EARTH SCI FIRST SEMESTER FINALS REVIEWER

Weathering
- process of breaking down rocks
- can happen because of rain water, extreme temperature, and different biological
activities
Two types of weathering:
Mechanical Weathering
- rocks are broken down to smaller pieces without changing composition
this is due to temperature, pressure, and biological activity
- rocks by sea changes due to high tide
Types of Mechanical W.
 Frost wedging – repeated cycle of freezing and thawing (defrosting) of ice
– happens when there is pre-existing cracks & temperature rise and
fall
 Salt Crystal Growth – happens when sea water penetrates crevices in rocks
Salt Crystal Expand – subjected to increase in temperature causing the
widening of rocks
 Biological Activity – refers to action of organisms
– plants and animals reduces rocks
 Unloading – happens through erosion or uplift, thick layers of sediments
– nagka eload an rocks, overlaying
Chemical Weathering
- rocks materials are changed into other substances that have different physical and
chemical components
Types of Chemical W.
 Dissolution – solid dissolves to liquid
 Hydrolysis – water reacts with mineral to form another mineral
 Oxidation – chemical combination of oxygen with a mineral to form an entirely
different mineral
– one element has higher ION change

Factors affecting the weathering of rocks

1. Climate amount of moisture in air
2. Higher elevation or an area exposed to environmental factors
3. Large sun area exposed to surface process
4. A block that is broken into smaller pieces has higher total surface area
Goldich Stability Series – the more nagkagamay, nagkastable
– Inverse order of crystallization

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Geologic Process Inside Earth
Earth’s Internal Heat
- the internal planet of the Earth fuels the planet’s dynamic system
- it is produced by residual heat (gravitational contraction) and radiogenic heat
Residual heat
- remains heat when things are heated up
Extra-terrestrial impact
- Earth was formed due to accretion of particles from a rotating cloud
- Kinetic energy is produced by the moving extraterrestrial object which were then
converted to heat energy
Dust grains to planetesimals to it collides with planets
Gravitational Contraction
- Collapse cloud occur because accretion of more materials leads to an increase in
gravitational attraction causing the contraction into a smaller volume will enable
them to spin faster
- The compaction of dust resulted to the conversion of gravitational energy into
heat energy
Radiogenic heat
- Unstable elements undergo radioactive decay to attain a more stable form
- Its process produces heat as a by product

Internal
Heat

Residual Radiogenic

Extra-terrestrial Gravitationa Radioactive

impact l Decay

Uranium 238
Accretion Cloud Uranium 235
particle Collapse
Thorium 232
Potassium

KE to Q GE to

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Earth’s Thermal budget
- the measure of the amount of heat that is released at the surface and produced in
the interior
 30% reflect solar energy reaches the surface of the Earth
 70% absorbed by atmosphere, land, and ocean

Magmatism
Magma is a molten rock material produced by partial melting of mantle and crust. It
contains gases, crystals, and rock fragments.

MAGMA
Temperature Pressure Volatiles

FORMATION OF MAGMA
 Temperature – increases with depth, called geothermal gradient. This increase
includes melting
 Pressure – decrease causes adiabatic decompression. As pressure decrease,
melting temperature of materials decrease.
 Volatiles – substances that evaporates easily and can exist in gaseous form in the
surface of Earth
Eg. carbon dioxide and water. When volatiles mix with hot mantle rock, magma forms

Metamorphism
- Greek word meta means change and morph means form
- a process of changing the characteristics of rocks as a result of changes in
temperature, pressure, or reactions with hot fluids
Protolith
- pre-existing rock that undergoes metamorphism.
- changes the texture and mineralogy of the original rock
Slate
- a product of metamorphism from a protolith which is shale

Different process of Metamorphism

 Recrystallization
– small grains
– growth in size of mineral grains
eg. Quartz, limestone to marble; clay into muscovite mica
 Neocrystallization
– due to heat
– formation of new materials from pre-existing minerals due to heat
eg. When Clay undergoes neocrystallization, it forms mica

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  Phase Change
– polymorphs
– change in mineral structure but with the same chemical formula
Polymorphs – minerals with the same chemical formula but different mineral
structure
 Pressure Solution
– takes place when minerals dissolve in areas with high pressure and
recrystallize in other areas with low pressure
– summary : dissolution & pressure means high and recrystallization
and pressure means low
 Plastic Deformation
– due to heat and soften minerals
– occurs when mineral grains soften at high temperature

Types of Metamorphism
 Contact or Thermal metamorphism
– occurs when heat is transferred from igneous intrusions to nearby
rocks
 Burial metamorphism
– occurs when rocks are buried to depths of several hundred meters
and form new low grade rocks due to temperature increase
 Dynamic metamorphism
– two bodies of rock slide past each other along faults, where some
rocks are heated and pulverized to form new rocks
 Regional metamorphism
– occurs over large area that experience stress, eg. convergent
boundaries, where one tectonic goes under another tectonic plate
 Hydrothermal metamorphism
– along mid-ocean ridges, ocean water is heated by nearby magma to
form hydrothermal
 Shock metamorphism
– when a meteorite hits the surface of Earth and transfer a lot of heat to
the place of impact, causing rock to change
Factors Controlling Metamorphism
 Temperature
– Affected by heat or thermal energy that trigger chemical reaction to
rocks
– Comes from two sources: Igneous intrusions and Earth’s
geothermal gradient
Two sources of thermal energy
Intrusive bodies or plutons alter the texture and mineralogy of surrounding
rock to form metamorphic rocks
Geothermal gradient of Earth is the rate of increase in temperature with
increasing depth from the Earth’s surface

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  Pressure
– increases with depth and can be classified into two types: Uniform
and Differential stress
– when minerals with spaces in their lattices are subjected to high
amounts of pressure, the minerals collapse forming much denser
crystals
 Uniform stress or Hydrostatic stress
– pressure with equal amounts of force coming from all directions
 Differential stress
– pressure that is unequal in different directions
– in a convergent boundary, it causes rocks to deform
 Normal stress
– compresses objects from two opposing directions
 Shear stress
– smears objects in the direction of stress

Chemically active fluids

– enhances chemical reaction that alter the chemical composition of
rocks
Metasomatism
– change in a composition of rock due to the addition or removal of
substances or elements
Time
– metamorphism is a slow process that involves several processes
– metamorphic rock is formed with the protolith rock remaining in solid
form
– metamorphic rocks that contains large crystals need time to form, on a
scale of tens of million years

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