AGY 209

EARTH INTERNAL PROCESSES

• Internal processes within the Earth create a dynamic

system that links the three major geologic sections of
the Earth -- the core, the mantle and the crust. Huge
amounts of energy, conserved and created near the
center of the Earth, are transferred by internal
processes to other parts of the globe where they
become the forces that create mountain chains,
volcanoes and earthquakes.
CLASSIFICATION OF EARTH PROCESSES

• The major earth processes are traditionally grouped into

• two types:
• 1) External processes and
• 2) Internal processes.
• The land surface responds to external and internal processes and forces that the shape of
the earth
EXTERNAL EARTH PROCESSES

• External Earth processes are those that are restricted to the earth surface or exterior of the
earth, while Internal Earth processes are the processes taking below
• the earth’s surface. These processes are also known as exogenous and endogenous
processes.
EXTERNAL EARTH PROCESSES:
1) DEGRADATION OR DENUDATION

• Degradation is the geologic process by which various parts of the surface of the earth are
worn away and its general level is lowered. The process of degradation
• consists of two sub-processes: a) Weathering and b) Erosion.
• Weathering is the degradation process by which rock undergoes physical disintegration and
chemical decomposition. Weathering involves physical, chemical and biological processes.
There is little or no transport of the resulting products in weathering. The process of
weathering converts the bedrock into regolith and soil. Weathering thus can be considered
as the preliminary process of preparation of rock material involving disintegration or
alteration of rocks for the following erosion process
EROSION

• Erosion is the detachment of earth material from the surface of the earth. Erosion is a
dynamic process and includes the transportation of disintegrated rock materials away
from their origin. The natural agents of erosion are gravity, water (in the form of rain
drops, flowing surface water, waves, subsurface or groundwater), glaciers and wind.
Denudation is the process involved in the removal of rock material from the surface of
the earth through combined process of weathering and erosion
2) AGGRADATION OR DEPOSITION
(SEDIMENTATION
• Deposition takes place when water, wind and glaciers lay down grains of material that
have been eroded and transported from one location to another location. The rock
materials eroded and transported will not travel continuously, it will come to rest
temporarily in differentlocalities or permanently in other regions. The geologic process of
deposition or sedimentation is the laying down of sediment carried by any agent of
erosion. Deposition of mechanically transported sediments occurs when the energy
causing the transportation of sediments becomes insufficient to move further.
Aggradation is the process of increase in land elevation or raising of any land surface as a
result of the continuous deposition of layers of sediments
INTERNAL EARTH PROCESSES

• There are three different types of geologic processes of internal origin. These are:
• 1) Diastrophism (Earth Movements)
• a) Orogeny or orogenic processes :
• b) Epeirogeny or epeirogenic processes :

• 2) Magmatism (Magmatic or igneous activity)

• 3) Metamorphism
DIASTROPHISM

• Diastrophism involves all movements of the crust produced by earth forces, including the
formation of ocean basins, continents, plateaus and mountain ranges. The uplift and
depression of land areas and sea floors; and mountain building activities also constitute a
part of diastrophism process. It is an internal geological process of deformation of earth’s
crust by natural processes. There are two kinds of diastrophic processes:
• a) Orogeny or orogenic processes
• b) Epeirogeny or epeirogenic processes
OROGENY AND EPEIROGENY OR EPEIROGENIC
PROCESSES
• a) Orogeny or orogenic processes : Involves mountain building through severe
deformation of rocks along narrow belts of earth’s crust.
• b) Epeirogeny or epeirogenic processes : Involves broad regional uplifting or warping of
extensive portions of the earth’s crust, such as the stable interior portions of continents
generally called craton. Epeirogeny takes place over broad, non-linear areas and the
process is relatively slow and results in relatively mild deformation of the crustal layers.
2) MAGMATISM (MAGMATIC OR IGNEOUS
ACTIVITY)
• The process of development, movement and solidification of magma giving rise to
igneous rocks is termed as magmatism. This includes intrusion of magmas and extrusion
of lavas.
3) METAMORPHISM

• Metamorphism is an internal process of transformation of pre-existing rocks into new

types by the action of heat, pressure and chemically active migrating fluids. It
• involves mineralogical, textural and structural adjustments of solid rocks to physical and
chemical conditions which have been imposed at depth far below the surface zones of
weathering
1. Internal processes arise from the Earth's interior, which are most visible in the
movement of the lithospheric plate.
THE INTERNAL PROCESSES
2. Internal processes such as volcanoes and earthquakes are examples triggered by
TAKING PLACE IN THE INTERIOR
disturbances in the earth's crust.
•
OF THE EARTH:
Volcanic eruption:
1. A volcanic eruption is when lava and gas are released from a volcano—
sometimes explosively.
2. Volcanoes eruption occurs as a result of pressure and density.
3. The magma rises due to its lower density compared to the surrounding rocks i.e
air bubbles in syrup.
4. The magma's density and the weight of the rocks above it will decide whether it
rises to the surface or to a depth.
• Earthquake:
1. An earthquake is an intense shaking of the Earth's surface caused by movements
in the Earth's outermost layer.
2. When two blocks of the earth slide past one another, it results in the occurrence of
an earthquake.
3. When seismic waves travel across the world, they tend to shake the land and
everything on it, whereas when they hit the earth's surface, they shake the ground
INTERNAL LAYERS OF THE EARTH
Most of what is known about the earth interiors comes from the study of seismic
waves from earthquakes. As seismic waves passes through the earth. The speed of
the seismic waves depends on density so the speed changes has it passes through
different media, The seismic waves are reflected like rays of light, may bend when
they pass through a medium.
INTERNAL LAYERS OF THE EARTH
The Earth is made up of three main layers: crust, mantle, and
Core
1. based on studying the velocity of seismic waves that
pass through the Earth, we subdivide the entire planet
into the crust, the mantle, and the core, named in
sequence from surface to center.
2.based on studying rock rheology (the response of rock to stress),
we subdivide the outer several hundred kilometers of the Earth into
the lithosphere and asthenosphere. The lithosphere is the outermost
of these rheologic layers and forms Earth’s rigid shell.
The lithosphere consist of the crust and the outermost mantle.
consists of about 20 discrete pieces, or plates which
slowly move relative to one another.
The asthenosphere lies entirely within the mantle, a layer that
behaves plastically (meaning that, though solid, it can flow
THE CRUST

• Continental crust is the solid, outermost layer of the Earth, lying above the mantle. It is the
outermost layer of our planet.
• Continental crust, which covers about 30% of the Earth’s surface, and Oceanic crust, which covers
the remaining 70%. The crust is sometimes called sial because its bulk composition is more felsic
compared to the oceanic crust, called sima which has a more mafic bulk composition. The crust
that includes continents is called continental crust and is about 35.4 to 70 km (22 to 43.4 mi) thick.
It consists mostly of rocks, such as granites and granodiorites that are rich in silica and aluminum,
with minor amounts of iron, magnesium, calcium, sodium, and potassium.
• it has a density of about 2.7g/cm3
THE CRUST

• The area of Earth crust is about 510 million square kilometers (197 million square miles).
Of this total, approximately 360 million square kilometers (140 million square miles), or
71 percent, is represented by oceans and marginal seas (meaning seas around the ocean’s
margin, like the Mediterranean Sea and Caribbean Sea).
• The continental crust- is made up of continents and islands comprise the remaining 29
percent, or 150 million square kilometers (58 million square miles).
THE CONTINENTAL CRUST CAN BE CATEGORIZED BASED ON

• the age
• type of rock making up the crust;
• the time when the crust was last involved in pervasive metamorphism
and deformation;
• and the style of tectonism that has affected the crust.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF CONTINENTAL CRUST.
THE OCEANIC CRUST

• The oldest oceanic crust is around 280 Ma in the eastern Mediterranean, and the oldest parts of the open
ocean are around 180 Ma on either side of the north Atlantic. It may be surprising, considering that parts of
the continental crust are close to 4,000 Ma old, that the oldest sea floor is less than 300 Ma. Of course, the
reason for this is that all sea floor older than that has been either subducted or pushed up to become part of
the continental crust. For example, there are fragments of sea floor in British Columbia that date back to
around 380 and 220 Ma, and there are similar rocks in the Canadian Shield that are older than 3 Ga.
• As one would expect, the oceanic crust is very young near the spreading ridges (Figure 18.7), and there
are obvious differences in the rate of sea-floor spreading along different ridges. The ridges in the Pacific
and southeastern Indian Oceans have wide age bands, indicating rapid spreading (approaching 10 cm/y on
each side in some areas), while those in the Atlantic and western Indian Oceans are spreading much more
slowly (less than 2 cm/y on each side in some areas).
 LAYERS OF THE OCEANIC CRUST
Layer 3, at the base, consists of
cumulate, a
rock formed from mafic
(magnesium- and iron-rich)
minerals that were the first to
crystallize in a cooling magma
and then settled to the bottom of
the magma
chamber. The cumulate is
overlain in succession by a layer
of gabbro (massive, coarse-
grained mafic igneous rock), a
layer of basaltic sheeted dikes
(dikes that intrude dikes), a layer
of pillow basalt (pillow-shaped
blobs extruded into sea water),
and a layer of pelagic sediment
(the shells of plankton and
particles of clay that settled like
snow out of sea water).
 A byssal plains: These are the broad, very flat, submarine
plains of the ocean that lie at depths of between 3 km and 5
COMMON km. They are covered with a layer of pelagic (deep-sea)
sediment.
FEATURES OF • Mid-ocean ridges: These are long, submarine mountain
ranges that rise about 2 km above the abyssal plains. Their
THE SEAFLOOR crests, therefore, generally lie at depths of about 2–3 km.
Mid-ocean ridges are roughly symmetric relative to a
AND COASTLINE central axis, along which active submarine volcanism
occurs. Midocean ridges mark the presence of a divergent
plate boundary, at which seafloor spreading occurs.
• Oceanic trenches: These are linear submarine troughs in
which water depths range from 6 to 11 km. Trenches border
an active volcanic arc and define the trace of a convergent
plate boundary at which subduction occurs. The volcanic
arc lies on the overriding plate.
MID-OCEAN RIDGE AND VOLCANIC
ACTIVITIES ON THE OCEAN FLOOR
Mid-ocean ridge:

developed at divergent plate boundaries forming a broad linear swell called oceanic ridge, or mid-ocean ridge
Characterized by:
• An elevated position
• Extensive faulting
• Numerous volcanic structures that have developed on newly formed crust
• Interconnected ridge system is the longest topographic feature on Earth’s surface: Over 70,000 kilometers in
length
• Representing 23 % of Earth’s surface
• Winds through all major oceans similar to the seam on baseball and have a widths from 1000 to 4000 km ~half area of ocean floor.
• Along the axis of some segments are deep downfaulted forming structures called rift valleys, this ridge is
segmented by large transform faults.
FEATURES ON THE OCEAN FLOOR
COMMON FEATURES OF THE SEAFLOOR AND COASTLINE

• Seamounts: Seamounts are submarine mountains that are not part of mid-ocean ridges. They
typically occur
• in chains continuous along their length with a chain of oceanic islands. The island at the end of the
chain may be an active volcano. A seamount originates as a hotspot volcanic island, formed above a
mantle plume.
• When the volcano drifts off of the plume, it becomes extinct and sinks below sea level.
• • Guyots: Guyots are flat-topped seamounts. The flat top may have been formed by the erosion of a
• seamount as the seamount became submerged, or it may be the relict of a coral reef that formed as the
• seamount became submerged.
• • Submarine plateaus: These are broad regions
• where the ocean is anomalously shallow. Submarine plateaus probably form above large hot-spots.
Submarine canyon. A deep canyon cut into the continental shelf and slope, often at the mouth of a
large river.
HYPSOMETRIC CURVE OF THE EARTH, SHOWING ELEVATION AS A FUNCTION OF
CUMULATIVE AREA.
CROSS SECTION OF EARTH’S CRUST, SHOWING VARIOUS
BATHYMETRIC FEATURES OF THE SEA FLOOR.
THE MANTLE

• The mantle is the shell of the Earth positioned between the core and the crust, with its
upper surface at a depth of 7 to 40 kilometers (4 to 24 miles) below the surface. The
heating of the mantle by the underlying core forms giant continent-sized convection cells
in its viscous material. These convection cells bring the hotter bottom material to the
mantle-crust interface, while the cooler material from the top of the mantle flows
downward.
THE CORE

• The core is the centre of the earth and is made up of two parts: the
liquid outer core and solid inner core. The outer core is made of nickel, iron
and molten rock. Temperatures here can reach up to 50,000 C.
OUTER AND INNER CORE

• The outer core is about 1,400 miles thick, and it's made mostly of a combination (called an alloy) of iron and nickel, along with
small amounts of other dense elements like gold, platinum, and uranium. These metals can, of course, be found on the surface
of Earth in solid form. In the outer core, they're in a very hot liquid form. How hot? Try between 7,000-9,000º F!
• The inner core, which is about 750 miles thick, is made primarily of iron. Unlike the outer core, the inner core is mostly solid.
Although the iron in the inner core is even hotter (10,000º F or more — as hot as the surface of the Sun!) than the outer core,
the intense pressure from the rest of the planet is so great that the iron cannot melt.
• Billions of years ago when Earth was formed, all the heaviest substances sank toward the middle of the developing planet.
Lighter, less dense substances stayed closer to the crust. That's why the inner core is comprised of some of the heaviest
materials on Earth.
• With a gigantic ball of solid metal as its core, all of Earth is magnetic. Scientists believe Earth's powerful magnetic field is
controlled by the liquid outer core. Earth's magnetic field protects us from all sorts of charged particles floating around the solar
system, including many of the Sun's harmful rays.
PLATE TECTONICS

• Plate tectonics is a geotectonic theory. It is a comprehensive set of ideas that explains the
development of regional geologic features, such as the distinction between oceans and
continents, the origin of mountain belts, and the distribution of earthquakes, volcanoes,
and rock types. Acceptance of plate tectonics represented a revolution in geology, for it
led to the inevitable conclusion that Earth’s surface is mobile— the map of the planet
constantly changes (though very
• slowly).
 THEORY OF
PLATE
TECTONICS
3. Crustal plates move about
1-10 cm/yr.
4. Plates float on the molten magma of the
Asthenosphere.
5. The driving mechanism are the convection
cells within the magma in the mantle.
6. Caused by differences in temperature
between the upper and lower mantle.
Plate boundaries can be classified into
convergent, divergent, or transform
 THREE TYPES OF CONVERGENT BOUNDARIES
• Convergent boundaries between
• 1. Oceanic/continental mashups. Continental
lithosphere is too buoyant to subduct deeply,
so rather than a subduction zone and trench
these boundaries encompass a thick mess of
folded, piled-up crust. This compression
results in massive mountain belts rather than
the volcanic arcs powered by subduction-
zone magma in the other two cases.
1. Oceanic/Continental Convergent Boundaries
Where oceanic and continental plates collide, the former subducts
beneath the latter because ocean crust – rich in iron and magnesium –
is denser than continental rock. Here again a subduction zone occurs,
as does a volcanic arc that develops on the continental side of the
boundary; in between, sediments sloughed up against the continental
margin form an accretionary wedge.
The western coast of the Americas – part of the Pacific Ring of
Fire, named for the Pacific basin’s energetic volcanic and seismic
turmoil – hosts this type of tectonic convergence. Along the Pacific
Northwest coast, for example, oceanic plates subducting beneath the
North American Plate create the Cascadia Subduction Zone, fueling the
Cascade Range volcanoes; the Nazca (and, to a lesser extent, Antarctic)
plate subducting under the South American Plate, meanwhile, uplifted
the Andes and peppered that towering range with volcanoes. Both
regions are vulnerable to severe earthquakes associated with this
intense plate collision.
Continent-Oceanic Crust Collision
• Called SUBDUCTION
 2.Ocean/Ocean 3.Continent/Continent
•If the plate subducts •Older, denser plate sinks
far enough into the a little--too bouyant.
mantle, it will melt. •Land crumples into
•Volcanic Island Arc mountains.
forms, like Japan or the •a thick mess of folded,
Aleutians. piled-up crust
•Examples: Himalayas
CONTINENT- •At a convergent boundary where continental crust
pushes against oceanic crust, the oceanic crust which is
OCEANIC thinner and more dense than the continental crust, sinks
CRUST below the continental crust.
COLLISION
•The oceanic crust descends into the mantle at a rate of
centimeters per year

•Subduction is a way of recycling the oceanic crust.

Eventually the subducting slab sinks down into the
mantle to be recycled. It is for this reason that the
oceanic crust is much younger than the continental crust
which is not recycled.
 Ocean-Ocean Plate Collision
• When two oceanic plates collide, one runs over the other which causes it to
sink into the mantle forming a subduction zone.
• The subducting plate is bent downward to form a very deep depression in
the ocean floor called a trench.
• The worlds deepest parts of the ocean are found along trenches.
• E.g. The Mariana Trench is 11 km deep!
Ocean-Ocean Plate Collision

The subducting plate is bent

downward to form a very deep
depression in the ocean floor
called a trench.
 Continent-Continent Collision
• Forms mountains, e.g. European Alps, Himalayas
 Continent-Continent Collision
Himalayas
The classic example of a continental/continental convergent boundary
is the rumpled overlap where the Indian Plate drives into the Eurasian
Plate, a tectonic collision that has thrown up the greatest mountains in
the world – the Himalayas – as well as the vast, high Tibetan Plateau.
To the west, the Alps grew in similar fashion via the collision of the
African and Eurasian plates.
Divergent Boundaries
These are regions where lithospheric plates are moving
away, or diverging from each other under the sea. In
contrast to convergent boundaries that destroy old crust by
subduction, divergent boundaries create new crust through
a form of volcanism.

As plates move apart, magma wells up from beneath the

surface to fill the spaces left by the diverging plates. The
magma rises and cools in a continuous process, forming
chains of volcanic mountains and rift valleys called mid-
ocean ridges. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge was formed by this
process.

As magma cools and forms new crust, it pushes the plates

apart in a process called oceanic spreading. Oceanic
spreading is slowing pushing North America away from
Europe.
13. New crust is formed as magma
lithifies into rock, and pushes older
crust away from the fissure.
East African
Rift Valley—
the making
of an ocean

Red Sea is a
Proto-Ocean.
 RIFT VALLEY

1. Crack in Earth’s crust

2. Formed by violent
subterranean forces, causing
huge chunks of the crust to sink
between parallel fault lines and
force up molten rock in volcanic
eruptions.
3. Presence of numerous boiling
hot springs.
 FEATURES OF THE RIFT ZONES

4. Hot water rises up through the crust,

dissolving minerals out of the rock as it
flows.

5. Hot water comes in contact with colder

water causing minerals to precipitate out
forming “black smokers”.

6. Black smoke is composed of sulfide

precipitates, H2S.
FEATURES ASSOCIATED WITH RIFT VALLEYS:

• Features associated with rift valleys:

• active volcanoes, recent underwater lava flows, and hydrothermal
vent (black smokers).

• Consist of layer upon layer of basaltic rocks that have been faulted and
uplifted ~ 2-3 km high
• Mid-Atlantic Ridge has been studied more thoroughly than any other
ridge system ~ the submerged structures standing 2500-3000 m
VOLCANIC ARCS

• In addition to forming a deep trench, subduction zones produce volcanic arcs. This occurs
because, as the subducting plate descends into the mantle, the plate melts. This melted
rock then rises to the surface, producing volcanic activity along a chain that runs parallel
to the boundary. In the case of the Aleutian Trench, this rising magma has produced the
Aleutian Islands that reside between the trench and the mainland. It has also created the
Aleutian Range, which runs along the edge of the continent
ISLAND ARCS
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN VOLCANIC ARC AND
ISLAND ARC
• Volcanic Island arc • Continental Volcanic arc
1. 100s of miles long 1. Forms along the margin of a
2. Forms above a subduction zone continental

3. Forms in an ocean basin via ocean- 2. Where oceanic crust sub ducts
ocean subduction beneath continental crust.

4. Example is Aleutian Island arc off the 3. Examples are the cascade volcanoes
coast of Alaska and the Lesser Antiles
south of Puerto Rico.
 Transform Boundaries
•Plates slide
past each other.

•Example: San
Andreas Fault
 THE DEEP-SEA TRENCHES
• The creation of new lithosphere at midocean ridges is matched by the
• destruction of old lithosphere at subduction zones . Deep trenches lying at the edges of continents
or along volcanic island arcs mark the seaward boundaries of the subduction zones. As a
lithospheric plate sinks into the mantle, the line of subduction creates a deep-sea trench. While the
Pacific plate drifts toward the northwest, its leading edge dives into the mantle, forming the
deepest trenches in the world (Table 10).The Mariana Trench in the western Pacific is the lowest
point on Earth. It extends northward from the Island of Guam in the Mariana Islands and reaches a
depth of nearly 7 miles below sea level. because of their extensive volcanic activity, the associated
island arcs are regions of high heat flow and low gravity.The deep-sea trenches are regions of
intense volcanism,
THE TRENCHES

• The trenches are also sites of almost continuous earthquake activity deep in the
bowels of Earth, about 2 miles down. Plate subduction causes stresses to build into the
descending lithosphere, producing deep-seated earthquakes that outline the boundaries
of the plate
• At deep-sea trenches, created during the subduction process, magma forms when
oceanic crust that is thrust deep into the mantle melts. As the lithospheric plate
carrying the oceanic crust descends farther into Earth’s interior, it slowly breaks up and
melts as well.
• The subducted plate becomes the immediate source of molten magma for volcanic
island arcs. Behind each island arc is a marginal or a back-arc basin, a depression in
the ocean crust due to the effects of plate subduction. Steep subduction zones such as
the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific form back-arc basins, whereas shallow ones
such as the Chilean Trench off the west coast of South America do not. A classic back-
arc basin is the Sea of Japan
THE FORMATION OF VOLCANIC ISLAND ARCS BY THE SUBDUCTION OF A LITHOSPHERIC PLATE.
EARTHQUAKE

• Earthquake, any sudden shaking of the ground caused by the passage of seismic waves
through Earth’s rocks. Seismic waves are produced when some form of energy stored in
Earth’s crust is suddenly released, usually when masses of rock straining against one
another suddenly fracture and “slip.” Earthquakes occur most often along geologic faults,
narrow zones where rock masses move in relation to one another.
• Earth’s major earthquakes occur mainly in belts coinciding with the margins of
tectonic plates.
 PLATE TECTONICS AND
IGNEOUS ACTIVITY
• Igneous activity along plate margins
• Mid-Ocean Ridges – Basaltic Pillow Lavas
• Great volumes of volcanic rock produced along
oceanic ridges – New ocean floor
• Mechanism of spreading or “rifting”
• Lithosphere pulls apart and thins
• Less pressure results in partial melting in mantle

http://www.archipelago.nu/SKARGARD/ENGELSKA/ICELAND/surtsey.htm
 HTTP://VOLCANOES.USGS.GOV/PRODUCTS/PGLOSSARY/ANCIENTSEQ.HTML

Basaltic Pillow Lavas

PLATE TECTONICS AND IGNEOUS
ACTIVITY
•
Igneous activity along Subduction zones
• Descending plate partially melts
• Magma slowly moves upward
• Rising magma can form either
• A Volcanic Island Arc if ocean-ocean plate
collision (Aleutians, Japan, etc.)
• A Continental Volcanic Arc if ocean-
continent plate collision (Sierra Nevada)
 PLATE TECTONICS AND
MAGMATISM
• Intraplate volcanism
• Associated with plumes of heat in mantle
• Form localized volcanic regions in the
overriding plate called a hot spot
• Produces basaltic magma sources in
oceanic crust (Hawaii)
• Produces granitic magma sources in
continental crust (Yellowstone Park)
• These differences are predicted by a
Crust-Melting model of Granite
generation
 Convergent Boundaries
• There are three styles of convergent plate boundaries
• Continent-continent collision
• Continent-oceanic crust collision
• Ocean-ocean collision
Subduction

• Oceanic lithosphere subducts

underneath the continental
lithosphere
• Oceanic lithosphere heats and
dehydrates as it subsides
• The melt rises forming
volcanism
• E.g. The Andes
 Transform Boundaries
• Where plates slide past each other

Above: View of the San Andreas

transform fault
• Magma is generated from mantle material at several plate tectonics situations by three types of melting:
decompression melting, flux melting, or heat-induced melting.
• Magma composition is determined by differences in the melting temperatures of the mineral components
(Bowen’s Reaction Series).
• The processes affecting magma composition include partial melting, magmatic differentiation, assimilation,
and collision.
• Volcanoes come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, and are classified by a multiple factors, including
magma composition, and plate tectonic activity.
• Because volcanism presents serious hazards to human civilization, geologists carefully monitor volcanic
activity to mitigate or avoid the dangers it presents.
• Felsic refers to a predominance of the light-colored (felsic) minerals feldspar and silica in the form of quartz. These lightcolored minerals have more silica
as a proportion of their overall chemical formula. Minor amounts of dark-colored (mafic) minerals like amphibole and biotite mica may be present as well.
Felsic igneous rocks are rich in silica (in the 65-75% range, meaning the rock would be 65-75% weight percent SiO ) and poor in iron and magnesium.
Intermediate is a composition between felsic and mafic. It usually contains roughly-equal amounts of light and dark minerals, including light grains of
plagioclase feldspar and dark minerals like amphibole. It is intermediate in silica in the 55-60% range. Mafic refers to an abundance of ferromagnesian
minerals (with magnesium and iron, chemical symbols Mg and Fe) plus plagioclase feldspar. It is mostly made of dark minerals like pyroxene and olivine,
which are rich in iron and magnesium and relatively poor in silica. Mafic rocks are low in silica, in the 45-50% range. Ultramafic refers to the extremely
mafic rocks composed of mostly olivine and some pyroxene which have even more magnesium and iron and even less silica. These rocks are rare on the
surface, but make up peridotite, the rock of the upper mantle. It is poor in silica, in the 40% or less range. On the figure above, the top row has both
plutonic and volcanic igneous rocks arranged in a continuous spectrum from felsic on the left to intermediate, mafic, and ultramafic toward the right.
Rhyolite refers to the volcanic and felsic igneous rocks and granite refer to intrusive and felsic igneous rocks. Andesite and diorite likewise refer to
extrusive and intrusive intermediate rocks (with dacite and granodiorite applying to those rocks with composition between felsic and intermediate). Basalt
and gabbro are the extrusive and intrusive names for mafic igneous rocks, and peridotite is ultramafic, with komatiite as the fine-grained extrusive
equivalent. Komatiite is a rare rock because volcanic material that comes directly from the mantle is not common, although some examples can be found
in ancient Archean rocks [2]. Nature rarely has sharp boundaries and the classification and naming of rocks often impose what appears to be sharp
boundary names onto a continuous spectrum.
 THE ROCK CYCLE
• Igneous rocks, as well as other types of rocks, on Earth’s surface was exposed to weathering and erosion, which produces
sediments.
• Weathering is the physical and chemical breakdown of rocks into smaller fragments.
• Erosion is the removal of those fragments from their original location.
• The broken-down and transported fragments or grains are considered sediments, such as gravel, sand, silt, and clay.
• These sediments may be transported by streams and rivers, ocean currents, glaciers, and wind.
• Sediments come to rest in a process known as a deposition.
• As the deposited sediments accumulate—often underwater, such as in a shallow marine environment—the older sediments
get buried by the new deposits.
• The deposits are compacted by the weight of the overlying sediments and individual grains are cemented together by
minerals in groundwater.
• These processes of compaction and cementation are called lithification.
• Lithified sediments are considered a sedimentary rock, such as sandstone and shale.
• Other sedimentary rocks are made by the direct chemical precipitation of minerals rather than eroded sediments and are
known as chemical sedimentary rocks.
ROCK CYCLE CONT.

• Pre-existing rocks may be transformed into a metamorphic rock; meta- means change and
-morphos means form or shape. When rocks are subjected to extreme increases in
temperature or pressure, the mineral crystals are enlarged or altered into entirely new
minerals with similar chemical makeup. High temperatures and pressures occur in rocks
buried deep within the Earth’s crust or that come into contact with hot magma or lava. If
the temperature and pressure conditions melt the rocks to create magma and lava, the
rock cycle begins anew with the creation of new rocks.