Chapter 4

Geologic Processes
within the Earth’s
Surface

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final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Introduction

• Topography
– Distribution of landscape (mountains, plains,
hills, valleys, plateaus)
• Landforms
– Surface terrain features
• Geomorphology
– Understanding landforms and landscapes
– Explanations for the shape, origin, spatial
distribution, and development of terrain
features
– Igneous and tectonic processes
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final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Landforms and geomorphology
• Relief
– Low relief (e.g. western Utah)
– High relief (e.g. Great Basin, Rockies, Himalayas)

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final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Landforms and geomorphology

• Geomorphic processes
– Endogenic (internal) processes
• Originate within earth and result in an increase in
surface relief
– Exogenic (external) processes
• Originate at Earth’s surface, tend to decrease
relief
• Weathering
• Erosion
• Transportation
• Deposition
• Geomorphic agent (e.g. flowing water or ice)
DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Landforms and geomorphology
• High relief features
– Endogenic processes exceed rates of
exogenic processes
– Great Tetons, Wyoming

DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Landforms and geomorphology

• Steady and
continuous
processes
• Episodic
processes
– Punctuated
equilibrium
What Earth processes can you
think of , that operate this way?

DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Landforms and geomorphology

• Punctuated
equilibrium
– Earthquakes
– Volcanoes
– Landslide

DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Tectonic forces, rock structure, and
landforms
• Rock structure
– Nature
– Orientation
– Inclination
• Strike
• Dip
– Arrangement of Does a strike to the southwest
affected rock differ from a strike to the
northwest?
layers

DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Tectonic forces, rock structure, and
landforms
• Three
principal
tectonic
forces:
– Compressiona
l
– Tensional
– Shearing

DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Tectonic forces, rock structure, and
landforms
• Compressional
tectonic forces
– Folding
• Ductible
(bendable)
How can solid rock be folded
– Appalachians
without breaking?
– Rocky mountains
• Anticlines
• Synclines
• Fold limbs
• Recumbent folds
DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Tectonic forces, rock structure, and
landforms

• Compressional
tectonic forces
– Faulting
• Too rigid to bend
when stressed How does
motion along a
• Slippage of rocks
normal fault
along a fracture differ from that
surface along a reverse
• Fault fault?
• Reverse Fault
• Thrust fault
• Overthrust

DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Tectonic forces, rock structure, and
landforms
• Tensional
tectonic forces
– Fault blocks
– Normal faults

DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Tectonic forces, rock structure, and
landforms
• Tensional
tectonic forces
– Graben
• Great Basin
– Horst
• Sinai peninsula What kind of tectonic force
• Great Basin causes these kinds of fault
blocks?

DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Tectonic forces, rock structure, and
landforms

• Tensional tectonic
forces
– Down-tilted side of a
tilted fault blocks
• Death Valley, CA
Is erosion an endogenic or an
– Rift valleys exogenic process?
• Crust downdropped
between normal faults
• Rift Valley of East Africa
• Rio Grande rift of New
Mexico and Colorado

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final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Tectonic forces, rock structure, and
landforms
• Tensional
tectonic forces
– Escarpment
(scarp) = steep
cliff On which side of the fault does
the horst lie?
– Fault scarp
• Cliff that results
from movement
along a fault
• Piedmont fault
scarps
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final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Tectonic forces, rock structure, and
landforms

As defined here, a ‘simple’ fault scarp may result from (a) normal, (b) reverse,
(c) strike-slip fault displacement or any combination of dip- or strike-slip fault
movement.

DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Tectonic forces, rock structure, and
landforms
• Tensional tectonic forces
– Great tilted fault block
• Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains
• West side of Sierra dips down gradually
• Sierra Nevada impacts on precipitation,
vegetation, animal life, glaciation, and
weathering rates
• Grand Tetons

DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Tectonic forces, rock structure, and
landforms
• Tensional
tectonic forces
– Great tilted
fault block
• Rio Grande
river in Big
Bend National
Park, TX
In Google Earth fly to: 29.165N, 103.612
W (Santa Elena Canyon, Alpine, TX)

DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Tectonic forces, rock structure, and
landforms

• Shearing Tectonic Forces

– Dip-slip faults
• Vertical displacement
• Normal and reverse faults
• Alaskan earthquake of 1964 (10
meters)
– Strike-slip faults
• Horizontal displacement
Is the San Andreas a left or
• Lateral fault right lateral fault?
• San Andreas Fault (west side
moving north)
• 2010 earthquake in Haiti
• 1906 San Francisco
DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Tectonic forces, rock structure, and
landforms
• Relationship between rock structure and topography
• Landforms reflect the balance between exogenic and
endogenic factors
– Geomorphic terms = mountains, valley, basin
– Structural terms = anticline, horst, fault

Why is it that not all anticlines form mountains?

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final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Earthquakes
• Earthquakes
– Evidence of present-day
tectonic activity
– Ground motions of Earth
caused when accumulating
tectonic stress is suddenly
relieved
– Seismic waves
– Focus
– Epicenter
– Tsunamis Why is the epicenter in this example
– Aftershocks not located where the fault crosses
Earth’s surface?

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final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Earthquakes

• Measuring earthquake size

– Size of the event
– Degree of its impact on humans
– Earthquake magnitude
• Richter
• Seismograph
– Moment magnitude
– Earthquake intensity
• Damage caused by an earthquake and the degree of its
impact
– Modified Mercalli scale

DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Earthquakes

DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Earthquakes

• Earthquake hazards
– Earthquake and tsunami
in Japan (2011) 28,000
died
– 2010 Haiti earthquake
(7.1) killed ~ 225,000
• Brick, unreinforced
masonry and other
inflexible materials do not
withstand shaking well
– 2008 Sichuan, China
earthquake caused
68,000 fatalities
What factors might have
contributed to the large
death toll in this
DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Earthquakes
What is the earthquake hazard potential where you live?

DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Igneous processes and landforms
• Igneous processes
– Volcanism
• Extrusion of rock
matter from Earth’s
subsurface and the
creation of mountains
of hills
– Plutonism
• Igneous processes that
occur below Earth’s
surface, including the
cooling of magma
• May be exposed
eventually at Earth’s
surface

DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Igneous processes and landforms
• Volcanic eruptions
– Natural processes
– Large eruptions can
be devastating
– Vary greatly in size
and character
– Resulting landform
varies
– Two main types of
Eruptions:
• Explosive – violently
blast molten and solid
rock into the air
• Effusive – molten lava
pours less violently as
flowing streams of lava
DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Igneous processes and landforms
• Volcanic eruptions
– Mineral composition
• Silica rich felsic with
basalt (higher viscosity)
have streams of flowing
lava (effusive)
• Mafic magmas (lower
viscosity)
• Silican rich magmas with
rhyolite builds up pressure
creating:
– Violent eruptions
– Pyroclastic materials
(fire fragments called
tephra)
DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Igneous processes and landforms
• Volcanic eruptions
– Pyroclastic materials
range in size from
volcanic ash:
• Sand-sized (< 2mm)
• Cinders (2-4 mm)
• Lapilli (4-64 mm)
• Blocks (> 64 mm)
– Some eruptions can
eject volcanic aerosol
clouds that circle the
globe (1991 Mt. Why do you think conditions were like at
Pinatubo) the time of this eruption for settlements
located under the ash cloud?

DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Igneous processes and landforms
• Volcanic landforms
– Depends primarily on explosiveness
– 6 major kinds (least explosive to most
explosive)
• Lava flows
• Shield Volcanoes
• Cinder Cones
• Composite Cones
• Plug Domes
• Calderas

DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Igneous processes and landforms
• Plutonism and
intrusions
– Igneous
intrusions
(plutons)
– Classified by size,
shape, and
relationships to
surrounding rocks
– Stock
– Batholith
– Laccolith
DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Igneous processes and landforms
• Laccoliths
– Henry and La Sal
mountains in
southern Utah

How do laccoliths
deform the rocks they
are intruded in?

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final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Igneous processes and landforms
• Sill
– Palisades along
Hudson River, NY

Why does the sill at

the Palisades form a
cliff?

DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Igneous processes and landforms
• Dike
– New Mexico

How does a dike differ

from a sill?

• Volcanic neck
– Shiprock, New
Mexico

DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.
Distribution of endogenic processes
• Geographic distribution of earthquakes and
volcanic activity is similar, and plate tectonic
determines where much of that occurs

DISCLAIMER: This document is a draft and the information contained herein is subject to change as this document is currently undergoing review. The
final version of this teacher’s resource manual will be published as soon as the review has been completed.