11 EARTH SCIENCE QUARTER 2 REVIEWER- CIETHENA
Weathering - is the breaking down of rocks either mechanically or
chemically.
Factors that cause weathering of rocks are:
1. climate
2. surface area and topographic relief
3. rock composition
Two types of Weathering:
1. Physical (or mechanical) Weathering - a process wherein rocks are
broken down into smaller pieces without changing their chemical
composition due to several factors like fluctuating temperatures and
pressure, and biological activity
Frost wedging is when water gets inside the joints, alternate freezing and
thawing episodes pry the rock apart.
salt crystal growth; this is when force exerted by salt crystal that formed
as water evaporates from pore spaces or cracks in rocks can cause the
rock to fall apart.
Abrasion is the wearing away of rocks by constant collision of loose
particles. This happens when rocks are broken down into smaller
fragments and are carried away with wind and water.
Biological activity is when plants and animals act as agents of mechanical
weathering.
2.Chemical Weathering - is a process wherein rock materials are changed
into other substances that have different physical and chemical
compositions.
Dissolution is the process whereby a mineral dissolves in a solvent as a
result of the freeing up of its ions.
Oxidation is the reaction between minerals and oxygen dissolved in water
often giving iron-rich rocks a rusty-colored weathered surface.
Hydrolysis is the chemical breakdown of a substance when combined
with water
Sources of Earth’s Internal Heat
Convection is one of the reasons of the heat in the earth’s interior. The
process tells us that the heat in the earth’s internal is redistributed. The
less dense material rises and more dense material sinks. Convection
occurs at the upper mantle where hot rock rises and slightly cooler rock
sinks.
The heat driving mantle convection has three main sources namely:
1. Primordial Heat
-The general term for the heat imparted to a planetary body by the
processes of its formation and differentiation. It has three major
components:
A. Accretional heat: This is the heat generated by the conversion of the
kinetic energy of impacting bodies to thermal energy. It is concentrated at
the surface.
B. Gravitational release: The gravitational potential of dense materials is
converted to heat during differentiation.
C. Frictional Heating caused by denser core material sinking to the center
of the planet. The descent of dense iron-rich material from the core to
the center of the Earth creates heat.
2. Radiogenic Heat the heat given off when radioactive elements in the
earth’s interior decay.
3. Tidal Friction one last ongoing source of planetary heat comes from
tidal forces. We have discussed the nature of tides already, but not their
effect on objects that experience them.
VOLCANISM ABOVE AND UNDERGROUND
- The rock materials deep within the earth’s crust is in molten state, and
under great pressurefrom the weight above it. Throughout the
earthquake belts there occur openingsinasurfacelayers through which
this melted rock is forced to the surface,forming a volcano.
- The movement of hot, liquid rock below and above the crust is called
volcanism.
- Quiet eruptions form shield volcanoes; explosive eruptions form cinder
cone volcanoes. Periods of quiet and explosive eruptions form composite
volcanoes.
- Intrusions are underground flows of magma that cool and harden into
rockwithouteverhaving reached the surface.
- The major types of intrusions are dikes, sills, laccoliths, batholiths,
andstock.
- Heated magma rises up from magma chamber through cracks in solid
rocks and it forces the cracks to widen
Vent is the central opening of a volcano.
Crater is cup-like depression that surrounds the vent. A top some
volcanoes is a large kind of crater called a caldera.
Volcanic Eruptions
There are two basic kinds of eruptions: quiet and explosive.
-Quiet eruption is when liquid lava flows out of a volcano’s vent. Thin,
watery basaltic lava tends to flow quietly out of the vent.
-Explosive eruption is when lava is violently blown out of the volcano.
Thick, pasty granitic lava containing much dissolved gas tends to erupt
violently.
Volcanic Structures
-Two factors which determine the shape a volcano: the type of eruption
and the type of material erupted.
-A small, steep-sided, cone-shaped volcano made of volcanic cinders and
other rock particles is called a cinder cone.
- A shield volcano is a broad, dome-shaped volcano made by layers of
solidified lava flows.Itis usually formed by quiet eruption.
- Composite volcano is a very large symmetrical cone of alternating layers
of solidifiedlavaand rock particles.
- In some cases, magma is released as lava through a long open cracks.
Basaltic lava may pour out of such cracks in huge quantities. These great
lava flows pile upontopofoneanother and eventually form a flat Basalt
plateau.
Major Types of Intrusions
-Sills form when magma intrudes between the rock layers, forming a
horizontal or gently-dipping sheet of igneous rock.
- Dikes form as magma pushes up towards the surface through cracks in
the rock. Dikes are vertical or steeply-dipping sheets of igneous rock.
-Batholiths are large, deep-seated intrusions (sometimes called Plutons)
that form as thick,viscous magma which slowly make its way toward the
surface, but seldom gets there.
-Laccolith is a sheet-like intrusion that has been injected within or
between layers of sedimentary rock. The pressure of the magma is high
enough that the overlying strata are forced upward and folded, giving the
laccolith a dome or mushroom-like form with a generally planar base.
"Metamorphism" comes from the Greek: meta = after, morph = form, so
metamorphism means the after form.
Different Types of Metamorphism:
1. Regional Metamorphism - occurs when rocks over a large region are
exposed to great heat and pressure this is due to deep burial or to
movements of rocks in the earth’s crust.
2. Contact Metamorphism – occurs when rocks are heated as they come
into contact with magma or lava.
3. Dynamic metamorphism - takes place in the high-pressure conditions
along faults.
4. Hydrothermal metamorphism - ensues from contact with fluids heated
by igneous rock
How metamorphism affects the components and texture of rocks?
 When pressure and temperature change, chemical reactions occur to
cause the minerals in the rock to change to an assemblage that is stable
at the new pressure and temperature conditions.
5 Factors that Control Metamorphism
1. The mineral composition of the parent rock.
2. The temperature at which metamorphism takes place.
3. The amount and type of pressure during metamorphism.
4. The types of fluids (mostly water) that are present during
metamorphism.
5. The amount of time available for metamorphism.
Processes facilitated by hot water are called hydrothermal processes
(hydro refers to water, and thermal refers to heat).
Stress is the force applied to an object. In geology, stress is the force per
unit area that is placed on a rock.
Two types of stress:
1. Lithostatic stress: Rock beneath the Earth's surface experiences equal
pressure exerted on it from all directions because of the weight of the
overlying rock.
2. Differential (deviatoric) stress: In many cases, rock may experience an
additional, unequal stress due to tectonic forces.
Three basic kinds of differential stress
 Compressional stress - stress that squeezes rocks together.
Compression causes rocks to fold or fracture (break). Compression is the
most common stress at convergent plate boundaries.
 Tensional stress - stress that pulls rocks apart. Rocks under tension
lengthen or break apart. Tension is the major type of stress at divergent
plate boundaries.
Shear stress - stress that happens when forces are parallel but moving in
opposite directions.
Rock’s responses to increasing stress
- Elastic deformation: the rock returns to its original shape when the
stress is removed.
-Plastic deformation: the rock does not return to its original shape when
the stress is removed.
-Fracture: the rock breaks.
SEAFLOOR SPREADING
• Proposed in 1960 by: Harry Hess, a petrologist at Princeton University
Robert Dietz, oceanographer at the US Coast and Geodetic Survey
• Seafloor spreading is a geologic process where tectonic plates split up,
move away from each other and formed new ocean crust. It is the
continuous process resulted to the widening of the seafloor.
• Mid-ocean ridge is an area in the middle ocean where new ocean floor
is created when lava erupts through the cracks in the earth’s surface.
• Sea floor spreading is also a result of mantle convection.
• Mantle convection is a gradual, churning motion of the earth’s mantle.
• Convection currents is the force responsible on the churning motion
and carry the heat to the lithosphere.
• Ocean trench is a deep underwater valley caused by subduction
Continents and Oceans
• There is one world ocean. The ocean is composed of salt water; it
covers 70 percent of the earth’s surface and contains 97 percent of the
earth's water. The ocean is the most prominent feature on our planet.
Structures of Ocean basins
• Ocean basins are the regions that are below sea level. When plates
spread apart, they create gaps where magma from the earth's mantle can
rise up and cool to form structures, such as oceanic ridges, which are
continuous mountain chains located under the surface of the sea
Evolution of Ocean Basins
• Ocean basins form initially by the stretching and splitting (rifting) of
continental crust and by the rise of mantle material and magma into the
crack to form new oceanic lithosphere.
Theory of Plate Tectonics
o The Earth’s outermost rigid layer (lithosphere) is broken into discrete
plates, each moving more or less as a unit.
o Driven by mantle convection, the lithospheric plates ride over the soft,
ductile asthenosphere.
o Different types of relative motion and different types of lithosphere at
plate boundaries create a distinctive set of geologic features.
3 Types of Plate Boundaries
1) Divergent boundaries (also called spreading centers) are the place
where two plates move apart. Actions at Divergent Plate Boundaries
2) Convergent boundaries form where two plates move towards each
other. A subduction zone happens when one oceanic plate is pushed
down into the mantle under a second plate.
3) Transform fault boundaries are margins where two plates grind past
each other without the production or destruction of the lithosphere.
The Wilson Cycle
• Plate tectonics is cyclic. In 1966, according to J. Tuzo Wilson it is a cycle
that includes continental break-up, drifting, collision, and re-assembly of
the continent.
The driving forces for Plate motion
A. Convection in the mantle (the sinking of denser material and rising of
hot, less dense material) appears to drive plate motion.
B. Gravity-driven mechanisms such as slab-pull and ridge-push are
thought to be important in driving plate motion. Slab-pull develops when
cold, dense subducting slab of lithosphere pulls along the rest of the plate
behind it. Ridge-push develops as gravity pushes the lithosphere off the
mid-ocean ridges and toward the subduction trenches.
 Rocks - any naturally occurring solid mass or an aggregate of one or
more minerals.
 Strata - referring to rock layers.
 Stratification - general term for layering in sedimentary rocks. The
layering that occurs in most sedimentary rocks. Each stratum contains
certain rock type and may also enclose fossils.
5. Principle of Inclusions: The principle of inclusions states that inclusions
found in other rocks (or formations) must be older than the rock that
contain them. An inclusion is any material trapped inside a mineral as it
forms according to mineralogists.
6. Principle of Baked Contacts: Magma will heat/metamorphose or
“bake” the rocks it comes in contact with
7. Principle of Unconformity: is a surface of non-deposition or erosion.
Accumulation of sediments continues until the supply of sediments is cut
off or if the area is subject to uplift and erosion.
Types of unconformities
1. Angular Unconformity - attitude of beds above and below the surface
of erosion or unconformity are not the same (beds are not parallel to
each other).
2. Nonconformity - the layer below the erosional surface is either a
metamorphic rock or an igneous rock.
3. Disconformity - sedimentary rock strata above and below the surface
of erosion are parallel to each other.
4. Paraconformity - strata or beds are parallel to each other.

Processes on How Layers of Rocks are Formed

1. Weathering - the breakdown of rocks at the surface by action of rain,

extremes of temperature and biological activity.

2. Erosion or Displacement of Soil – the geological process in which

earthen materials are worn away and transported by natural forces such
as wind and water.

3. Transport – is the movement of sediments from one place to another.

4. Deposition – is the settling of the sediments in an area before they are
finally lithified to form sedimentary rocks.

5. Diagenesis – is the group of process responsible for the transformation

of sediments into sedimentary rocks.
Relative Dating
- placing of events in the order in which they occurred without any
relationship to the actual time during which any one event occurred.
Absolute Dating - sometimes called numerical dating, to give rocks an
actual date, or date range, in number of years. This is different to relative
dating, which only puts geological events in time order
Methods of Absolute Dating:

- the process of determining if one rock or geologic event is older or 1. Carbon-14 dating
younger than another, without knowing their specific ages.
2. Potassium-Argon dating
- used words like “older” or “younger” in describing the age of the rocks.
3. Uranium-Lead Dating
Principles of Relative Dating:
Age of the Earth
1. Principle of Original Horizontality: Layers of rocks deposited from
The Earth has a very long history—4.6 billion years of history. The age
above, such as sediments and lava flows, are originally laid down
of the Earth is based from the radioactive isotopic dating of meteorites.
horizontally.
The oldest dated rock from the Earth is only ~3.8 billion years old.
2. Principle of Lateral Continuity: Sediments are deposited laterally in
Index fossils
continuous layers. Therefore if horizontal strata are dissected by
erosional features, such as a valley, they can be interpreted to be the -are commonly found, widely distributed fossils that are limited in time
same strata as shown in the diagram below. span. It is used for the determination of the age of organic rocks and
other fossil assemblages and help to establish relationships between rock
3. Law of Superposition: In an otherwise undisturbed sequence of
units.
sedimentary strata, or rock layers, the layers on the bottom are the oldest
and layers above them are younger. -wide geographic distribution and a short geologic range. Geologic range
refers to the total length of geologic time that an organism was, or has
4. Principle of Cross-Cutting Relationship: Any geologic feature that
been, present on earth.
crosscuts or modifies another feature must be younger than the rocks it
cuts through. The cross-cutting feature is the younger feature because
there must be something previously there to cross-cut.
Animal Index Fossils

a) Ammonites - group of fossils molluscs possessing exogastrically coiled

shell; Perisphinctes tiziani is a Jurassic index fossil and Trophites
subbullatus is a Triassic index fossil.

b) Gastropods - another groups of molluscs have asymmetrical bodies

with usually dextral, spirally twisted shell

c) Pelecypods - a mollusc enclosed with bivalved shell and ventrally

located tongueshaped

d) Brachiopods - bilaterally symmetrical coelomate animal with bivalved

shell

e) Crinoid - a marine invertebrate, usually possessing a cup-shaped body

and five or more feathery tentacles

f) Trilobites - extinct marine arthropods with more or less oval body

divided into three lobes by two longitudinal furrows

History of the Earth

• The Earth’s history is recorded in the rocks of the crust. Scientists used
assumption called uniformitarianism in order to relate what we know
about present-day processes to past events – the present-day is the key
to the past.

• Uniformitarianism states that the natural laws we know today have

been constant over the geologic past.

The Precambrian time - Ranges from about 4.6 billion years ago, when
the earth formed, to about 544 million years ago, when abundant
microscopic life appeared.

HADEAN EON- Greek for “beneath the Earth”. It is the earliest time in
Earth history and ranges from the planet’s origin 4.6 billion years ago to
3.8 billion years ago.

ARCHEAN EON -Greek for “ancient”. There are few fossils among the
rocks and they are not preserved well enough to allow for finely tuned
subdivision of this eon that spanned from 3.8 to 2.5 billion years ago.

PROTEROZOIC EON- Greek for “earlier life”. Diverse groups of fossils have
been found in sedimentary rocks, 2.5 billion to 543 million years ago.

PHANEROZOIC EON- Phaneros is Greek for “evident”. Sedimentary rocks

cover the most recent 543 million years of geologic time and contained
abundant fossils.

Paleozoic Era

- Began about 544 million years ago and lasted about 300 million years,
during which time sea levels rose and fell worldwide, allowing shallow
seas to cover the continents and marine life to flourish – from marine
invertebrates to fishes, amphibians and reptiles.

- The Paleozoic Era is divided into six (6) major periods: Cambrian,
Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian.

Mesozoic Era

-Known as the age of reptiles, it is made up of three periods: Triassic,

Jurassic, and Cretaceous. The most significant event was the rise of the
dinosaurs

Cenozoic Era

- This era is known as the “age of mammals” because mammals replaced

reptiles as the dominant land animal. It is also sometimes called “age of
flowering plants” because angiosperms replaced gymnosperms as the
dominant land plants.