Chapter- 4

4. Geological Processes

 Geological processes grouped in to:

• Surface processes
• Internal processes
 4.1 Surface geological processes

• Weathering
• Fluvial Processes
• Glaciation
• Frost wedging
 4.1.1 Weathering
• The process by which rocks on or near Earth’s surface
break down and change is called weathering
• Weathering breaks things down into smaller pieces.
• The movement of pieces of rock or soil to new locations is
called erosion.
• Weathering and erosion can cause changes to the shape,
size, texture and different landforms (such as mountains,
riverbeds, beaches, etc).
• Weathering and erosion can also play a role in landslides
and the formation of new landforms.
• Rocks on earth’s surface are constantly changed by; water,
air, temperature changes, and other factors.
 Weathering, Erosion, and Transportation
• weathering is the group of destructive processes that
change the physical and chemical character of rocks at or
near Earth’s surface.
• Erosion is physical collection of rock particles by water,
ice, or wind.
• transportation is the movement of eroded particles by
water, ice, or wind
• Mass wasting is the transfer or movement of rock or soil
down slope primarily by gravity.
• Deposition is the process by which weathered and
eroded materials are laid down or placed in a location
that is different from their source.
 Parent material (rock)

Biological Chemical Physical weathering

weathering weathering (wind, rain, thermal
(tree roots and (water, acids, and expansion and
lichens) gases) contraction, water
freezing)

Particles of parent material

• Weathering results in both positive and negative effects
positive: generates soils,
negative: causes deterioration of buildings etc.
• weathering is divided into three classes: Those go on
continuously and usually together
 Physical (mechanical) weathering
The process by which rocks and minerals break down into smaller
pieces is mechanical weathering- also called physical weathering
 It does not involve any change in a rock’s composition, only
changes in the size and sometimes the shape of the rock.
• breaks rock into smaller pieces
• does not change chemical makeup
• causes physical disintegration only
Examples: exfoliation, frost wedging, salt wedging, temperature
changes, and abrasion
Factors that are involved in mechanical weathering
1. Temperature plays a big role in mechanical weathering.
2. Repeated thawing and freezing of water in the cracks of
rocks is called frost wedging.
3. Frost wedging is responsible for potholes.
4. Pressure is another factor. Over time, layers of rock are
stripped away is called exfoliation.
 1. Temperature of variation
 Non-uniform heating and cooling of rocks. Which causes
expansion and contraction of rock volume results in
Exfoliations.
 Thermal weathering depends on:-
(i) Amount of mineral constituents- poly-mineralic rocks
highly affected by weathering than monomineralic ones
(ii) Texture- coarse grained rocks disintegrate faster than fine
grained.
(iii) Age- younger rocks are more resistant to weathering than
older rocks.
(iv) Color- dark colored rocks disintegrate faster than light
colored rocks
 Exfoliation
• Exfoliation is a term that describes peeling of layers in
weathering exfoliation describes sheets of rock peeling off a
bare rock face.
 Exfoliation happens in places where there is a very big
difference in temperature between the night and day. This is
most common in deserts.
 During the day in deserts the temperature may rise to over
40°C. At night the temperature may drop to below 5°C.
 During the day the heat causes the outer layers of the rocks to
expand.
 At night the cold temperature causes the outer layers of the
rocks to get smaller and they contract. This makes it weaker
until it breaks up.
Exfoliations due to thermal weathering
 2. Freezing and thawing (forest wedging)
• Caused by the action of water in fractures
• If the water freezes into ice in side the fracture its volume
increases or expands by 10% and pushes the wall of the
fissures, resulting in the disintegration of rocks.
 3. Crystal growth
• As water percolates through fracture and pore spaces it may
contain ion that precipitate to form crystals.
• As the crystals grow they may exert an outward force that
can expand or weaken rocks.
4. Unloading
• When over lying rocks are removed by erosion fractures
and joints can be formed as a result of expansion.
 Chemical weathering
• Chemical weathering is when rocks and minerals undergo
changes in their composition as the result of chemical
reactions.
• Chemical composition of minerals/rocks are changed when
they exposed to atmospheric gases.
• Alters rocks that are unstable at Earth’s surface to become
more stable substances(new chemical compounds --
minerals -- form)
• Decomposes, dissolves, alters, or weakens the rock through
chemical processes to form residual materials.
• Examples: carbonation, hydration, hydrolosis, oxidation,
and solution
 Types of Chemical Weathering
• Chemical weathering decomposes, dissolves, alters, or
weakens the rock through chemical processes to form
residual materials.

 Carbonation
 Hydrolysis
 Hydration
 Oxidation
 Solution
 Biological weathering
• Biological weathering is the disintegration or decay of
rocks and minerals caused by chemical or physical agents
of organisms.
• Examples: organic activity from lichen and algae, rock
disintegration by plant or root growth, burrowing and
tunneling organisms, and acid secretion
Factors affecting rates of weathering
• Minerals formed at high temperatures/pressures are not stable at
Earth’s surface
e.g. olivine, pyroxene
• Other factor is topography
• Steep slope promote mechanical weathering
• Gentle slope promote chemical weathering (because in gentle
slope can captured water and the water able to facilitate
chemical reaction and also there will be thick soil and the soil
retain organisms which promote chemical weathering)

• Least stable - High T minerals (e. g. olivine) - disequilibrium

with surface conditions (small crystals)
• Most stable - Low T minerals (e.g. quartz) - larger crystals
Most stable ⇔ Least stable
Biotite, Amphibole ,Pyroxene, Olivine (mafic minerals)
Quartz, muscovite, K-feldspar, Na- Ca, Ca-Na, Ca plagioclase
(felsic minerals)
Weaker minerals weather first Biotite
Mica -> clay Plagioclase

Quartze
Feldspar -> clay

time
Quartz is more robust

Less mature sediment-->

More mature sediment-->

more resistant sandstone cap rock

less resistant shale

 Weathering and Erosion‐Effects
Effects of weathering and erosion:
1. Cause changes in the slopes and texture of rock structures,
hills, and valleys
2. Can cause landslides
3. Cause buildings, statues, and roads to wear away
4. Can wash soil, pollutants, and harmful sediment from the
roads and farms into waterways
5. Cause metals to oxidize (rust)
6. Reduce the area of a beach or shoreline
 Glaciers
• Glacier: a large, long-lasting mass of ice, formed on land
that moves under the influence of gravity and its own
weight
• Glacial ice has shaped many landforms in middle and high
latitudes
• Glacial ice sheets affect global climate
 Glaciers reflect sunlight
 Glacial ice affects global heat transport
 Volume of glacial ice affects sea levels
 Fluvial processes
• Fluvial process, the physical interaction of flowing water
and the natural channels of rivers and streams.
• Such processes play an essential and conspicuous role in
the denudation of land surfaces and the transport of rock
detritus from higher to lower levels.
• As with most geomorphic processes, rivers operate as a
function of a dynamic equilibrium between driving forces
and resisting forces.
• Driving Forces include gravity
• Resisting forces include geology (rock type, topography)
and Friction (channel shape, particle size of channel and
molecular)
 Internal Earth Processes
• Plate tectonics (divergent, convergent, transform)
• Volcanism
• Earthquake
 Earthquake
• An earthquake is shaking or vibration of the Earth.
• produced by the sudden release of energy stored in the Earth's
crust that creates seismic waves.
• When large elastic strain energy released spreads out through
seismic waves that travel through the body and along the
surface of the Earth.
• This energy radiates in all directions from its sources called
focus in the form of waves .
• Under this condition the rocks are bending and storing elastic
energy much like a wooden stick would if bent.
• Eventually the fractional resistance holding the rocks
together is over come and it occurs as the rock elastically
snaps back to its original shape .
Earthquake measurement scale
• The strengths of earthquakes may be expressed in terms
of magnitude and intensity
1. Magnitude (m): of an Earthquake is the actual amount
of energy released from earthquakes.
• It is measured using the Richter Scale given by numbers
ranging from 1 to 10 which represent almost negligible to
very high vibration, respectively.
 m= log (a/T)+B
Where
m=Magnitude,
a=Amplitude (maximum ground motion),
T=Duration of one oscillation or period of the seismic wave
(in seconds),
B=Attenuation factor (a factor which determines the amount
of weakening of seismic waves with increasing distance
from the earthquake
 The Richter magnitude scale

Scale Effect
1.0-3.4 Not felt but recorded
3.5-4.2 Felt by some
4.3-4.8 Felt by many
4.9-5.4 Felt by all
5.5-6.1 Slight damage to buildings
6.2-6.9 Considerable damage to buildings
7.0-7.3 Serious damage
> Or = 8.0 Nearly total damage
2) Intensity (I): of an earthquake refers to the amount of
surface damage or the degree of hazard due to the
earthquake.
• It is given by Mercalli scale of numbers ranging from I to
XII which represent almost no damage to total damage,
respectively
• Intensity dependent on
Magnitude
Nature and type of construction
Population density
Distance from the epicenter
Nature of the geology and the design of engineering
buildings
 Every earthquake is described in terms of its;

• Focus: the point in the earth crust from which an

earthquake disturbance (release of energy) emanates.

• Epicenter: the point on the surface of the earth

immediately above the point of origin of the disturbance

• Epicentral distance: the distance from the epicenter to

the recording station.

• imaginary line: which joins the center (focus) and the

epicenter, is called the seismic vertical.
Focus and Epicenter

Seismic
vertical
 Determination of an Epicentral Distance and Locating
Epicenters

• Primary and secondary waves arrive at seismograph stations

at varying velocities, where the interval between the P and S
wave are first determined and then plotted versus the travel
time.
• The interval is given by the “delay time” (td) of the S wave
from the P waves
• td= ts-tp for the paths of the waves are identical
• T=Ed/v where Ed is the Epicentral distance
• td= (Ed/Vs)-(Ed/Vp)= Ed(Vp-Vs)/VsVp
• Ed= td VpVs/ (Vp-Vs) = (ts-tp) VpVs/(Vp-Vs)
• The epicenter can accurately be located if there are at least
three seismograph stations at geographically different
locations, at different distances from the epicenter.

• The distances calculated in the respective seismograph

stations are taken as radius of a circle, each epicenter being
the center of each circle. The intersection point of the center
of the disturbance (location of the epicenter)
Epicenter determination
 Determination of focus depth
• The depth of the focus can be determined from the Epicentral
distance and the time of travel and velocity of P-wave.
• The depth of earthquake can vary from shallow (<50km) to deep
(>300km)

H2 + Ed2 = dp2 therefore, =H

Vp = dp/td
dp=Vp* tp where, Ed is epicenter distance
dp is distance travel by primary wave
H is depth to the focus
 What Are Seismic Waves?
• Seismic waves are the waves of energy caused by the
sudden breaking of rock within the earth or an explosion.
• They are the energy that travels through the earth and is
recorded on seismographs.
Types of Seismic Waves
• There are several different kinds of seismic waves, and they
all move in different ways.
• The two main types of waves are body waves and surface
waves.
• 1. Body waves
• Body waves can travel through the earth's inner layers, but
• surface waves can only move along the surface of the planet
like ripples on water.
• Traveling through the interior of the earth, body waves arrive
before the surface waves emitted by an earthquake.
• These waves are of a higher frequency than surface waves.
• Earthquakes radiate seismic energy as both body and surface
waves.
 1.1 P Waves(Primary Waves)
• This is the fastest kind of seismic wave, and, consequently, the
first to 'arrive' at a seismic station.
• The P wave can move through solid rock and fluids, like water
or the liquid layers of the earth. P waves are also known as
compressional waves, because of the pushing and pulling they
do.

• Particles move in the same direction that the wave is moving

in, which is the direction that the energy is traveling in, and is
 1.2 S Waves (secondary wave)
• An S wave is slower than a P wave and can only move through
solid rock, not through any liquid medium.

• It is this property of S waves that led seismologists to conclude

that the Earth's outer core is a liquid.
• S waves move rock particles up and down, or side-to-side--
perpendicular to the direction that the wave is traveling in (the
direction of wave propagation).
 Seismic wave velocity
• The velocities of P and S waves, in terms of the elastic
constants (elastic coefficients of a material) are expressed
as follow :
VP = = [ {k + (4/3)μ} /  ]1/2 ,K-bulk modulus and μ-
rigidity modulus
VS = (μ/)1/2  - being density
K and μ are always positive
• The equations show that, in the same medium VS < VP.
Moreover, it is evident that VS = 0 for a fluid since the
rigidity modulus μ = 0, i.e., S-waves can not propagate
through fluids.
• As a result of this, VS is less affected than VP by a variation
in moisture content.
 2. Surface Waves

• Travelling only through the crust,

• surface waves are of a lower frequency than body waves,
and are easily distinguished on a seismogram as a result.
• Though they arrive after body waves, it is surface waves
that are almost entirely responsible for the damage and
destruction associated with earthquakes.
• This damage and the strength of the surface waves are
reduced in deeper earthquakes.
 2.1 Love Waves
• It's the fastest surface wave and moves the ground from side-to-
side.
• Confined to the surface of the crust, Love waves produce entirely
horizontal motion.

• Particle motion is horizontal and perpendicular to the direction of

propagation (transverse). To aid in seeing that the particle motion
is purely horizontal, focus on the Y axis (red line) as the wave
propagates through it.
 2.2 Rayleigh Waves
• A Rayleigh wave rolls along the ground
just like a wave rolls across a lake or an
ocean.
• Because it rolls, it moves the ground up
and down, and side-to-side in the same
direction that the wave is moving.
• Most of the shaking felt from an
earthquake is due to the Rayleigh wave,
which can be much larger than the other
waves.
• Particle motion consists of elliptical
motions (generally retrograde elliptical) in
the vertical plane and parallel to the
direction of propagation.
 Where Do Earthquakes Happen?
Along Plate Edges
• Most earthquakes occur along the edge of the oceanic and
continental plates.
• The earth's crust (the outer layer of the planet) is made up of
several pieces, called plates.
• These plates are always bumping into each other, pulling away
from each other, or past each other
Along Faults
• Faults are cracks in the earth where sections of a plate (or two
plates) are moving in different directions.
• Faults are caused by all that bumping and sliding the plates do.
They are more common near the edges of the plates.
 Types of earthquakes
• There are three different types of earthquakes: tectonic,
volcanic, and explosion.
• The type of earthquake depends on the region where it
occurs and the geological make-up of that region.
• The most common are tectonic earthquakes.
• These occur when rocks in the Earth's crust break due to
geological forces created by movement of tectonic plates.
• volcanic earthquakes occur in conjunction with volcanic
activity.
• Collapse earthquakes are small earthquakes in underground
caverns and mines, and
• explosion earthquakes result from the explosion of nuclear
and chemical devices.
Seismometer (seismograph)
The Records in Seismograph station

S-wave
 Effects Earthquake
• Earthquake effects can be categorized in to two groups as
primary effects and secondary effects

Primary effect
• It is resulted from the ground vibration and fractures.
• Such as the ground shaking, the ground splitting, collapse of
large building, bridges, dams, tunnels and other rigid
structures

Secondary effect
• Such as landslides, tsunami, fires, fatalities, floods, regional
subsidence, uplift of land mass, tsunamis, contamination of
water supplies, toxic gas leaks, and power outages.
 Tsunami
• A tsunami, tidal waves also known as a seismic sea waves is a
series of waves in a water body caused by displacement of a
large volume of water.
• Or a water wave generated by earthquake
• Tsunami generated along, where sea floor displaced and
spreads outward.
 Factors that Affect Damage
• Earthquakes cause many different kinds of damage depending
on the strength of the quake, distance, type of underlying rock
or soil and the building construction.
• A given Richter reading will produce vastly different amounts
of damage in different parts of the world.
• Even the same quake can have very different effects in
neighboring areas.
• Many areas much closer to the quake suffered only minimal
damage.
• The combination of uncompacted soil with a lot of water in it
led to a phenomenon called liquefaction.
 Earthquake hazard mitigation

• Hazard zonation map to avoid areas of potential earthquake

• Good quality engineering design which resist the earthquake
hazards
• Land use Planning
• Insurance and relief measures
• Social measures (Awareness, public information)
• Early warning
Be Smart About

Earthquake Safety
THE END