GEOLOGY FOR CIVIL ENGINEERS
relative to each other over millions of years of over time.
Geology is the study of the earth, including the materials
that it is made of, the physical and chemical changes that
take place on its surface and its interior, and the history of
the planet and its life form.
Geo means earth.
Logus means study/speech
James Hutton is the father of modern geology.
SOME OF THE MAIN BRANCHES OF GEOLOGY:
Physical geology focuses on the physical properties and
processes that shape the Earth's surface and interior. It
includes the study of plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes,
and other geological phenomena.
Mineralogy focuses on the study of minerals, including
their chemical and physical properties, their occurrence and
distribution, and their uses.
Paleontology is the study of fossils and the history of life
on Earth.
Stratigraphy is the study of layers of rock and sediment
and the ways in which they are formed and preserved.
Hydrogeology is the study of the Earth's water cycle and
the movement and distribution of water on the surface and
underground.
Environmental geology focuses on the ways in which
geological processes and materials affect the environment
and human activities. It includes the study of natural
hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, and flooding.
EARTH
MAIN PARTS OF THE EARTH:
Atmosphere measures from the surface of the earth
upwards to 150 km.
Space is anything that is above 150 km from the earth’s
surface.
Division of Earth’s Atmosphere:
 Troposphere (0 km - 13 km)
 Ozone Layer (13 km - 25 km)
 Stratosphere (25 km - 50 km)
 Mesosphere (50 km - 75 km)
 Thermosphere (75 km - 150 km)
Solid Earth measures from the surface of the earth
downwards to the core
Parts of Solid Earth:
Biosphere - solid and liquid - and includes all forms of life
(e.g. plants and animals) and their products (e.g. skeletons)
both on land and in the sea.
Hydrosphere (fresh and salt water, snow and ice) - mainly
liquid, some solid - includes all forms of water
Internal structure of the Earth:
 Crust
 Mantle
 Outer core
 Inner core
Continental drift is the movement of the earth’s continent
EARTH’S INTERNAL STRUCTURE
Crust is the outside layer of the earth and is made of solid
rock, mostly basalt and granite.
Types of Crust:
 Oceanic crust is denser, thinner, and mainly
composed of basalt.
 Continental crust is less dense, thicker, and mainly
composed of granite.
Mantle lies below the crust and is up to 2900 km thick. It
consists of hot, dense, iron and magnesium-rich solid rock.
Core is the center of the earth.
Parts of the Core:
Outer Core is made of nickel, iron and molten rock.
Temperatures here can reach up to 50,000 C.
Inner Core is a hot, dense ball of (mostly) iron.Temperature
here is about 5,200° Celsius (9,392° Fahrenheit) and has a
pressure that is nearly 3.6 million atmospheres (atm).
However, unlike the outer core, the inner core is not liquid
or even molten. Some geophysicists prefer to interpret the
inner core not as a solid, but as a plasma behaving as a solid.
Alfred Wegener is a German Climatologist who first
proposed the theory of continental drift in the early
20th century.
Plate tectonics is the theory that explains the movement of
the Earth's crust and how it is related to the creation and
destruction of the Earth's surface.
Types of Plate Boundary:
Divergent Boundaries is when two plates are moving away
from each other and new crust is created as magma from the
mantle rises up to fill the gap.
Convergent Boundaries is when two plates are moving
towards each other and one plate is typically pushed under
the origin in a process called subduction.
Transform Boundaries is when two plates are sliding past
each other horizontally, causing earthquakes.
SOME OF THE EARTH’S PROCESSES
Erosion is the wearing away of rock and soil by the
movement of water, ice, wind, or gravity.
Deposition is the laying down of sediment, such as sand or
silt, by the movement of water, ice, or wind.
Weathering is the breaking down or alteration of rock
andsoil by the action of water, temperature changes, and
chemical reactions.
Volcanism is the eruption of molten rock, or magma, from
the Earth's interior.
Plate tectonics is the movement of the Earth's crustal
plates, which can result in the creation or destruction of the
Earth's surface.
Earthquake is the sudden release of energy in the Earth's
crust, which can result in ground shaking and the creation of
fault lines.
Mountain building is the creation of mountain ranges by
the collision and uplift of tectonic plates.
 Glacial activity is the movement and shaping of the Earth's
surface by glaciers, which are large masses of ice.
Earthquake is a weak to violent shaking of the ground
produced by the sudden movement of rock materials below
the earth’s surface. It originates in tectonic plate boundary.
Hypocenter is when focus is point inside the earth where
the earthquake started.
Epicenter is when the point on the surface of the earth
directly above the focus.
Ways to measure the strength of an earthquake:
Magnitude is proportional to the energy released by an
earthquake at the focus.
 Arabic numbers are how the magnitude is
represented.
 Seismograph is the instrument used to determine
the magnitude of an earthquake.
Intensity is the strength of an earthquake as perceived and
felt by people in a certain locality.
 Roman numerals are how the intensity is
represented.
PHIVOLCS Earthquake Intensity Scale (PEIS) is the
instrument used to determine the magnitude of earthquake.
TYPES OF EARTHQUAKES:
Tectonic Earthquakes are produced by sudden movement
along faults and plate boundaries.
Volcanic Earthquakes are earthquakes induced by rising
lava or magma beneath active volcanoes.
IMPORTANCE OF GEOLOGY IN CIVIL
ENGINEERING:
Provides knowledge about the following:
1. Materials used for construction.
2. Construction of dams, river control, and shipping work.
3. Design of roads and highways.
4. Foundation Fault.
MINERALOGY
Mineralogy is the branch of geology concerned with the
study of minerals. A mineral is naturally occurring,
homogeneous solid with a definite chemical composition
and a highly ordered atomic structure. A mineral, by
definition, cannot be a liquid or a gas.
SYMMETRY ELEMENTS OF
CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC SYSTEMS
-The locations where the symmetry operations occur such as
a rotation axis, a mirror plane, an inversion center, or a
translation vector are described as symmetry elements.
-In crystallography symmetry is used to characterize
crystals, identify repeating parts of molecules, and simplify
both data collection and nearly all calculations. Also, the
symmetry
of physical properties of a crystal such as thermal
conductivity and optical activity must include the symmetry
of the crystal.
PLANE OF SYMMETRY
Any two-dimensional surface that when passed through the
center of the crystal, divides it
into two symmetrical parts that are mirror images.
AXIS OF SYMMETRY
-An imaginary line through the center of the crystal around
which the crystal maybe rotated
so that after a definite angular revolution. The crystal form
appears the same as before
depending on the amount of degrees of rotation necessary.
Four types of axes of symmetry
are possible when you are considering crystallography.
FOUR TYPES OF AXES OF SYMMETRY
1.BINARY SYMMETRY
(Bi means, consisting of two) When rotation repeats form
every 180 degrees.
2.TRIGONAL SYMMETRY
(Tri means, consisting of three) When rotation repeats form
every 120 degrees.
3.TETRAGONAL SYMMETRY
(Tetra means, consisting of four) When rotation repeats
form every 90 degrees.
4.HEXAGONAL SYMMETRY
• (Hexa means, consisting of 6) When rotation repeats form
every 60 degrees.
CENTER OF SYMMETRY
Crystals often have a center of symmetry, which means that
an imaginary line drawn through the center of the crystal
will intersect a similar point on a surface of the crystal face
that is equidistant from the center. This is true even if the
crystal does not have planes of symmetry or axes of
symmetry. Triclinic crystals typically only have a center of
symmetry.
THE 7 PRIMITIVE CRYSTAL SYSTEMS
1.ISOMETRIC (CUBE)
All three axes are equal in length,
and perpendicular to one another.
2.TETRAGONAL
Two of the three axes are equal in length,
and all three axes are perpendicular to one another.
3.ORTHOROMBIC
• All three axes are unequal length,
and all are perpendicular to one another.
4.HEXAGONAL
Of four axes, three are equal length are separated
by equal angles, and lie at the same plane. The fourth
axis is perpendicular to the plane of the other three
axes. Hexagonal cells have lattice points
in each of the two six-sided faces.
5.TRICLINIC
All three axes are unequal length, and
none is perpendicular to another.
6.MONOCLINIC
All three axes are unequal in length and two axes are
perpendicular to one another.
7.RHOMOBOHEDRAL (TRIGONAL)
All three axes are equal to length, and none of the axes
is perpendicular to one another, but the crystal faces
all have the same size and shape. It is different from
fracture where the surface is not smooth and flat.
MINERALS
-It is the building blocks of rocks.
- Geological define as “a naturally occurring, inorganic,
solid, crystalline substance which has fixed structure and a
chemical composition which is either fixed pr which may
vary within certain define limits.”
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF MINERALS
 COLOR
Minerals are colored because certain wavelengths of
incident light are absorbed, and the color we perceive is
produced by the remaining wavelengths that were not
absorbed.
 TENACITY
Tenacity refers to a mineral’s resistance to breaking,
bending, or otherwise being deformed. A mineral may be
brittle, easily broken or crushed to powder, malleable,
flexible, and elastic. Tenacity is particularly useful in telling
some of the metallic minerals apart.
 LUSTER
A mineral's luster is the overall sheen of its surface – it may
have the sheen of polished metal, the sheen of an unpolished
metal that is pitted by weathering, sheen of glass, look dull
or earthy, glassy, pearly, greasy, and silky.
 DENSITY
The density of a mineral is the ratio of its mass to its
volume. It is a measure of how much “stuff” is squeezed
into the amount of space the mineral occupies. It is an
intrinsic physical property of minerals that relates to the
composition of the mineral and to the pattern in which the
mineral’s atoms are arranged.
 STREAK
Streak is simply the color of a mineral powder. Many
minerals have a different color when powdered than they do
in crystal or massive forms. The color may be entirely
different, or it may be a different shade.
 HARDNESS
Hardness is the resistance of a mineral to scratching. It is a
property by which minerals may be described relative to a
standard scale of 10 minerals known as the Mohs scale of
hardness. The degree of hardness is determined by
observing the comparative ease or difficulty with which one
mineral is scratched by another or by a steel tool.
 CLEAVAGE
Cleavage is the tendency of a mineral to break along certain
planes to make smooth surfaces. A mineral may exhibit 100
cleavage surfaces parallel to each other. Cleavage surfaces
can be distinguished by how they consistently reflect light,
as if polished, smooth, and even.
 FRACTURE
Fracture is a break in a mineral that is not along a cleavage
plane.
CRYSTAL FORM
Crystal form refers to the geometric shape of mineral
crystals. Crystal form is caused by the symmetrical, three-
dimensional arrangement of atoms inside the mineral. Not
all minerals form perfect crystal shapes; some are too small
to be seen, while others are tightly packed masses that
cannot form faces but do not change shape.
ROCK FORMING-MINERAL
Any mineral that forms igneous, sedimentary, or
metamorphic rocks and that typically, or solely, forms as an
intimate part of rock making processes. As miscellaneous a
group as the gems, there are almost 5000 known mineral
species.
QUARTZ
It consists of one part silicon and two parts oxygen. It is the
most abundant mineral found at the Earth's surface. Quartz
forms at all temperatures. It is abundant in igneous,
metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. It is a clear or white
color. It also has vitreous luster.
FELDSPAR
They are the most common mineral in the Earth's crust.
They are reasonably hard. They are often white-cream-pink,
and may form crystals that look small blocks. Feldspar is a
common raw material used in glassmaking, ceramics, and to
some extent as a filler and extender in paint, plastics, and
rubber.
AUGITE
It is the most common pyroxene mineral (a silicate of
calcium, magnesium, iron, titanium, and aluminum). It
occurs chiefly as thick, tabular crystals in basalts, gabbros,
andesites, and various other dark-coloured igneous rocks.
HORNBLENDE
Hornblendes exhibit typical amphibole structures; these are
based on double tetrahedral chains between which four
metal sites are located. Tetrahedral substitution of aluminum
for silicon is common and provides charge balance for
trivalent and univalent substitution in the metal sites.
BIOTITE
Description:
It is also called as black mica, a silicate mineral in the
common mica group. It is abundant in metamorphic rocks
(both regional and contact), in pegmatites, and also in
granites and other intrusive igneous rocks.
Use:
Has a small number of commercial uses. It is used as a filler
and extender in paints, as an additive to drilling muds, as an
inert filler and mold-release agent in rubber products, and as
a non-stick surface coating on asphalt shingles and rolled
roofing.
MUSCOVITE
Description:
Is the most common mineral of the mica family.
It is an important rock-forming mineral present in
igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. Like
other micas it readily cleaves into thin transparent
sheets.
Uses:
Used in the United States to manufacture a
variety of products. Joint compound, paint, drilling
mud, plastics, cosmetics, rubber, asphalt roofing.
CALCITE
Description:
Is a rock-forming mineral with a chemical
formula of CaCO3. It is extremely common and
found throughout the world in sedimentary,
metamorphic, and igneous rocks. Some geologists
consider it to be a "ubiquitous mineral" - one that is
found everywhere.
Uses:
The construction industry is the primary
consumer of calcite in the form of limestone and
marble. These rocks have been used as dimension
stones and in mortar for thousands of years.
Limestone blocks were the primary construction
material used in many of the pyramids of Egypt and
Latin America.
GARNET
Description:
brittle and more or less transparent usually red
silicate mineral that has a vitreous luster, occurs mainly
in crystals but also in massive form and in grains, is
found commonly in gneiss and mica schist, and is used
as a semiprecious stone and as an abrasive.
Uses:
Garnet is so hard and resistant to weathering, it
can be used as skid-resistant road aggregate, skid
resistant paints, and for filler in concrete being used in
harsh environments.
IGNEOUS
It is any of various crystalline or glassy rocks formed
by the cooling and solidification of molten earth
material. Igneous rocks are formed from the
solidification of magma, which is a hot molten or
partially molten rock material ranges from 600 to
1,300 °C, or 1,100 to 2,400 °F.
Igneous Rocks are divided into two groups:
1. Intrusive Igneous Rock
Rock forms when magma is trapped deep inside the Earth.
2. Extrusive Igneous rock
Rock is produced when magma exits and cools above (or
very near) the Earth's surface.
SEDIMENTARY
Sedimentary rocks are the most common on the
Earth's surface, but they make up only a minor portion
of the crust, which is dominated by igneous and
metamorphic rocks. Weathering of pre-existing rocks,
followed by transportation and deposition of the
weathering products, produces sedimentary rocks.
METAMORPHIC
It is any of a class of rocks that result from the
alteration of pre-existing rocks in response to
changing environmental conditions, such as variations
in temperature, pressure, and mechanical stress, and
the addition or subtraction of chemical components.
The pre-existing rocks may be igneous, sedimentary,
or other metamorphic rocks.
Precipitation
It is the reverse process, in which ions in solution come
together to form solid minerals. It is dependent on the
concentration of ions in solution and other factors such as
temperature and pressure. There are two types of
precipitation in formation of minerals which are
precipitation from aqueous solution and precipitation from
gaseous emanations. Precipitation from aqueous solution is
from hot water flowing underground, from evaporation of a
lake or inland sea, or in some cases, directly from seawater
while, precipitation from gaseous emanation is in volcanic
regions.
Metamorphism
It is a process that changes pre-existing rocks into new
forms because of increases in temperature, pressure, and
chemically active fluids. Metamorphism may affect igneous,
sedimentary, or other metamorphic rocks. The changes
brought about include the formation of new minerals,
increase in grain size, and modification of rock structure or
texture, all of which depend on the original rock’s
composition and the intensity of the metamorphism.
Weathering
It describes the breaking down or dissolving of rocks and
minerals on the surface of the Earth. Water, ice, acids, salts,
plants, animals, and changes in temperature are all agents of
weathering.
Organic Formulation
It is the formation of minerals within shells (primarily
calcite) and teeth and bones (primarily apatite) by organisms
(these organically formed minerals are still called minerals
because they can also form inorganically)
Coal and Petroleum and their Origin and Occurrence in
India

Coal
Commercial coal mining in India dates back nearly 220
years, beginning in 1774 with M/s Sumner and Heatly of the
East India Company in the Raniganj Coalfield on the
western bank of the Damodar River. For nearly a century,
the growth of Indian coal mining was sluggish due to a lack
of demand, but the introduction of steam locomotives in
1853 gave it a boost.

Petroleum
Petroleum has an organic origin and is found in sedimentary
basins, shallow depressions and in the seas. Oil and natural
gas originated from animal or vegetable matter contained in
shallow marine sediments. The decomposition\r of organic
matter in sedimentary rocks has led to the formation of oil.
Most of the oil reserves in India are associated with
sedimentary rock formations of tertiary period.

QUARTZ
STREAK: Colorless(harder than the streak plate)
MOH’S HARDNESS: 7

FELDSPARS
STREAK: White
MOH’S HARDNESS: 6-6.5

AUGTITE
STREAK: Light green to colorless
MOH’S HARDNESS: 5.5-6

HORNBLENDE
STREAK: White, colorless
MOH’S HARDNESS: 5-6

BIOTITE
STREAK: White to gray, flakes often produced
MOH’S HARDNESS: 2.5 to 3

MUSCOVITE
STREAK: White, often sheds tiny flakes
MOH’S HARDNESS: 2.5 to 3

CALCITE
STREAK: White
MOH’S HARDNESS: 3

GARNET
STREAK: Colorless
MOH’S HARDNESS: 6.5 to 7.5