Introducing the Earth –why study Geology

By: Gayani Rajapaksha

gayani@northshore.lk
Northshore College of Business and Technology

References: Dr David Case

David.case@uwe.ac.uk
University of the West of England
Why study geology?
•Resources
–Identifying areas for mineral resources –
aggregates; cement (clay + limestone); coal, oil,
gas; building materials ….
•Land
–new uses, sustainable exploitation, building
the right structures in the right places
•Land instability
–Implications for flooding + landslides
–Climate change (rivers and coasts)
•Land contamination
–Landfill + mining legacy
–Groundwater.
What happens if we ignore geology?
•Planning and development disasters
–Structures undermined or in wrong place

•Major hazards
–Pollution + health (radon, landfill)
–Collapsing mines
–Flooding -rivers
–Landslides
–Subsidence
–Coastal erosion
–Coastal floods
–Water management issues
The cost of getting it wrong
•Adequate and properly structured site investigation essential
for any civil engineering project
•Unforeseen ground conditions most common cause of cost and
time overruns.
What does unforseen mean??
•Study by Gary Creedy (2005)
–Unforeseen ground conditions fourth in top ten of construction
claims
–In USA highways construction 20% of all claims were related to
ground conditions amounting to 35% $ cost

•“Ground related factors are a common cause of lengthy delays

and large increases in building and construction costs” Richard
Betteridge 2006
Subsidence in Northwich due to salt solution
Why do you need to know about geology?

•The ground conditions at any site are a product of its total

geological and geomorphological history.

•Total geological and geomorphological history includes

–stratigraphy,
–the structure,
–the former and current geomorphological processes
–topography
–the past and present climatic conditions.
•Helps understanding of landscape in your region

•Helps with decision making on land use, flood defence

options, coastal defence, construction projects, ….

•Helps understanding of natural processes and

landscapes
Geological Time and Earth’s Age
•Stratigraphy is the study of the structure of sedimentary layers
recording a sequence of past events.
–The layers at the bottom of the pile are the oldest.
–Those at the top are the youngest.

•Stratigraphy identifies the relative age of many geological events.

–Relative age identifies position in a limited sequence. (“This
is older than that.”)

•Radioactivity can be used to establish the absolute age of

geological events.
–Absolute age identifies position in a universal sequence
(such as our current system of naming years in chronological order).
(“This is 49,000 years old.”)
The Earth’s Crust

•The crust is not uniform.

–The oceanic crust on average is about 8 km thick.

–The continental crust on average is about 45 km

thick.
Plate Tectonics
•The Earth gets rid of heat, generated by
internal radioactive reactions, and keeps a
nearly constant internal temperature through
convectionin the mesosphere and
asthenosphere.
•Plate tectonics theory says that Earth’s
outermost 100 km “eggshell”(the lithosphere)
is cracked into about a dozen large pieces and
several small ones.
Plate Tectonics
•Plate tectonics is a group of processes by which
large fragments (plates) of lithosphere move
horizontally across the surface of the Earth.
Through their movements and interactions,
they generate:
–Earthquakes.
–Volcanism.
–Mountain-building.
–Other geological processes.
The Three Most Important Cycles
•The tectonic cycle:
–Movements of plates of lithosphere, and the
internal processes of Earth’s deep interior that
drive plate motions.
•The rock cycle:
–Rock is formed, modified, decomposed, and
reformed by internal and external processes
of Earth.
•The hydrological cycle(covered elsewhere in
the course)
The Rock Cycle
•Rock is any naturally formed, nonliving, firm and
coherent aggregate of mineral matter that
constitutes part of a planet.
•The three rock families:
–Igneous rock:
Created through the cooling and solidification
of magma
–Metamorphic rock:
Formed by the effects of pressure and heat on
existing rocks
–Sedimentary rock:
Formed from deposits of sediment
Thank you