
along subduction zones, leading to melting in the mantle. Others are formed when hot
basaltic magma interact with continental crust on the way to the Earth’s surface, which
likewise leads to melting. The silica, iron and volatile (H2O) contents and viscosity are
intermediate between basalt and rhyolite.

DEFORMATION OF THE EARTH’S CRUST

DEFORMATION

 refers to changes in the shape or position of rocks.

 Deformation of rocks occurs as a result of stress, which is a force that acts on rocks.
 There are several terms associated with deformation that help describe the type of force, the stages of
deformation and the resulting shapes and position of rocks affected by deformation.
 The process of deformation takes place over thousands of years, but you can observe the landforms
and geological features created by this process across the surface of the planet today.

ISOSTACY

 When the two forces are balanced, the lithosphere and asthenosphere are in a state called isostacy.
Geological STRESS

 Stress is the force applied to an object. In geology, stress is the force per unit area that is placed on a
rock.

COMPRESSIONAL STRESS

- Rock push or squeeze one another, the stress

produced is directed toward the center.
- Compressional stress usually what takes place in
folding, which results in mountain building.

TENSIONAL STRESS

- Rocks are pulled apart. Rocks may separate in

opposite directions or move farther away from one
another.
- This type of stress is what separated all the
continents in the world.

SHEARING STRESS

- Some of the portions of a plate at the edges may break

away in different directions, eventually making the plate
smaller in size. The friction caused by this stress can cause
earthquakes.

CONFINING STRESS

- The crust becomes compact, making it look smaller.

This is different from shearing as none of the crust’s
edges break away.
- This stress can cause sinkholes where the inside portion
of the ground has already disintegrated without being
apparent.

STAGE OF DEFORMATION

 Rocks are hard, solid masses of minerals that have been fused together. Although they can appear to
be unbreakable, all rocks eventually deform, resulting in smaller fragments that break down even
further over time.
 The rate of rock deformation depends on a number of factors, but all deformation goes through three
successive stages.
 The three stages of deformation are elastic, ductile and fracture.
 In the first stage, elastic deformation, the strain is reversible and the rock will return to its original
size and shape once the stress disappears. The strain becomes irreversible in the second stage, ductile
deformationand the rock bends. In the final stage, fracture deformation, the rock breaks.

Rocks deforming plastically under compressive stresses crumple into folds. They do not return to their
original shape. If the rocks experience more stress, they may undergo more folding or even fracture.
If the blocks of rock on one or both sides of a fracture move, the fracture is called a fault. Sudden motions
along faults cause rocks to break and move suddenly. The energy released is an earthquake.

SEAFLOOR SPREADING
 First proposed by Harry Hammond Hess in the early 1960.
 Basaltic magma from the mantle rises to create new ocean floor at mid-ocean ridges. Sea floor moves
from the ridge towards the deep sea trenches, where it is subducted and recycled back into the mantle.
 The crust and part of the upper mantle are under tension at a spreading center.
 The oceanic crust pulled apart, allowing magma to rise to the surface.
 The whole oceanic crust is pat of a conveyer belt system.
FIVE EVIDENCES TO EXPLAIN SEAFLOOR SPREADING
1. The Ocean Floor
- Two tectonic plates slowly separate, molten materializes up within the mantle to fill the
opening.
- Rugged volcano landscape of a mid-ocean ridge is created along the plate boundary.
2. Mid Ocean Ridge
- Largest topographic features on the surface of the earth. It is also part of chain of mountains
(84,000 km).
- Spreading centers; where the upwelling of magma from the mantle creates new ocean floor.
3. Deep Sea Trench
- It is a long narrow basin that is 8-11 km below sea level and is formed by subduction.
- Causes the seafloor and outermost crust to bend.
- V-shaped depression
4. Geomagnetic Reversal
- Scientist fused magnetometers to study the ocean floor.
- Basaltic magma “tape recorder”.
- The discovery of magnetic stripes provided powerful evidence that seafloor spreading occurs.
5. Age of Seafloor
- Scientist discover that from the ridge crest, sediment becomes older and the seafloor becomes
thicker.

OCEAN BASIN
Less than 100 million years ago the supercontinent Pangea had existed. Because of tectonic forces and
processes, the supercontinent breaks apart and ocean basins are formed. The ocean basins cover the largest
area of the earth’s surface. All of the ocean basins were formed from volcanic rock that was released from the
fissures that is located at the mid-ocean ridges, which is an underwater mountain range formed by plate
tectonics. Through subduction process and high gravitational energy, oceanic lithosphere is forced to move
under the mantle. Over years, ocean basins are continuously evolving as four major ocean subdivision is
formed. The world ocean is divided into the North and South Pacific, North and South Atlantic, Indian, and
Arctic Oceans. They are all distinct based on their stage of geological evolution.

Pacific Ocean basin is the largest, deepest, and oldest existing ocean basin. More trenches, and more
frequent tsunamis happen here. It has been shaped by plate tectonics. The second largest ocean basin is the
Atlantic followed by the Indian ocean basin. The smallest of the earth’s ocean basins is Arctic and is covered
by ice.

Through the formation of ocean basins, different features and structures are formed. See figure 2
below.

1. Continental shelf – Partly shallow extension of the continent underwater.

2. Continental slope – Transition zone of continental shelf and deep ocean floor. It starts from oceanic
crust to continental crust.
3. Continental rise – It is where the ocean begins. All basaltic and oceanic rocks are found here. It is the
place where the sediments from land are washed. The continental margin starts from continental shelf
up to continental rise.
4. Abyssal plain – The flattest part of the ocean. 50 % of the earth’s surface is being covered by this
plain.
5. Island – It’s not just a piece of land floating up in the middle of the sea, it is part of the ocean basin
that extends up from the ocean floor.
6. Seamount – It is an undersea mountain. The erosion caused by waves destroyed the top of a seamount
which caused it to be flattened.
7. Trench – It is the deepest part of the ocean.
8. Mid-oceanic ridge – The seafloor mountain system which is situated in the middle of the ocean basin.
It is where upwelling of magma happens which causes the sea floor to spread.

EVOLUTION OF OCEAN BASIN

  The Wilson Cycle explains the process of the opening (beginning) and the closing (end) of an ocean
which is driven by Plate Tectonics. This process is named after the Canadian Geophysicist J. Tuzo
Wilson (1908-1993).

It is divided into 6 stages namely:

1. Embryonic Ocean Basin 4. Declining Ocean Basin

2. Juvenile Ocean Basin 5. Terminal Ocean Basin

3. Mature Ocean Basin 6. Suturing (Continental collision)

STRATIFIED ROCKS
Stratified Rocks
 are rocks with layers similar to sedimentary rock.
Isotopes
 are atoms having the same atomic number (number of protons), but of different mass numbers
(number of protons and neutrons).

Extrusive Rock
 is a lava that cooled and hardened at the surface of the earth.
Intrusive Rocks
 refers to a magma that cooled and hardened beneath the surface.
Half-life
 is the amount of time it takes for one half of the isotope to decay.

1. Relative dating – It is a method of determining the age of rocks in each layer by identifying the
relative order of previous events. The determination of the relative ages of rocks are based on the
following principles:
- Law of Superposition. It states that each layer of sediments is piled on top of another layer
making the one on top of the strata the youngest one, while the layer at the bottom of the
strata as the oldest.
- Cross-cutting relationship – Igneous rocks are formed from a solidified magma or lava. A
lava that cooled and hardened in a surface is called an extrusion. The strata beneath the
extrusion are always older. A magma that cooled and hardened beneath the surface is called
an intrusion. An igneous intrusion is always younger than the rock it has intruded; this
principle is called the cross-cutting relationship. This is also true to faults. A fault, a break on
the Earth’s crust is always younger than the stratified rock that it cuts.
- Law of Inclusion – The rocks that mixed up in the formation of sediments are called
inclusions. These rocks are always older than the layer of sediments it is embedded.
- Faunal Succession – Fossils of plants and animals are grouped according to the period of
geologic time they appeared. Strata containing those group of fossils are also formed on that
particular period of time.
- Law of Original Horizontality – Layers of sediments are originally deposited horizontally.
Those strata that are found not in horizontal order may have been deformed by the movement
of the Earth’s crust.

Through these distinctive features, each layer of rocks can be compared from one another determining their
relative ages.

2. Absolute dating – It is a method of determining the numerical age of rocks using advanced
technology. The most common way of determining the absolute age of rock is through Radiometric
dating where radioactive isotopes found in fossils or rocks are used. Carbon-14 (C-14) is used to
determine the age of fossils embedded in rocks and Uranium-238 (U-238) for rocks.
- Radioactive isotope, called parent isotope are unstable and gradually decays in a fixed rate
into a daughter isotope which is more stable. The time it takes for one half of the isotope to
decay is called half-life. For example, U-238 will take 4.5 billion years for half the amount of
it to decay into a daughter isotope Lead-206 (Pb-206).

FOLDS, FAULTS, TRENCHES

3 TYPES OF PLATE BOUNDARIES
1. Divergent Boundary – a plate where two plates move away from each other.
2. Covergent Boundary – a plate boundary where two boundaries move towards each other.
3 types of Covergent Boundary
1. Ocean plates colliding with less dense continental plate.
Subduction zone – the process by which the oceanic crust sinks beneath a deep-trench and
back into the mantle at a convergent plate boundary.
2. Ocean plate colliding with another ocean plate.
The less dense plate slide under the denser plate creating a subduction zone called TRENCH.
3. A continental plate colliding with another continental plate.
 Have Collision Zones – a place where folded and thrust faulted mountains forms.
3. Transform Boundary – rock is pushed in two separate directions. The Stress is called SHEARING

FAULTS

 Is a process that occurs due to the extreme stress-tension, compression, or shearing on plates that is
endured by the folding of layers.
There are four types of FAULTS:
- NORMAL FAULT
 If rocks break under tensional stress, the hanging wall will move down relative to the
footwall and a normal fault form.
- REVERSE FAULT
 When rocks break under compressional stress, the hanging wall moves up relative to
the footwall, and a reverse fault form. In a reverse, the crust is shortened.
- STRIKE-SLIP FAULT
 Strike-slip faults develop when rocks are subjected to shear stress. In strike-slip
faults, the movement is purely horizontal, with no up-and-down displacement. We
classify strike-slip faults as either right lateral or left lateral.
- THRUST FAULT
 Thrust faults are simply reverse faults in which the angle formed by the fault plane
and the surface is quite shallow.
 RELATIVE AND ABSOLUTE DATING
Geologists use two basic types of dating: absolute dating and relative dating. Dating the age of rocks
is critical to understanding and reconstructing Earth's history. Absolute dating (may be referred to as
radioactive or carbon) establishes how many years ago a given event took place. The most important methods
of absolute dating are based on the decay of naturally occurring radioactive elements. Relative dating places
historical events in their correct order but does not give numerical estimates of how many years ago the events
happened.
Absolute dating provides science with a powerful tool for reconstructing our planet’s history. The idea
that radioactivity could be used as a measure of the age of geologic formations was first suggested by a British
physicist, Lord Rutherford in 1905. The methodologies and instruments for radiometric dating have been
expanded and fine-tuned in since, and very accurate dating is now possible.
Basic Principles of Relative Age Relationship
1. Principle of superposition – In a sequence of undeformed sedimentary rock layers, the rocks get older
from top to bottom (i.e., the bottom layer is the oldest layer and the top layer is the youngest).
2. Principle of original horizontality – When sedimentary rock layers are being deposited, gravity
forces them to be deposited as flat, horizontal layers. Once the sediment has solidified and become
rock, they can be tilted or folded.
3. Principle of faunal succession – Groups, or assemblages, of plant and animal fossils appear in the
geologic record in a specific order. These assemblages can be used to identify certain periods of
geologic time.
4. Principle of crosscutting relations – An igneous rock unit or fault that cuts across another rock unit
must be younger than the unit it cuts across. In other words, the other rock unit must have already
been there for the igneous rock or fault to cut across it.
5. Principle of inclusion – A rock unit that contains inclusions of preexisting rocks must be younger
than the rock unit from which the inclusions came.
6. Metamorphic rocks – A metamorphic rock is always older than the non- metamorphosed rocks
around it. The metamorphic rock must have formed before the surrounding rocks, otherwise they
would be metamorphosed as well.

GEOLOGIC TIME SCLAE

Geologic time is the extensive interval of time occupied by the geologic history of Earth. Formal
geologic time begins at the start of the Archean Eon (4.0 billion to 2.5 billion years ago) and continues to the
present day. Modern geologic time scales additionally often include the Hadean Eon, which is an informal
interval that extends from about 4.6 billion years ago (corresponding to Earth’s initial formation) to 4.0 billion
years ago. Geologic time is, in effect, that segment of Earth history that is represented by and recorded in the
planet’s rock strata.
The geologic time scale subdivides all time into named units of abstract time called in descending
order of duration-eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages. The enumeration of those geologic time units is based
on stratigraphy, which is the correlation and classification of rock strata. The fossil forms that occur in the
rocks, however, provide the chief means of establishing a geologic time scale, with the timing of the
emergence and disappearance of widespread species from the fossil record being used to delineate the
beginnings and endings of ages, epochs, periods, and other intervals. One of the most widely used standard
charts showing the relationships between the various intervals of geologic time is the International
Chronostratigraphic Chart, which is maintained by the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS).
Precambrian Eon

 Single-celled and simple multicell organisms first developed during the Precambrian eon. There are
many fossils from this time because the sea-dwelling creatures were trapped in sediments and
preserved. The Phanerozoic eon is subdivided into three eras- the Paleozoic era, Mesozoic era, and the
Cenozoic era. An era is often divided into several smaller time spans called periods. For example, the
Paleozoic era is divided into the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and
Permian periods.
Paleozoic Era

 The Mesozoic Era contains the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods, as illustrated in Figure 3. It
is often called the Age of the Dinosaurs because of its famous inhabitants.
Mesozoic Era

 The two periods of the Cenozoic Era are the Tertiary and Quaternary. A period is divided into an even
smaller unit called an epoch. The Tertiary period of the Cenozoic era is comprised of the Paleocene,
Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, and Pliocene. The Quaternary period of the Cenozoic era includes the
Pleistocene and Holocene (Recent) epochs.
Cenozoic Era

 A period which began about 65 million years ago and continues into the present, is the third
documented era in the history pf Earth. The current locations of the continents and their modern-day
inhabitants, including humans, can be traced to this period.