Chapter #7: Sedimentary rocks

Background
- Have their origins in the rock cycle.
- Terrestrial plant life-forms interact with sedimentary rocks and
increase their weathering. Therefore, understanding the
timing of land plant colonization is critical for
understanding Earth’s climate history.
- Recall that weathering of existing rocks begins the
process. Next, gravity and agents of erosion such as
running water, wind, and glacial ice remove the products of
weathering and carry them to a new location, where they are
deposited. Following deposition, this material, which is
now called sediment, becomes lithified (turned to rock). It is
from sedimentary rocks that geologists reconstruct many
details of Earth’s history. Because sediments are deposited in a
variety of settings at the surface, the rock layers that they
eventually form hold many clues about past surface
environments. A layer may represent a desert sand dune, the muddy floor of a swamp, or a tropical coral reef.
There are many possibilities. Many sedimentary rocks are associated with important energy and mineral
resources and are therefore important economically as well.

virtually everything is covered by sediment, with igneous rock exposed only at the crests of mid-ocean ridges
and in some volcanic areas. But, going from surface to 16 kilometers (10 miles) below, we find that sedimentary
rock is only 5 percent of the total rock volume, with the vast majority being igneous or metamorphic rock.

Importance of Sedimentary Rocks

• 75% of Earth covered by sediments and sedimentary rocks

• 5% of Earth’s outer 10 miles
• Evidence of past environments
• Important resource
• Fossil fuels ‘coal, natural gas and oil’
• Building materials ‘hydrocarbons’
• Groundwater resources

Mass Wasting (movement)

• Sedimentary rocks are the products of chemical and mechanical weathering
• Weathering: Weathering preexisting igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks generates a variety of
products subject to erosion, including various solid particles and ions in solution. These are the raw materials for
sedimentary rocks.
• Mass Wasting: Solid particles move downslope by gravity, a process termed mass wasting, and then running
water, groundwater, wave activity, wind, and glacial ice remove them.
• Transport: intermittent process, sand and gravel can be transported many times.
• Sorting: refers to the degree of similarity in particle size in a sedimentary rock.
• Deposition, sedimentary “to settle”
• Lithification, as deposition continues, older sediments get buried beneath younger layers and gradually convert
to sedimentary rock (lithify) by compaction and cementation.
• Diagenesis is a collective term for all the changes that take place in texture, composition, and other
physical properties after sediments are deposited.
• Intermittent process
Where this process can be observed

1. During transport abrasion and sorting occurs, weathering processes continue

 Describe the 3 main categories of sedimentary rock and how are they formed.
1. Detrital (clastic) sedimentary rocks transported accumulations of rocks weathered by both
mechanical and chemical processes.
a. Particle size – main identification method
b. Composed of clay minerals (most abundant- feldspar), quartz (very resistant to
chemical weathering), and micas
c. Mica and feldspar presence indicates that erosion and deposition occurred fast enough
to preserve some of the primary minerals from the source rock before they could be
decomposed.
i. Clastic Sedimentary rocks
1. Gravel: conglomerate, breccia
2. Sand: Sandstone, arkose
3. Mud: Shale or Siltstone

 Shale has fissility (rock can be split into thin layers called laminae)
o Most abundant sedimentary rock
o Sediment settles in quiet environments
 o Forms barriers to fluid movement: The inability of water to penetrate shale’s
microscopic pore spaces explains why this rock often forms barriers to the
subsurface movement of water and petroleum. Indeed, rock layers that contain
groundwater are commonly underlain by shale beds that block further
downward movement.
o Forms gentle slopes
o May be rich in organic matter
 Differences between shale and siltstone and mudstone
o Shale – can split into thin layers along well-developed space planes.
o Mudstone – when the rock breaks into chucks or blocks
o Siltstone – contain less clay size material than shale and mudstone
 Sandstone
o Forms in a variety of environments
o Quartz is most abundant mineral
o Second most abundant sedimentary rock
o Transport affects mineral composition
o Quartz sandstone- predominately quartz
o Arkose sandstone- 25% or more feldspar
o As rocks travels further along their mineral’s composition become more
rounded. Thus, rounded grains likely have been airborne or waterborne.
o the length of transport by turbulent air and water currents
o sorting, roundness, and mineral composition determine sandstone history
o Quartz well rounded (thousands of generations of transport) Feldspar and
angular grains (little chemical weathering and transport)
o Some sandstone has crossbedding
o Sorting

 Conglomerate- poorly sorted, rounded, gravel sized sediments

o openings between the large gravel particles contain sand or mud
 Breccia- poorly sorted, angular, gravel sized sediments
 Both has gravel fragment (rounded)
 The pebbles and cobbles in a breccia indicate that they did not travel far
from their source area before they were deposited.
 2. Chemical sedimentary rocks form from precipitated material.

Depends highly on transportation time.

 Know names and characteristics of individual types of sedimentary rocks and how they
are classified. soluble material produced largely by chemical weathering. Ions in solution are
precipitated by either inorganic or biological processes.
- Inorganic processes:
1. evaporation and chemical activity
- Organic processes:
1. Water-dwelling organisms, generate biochemical sedimentary rocks. Limestone, chert, rock salt
 Limestone
 Calcite is primary mineral
 Can form from inorganic and biochemical origins
 most abundant chemical sedimentary rock (and one of the three main attractors among
sedimentary rock types)
 Biochemical limestone- shells of marine organisms, corals, ancient reefs
 Inorganic limestone- precipitation of calcium carbonate
 Useful building stone, antacid, necessary dietary nutrient, pigment
 Corals are one important example of organisms that are capable of creating large
quantities of marine limestone.
o Earth’s first reef-building organisms were photosynthesizing bacteria that lived
during Precambrian time
  Calcium carbonate skeleton secreted by symbiotic algae

 Coquina- composed of cemented shell fragments

- Inorganic processes: formed by chemical reactions

 Inorganic Limestone: Chemical changes increase calcium carbonate concentration to
precipitation point
 Precipitation due to chemical, pressure, and/or temperature changes
 Carbon dioxide is lost to the atmosphere
 Travertine- found in caves and around some hot springs
2. Oolitic liestone
 

Know names and characteristics of individual types of sedimentary rocks and how they are classified
- Dolostone: different from limestone because it doesn’t react to hydrochloric acid
 their origin remains uncertain.
- Chert:
1. Microcrystalline quartz
2. Precipitation of dissolved silica
3. Can originate from ash or tiny organisms that had silica skeletons
 Ocean organisms, skeleton rich in silica.
 Agate, flint, Jasper, Arrowhead (early humans), petrified wood (fossil/volcanic ash
and water)
4. Most have a conchoidal structure
- Evaporites: rock salt (halite) and rock gypsum
1. Gypsum precipitates (crystallization) before halite – forms layer for extraction.
2. When a body of seawater evaporates, the minerals that precipitate do so in a sequence that is
determined by their solubility.
3. salt flats form when dissolved materials are precipitated as a white crust on the ground

3. Organic sedimentary rocks- from carbon-rich remains of organisms. The primary example is coal, a black
combustible rock that consists of organic carbon from the remains of plants that died and accumulated on the
floor of a swamp

- form from carbon-rich remains of organisms

1. Coal- Generated 45% of U.S. electricity in 2010
2. coal is the end product of large amounts of plant material being buried for millions of years
3. Stages in coal formation
Diagenesis
Chemical, physical, and biological changes that take place after sediments are deposited and buried
One example of diagenetic change is recrystallization, the development of more stable minerals from less stable
ones.

- As burial takes place, aragonite recrystallizes to form calcite, the more stable form of calcium carbonate. Calcite,
as mentioned previously, is the main constituent in the sedimentary rock limestone.
- diagenesis is the chemical alteration of organic matter in an oxygen-poor environment evolving into peat and
then into coal. Instead of completely decaying, as would occur in the presence of oxygen, the organic matter is
slowly transformed into solid carbon.
1. Occurs in the upper few kilometers of Earth’s crust
2. Examples: recrystallization, lithification, processes that form coal
- Lithification- compaction and cementation unconsolidated sediments are transformed into
sedimentary rocks
1. Diagenesis includes lithification
 Basic lithification processes include compaction and cementation

 Compaction is most significant as a lithification process in fine-grained sedimentary

rocks like shale

 This process, called cementation, is the most important process by which sediments
change into sedimentary rock. Like compaction, cementation reduces the porosity of the
rock.

 Silica is the hardest cement and thus produces the hardest sedimentary rocks. An orange
or dark- red color in a sedimentary rock means that iron oxide is present.

 Because crystals grow until they fill all the available space, crystalline sedimentary rocks
often lack pore spaces.
 Textures of sedimentary rocks
- Clastic texture- composed of discrete fragments cemented together (breccia)
- Nonclastic or crystalline texture- minerals form patterns of interlocked crystals (rock salt)
- The main criterion for naming clastic rocks is particle size. The primary basis for naming chemical and organic
sedimentary rocks is their composition.

Environment of Deposition
Geographic setting where sediment is accumulating
“Present is key to the past” Determines nature of sediment

Types of Sedimentary Environments

- Broad categories: Continental, Marine, and Transition (shoreline)
- Distinguish between the three main types of sedimentary environments and how specific
environments form sedimentary rocks with distinct sedimentary structures
Continental:

Transitional and Marine

 Sedimentary facies
Different sediments accumulate in adjacent environments simultaneously

Sedimentary Structures
- Strata or beds are layers of sedimentary rock
- Bedding planes separate strata
Cross-bedding- layers in sedimentary rocks are inclined
- Occurs in sand dunes, deltas, stream deposits
Graded beds: Coarse at the bottom to fine at top

- Graded beds ‘Fining upwards’

Ripple marks
- Rivers, shallow marine, and sand
- Air flow or waterflow moving across that sediment
Mud cracks
- Places with dry and wet sessions

Concretion (not fossils)

- Fayetteville shell. Sediment that is resistant to weathering process and thus forms a mass.

Fossils- the remains of prehistoric life

- Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, Colorado
Carbon cycle

Chapter #8: Metamorphism and metamorphic rocks

‘Blood Lapis’ While lapis lazuli (commonly known as lapis) is found in small deposits throughout the world,
Afghanistan’s mines are ancient and famed as a high-quality source of this vivid blue gemstone. Although lapis
is commonly referred to as a mineral, it is a metamorphic rock composed of a variety of minerals—most
commonly lazurite, calcite, and pyrite. Unfortunately, in recent decades lapis mining and trade have funded
conflict in this war-torn area. High trade value for Taliban.

- - Many varieties of minerals

1. CO2 is bad for seawater since increase the acidity, making it more difficult for some organisms
to fissility.
2. the metamorphic reactions that occur under heat and pressure can release carbon dioxide. In
contrast, the weathering of rocks that occurs when carbon dioxide dissolves into rainwater to
form carbonic acid (H2CO3) reduces
3. According to the carbon cycle related to the metamorphic rock
 Applying of hit
 - Metamorphism- to “change form”
1. Transition of one rock into another
2. Metamorphic rocks come from preexisting sedimentary and igneous rocks, as well as from other
metamorphic rocks.
3. Changes in mineralogy, texture and/or chemical composition of parent rock
4. Parent rock is the rock from which a metamorphic rock originated
- Agents of Metamorphism:
1. Heat, pressure, directional stress, chemically active fluids
2. Metamorphism occurs over a range of temperatures that lie between those experienced during
sedimentary rock formation and temperatures approaching those at which rocks begin to melt.
3. During metamorphism, the rock remains essentially solid. If significant melting occurs, then the rock has
entered the realm of igneous activity

- Produces larger crystals and layered, banded appearance

1. Example: Clay minerals are stable at the Earth’s surface but change to chlorite and muscovite
when temperatures approach 400°F Chlorite becomes biotite at greater temperatures
2. The degree to which a parent rock changes during metamorphism is called its metamorphic grade
3. Low-grade metamorphic environments have low temperatures and pressures.
4. high grade metamorphic environments have more extreme temperatures and pressures.

Explain differences in environments where igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentation rock

• Rock must remain solid during metamorphic transformation
• Melting would produce igneous rock
• Heat allows some ion movement
• Unlike some igneous and sedimentary processes that occur in surface or near-surface environments,
metamorphism most often occurs deep within Earth, beyond direct observation.

• Metamorphic Grade- the degree to which the parent rock changes during metamorphism
• texture and mineral composition.
 the pressures involved in metamorphism are even greater—sufficient to convert mineral matter into denser
forms having more compact crystalline structures.

The agents of metamorphism include heat, pressure, differential stress, and chemically active
fluids.
Heat as a Driver of metamorphism:
• Geothermal gradient
• The most important factor

• Contact metamorphism
• provides the energy needed to produce the chemical reactions that result in the recrystallization of existing
minerals.

• Recrystallization: The formation of new or enlarged mineral grains at the expense of original grains

• 2 primary ways in which rocks become hotter:

• Heat is transported upward:
• Mantle plumes, upwelling at mid – ocean ridges, and partial melting at subduction
zones.
• Become deeply buried in the crust:
• where temperature rises with depth.
• Convergent plate boundaries
Confining Pressure- forces applied equally in all directions
- Creates: phase change, density increase, closes pore spaces
- Pressure, like temperature, increases with depth because the thickness of the overlying rock increases.
- As atoms arrange, density increases
 - Phase changes
Differential stress: forces unequal in different directions compressional stress causes deeply buried rocks to
become ductile
- Collision of lithosphere in convergent plates.
- Squeezes greater in one direction than the other
- Along convergent plate boundaries, the greatest differential stress is directed horizontally in the direction of
plate motion. Consequently, in these settings, the crust is greatly shortened (horizontally) and thickened
(vertically), resulting in mountainous topography.
- Ductile rocks, at greater temperatures and pressure (elongate)
- Brittle, low temperature and pressure (fracture)

Chemically active fluids

• Water is expelled from minerals under heat and pressure
• Contain water in crystalline structures
• Enhances migration of ions
• Aids in recrystallization
• Mineral matter transported
• hydrothermal solution, are expelled from a magma body as it cools and solidifies.

Importance of parent rock Marble found in Alps of Europe

- Mineral makeup of parent rock determines composition and effect of metamorphism
- The overall chemical composition of the surrounding rock changes, in a process called metasomatism.
- Chemical composition
- Because marble and the common sedimentary rock limestone have the same mineralogy (calcite), it seems
reasonable to conclude that limestone is the parent rock of marble in Alps of Europe (shallow sea
transformations)

Texture describes size, shape, and arrangement of mineral grains

Foliation describes planar arrangement of mineral grains or structural features in a rock
1. Foliated texture includes rock (slaty) cleavage, schistosity, and gneissic texture (banding).
 - Parallel alignment of platy minerals, elongated minerals, mineral grains, or pebbles
- Compositional banding of light and dark minerals
- Rock cleavage
- Slate, Phyllite, Schist, Gneiss

Foliation formation via:

-Rotation of platy minerals
-Recrystallization
-Flattening of grains

This type of gradual solid-state flow involves slippage that disrupts the crystalline structure as atoms shift
positions by breaking existing chemical bonds and forming new ones.

pressure solution As a result, the mineral grains tend to become shortened in the direction of maximum stress and
elongated in the direction of minimum stress.
Porphyroblastic texture-
- pyroclastic texture-
- large grains (porphyroblasts) surrounded by fine-grained matrix
-
- Other textures include:
- Slaty: Because it splits easily, slate
o Thus, unlike shale, which splits along bedding planes, slate usually splits across bedding surfaces.
- Schistosity: When these platy crystals are large enough to be discernible with the unaided eye, they exhibit
planar or layered structures
o schist may contain deformed quartz and feldspar crystals that appear flattened or shaped like a lens
embedded among the mica grains.
- Gneissic
o Dark
o Although they are foliated, gneisses do not usually split as easily as slates and some schists.
These textures differ in that rocks with slaty cleavage break across their layers; rocks with schistosity exhibit layered
structures of thin, platy minerals; and rocks with gneissic texture have a solid, banded appearance.

Common metamorphic rocks are derived from common sedimentary rocks

Shale: (or mudstone) slate, phyllite, schist, and gneiss
Limestone: (calcite): marble
Quartz Sandstone: quartzite
Foliated metamorphic rocks (Foliated in right ‘
- Slate, can be black, red, or green
o Slaty cleavage

• Rocks can be split into thin slabs

• Occurs in the low-grade metamorphic rock slate
• Shale is parent material
• Develops at an angle to original bedding planes

- Phyllite
- Glossy sheen, wavy surface
- composed mainly of very fine crystals of muscovite, chlorite, or both

o Shist
Schistosity
• Visible platy minerals
• Occurs in the mid-grade metamorphic rock schist
 • Planar/layered structure
• Mica & chlorite become muscovite & biotite
• Mica schist: muscovite and biotite
o Gneiss
- Gneissic texture
- Minerals: quartz, potassium feldspar, and plagioclase feldspar.
- Occurs in the high-grade metamorphic rock gneiss
- High-grade metamorphism causes ion migration
- creates segregation of minerals into light and dark bands (made of ferromagnesian minerals
Increasing metamorphic grade of foliated metamorphic rocks

No-foliated metamorphic rocks

- Nonfoliate texture
- do not develop a layered or banded appearance as a result of metamorphism’
- Nonfoliate metamorphic rocks typically form in metamorphic environments where
compressional stress is minimal
- Equidimensional crystals
- ‘Baked’ rocks
- Minimal deformation
- Marble, quartzite, hornfels

Marble
- Limestone and dolostone
- White and comprise of mineral calcite
- Susceptible to chemical
weathering
- Easy to cut and shape.
 - The Studi date Cave Michelangelo, a training facility for young sculptors. Credit Luca Locatelli/Institute,
for The New York Times

o Quartzite
 Very hard
 Moderate to high grade metamorphism
 Banded appearance by cross bending
 Breaks across the original quartz grains

o Hornfels
 Quartz veins
 Variable mineral composition
 Grey to dark in color

o Migmatite
 Rock that was partially melted and then recrystallizes
 Forms at transition from metamorphic to igneous or vice versa

Metamorphic Environments
 - MOST METAMORPHISM OCCURS ALONG PLATE MAGINS
Compare and contrast metamorphic environments (contact, hydrothermal, subduction zone, regional,
fault zone, and impact metamorphism

1. Contact (thermal) Metamorphism

- Occurs in Earth upper crust
- low pressure, high temperature, not differential stress.
-thickness highly variable
-nonfoliate
- Hornfels, volcanic ash, and basaltic, marble, and quartzite

2. Hydrothermal Metamorphism
- Circulating ion-rich fluids causes chemical alteration $$$$$ in vein deposits
- Hot, iron rich water circulates through pore spaces or fractures in rock
- This type of metamorphism tends to occur at shallow depths with low pressures and relatively low to moderate
temperatures.
- Might arise from igneous activity
- Can originate metallic ore veins like copper, silver, and gold.
- Along mid-ocean Ridge system major widespread occurrence
 Copper in chalcopyrite and zinc in sphalerite

- Serpentinite
- Soapstone

Burial Metamorphism no deformation

- occurs where massive amounts of sedimentary or volcanic material accumulate in a subsiding sedimentary basin
- low-grade metamorphic conditions (Low temperature and low pressure) may be produced within the deepest
layers
- Metaconglomerate

Subduction Zone Metamorphism

- Pressure increases before temperature
- Areas of variable amounts of differential stress

Regional Metamorphism
- Mountain building ,
continental-continental convergent boundary
- Produces greatest quantity of metamorphic rock
- Rocks are shortened and thickened
- Basement rock and pieces of oceanic crust become jumbled up with igneous rocks

Fault Zone Metamorphism

- Near Earth’s surface, rock behaves like a brittle solid. Consequently, movement along a fault zone fracture and
pulverizes rock
- The result is a loosely coherent rock called fault breccia, composed of broken and crushed rock fragments.
- occurs at great depth and thus at high temperatures
 Impact or Shock Metamorphism
- occurs when meteorites (fragments of comets or asteroids) strike Earth’s surface at high speeds (tektites
forms)
- called impactiles, include mixtures of fused fragmented rock plus glass-rich ejecta that resemble volcanic bombs.
________ metamorphism will occur when high-speed projectiles strike the Earth's surface.

Index minerals form only under specific temps and pressures and metamorphic grade shows the degree of change a
metamorphic rock has undergone. index minerals presence allow geologist to recognize high, low, and intermediate
metamorphism.

Vermont State Rocks

http://dec.vermont.gov/geological-survey

Textural variations caused by regional metamorphism

Index minerals are good indicators of metamorphic environment

- Explain how index minerals are used to determine metamorphic grade and how it relates to
metamorphic environment
Metamorphic Facies
- Hydrothermal metamorphic
o Simply, metamorphic rocks containing the same assemblage of minerals belong to the same
metamorphic facies—indicating that they formed in very similar metamorphic environments.
o Understand how metamorphic facies relate to metamorphic environment and plate tectonics
 These include the hornfels, zeolite, greenschist, amphibolite, granulite, blueschist, and eclogite
facies.
 Thus, the concept of metamorphic facies is useful in interpreting Earth’s history. Rocks belonging
to the same metamorphic facies all formed under the same conditions of temperature and
pressure, and therefore in similar plate tectonic settings, regardless of their location or age.
o This activity results in large areas of regional metamorphism that often include zones of contact and
hydrothermal metamorphism. Evidence of the gradually increasing temperatures and pressures
associated with regional metamorphism are recorded by the zeolite–greenschist–amphibolite–granulite
facies

Which option below lists the grades of metamorphism that might be encountered moving west to east
from Ohio to the crystalline core of the Appalachians?
 low grade, then intermediate grade, then high grade

Study METAMORPHIC ROCKS Q#4 and 30!!!!

Chapter #9: Geologic time

- Creating a Geologic time scale

- Recording Earth’s history
 - Geologic and evolutionary changes

Geologic map of the region around Mosca Pass Trail

Cross section of Mosca Pass trail area

Importance of a Time Scale

Understand the importance of Geologic Time and Earth History

Numerical dates Example: the limestone is 250 million years old

Relative dates Example: The Hermit Shale is older than the Coconino Sandstone

- Distinguish between numerical and relative dating and apply relative dating principles to determine a sequence
of geologic events
- Principle of Superposition proposed by Nicolas Steno 1669
- In an undeformed sequence of sedimentary rocks, each bed is older than the one above and younger than the
one below
 Principle of Original Horizontality: Sediment layers are originally deposited horizontally
Deformation occurs after deposition

Principle of Lateral Continuity: Beds originate as continuous layers

- Coconino Sandstone
- Red wall limestone

Principle of Cross-Cutting Relationships

- Younger features cut across older features

- Fault and dikes

Chapter#10:

Every rock will bend or break in response to stress

Tectonic forces can cause rocks to move, tilt, and/or change shape

o Earth is dynamic. Shifting lithospheric plates gradually change the face of our planet by moving
continents across the globe. The results of this tectonic activity are perhaps most strikingly apparent in
Earth’s major mountain belts.
o Deformation: is caused by tectonic forces, and it occurs mostly along plate boundaries—the places
where lithospheric plates push together, pull apart, or scrape past each other.
o Rock structures include folds, faults, joints, foliation, and rock cleavage
 Folds - bending of rock layers without breakage
 Faults - fractures along which one rock sides past another
 Joints - cracks in the rock

o Stress is the force that deforms rocks which takes into consideration the area over which a force acts
 Magnitude
 Confining pressure- stress applied uniformly in all directions. compacts mineral grains
and reduces the volume of a rock body. NO DEFORMATION.

 Rocks deform in characteristic ways that can be observed at an outcrop—places where rocks are
exposed on Earth’s surface.
 Geologists use the term geologic structures, or rock structures, for the structural features that
reflect a rock’s tectonic history when observed in outcrops.

 Differential stress- stress applied unequally in different directions. DEFORMATION

o Compression: Differential stress that squeezes a rock mass as if it were in a vise,
associated with convergent plate boundaries. This deformation produces
mountain belts.

o Tension: pulls apart rock bodies, occurs most often along divergent plate
boundaries. Tensional forces have fractured, stretched, and thinned the crust
sufficiently to produce deep rift valleys.

o Shear: which involves the movement of one part of a rock body relative to
another. Its the dominant force at transform plate boundaries, such as the San
Andreas Fault, where large segments of Earth’s crust slip horizontally past one
another.
 o Strain is the change in shape of a rock in response to stress
 By observing and measuring the strain imprinted on a rock body, we can infer the type of stress
that deformed the rock.
 Slippage along parallel surfaces of weakness, such as microscopic fractures or foliation
surfaces.
 Mineral grains can also change shape in response to differential stress that does not
involve slippage along zones of weakness.
o Instead, the movement of atoms from a location that is highly stressed to a less-
stressed position on the same grain triggers a change in shape—a process called
recrystallization

Types of deformation:

 Elastic, Brittle, and Ductile Deformation.

 Elastic: changes shape temporarily in response to a stress and then returns to its original
shape when the stress is removed.
o chemical bonds in a mineral grain stretch while under stress and then snap back
to their original length.

 Brittle: When rock is deformed beyond its ability to respond elastically, it either breaks
or is permanently bent. Breaks into smaller pieces.
o stress breaks the chemical bonds that hold a material together.

 Ductile: When an object changes shape without breaking. When you knead clay or taffy,
you are deforming it in a ductile way.
o slippage along surfaces of weakness within the rock and the gradual reshaping
of mineral grains.
o These processes enable rock to flow very slowly, even though it remains in a
solid state. Folds are an example of ductile deformation
-
* Compare and contrast elastic, brittle, and ductile deformation

o Brittle deformation- breaking

 o Ductile deformation- bending

Factors affecting rock strength or how deform: temperature, confining pressure, rock type, time
o rock deformation tends to be brittle at shallow depths and ductile at greater depths
 temperature and confining pressure, are influenced mainly by the depth of the rock’s burial.

o Brittle deformation breaking in upper 10 km of the crust

Temperature:

- High temperature rocks are closer to melting point and more capable or ductile deformation (bending). Near the
surface (cool environments) they tend to fracture or are more brittle.
- clay-rich or weakly cemented sedimentary rocks and foliated metamorphic rocks more readily exhibit ductile
deformation.

Containing pressure:

- Increases with depth thickness of overlying rock increases.

- Increase pressure tend to keep rock intact
Rock type:

- Influence how the rocks respond to stress

- Granite, basalt, and well-cemented quartz sandstones are examples of strong, brittle rocks that tend to fail by
breaking (brittle deformation) when subjected to stresses that exceed their strength.
- Brittle layers breaks into chunks
- Ductile layer flows onto gaps

Time:

- If stress is applied to a rock unit too quickly, the rock will deform elastically until its strength is exceeded, and
then it will fracture
Joints are fractures where there has been no rock movement
o Includes:
o Block jointing
o Columnar joints
o Sheeting
o Jointing from regional tension, down warping and upwarping

 Jointing controls fluid movement and weathering

Folds - Rock Structures Formed by Ductile Deformation

o Along convergent plate boundaries, rock strata are often bent into a series of wave-like undulations
(folds)
o Folds come in a wide variety of sizes and configurations

o Compressional stresses that result in a lateral shortening and vertical thickening of the crust
create most folds.
o Folds are geologic structures consisting of stacks of originally horizontal surfaces, such as
sedimentary strata, that have been bent as a result of permanent deformation. Each layer is bent
around an imaginary axis called a hinge line, or simply a hinge.
o Folds are also described by their axial plane, which is a surface that connects all the hinge lines
of the folded strata. In simple folds, the axial plane is vertical and divides the fold into two
roughly symmetrical limbs. However, the axial plane often leans so that one limb is steeper than
the other.

 Types of folds: Rock Structures Formed by Ductile Deformation

o Anticlines: usually forms by the upfolding or arching of sedimentary
layers. Fold that goes up in the middle.
o Synclines: downfolds or troughs. Fold that goes down in the middle.
o Monocline: fold with just one limb or one side.
 These folds appear to have resulted from the reactivation of
ancient, steep-dipping reverse faults located in basement rocks
 beneath the plateau. As large blocks of basement rock were
displaced upward, the comparatively ductile sedimentary strata
above responded by draping over the fault like clothes hanging
over a bench

 Folds can also be tilted by tectonic forces so that their hinge lines slope
downward. Folds of this type are said to plunge because the hinge lines penetrate
Earth’s surface.
 V-shaped pattern is produced when erosion removes the upper layers of a
plunging fold and exposes its interior.
 It is important to realize that anticlines typically do not show up as ridges, nor
synclines as valleys. Rather, ridges and valleys result from differential weathering
and erosion.
o Valley and Ridge Province: erosional forces attack sedimentary strata.

Domes and basins

A dome is a structure that occurs when a broad upwarping of basement rock deforms the overlying cover of
sedimentary strata to produce a circular or slightly elongated bulge

o The Black Hills of western South Dakota

o intrusion of magma (laccoliths)
o upward migration of buried salt deposits
o In a structural basin, the youngest rocks are at the center and the oldest on the flanks
 Form oil reservoirs

The inverse of a dome is a down warped structure termed a basin

 o basins of Michigan and Illinois
o In a structural basin, the youngest rocks are at the center and the oldest on the flanks

Faults and joints- brittle deformation:

- Are both structures that form where brittle deformation leads to fracturing of Earth’s crust. A joint is a fracture,
whereas a fault is a fracture along which motion has occurred, so that the rocks on either side are offset from
each other.
o Fault zones, Dip-slip faults, Strike-slip faults
 large faults, like the San Andreas Fault in California, have displacements of hundreds of
kilometers and consist of many interconnecting fault surfaces. These structures, described as
fault zones, can be several kilometers wide and are often easier to identify from aerial
photographs than at ground level. Sudden movements along faults cause most earthquakes.
However, the vast majority of faults are remnants of past deformation and are inactive.

o Because faults have nearly planar surfaces, geologists describe their orientations in terms of their strike
and dip

 Strike is the compass direction of the line produced by the intersection of a fault (or inclined
sedimentary layer) with a horizontal plane.
 Dip is the angle of inclination of a fault from a horizontal plane.
 The San Andreas is nearly vertical, so it has a dip, or inclination, of about 90 degrees. By
contrast, some faults are nearly horizontal, with dips of 10 degrees or less.
 Strike and dip can be used to describe the orientation of inclined sedimentary layers,
dikes, joints, and other planar structures, in addition to faults. For example, the hinge
and limbs of an anticline can be described by their strike and dip.
 Slickensides: Polished, smooth surfaces, provide evidence for direction of movement along the fault

Fault types

1. Dip-slip faults- occur when movement is parallel to the inclination of fault surface

Types:

Normal, Reverse, Thrust

o Normal Fault
 Hanging wall moves down relative to the footwall
 Fault-block mountains
 Example: Basin and Range Province
 Horsts- uplifted blocks


Grabens- down-dropped blocks

-
o At shallow depths tensional stress cause rocks to fracture and pull apart
o At shallow depths shortening occurs by brittle deformation along faults where one rock mass is thrust
over another.

o Reverse Fault
 Hanging wall moves up relative to the footwall

o Thrust Fault
 Hanging wall moves up relative to the footwall with a fault angle <45°
 o Strike-slip faults:
 displacement that is horizontal and parallel to the trend of the fault surface

 Right-lateral strike-slip fault

 Left-lateral strike-slip fault

 Transform-
 Large strike-slip faults that cut through the crust to accommodate plate motion
 Zones of parallel faults
 Linear valleys and sag ponds form
 San Andreas fault
o San Andreas Fault system is Moving 5 cm per year
 Great Glen Fault in Scotland
o Earthquakes:
 Port-au-Prince, Hati 2010 230,000 deaths

o Oblique-slip faults- exhibit both strike-slip and dip-slip

movement

Structures Associated with Faulting

Although all large faults are unique, they often exhibit similar characteristics.

- Fault Scarps: Vertical displacements along faults can produce long, low cliffs called fault scarps
o are usually generated by rapid vertical displacements associated with earthquakes
o Occasionally, horizontal movement along a strike-slip fault produces a fault scarp when an area
of higher ground is displaced next to lower terrain.

- Slickensides: The majority of fault surfaces that have been uplifted and exposed by erosion are
remnants of past deformation.
o These polished and striated surfaces, called slickensides (sliken = smooth), provide geologists
with evidence for the direction of the most recent displacement along the Fault
- Fault Breccia: The result is a loosely coherent rock called fault breccia, composed of broken and crushed rock
fragments. Displacement along California’s San Andreas Fault has created a massive zone of fault breccia that is
up to 3 kilometers (2 miles) wide in some places.

- Joints: Joints are among the most common geologic structures and can be found in nearly all rock outcrops. As
mentioned earlier, joints differ from faults in that no appreciable displacement has occurred along the fracture.
Although some joints have random orientations, most occur in roughly parallel groups

Mapping Geologic Structures

 Reconstructing geologic activity by studying location and orientation of structures (watch out for
rattlers!)
 Identifying and describing dominant rock structures
 Outcrops- sites where bedrock is exposed at the surface
 Mapping aided by: aerial photography satellite imagery global positioning systems (GPS) drill
borehole data seismic reflection profiling

 Inclined or bent sedimentary rocks are measured in the field

 Measurements are then plotted on maps or photographs
 Data used to determine geologic history

o Map view vs. Cross section

Mapping Orientation of Geologic Structures

 Measure strike with a compass (bearing)- line produced by the intersection of an inclined rock
layer or fault with a horizontal plane, expressed as an angle relative to north
 Measure dip with an inclinometer- angle and direction of inclination measured from a horizontal
plane
 Geologic Maps and Block Diagrams: geologists measure the strike and dip of sedimentary strata
at as many outcrops as is practical. These data are then plotted on a topographic map or an
aerial photograph, using T-shaped symbols. The long line shows the strike direction, the short
line indicates the direction of the dip, and the dip angle is noted—for example, 30°.

* Explain how strike and dip are measured and how these measurements are used to
determine rock structure and orientation beneath Earth’s surface
 

In mineral physics experiments, diamonds and lasers are used in equipment to replicate conditions of the interior of the
Earth to help Geologists understand Mineral phase changes.
Friday, October 20, 2023 12:11:47 PM CDT

Chapter #11: Earthquakes

What is an earthquake?

o Is ground shaking caused by the sudden and rapid movement of one block of rock slipping past another
along fractures in Earth’s crust, called faults
o Most of the time, a fault is locked because the confining pressure exerted by the overlying crust is
enormous, causing these fractures in the crust to be “squeezed shut.”
o An earthquake triggers when differential stress builds to such a level that it overcomes the frictional
forces holding the rock bodies together.

 Hypocenter: location where the rock slippage begins

 Epicenter: point on Earth’s surface directly above the hypocenter

Large earthquakes release huge amounts of stored-up energy as seismic waves that travel through the
lithosphere and Earth’s interior. The waves spread out in all directions from the site of the earthquake, in
a manner similar to how waves move outward from a stone thrown into a calm pond. The energy carried
by these waves causes the material that transmits them to vibrate, which causes the “shaking” that
occurs during the event.

o While thousands of earthquakes occur around the world every day, only about 15 strong earthquakes
(magnitude 7 or greater) are recorded each year, and many of them occur in remote regions.

o In addition, a quake occurring in a populated area can rupture power and gas lines, causing numerous
fires.

 1906 san Francisco earthquake

Causes of earthquakes

o The energy released by volcanic eruptions, massive landslides, and meteorite impacts can generate
earthquake-like waves
 Weak

o What mechanism produces a destructive earthquake?

 H.F Reid landmark study following San Franscisco Earthquake (1906)
 This earthquake was accompanied by horizontal surface displacements of several meters
along the northern portion of the San Andreas Fault
 Pacific plate lurched as much as 9.7 meters (32 feet) northward, past the adjacent North
American plate
 Reid termed this “springing back” elastic rebound because the rock behaves elastically,
much as a stretched rubber band does when it is released.

Foreshocks and Aftershocks

 Small earthquakes called foreshocks often, but not always, precede major earthquakes by days
or, in some cases, several years.
 limited success in monitoring them
  Strong earthquakes are followed by numerous earthquakes of lesser magnitude, called
aftershocks
 the movement along the fault surface stresses and deforms the surrounding rock, which
cause the aftershocks.
 Same location helps geologists determine the size of the area where slippage occurred.
 Haiti 2010- M 7.0 earthquake:
o 60 aftershocks M6.0 -5.9

 Because faults rarely occur in isolation, an earthquake on one fault may trigger an earthquake on
a nearby fault that has been accumulating stress for many decades or centuries
 stress added by the first earthquake accounts for only a minor component of the stress released
when the adjacent fault ruptures.

Plate Tectonics and Large Earthquakes

 As these mobile plates interact with neighboring plates, they strain and deform the rocks along
their margins
 Faults associated with transform and convergent boundaries results in largest earthquakes.
 Convergence:
o One continent collides with another, the resulting compressional forces slice
Earth’s crust along numerous large thrust faults
 Nepal, 2015
 Epicenter between Indian plate and Eurasian plate
o Drives uplift of the Himalayas

o Thrust faults – Associated with continental collisions and subduction plates

o Megathrust faults – When convergence entails the subduction of oceanic
lithosphere under another plate, the area of contact between the two plates
forms an extensive fault zone.
 Several km long
 Remain locked over centuries and decades
 Once the frictional forces between the two stuck plates are exceeded,
the overriding plate snaps back to its original shape.
 Snapping back generates earthquake
 Most destructive earthquakes in history
o 2011 Japan quake (M 9.0), the 2004 Indian Ocean
(Sumatra) quake (M 9.1), the 1964 Alaska quake (M
9.2), and the largest earthquake yet recorded, the 1960
Chile quake (M 9.5)
 Transform Plate Boundaries
o dominant displacement is horizontal and parallel to the direction of the fault
trace
 Strike – slip faults
 Most large transform faults are not perfectly straight or continuous;
instead, they consist of numerous branches and smaller fractures that
display kinks and offsets
 Earthquakes in branches
 Fault Rupture and Propagation

 Fault creep – slow gradual displacement producing little seismic shaking.

 Still other segments remain locked and store elastic energy for up to a few hundred years before
they break loose.
 Ruptures on segments that have been locked for a hundred years or longer usually
result in major earthquakes.

 Geologists also discovered that slippage along large faults, such as the San Andreas, does not
occur instantaneously. The initial slip occurs at the hypocenter and propagates (travels) along
the fault surface.
 Earthquake waves are generated at every point along the fault as that portion of the fault begins
to slip.

Seismology: The Study of Earthquake Waves

- Back to 2000 yrs. Ago in China

- Earliest known instrument was a large hollow jar containing a weight suspended from the top (Zhang Heng)
o When earthquake waves reached the instrument, the relative motion between the suspended mass and
the jar would dislodge some of the metal balls into the waiting mouths of frog figurines directly below

Instruments That Record Earthquakes

o modern seismographs, or seismometers

 Inertia can be simply described by this statement: Objects at rest tend to stay at rest, and
objects in motion tend to remain in motion, unless acted upon by an outside force.
 The inertia of the suspended weight tends to keep it motionless, while the recording drum,
which is anchored to bedrock, vibrates in response to seismic waves. The stationary weight
provides a reference point from which to measure the amount of displacement occurring as a
seismic wave passes through the ground.
 Seismic Waves

o The records obtained from seismographs, called seismograms

o Seismograms reveal that two main types of seismic waves are generated by the slippage of a rock mass.
 Body waves: travel through Earth’s interior
 P waves: “push/pull” waves; they momentarily push (compress) and pull (stretch) rocks
in the direction the waves are traveling
o Travel through Solids, liquids, and gases
 S waves: “shake” material at right angles to their direction of travel. change the shape of
the material that transmits them.
o Because fluids (gases and liquids) do not resist stresses that cause changes in
shape—meaning fluids do not return to their original shape once the stress is
removed—liquids and gases do not transmit S waves.
 Surface waves: travel in the rock layers just below Earth’s surface
 One type causes Earth’s surface and anything resting on it to move up and down
 The second type of surface wave causes Earth’s surface to move from side to side.

 P waves are the first to arrive at a recording station, then S waves, and finally surface waves.
 Generally, in any solid Earth material, P waves travel about 70 percent faster than S waves, and S
waves are roughly 10 percent faster than surface waves.
 S waves have slightly greater amplitudes than P waves, and surface waves exhibit even greater
amplitudes.

Locating the Source of an Earthquake

- When seismologists analyze an earthquake, they first determine its epicenter

- One method used for locating an earthquake’s epicenter relies on the fact that P waves travel faster than S
waves.
- the longer the interval between the arrival of the first P wave and the arrival of the first S wave, the greater the
distance to the epicenter
 we can determine the distance separating the recording station from the earthquake in three steps:

1. Using the seismogram for New York, we determine that the time interval between the arrival of the first
P wave and the arrival of the first S wave is 5 minutes.
2. Using the travel–time graph, we find the location where the vertical separation between P and S curves
is equal to the P–S time interval (5 minutes in this example).
3. From the position in step 2, we draw a vertical line to the horizontal axes and read the distance to the
epicenter.

Direction

The epicenter could be in any direction from the seismic station. Using a method called triangulation, we can determine
the location of an epicenter if we know the distance to it from two or more additional seismic stations

- we draw a circle around each seismic station with a radius equal to the distance from that station to the
epicenter. The point where the three circles intersect is the approximate epicenter of the quake.

Determining the Size of an Earthquake

- intensity and magnitude

o An intensity scale uses observed property damage to estimate the amount of ground shaking
at a particular location
o Magnitude scales use data from seismographs to estimate the amount of energy released at an
earthquake’s source.
o Using this technique, zones of intensity were identified, with the zone of highest intensity representing
the location of maximum ground shaking, which often (but not always) surrounds the earthquake
epicenter.
o The Modified Mercalli Intensity scales was developed using California buildings as its standard. Based
on the 12-point Mercalli Intensity scale, an area in which some well-built wood structures and most
masonry buildings are destroyed by an earthquake would be assigned a Roman numeral X.

o The U.S. Geological Survey has

developed a website called “Did
You Feel It,”
Magnitude Scales

o Scientists searched for a way to describe the energy released by earthquakes that did not rely on factors
such as building practices, which vary considerably from one part of the world to another.

Richter-Like Magnitude Scales

 first magnitude scale to use seismic recordings.

 these magnitude scales are calculated by measuring the amplitude of the largest seismic wave
(usually an S wave) recorded on a seismogram
 The moment magnitude scale measures the total energy released, whereas the Richter-like scale
only measures the amplitude of the largest seismic wave.
 as long as equivalent instruments are used, monitoring stations at different locations will obtain
the same magnitude for each recorded earthquake
 In practice, however, different recording stations often obtain slightly different magnitudes for
the same earthquake—a result of the variations in the rock types through which the waves
travel.
 Earthquakes vary enormously in strength, and great earthquakes produce wave amplitudes
thousands of times larger than those generated by weak tremors.
 To accommodate this wide variation, magnitude scales use a logarithmic scale to express
magnitude, in which a 10-fold increase in wave amplitude corresponds to an increase of 1 on
the magnitude scale.
 In addition, each unit on these magnitude scales equates to roughly a 32-fold increase in the
energy released. Thus, an earthquake with magnitude 6.5 releases 32 times more energy than
one with magnitude 5.5 and roughly 1000 times (32 × 32) more energy than a magnitude 4.5
quake.

 Richter-like magnitude scales are not adequate for describing very large earthquakes.
 Saturated magnitude scales

Moment Magnitude

 estimates the total energy released during an earthquake.

 calculated by determining the average amount of slip on the fault plane, the area of the fault
surface that slipped, and the strength of the failed rocks.
 modeling data obtained from seismograms.
  seismologists have used it to recalculate the magnitudes of older strong earthquakes

Earthquakes destruction
o Haiti M 7.0- Because of the quake’s shallow depth, ground shaking was extreme for an event
of this magnitude.
o unconsolidated sediments, which is quite susceptible to ground shaking during an earthquake.

Destruction from seismic vibrations

During an earthquake, the region within 20 to 50 kilometers (12 to 30 miles) of the epicenter tends to experience
roughly the same degree of ground shaking, and beyond that limit, vibrations usually diminish rapidly However,
earthquakes that occur in the stable continental interior, are generally felt over a much larger area than those in
earthquake-prone areas such as California.

o Energy released by earthquakes causes up – down and site to site

motion.
 The amount of damage to human-made structures attributable to the vibrations depends on
several factors, including
 (1) the intensity and duration of the vibrations,
 (2) the construction practices of the region, and
 (3) the nature of the material on which structures rest.

The impact of earthquake shaking may vary considerably in an area, depending upon the nature of the ground
underlying built structures. Water-saturated, loose sediments, for example, amplify the up-and-down seismic
vibrations more than solid bedrock.

When liquefaction occurs, the ground becomes mobile and unable to support buildings, and underground
storage tanks and sewer lines may literally float toward the surface

 The most tragic result of the 1989 earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area was the collapse
of a stretch of a double-decked highway in Oakland known as the Cypress Viaduct.

Landslides and Ground Subsidence

The greatest earthquake-related damage is often caused by landslides and ground subsidence triggered by
vibrations. This was the case when the magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the steep Himalaya Mountains of
central Nepal in 2015.

Fire

San Francisco was the economic center of the western United States, largely because of gold and silver mining.
Then, at dawn on April 18, 1906, a violent earthquake struck, triggering an enormous firestorm. Much of the city
was reduced to ashes and ruins.
Stunamis

Major undersea earthquakes may set in motion a series of large ocean waves that are known by the Japanese
name tsunami. Most tsunamis are generated by displacement along a megathrust fault that suddenly lifts a large
slab of seafloor

 The first warning of an approaching tsunami is often the rapid withdrawal of water from
beaches, which is the result of the trough of the first large wave preceding the crest.

Tsunami Warning System

 Scientists at the center use deep-sea buoys equipped with pressure sensors to detect energy
released by an earthquake. In addition, tidal gauges measure the rise and fall in sea level that
accompany tsunamis, and warnings are issued within an hour. Although tsunamis travel very
rapidly, there is sufficient time to warn all except those in the areas nearest the epicenter.

Where Do Most Destructive Earthquakes Occur?

About 95 percent of the energy released by earthquakes originates in a few relatively narrow zones

These earthquake zones are found mainly along the three types of plate boundaries—convergent, divergent, and
transform plate boundaries.

o The zone of greatest seismic activity, called the circum-Pacific belt

o Most of the large earthquakes in the circum-Pacific belt occur along convergent plate boundaries, where
one plate subducts beneath another at a comparatively low angle. Recall that the contacts between the
subducting and overlying plates are called megathrust faults
o Alpine–Himalayan belt- African plate and the Indian subcontinent with the vast Eurasian plate.

Earthquakes: Predictions, Forecasts, and Mitigation

o Short-Range Predictions
o Long-Range Forecasts
o Paleoseismology
o Seismic Gaps: Unusually quiet zones along typically active faults
o Minimizing Earthquake Hazards
o Earthquake-Resistant Structures
o Earthquake Preparedness
o Earthquake Warning Systems
 Because P waves are less destructive and travel faster than both S waves and surface waves, they
can be used to provide a type of earthquake warning system.
o Are accurate, short-range earthquake predictions currently possible using modern seismic instruments?
 No, there are currently no reliable methods available for making short-range earthquake
predictions.
Chapter #12: Earth’s interior
- Deep below us, Earth’s molten outer core moves around the solid inner core, generating electrical currents
responsible for the planet’s magnetic field.
- Paleomagnetism: recorded in seabed rocks tells that magnetic north and south poles periodically wander and
reverse directions.
o Well Accuracy tracking changes in earth surface magnetic field with satellites
 Earth’s magnetic field has been weakening at a rate of roughly 5 percent per century (pole
reversal)
o Declination (the difference between the geographic North Pole and magnetic north on a compass) in
navigation.
o Inclination—the downward dip exerted on one-half of the compass needle
 CHANGING OF MAGNETIC FIELD FROM PAST TO PRESENT, HOW?
 By looking at the logbooks of Captain James Cook and others, scientists can compare
compass readings from known geographic points in both the past and present to see
how the magnetic field has changed over time.
 Archaeological sites Clay minerals subjected to high heat lock in the magnetic
orientation of the time of their firing.
o Researchers were excited to discover that the clay-rich mud in these ancient
structures had burned at high enough temperatures to provide an Iron Age
magnetism record for this region
 The heaviest materials (metals) appear in the center.
 Lighter solids (rocks) make up the middle layers
 less dense liquids and gases comprise the outer layer
 More than 95 percent of the variations in composition and temperatures in Earth are
due to this seemingly simple layered structure.

Exploring Earth’s Interior

o Earth’s interior consists of three major layers defined by their chemical composition—the core, mantle,
and crust.
o subdivided into layers, based on physical properties that include whether the layer is solid or liquid and
how weak or strong it is
o Knowledge of both types of layers is essential to our understanding of basic geologic processes such as
volcanism, earthquakes, and mountain building.
Which of the following are mountain ranges formed from compressional forces? Choose all that apply.

Appalachians, Himalayas and Alphs

Formation of Earth’s Compositional Layers

Gravity is largely responsible for the compositional layering we detect in Earth’s interior.

o chemical differentiation, occurred rapidly on the scale of geologic time and produced Earth’s dense,
iron-rich core.
o Nickel and iron melting - heavy metals gravitationally sank towards the center of the planet.
 o Light silicate minerals – less dense material buoyantly rose toward the surface and solidified to produce
a primitive crust.
o Heavy metals like gold, lead, and uranium- Low melting points were scavenged from Earth’s interior
and concentrated in the developing crust.
o The dark silicate minerals that have high melting temperatures were left behind to become the mantle.

- Mass and average density of the planet

o Earth’s mass, established about 200 years ago, was derived from our planet’s gravitational attraction to
objects around it.
o Earth’s average density is about 5.5 gm/cm, about twice that of a typical rock found on Earth’s surface.
o material at depth must be denser than rocks found on Earth’s Surface
o mineral physics, attempts to simulate the high pressures and temperatures found at various depths.
o High temperatures are achieved by using a laser to heat the mineral sample

- Direct observation of Earth’s material

o Upper continental crust, which has an average composition of a felsic rock called granodiorite.
 Continental crust becomes more mafic with depth.
o Ocean floor, in locations such as Newfoundland, Cyprus, Oman, and California, slivers of oceanic crust
and underlying mantle have been thrust high above sea level.
 With these exposures and deep-sea drilling – upper oceanic crust consists mainly of basaltic
lavas, while the lower unit is gabbro, the coarse-grained equivalent of basalt.
o Upper mantle and crust, as mantle-derived magmas ascended to the surface, they incorporated other
rocks, called xenoliths
 Upper mantle composed of peridotite
 ultramafic rock (olivine, and pyroxene)
 minerals that are denser than those of the continental and oceanic crust that lie above
it.
 Kimberlites - a volcanic rock that sometimes contains diamonds (formation deep 150
km)
o Prove of mantle’s deep.
o Inclusions- diamonds contain imperfections trapped for millions of years.
 Evidence diamonds formation in a water rich environment
 Proves that massive amounts of water are stored in the upper
mantle.
o diamond’s fragment of ringwoodite

 Prove that the mantle would hold as much water as the global oceans
combined.
  2 hypotheses:
o Ocean water carried into the mantle by the subduction of a water-laden
seafloor.
o mantle contains water from comets that crashed into Earth as it accreted
(coalesced) material during its formative period.
- Evidence from meteorites
o Meteorites, remnants of small bodies that formed early in the history of the solar system
 Composition similar to Earth’s
 stony meteorites, are rich in olivine and pyroxene—making them compositionally similar to the
peridotite found in the upper mantle.

 iron meteorites proves that Earth’s composition should be more iron rich than is
indicated by the rocky mantle and crust; therefore, the additional iron must be located in
the core.
o Density if mantle rock
o Magnetic field

- Using Seismic waves to probe Earth’s interior

o Seismograph networks can detect seismic waves from distant earthquakes.

 The P and S waves emanating from strong earthquakes act like medical X-rays,
providing the means to “see” into our planet.

- What do seismic velocities tell us?

o In general, seismic waves travel fastest when rock is stiff (rigid) or less compressible. When heated, rock
becomes less stiff (imagine warming a frozen chocolate bar), and earthquake waves travel through it
more slowly.
o These properties of stiffness and compressibility are used to interpret temperature—how near a rock is
to its melting point at various depths.
o P waves travel more slower through molten rock than solid, but S waves don’t travel through liquid.
 Because S waves do not travel through the outer core, we conclude that the outer core is
molten.
 Inner core is more rigid than outer core
o Earthquake waves also travel at different speeds through Earth materials having different compositions.
 Faster in oceanic crust (composed of basalt)
 Slower in continental crust (composed of granite)
 Has helped researchers determine both the composition of rocks found within Earth and
how hot they are.

- Earth’s Layered Structure

o Crust - a relatively thin, rocky outer skin, is divided into two types —continental crust and oceanic Crust
 Oceanic Crust: The seafloor is much younger, and denser. More similar to the mantle and forms

continuously along the mid ocean ridge.

 composed of the dark igneous rock basalt

 seafloor has a rather homogeneous chemical composition and structure.

 Continental crust: consists of many rock types. Thick in mountainous regions such as the
Himalayas and the Andes.
 The low density of continents relative to Earth’s mantle explains why continents are
buoyant—acting like giant floating rafts that cap tectonic plates—and why continental
crust cannot be readily subducted into the mantle.
 Continental rocks that exceed 4 billion years in age have been discovered using
radiometric dating.

 Mantle: lies beneath the earth’s crust.