EARTH SCIENCE REVIEWER

GEOLOGIC PROCESSES

TWO CATEGORIES:

EXOGENOUS (EXTERNAL)

ENDOGENOUS (INTERNAL)

EXOGENOUS PROCESSES

 Occur on or near the surface of the earth.

1. WEATHERING
o It is the disintegration of rocks, soils, and minerals together with other materials through contact with
Earth’s subsystems.

PHYSICAL WEATHERING

- The breakdown of rocks by mechanical forces concentrated along rock features.

- Also known as mechanical weathering, is the process by which rocks breakdown or change shape and
texture by external forces.

FROST WEDGING

- Typically occurs in areas with extremely cold weather where water goes through a lot of freezing and
thawing, allowing it to perform physical weathering.

SALT CRYSTALLIZATION

- Occurs in coastal and desert regions when water evaporates, leaving salt crystals behind.

HALOCLASTY

 These crystals expand, they exert pressure on surrounding rock, eventually breaking the rock and leaving
holes in the rock’s surface.

THERMAL EXPANSION

- During thermal expansion, minerals expand and contract when heat fluctuates.
- The same reason why car tires deflate as temperature drops.

BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITY OR ROOT WEDGING

- Biology activity from living organisms can also cause physical weathering.

ROOT WEDGING, roots from large plants grow into small breaks in rocks.

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CHEMICAL WEATHERING

- The process by which rocks break down by chemical reactions.

- A process that causes erosion or disintegration of these particles by means of chemical reactions.

CHEMICAL REACTIONS INCLUDE:

Carbonation Acidification

Hydrolysis Oxidation

Lichens

2. EROSION
o The process by which Earth’s surface is worn away by wind, water, or ice.
o Moves rock debris or soil from one place to another.
o A natural force, but it isn’t inevitable.

PROTECTION OF THE SOIL:

PLANT VEGETATION

- Bare soil is at risk, so consider using cover crops to provide uninterrupted ground cover and bind and
nourish the soil.

UTILIZE NO-TILL OR MINIMAL TILLAGE PRACTICES

- Research suggests that no-till and minimal tillage practices offer significant benefits.

BUILD SOIL ORGANIC MATTER

- Soil organic matter helps to keep soil anchored.

BE MINDFUL WHEN SELECTING GRAZING PRACTICES

- Implementing rotational grazing and other mindful practices can limit soil compaction and erosion.

SOIL EROSION is an ongoing battle between various forces.

3. MASS WASTING
 It is the movement of material on a downslope terrain due to gravity.

DEBRIS FLOW MUDFLOW

- Happens when a large amount of sediments, - Happens when combined soil and water flow
usually rocks of various sizes, fall downslope. downslope.

SLUMPS

- This is a slow downslope movement of loosely consolidated materials or rock and soil layers.

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4. SEDIMENTATION
 The accumulation of materials such as soil, rock fragments, and soil particles settling at the bottom.

OCEAN BASINS

o In oceans the sediment layer can form it

o Change their shape and sizes due to continuous geologic cycle.

SEDIMENTATION PROCESSES

- An integral part of the environmental system, and are treated separately from all other environmental
processes only because they are linked with the formation of sediments.

THREE SEQUENTIAL STAGES:

Weathering Deposition

Transportation

ENDOGENOUS PROCESSES

 Are caused by forces from within or in the interior of Earth.

 The driving force is the thermal energy of the mantle and the crust.

1. MAGMATISM
 Magma is very hot and is constantly moved by the internal heat that reaches the mantle of Earth through
convective flow.
 Happens when magma is generated and develops into igneous (magmatic) rocks.

2. VOLCANISM
 The process that usually happens after the magma is formed

3. METAMORPHISM
 The process of charging the materials that make up the rock.

CONTACT METAMORPHISM

- An intruding magma can cause metamorphism because of its high temperature and the presence of
hydrothermal fluid.

BURIAL METAMORPHISM

- Metamorphism can also occur in sedimentary basins.

DYNAMIC FAULTING

- Faulting near the surface of the Earth causes rocks to break into angular fragments or to powder.

REGIONAL METAMORPHISM

- In convergent place boundaries, large slices of crusts slip up over the other portions of the crust.

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HYDROTHERMAL METAMORPHISM

- In mid-ocean ridges, cold seawater penetrates the crust through the faults.

SHOCK METAMORPHISM

- Extraterrestial objects such as meteorite also cause changes in the rocks at the surface of the Earth.

QUARTZ is transformed to coesite through this process.

THREE LAYERS OF THE EARTH: CRUST, MANTLE, AND CORE.

CRUST is like the shell of an egg; the thinnest of the Earth’s layers.

Broken into several parts, known as the CONTINENTAL PLATES.

FOUR TYPES OF STRESSES: COMPRESSION, TENSION, SHEAR, AND CONFINING STRESS

COMPRESSION STRESS

 Type of stress that causes the rocks to push or squeeze against one another

TENSIONS STRESS

 The opposite of compression.

 Can happen in two ways, tension forces the rocks to pull apart.
 Two separate plates can move farther away from each other, or the ends of one plate can move in different
directions.

SHEAR STRESS

 The force of the stress pushes some of the crust in different directions.

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CONFINING STRESS

 When stress is applied to all sides of the crust, confining stress occurs.

CONTINENTAL DRIFT THEORY

ABRAHAM ORTELIUS (1527 – 1598)

 In 1596, he observed and presupposed that the shapes of the continents on both sides of the Atlantic
ocean seem to connect to each other.

ALFRED WEGENER (1880 – 1930)

 In 1912, he developed the concept and hypothesized the continental drift theory.
 Geophysicist
 He called this massive land mass “PANGAEA”

PANGAEA

 Broke apart and each land mass “drifted” away from each other in different locations.

TWO GIANT CONTINENTS WERE FORMED:

LAURASIA which comprised the northern continents of today’s times.

GONDWANALAND which comprised the continents in the present southern hemisphere.

EDWARD SUESS (1831 – 1941)

 Recognized the existence of Gondwanaland.

SUES is better known to have proposed the existence of Tethys sea, the only recognized body of water
during those ancient times.

EVIDENCES ON WEGENER’S CONTINENTAL DRIFT THEORY

1. SIMILARITY OF FOSSILS FOUND IN DIFFERENT CONTINENTS

2. PRESENCE OF TILLITES IN AREAS WHOSE PRESENT CLIMATES DO NOT SUGGEST GLACIAL
FORMATION.
3. PRESENCE OF COAL SEAMS IN POLAR REGIONS
4. CONTINUITY OF ROCK LAYERS FOUND IN DIFFERENT CONTINENTS
5. SIMILARITY OF ROCK TYPES IN DIFFERENT CONTINENTS

PLATE TECTONICS THEORY

 WEGENER’S THEORY initially did not gain acceptance from the scientific community because he could not
explain why the continents moved.
 As early as 1929, Arthur Holmes (1890 – 1965), a British geologist, suggested the idea of thermal
convection.

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SEVEN MAJOR PLATES:

Pacific plate South American plate

Eurasian plate Indo-Australian plate

North American plate African plate

Seven minor plates, one of which is the Philippine plate.

PLATE MOVEMENTS THAT OCCURS IN PLATE BOUNDARIES

- There are a few handfuls of major plates and dozens of smaller, or minor plates.

SIX OF THE MAJORS ARE NAMED FOR THE CONTINENTS EMBEDDED WITHIN THEM, SUCH
AS

North American African Antarctic plates

TINY JUAN DE FUCA PLATE

- Largely responsible for the volcanoes that dot the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

LITHOSPHERE

- The plates make up Earth’s outer shell

THREE TYPES OF TECTONIC BOUNDARIES:

Convergent, where plates move into one Divergent, where plates move apart
another

Transform, where plates move sideways in relation to each other

They move at a rate of one to two inches (three to five centimeters) per year.

CONVERGENT BOUNDARIES

 Where plates serving landmasses collide, the crust crumples and buckles into mountain ranges.
 Occur where a plate of ocean dives, in a process called subduction, under a landmass.

THREE TYPES OF CONVERGENT BOUNDARIES:

CONTINENT-CONTINENT BOUNDARIES

o These form when continental lithosphere on one plate collides with continental lithosphere on
another plate.

CONTINENT-OCEAN BOUNDARIES

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 o These form when continental lithosphere on one plate collides with oceanic lithosphere on
another plate.

OCEAN-OCEAN BOUNDARIES

o These form when oceanic lithosphere on one plate collides with oceanic lithosphere on another
plate.

DIVERGENT BOUNDARIES

 In the oceans, magma from deep in the Earth’s mantle rises toward the surface and pushes apart
two or more plates.
 The process renews the ocean floor and widens the giant basins.

TRANSFORM BOUNDARIES

 Where two plates grind past each other along what are called Strike-slip faults
 Don’t produce spectacular features like mountains or oceans. But the halting motion often
triggers large earthquakes, such as the 1906 one that devastated San Francisco.

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