GEOLOGICAL PROCESS

THAT OCCURS
WITHIN THE EARTH
 GEOLOGICAL PROCESS
Planet Earth is dynamic with a surface that is always
changing. Rocks can be converted into another type of
rock, for example igneous to metamorphic. These
process are shown in the rock cycle, which describes the
ways in which rocks are slowly recycled over millions of
years and transformed between the three rock types:
sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks.
1.Erosion is a process often confused with
weathering. Both are geological processes in which
the rocks are broken down into finer particles, which
can range from boulders to fine clay particles in size,
and both are part of the ‘rock cycle’. Erosion
involves the movement of fragments of rock by the
erosion processes and therefore differs from
weathering, which is just concerned with the decay
of rock in situ.
There are six main erosion processes, which are often
interconnected:

GRAVITY:
Gravitational erosion is the movement of rocks and
sediments due to the force of gravity. Material that
has been loosened by weathering is transported from
higher ground to lower ground where it may be
picked up other erosion processes such as glaciers or
rivers. Landslides are an example of gravitational
erosion.
WIND:
When carrying dust and sand, the wind is a
tremendous sculptor of the Earth. Not only does
wind erode rock, it also carries away the sand
and dust it creates in the process. Anything in the
way of wind that is carrying sand and dust will
be slowly weathered and eroded away. The sand
slowly breaks up whatever surface it encounters,
just like sandpaper, and then the wind blows the
freed material to another location.
Rain:
Rain works to erode the land on which it falls
through rain-splash erosion, which is rain
splashing down on the land and dislodging
weathered material such as pebbles or soil.
Heavy rainfall or large amounts of melting
snow or ice can also carry away the sediment
into streams and rivers. The rivers continue
the process, carving watersheds where the
land is steep and enriching floodplains where
the land is flat.
RIVERS:
streams weather and erode the Earth but they also build it up by
depositing the material they erode downstream. The way in which it
is deposited creates the typical shape of a meandering river. A river
slowly winding its way through flat land flows a little bit faster on
the outside riverbank than on the inside riverbank. This gives the
water on the outside curve more power to weather the ground on
that riverbank, extending and deepening the river in that direction.
The slower water on the inside curve tends to deposit material
carried by the river from the previous curves, adding material to the
inside riverbank. In this way, a meander is expanded sideways,
producing a deeper curve in the river.
OCEAN:
When the wind blows across the ocean, it creates waves that erode the loose
sand on beaches. The repeated motion, often many times a minute, washes the
beach sand back into the ocean. The rising and falling tides allow the waves to
work on higher and lower elevations of the shore, removing material from
different levels.

Oceans also erode the land with currents. As an ocean current moves past the
shore, it picks up sand washed off the beach by the waves and sweeps it away,
depositing it wherever the current slows down. The area with its beach washed
away is left more vulnerable to wave action.

On the other hand, downstream areas that receive the sand from the currents
are bolstered and protected from wave action. In this way, the shoreline
evolves naturally
Glaciers:
Glaciers are rivers of ice that flow very slowly. With their
enormous size and weight, continental glaciers weather and
erode significant portions of continents, while alpine
(mountain) glaciers can weather and erode entire valleys. The
enormous weight of the glacial ice and the embedded debris
causes a glacier to weather the rocks beneath it as it flows,
picking up still more debris along the way. As many glaciers in
the world illustrate, the rock, sand and clay debris is then
deposited at the tip of the glacier as the glacier breaks off or
retreats.
2.Weathering is the wearing down or breaking of rocks while they
are in place. Weathering can be biological, chemical or physical

BIOLOGICAL WEATHERING:
Biological weathering is caused by the movements of plants
and animals. For example, a rabbit can burrow into a crack
in a rock making it bigger and eventually splitting the rock, or
a plant may grow in a crack in a rock and, as its roots grow,
cause the crack to widen. Even you can be a source of
weathering! Boots and shoes walking over the same patch of
rock may eventually wear down the rock.
CHEMICAL WEATHERING:
Chemical weathering describes the process of
chemicals in rainwater making changes to the minerals
in a rock.

Carbon dioxide from the air is dissolved in rainwater,

making it slightly acidic. A reaction can occur when the
rainwater comes into contact with minerals in the rock,
causing weathering.
PHYSICAL WEATHERING:
Physical weathering occurs when physical processes affect the rock,
such as changes in temperature or when the rock is exposed to the
effects of wind, rain and waves.

Water can get into cracks in a rock and, if it freezes, the ice will expand
and push the cracks apart. When the ice melts, more water can get into
the larger crack; if it freezes again it expands and can make the crack
even bigger.

 Wind can cause weathering by blowing grains of sand against a rock,

while rain and waves cause weathering by slowly wearing rock away
over long periods of time.
3.Deposition is the laying down of sediment carried by wind,
flowing water, the sea or ice. Sediment can be transported as
pebbles, sand and mud, or as salts dissolved in water. Salts
may later be deposited by organic activity (e.g. as sea shells)
or by evaporation.

Wind:
The term ‘saltation’ describes the process by which sand
grains are picked up and transported by the wind. Sand grains
bounce along the ground in the wind; when the wind stops or
slows down, the sand is deposited and may build sand dunes.
Water
Flowing water picks up and moves particles of soil and rock. When the water
slows down, for example by reaching flatter land, it starts to drop the particles it is
holding. It drops the largest particles first and the smaller ones as it slows down
even further.

Alluvial fans are a feature typically created when sediment carried by a mountain
stream is deposited due to a rapid change in slope from a high to a low gradient.
When the slope angle is high, the stream flows with a high velocity and is able to
transport larger pieces of sediment such as pebbles and sand. When the slope angle
is lower the stream loses the energy it needs to carry these larger pieces of
sediment and they are deposited. The deposited materials eventually spread out,
creating an alluvial fan.

Water may also carry dissolved material – mostly ions that have minerals it has
dissolved from solid rock. These ions may be deposited en route to the sea or may
Sea
In coastal environments, sediments are deposited along or
near a coastline by low-energy waves that can no longer
support their sediment load. Material carried by the sea
is washed up by the water and begins to build up along
the coastline, creating beaches and other coastal features
such as spits and shoals. Beaches change and move by the
combined action of tides, waves and currents and can lose
or gain sand from season to season. Soetimes the sand
disappears completely, leaving behind heavier cobble.
Ice
Glaciers are not static objects; they move, albeit very slowly, flowing under their own
weight, and they grow and shrink depending on the climatic conditions. As they move,
they carve the landscape below them, picking up sediments and rocks of all sizes. In
fact, glaciers can carry the largest of sediments — boulders, which can sometimes
reach enormous sizes — for very long distances.

When the glaciers melt and retreat, they leave them behind as what are known as
‘glacial erratic boulders’, made of rock that has no relation with the local geology
where they have come to rest.

The typical deposit of a glacier is known as ’till’, which is an mixture of all the debris
that the glacier was carrying at that moment, such as clay, sand, pebbles and boulders.
The typical glacial sedimentary features known as moraines are composed of tills..
4.Landforms are features on the Earth’s surface that make up the terrain, such
as mountains, valleys, plains or plateaux. They also include coastal features,
such as peninsulas or bays, and underwater features, such as ocean basins and
mid-ocean ridges.

Landforms are categorised by their physical attributes, such as:

elevation

orientation

slope

rock exposure
They can also be organised by the processes that create them. Here are some
examples of landforms and the different ways they can be created.

Sand dunes:
A sand dune is an ‘aeolian’ landform; this means it is formed by the wind.

Peninsulas:
A peninsula is a type of coastal landform. It is a piece of land almost entirely
surrounded by water but connected to the mainland on one side.

Buttes:
A butte, an isolated hill with steep sides, is a type landform created by
erosion and weathering
Impact craters:
An impact crater, a depression formed by a collision of a large object with the Earth’s surface, is a
type of impact landform.

Valleys:
A U-shaped valley is an example of a glacial landform, carved by slowly moving glaciers.

Ocean trenches:
Deep oceanic trenches are a type of tectonic landform, formed where one tectonic plate is
subducted beneath another.

Volcanic cones:
A volcanic cone is the most recognisable volcanic landform, built from the materials
erupted from a volcanic vent.
5.Relief:
Relief’ is the term used for the differences in height from place to place on the land’s
surface and it is greatly affected by the underlying geology. Relief relies on the
hardness, permeability and structure of a rock.

The effect of rock hardness on relief:

Some rocks are hard and resistant to weathering and erosion, while others are softer and easily worn away. Where a
hard rock like sandstone sits next to a soft rock such as clay, the first will form the uplands and the second will form
the lowlands.

Igneous rocks can be very hard. Granite, for example, is very resistant to weathering and erosion and so forms high,
rugged landscapes such as Bodmin Moor in Cornwall or Dartmoor in Devon. Granite will eventually break down by
chemical weathering.

Rocks that are buried deep within the crust or squeezed under Earth’s movements and at plate boundaries will change
and harden in a process known as ‘metamorphism’. For example, when clay is squeezed intensely it changes into slate.
The clay would have been soft and susceptible to erosion but, after changing to slate, it becomes hard and resistant to
erosion.

The mountains of the Lake District and Wales are formed of slate. The Western Highlands of Scotland are formed of a
The effect of rock permeability on relief:
The term permeability refers to whether and how water can flow
through a rock. The permeability of a rock is important because
even fairly soft rocks can form hills if water is not able to flow over
them easily. Most of the chalk in southern England, for example, is
not very hard, but rainfall percolates through it very rapidly and
water is not able to flow over its surface. This is why the chalk is
not easily eroded and forms chains of hills
The effect of rock structure on relief:
Sometimes the structure of the rocks is important in determining relief.
Between about 15 and 35 million years ago, when the African Plate pushed
against the European Plate, a high mountain chain, the Alps, was pushed up in
France, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. This ‘Alpine’ phase of mountain
building did not make large mountains in Britain (the colliding plates were too
far away), but it did buckle the chalk rocks of southern England. The North
and South Downs originally formed one flat sheet of chalk that stretched
across south-eastern England. However, Alpine mountain building pushed it up
into a large fold called an anticline. The weakened chalk in the anticline was
eroded away, leaving two chains of hills on its sides (the North and South
Downs)..