The Earth: Surface,

Structure and Age

 GEOLOGY
The word geology comes from the Greek "geo" meaning earth
and "logos" treaty or knowledge; therefore it's defined as the
science of earth and aims at understanding the evolution of the
planet and its inhabitants, from ancient times to the present
through the analysis of rocks.
 GEOLOGY
 Rocks are made up of small crystalline units
known as minerals and a rock can thus be defines
as an assemblage of particular minerals.
Three types of Rocks:
o Igneous rocks – derived from hot material that originated below
the Earth’s surface and solidified at or near the surface
 Examples are basalt, granite, and their derivatives.
o Sedimentary rocks – mainly formed from the break-down
products of older rocks.
 Example: lime stone

o Metamorphic rocks – derived from earlier

igneous or sedimentary rocks, but
transformed from their original state by heat
or pressure.
 Example: Slate, schist, gneiss
 The Surface of the Earth
Dimensions:

 The radius of the Earth at the equator is 6370 km and the polar radius is shorter by 22 km.
Thus, the Earth is not a perfect sphere.


  The Earth has a surface area of 510 x ; 29 percent is land.

Surface Relief:
• Surface relief is varied.
• The average height of land above sea level is 0.86 km
• Mean depth of ocean floor is about 3.8 km.

 The Marianas Trench in the N.W. Pacific reaches

the greatest known depth with 11.04 km.

Note: The oceans, lakes, seas, and rivers are

collectively referred to as the hydrosphere, and the
whole is surrounded by a gaseous envelope, the
atmosphere.
 The Interior of the Earth
Temperature gradient and density:

 The high pressure prevailing at that depth and the ability of crustal rocks to
conduct heat away to the surface of the Earth result in the rock-material there remaining
in a relatively solid condition; but there will be a depth at which it becomes essentially a
viscous fluid and this defines the base of the lithosphere (Greek: Iithos = stone),


  The mean density of the earth, which is
found from its size and motion around the
Sun, is 5.527 g .
 Our planet has a core of heavy material
with a density of about 8, and the core is
believed to be a mixture of these composed
mainly of iron.
 Surrounding this heavy core is the region
known as the mantle; and overlying that is
the crust.
 EARTHQUAKES
 Numerous shocks which continually take place are due to sharp movements along
fractures (called faults.)
 Earthquakes range from:
1. Slight tremors – little damage
2. Severe shocks - can open fissures in the ground, initiate fault scarps and
landslides, break and overthrow buildings, and severe supply mains and lines of
transport.
o The worst effects are produced in weak ground, especially young deposits of
sand, silt, and clay.
o These sediments may shake violently if their moduli of elasticity and rigidity
are insufficient to attenuate adequately the acceleration imparted to their
particles by an earthquake.
 Tsunami-a long high sea wave caused by an earthquake, submarine landslide,
or other disturbance.

Distribution of earthquakes; the shaded

areas are zone of active epicenters.
 EARTHQUAKES
• The intensity of an earthquake can be estimated from the effects felt or
seen by an observer, and such observations are collected and used to
determine the centre of the disturbance. They are graded according to a
Scale of Intensity such as the Mercalli Scale, which has twelve grades.
• A more accurate measure of earthquake activity is provided by the
amount of seismic energy released in an earthquake; this defines its
magnitude, for which the symbol M is used.

• The Scale of Magnitudes due to C. F. Richter (1952) and now in

general use is based on the maximum amplitudes shown on records
made with a standard seismometer.

• The scale is logarithmic and is related to the elastic wave energy (E),
measured in joules (1 erg= 10"7 joules), an approximate relationship
being log E «4.8 -I-1.5 M, M ranges from magnitude 0 to magnitude
9.
 When an earthquake occurs TWO KINDS OF WAVES:
elastic vibrations (or waves) are 1. Body waves, comprising of
propagated in all directions from compressional vibrations, called
its centre of origin, or focus; the Primary waves or P waves, which are
point on the Earth's surface the fastest and the first to arrive at a
immediately above the recording station.
earthquake focus is called the 2. Surface waves - transverse or
epicentre. shear vibrations, called S waves, a
liitle slower than P waves.
 ISOSTASY
(Greek, meaning 'in equipoise') is used to denote an ideal
state of balance between different parts of the crust.

Level of compensation - water. A state of balance tends to

be maintained above a certain level.

Isostasy requires that below the relatively strong outer
shell of the Earth, the lithosphere, there is a weak layer
(or Earth-shell) which has the capacity to yield to
stresses which persist for a long time. This weak zone
is called the asthenosphere (Greek: a, not, and sthene,
strength). It lies in the uppermost part of the mantle.
The weight of a column of matter in a mountain region, as at A,
equals that of a column B, where the lighter crust is
thinner and displaces less of the underlying denser layer.
The columns are balanced at a depth (namely the level of
compensation) where their weights are the same.

Isostatic balance according to Airy's hypothesis;

ideal columns of crust of different lengths are largely sub-
merged in heavier sub-crustal matter which is displaced
to agreater depth by the higher columns, corresponding
to the'roots' of mountains.
 CONTINENTAL DRIFT
 The possible movement of the continents relative to one
another in the geological past was first outlined at length
by Alfred Wegener in 1912.

WEGENER’S EVIDENCE FOR CONTINENTAL DRIFT THEORY

 Wegener accumulated a great deal of evidence to support his
hypothesis, most notably the remarkable number of close affinities of
geologic features on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
(c)
(a) He found the continental margins of
the subequatorial portions of Africa and South America fit
together with jigsaw- puzzle-like precision.

(b) He also determined that the petrologic (rock) records on

both sides of the Atlantic show many distributions—such as
(a)
ancient coal deposits—that would be continuous if the
ocean did not intervene.

(c) Supporting evidence came from paleontology: the fossils of

(b) some dinosaur and other reptile species, such as
the freshwater swimming reptile the Mesosaurus, are found
on both sides of the southern Atlantic Ocean, but nowhere
else in the world.
 OCEANIC RIDGES
• Palaeomagnetism (or 'fossil magnetism') is
retained in the rocks and in many instances
its direction does not agree with that of the
Earth's present Mid-oceanic ridge and line of
centre Major faults Continental margin N or S
America Mid-Atlantic ridge Europe or Africa
Ocean basin Rift Ocean basin Fig, 1.14 o The volcanic material is envisaged as rising along the line of
Profile across the M id-Atlantic Ridge (after median rift and being pushed aside laterally, in either direction
Heezen, 1959). basalts, and are interpreted away from the rift, by subsequent eruptions, thus forming new
as material that emerged from fissures along ocean floor. The process is termed ocean floor spreading. The
the line of the rift and accumulated on the upper part of the mantle above the asthenosphere, which is in
ocean floor. From radiometric dating it is a semimolten state, is involved in these processes.
known that the basalts become older with
increasing distance on either side of the rift.

Map of the oceanic ridges (after Heezen, 1963,

The Sea). Heavy lines show the position of the
centre of a ridge; thin lines show displacements
by transcurrent faults. Mercator projection.
 ROCK MAGNETISMC
 Studies of the magnetism found in basaltic rocks have
yielded independent evidence for ocean floor spreading
magnetic field. This is evidence of a change in the rock's
position since it acquired its magnetism, which in turn may
be attributed to continental drift or some other cause.
Symmetrical pattern of magnetic stripes in oceanic crust at
a spreading ridge (diagrammatic). Black stripes, normal
polarity; white stripes, reversed polarity. The rocks at the
ends of the diagram are about 8 my older than basalt
rising in the centre.

MECHANISM OF DRIFT
• Continental drift is associated with the
opening and extension of the ocean floor at
the oceanic ridges. The temperatures of
rocks near the centre of a ridge are higher
than on either side of it, because material
from the mantle rises towards the surface
in the hotter central part of a ridge.
The hotter rock-material in the rising
current is less dense and possesses
buoyancy, which is the driving force of
the mechanism. Differences in the
rate of movement of adjacent masses
away from the oceanic ridges are
accommodated by displacement on
fractures called transcurrent faults Concept of convection currents and its
relationship to continental drift.
 PLATE TECTONICS
 When the validity of continental drift became accepted, in
the mid-1960s, the idea was advanced that the outer shell
of the Earth, the lithosphere, could be considered as a
mosaic of twelve or more large rigid plates.
 These plates were free to move with respect to the underlying
asthenosphere, and could also move relatively to one another in
three ways: (i) by one plate sliding past another along its margin;
(H) by two plates moving away from one another; (Hi) by two
plates moving together and one sliding underneath the edge of
the other.
 The term plate tectonics came to be used to denote the
processes involved in the movements and interactions of the
plates ('tectonic' is derived from Greek tekton, a builder)
 EARTH AGE AND ORIGIN

 The Earth and other members of the Solar System are  The greatest terrestrial age so far determined is
believed to have been formed about 4600 million years ago about 3900 million years, for a mineral in a rock
by condensation from a flattened rotating cloud of gas and from the ancient Precambrian group
dust.
 The cold primitive Earth became gradually heated as its
interior was compressed by the increasing weight of
accumulated matter and by the decay of natural radioactive
materials
 The primitive crust was probably basaltic, and was cracked
and re-melted, with the separation of lighter (granitic) fluids,
which accumulated and eventually contributed to the material
of the continents.

 The atmosphere that we know was formed much later,

perhaps within the last 1000 million years, when plant life had
become established and contributed oxygen to the volcanic
emanations of an earlier stage