EARTH AND LIFE SCIENCE
controlled by wetting
EXOGENIC PROCESS
- The processes which occur on
earth’s surface due to the
influence of exogenic forces.
- Weathering, mass wasting,
erosion, and deposition, are
the main exogenic processes.
WEATHERING
- The action of elements of
weather and climate over earth
material.
- It can be defined mechanical
disintegration and chemical
decomposition of rocks
through the actions of various
elements of weather and
climate.
TYPES OF WEATHERING
1. Physical Weathering
- Physical or mechanical
weathering processes depend
on some applied forces. The
applied forces could be:
 Gravitational forces;
overburden pressure,
load, and shearing
stress
 Expansion force due
to: temperature
changes, crystal
growth, or animal
activity.
 Water pressure:
and drying cycles.
- Most of the physical
weathering are caused by
thermal expansion and
pressure.
FROST WEDGING – A form of
physical weathering that involves
physical breaking of a rock.
- Occurs in areas with extremely
cold conditions with sufficient
rainfall.
- The repeated freezing of water
found in the cracks of rocks,
pushes the rock to the breaking
point.
2. Chemical Weathering
- Can be due to solution,
carbonation, hydration or
oxidation/reduction.
Carbonation
- The reaction of carbonate and
bicarbonate with minerals.
- Common process helping to
break down of feldspar and
carbonate minerals.
- Carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere and soil air is
absorbed by water to form
carbonic acid that acts as a
weak acid.
- Calcium carbonates and
Magnesium carbonates are
dissolved in carbonic acid and
are removed in a solution
without leaving any residue
resulting in cave formation.
Hydration
- The chemical addition of
water.
- Minerals take up water and
expand; this expansion causes
an increase in the volume of
the material itself or rock.
- The process is reversible and
long.
- Repetition of this process
causes fatigue in the rocks
and may lead to their
disintegration.
Oxidation
- Combination of a mineral with
oxygen to form oxides or
hydroxides.
- Minerals most commonly
involved in this are iron,
manganese, sulfur, etc.
- The red color of the iron upon
oxidation turns to brown and
yellow.
-
- In this process of oxidation,
rock breakdown occurs due
to the disturbance caused by
the addition of oxygen.
3. Biological Weathering
- Cause by several biological
activities like growth or
movements of organisms.
- They also bring conditions for
physical and chemical
weathering.
- Grazing of animals, plowing
by human beings and etc. are
examples of biological
weathering.
4. Mass Movements
- These movements transfer the
mass of rock debris down the
slope under the direct
influence of gravity.
- Mass movements are very
active over weathered slopes.
- Running water, glaciers, wind,
and waves, do not have much
role to play in mass
movements.
- Gravity is the main driving
force.
FACTORS THAT AFFECT  Rock composition
THE RATE OF
WEATHERING: - Some minerals resist
weathering. Quartz is a
 Climate
mineral that weathers slowly.
- The amount of water in the air
- Rocks made up of minerals
and the temperature of an area
such as feldspar, calcite, and
are both part of an area’s
iron, weather more quickly.
climate.

- Moisture speeds up chemical

 Pollution speeds up
weathering.
weathering
- Weathering occurs fastest in
- Factories and cars release
hot, wet climates. It occurs
carbon dioxide and other gases
very slow in hot and dry
into the air. These gases
climates.
dissolve in the rainwater,
causing acid rain to form.
- Without temperature changes,
ice wedging cannot occur.
- Acid rain contains nitric and
sulfuric acid, causing rocks
and minerals to dissolve faster.
 Surface area

- Most weathering occurs on

5. Erosion and Deposition
exposed surfaces of rocks
and minerals.
Erosion is the acquisition and
transportation of rock debris
- The more surface area a rock
by geomorphic agents like
has, the more quickly it will
running water, the wind,
weather.
waves, etc.
- When a block is cut into
Though weathering aids
smaller pieces, it has more
erosion, it is not a pre-
surface area.
condition for erosion to takes
place.
- The smaller pieces of a rock
will weather faster than a
Deposition is the process of
large block of rock.
sediments reaching their
destination.
ENDOGENIC PROCESSES
- The word endogenic means
formed, located, or occurring
beneath the surface of the
earth.
- These are geological processes
that occur beneath the earth,
associated with energy
origination in the interior of
the solid earth.
- The forces that cause the
ground to move are endogenic
forces.
1. Heat in the Earth’s interior
2. Magmatism
3. Faulting and Folding
4. Metamorphism
5. Volcanism
Where and how is magma formed?
Magma is formed from mantle rocks,
and it is formed through melting.
Why rocks in the mantle melt?
Examples:
They melt because of heat.
HEAT TRANSPORT
Heat is a form of energy and is
transported through the earth.
The direction of heat flow is outward.
Convection
Heat energy is transported in the earth
by two primary mechanisms:
1. Conductions
2. Convection
Conduction
- The process in which body’s
temperature is raise in one
place and heat flows to cooler
areas by diffusion as the
molecules in the body vibrate
more vigorously. No material
is transported by conduction,
only heat.
- Heat transfers through solid
material
- Heat is transported by
conduction in the crust where
the material is rigid and cannot
flow, and the temperature
gradient is high.
- Conduction is very efficient in
some materials like metals, and
inefficient in others like air.
- Inefficient conductors are
called insulators.
 The heat from a hot coffee
makes the cup itself hot.
 A metal spoon becomes hot
from the boiling water inside
the cup.
- A circulatory motion of heated
material.
- Liquid and other weak
materials heated experience
such motion.

- In convection, the moving
material carries the heat.
- The transport of heat by
convection in a fluid is usually
much more efficient.
- In the earth’s mantle,
convection is the dominant
mechanism of heat transport.
MAGMA FORMATION OR
MAGMATISM
Magma forms from partial melting of
mantle rocks. As the rocks move
upward, they start to melt a little bit.
These little blebs of melt migrate
upward and coalesce into larger
volumes that continue to move
upward.
As they rise, gas molecules in the
magma come out of solution and form
bubbles and as the bubbles rises, they
expand.
The pressure from the bubbles is
stronger than the surrounding solid
rock and this surround rock fractures,
allows the magma to get to the
surface.
Magma is a mixture of melted
crystals, rocks, and dissolved gases.
It is magma that causes volcanic
eruptions, can be explosive or non-
explosive.
Magma is formed by both wet and dry
melting processes.
By melting different parts of the layers
of the earth; basaltic, rhyolitic, and
andesitic magma will be formed.
Basaltic Magma
- Formed through dry partial
melting of the mantle.
- The mantle lies just below the
crust of the earth.
- Basalts make up most of the
ocean’s crust; this is why
basaltic magma is typically
found in the oceanic
volcanoes.
- In order for the mantle to
partially melt, geothermal
gradient, or the change in the
Earth’s temperature based on
internal pressure or depth,
must be changed by
convection.
- Usual very dense and stopped
in the continental crust, not
reaching the surface, causing it
to crystallize.
 - The crystallization releases the
basaltic magma’s heat, causing
the temperature of the
continental crust to rise and
melt.
Rhyolitic Magma
- A result of wet melting of
continental crust.
- Rhyolites are rocks that
contain water, and minerals
that contain water such as
biotite.
- The continental crust must be
heated above the normal
geothermal gradient in order to
melt.
- The most common cause of a
rise in temperature of
continental crust is basaltic
magma rising from the mantle.
Andesitic Magma
- Formed through wet partial
melting of the mantle.
- When subduction, or
continental plates pulling away
from one another occurs, the
mantle will heat up and water
is pushed into it. This cause the
melting temperature of the
mantle to decrease and the
mantle to begin partially
melting due to the heat.
- If Basaltic magma with a high-
water content melt with
continental crust that has a
high density of dioxide silicon,
andesitic magma will form.
FAULTING AND FOLDING
- A fault in the Earth’s crust is
the location of earthquakes
Stress is a force that causes rocks to
change shape or volume by pushing or
pulling.
3 types of stress in rocks that
happens in a plate boundary:
 Compression
 Tension
 Shear
Compression
- Happens when rock is
squeezed until it folds or
breaks in convergent
boundary.
- The type of fault in a
compressional stress is reverse
fault.
Reverse Fault – The hanging wall
moves up the footwall.
Tension
- Happens when the rock is
pulled causing it to be
stretched in a divergent
boundary.

- The type of fault in a tension

stress is normal fault.
Normal Fault – The hanging wall
moves down along the fault line.

Shear
- Occurs when the forces that
push rocks and faults in
opposite direction.

- The type of fault in a shear

stress is strike-slip fault

Strike-slip Fault – The rock masses

slip past one another parallel to the
strike. Rocks are displaced in a
horizontal direction.