Exogenic Processes
- Rocks change when they are exposed to the environment, causing them to break down.
- Weathering: The breaking down of rocks and minerals on Earth's surface.
Classifications:
- Mechanical/Physical: Rocks split or break into smaller pieces without changing what
they are made of. Only the size of the rock changes.
Types of Mechanical Weathering:
- Ice Wedging or Frost Action: Water leaks into cracks in rocks and freezes, breaking the
rock.
- Wetting and Drying: Rocks rich in shale and mudstone expand when wet and shrink
when dry, making the rocks fall apart.
- Roots of Plants: Plant roots grow into cracks in rocks, wedging the rock apart.
- Burrowing Animals: Animals dig holes in the soil, letting wind and water reach the
bedrock and weather it.
- Sheet Jointing: Happens when a rock body expands because pressure is removed.
- Chemical: Complex processes that change the minerals in rocks into different
substances (also known as decomposition).
Types of Chemical Weathering:
- Hydrolysis: Water and minerals combine to form a type of clay.
- Oxidation: Happens when oxygen reacts with other substances.
- Acidic Rainwater: Carbonic acid in rainwater seeps into cracks in rocks and reacts with
the minerals.
- Erosion: The movement of earth materials by natural agents.
Agents of Erosion:
1. Glaciers: Remove and deposit earth materials.
2. Volcanoes: Erupt and spread materials from inside the Earth.
3. Earthquakes: Massive movements of rocks that wear away and move material.
4. Gravity: Pulls rocks and soil down slopes.
5. Tornadoes and Hurricanes: Strong winds move materials.
6. Wind: Erodes materials through abrasion, deflation, and deposition.
7. Water: Streams and waves remove and carry weathered materials.
Endogenic Processes
- People have always wondered about the Earth’s features like plains, mountains, and
volcanoes. James Hutton is known as the founder of modern geology for his work in
explaining these phenomena.
- Diastrophism: All movements of the solid parts of the Earth.
- Volcanism: One of the main forces that constantly change the Earth’s surface.
How are volcanoes formed?
- As a plate moves slowly across a hot spot, a chain of volcanoes can form.
Inside the volcano:
- A chamber where melted rock, called magma, collects.
Continental Drift Theory:
- Published by Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist. He explained that there was once
a supercontinent called “Pangea.”
- Pangea split into two: the Northern Hemisphere (Laurasia) and the Southern Hemisphere
(Gondwanaland).
Evidences:
- Jigsaw fit of continents: Pangea broke up a long time ago, and the continents moved
to their current positions.
Mountain Ranges: The Appalachians in the eastern United States and Canada are similar
to mountain ranges in eastern Greenland, Ireland, Great Britain, and Norway. They likely
formed as a single mountain range that was separated.
Fossils: Wegener suggested that organisms lived side by side, but the lands moved apart
after they died and became fossils.
Plate Tectonics Theory: A geological theory explaining that earthquakes, volcanic activity,
and mountain building are caused by the movement of rigid blocks called plates.
Plate Boundaries: Regions where plates meet.
- Convergent: Plates collide.
- Divergent: Plates move away from each other.
- Transform Fault: Plates rub or slip past one another.
Faulting: Faults are fractures in the Earth's crust.
Types of Faults:
- Normal Faults: Occur in response to pulling or tension.
- Reverse Faults: Occur in response to compression.
- Strike-Slip Fault: Occurs in response to either type of stress.
- Folds: Geologic structures formed by layers of rocks being bent or folded.
- Axial Plane: An imaginary surface that divides a fold as symmetrically as possible.
- Limbs: Areas on either side of the curved, hinged zone that stick out like arms or
legs.
Types of Folds:
- Anticline: The layers of rock resemble an arch or upside-down letter V.
- Syncline: The layers of rock form a letter V or U, resembling a trough.
- Monocline: Only has one limb, resembling half of an anticline.
- Seafloor Spreading: The plates on opposite sides of the rift valley are moving
away from each other.
Relative Dating
- A method used to determine the order of events, which rocks or fossils are older or
younger without knowing the exact ages in years.
Key idea: Which came first?
Based on the Law of Superposition: In undisturbed rock layers, the oldest layers are at
the bottom, and the youngest are at the top.
- Uses index fossils to compare rock layers.
Used for:
- Comparing ages of fossils and rock layers.
- Understanding the sequence of geological events.
Absolute Dating
- A method that determines the actual age of rock, fossil, or artifact in years.
Key idea: How old is it exactly?
- Uses radioactive decay of isotopes to measure how long a material has been
around.
- Scientists calculate age based on the half-life.
Used for:
- Finding the exact age of rocks or fossils.
- Studying Earth's formation and evolution.
Geological Time Scale
- A system scientists use to organize and understand Earth’s history. It divides the
planet’s 4.6 billion-year history into different units of time based on major events.
Major Divisions
1. Eon: The largest division of geological time.
- Covers billions of years.
- Represents the biggest changes in Earth’s history, like the formation of the planets
or the appearance of complex life.
- Examples: Hadean, Archean, Proterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic.
2. Era: A subdivision of an eon, lasting hundreds of millions of years.
3. Period: A division of an era, lasting tens of millions of years.
- Examples: Jurassic Period, Carboniferous Period.
4. Epoch: A subdivision of a period, lasting millions of years.
5. Age: The smallest division of geological time.
- Specific rock or fossils time units.