Geology of Planet Earth
GEOL - 101
Picture of Earth
taken from
Apollo 17
Text: Physical Geology, by Plummer, McGeary & Carlson
Physical Geology Concepts
Earth’s Systems
Atmosphere
the gases that
envelop the Earth
Hydrosphere
water on or near
the Earth’s surface
Biosphere
all living or
once-living materials
Geosphere
the solid rocky Earth
Geology in Today’s World
• Geology - The scientific study of the Earth
– Physical Geology is the study of Earth’s materials,
changes of the surface and interior of the Earth, and the
forces that cause those changes
• Practical Aspects of Geology
– Natural resources
– Geological hazards
– Environmental protection
Chino Hills Earthquake
July 29 (Tuesday), 2008, 11:42 am
* Magnitude 5.4
* Depth was 8.5 miles
* Felt in Las Vegas, NV
* Produced 40+ aftershocks
near the intersection of 3 faults:
1. Whittier Fault (strike-slip)
2. Chino Hills Fault (dips soutj)
3. Peralta Fault (dips north)
*Main shock most likely produced by
oblique slip (part thrust, strike-slip)
3-D animation movie was produced by undergraduate interns at SCEC.
Caltech animation (blue is downward motion of Earth's surface)
Chino Hills
Earthquake
Rupture animation: Caltech
Southern California SHAKEOUT Drill
November 13, 2008, 10:00 am
Animation:
For a potential 7.8 Eq
along locked zone of the
San Andreas
-ground velocity
Millions of people in homes, schools, businesses & public places will
Drop, Cover, and Hold
To prepare for a possible large earthquake expected for southern Ca.
Go to http://www.shakeout.org/drill/ to be counted in drill and learn about safety.
Practical Aspects of Geology
• Natural Resources
– All manufactured objects
depend on Earth’s resources
– Useful geological resources
are mined or extracted
– If it can’t be grown,
it must be mined
– Most resources are limited in
quantity and non-renewable
Resource Extraction and
Environmental Protection
• Coal Mining
– Careless mining can release
acids into groundwater
• Petroleum Resources
– Removal, transportation
and waste disposal can
damage the environment Alaska pipeline
• Dwindling resources can encourage disregard for
ecological damage caused by extraction activities
Geologic Hazards
• Earthquakes
– Shaking can damage buildings
and break utility lines; large
undersea quakes may generate
tsunamis
• Volcanoes
– Ash flows and mudflows can
overwhelm populated areas
Move: Mount St. Helens
Mt Pinatubo, Philippines,
1991
Geologic Hazards
• Landslides, floods, and wave erosion
Movie: Banda Aceh Tsunami
Sumatra Earthquake: Seafloor Rupture
Coastline offshore Sumatra at earthquake epicenter. Green region center shows slide.
Theory of
Plate Tectonics
• Continental Drift Hypothesis
– Originally proposed (early 20th cent.) to explain the “fit of continents”,
matching rock types and fossils.
– Insufficient evidence found for driving force;
hypothesis initially rejected
Plate Tectonics Theory
– Included new understanding of the seafloor and explanation of driving force
– Describes lithosphere as being broken into plates that are in motion
– Explains origin and distribution of volcanoes, fault zones and mountain belts
Tectonic Plates & Plate Boundaries
• Divergent boundaries
Plates move apart
• Transform boundaries
Plates slide past one another
• Convergent boundaries
Plates move toards each other
Earth’s Interior and
Tectonic Plates
• Mechanical Layers
– Lithosphere (~100 km thick)
• Rigid/brittle outer shell of Earth
• Composed of both crust and uppermost mantle
• Makes up Earth’s tectonic “plates”
– Asthenosphere
• Plastic (capable of flow) zone on which the lithosphere “floats”
Tectonic Plate Boundaries
Divergent boundaries
– Plates move apart
– Magma rises, cools and forms new lithosphere
– Typically expressed as mid-oceanic ridges
Tectonic Plate Boundaries
Transform boundaries
– Plates slide past one another
– Fault zones, earthquakes
mark plate boundaries
– San Andreas fault in California
San Andreas Fault,
Carizzo Plain, Central Ca
Tectonic Plate Boundaries
India-Eurasia Collision
Convergent boundaries
– Plates move toward each other
– Mountain belts and volcanoes common
– Oceanic plates may sink into mantle along a subduction
zone, typically marked by a deep ocean trench
The Earth's Interior
• Earth’s Heat Engines
– External (energy from the Sun)
• Primary driver of atmospheric (weather) and
hydrospheric (ocean currents) circulation
• Controls weathering of rocks at Earth’s surface
– Internal (heat moving from the hot interior
to the cooler exterior)
• Primary driver of most geospheric phenomena
(volcanism, magmatism, tectonism)
Plate Tectonics, Mantle Convection, and Plumes
* Subducting plates cool the Earth's mantle
* Heat from the core causes formation of
mantle plumes
Weeraratne and Manga, 1998
Earth’s Interior
mantle Compositional Layers
– Crust (~7-70m thick)
• Very thin outer rocky
shell of Earth
– Mantle (~2900 km thick)
• Solid interior that
flows slowly over time
– Core (~3400 km radius)
• Outer core – liquid iron
• Inner core - solid iron
The Earth's total radius is 6480 km
Geology at Macro and Micro Scales
Geologists study tectonic activity at plate boundaries
using surface observables such as:
- Rock and mineral formation
Three types of rocks:
- Sedimentary rocks
- Igneous rocks
- Metamorphic rocks
Each rock is made up of minerals, atoms
and elements with an atomic structure.
What is the Age of the Earth ?
Acasta gneiss, N. Canada
* The oldest rocks found on Earth are from continental cratons
(e.g. Slave craton in northern Canada ~4.1 Ba)
* Meteorites from the Moon help us estimate the true
age of the Earth ~4.6 Billion years old (Ba).
Geologic Time
- Geologic processes occur gradually
over millions of years
- Changes imperceptible in our lifetime
- Best estimates for age of Earth is
~ 4.56 billion years
History of Life
- 544 million years ago (Ma): Complex life forms
- 65 Ma: Dinosaurs became extinct “ Nothing hurries geology”
- Mark Twain
- Only a few Ma : Humans came on the seen
