NATSC-300

GEOLOGY FOR ENGINEERS

LESSON 3: PRINCIPLES OF
GEOLOGY

INSTRUCTOR: ENGR. GLEN PATRICK ENRIQUEZ

Laguna College Engineering Department

Geology for Engineers
PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY
 1. Superposition
• This explains that when a
sequence of rock is been
undisturbed, the oldest
layer will be at the bottom
and the youngest layer
will be on top.

PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY
 2. Original Horizontality
• This explains that all
strata, or layers of rocks,
are formed horizontally.

PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY
 3. Original lateral continuity
• It explains that strata form as
unbroken continuous layer of
rock that will eventually thin
out to nothing or at the end of
a basin, if they happen to be
filling one. It suggests that
strata that are no longer
connected must have been
fractured by a force or
separated by an erosion

PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY
 4. Cross-Cutting Relationship
• An intrusion or fault is
younger than the rock it cuts
across.

PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY
 • Using the following principles,
we can understand the
relationship between a rock
layer’s age and its position in
the rock record. the study of
that relationship is called
Stratigraphy.

PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY
 • Hutton believes that the layers
in the ground are materials
furnished from the ruins of
former continents. He believes
that everyday, the same
processes that eroded large
bodies of rocks are also
building up mountains. It is
know to be the process of ‘the
great geological cycle.’ He
hypothesize that it has been
happening endlessly.

PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY
 • Unfortunately, it hasn’t been
accepted until after his death
when the book “principles of
geology” was published. The
theory then became known as
‘uniformitarianism,’ which
states that the geological
processes that are happening
now probably happened the
same way in the past. Thus we
can figure out what happened
then by looking at things now.

PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY
 • Uniformitarianism was then
replaced by the term
“actualism” since nothing on
Earth is uniform and that
geologic time can be explain
thru actual processes that
actually happened.

PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY
PHYSICAL GEOLOGY
 - Is the theory that deals with the
dynamics of the Earth’s
lithosphere that revolutionized
Earth sciences.
- Serves as uniform context for
understanding mountain-building
processes, volcanoes and
earthquakes
- understanding the evolution of
Earth’s surface and reconstructing
its past continental and oceanic
configurations.

PLATE TECTONICS
 1. Continental Crust
- average rock density of 2.7 g/cm³
- 30 – 35 km

2. Oceanic Crust
- Average rock density of 3.0g/cm³
- Less than 10 km

PLATE TECTONICS
 - The lithosphere is divided into a
number of smaller parts called
“tectonic plates”
- Tectonic plates move and interact
with one another, driven by
convectional forces within the
Earth.
- The movements and interactions
of these plates produces
earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain
ranges, ocean trenches and other
geological processes and features.

PLATE TECTONICS
PLATE TECTONICS
PLATE TECTONICS
 PLATE TECTONIC BOUNDARY
- The edges of the Earth’s
lithospheric plates.

1. Divergent Boundary
2. Convergent Boundary
3. Transform Boundary

PLATE TECTONICS
 DIVERGENT BOUNDARY

- Two plates move away from the

axis of a mid-ocean ridge. New
oceanic lithosphere forms.
- Magma is emerged from the
fracture generated by divergent
events.

PLATE TECTONICS
1. Oceanic Plate Divergence
2. Continent Plate Divergence
 CONVERGENT BOUNDARY
- Two plates move towards each
other where the downing plate
sinks beneath the overriding plate.
- This process of consuming the
plate is called subduction.
- Generates a deep ocean trenches
for those convergence in oceanic
plates
- Generates curved mountain lines
for those convergence in
continental crust.

PLATE TECTONICS
1. Ocean-Ocean Convergence
2. Ocean-Continent Convergence
3. Continent-Continent Convergence
 TRANSFORM BOUNDARY
- At the transform boundary, two
plates slide past each other on a
vertical fault surface.
- No new plate forms and no old
plate is consumed
- San Andreas Fault

PLATE TECTONICS
1. Mid-ocean Transform Fault
2. Continent Transform Fault
PLATE TECTONICS
PLATE TECTONICS
 T H A N K Y O U!
END MODULE 3
(PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY)

CRDTS:JLP
©JLP
ANNOUNCEMENT:

Prelim Examination
During our schedule
Coverage Lesson 1-3

Geology for Engineers