CHAPTER 2: EARTHY MATERIALS AND PROCESSES

Lesson 2.1: ROCKS AND MINERALS

Objectives:
1. To identify common rock-forming minerals using their physical and chemical properties
2. To classify rocks into igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic
Rocks
 Rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of one or more minerals.
 The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock.
The types and abundance of minerals in a rock are deter-mined by the manner in which the rock was
formed. Many rocks contain silica (SiO2); a compound of silicon and oxygen that forms 74.3% of the Earth's
crust. This material forms crystals with other compounds in the rock.

Geological Classification of rocks according to Characteristics such as

1. mineral and chemical composition,
2. permeability,
3. the texture of the constituent particles,
4. and particle size.
These physical properties are the end result of the processes that formed the rocks. Over the course of
time, rocks can transform from one type into another, as des-cribed by the geological model called the rock
cycle. These events produce three general classes of rocks : igneous , sedimentary, and metamorphic.
1. Igneous:
Igneous rocks form from the cooling of melted rock (either lava or magma) into solid form.
 If the cooling occurs underground, the rock is an intrusive, or plutonic, igneous rock.
 If the cooling occurs on the earth's surface, the rock is an extrusive or volcanic rock.
 Molten material within the Earth is called magma; it is “lava” once it has erupted onto the
surface.

2. Metamorphic: Metamorphic rocks form when existing rocks are subjected to intense heat and
pressure, usually deep below the earth's surface. These conditions change the original minerals of
the rock into new minerals.

3. Sedimentary:
Sedimentary rocks are either detrital or chemical.
a. Detrital rocks are formed by the compaction of separate particles, or
sediments, into a rock.
b. Chemical sedimentary rocks form from minerals that have been
dissolved in water and precipitate out, forming a solid rock.
Geologists describe sedimentary rocks according to the size and shape of the particles in them or their
mineral composition (in the case of chemical sedimentary rocks).
Rock Cycle
The rocks of earth's crust are constantly being recycled and changed into new
forms through geologic processes. This continual transformation of rocks from one
type to another is called the rock cycle.

Rock Cycle
How rock type can be changed?
Rock can be changed through the processes of weathering, heating, melting, cooling, and compaction.
Any one rock type can be changed into a different rock type as its chemical composition and physical
characteristics are transformed.
The minerals and metals found in rocks have been essential to human civilization.

Minerals
 Minerals are the fundamental components of rocks.
 They are naturally occurring inorganic substances with a specific chemical composition and an
orderly repeating atomic structure that defines a crystal structure.
 Silicate minerals are the most abundant components of rocks on the Earth's surface, making up
over 90% by mass of the Earth's crust.
 The common non-silicate minerals, which constitute less than 10% of the Earth's crust, include
carbonates, oxides, sulfides, phosphates and salts. A few elements may occur in pure form. These
include gold, silver, copper, bismuth, arsenic, lead, tellurium and carbon.
Although 92 naturally occurring elements exist in nature, only eight of these are common in the rocks of
the Earth's crust. Together, these eight elements make up more than 98% of the crust (Table 1).

Table 1. The eight most common Oxygen (O) 46.6%

elements in the Earth’s crust( by mass )
Silicon (Si) 27.7%
Aluminum (Al) 8.1%
Rock Forming Minerals: Iron (Fe) 5.0%
The physical properties of minerals, such as their Calcium (Ca) 3.6%
hardness, lustre, color, cleavage, fracture, and relative density Sodium (Na) 2.8%
can be used to identify minerals. Potassium (K) 2.6%
These general characteristics are controlled mainly by Magnesium (Mg) 2.1%
their atomic structure (crystal structure).

Common rock-forming minerals:

These are specimens of minerals from the University of Auckland's collection. Along with the common
rock-forming minerals, including apatite, corundum, diamond, fluorite, topaz and talc to illustrate minerals used
in Moh's Scale of Hardness.

apatite augite biotite calcite chlorite corundum diamond

fluorite garnet gypsum hornblende ilmenite magnetite muscovite

Classification and Identification of Minerals

Minerals are classified according to their chemical composition.
1. Definite fixed composition,
Quartz is always SiO2, and calcite is always CaCO3.
2. Form both by inorganic and organic processes.
For example, calcite (CaCO3) is a common vein mineral in rocks, and also a shell-forming
material in many life forms. Calcite of organic origin conforms to the above definition except for
the requirement that it be inorganic.
3. "Mineraloids"
While not truly falling into the category of minerals, they are still usually classified as minerals.
Two well-known examples are Mercury, which lacks a crystal structure due to its liquid state,
and Opal, which also lacks a crystal structure as well as a definitive chemical formula. Despite the
fact that these mineraloids lack certain essential characteristics of minerals, they are classified as
minerals in most reference guides including the acclaimed Dana's System of Mineralogy.
4. Organic minerals is another unique category of minerals.
While this term is technically an oxymoron, since the definition of a mineral requires it to be
inorganic, there are several naturally occurring rare organic substances with a definitive chemical
formula. The best example of this is Whewellite. Most reference guides and scientific sources
make an exception to these substances and still classify them as minerals.

Lesson 2.2 : EXOGENIC PROCESSES

 Exogenic process includes geological phenomena and processes that originate externally to the Earth’s
surface.
 Generally related to the:
 atmosphere,
 hydrosphere and
 biosphere, and
 therefore to processes of:
o weathering,
o erosion,
o transportation,
o deposition,
o denudation etc.
 Exogenic factors and processes could also have sources outside Earth, for instance under the
influence of the Sun, Moon, etc.
The above mentioned processes constitute essential landform-shaping factors.Their rate and activity very often
depends on local conditions, and can also be accelerated by human actions.
The combined functions of exogenic and endogenic factors influences the present complicated picture of
the Earth’s surface.

Mountains, valleys and plains seem to change little, if at all, when left to nature, but they do change
continuously. The features of the Earth’s surface temporary forms in a long sequence of change that began
when the planet originated billions of years ago, and is continuing today. The process that shaped the crust in
the past are shaping it now. By understanding them, it is possible to imagine, in a general way, how the land
looked in the distant past and how it may look in the distant future.
Landforms are limitless in variety. Some have been shaped primarily by:
 streams of water,
 glacial ice,
 waves and currents and
 movements of the Earth‘s crust or
 volcanic eruptions.
These are landscapes typical of deserts and others characteristic of humid regions. The arctic makes
its special mark on rock scenery, as do the tropics. Because geological conditions from locality to locality are
never quite the same, every landscape is unique. Rock at or near the surface of the continents breaks up and
decomposes because of exposure. The processes involved are called weathering.

Weathering
Weathering is the decomposition and disintegration of rocks and minerals at the Earth’s surface.

Erosion
Erosion is the removal of weathered rocks and minerals by moving water, wind, glaciers and gravity.

The four processes – weathering, erosion, transportation and deposition work together to modify the
earth’s surface.

The Work of Weathering

Weathering produces some landforms directly, but is more effective in preparing rocks for removal by
mass wasting and erosion. Weathering influences relief in every landscape.

Freezing and thawing

 Water expands when it freezes.
 If water accumulates in a crack and then freezes, its expansion pushes the rock apart and the process
is called frost wedging.
 In a temperate climate, water may freeze at night and thaw during the day.
 Ice cements the rock temporarily, but when it melts, the rock fragments may tumble from a steep cliff.
 Large piles of loose angular rocks, called talus slopes, lie beneath many cliffs. These rocks fell from
the cliffs mainly as a result of frost wedging.
Temperature changes
Sudden cooling of a rock surface may cause it to contract so rapidly over warmer rock beneath that it
flakes or grains break off. This happens mostly in deserts, where intense daytime heat is followed by rapid
cooling after.

Lesson 2.3: Endogenic Process

 Endogenic processes include tectonic movements of the crust, magmatism , metamorphism, and seismic
activity.
 Endogenic processes have been responsible for shaping the earth’s relief and the formation of many of
the important mineral resources.
 The principal energy sources for endogenic processes are:
1. heat
2 the redistribution of material in the earth’s interior according to density
- The earth’s deep heat originates chiefly from radiation.
- The continuous generation of heat in the earth’s interior results in the flow
of heat toward the surface.
 With the proper combination of materials, temperature, and pressure, chambers and layers of partial
melting may occur a t certain depths within the earth.
 The asthenosphere, the primary source of magma formation, is such a layer in the upper mantle.
Convection currents may arise in the asthenosphere and they are hypothesized to be lithosphere.
 In the zones of the volcanic belts of the island arcs and continental margins, the principal magma
chambers are associated with super deep dip faults, slanting beneath the continents from the ocean side
to depths of about 700 km.

 Under the influence of the heat flow or under the direct influence of the heat carried by rising abyssal
magma , magma chambers form in the crust itself . Reaching the near
surface parts, the magma is intruded into them in the form of variously shaped intrusive bodies or is
extruded onto the surface , forming volcanoes.
 Gravitational differentiation has led to the stratification of the earth into geospheres of varying density.
 Is also manifested in the form of tectonic movements , which, in turn, lead to the tectonic deformation of
crustal and upper mantle rocks.
 The accumulation and subsequent discharge of tectonic stresses along active
faults causes earthquakes.

It is hypothesized that a combination of these processes leads to the temporal

unevenness of the release of heat and light matter toward the surface , which , in turn , can be
explained by the occurrence of tectonic magmatic cycles in the
history of the earth’s crust. The spatial irregularities of the same abyssal processes may explain
division of the crust into more or less geologically active regions, for example, into geosynclines and
platforms.

Lesson 2.4: CRUSTAL DEFORMATION PROCESSES

Crustal Deformation
I. Deformation of rocks in Earth's crust takes many forms;
A. Changes in volume, shape, and position can occur alone or in combination.
1. Stress = applied force = cause of the deformation
a. Types of stress include:
1) Tensional-stretching, increased volume
2) Compressional - squeezing, decreased volume
3) Shear - change in shape
2. Strain = resulting deformation
B. Causes of deformation
1. Confining pressure - due to the load of overlying rocks
2. Stresses applied at plate boundaries - usually not uniform instead this is a
directed pressure
C. Types of deformation (affected by confining pressure and temperature)
1. Deformation by flow
a. Elastic-recoverable, small amounts of strain, doesn’t happen to rocks
b. Plastic-permanent; rocks flow as movement occurs along small structural
defects.
2. Brittle deformation - rupture - rock moves in opposite directions on either side of a
break.
II. Strike and dip are used to describe the orientation of planar features.
A. Outcrop - site where rocks are exposed at the surface
B. Dip - the angle of inclination of the bedding surface down off the horizontal
C. Strike - the trend or direction of the strata or the bearing of any horizontal
line on the plane perpendicular to the direction of dip.
III. Features of plastic deformation - Folds
A. Folds-wavelike undulations caused by bending of rocks usually produced by horizontal compressive
stresses – occurs at great depths inside the Earth under great temperatures and pressures
B. Terminology
1. Axial plane - a plane through a rock fold that includes the axis-divides
the fold as symmetrically as possible.
2. Axis-the ridge or place of sharpest folding.
3. Limb- 1 of 2 parts of the fold-on either side of axis.
4. Plunge-angle that fold axis makes with the horizontal
C. Types of folds
1. Anticline- arching or upwarping of rock layers
2. Syncline- downwarping of rock layers
3 .Monocline- double flexure of rock layers
4. Dome -non-linear, anticlinal fold-beds dip away from central area in all
directions
5.Basin - non - linear, synclinal fold-beds dip towards central area from all
directions.
D. Description of folds
1. Symmetrical-dips of opposite limbs of fold are approximately equal
2. Overturned-asymmetrical fold with one limb tilted beyond vertical
3. Recumbent-overturned fold with a horizontal axis
4. Plunging-axis of fold penetrates into ground
IV. Features of brittle deformation - Faults and Joints
 A. Joints- breaks in rock mass with no appreciable relative movement of rocks on opposite sides of
break.
Sheet jointing causes formation of exfoliation domes and cooling results in columnar joints in
basalt.
B. Faults- breaks in rock mass where appreciable movement of rocks on opposite sides of the break has
occurred. Faults are classified on the basis of the relative movement of blocks on either side of the
fault.
1. Terminology
a. Hanging wall -block of rock immediately above fault surface
b. Footwall-block of rock immediately below fault surface
2. Dip-slip faults-movement of the two blocks is up and down the dip of the fault-primarily
vertical
a. Normal fault- footwall moves up with respect to hanging wall (associated
with tensional stress)
Graben and horst-features characterized by down-dropped and uplifted blocks of
rock, respectively, bordered by pairs of normal faults.
b. Reverse and thrust- footwall moves down with respect to hanging wall (associated
with compressional stress and usually lots of folding)
3. Strike-slip and transform faults-movement of the two blocks on either side of the break is
along the strike and dominantly horizontal (associated with shear stress)
a. Right lateral and left lateral
b. Transform fault -special kind of strike-slip fault, found along plate boundaries, which
accommodates motion between crustal plates.
The SAN ANDREAS FAULT is a right lateral strike-slip transform fault.
C. Deformation of Earth's Crust occurs abruptly or gradually
1. Abrupt movements are associated with earthquakes.
2. Gradual movements = creep = semi-continuous movement.

Deformation of rock involves:

 changes in the shape and/or volume of these substances.
 Changes in shape and volume occur when stress and strain causes rock to buckle and fracture
or crumple into folds.
 A fold can be defined as a bend in rock that is the response to compressional forces.
 Folds are most visible in rocks that contain layering.

Plastic deformation of rock to occur, a number of conditions must be met, including:

 The rock material must have the ability to deform under pressure and heat.
 The higher the temperature of the rock the more plastic it becomes.
 Pressure must not exceed the internal strength of the rock. If it does, fracturing occurs.
 Deformation must be applied slowly.

A number of different folds have been recognized and classified by geologists:

1. The simplest type of fold is called a monocline. This fold involves a slight bend in otherwise parallel
layers of rock.
Figure 1 - Monocline Fold

2. An anticline is a convex up fold in rock that resembles an arch like structure with
the rock beds (or limbs) dipping way from the center of the structure. Note how
the rock layers dip away from the center of the fold are roughly symmetrical.
Fiigure 2- Anticline Fold
3. A syncline is a fold where the rock layers are warped downward (Figure 3 and 4). Both anticlines and
synclines are the result of compressional stress.

Figure 3 Figure 4

More complex fold types can develop in situations where lateral

pressures become greater. The greater pressure results in anticlines and
synclines that are inclined and asymmetrical.
The following illustration shows two anticline folds which are
inclined. Also note how the beds on either side of the fold center are
asymmetrical. shows two anticline folds which are inclined. Also note how

Figure 5
 the beds on either side of the fold center are asymmetrical.

4. A recumbent fold develops if the center of the fold moves from being once vertical to a horizontal
position. Recumbent folds are commonly found in the core of mountain ranges
and indicate that compression and/or shear forces were stronger in one direction.
Extreme stress and pressure can sometimes cause the rocks to shear along a
plane of weakness creating a fault. We call the combination of a fault and a fold
in a rock an over thrust fault.
Faults form in rocks when the stresses overcome the internal strength of
the rock resulting in a fracture. A fault can be defined as the displacement of Figure 6
once connected blocks of rock along a fault plane. This can occur in
any direction with the blocks moving away from each other.
Faults occur from both tensional and compressional forces.
This shows the location of some of the major faults located on the
Earth. Location of some of the major faults on the Earth.
Note that many of these faults are in mountainous regions.

There are different kinds of faults. These faults are named according to the type of stress that acts on the
rock and by the nature of the movement of the rock blocks either side of the fault plane.

1. Normal faults occur when tensional forces act in

opposite directions and cause one slab of the rock to
be displaced up and the other slab down.
Normal faults

2. Reverse faults develop when compressional forces

exist. Compression causes one block to be pushed
up and over the other block.
Reverse faults

3. A graben fault is produced when tensional

stresses result in the subsidence of a block of
rock. On a large scale these features are known
as Rift Valleys. graben fault

4. A horst fault is the development of two reverse

faults causing a block of rock to be pushed up.
horst fault

5. The final major type of fault is the strike-slip or transform fault. These faults are vertical in nature
and are produced where the stresses are exerted parallel
to each other.

A well-known example of this type of fault is the San

Andreas fault in California.
Transcurrent fault zones on and off the West coast of
North America. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey).

EARTH QUAKES
 An earthquake is a sudden vibration or trembling in the Earth.
 Earthquake motion is caused by the quick release of stored potential energy into the kinetic energy of
motion.
 Most earthquakes are produced along: faults,
 tectonic plate boundary zones, or
 along the mid-oceanic ridges
At these areas, large masses of rock that are moving past each other can become locked due to
friction.
 Friction is overcome when the accumulating stress has enough force to cause a sudden slippage of the
rock masses.
 The magnitude of the shock wave released into the surrounding rocks is controlled by:
 the quantity of stress built up because of friction,
 the distance the rock moved when the slippage occurred, and
  ability of the rock to transmit the energy contained in the seismic waves.

Stratified Rock
 The stratified rocks form more than nine-tenths of the earth's surface, and if the entire series of them
were present at any one place, they would have a maximum thickness of about thirty miles, but no such
place is known.
 The regions of greatest sedimentary accumulation are the shallower parts of the oceans, while those
regions which have remained as dry land, through long ages, may not only have had no important
additions to their surfaces, but have lost immense thicknesses of rock through denudation.
 The great oceanic abysses are also areas of excessively slow sedimentation, and thus the thickness of
the stratified rocks varies much from point to point, a variation which has been increased by the
irregularities of upheaval and depression and of different rates of denudation.
 Even with this irregularity in the formation and removal of the stratified rocks, it would be exceedingly
difficult to investigate the entire series of them, if they had all retained the original horizontal positions in
which they were first laid down.
 In many places, however, the rocks have been steeply tilted and then truncated by erosion, so that their
edges form the surface of the ground, and thus great thicknesses of them may be examined without
descending below the surface.
 Stratification, or division into layers, is the most persistent and conspicuous characteristic of the
sedimentary rocks.
 In studying the sedimentary deposits of the present day we learned that by the sorting power of water
and wind, heterogeneous material is arranged into more or less homogeneous beds, separated from
one another by distinct planes of division, and the same thing is true of the sedimentary rocks
stratification of all ages. This division into more or less parallel layers is called, and the extent to which
the division is carried varies according to circumstances.
 A single member, or bed, of a stratified rock, whether thick or thin, is called a layer, though for
purposes of distinction, excessively thin layers are called lamince.
 Each layer or lamina represents an uninterrupted deposition of material, while the divisions between
them, or bedding planes, are due to longer or shorter pauses in the process, or to a change, if only in a
film, of the material deposited.
 A stratum is the collection of layers of the same mineral substance, which occur together and may
consist of one or many layers.
 The passage from one stratum to another is generally abrupt and indicates a change in the
circumstances of deposition, either in the depth of water, or in the character of the material brought to a
given spot, or both. So long as conditions remain the same, the same kind of material will accumulate
over a given area, and thus immense thicknesses of similar material may be formed.
 To keep up such equality of conditions, the depth of water must remain
constant, and hence the bottom must subside as rapidly as the sediment
accumulates.
 Usually, a section of thick rock masses shows continual change of material
at different levels. Given figure is a section of the rocks in Beaver County,
Pennsylvania, in which several different kinds of beds register the changes
in the physical geography of that area.
1. At the bottom of the section is a coal seam, the consolidated and
carbonized vegetable matter which accumulated in an ancient fresh-
water swamp.
2. Next came a subsidence of the swamp, allowing water to flow in, in
which were laid down mixed sands and gravels.
3. The accumulations eventually shoaled the water and enabled a second
peat swamp to establish itself; this is registered in the second coal bed,
the thinness of which indicates that the second swamp did not last so
long as the first.
4. Renewed subsidence again flooded the bog, as is shown by the stratum
of shale which overlies the second coal bed.
5. Next, the water was shoaled by an upheaval, and argillaceous sands were laid down, which now
form the flaggy sandstones overlying the shale.
6. The twenty-five feet of sandstone, aided by continued slow rise, silted up the water and allowed a
third peat bog to grow, the result of which is the third coal seam, while a repetition of the
subsidence once more brought in the water, in which were laid down the seventy feet of gravel at
the top of the section.
 In this fashion the succession of strata records the changes which were in progress while those strata
were forming. Whether the beds, other than the coal seams, were laid down in fresh water, or in salt, by
a lake, a flooded river, or the sea, may be determined from the fossils contained in those beds.
 In the absence of fossils it is not always possible to make the distinction.
 Similar changes in the strata may be occasioned by the steady lowering of a land surface through
denudation.
 This diminishes the velocity of the streams, which, in its turn, changes the character of the
materials which the rivers bring to the sea.
  We have no trustworthy means of judging how long a time was required for the formation of any given
stratum or series of strata, but it is clear that different kinds of beds accumulate at very different
rates.
 The coarser materials, like conglomerates and sand-stones, were piled up much more rapidly than the
shales and limestones; so that equal thicknesses of different kinds of strata imply great differences in
the time required to form them.
 Comparing like strata with like, the thickness of a group of rocks is a rough measure of the time
involved in their formation, and that very thick masses imply a very long lapse of time, but it cannot be
inferred that the number of years or centuries or millennia required.
 Geological chronology can be relative only.
 Such a relative chronology is by the order of succession of the beds.
 Obviously the lowest stratum is the oldest and the one at the top the newest.
 This may be put as a general principle, that, unless strata have lost their original position
through disturbance or dislocation, their order of superposition is their order of relative age.
 It is for this reason that in geological sections the strata are numbered and read from below
upward.
 Change in the character of the strata takes place not only vertically, but also horizontally, since no
stratum is universal, even for a single continent.
 The study of the processes of sedimentation which, showed that the character of the bottom in the
ocean or in lakes is subject to frequent changes, varying with the depth of water and other factors.
 The same is true of the ancient sea and lake bottoms, now represented by the stratified rocks of the
land.
 Strata may persist with great evenness and uniform thickness over vast areas, and in such cases the
bedding planes remain sensibly parallel.
 But sooner or later, the beds, whenever they can be traced far enough, are found to thin out to edges
and to dovetail in with beds of a different character.
 When the strata are of constant thickness for considerable distances, and the bedding planes remain
parallel, the stratification is said to be regular.
 In many cases these changes take place rapidly from point to point, and then the strata are plainly of
lenticular shape, thickest in the middle, thinning quickly to the edges.
 Here the bedding planes are distinctly not parallel, and the stratification is irregular.
 An example of rapid horizontal changes is given in the two accompanying parallel sections (Fig.7),
taken through the same beds, only twenty feet apart. In these sections the differences of thickness of
the coal seams and of the sands and clays which separate them are very striking.

Fig. 7. - Parallel sections near Colorado Springs, Col. (Hay-den).

The finer details of structure of the stratified rocks, such as cross-bedding, ripple
and rill-marks, rain-prints, tracks of animals, and the like, likewise afford valuable
testimony as to the circumstances under which the rocks were laid down.

Fig. 7

Lesson 2.5: HISTORY OF EARTH

In the very beginning of earth's history, this planet was a giant, red hot, roiling, boiling sea of molten
rock - a magma ocean. The heat had been generated by the repeated high speed collisions of much smaller
bodies of space rocks that continually clumped together as they collided to form this planet. As the collisions
tapered off the earth began to cool, forming a thin crust on its surface. As the cooling continued, water vapor
began to escape and condense in the earth's early atmosphere. Clouds formed and storms raged, raining
more and more water down on the primitive earth, cooling the surface further until it was flooded with water,
forming the seas.
It is theorized that the true age of the earth is about 4.6 billion years old, formed at about the same
time as the rest of our solar system. The oldest rocks geologists have been able to find are 3.9 billion years
old. Using radiometric dating methods to determine the age of rocks means scientists have to rely on when the
rock was initially formed (as in - when its internal minerals first cooled). In the infancy of our home planet the
entire earth was molten rock - a magma ocean.
Since we can only measure as far back in time as we had solid rock on this planet, we are limited in
how we can measure the real age of the earth. Due to the forces of plate tectonics, our planet is also a very
dynamic one; new mountains forming, old ones wearing down, volcanoes melting and reshaping new crust.
The continual changing and reshaping of the earth's surface that involves the melting down and reconstructing
of old rock has pretty much eliminated most of the original rocks that came with earth when it was newly
formed. So the age is a theoretical age.

When Did Life on Earth Begin?

 Scientists are still trying to unravel one of the greatest mysteries of earth: When
did "life" first appear and how did it happen? It is estimated that the first life forms on
earth were primitive, one-celled creatures that appeared about 3 billion years
ago. That's pretty much all there was for about the next two billion years. Then suddenly
those single celled organisms began to evolve into multicellular organisms. Then an
unprecedented profusion of life in incredibly complex forms began to fill the oceans.
Some crawled from the seas and took residence on land, perhaps to escape predators in
the ocean. A cascading chain of new and increasingly differentiated forms of life appeared all over the planet,
only to be virtually annihilated by an unexplained mass extinction. It would be the first of several mass
extinctions in Earth's history.
Scientists have been looking increasingly to space to explain these mass extinctions that have been
happening almost like clockwork since the beginning of "living" time. Perhaps we've been getting periodically
belted by more space rocks (ie. asteroids), or the collision of neutron stars happening too close for comfort?
Each time a mass extinction occurred, life found a way to come back from the brink. Life has tenaciously clung
to this small blue planet for the last three billion years. Scientists are finding new cues as to how life first began
on earth in some really interesting places - the deep ocean.

Checking the Fossil Record

Scientists have studied rocks using radiometric dating methods to determine the age of earth.
Another really cool thing they've found in rocks that tells us more about the story of earth's past are the
remains of living creatures that have been embedded in the rocks for all time. We call these fossils. It has been
the careful study of earth's fossil record that has revealed the exciting picture about the kinds of creatures that
once roamed this planet. Fossilized skeletons of enormous creatures with huge claws and teeth, ancient
ancestors of modern day species (such as sharks) that have remained virtually unchanged for millions of
years, and prehistoric jungles lush with plant life, all point to a profusion of life and a variety of species that
continues to populate the earth, even in the face of periodic mass extinctions.
By studying the fossil record scientists have determined that the earth has experienced very different
climates in the past. In fact, general climactic conditions, as well as existing species, are used to define distinct
geologic time periods in earth's history. For example, periodic warming of the earth - during the Jurassic and
Cretaceous periods - created a profusion of plant and animal life that left behind generous organic materials
from their decay. These layers of organic material built up over millions of years undisturbed. They were
eventually covered by younger, overlying sediment and compressed, giving us fossil fuels such as coal,
petroleum and natural gas.
Alternately, the earth's climate has also experienced periods of extremely cold weather for such
prolonged periods that much of the surface was covered in thick sheets of ice. These periods of geologic time
are called ice ages. Entire species of warmer-climate species died out during these time periods, giving rise to
entirely new species of living things which could tolerate and survive in the extremely cold climate. Believe it or
not, humans were around during the last ice age - the Holocene (about 11,500 years ago) - and we managed
to survive. Creatures like the Woolly Mammoth - a distant relative of modern-day elephants - did not.
Read about a really exciting recent find of a perfectly-preserved, frozen Woolly Mammoth! This was a
particularly exciting find because it wasn't a fossil that scientists found, but actual tissue, which still has its DNA
record intact.
Also, read more about the Ice Man - another frozen tissue sample of a human being who was frozen
into the high mountains of France. He was just recently discovered as thousands of years of ice pack have
finally melted from around his body.
Rocks in the mantle and the core are still hot from the formation of the Earth about 4.6 billion years
ago. When the Earth formed, material collided at high speeds. These collisions generated heat (try clapping
your hands together - they get hot) that heat became trapped in the Earth. There is also heat within the earth
produced by radioactive decay of naturally-occurring radioactive elements. It is the same process that allows a
nuclear reactor to generate heat, but in the earth, the radioactive material is much less concentrated. However,
because the earth is so much bigger than a nuclear power plant it can produce a lot of heat. Rocks are good
insulators so the heat has been slow to dissipate.
This heat is enough to partially melt some rocks in the upper mantle, about 50-100 km below the
surface. It partially melt because the rocks don't completely melt. Most rocks are made up of more than one
mineral, and these different minerals have different melting temperatures. This means that when the rock starts
to melt, some of the minerals get melted to a much greater degree than others. The main reason this is
important is that the liquid (magma) that is generated is not just the molten equivalent of the starting rock, but
something different.
The most common type of magma produced is basalt (the stuff that is erupted at mid-ocean ridges to
make up the ocean floors, as well as the stuff that is erupted in Hawai'i). Soon after they're formed, little drops
of basaltic magma start to work their way upward (their density is slightly less than that of the solid rock), and
pretty soon they join with other drops and eventually there is a good flow of basaltic magma towards the
surface. If it makes it to the surface it will erupt as basaltic lava.