EARTH AND LIFE SCIENCE

Geologic processes on the earth’s surface

Nature of Exogenic processes:

 Weathering – the breakdown of rock material at and near earth’s surface.

Rocks weakened and broken by weathering become susceptible to the other exogenic
processes- erosion, transportation, and deposition.

Erosion, transportation and deposition of weathered rock material often occur with the
assistance of a geomorphic agent such as stream flow, wind, moving ice, and waves. And
gravity.

 Mass wasting – gravity induced downslope movement of rock material that occurs
without the assistance of a geomorphic agent.

Types of rock weathering

1. Physical weathering – also known as mechanical weathering disintegrates rocks,
breaking smaller fragments from a larger block or outcrop of rock.
Principal types of weathering
a. Unloading – the loosening of rock layers by release of pressure after the erosion and
removal of those layers above
b. Exfoliation – successive removal of the outer rocks sheets and each concentric broken
layer of rock is an exfoliative sheet. Exfoliative dome designates an unloaded exfoliating
outcrop of rock with a dome-like surface form.
c. Thermal expansion and Contraction- extreme diurnal temperature changes physically
weather rocks as they heat and cool.
d. Freeze- thaw weathering – also known as ice wedging, water repeatedly freezing in
fractures and small cracks in rocks contribute significantly to rock breakage.
e. Salt crystal growth – development of salt crystal in cracks, fractures and other void
spaces in rocks causes physical disentigration in a way similar to freeze-thaw
weathering.
f. Hydration- water molecules attach to the crystalline structure of a mineral without
causing a permanent change in that mineral’s composition. Same as freeze- thaw
hydration and dehydration causes a mineral to expand when hydrated and shrink when
dehydrated.

2. Chemical weathering – decomposes rock through chemical reactions that remove ions
from the original rock forming minerals
a. Oxidation – oxygen in the water comes in contact with certain elements in rock-
forming minerals, a chemical reaction can occur. Chemical union of oxygen
 atoms with another substance to create a new product is oxidation. E.g.
breakdown of iron-rich minerals due to rusting.
b. Solution and Carbonation – Solution is a chemical reaction causes mineral
forming ions to dissociate and the separated ions are carried away in the water.
Carbonation is a common type of solution that involves carbon dioxide and
water molecules reacting with, and thereby decomposing rock material.
e.g. breakdown of calcite by reaction with carbonic acid in rainwater.
c. Hydrolysis – water molecules alone react with chemical components of rock-
forming minerals to create new compounds. E.g. breakdown of feldspar into
china clay by reaction with carbonic acid in rainwater.

3. Biological weathering (organic weathering) form of weathering caused by the activities

of living organism . e.g. growth of roots or the burrowing of animals.

Variability in weathering
1. Climate factors
2. Rock type
3. Structural weaknesses

Mass wasting - Also called mass movement, is a collective term for the downslope
transport of surface materials in direct response to gravity.

Gravity - is the principal force responsible for mass wasting but water commonly plays a
role and can do so in several ways.

Water;
1. Contributes to weathering, which prepares rock matter for mass movement
2. Add weight to porous materials on a slope
3. Decrease the strength of unconsolidated slope sediments
4. Increase the slope angle.

Common types of mass wasting

Motion Common material Typical speed
Creep soil Slow
solifluction soil Slow
Fall rock Fast
avalanche Ice and snow or debris or rock Fast
Slump(rotational slide) earth Fast
Slide (linear) Rock or debris Fast
Flow Debris or mud Fast
Slow mass wasting:

Creep – slow migration of particles to successively lower elevations, primarily affecting a

relatively thin surface layer of weathered rock particles.
Solifluction – “soil Flow”, refers to the slow downslope movement of water-saturated
soil and or regolith; most common in
High latitude or high elevation tundra regions that have permafrost ( a Subsurface layer
of permanently frozen ground)

Fast mass wasting

Fall – mass wasting events that consist of earth materials plummeting downward freely
through the air. Rockfalls are the most common type. Rock falls from from steep
bedrock cliffs either
1. One by one as weathering weakens the bond between individual clasts and
the rest of the cliff
2. As large rock masses that fall from a cliff face or an overhanging lodge.
Overtime, a sloping accumulation of angular, broken clast piles up at the base of the cliff
known as talus.
Avalanche – a type of mass movement in which much of the involved material is
pulverized ( broken into small, powdery fragments ) and then rapidly as an airborne
density current along the earth’s surface
Snow avalanche- billowing torrents of snow and ice roaring down a steep
mountainside
Rock avalanche- pulverized bedrock
Debris avalanche- very poorly sorted mixture of gravel , sands, silts, and clay
Slump (rotational slide)- rotational slides where a thick block of soil called earth, moves
along a concave, curves surface
Slide (linear)- a cohesive unit of earth material slips downslope in continuous contact
with the land surface. Water plays a greater role .
Rockslides –slides of large sections of bedrock and frequent in mountainous
terrain where originally horizontal sedimentary rock layers have been tilted by
tectonism.
Debris slides – contain a poorly sorted mixture of gravel and fines
Mudslides – dominated by wet silts and clay
Flow- masses of water saturated unconsolidated sediments that move
downslope by the force of gravity; they carry water in moving sediments, whereas rivers
carry sediments in moving water.; involves considerable churning and mixing of the
material as they move
Geologic processes within the earth’s surface
Landforms refer to the surface topography, the distribution of landscapes e.g. rugged
mountains gently sloping plains etc.
Geomorphology is subfield of physical geography devoted to the scientific study of landforms,
tries to explains origin, shape, and spatial distribution of terrain features of all kinds and for the
processes that modify and destroy them.

Primary geomorphic mechanism

1. Tectonic processes which are movements of parts of the crust and upper mantle
2. Igneous processes related to eruption and solidification of molten rock.
Relief – is the difference in elevation between the highest and lowest points within a specified
area or on a particular surface feature.

Endogenic processes (endo, within; genic, originating) geomorphic processes that originate
within Earth, tend to increase the amount of surface relief. Includes tectonic and igneous
processes
Exogenic processes (exo, external) processes that originate at earth’s surface, work to decrease
relief

Tectonic forces , which at the largest scale move the lithospheric plates also cause bending,
warping, folding and fracturing of earth’s crust at continental, regional and local scales.
Documented by rock structure which is the nature, orientation, inclination and arrangement of
the affected rock layer.

Tectonic forces divided into 3 principal types that differ in the direction of the applied forces.
1. Compressional tectonic forces – push crustal rocks together tend to shorten and
thicken the crust.
a. Folding is a bending or crumpling of rock layers, occurs when compressional
forces are applied to rocks that are ductile(bendable)
b. As elements of rock structure, upfolds are called anticlines and downfolds are
called synclines and the rock layers that form the flanks of anticlinal crests and
cynclinal troughs are the fold limbs
c. Faulting is the slippage or displacement of rocks along a fracture surface, and the
fracture along which movement has occurred is a fault.
d. The steep, high-angle fault resulting from compressional forces is termed
reverse fault, where compression pushes a mass of rocks along a low-angle fault
so that it overrides rocks on the other side of the fault is called thrust fault, and
the shallow displacement is overthrust.
 2. Tensional tectonic forces – pull parts of the crust away from each other in opposite
directions in a way that stretches and thins the impacted part of the crust
a. Tensional forces commonly cause the crust to break into discrete blocks called
fault blocks, that are separated from each other by normal faults
b. Each block that slid downward between two normal faults or that remained in
place while blocks on either side slid upward along the fault is called a graben. A
fault block that moved relatively upward between two normal faults,is actually
moved up or it remained in place while adjacent blocks slid downward is a horst.

3. Shearing tectonic forces – slide parts of earth’s crust past each other.
Dip-slip faults are vertical displacements along a fault occurs when the rocks on one
side move up or drop down in relation to rocks on the other side.
Strike-slip fault displacement of rock units is horizontal rather than vertical, the
direction of slippage is parallel to the surface trace of the fault, because of horizontal
motion, a lateral fold.

Earthquakes are ground motions of earth caused when accumulating tectonic stress is relieved
by the sudden displacement of rocks along a fault.
Seismic wave is the energy wave generated by an earthquake or an artificial explosion.
Types of seismic waves
Body waves- seismic waves that travel through the earth’s interior
a. P-waves or primary waves- longitudinal waves whose compression and refractions
resemble those of sound waves
b. S-waves or secondary waves- transverse waves or shear waves that involves a back-
and- forth shearing motion at right angles to the direction the wave is traveling
c. L-waves or love waves- these waves are transverse waves and considered the slowest
since it is trapped in a subsurface layer due to different densities in the rock layers
above and below. They have a horizontal side to side shaking motion transverse (at right
angles) to the direction the wave is traveling.
Surface waves- surface waves travel in the surface and subsurface layers of the crust
a. Rayleigh waves- surface waves that travel along the free surface(the uppermost layer)
of a solid material. The motion of particles is elliptical, like a water wave, creating the
rolling motion often felt during an earthquake.
Earthquake Focus is the subsurface location where rock displacement and the resulting
earthquake originate., which is generally located anywhere from near surface to a depth of 700
kilometers.
The earthquake epicenter is the point on earth’s surface that lies directly above the focus and it
is where the strongest shock is normally felt.

Severity of an earthquake expressed in two ways;

1. The size of the event as a physical earth process
2. Degree of its impact on humans.
 Earthquake magnitude express the size of earthquakes as recorded by seismographs,
measured as Richter scale.
Earthquake intensity is the measured as the damage caused by an earthquake and the
degree of its impact on people and their property measured as Mercalli scale.

Igneous processes and landforms

Volcanism refers to the extrusion of rock matter from earth’s subsurface to the exterior
and the creation of surface terrain features as a result. Volcanoes are mountains or hills that
form in this way.
Explosive eruptions violently blast pieces of molten and solid rock into the air,
whereas molten rock pours less violently onto the surface as stream of lava is effusive
eruptions.

Plutonism refers to igneous processes that occur below earth’s surface, including the
cooling of magma to form intrusive igneous s and rock masses.

Igneous intrusions or plutons are bodies of magma that exist beneath the surface of earth
or masses of intrusive igneous rocks that cooled and solidified beneath the surface.
Different kinds of intrusions are classified by their size, shape, and relationship to the
surrounding rocks. When exposed at earth’s surface, an irregularly shaped intrusion is a stock if
it covers an area less than 100 square kilometers, if larger it is known as batholiths. A laccolith
is a mushroom-shaped intrusions that developed where molten magma pushes its way
between preexisting horizontal layers of other rocks causing the overlying strata to bulge
upward as the intrusion grows.