Geology

Geology (from the Ancient Greek γῆ, gē ("earth") and -λoγία, -logia, ("study of", "discourse")[1][2])

is an Earth science concerned with the solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the
processes by which they change over time. Geology can also include the study of the solid
features of any terrestrial planet or natural satellite such as Mars or the Moon. Modern geology
significantly overlaps all other Earth sciences, including hydrology and the atmospheric sciences,
and so is treated as one major aspect of integrated Earth system science and planetary science.
Geology describes the structure of the Earth on and beneath its surface, and the processes that
have shaped that structure. It also provides tools to determine the relative and absolute ages of
rocks found in a given location, and also to describe the histories of those rocks.[3] By combining
these tools, geologists are able to chronicle the geological history of the Earth as a whole, and
also to demonstrate the age of the Earth. Geology provides the primary evidence for plate
tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and the Earth's past climates.
Geologists use a wide variety of methods to understand the Earth's structure and evolution,
including field work, rock description, geophysical techniques, chemical analysis, physical
experiments, and numerical modelling. In practical terms, geology is important
for mineral and hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation, evaluating water resources,
understanding of natural hazards, the remediation of environmental problems, and providing
insights into past climate change. Geology is a major academic discipline, and it plays an
important role in geotechnical engineering.

Geologic materials[edit]
The majority of geological data comes from research on solid Earth materials. These typically fall
into one of two categories: rock and unlithified material.

Rock[edit]
The majority of research in geology is associated with the study of rock, as rock provides the
primary record of the majority of the geologic history of the Earth. There are three major types of
rock: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. The rock cycleillustrates the relationships among
them (see diagram).
When a rock solidifies or crystallizesfrom melt (magma or lava), it is an igneous rock. This rock
can be weathered and eroded, then redeposited and lithified into a sedimentary rock. It can then
be turned into a metamorphic rockby heat and pressure that change its mineral content, resulting
in a characteristic fabric. All three types may melt again, and when this happens, new magma is
formed, from which an igneous rock may once more solidify.
Tests[edit]
To study all three types of rock, geologists evaluate the minerals of which they are composed.
Each mineral has distinct physical properties, and there are many tests to determine each of
them. The specimens can be tested for:[4]

 Luster: Quality of light reflected from the surface of a mineral. Examples are metallic,
pearly, waxy, dull.
 Color: Minerals are grouped by their color. Mostly diagnostic but impurities can
change a mineral's color.
 Streak: Performed by scratching the sample on a porcelain plate. The color of the
streak can help name the mineral.
 Hardness: The resistance of a mineral to scratching.
  Breakage pattern: A mineral can either show fracture or cleavage, the former being
breakage of uneven surfaces, and the latter a breakage along closely spaced parallel
planes.
 Specific gravity: the weight of a specific volume of a mineral.
 Effervescence: Involves dripping hydrochloric acid on the mineral to test for fizzing.
 Magnetism: Involves using a magnet to test for magnetism.
 Taste: Minerals can have a distinctive taste, such as halite (which tastes like table
salt).
 Smell: Minerals can have a distinctive odor. For example, sulfur smells like rotten
eggs.
Unlithified material[edit]
Geologists also study unlithified materials (referred to as drift), which typically come from more
recent deposits. These materials are superficial deposits that lie above the bedrock.[5] This study
is often known as Quaternary geology, after the Quaternary period of geologic history.
Magma[edit]
However, unlithified material does not only include sediments. Magma is the original unlithified
source of all igneous rocks. The active flow of molten rock is closely studied in volcanology,
and igneous petrology aims to determine the history of igneous rocks from their final
crystallization to their original molten source.

Whole-Earth structure[edit]
Plate tectonics[edit]
Main article: Plate tectonics
In the 1960s, it was discovered that the Earth's lithosphere, which includes the crust and rigid
uppermost portion of the upper mantle, is separated into tectonic plates that move across
the plastically deforming, solid, upper mantle, which is called the asthenosphere. This theory is
supported by several types of observations, including seafloor spreading[6][7]and the global
distribution of mountain terrain and seismicity.
There is an intimate coupling between the movement of the plates on the surface and
the convection of the mantle(that is, the heat transfer caused by bulk movement of molecules
within fluids). Thus, oceanic plates and the adjoining mantle convection currents always move in
the same direction – because the oceanic lithosphere is actually the rigid upper
thermal boundary layer of the convecting mantle. This coupling between rigid plates moving on
the surface of the Earth and the convecting mantle is called plate tectonics.
The development of plate tectonics has provided a physical basis for many observations of the
solid Earth. Long linear regions of geologic features are explained as plate boundaries.[8]
For example:

 Mid-ocean ridges, high regions on the seafloor where hydrothermal ventsand

volcanoes exist, are seen as divergent boundaries, where two plates move apart.
 Arcs of volcanoes and earthquakes are theorized as convergent boundaries, where
one plate subducts, or moves, under another.
Transform boundaries, such as the San Andreas Fault system, resulted in widespread powerful
earthquakes. Plate tectonics also has provided a mechanism for Alfred Wegener's theory
of continental drift,[9] in which the continents move across the surface of the Earth over geologic
time. They also provided a driving force for crustal deformation, and a new setting for the
observations of structural geology. The power of the theory of plate tectonics lies in its ability to
combine all of these observations into a single theory of how the lithosphere moves over the
convecting mantle.