EARTH SCIENCE REVIEWER

STEM 11 - Sirius

METAMORPHISM
● is a process that changes pre existing rocks into
new forms because of increases in temperature,
pressure, and chemically active fluids.
● Meta-change, Morph-form, means to change
form.
METAMORPHIC ROCK
● Metamorphic rock never melts
● Are rocks that have been subjected to either
enough heat or pressure to cause the mineral in
that rock to undergo solid taste chemical
changes.
CHANGES OCCURS DURING METAMORPHISM
● Changes in the mineral
● Folding and bonding of rocks
● Recrystallization causes changes in mineral size
and shape.
● Chemical reactions occur between the minerals
to form a new set of minerals.
FLUID PHASE
- Any existing open space between mineral
grains in a rock can potentially contain a fluid.
- It is important because chemical reactions
involve changing a solid mineral into a new solid
mineral.
TYPES OF METAMORPHISM
● Contact Metamorphism
- It is usually referred to as high
temperature , low temperature
metamorphism.
- Occurs with the igneous intrusions and
results from high temperatures
associated with the igneous intrusion.

AGENTS AND FACTORS THAT CONTROL ● Regional Metamorphism

METAMORPHISM - Occurs over large areas that were
subjected to high degree of deformation.
● HEAT - Usually result in forming metamorphic
- Heat is the most important agent of rocks that are strongly foliated.
metamorphism. - Occurs during mountain building.
- The geothermal gradient increases in
temperature with depth at about 30°C per
kilometer.
- The first mineral to change are clays.

● PRESSURE
- Increased pressure may cause minerals to
melt or may cause atoms to move into
configurations that represent tighter packing.
● DYNAMIC METAMORPHISM
TYPES OF PRESSURE - Occurs due to mechanical deformation,
● Confining pressure (lithostatic) when two bodies of rock slide past one
- Equal pressure in all directions another along a fault zone.
● Differential stress - The rock that is produced is called
- Not equal from all directions mylonite.

● Shear stress
- Smeared cut in the direction of
applied stress.
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● BURIAL METAMORPHISM
- The sedimentary rocks are buried to
depths of several hundred meters,
temperatures greater than 3000C may
develop in the absence of differential
stress.
- The main minerals produced are the
Zeolites.
● SHOCK METAMORPHISM
- When a large meteorite collides with
the Earth, the kinetic energy is
converted to heat and a high pressure
shock wave that propagates into the
rock at the impact site.
- The shock wave produces high enough
pressure to cause quartz to change
- its crystal structure to a more dense
polymorph like coesite or stishovite.
● FAULT ZONE METAMORPHISM
- The surface rocks are broken into
fragmental fault breccias.
- Depth minor metamorphism, but
only right along fault.
● HYDROTHERMAL METAMORPHISM
- Near oceanic ridges where the oceanic
crust is broken up by
extensional faults, sea water can
descend along the cracks.
- The hydrothermal fluids alter the
basaltic oceanic crust by producing
hydrous minerals like chlorite and talc.
● SUBDUCTION RELATED
METAMORPHISM
- The oceanic crust is pushed downward
resulting in the basaltic crust and ocean
floor sediment being subjected to
relatively high pressure.
- Under the conditions of low
temperature and high pressure,
metamorphism produces an unusual
blue mineral, glaucophane.
TYPES OF METAMORPHIC ROCK
● Foliated
- These have a planar foliation caused by the
preferred orientation (alignment) of minerals and
formed under differential stress.
- Ex. Phyllite and Slate.
● Non-foliated
- These have no evident planar fabric or
foliation, crystallized under conditions where
there was no differential stress, and are
comprised of equant minerals only.
- Ex. Marble and Quartzite
GRADE OF METAMORPHISM
● Low-grade metamorphism
- It takes place at temperatures between about
200 to 5200C, and relatively low pressure.Low
grade metamorphic rocks are characterized by
an abundance of hydrous minerals.
- Example: Clay Minerals
● High-grade metamorphism
- It takes place at temperatures greater than
3200C and relatively high pressure. As the
grade of metamorphism increases, hydrous
minerals become less hydrous.
- Example: Muscovite
● Prograde Metamorphism
- It occurs when temperature and pressure
progressively increase.
● Retrograde Metamorphism
- It occurs when temp and pressure
decreases.
HOW ROCKS BEHAVE UNDER DIFFERENT TYPES
OF STRESS
● Strain
- When rocks deform they are said to strain.
- It change its size, shape, or volume of a
material.
● Stress
- The forces acting on rock are called stress.
Stress is the force applied on a rock per
unit area.
TYPES OF STRESS
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● Tensional Stress STRIKE AND DEEP

- Act in opposite directions, puling rock apart or ● Strike
stretching it. - The compass direction of any horizontal line
on the plane.
● Compressional Stress
- Act toward each other, pushing or squeezing ● Dip
rock together. - Is the angle between a horizontal plane and the
inclined plane, measured perpendicular to the
● Shear Stress direction of strike.
- Act toward or away from each other, but they
do so along different lines of action, causing
rock to twist or tear.

STAGES OF DEFORMATION
● Elastic Deformation
- Wherein the strain is reversible.

● Ductile Deformation
- Wherein the strain is irreversible.
ROCK BEHAVIORS
● Fracture ● Brittle
- Irreversible strain wherein the ● Ductile
material breaks.
FRACTURE OF BRITTLE ROCKS
FACTORS AFFECTING DEFORMATION ● Joint
● Temperature - It is fracture along
- At high temperature molecules and their bonds which no movement has
can stretch and move, thus materials will behave taken place, usually caused
in a more ductile manner. At low temperature, by tensional forces.
materials are brittle. ● Fault
- It is a fracture or break in the rock along which
● Confining Pressure movement has taken place.
- At high confining pressure materials are less
likely to fracture. At low confining ● Types OF Faults
stress, material will be brittle ➔ Dip-Slip Fault
and tend to fracture sooner. ➔ Strike-Slip Fault
➔ Oblique-Slip Fault
● Strain Rate
- At high strain rates material tends to fracture. DEFORMATION OF DUCTILE ROCKS
At low strain rates more time is available for ● When rocks deform in a ductile manner, instead
individual atoms to move and therefore ductile of fracturing to form faults or joints, they may
behavior is favored. bend or fold,and the resulting structures
are called folds.
● Composition
- Some minerals are very brittle. ● Folds
This is due to the chemical bond - Result from compressional stresses or shear
types that hold them together. stresses acting over considerable time.
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KINDS OF FOLDS
● Monoclines
- The simplest types of folds. Monoclines
occur when horizontal strata are bent upward so
that the two limbs of the fold are still horizontal.
● Anticlines
-Folded upward, and the two limbs of the fold
dip away from the hinge of the fold.
● Synclines
- Folded downward, and the two limbs of the fold
dip inward toward the hinge of the fold.
WEATHERING
● The chemical and/or physical breakdown of a
rock material--weathering involves specific
processes acting on rock materials at or near
the surface of the Earth.
TYPES OF WEATHERING
● Physical Weathering
- Takes place when rock is split or
broken into smaller pieces of the same
material without changing its
composition.
- Example: Breaking of a rock cliff into
boulders and pebbles.
● Chemical (decomposition)
- takes place when the rock's minerals
are changed into different substances.
- Water and water vapor are important
agents of chemical weathering.
- Example: Formation of clay minerals
from feldspar.
Common weathering processes:
● Frost action
● Wetting and drying
● Action of plants and animals
● Loss of overlying rock and soil
TYPES OF MECHANICAL WEATHERING
● Frost action or lce Wedging
- Water held in the cracks of rocks wedges the
rock apart when it freezes.
- Often occurs in places where temperatures
vary from below the freezing point of water to
above the freezing point.
- Occurs mostly in porous rocks with cracks in
them.
➔ Causes:
- Vast fields of large, sharp-cornered
boulders.
- Potholes on streets and highways
● Action of plants and animals:
- Lichens and mosses grow on rocks
They wedge their tiny roots into spores and
crevices.
- When the roots grow, the rock splits.
- Larger trees and shrubs may grow in the
cracks of boulders.
● Loss of Overlying Rock and Soil
- Sheet jointing on a granite outcrop produces
cracks in the rock.
TYPES OF CHEMICAL WEATHERING
● Results mainly from the action of rainwater,
oxygen, carbon dioxide, and acids of plant
decay.
AGENTS OF CHEMICAL WEATHERING
● The chemical reaction of water with other
substances is called hydrolysis.
● The chemical reaction of oxygen with other
substances is called oxidation.
● Common materials undergoing hydrolysis:
- Feldspar
- Hornblende
- Augite
● Oxidation of these minerals results in kinds of
rust, or iron oxides.
● Carbon dioxide dissolves easily in water.
- It forms a weak acid called carbonic acid.
- The original mineral is changed into a clay
mineral.
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● Has the greatest effect on calcite than any
other minerals.
● Hollows out great caverns in limestone bedrock.
● Acids are formed from the decay of plants and
animals.
● These acids are dissolved by rainwater and
carried through the ground to the bedrock.
● Carbon dioxide and sulfur compounds released
by industries unite with water in the atmosphere
to form acid rain.
● Occurs most quickly at the corners and
edges of rock outcrops and boulders.
● This process rounds the rock and is called
spheroidal weathering.
SEA FLOOR SPREADING
● It is the process by which molten material adds
new oceanic crust to the ocean floor.
MID OCEAN RIDGE
● Undersea mountain chain where a new ocean
floor is produced.
SONAR
● Device that determines the distance of an
object under water by recording echoes
of sound waves.
Evidence for Sea-Floor Spreading
● In the 1960s, Harry Hess examined maps of the
mid ocean ridge. He proposed that the ocean
floors move like conveyor belts, carrying the
continents with them.
What evidence did scientists find for sea-floor
spreading in the 1960s?
● Molten material
● Magnetic stripes
● Drilling samples
Evidence From Molten Material
● Alvin’s crew found strange rocks shaped
like pillows or like toothpaste squeezed
from a tube.
● Such rocks can form only when molten
material hardens quickly after erupting
under water.
Evidence From Magnetic Stripes
● The scientists discovered that the rock that
makes up the ocean floor lies in a pattern of
magnetized “stripes”
● The rock in the ocean is made of iron, which
began as molten material.
Evidence From Drilling Samples
● The younger rocks were always in the center of
the ridges.
DEEP-OCEAN TRENCHES
● A deep valley along the ocean floor through
which oceanic crust slowly sinks towards
the mantle.
SUBDUCTION
● It is the process by which oceanic crust sinks
through a deep-ocean trench and back into the
mantle.
What happens to the ocean floor at deep ocean
trenches?
➔ The two plates collide causing the denser of the
two plates to dive back to the mantle. This
process is known as subduction.
What is the process of sea-floor spreading?
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➔ The molten material rises from the mantle and

erupts, then spreads out, pushing older rock to
both sides of the ridge.
➔ The more dense oceanic crust subducts (sinks)
back into the mantle at a deep-ocean trench

Subduction in the Pacific Ocean

● Occurring at a greater rate than sea-floor is
expanding.
● This is caused by the large amount of trenches.

Subduction in the Atlantic

● Expanding at a greater rate than subducting.
● This is because of the low number of trenches in
the Atlantic.

STRUCTURE AND EVOLUTION OF OCEAN BASINS

● Continental shelf- Extension of the continent
underwater.
● Continental slope- Transition zone of
continental shelf and deep ocean floor.
● Continental rise- It is where the ocean begins.
All basaltic and oceanic rocks are found here. It
is the place where the sediments from land are
washed.
● Abyssal plain- The flattest part of the ocean.
50% of the earth’s surface is covered by this
plain.
● Island- It is part of the ocean basin that extends
up from the ocean floor.
● Seamount- It is an undersea mountain. The
erosion caused by waves destroyed the top of a
seamount which caused it to be flattened.
● Trench- The deepest part of the ocean.
● Mid-oceanic ridge- It is where upwelling of
magma happens which causes the seafloor to
spread.

EROSION
EVOLUTION OF THE OCEAN BASIN
Wilson Cycle ● It is defined as removal of rocks and soil by
wind, water, ice and gravity.
● Wind, water, ice and gravity are also known as
the agents of erosion.

Wind Erosion
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● Carrying material (especially sand and clay)

from one place to another
● The intensity of the wind erosion: Speed, Slope,
Surface.

Water Erosion
● When the rain flows over land, erosion
occurs.Runoff picks up pieces of rock and
"runs" downhill cutting tiny grooves (called rills)
into the land.

Ice Erosion
● Picking up and carrying debris that moves
across the land along with the ice.
● Glaciers can pick up and carry sediment that
ranges in size from sand grains to boulders
bigger than houses.

Gravity Erosion
● A transfer of rock and soil downslope by direct
action of gravity without a flowing medium.
● Examples of mass movements: Creep, Rock fall
Slump,Landslides, Avalanches.

Karst
● Landscapes where caves are common. The land
has different sized blocks of limestone. These
fractures are where the water seeps in,
dissolves the stone, and forms caves.