Topic Introduction

Geology is an earth science concerned with the solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change
over time.
Modern geology significantly overlaps all other earth sciences, including hydrology and the atmospheric sciences, and so is treated as
one major aspect of integrated earth system science and planetary science.
Geology describes the structure of the Earth on and beneath its surface, and the processes that have shaped that structure.
It also provides tools to determine the relative and absolute ages of rocks found in a given location, and also to describe the histories
of those rocks. By combining these tools, geologists are able to chronicle the geological history of the Earth as a whole, and also to
demonstrate the age of the Earth.
Geology provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and the Earth's past climates.
Topic Branches of Geology
Economic geology
Economic geology is a branch of geology that deals with aspects of economic minerals that humankind uses to fulfill various needs.
Economic minerals are those extracted profitably for various practical uses. Economic geologists help locate and manage the Earth's
natural resources, such as petroleum and coal, as well as mineral resources, which include metals such as iron, copper, and uranium.
Mining geology
Mining geology consists of the extractions of mineral resources from the Earth. Some resources of economic interests include
gemstones, metals such as gold and copper, and many minerals such as asbestos, perlite, mica, phosphates, zeolites, clay, pumice,
quartz, and silica, as well as elements such as sulfur, chlorine, and helium.
Petroleum geology
Petroleum geologists study the locations of the subsurface of the Earth that can contain extractable hydrocarbons, especially petroleum
and natural gas. Because many of these reservoirs are found in sedimentary basins, they study the formation of these basins, as well as
their sedimentary and tectonic evolution and the present-day positions of the rock units.
Engineering geology
Engineering geology is the application of the geologic principles to engineering practice for the purpose of assuring that the geologic
factors affecting the location, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of engineering works are properly addressed.
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In the field of civil engineering, geological principles and analyses are used in order to ascertain the mechanical principles of the
material on which structures are built. This allows tunnels to be built without collapsing, bridges and skyscrapers to be built with
sturdy foundations, and buildings to be built that will not settle in clay and mud.
Hydrology and environmental issues
Geology and geologic principles can be applied to various environmental problems such as stream restoration, the restoration of
brown fields, and the understanding of the interaction between natural habitat and the geologic environment. Groundwater hydrology,
or hydrogeology, is used to locate groundwater, which can often provide a ready supply of uncontaminated water and is especially
important in arid regions, and to monitor the spread of contaminants in groundwater wells. Geologists also obtain data through
stratigraphy, boreholes, core samples, and ice cores. Ice cores and sediment cores are used to for paleoclimate reconstructions, which
tell geologists about past and present temperature, precipitation, and sea level across the globe. These datasets are our primary source
of information on global climate change outside of instrumental data.
Natural hazards
Geologists and geophysicists study natural hazards in order to enact safe building codes and warning systems that are used to prevent
loss of property and life. Examples of important natural hazards that are pertinent to geology (as opposed those that are mainly or only
pertinent to meteorology) are:

Avalanches, Earthquakes, Floods, Landslides and debris flows ,River channel migration and avulsion, Liquefaction, Sinkholes,
Subsidence
Topic The geological history of Earth (formation of earth)
It follows the major events in Earth's past based on the geological time scale, a system of chronological measurement based on the
study of the planet's rock layers (stratigraphy). Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago by accretion from the solar nebula, a disk-
shaped mass of dust and gas left over from the formation of the Sun, which also created the rest of the Solar System.
Earth was initially molten due to extreme volcanism and frequent collisions with other bodies. Eventually, the outer layer of the planet
cooled to form a solid crust when water began accumulating in the atmosphere. The Moon formed soon afterwards, possibly as a
result of the impact of a planetoid with the Earth. Out gassing and volcanic activity produced the primordial atmosphere. Condensing
water vapor, augmented by ice delivered from comets, produced the oceans.
As the surface continually reshaped itself over hundreds of millions of years, continents formed and broke apart. They migrated across
the surface, occasionally combining to form a supercontinent. Roughly 750 million years ago, the earliest-known supercontinent

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Rodinia, began to break apart. The continents later recombined to form Pannotia, 600 to 540 million years ago, then finally Pangaea,
which broke apart 200 million years ago.
The present pattern of ice ages began about 40 million years ago, and then intensified at the end of the Pliocene. The Polar Regions
have since undergone repeated cycles of glaciation and thaw, repeating every 40,000–100,000 years. The last glacial period of the
current ice age ended about 10,000 years ago.
Topic

The internal structure of the Earth

The structure of Earth can be defined in two ways: by mechanical properties such as rheology, or chemically. Mechanically, it can be
divided into lithosphere, asthenosphere, mesospheric mantle, outer core, and the inner core.

Chemically, Earth can be divided into the crust, upper mantle, lower mantle, outer core, and inner core. The geologic component
layers of Earth are at the following depths below the surface:

Crust
It is the uppermost shell of the earth that covers the rocks of the interior thinly. Its thickness over the oceanic areas is generally 5 to 10
kms; whereas on the continental areas it is about 35 kms and the thickness ranges from 55 to 70 kms in orogenic belts. The
Mohorovicic discontinuity marks its lower boundary.

In the continental regions, the crust is divided in to two layers: the upper layer sial and the lower one sima.
i.Sial. It consists of all types of rocks, igneous sedimentary and metamorphic. Which are exposed on the land surface? This layer is
rich in silica and alumunium. The roks in this layer are granitic to granodioritic.
The Conrad discontinuity wcich is located at a depth of 11 kms separates the sial layer from the underlying sima layer.

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ii.Sima. It is also called lower continental crust. Its thickness is about 22kms. This layer is rich in silica and magnesim and basaltic in
composition.
Mantle

The second major part of the earth is the mantle which is the source-region of most of the earth’s internal energy and of forces
responsible for ocean-floor spreading, continental drift, orogeny and major earthquakes. The mantle extends from below the
mohrovicic discontinuity (which separates it from the overlying crust) up to a depth of 2900 kms. Thus, its thickness is about 2865
kms. It forms about 83 per cent of the earth by volume and 68 per-cent by mass.

Since the P and S waves record a definite increase in their velocities with depth, it is logically assumed that the material of the mantle
is denser than that of the overlying crustal rocks. The material is olivine-pyroxene complex, which exists in a solid state. It is believed
that the upper mantle has a mix is of 3 parts of ultramafic rocks and one part of basalt. This mix is known as pyrolite.

The upper-mantle extends up to a depth of 1000 kms. The lower mantle extends from 1000 kms to the core boundary (Gutenberg-
weichert discontinuity).

The upper mantle is consisting of two layers which are distinguished on the basis of velocity of propagation of seismic waves. The
upper layer of the upper mantle lying between mohorovicic discontinuity and a boundary at a depth of 410 km is characterised by a
decrease in the seismic velocity. This layer is called the Gutenberg layer. The crust and the upper part of the Gutenberg layer together
constitute what is known as lithosphere. The underlain by “asthenosphere’ which is a layer of virtually of no strenghth to resist
deformation and it is the low seismic velocity layer. The asthenosphere is situated somewhat between70 to 220 km depth. To be more
precise, the lithosphere is separated from the rest of the mantle by the asthenosphere.

The lower mantle is about 1900 kms thick, and consists of two parts: i) 1000kms to 2700kms and ii) 2700kms to 2900kms.

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 The Core

It is the innermost part of the earth. It is separated from the mantle by the Guttenberg-weichert discontinuity and extends upto the
very centre of the earth. It constitutes around 17 percent of the volume and 34 percent of the mass of the earth.

Since the S-waves do not pass through the outer core, no information about the inner core is provided by them. It only suggests that
the core, at least in its outer part, is fluid-like in its character because it does not transmit the S. waves and because it retards the
velocity of P- waves from 12.6 to 8.4 km/sec.

The pressure and temperature in the core are both very high. The pressure is assumed to be over three million atmospheres and the
temperature is around 6000℃. There is a sharp change in the density from about 5.5*103kg m-3 in the mantle to about 10.6*103kg m-3
in the core, while at the center of the core the density increases to 12 or 13*103kg m-3.

The core consists of three parts:

1Outer-core 2 Middle-core and 3 Inner-core.

1. Outer core. It extends from 2900km to 4982kms. It is considered to be in a state of homogeneous fluid. It does not transmit S-
waves.
2. Middle core: It is a transition layer that extends from 4982kms to 5121kms. The material is in a fluid to semifluid state.
3. Inner core: It extends from 5121kms up to the centre of the earth i.e.6371kms. The inner core is assumed to be in a solid state,
with a density of about 13.It is believed to contain metallic nickel and iron and is called ‘Nife’. Its thickness is about 250kms.

Terms

Mafic is an adjective describing a silicate mineral or igneous rock that is rich in magnesium and iron, and is thus a portmanteau of
magnesium and ferric.

Granite contains mostly potassium feldspars and has a low percentage of dark iron and magnesium minerals. In
contrast, granodiorite contains more plagioclase (calcium and sodium) feldspar than potassium feldspar and has more
dark minerals. Thus it is a darker color than granite
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Topic Mineral
It is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound that occurs naturally in pure form. Minerals are most commonly associated with
rocks due to the presence of minerals within rocks. These rocks may consist of one type of mineral, or may be an aggregate of two or
more different types of minerals, spacially segregated into distinct phases. Compounds that occur only in living beings are usually
excluded, but some minerals are often biogenic (such as calcite) or are organic compounds in the sense of chemistry (such as mellite).
Moreover, living beings often synthesize inorganic minerals (such as hydroxylapatite) that also occur in rocks.
Basic definition
One definition of a mineral encompasses the following criteria:

1. Formed by a natural process (anthropogenic compounds are excluded).

2. Stable or metastable at room temperature (25 °C). In the simplest sense, this means the mineral must be solid.
3. Represented by a chemical formula. Minerals are chemical compounds, and as such they can be described by fixed or a
variable formula
4. Ordered atomic arrangement. This generally means crystalline; however, crystals are also periodic, so the broader criterion is
used instead.
5. Usually abiogenic (not resulting from the activity of living organisms).

Chemistry (composition)

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The abundance and diversity of minerals is controlled directly by their chemistry, in turn dependent on elemental abundances in the
Earth. The majority of minerals observed are derived from the Earth's crust. Eight elements account for most of the key components of
minerals, due to their abundance in the crust. These eight elements, summing to over 98% of the crust by weight, are, in order of
decreasing abundance: oxygen, silicon, aluminium, iron, magnesium, calcium, sodium and potassium. Oxygen and silicon are by far
the two most important – oxygen composes 47% of the crust by weight, and silicon accounts for 28%.

The minerals that form are directly controlled by the bulk chemistry of the parent body. For example, a magma rich in iron and
magnesium will form mafic minerals, such as olivine and the pyroxenes; in contrast, a more silica-rich magma will crystallize to form
minerals that incorporate more SiO2, such as the feldspars and quartz. In a limestone, calcite or aragonite (both CaCO3) form because
the rock is rich in calcium and carbonate. A corollary is that a mineral will not be found in a rock whose bulk chemistry does not
resemble the bulk chemistry of a given mineral with the exception of trace minerals. For example, kyanite, Al2SiO5 forms from the
metamorphism of aluminium-rich shales; it would not likely occur in aluminium-poor rock, such as quartzite.

Change in composition

Changes in temperature and pressure and composition alter the mineralogy of a rock sample. Changes in composition can be caused
by processes such as weathering or metasomatism (hydrothermal alteration). Changes in temperature and pressure occur when the host
rock undergoes tectonic or magmatic movement into differing physical regimes. Changes in thermodynamic conditions make it
favourable for mineral assemblages to react with each other to produce new minerals; as such, it is possible for two rocks to have
identical or very similar bulk rock chemistry without having a similar mineralogy. This process of mineralogical alteration is related to
the rock cycle. An example of a series of mineral reactions is illustrated as follows.

Orthoclase feldspar (KAlSi3O8) is a mineral commonly found in granite, a plutonic igneous rock. When exposed to weathering, it
reacts to form kaolinite (Al2Si2O5(OH)4, a sedimentary mineral, and silicic acid):

2 KAlSi3O8 + 5 H2O + 2 H+ → Al2Si2O5(OH)4 + 4 H2SiO3 + 2 K+

Under low-grade metamorphic conditions, kaolinite reacts with quartz to form pyrophyllite (Al2Si4O10(OH)2):

Al2Si2O5(OH)4 + SiO2 → Al2Si4O10(OH)2 + H2O

As metamorphic grade increases, the pyrophyllite reacts to form kyanite and quartz:

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 Al2Si4O10(OH)2 → Al2SiO5 + 3 SiO2 + H2O

Alternatively, a mineral may change its crystal structure as a consequence of changes in temperature and pressure without reacting.
For example, quartz will change into a variety of its SiO2 polymorphs, such as tridymite and cristobalite at high temperatures, and
coesite at high pressures.

Physical properties

Classifying minerals ranges from simple to difficult. A mineral can be identified by several physical properties, some of them being
sufficient for full identification without equivocation.

Hardness
The hardness of a mineral defines how much it can resist scratching. This physical property is controlled by the chemical composition
and crystalline structure of a mineral. A mineral's hardness is not necessarily constant for all sides, which is a function of its structure;
crystallographic weakness renders some directions softer than others.
The scale is provided below:

Mohs hardness Mineral Chemical formula

1 Talc Mg3Si4O10(OH)2

2 Gypsum CaSO4·2H2O

3 Calcite CaCO3

4 Fluorite CaF2

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5 Apatite Ca5(PO4)3(OH,Cl,F)

6 Orthoclase KAlSi3O8

7 Quartz SiO2

8 Topaz Al2SiO4(OH,F)2

9 Corundum Al2O3

10 Diamond C

Lustre
It indicates how light reflects from the mineral's surface, with regards to its quality and intensity. There are numerous qualitative
terms used to describe this property, which are split into metallic and non-metallic categories. Metallic and sub-metallic minerals have
high reflectivity like metal; examples of minerals with this lustre are galena and pyrite. Non-metallic lustres include: adamantine, such
as in diamond; vitreous, which is a glassy lustre very common in silicate minerals; pearly, such as in talc and apophyllite; resinous,
such as members of the garnet group; silky which is common in fibrous minerals such as asbestiform chrysotile.
Colour and streak

Colour is the most obvious property of a mineral, but it is often non-diagnostic. It is caused by electromagnetic radiation interacting
with electrons (except in the case of incandescence, which does not apply to minerals). Two broad classes of elements (idiochromatic
and allochromatic) are defined with regards to their contribution to a mineral's colour: Idiochromatic elements are essential to a
mineral's composition; their contribution to a mineral's colour is diagnostic. Examples of such minerals are malachite (green) and
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azurite (blue). In contrast, allochromatic elements in minerals are present in trace amounts as impurities. An example of such a
mineral would be the ruby and sapphire varieties of the mineral corundum. The colours of pseudochromatic minerals are the result of
interference of light waves. Examples include labradorite and bornite.

Cleavage, parting, fracture, and tenacity

By definition, minerals have a characteristic atomic arrangement. Weakness in this crystalline structure causes planes of weakness,
and the breakage of a mineral along such planes is termed cleavage.
The quality of cleavage can be described based on how cleanly and easily the mineral breaks; common descriptors, in order of
decreasing quality, are "perfect", "good", "distinct", and "poor".
In particularly transparent minerals, or in thin-section, cleavage can be seen as a series of parallel lines marking the planar surfaces
when viewed from the side. Cleavage is not a universal property among minerals; for example, quartz, consisting of extensively
interconnected silica tetrahedra, does not have a crystallographic weakness which would allow it to cleave. In contrast, micas, which
have perfect basal cleavage, consist of sheets of silica tetrahedra which are very weakly held together.
Specific gravity
Specific gravity numerically describes the density of a mineral. The dimensions of density are mass divided by volume with units:
kg/m3 or g/cm3. Specific gravity measures how much water a mineral sample displaces. Defined as the quotient of the mass of the
sample and difference between the weight of the sample in air and its corresponding weight in water, specific gravity is a unit less
ratio. Among most minerals, this property is not diagnostic. Rock forming minerals – typically silicates or occasionally carbonates –
have a specific gravity of 2.5–3.5.

Classification

As the composition of the Earth's crust is dominated by silicon and oxygen, silicate elements are by far the most important class of
minerals in terms of rock formation and diversity. However, non-silicate minerals are of great economic importance, especially as
ores.

Silicates minerals

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The largest grouping of minerals by far are the silicates; most rocks are composed of greater than 95% silicate minerals, and over 90%
of the Earth's crust is composed of these minerals. The two main constituents of silicates are silicon and oxygen, which are the two
most abundant elements in the Earth's crust. Other common elements in silicate minerals correspond to other common elements in the
Earth's crust, such as aluminium, magnesium, iron, calcium, sodium, and potassium. Some important rock-forming silicates include
the feldspars, quartz, olivines, pyroxenes, amphiboles, garnets, and micas.

1.Feldspars (KAlSi3O8 – NaAlSi3O8 – CaAl2Si2O8) are a group of rock-forming tecto-silicate minerals that make up about 41% of

the Earth's continental crust by weight. Feldspars crystallize from magma as veins in both intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks and
are also present in many types of metamorphic rock. Rock formed almost entirely of calcic plagioclase feldspar is known
as anorthosite. Feldspars are also found in many types of sedimentary rocks.
About 20 million tonnes of feldspar were produced in 2010, mostly by three countries: Italy (4.7 Mt), Turkey (4.5 Mt), and China (2
Mt).
Feldspar is a common raw material used in glassmaking, ceramics, and to some extent as a filler and extender in paint, plastics, and
rubber. In glassmaking, alumina from feldspar improves product hardness, durability, and resistance to chemical corrosion. In
ceramics, the alkalis in feldspar (calcium oxide, potassium oxide, and sodium oxide) act as a flux, lowering the melting temperature of
a mixture. Fluxes melt at an early stage in the firing process, forming a glassy matrix that bonds the other components of the system
together.

2. Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silicon and oxygen atoms. The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of
SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical formula of SiO2.
Quartz is the second most abundant mineral in Earth's continental crust, behind feldspar

There are many different varieties of quartz, several of which are semi-precious gemstones. Since antiquity, varieties of quartz have
been the most commonly used minerals in the making of jewelry and hardstone carvings, especially in Eurasia.

3.Olivine is a magnesium iron silicate with the formula (Mg2+, Fe2+)2SiO4. Thus, it is a type of nesosilicate or orthosilicate. The
primary component of the Earth's upper mantle, it is a common mineral in Earth's subsurface, but weathers quickly on the surface.

Olivine rock is usually harder than surrounding rock and stands out as distinct ridges in the terrain. These ridges are often dry with
little soil. Drought resistant scots pine is one of few trees that thrive on olivine rock.

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Olivine is used as a substitute for dolomite in steel works. Olivine is also used to tap blast furnaces in the steel industry, acting as a
plug, removed in each steel run.
The aluminium foundry industry uses olivine sand to cast objects in aluminium. Olivine sand requires less water than silica sands
while still holding the mold together during handling and pouring of the metal. Less water means less gas (steam) to vent from the
mold as metal is poured into the mold.

4. Pyroxenes are a group of important rock-forming  minerals found in many igneous and metamorphic rocks. Pyroxenes have the

general formula XY(Si,Al)2O6, where X represents calcium, sodium, iron (II)or magnesium and more
rarely zinc, manganese or lithium, and Y represents ions of smaller size, such as chromium, aluminium, iron (III), magnesium, cobalt,
manganese, scandium, titanium, vanadium or even iron (II). Although aluminium substitutes extensively for silicon in silicates such
as feldspars and amphiboless, the substitution occurs only to a limited extent in most pyroxenes. They share a common structure
consisting of single chains of silica tetrahedra. Pyroxenes that crystallize in the monoclinic system are known as clinopyroxenes and
those that crystallize in the orthorhombic system are known as orthopyroxenes.

5.Amphibole is an important group of silicate minerals, forming prism or needlelike crystals, composed of double

chain SiO4 tetrahedra, linked at the vertices and generally containing ions of iron and/or magnesium in their structures. Amphiboles
can be green, black, colorless, white, yellow, blue, or brown. The International Mineralogical Association currently classifies
amphiboles as a mineral super group, within which are two groups and several subgroups.

6. Garnets are a group of silicate minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives.
All species of garnets possess similar physical properties and crystal forms, but differ in chemical composition.
The different species are pyrope, almandine, spessartine, grossular (varieties of which are hessonite or cinnamon-stone
and tsavorite), uvarovite and andradite.
The garnets make up two solid solution series: pyrope-almandine-spessartine and uvarovite-grossular-andradite.

Pure crystals of garnet are still used as gemstones. The gemstone varieties occur in shades of green, red, yellow, and orange.

7.  Mica group of sheet silicate (phyllosilicate) minerals includes several closely related materials having nearly perfect basal

cleavage. All are monoclinic, with a tendency towards pseudohexagonal crystals, and are similar in chemical composition. The nearly

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perfect cleavage, which is the most prominent characteristic of mica, is explained by the hexagonal sheet-like arrangement of
its atoms.
The word mica is derived from the Latin word mica, meaning a crumb, and probably influenced by micare, to glitter. Mica is widely
distributed and occurs in igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary regimes.

Large crystals of mica used for various applications are typically mined from granitic pegmatites.
Ayurveda, the Hindu system of ancient medicine prevalent in India, includes the purification and processing of mica in preparing
Abhraka bhasma, which is employed in treating diseases of the respiratory and digestive tracts

Non-silicates:

Minerals without silicon

Sulfides

The sulfide minerals are chemical compounds of one or more metals or semimetals with sulfur; tellurium, arsenic, or selenium can
substitute for the sulfur. Sulfides tend to be soft, brittle minerals with a high specific gravity. Many powdered sulfides, such as pyrite,
have a sulfurous smell when powdered.

Sulfides are susceptible to weathering, and many readily dissolve in water; these dissolved minerals can be later redeposited, which
creates enriched secondary ore deposits.

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Many sulfide minerals are economically important as metal ores; examples include sphalerite (ZnS), an ore of zinc, galena (PbS), an
ore of lead, cinnabar (HgS), an ore of mercury, and molybdenite (MoS2, an ore of molybdenum. Pyrite (FeS 2), is the most commonly
occurring sulfide, and can be found in most geological environments

Oxides

Oxide minerals are divided into three categories: simple oxides, hydroxides, and multiple oxides.

Simple oxides are characterized by O2− as the main anion and primarily ionic bonding. cuprite (Cu2O) ,corundum (Al2O3), and
hematite (Fe2O3). rutile (TiO2) is the chief ore of titanium; other examples include cassiterite (SnO2; ore of tin), and pyrolusite (MnO2;
ore of manganese).

In hydroxides, the dominant anion is the hydroxyl ion, OH −. Bauxites are the chief aluminium ore, and are a heterogeneous mixture of
the hydroxide minerals diaspore, gibbsite, and bohmite; they form in areas with a very high rate of chemical weathering (mainly
tropical conditions).

Finally, multiple oxides are compounds of two metals with oxygen. Examples of species include spinel (MgAl2O4), chromite
(FeCr2O4), and magnetite (Fe3O4).

Halides

The halide minerals are compounds in which a halogen (fluorine, chlorine, iodine, or bromine) is the main anion. These minerals tend
to be soft, weak, brittle, and water-soluble. Common examples of halides include halite (NaCl, table salt), sylvite (KCl), fluorite
(CaF2). Halite and sylvite commonly form as evaporites, and can be dominant minerals in chemical sedimentary rocks. Cryolite,
Na3AlF6, is a key mineral in the extraction of aluminium from bauxites.

Carbonates

The carbonate minerals are those in which the main anionic group is carbonate, [CO3]2−.

Carbonates are most often formed as biogenic or chemical sediments in marine environments

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Calcite, CaCO3, can have a high magnesium impurity. Dolomite is a double carbonate, with the formula CaMg(CO 3)2. Secondary
dolomitization of limestone is common, in which calcite or aragonite are converted to dolomite; this reaction increases pore space (the
unit cell volume of dolomite is 88% that of calcite).

Ancient Egyptians carved many items out of calcite, relating it to their goddess Bast, whose name contributed to the
term alabaster because of the close association. Many other cultures have used the material for similar carved objects and applications.
High-grade optical calcite was used in World War II for gun sights, specifically in bomb sights and anti-aircraft weaponry. Also,
experiments have been conducted to use calcite for a cloak of invisibility.
Microbiologically precipitated calcite has a wide range of applications, such as soil remediation, soil stabilization and concrete repair.

Dolomite is used as an ornamental stone, a concrete aggregate, and a source of magnesium oxide, as well as in the Pidgeon process for
the production of magnesium

Sulfates

The sulfate minerals all contain the sulfate anion, [SO4]2−. They tend to be transparent to translucent, soft, and many are fragile.

The most common hydrous sulfate by far is gypsum, CaSO4⋅2H2O. It forms as an evaporite, and is associated with other evaporites
such as calcite and halite. Gypsum has very low thermal conductivity and maintains a low temperature when heated as it loses that
heat by dehydrating; as such, gypsum is used as an insulator in materials such as plaster and drywall.

Gypsum is used in a wide variety of applications:

 Gypsum board is primarily used as a finish for walls and ceilings, and is known in construction as drywall, wallboard,
sheetrock or plasterboard.
 Gypsum blocks are used like concrete blocks in building construction.
 Gypsum mortar is an ancient mortar used in building construction.

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 Plaster ingredients are used in surgical splints, casting moulds and modeling.
 Fertilizer and soil conditioner:

Phosphates

The phosphate minerals are characterized by the tetrahedral [PO4]3− unit, although the structure can be generalized, and phosphorus is
replaced by antimony, arsenic, or vanadium.

The most common phosphate is the apatite group; common species within this group are fluorapatite (Ca5(PO4)3F), chlorapatite
(Ca5(PO4)3Cl) and hydroxylapatite (Ca5(PO4)3(OH)).

Organic minerals

The Strunz classification includes a class for organic minerals. These rare compounds contain organic carbon, but can be formed by a
geologic process. For example, whewellite, CaC2O4⋅H2O is an oxalate that can be deposited in hydrothermal ore veins. While hydrated
calcium oxalate can be found in coal seams and other sedimentary deposits involving organic matter, the hydrothermal occurrence is
not considered to be related to biological activity.

Native elements

Are those that are not chemically bonded to other elements. This mineral group includes native metals, semi-metals, and non-metals,
and various alloys and solid solutions. The metals are held together by metallic bonding, which confers distinctive physical properties
such as their shiny metallic lustre, ductility and malleability, and electrical conductivity. Native elements are subdivided into groups
by their structure or chemical attributes.

The gold group, with a cubic close-packed structure, includes metals such as gold, silver, and copper. The platinum group is similar in
structure to the gold group. The iron-nickel group is characterized by several iron-nickel alloy species.

Topic Rock
Rock is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included,
its chemical composition and the way in which it is formed.

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Rocks are usually grouped into three main groups: igneous rocks, metamorphic rocks and sedimentary rocks. Rocks form the Earth's
outer solid layer, the crust.
Igneous Rock
Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word igneus, meaning of fire, from ignis meaning fire) is formed through the cooling and
solidification of magma or lava. This magma may be derived from partial melts of pre-existing rocks in either a planet's mantle or
crust. Typically, the melting of rocks is caused by one or more of three processes: an increase in temperature, a decrease in pressure,
or a change in composition.
Formation
Igneous rocks are formed when magma cools in the Earth's crust, or lava cools on the ground surface or the seabed. The metamorphic
rocks are formed when existing rocks are subjected to such large pressures and temperatures that they are transformed—something
that occurs, for example, when continental plates collide.

On the basis of formation mechanism, igneous rocks are divided into two main categories:

Plutonic or intrusive rocks result when magma cools and crystallizes slowly within the Earth's crust. A common example of this type
is granite.
intrusive igneous rocks make up the majority of igneous rocks and are formed from magma that cools and solidifies within the crust of
a planet (known as plutons), surrounded by pre-existing rock (called country rock); the magma cools slowly and, as a result, these
rocks are coarse-grained. The mineral grains in such rocks can generally be identified with the naked eye. Intrusive rocks can also be
classified according to the shape and size of the intrusive body and its relation to the other formations into which it intrudes. Typical
intrusive formations are batholiths, stocks, laccoliths, sills and dikes. When the magma solidifies within the earth's crust, it cools
slowly forming coarse textured rocks, such as granite, gabbro, or diorite.
The central cores of major mountain ranges consist of intrusive igneous rocks, usually granite. When exposed by erosion, these cores
(called batholiths) may occupy huge areas of the Earth's surface.
Intrusive igneous rocks that form at depth within the crust are termed plutonic (or abyssal) rocks and are usually coarse-grained.
Intrusive igneous rocks that form near the surface are termed subvolcanic or hypabyssal rocks and they are usually medium-grained.
Hypabyssal rocks are less common than plutonic or volcanic rocks and often form dikes, sills, laccoliths, lopoliths, or phacoliths

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Volcanic or extrusive rocks result from magma reaching the surface either as lava or fragmental ejecta, forming minerals such as
pumice or basalt.
Extrusive igneous rocks, also known as volcanic rocks, are formed at the crust's surface as a result of the partial melting of rocks
within the mantle and crust. Extrusive igneous rocks cool and solidify more quickly than intrusive igneous rocks. They are formed by
the cooling of molten magma on the earth's surface. The magma, which is brought to the surface through fissures or volcanic
eruptions, solidifies at a faster rate. Hence such rocks are smooth, crystalline and fine-grained. Basalt is a common extrusive igneous
rock and forms lava flows, lava sheets and lava plateaus. Some kinds of basalt solidify to form long polygonal columns. The Giant's
Causeway in Antrim, Northern Ireland is an example.
The molten rock, with or without suspended crystals and gas bubbles, is called magma. It rises because it is less dense than the rock
from which it was created. When magma reaches the surface from beneath water or air, it is called lava. Eruptions of volcanoes into
air are termed subaerial, whereas those occurring underneath the ocean are termed submarine. Black smokers and mid-ocean ridge
basalt are examples of submarine volcanic activity.
The volume of extrusive rock erupted annually by volcanoes varies with plate tectonic setting.
Occurrence
About 64.7% of the Earth's crust by volume consists of igneous rocks, making it the most plentiful category. Of these, 66% are basalts
and gabbros, 16% are granite, and 17% granodiorites and diorites. Only 0.6% is syenites and 0.3% peridotites and dunites. The
oceanic crust is 99% basalt, which is an igneous rock of mafic composition. Granites and similar rocks, known as meta-granitites,
form much of the continental crust.
Classification
Igneous rocks are classified according to mode of occurrence, texture, mineralogy, chemical composition, and the geometry of the
igneous body.
Over 700 types of igneous rocks have been described, most of them having formed beneath the surface of Earth's crust. These have
diverse properties, depending on their composition and the temperature and pressure conditions in which they were formed.
Classification on the mode of occurrence
a. Plutonic: as described above
b. Volcanic : as described above
Chemical classification
Igneous rocks can be classified according to chemical or mineralogical parameters.
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Chemical: total alkali-silica content (TAS diagram) for volcanic rock classification used when modal or mineralogic data is unable to
be determined due to the small grain size.

 felsic igneous rocks containing a high silica content, greater than 63% SiO2 (examples granite and rhyolite),
 intermediate igneous rocks containing between 52–63% SiO2 (example andesite and dacite),
 mafic igneous rocks have low silica 45–52% and typically high iron – magnesium content (example gabbro and basalt),
 ultramafic rock igneous rocks with less than 45% silica (examples picrite, komatiite and peridotite),
 alkalic igneous rocks with 5–15% alkali (K2O + Na2O) content or with a molar ratio of alkali to silica greater than 1:6
(examples phonolite and trachyte)

Mineralogical classification
For volcanic rocks, mineralogy is important in classifying and naming lavas. The most important criterion is the phenocryst species,
followed by the groundmass mineralogy. Often, where the groundmass is aphanitic, chemical classification must be used to properly
identify a volcanic rock.
Mineralogic contents – felsic versus mafic

 felsic rock, highest content of silicon, with predominance of quartz, alkali feldspar and/or feldspathoids: the felsic minerals;
these rocks (e.g., granite, rhyolite) are usually light coloured, and have low density.
 mafic rock, lesser content of silicon relative to felsic rocks, with predominance of mafic minerals pyroxenes, olivines and
calcic plagioclase; these rocks (example, basalt, gabbro) are usually dark coloured, and have a higher density than felsic rocks.
 ultramafic rock, lowest content of silicon, with more than 90% of mafic minerals (e.g., dunite)

Sedimentary Rock
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of small particles and subsequent cementation
of mineral or organic particles on the floor of oceans or other bodies of water at the Earth's surface. Sedimentation is the collective
name for processes that cause these particles to settle in place. The particles that form a sedimentary rock are called sediment, and may
be composed of geological detritus (minerals) or biological detritus (organic matter).

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Formation

Sedimentary rocks are formed at the earth's surface by the accumulation and cementation of fragments of earlier rocks, minerals, and
organisms or as chemical precipitates and organic growths in water (sedimentation). This process causes clastic sediments (pieces of
rock) or organic particles (detritus) to settle and accumulate, or for minerals to chemically precipitate (evaporite) from a solution. The
particulate matter then undergoes compaction and cementation at moderate temperatures and pressures (digenesis).
Before being deposited, sediments are formed by weathering of earlier rocks by erosion in a source area and then transported to the
place of deposition by water, wind, ice, mass movement or glaciers (agents of denudation).

Sedimentary rocks often contain fossils. Sedimentary rocks form under the influence of gravity and typically are deposited in
horizontal or near horizontal layers or strata and may be referred to as stratified rocks. A small fraction of sedimentary rocks deposited
on steep slopes will show cross bedding where one layer stops abruptly along an interface where another layer eroded the first as it
was laid atop the first.

Occurrence
About 7.9% of the crust by volume is composed of sedimentary rocks, with 82% of those being shales, while the remainder consists of
limestone (6%), sandstone and arkoses (12%).

Classification based on origin

Sedimentary rocks can be subdivided into four groups based on the processes responsible for their formation: clastic sedimentary
rocks, biochemical (biogenic) sedimentary rocks, chemical sedimentary rocks, and a fourth category for "other" sedimentary rocks
formed by impacts, volcanism, and other minor processes.

1. Clastic sedimentary rocks

Clastic sedimentary rocks are composed of other rock fragments that were cemented by silicate minerals. Clastic rocks are composed
largely of quartz, feldspar, rock (lithic) fragments, clay minerals, and mica; any type of mineral may be present, but they in general
represent the minerals that exist locally.
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Clastic sedimentary rocks are subdivided according to the dominant particle size.some imortant clastic sedimentary rocks are:

Shale: Shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock that forms from the compaction of silt and clay-size mineral particles that we
commonly call "mud." This composition places shale in a category of sedimentary rocks known as "mudstones." Shale is
distinguished from other mudstones because it is fissile and laminated.

Silt stone: Siltstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of silt-sized particles. It forms where water, wind, or ice deposit silt, and
the silt is then compacted and cemented into a rock.

Sand stone: Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed of sand-size grains of mineral, rock, or organic material. It also contains a
cementing material that binds the sand grains together and may contain a matrix of silt- or clay-size particles that occupy the spaces
between the sand grains.

Conglomerate:  a coarse-grained sedimentary rock composed of rounded fragments embedded in a matrix of cementing material
such as silica.

2. Biochemical sedimentary rocks

Biochemical sedimentary rocks are created when organisms use materials dissolved in air or water to build their tissue. Examples
include:

 Most types of limestone are formed from the calcareous skeletons of organisms such as corals, mollusks, and foraminifera.
 Coal, formed from plants that have removed carbon from the atmosphere and combined it with other elements to build their
tissue.
 Deposits of chert formed from the accumulation of siliceous skeletons of microscopic organisms such as radiolaria and
diatoms.

3. Chemical sedimentary rocks

Chemical sedimentary rock forms when mineral constituents in solution become supersaturated and inorganically precipitate.
Common chemical sedimentary rocks include oolitic limestone and rocks composed of evaporite minerals, such as halite (rock salt),
sylvite, baryte and gypsum.
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"Other" sedimentary rocks

This fourth miscellaneous category includes rocks formed by Pyroclastic flows, impact breccias, volcanic breccias, and other
relatively uncommon processes.

Metamorphic Rock
Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock types, in a process called metamorphism, which means "change in
form". The original rock (protolith) is subjected to heat (temperatures greater than 150 to 200 °C) and pressure (100 megapascals
(1,000 bar) or more), causing profound physical or chemical change. The protolith may be a sedimentary, igneous, or existing
metamorphic rock.
Formation
They are formed by subjecting any rock type—sedimentary rock, igneous rock or another older metamorphic rock—to different
temperature and pressure conditions than those in which the original rock was formed. This process is called metamorphism, meaning
to "change in form". The result is a profound change in physical properties and chemistry of the stone. The original rock, known as the
protolith, transforms into other mineral types or other forms of the same minerals, by recrystallization. The temperatures and pressures
required for this process are always higher than those found at the Earth's surface: temperatures greater than 150 to 200 °C and
pressures of 1500 bars.
The three major classes of metamorphic rock are based upon the formation mechanism. An intrusion of magma that heats the
surrounding rock causes contact metamorphism—a temperature-dominated transformation. Pressure metamorphism occurs when
sediments are buried deep under the ground; pressure is dominant, and temperature plays a smaller role. This is termed burial
metamorphism, and it can result in rocks such as jade. Where both heat and pressure play a role, the mechanism is termed regional
metamorphism. This is typically found in mountain-building regions.
Classification

Depending on the structure, metamorphic rocks are divided into two general categories.
Foliated metamorphic rocks
Those that possess a texture are referred to as the foliated . Schists are foliated rocks that are primarily composed of lamellar minerals
such as micas. A gneiss has visible bands of differing lightness, with a common example being the granite gneiss. Other varieties of
foliated rock include slates, phyllites, and mylonite.
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Non-foliated.
Familiar examples of non-foliated metamorphic rocks include marble, soapstone, and serpentine. This branch contains quartzite—a
metamorphosed form of sandstone—and hornfel
Foliation

Folded foliation in a metamorphic rock

The layering within metamorphic rocks is called foliation, and it occurs when a rock is being shortened along one axis during
recrystallization. This causes the platy or elongated crystals of minerals, such as mica and chlorite, to become rotated such that their
long axes are perpendicular to the orientation of shortening. These results in a banded or foliated rock, with the bands showing the
colors of the minerals that formed them.
Metamorphic rock textures
The five basic metamorphic textures with typical rock types are slaty (includes slate and phyllite; the foliation is called "slaty
cleavage"), schistose (includes schist; the foliation is called "schistosity"), gneissose (gneiss; the foliation is called "gneissosity"),
granoblastic (includes granulite, some marbles and quartzite), and hornfelsic (includes hornfels and skarn).

Occurrence

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Metamorphic rocks make up a large part of the Earth's crust and form 12% of the Earth's land surface. Some examples of metamorphic
rocks are gneiss, slate, marble, schist, and quartzite.

Topic infiltration process in different rock strata

A stratum (plural: strata) is a layer of sedimentary rock or soil, or igneous rock that was formed at the Earth's surface, with internally
consistent characteristics that distinguish it from other layers. Each layer is generally one of a number of parallel layers that lie one
upon another, laid down by natural processes. They may extend over hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of the Earth's
surface. Strata are typically seen as bands of different colored or differently structured material exposed in cliffs, road cuts, quarries,
and river banks. Individual bands may vary in thickness from a few millimeters to a kilometer or more. A band may represent a
specific mode of deposition: river silt, beach sand, coal swamp, sand dune, lava bed. 

24
 The permeability of a rock is a function of a number of factors that include the amount of pore space, the arrangement of pores, and
the amount of surface tension from grains, especially tiny (micron-sized) clay minerals that have very high surface area. The larger the
pore space, the more connected the grains and the less clay, the higher the permeability, and the more easily water flows. Conversely,
where pore space is tight and poorly connected, and there is a lot of clay, permeability is low and water cannot flow readily.
The best aquifers are often made of rocks with both high porosity and high permeability such as sandstone, but rocks with generally
lower porosity can also be highly permeable. For example, limestone is often jointed and is readily dissolved by groundwater, leaving
the rock highly permeable; rocks such as granite and basalt are often heavily fractured allowing water to flow readily. Some of the
most productive aquifers are called “contained” or “confined,” and are sandwiched between low-permeability layers called
“aquicludes.” Common aquicludes are shale and mudstone layers. Such contained aquifers can have a high hydraulic gradient because
the aquicludes hold a significant hydraulic head; confined aquifers often produce wells called artesian wells that, owing to substantial
confining pressure, produce water without pumping.

Topic concept Plate tectonics

(from the Late Latin tectonicus, "pertaining to building") is a scientific theory describing the large-scale motion of seven large plates
and the movements of a larger number of smaller plates of the Earth's lithosphere, since tectonic processes began on Earth between 3.3
and 3.5 billion years ago. The model builds on the concept of continental drift, an idea developed during the first decades of the 20th
century. The geoscientific community accepted plate-tectonic theory after seafloor spreading was validated in the late 1950s and early
1960s.
The lithosphere, which is the rigid outermost shell of a planet (the crust and upper mantle), is broken into tectonic plates. The Earth's
lithosphere is composed of seven or eight major plates (depending on how they are defined) and many minor plates. Where the plates
meet, their relative motion determines the type of boundary: convergent, divergent, or transform. Earthquakes, volcanic activity,
mountain-building, and oceanic trench formation occur along these plate boundaries (or faults). The relative movement of the plates
typically ranges from zero to 100 mm annually.
Tectonic plates are composed of oceanic lithosphere and thicker continental lithosphere, each topped by its own kind of crust. Along
convergent boundaries, subduction, or one plate moving under another, carries the lower one down into the mantle; the material lost is
roughly balanced by the formation of new (oceanic) crust along divergent margins by seafloor spreading. In this way, the total surface
of the lithosphere remains the same. This prediction of plate tectonics is also referred to as the conveyor belt principle. Earlier
theories, since disproven, proposed gradual shrinking (contraction) or gradual expansion of the globe.
Tectonic plates are able to move because the Earth's lithosphere has greater mechanical strength than the underlying asthenosphere.
Lateral density variations in the mantle result in convection; that is, the slow creeping motion of Earth's solid mantle. Plate movement
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is thought to be driven by a combination of the motion of the seafloor away from spreading ridges due to variations in topography (the
ridge is a topographic high) and density changes in the crust (density increases as newly formed crust cools and moves away from the
ridge). At subduction zones the relatively cold, dense crust is "pulled" or sinks down into the mantle over the downward convecting
limb of a mantle cell. Another explanation lies in the different forces generated by tidal forces of the Sun and Moon. The relative
importance of each of these factors and their relationship to each other is unclear, and still the subject of much debate.
Types of plate boundaries
Three types of plate boundaries exist, with a fourth, mixed type, characterized by the way the plates move relative to each other. They
are associated with different types of surface phenomena. The different types of plate boundaries are:

Divergent boundary

Convergent boundary

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Transform boundary

Divergent boundaries (Constructive) occur where two plates slide apart from each other. At zones of ocean-to-ocean rifting, divergent
boundaries form by seafloor spreading, allowing for the formation of new ocean basin. As the ocean plate splits, the ridge forms at the
spreading center, the ocean basin expands, and finally, the plate area increases causing many small volcanoes and/or shallow
earthquakes. At zones of continent-to-continent rifting, divergent boundaries may cause new ocean basin to form as the continent
splits, spreads, the central rift collapses, and ocean fills the basin. Active zones of mid-ocean ridges (e.g., the Mid-Atlantic
Ridge and East Pacific Rise), and continent-to-continent rifting (such as Africa's East African Rift and Valley and the Red Sea), are
examples of divergent boundaries.

Convergent boundaries (Destructive) (or active margins) occur where two plates slide toward each other to form either
a subduction zone (one plate moving underneath the other) or a continental collision. At zones of ocean-to-continent subduction (e.g.
the Andes mountain range in South America, and the Cascade Mountains in Western United States), the dense oceanic lithosphere
plunges beneath the less dense continent. Earthquakes trace the path of the downward-moving plate as it descends into asthenosphere,
a trench forms, and as the subducted plate is heated it releases volatiles, mostly water from hydrous minerals, into the surrounding
mantle. The addition of water lowers the melting point of the mantle material above the subducting slab, causing it to melt. The
magma that results typically leads to volcanism. [14] At zones of ocean-to-ocean subduction (e.g. Aleutian islands, Mariana Islands, and
the Japanese island arc), older, cooler, denser crust slips beneath less dense crust. This motion causes earthquakes and a deep trench to
form in an arc shape. The upper mantle of the subducted plate then heats and magma rises to form curving chains of volcanic islands.
Deep marine trenches are typically associated with subduction zones, and the basins that develop along the active boundary are often
called "foreland basins". Closure of ocean basins can occur at continent-to-continent boundaries (e.g., Himalayas and Alps): collision
between masses of granitic continental lithosphere; neither mass is subducted; plate edges are compressed, folded, uplifted.

Transform boundaries (Conservative) occur where two lithospheric plates slide, or perhaps more accurately, grind past each other
along transform faults, where plates are neither created nor destroyed. The relative motion of the two plates is either sinistral (left side
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toward the observer) or dextral (right side toward the observer). Transform faults occur across a spreading center. Strong earthquakes
can occur along a fault. The San Andreas Fault in California is an example of a transform boundary exhibiting dextral motion.

Plate boundary zones occur where the effects of the interactions are unclear, and the boundaries, usually occurring along a broad belt,
are not well defined and may show various types of movements in different episodes.

Continental drift

 It is the theory that the Earth's continents have moved over geologic time relative to each other, thus appearing to have "drifted"
across the ocean bed. The speculation that continents might have 'drifted' was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596. The
concept was independently and more fully developed by Alfred Wegener in 1912, but his theory was rejected by many for lack of any
motive mechanism. Arthur Holmes later proposed mantle convection for that mechanism. The idea of continental drift has since been
subsumed by the theory of plate tectonics, which explains that the continents move by riding on plates of the Earth's lithosphere.

Seafloor spreading

It is a process that occurs at mid-ocean ridges, where new oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and then gradually moves
away from the ridge.

Seafloor spreading helps explain continental drift in the theory of plate tectonics. When oceanic plates diverge, tensional stress causes
fractures to occur in the lithosphere. The motivating force for seafloor spreading ridges is tectonic plate slab pull at subduction zones,
rather than magma pressure, although there is typically significant magma activity at spreading ridges. [3] Plates that are not subducting
are driven by gravity sliding off the elevated mid-ocean ridges a process called ridge push. At a spreading center, basaltic magma rises
up the fractures and cools on the ocean floor to form new seabed. Hydrothermal vents are common at spreading centers. Older rocks
will be found farther away from the spreading zone while younger rocks will be found nearer to the spreading zone.

Importance of plate boundary

Plate tectonics is convenient framework to explain geological phenomenon such as:

a. Origin and distribution of earthquake

b. Origin of mountain ranges and their distribution

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 c. Formation of island arcs and oceanic trenches
d. Distribution of volcano
e. Continental drift
f. Formation of mid oceanic ridges and rift valleys
g. Oceanic floor spreading

Some terms
DIP is the acute angle that a rock surface makes with a horizontal plane.
STRIKE is the direction of the line formed by the intersection of a rock surface with a horizontal plane.

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Topic
 Fold occurs when one or a stack of originally flat and planar surfaces, such as sedimentary strata, are bent or curved as a result of
permanent deformation. Synsedimentary folds are those due to slumping of sedimentary material before it is lithified. Folds in rocks
vary in size from microscopic crinkles to mountain-sized folds. They occur as single isolated folds or in sets (known as fold trains).

Causes
Folds form under varied conditions of stress, hydrostatic pressure, pore pressure, and temperature gradient, as evidenced by their
presence in soft sediments, the full spectrum of metamorphic rocks, and even as primary flow structures in some igneous rocks. A set
of folds distributed on a regional scale constitutes a fold belt, a common feature of orogenic zones. Folds are commonly formed by
shortening of existing layers, but may also be formed as a result of displacement on a non-planar fault (fault bend fold), at the tip of a
propagating fault (fault propagation fold), by differential compaction or due to the effects of a high-level igneous intrusion e.g. above
a laccolith.

Folds of alternate layers of limestone with chert layers due to the alpine fold tectonics, these sediments were once deposited in a
deeper sea basin as tabular formations. Crete; Greece

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An anticline in New Jersey

A monocline at Colorado National Monument

Recumbent fold, King Oscar Fjord

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Types of fold
 Anticline: linear, strata normally dip away from axial center, oldest strata in center irrespective of orientation.

Syncline: linear, strata normally dip toward axial center, youngest strata in center irrespective of orientation.

Antiform: linear, strata dip away from axial center, age unknown, or inverted.

Synform: linear, strata dip toward axial center, age unknown, or inverted.

Dome: nonlinear, strata dip away from center in all directions, oldest strata in center.

Basin: nonlinear, strata dip toward center in all directions, youngest strata in center.

Monocline: linear, strata dip in one direction between horizontal layers on each side.

Chevron: angular fold with straight limbs and small hinges

Recumbent: linear, fold axial plane oriented at low angle resulting in overturned strata in one limb of the fold.

Slump: typically monoclinal, result of differential compaction or dissolution during sedimentation and lithification.

Ptygmatic: Folds are chaotic, random and disconnected. Typical of sedimentary slump folding, migmatites and decollement
detachment zones.

Parasitic: short wavelength folds formed within a larger wavelength fold structure - normally associated with differences in
bed thickness[8]

Disharmonic: Folds in adjacent layers with different wavelengths and shapes[8]

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(A homocline involves strata dipping in the same direction, though not necessarily any folding.)
Economic Implication
Mining industry

Anticline oil trap

Layers of rock that fold into a hinge need to accommodate large deformations in the hinge zone. This results in voids between the
layers. These voids, and especially the fact that the water pressure is lower in the voids than outside of them, acts as triggers for the
deposition of minerals. Over millions of years this process is capable of gathering large quantities of tracer minerals from large
expanses of rock and depositing them at very concentrated sites. This may be a mechanism that is responsible for the veins. To
summarize, when searching for veins of valuable minerals, it might be wise to look for highly folded rock, and this is the reason why
the mining industry is very interested in the theory of geological folding.
Oil industry
Anticline traps are formed by a folding of rock. Specifically, when a sandstone bed covered with low permeability shale is folded into
a trap that contains petroleum products. Hydrocarbons are trapped in the hinge of this fold. Most anticline traps are created as a result
of sideways pressure, folding the layers of rock, but can also occur from sediments being compacted.

Fault

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 It is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-
mass movement. Large faults within the Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic forces, with the largest forming the
boundaries between the plates, such as subduction zones or transform faults. Energy release associated with rapid movement on active
faults is the cause of most earthquakes.
A fault plane is the plane that represents the fracture surface of a fault. A fault trace or fault line is a place where the fault can be seen
or mapped on the surface. A fault trace is also the line commonly plotted on geologic maps to represent a fault.
Since faults do not usually consist of a single, clean fracture, geologists use the term fault zone when referring to the zone of complex
deformation associated with the fault plane.
Mechanisms of faulting

Normal fault in  La Herradura Formation, Morro Solar, Peru. The light layer of rock shows the
displacement. A second normal fault is at the right.

Mechanism of fault
Owing to friction and the rigidity of the constituent rocks, the two sides of a fault cannot always glide or flow past each other easily,
and so occasionally all movement stops. The regions of higher friction along a fault plane, where it becomes locked, are
called asperities. stress builds up when a fault is locked, and when it reaches a level that exceeds the strength threshold, the fault
ruptures and the accumulated strain energy is released in part as seismic waves, forming an earthquake.
Strain occurs accumulatively or instantaneously, depending on the liquid state of the rock; the ductile lower crust
and mantle accumulate deformation gradually via shearing, whereas the brittle upper crust reacts by fracture – instantaneous stress
release – resulting in motion along the fault. A fault in ductile rocks can also release instantaneously when the strain rate is too great.

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Fault types
Based on the direction of slip, faults can be categorized as:

 strike-slip, where the offset is predominantly horizontal, parallel to the fault trace;
 dip-slip, offset is predominantly vertical and/or perpendicular to the fault trace; or
 oblique-slip, combining strike and dip slip.

Strike-slip faults

Schematic illustration of the two strike-slip fault types

In a strike-slip fault (also known as a wrench fault, tear fault or transcurrent fault), the fault surface (plane) is usually near vertical,
and the footwall moves laterally either left or right with very little vertical motion. Strike-slip faults with left-lateral motion are also
known as sinistral faults, and those with right-lateral motion as dextral faults. Each is defined by the direction of movement of the
ground as would be seen by an observer on the opposite side of the fault.
A special class of strike-slip fault is the transform fault, when it forms a plate boundary. This class is related to an offset in a spreading
center, such as a mid-ocean ridge, or, less common, within continental lithosphere, such as the Dead Sea Transform in the Middle
East or the Alpine Fault in New Zealand. Transform faults are also referred to as "conservative" plate boundaries, inasmuch as
lithosphere is neither created nor destroyed.

35
Dip-slip faults

Normal faults in Spain, between which rock layers have slipped downwards (at photo's centre)
Dip-slip faults can be either normal ("extensional") or reverse.

Cross-sectional illustration of normal and reverse dip-slip faults

36
In a normal fault, the hanging wall moves downward, relative to the footwall. A downthrown block between two normal faults dipping
towards each other is a graben. An upthrown block between two normal faults dipping away from each other is a horst. Low-angle
normal faults with regional tectonic significance may be designated detachment faults.
A reverse fault is the opposite of a normal fault—the hanging wall moves up relative to the footwall. Reverse faults indicate
compressive shortening of the crust. The dip of a reverse fault is relatively steep, greater than 45°. The terminology of "normal" and
"reverse" comes from coal-mining in England, where normal faults are the most common.
A thrust fault has the same sense of motion as a reverse fault, but with the dip of the fault plane at less than 45. Thrust faults typically
form ramps, flats and fault-bend (hanging wall and footwall) folds.

Flat segments of thrust fault planes are known as flats, and inclined sections of the thrust are known as ramps. Typically, thrust faults
move within formations by forming flats and climb up sections with ramps.
Fault-bend folds are formed by movement of the hanging wall over a non-planar fault surface and are found associated with both
extensional and thrust faults.
Faults may be reactivated at a later time with the movement in the opposite direction to the original movement (fault inversion). A
normal fault may therefore become a reverse fault and vice versa.
Thrust faults form nappes and klippen in the large thrust belts. Subduction zones are a special class of thrusts that form the largest
faults on Earth and give rise to the largest earthquakes.

37
Oblique-slip faults

Oblique-slip fault
A fault which has a component of dip-slip and a component of strike-slip is termed an oblique-slip fault. Nearly all faults have some
component of both dip-slip and strike-slip; hence, defining a fault as oblique requires both dip and strike components to be measurable
and significant. Some oblique faults occur within transtensional and transpressional regimes, and others occur where the direction of
extension or shortening changes during the deformation but the earlier formed faults remain active.
The hade angle is defined as the complement of the dip angle; it is the angle between the fault plane and a vertical plane that strikes
parallel to the fault.

38
Listric fault

Listric fault (red line)

Listric faults are similar to normal faults but the fault plane curves, the dip being steeper near the surface, then shallower with
increased depth. The dip may flatten into a sub-horizontal décollement, resulting in horizontal slip on a horizontal plane. The
illustration shows slumping of the hanging wall along a listric fault. Where the hanging wall is absent (such as on a cliff) the footwall
may slump in a manner that creates multiple listric faults.
Ring fault
Ring faults, also known as caldera faults, are faults that occur within collapsed volcanic calderas and the sites of bolide strikes, such as
the Chesapeake Bay impact crater. Ring faults are result of a series of overlapping normal faults, forming a circular outline. Fractures
created by ring faults may be filled by ring dikes.
Synthetic and antithetic faults
Synthetic and antithetic faults are terms used to describe minor faults associated with a major fault. Synthetic faults dip in the same
direction as the major fault while the antithetic faults dip in the opposite direction. These faults may be accompanied by rollover
anticlines (e.g. the Niger Delta Structural Style).

39
Fault rock

Salmon-colored fault gouge and associated fault separates two different rock types on the left
(dark gray) and right (light gray). From the Gobi of Mongolia.

All faults have a measurable thickness, made up of deformed rock characteristic of the level in the crust where the faulting happened,
of the rock types affected by the fault and of the presence and nature of any mineralizing fluids. Fault rocks are classified by
their textures and the implied mechanism of deformation. A fault that passes through different levels of the lithosphere will have many
different types of fault rock developed along its surface. Continued dip-slip displacement tends to juxtapose fault rocks characteristic
of different crustal levels, with varying degrees of overprinting. This effect is particularly clear in the case of detachment faults and
major thrust faults.
The main types of fault rock include:

 Cataclasite – a fault rock which is cohesive with a poorly developed or absent planar fabric, or which is incohesive,
characterised by generally angular clasts and rock fragments in a finer-grained matrix of similar composition.
o Tectonic or Fault breccia – a medium- to coarse-grained cataclasite containing >30% visible fragments.

o Fault gouge – an incohesive, clay-rich fine- to ultrafine-grained cataclasite, which may possess a planar fabric and
containing <30% visible fragments. Rock clasts may be present

40
  Clay smear - clay-rich fault gouge formed in sedimentary sequences containing clay-rich layers which are
strongly deformed and sheared into the fault gouge.
 Mylonite – a fault rock which is cohesive and characterized by a well-developed planar fabric resulting from tectonic reduction
of grain size, and commonly containing rounded porphyroclasts and rock fragments of similar composition to minerals in the
matrix
 Pseudotachylyte – ultrafine-grained glassy-looking material, usually black and flinty in appearance, occurring as thin
planar veins, injection veins or as a matrix to pseudoconglomerates or breccias, which infills dilation fractures in the host rock.

Impacts of faults on structures and people

in geotechnical engineering a fault often forms a discontinuity that may have a large influence on the mechanical behavior (strength,
deformation, etc.) of soil and rock masses in, for example, tunnel, foundation, or slope construction.
The level of a fault's activity can be critical for (1) locating buildings, tanks, and pipelines and (2) assessing the seismic shaking
and tsunami hazard to infrastructure and people in the vicinity.
Faults and ore deposits
Many ore deposits lie on faults. This is due to the fact that damaged fault zones allow for the circulation of mineral-bearing fluids.
Intersections of near-vertical faults are often locations of significant ore deposits. An example of a fault hosting valuable porphyry
copper deposits is northern Chile's Domeyko Fault . Further south in Chile Los Bronces and El Teniente porphyry copper deposit lie
each at the intersection of two fault systems.

  Topic Joint
It is a break (fracture) of natural origin in the continuity of either a layer or body of rock that lacks any visible or measurable
movement parallel to the surface (plane) of the fracture. Although they can occur singly, they most frequently occur as joint sets and
systems. A joint set is a family of parallel, evenly spaced joints that can be identified through mapping and analysis of the orientations,
spacing, and physical properties. A joint system consists of two or more intersecting joint sets.

Formation

41
Joints result from brittle fracture of a rock body or layer as the result of tensile stresses. These tensile stresses either were induced or
imposed from outside, e.g. by the stretching of layers; the rise of pore fluid pressure as the result of either external compression or
fluid injection; or the result of internal stresses induced by the shrinkage caused by the cooling or desiccation of a rock body or layer
whose outside boundaries remained fixed. When tensional stresses stretch a body or layer of rock such that its  tensile strength is
exceeded, it breaks. When this happens the rock fractures in a plane parallel to the maximum principal stress and perpendicular to the
minimum principal stress (the direction in which the rock is being stretched). This leads to the development of a single sub-
parallel joint set. Continued deformation may lead to development of one or more additional joint sets. The presence of the first set
strongly affects the stress orientation in the rock layer, often causing subsequent sets to form at a high angle, often 90°, to the first set.
Types of joints
Joints are classified either by the processes responsible for their formation or their geometry.
Classification of joints by geometry
The geometry of joints refers to the orientation of joints as either plotted on stereonets and rose-diagrams or observed in rock
exposures. In terms of geometry, three major types of joints, nonsystematic joints, systematic joints, and columnar jointing are
recognized.
Nonsystematic joints
Nonsystematic joints are joints that are so irregular in form, spacing, and orientation that they cannot be readily grouped into
distinctive, through-going joint sets.
Systematic joints
Systematic joints are planar, parallel, joints that can be traced for some distance, and occur at regularly, evenly spaced distances on the
order centimeters, meters, tens of meters, or even hundreds of meters. As a result, they occur as families of joints that form
recognizable joint sets. Typically, exposures or outcrops within a given area or region of study contains two or more sets of systematic
joints, each with its own distinctive properties such as orientation and spacing, that intersect to form well-defined joint systems.
Based upon the angle at which joint sets of systematic joints intersect to form a joint system, systematic joints can be subdivided into
conjugate and orthogonal joint sets. The angles at which joint sets within a joint system commonly intersect is called by structural
geologists as the dihedral angles. When the dihedral angles are nearly 90° within a joint system, the joint sets are known
as orthogonal joint sets. When the dihedral angles are from 30 to 60° within a joint system, the joint sets are known as conjugate joint
sets. Within regions that have experienced tectonic deformation, systematic joints are typically associated with either layered or
bedded strata that have been folded into anticlines and synclines. Such joints can be classified according to their orientation in respect

42
to the axial planes of the folds as they often commonly form in a predictable pattern with respect to the hinge trends of folded strata.
Based upon their orientation to the axial planes and axes of folds, the types of systematic joints are:

 Longitudinal joints – Joints which are roughly parallel to fold axes and often fan around the fold.
 Cross-joints – Joints which are approximately perpendicular to fold axes.
 Diagonal joints – Joints which typically occur as conjugate joint sets that trend oblique to the fold axes.
 Strike joints – Joints which trend parallel to the strike of the axial plane of a fold.
 Cross-strike joints – Joints which cut across the axial plane of a fold.

Columnar jointing
Columnar jointing is a distinctive type of joints that join together at triple junctions either at or about 120° angles. These joints split a
rock body into long, prisms or columns. Typically, such columns are hexagonal, although 3-, 4-, 5- and 7-sided columns are relatively
common. The diameter of these prismatic columns range from a few centimeters to several metres. They are often oriented
perpendicular to either the upper surface and base of lava flows and the contact of the tabular igneous bodies with the surrounding
rock. This type of jointing is typical of thick lava flows and shallow dikes and sills. Columnar jointing is also known as
either columnar structure, prismatic joints, or prismatic jointing. Rare cases of columnar jointing have also been reported from
sedimentary strata.
Types of joints with respect to formation
Joints can also be classified according to their origin. On the basis of their origin, joints have been divided into a number of different
types that include tectonic, hydraulic, exfoliation, unloading (release), and cooling joints depending on the specific author and
publication. Also, the origin of many joint sets often can be unclear and quite ambiguous. Often, different authors have proposed
multiple and contradictory hypotheses for specific joint sets and types. Finally, it should be kept in mind that different joints in the
same outcrop may have formed at different times and for different reasons.
Tectonic joints
Tectonic joints are joints that formed when the relative displacement of the joint walls is normal to its plane as the result of brittle
deformation of bedrock in response to regional or local tectonic deformation of bedrock. Such joints form when directed tectonic
stress causes the tensile strength of bedrock to be exceeded as the result of the stretching of rock layers under conditions of elevated

43
pore fluid pressure and directed tectonic stress. Tectonic joints often reflect local tectonic stresses associated with local folding and
faulting. Tectonic joints occur as both nonsystematic and systematic joints, including orthogonal and conjugate joint sets.
Hydraulic joints
Hydraulic joints are joints thought to have formed when pore fluid pressure became elevated as a result of vertical gravitational
loading. In simple terms, the accumulation of either sediments, volcanic, or other material causes an increase in the pore pressure of
groundwater and other fluids in the underlying rock when they cannot move either laterally of vertically in response to this pressure.
This also causes an increase in pore pressure in preexisting cracks that increases the tensile stress on them perpendicular to the
minimum principal stress (the direction in which the rock is being stretched). If the tensile stress exceeds the magnitude of the least
principal compressive stress the rock will fail in a brittle manner and these cracks propagate in a process called  hydraulic fracturing.
Hydraulic joints occur as both nonsystematic and systematic joints, including orthogonal and conjugate joint sets. In some cases, joint
sets can be a tectonic - hydraulic hybrid.
Exfoliation joints
Exfoliation joints are sets of flat-lying, curved, and large joints that are restricted to massively exposed rock faces in an deeply eroded
landscape. Exfoliation jointing consists of fan-shaped fractures varying from a few meters to tens of meters in size that lie sub-parallel
to the topography. The vertical, gravitational load of the mass of a mountain-size bedrock mass drives longitudinal splitting and causes
outward buckling toward the free air.
Unloading joints
Unloading joints or release joints are joints formed near the surface during uplift and erosion. As bedded sedimentary rocks are
brought closer to the surface during uplift and erosion, they cool, contract and become relaxed elastically. This causes stress buildup
that eventually exceeds the tensile strength of the bedrock and results in the formation of jointing. In the case of unloading joints,
compressive stress is released either along preexisting structural elements (such as cleavage) or perpendicular to the former direction
of tectonic compression.
Cooling joints
Cooling joints are columnar joints that result from the cooling of either lava from the exposed surface of a lava lake or flood basalt
flow or the sides of a tabular igneous, typically basaltic, intrusion. They exhibit a pattern of joints that join together at triple junctions
either at or about 120° angles. They split a rock body into long, prisms or columns that are typically hexagonal, although 3-, 4-, 5- and
7-sided columns are relatively common. They form as a result of a cooling front that moves from some surface, either the exposed
surface of a lava lake or flood basalt flow or the sides of a tabular igneous intrusion into either lava of the lake or lava flow or magma
of a dike or sill.
44
 1 2 3

4
1. Horizontal joints in the sedimentary rocks of the foreground and a more varied set of joints in the granitic rocks in the
background.
2. Columnar jointed basalt
3. Recent tectonic joint intersects older exfoliation joints in granite gneiss,
4. Joint spacing in mechanically stronger limestone beds shows increase with bed thickness,

 Importance of joints
Joints are important not only in understanding the local and regional geology and geomorphology, but also are important in
development of natural resources, the safe design of structures, and environmental protection. Joints have a profound control on
weathering and erosion of bedrock. As a result, they exert a strong control on how topography and morphology of landscapes develop.
Understanding the local and regional distribution, physical character, and origin of joints is a significant part of understanding the
geology and geomorphology of an area. Joints often impart a well-develop fracture-induced permeability to bedrock.
45
As a result, joints strongly influence, even control, the natural circulation (hydrogeology) of
fluids,e.g. groundwater and pollutants within aquifers, petroleum in reservoirs, and hydrothermal circulation at depth, within bedrock.
Thus, joints are important to the economic and safe development of petroleum, hydrothermal, and groundwater resources and the
subject of intensive research relative to the development of these resources. Also, regional and local joint systems exert a very strong
control on how ore-forming (hydrothermal) fluids, consisting largely of H2O, CO2, and NaCl, that formed most of Earth's ore
deposits circulated within the Earth crust. As a result, understanding their genesis, structure, chronology, and distribution is an
important part of finding and profitably developing ore deposits of various types. Finally, joints often form discontinuities that may
have a large influence on the mechanical behavior (strength, deformation, etc.) of soil and rock masses in, for
example, tunnel, foundation, or slope construction. As a result, joints are an important part of geotechnical engineering in practice and
research.

Topic Stratigraphy 
It is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study
of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has two related subfields: lithostratigraphy (lithologic stratigraphy)
and biostratigraphy (biologic stratigraphy).
Principle
Catholic priest Nicholas Steno established the theoretical basis for stratigraphy when he introduced the law of superposition,
the principle of original horizontality and the principle of lateral continuity in a 1669 work on the fossilization of organic remains in
layers of sediment
1. The law of superposition is an axiom that forms one of the bases of the sciences of geology, archaeology, and other fields dealing
with geological stratigraphy. It is a form of relative dating. In its plainest form, it states that in undeformed stratigraphic sequences, the
oldest strata will be at the bottom of the sequence. This is important to stratigraphic dating, which assumes that the law of
superposition holds true and that an object cannot be older than the materials of which it is composed.

2. The Principle of Original Horizontality states that layers of sediment are originally deposited horizontally under the action of
gravity. It is a relative dating technique. The principle is important to the analysis of folded and tilted strata. It was first proposed by
the Danish geological pioneer Nicholas Steno (1638–1686).

46
From these observations is derived the conclusion that the Earth has not been static and that great forces have been at work over long
periods of time, further leading to the conclusions of the science of plate tectonics; that movement and collisions of large plates of the
Earth's crust is the cause of folded strata.
3. The principle of lateral continuity states that layers of sediment initially extend laterally in all directions; in other words, they are
laterally continuous. As a result, rocks that are otherwise similar, but are now separated by a valley or other erosional feature, can be
assumed to be originally continuous.
Layers of sediment do not extend indefinitely; rather, the limits can be recognized and are controlled by the amount and type of
sediment available and the size and shape of the sedimentary basin. As long as sediment is transported to an area, it will eventually
be deposited. However, as the amount of material lessens away from the source, the layer of that material will become thinner.
Often, coarser-grained material can no longer be transported to an area because the transporting medium has insufficient energy to
carry it to that location. In its place, the particles that settle from the transporting medium will be finer-grained, and there will be a
lateral transition from coarser- to finer-grained material. The lateral variation in sediment within a stratum is known as sedimentary
facies.
If sufficient sedimentary material is available, it will be deposited up to the limits of the sedimentary basin. Often, the sedimentary
basin is within rocks that are very different from the sediments that are being deposited. In those cases, the lateral limits of the
sedimentary layer will be marked by an abru
pt change in rock type.

Classification
Lithostratigraphy

47
Chalk layers in Cyprus, showing sedimentary layering
Variation in rock units, most obviously displayed as visible layering, is due to physical contrasts in rock type (lithology). This
variation can occur vertically as layering (bedding), or laterally, and reflects changes in environments of deposition (known
as facies change). These variations provide a lithostratigraphy or lithologic stratigraphy of the rock unit. Key concepts in stratigraphy
involve understanding how certain geometric relationships between rock layers arise and what these geometries imply about their
original depositional environment. The basic concept in stratigraphy, called the law of superposition, states: in an undeformed
stratigraphic sequence, the oldest strata occur at the base of the sequence.
Chemostratigraphy studies the changes in the relative proportions of trace elements and isotopes within and between lithologic
units. Carbon and oxygen isotope ratios vary with time, and researchers can use those to map subtle changes that occurred in the
paleoenvironment. This has led to the specialized field of isotopic stratigraphy.
Cyclostratigraphy documents the often cyclic changes in the relative proportions of minerals (particularly carbonates), grain size,
thickness of sediment layers (varves) and fossil diversity with time, related to seasonal or longer term changes in palaeoclimates.
Biostratigraphy
Biostratigraphy or paleontologic stratigraphy is based on fossil evidence in the rock layers. Strata from widespread locations
containing the same fossil fauna and flora are said to be correlatable in time. Biologic stratigraphy was based on William
Smith's principle of faunal succession, which predated, and was one of the first and most powerful lines of evidence for, biological
evolution. It provides strong evidence for the formation (speciation) and extinction of species. The geologic time scale was developed
during the 19th century, based on the evidence of biologic stratigraphy and faunal succession. This timescale remained a relative scale
48
until the development of radiometric dating, which gave it and the stratigraphy it was based on an absolute time framework, leading to
the development of chronostratigraphy.
One important development is the Vail curve, which attempts to define a global historical sea-level curve according to inferences from
worldwide stratigraphic patterns. Stratigraphy is also commonly used to delineate the nature and extent of hydrocarbon-bearing
reservoir rocks, seals, and traps of petroleum geology.
Chronostratigraphy
Chronostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy that places an absolute age, rather than a relative age on rock  strata. The branch is
concerned with deriving geochronological data for rock units, both directly and inferentially, so that a sequence of time-relative events
that created the rocks formation can be derived. The ultimate aim of chronostratigraphy is to place dates on the sequence of deposition
of all rocks within a geological region, and then to every region, and by extension to provide an entire geologic record of the Earth.
A gap or missing strata in the geological record of an area is called a stratigraphic hiatus. This may be the result of a halt in the
deposition of sediment. Alternatively, the gap may be due to removal by erosion, in which case it may be called a stratigraphic
vacuity. It is called a hiatus because deposition was on hold for a period of time.[4] A physical gap may represent both a period of non-
deposition and a period of erosion.[3] A geologic fault may cause the appearance of a hiatus.
Topic fossil
 It is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones,
shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood, oil, coal,
and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the fossil record.
Paleontology is the study of fossils: their age, method of formation, and evolutionary significance. Specimens are usually considered
to be fossils if they are over 10,000 years old. The oldest fossils are around 3.48 billion years old to 4.1 billion years old. The
observation in the 19th century that certain fossils were associated with certain rock strata led to the recognition of a geological
timescale and the relative ages of different fossils. The development of radiometric dating techniques in the early 20th century allowed
scientists to quantitatively measure the absolute ages of rocks and the fossils they host.
There are many processes that lead to fossilization, including permineralization, casts and molds, authigenic mineralization,
replacement and recrystallization, adpression, carbonization, and bioimmuration.
Fossils vary in size from one-micrometre (1 µm) bacteria to dinosaurs and trees, many meters long and weighing many tons. A fossil
normally preserves only a portion of the deceased organism, usually that portion that was partially mineralized during life, such as
the bones and teeth of vertebrates, or the chitinous or calcareous exoskeletons of invertebrates. Fossils may also consist of the marks

49
left behind by the organism while it was alive, such as animal tracks or feces (coprolites). These types of fossil are called trace
fossils or ichnofossils, as opposed to body fossils. Some fossils are biochemical and are called chemofossils or biosignatures.
Mode of occurrence of fossil
The process of fossilization varies according to tissue type and external conditions.
Permineralization
Permineralization is a process of fossilization that occurs when an organism is buried. The empty spaces within an organism (spaces
filled with liquid or gas during life) become filled with mineral-rich groundwater. Minerals precipitate from the groundwater,
occupying the empty spaces. This process can occur in very small spaces, such as within the cell wall of a plant cell. Small scale
permineralization can produce very detailed fossils. For permineralization to occur, the organism must become covered by sediment
soon after death, otherwise decay commences. The degree to which the remains are decayed when covered determines the later details
of the fossil. Some fossils consist only of skeletal remains or teeth; other fossils contain traces of skin, feathers or even soft tissues.
This is a form of diagenesis.
Casts and molds
In some cases, the original remains of the organism completely dissolve or are otherwise destroyed. The remaining organism-shaped
hole in the rock is called an external mold. If this hole is later filled with other minerals, it is a cast. An endocast, or internal mold, is
formed when sediments or minerals fill the internal cavity of an organism, such as the inside of a  bivalve or snail or the hollow of
a skull.
Authigenic mineralization
This is a special form of cast and mold formation. If the chemistry is right, the organism (or fragment of organism) can act as a
nucleus for the precipitation of minerals such as siderite, resulting in a nodule forming around it. If this happens rapidly before
significant decay to the organic tissue, very fine three-dimensional morphological detail can be preserved. Nodules from the
Carboniferous Mazon Creek fossil beds of Illinois, USA, are among the best documented examples of such mineralization.
Replacement and recrystallization
Replacement occurs when the shell, bone or other tissue is replaced with another mineral. In some cases mineral replacement of the
original shell occurs so gradually and at such fine scales that microstructural features are preserved despite the total loss of original
material. A shell is said to be recrystallized when the original skeletal compounds are still present but in a different crystal form, as
from aragonite to calcite.

50
Adpression (compression-impression)
Compression fossils, such as those of fossil ferns, are the result of chemical reduction of the complex organic molecules composing
the organism's tissues. In this case the fossil consists of original material, albeit in a geochemically altered state. This chemical change
is an expression of diagenesis. Often what remains is a carbonaceous film known as a phytoleim, in which case the fossil is known as
a compression. Often, however, the phytoleim is lost and all that remains is an impression of the organism in the rock—an impression
fossil. In many cases, however, compressions and impressions occur together. For instance, when the rock is broken open, the
phytoleim will often be attached to one part (compression), whereas the counterpart will just be an impression. For this reason, one
term covers the two modes of preservation: adpression.[9]
Soft tissue, cell and molecular preservation
Because of their antiquity, an unexpected exception to the alteration of an organism's tissues by chemical reduction of the complex
organic molecules during fossilization has been the discovery of soft tissue in dinosaur fossils, including blood vessels, and the
isolation of proteins and evidence for DNA fragments. In 2014, Mary Schweitzer and her colleagues reported the presence of iron
particles (goethite-aFeO(OH)) associated with soft tissues recovered from dinosaur fossils. Based on various experiments that studied
the interaction of iron in haemoglobin with blood vessel tissue they proposed that solution hypoxia coupled with
iron chelation enhances the stability and preservation of soft tissue and provides the basis for an explanation for the unforeseen
preservation of fossil soft tissues. However, a slightly older study based on eight taxa ranging in time from the Devonian to
the Jurassic found that reasonably well-preserved fibrils that probably represent collagen were preserved in all these fossils and that
the quality of preservation depended mostly on the arrangement of the collagen fibers, with tight packing favoring good
preservation. There seemed to be no correlation between geological age and quality of preservation, within that timeframe.
Carbonization and Coalification
Fossils that are carbonized or coalified consist of the organic remains which have been reduced primarily to the chemical element
carbon. Carbonized fossils consist of a thin film which forms a silhouette of the original organism, and the original organic remains
were typically soft tissues. Coalified fossils consist primarily of coal, and the original organic remains were typically woody in
composition.

51
Carbonized fossil of a possible leech from the Silurian Waukesha Biota of Wisconsin.
Bioimmuration
Bioimmuration occurs when a skeletal organism overgrows or otherwise subsumes another organism, preserving the latter, or an
impression of it, within the skeleton. Usually it is a sessile skeletal organism, such as a bryozoan or an oyster, which grows along
a substrate, covering other sessile sclerobionts. Sometimes the bioimmured organism is soft-bodied and is then preserved in negative
relief as a kind of external mold. There are also cases where an organism settles on top of a living skeletal organism that grows
upwards, preserving the settler in its skeleton. Bioimmuration is known in the fossil record from the Ordovician to the Recent

Topic Mass wasting,

also known as slope movement or mass movement, is the geomorphic process by which soil, sand, regolith, and rock move down
slope typically as a solid, continuous or discontinuous mass, largely under the force of gravity, frequently with characteristics of a
flow as in debris flows and mudflows.

Role of water
52
Water can increase or decrease the stability of a slope depending on the amount present. Small amounts of water can strengthen soils
because the surface tension of water increases soil cohesion. This allows the soil to resist erosion better than if it were dry. If too much
water is present the water may act to increase the pore pressure, reducing friction, and accelerating the erosion process and resulting in
different types of mass wasting (i.e. mudflows, landslides, etc.). A good example of this is to think of a sand castle. Water must be
mixed with sand in order for the castle to keep its shape. If too much water is added the sand washes away, if not enough water is
added the sand falls and cannot keep its shape. Water also increases the mass of the soil, this is important because an increase in mass
means that there will be an increase in velocity if mass wasting is triggered. Saturated water, however, eases the process of mass
wasting in that the rock and soil debris are easily washed down-slope.

Types

Based on how the soil, regolith or rock moves down slope as a whole, mass movement can be broadly classified as creeps and
landslides.

Creep

Soil creep is a slow and long term mass movement. The combination of small movements of soil or rock in different directions over
time is directed by gravity gradually down slope. The steeper the slope, the faster is the creep. The creep makes trees and shrubs curve
to maintain their perpendicularity, and they can trigger landslides if they lose their root footing. The surface soil can migrate under the
influence of cycles of freezing and thawing, or hot and cold temperatures, inching its way towards the bottom of the slope forming
terracettes. Landslides are often preceded by soil creep accompanied with soil sloughing — loose soil that falls and accumulates at the
base of the steepest creep sections.

Landslide

A landslide, also called a landslip, is a slow or rapid movement of a large mass of earth and rocks down a hill or a mountainside. Little
or no flowage of the materials occurs on a given slope until heavy rain and resultant lubrication by the same rainwater facilitate the
movement of the materials, causing a landslide to occur.

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Topic landslide
The term landslide or less frequently, landslip, refers to several forms of mass wasting that include a wide range of ground
movements, such as rock falls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environments,
characterized by either steep or gentle slope gradients, from mountain ranges to coastal cliffs or even underwater, in which case they
are called submarine landslides.

Types and classification

The following table shows a schematic landslide classification adopting the classification of Varnes 1978 and taking into account the
modifications made by Cruden and Varnes in 1996. Some integration has been made by using the definitions of Hutchinson (1988)
and Hungr et al. 2001.

Type of material

Type of movement Bedrock Engineering soils

Predominantly fine Predominantly coarse

Falls Rock fall Earth fall Debris fall

Topples Rock topple Earth topple Debris topple

Rotational Rock slump Earth slump Debris slump

Slides Few units Rock block slide Earth block slide Debris block slide
Translational
Many units Rock slide Earth slide Debris slide

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Lateral spreads Rock spread Earth spread Debris spread

Rock flow Earth flow Debris flow

Flows Rock avalanche Debris avalanche

(Deep creep) (Soil creep)

Complex and compound Combination in time and/or space of two or more principal types of movement

Falls

Landslide type: Rock fall

Description: "the detachment of soil or rock from a steep slope along a surface on which little or no shear displacement takes place.
The material then descends mainly through the air by falling, bouncing, or rolling"

Secondary falls: "Secondary falls involves rock bodies already physically detached from cliff and merely lodged upon it" (Hutchinson,
1988)

Speed: from very to extremely rapid

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Type of slope: slope angle 45–90 degrees

Control factor: Discontinuities

Causes: Vibration, undercutting, differential weathering, excavation, or stream erosion

Topples

Landslide type: Topple

Description: "Toppling is the forward rotation out of the slope of a mass of soil or rock about a point or axis below the centre of
gravity of the displaced mass. Toppling is sometimes driven by gravity exerted by material upslope of the displaced mass and
sometimes by water or ice in cracks in the mass"

Speed: extremely slow to extremely rapid

Type of slope: slope angle 45–90 degrees

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Control factor: Discontinuities, lithostratigraphy

Causes: Vibration, undercutting, differential weathering, excavation, or stream erosion

Slides

"A slide is a down slope movement of soil or rock mass occurring dominantly on the surface of rupture or on relatively thin zones of
intense shear strain."

Rock Slide

Translational slide

Description: "In translational slides the mass displaces along a planar or undulating surface of rupture, sliding out over the original
ground surface."

Speed: extremely slow to extremely rapid (>5 m/s)

Type of slope: slope angle 20-45 degrees

Control factor: Discontinuities, geological setting

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Causes: Vibration, undercutting, differential weathering, excavation, or stream erosion

Landslide type: Slide

Wedge failure

Rotational slides

Description: "Rotational slides move along a surface of rupture that is curved and concave" (Varnes, 1996)

Speed: extremely slow to extremely rapid

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Type of slope: slope angle 20–40 degrees

Control factor: morphology and lithology

Causes: Vibration, undercutting, differential weathering, excavation, or stream erosion

Spreads

"Spread is defined as an extension of a cohesive soil or rock mass combined with a general subsidence of the fractured mass of
cohesive material into softer underlying material." (Varnes, 1996). "In spread, the dominant mode of movement is lateral extension
accommodated by shear or tensile fractures”.

Speed: extremely slow to extremely rapid (>5 m/s)

Type of slope: angle 45–90 degrees

Control factor: Discontinuities, lithostratigraphy

Causes: Vibration, undercutting, differential weathering, excavation, or stream erosion

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Flows

Landslide type: Debris flow

Debris flow deposits Debris flow damage

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Landslide type: Debris flow

A flow is a spatially continuous movement in which surfaces of shear are short-lived, closely spaced, and usually not preserved. The
distribution of velocities in the displacing mass resembles that in a viscous liquid. The lower boundary of displaced mass may be a
surface along which appreciable differential movement has taken place or a thick zone of distributed shear.

Flows in rock

Rock Flow

Description: "Flow movements in bedrock include deformations that are distributed among many large or small fractures, or even
micro fracture, without concentration of displacement along a through-going fracture"

Speed: extremely slow

Type of slope: angle 45–90 degrees

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Causes: Vibration, undercutting, differential weathering, excavation, or stream erosion

Rock avalanche

Description: "Extremely rapid, massive, flow-like motion of fragmented rock from a large rock slide or rock fall” Speed: extremely
rapid

Type of slope: angle 45–90 degrees

Control factor: Discontinuities, lithostratigraphy

Causes: Vibration, undercutting, differential weathering, excavation or stream erosion

Italy Landslide type: Rock avalanche

Flows in soil

Debris flow

Description: "Debris flow is a very rapid to extremely rapid flow of saturated non-plastic debris in a steep channel"

Speed: very rapid to extremely rapid (>5 m/s)

Type of slope: angle 20–45 degrees

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Control factor: torrent sediments, water flows

Causes: High intensity rainfall

Debris avalanche

Debris avalanche in Auckland Region, New Zealand

Description: "Debris avalanche is a very rapid to extremely rapid shallow flow of partially or fully saturated debris on a steep slope,
without confinement in an established channel." (Hungr et al., 2001)

Speed: very rapid to extremely rapid (>5 m/s)

Type of slope: angle 20–45 degrees

Control factor: morphology, regolith

Causes: High intensity rainfalls

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– Italy Landslide type: Earth flow

Earth flow

Description: "Earth flow is a rapid or slower, intermittent flow-like movement of plastic, clayey earth."

Speed: slow to rapid (>1.8 m/h)

Type of slope: slope angle 5–25 degrees

Control factor: lithology

Mudflow

Description: "Mudflow is a very rapid to extremely rapid flow of saturated plastic debris in a channel, involving significantly greater
water content relative to the source material (Plasticity index> 5%)."

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Speed: very rapid to extremely rapid (>5 m/s)

Type of slope: angle 20–45 degrees

Control factor: torrent sediments, water flows

Causes: High intensity rainfall

Complex movement

Description: Complex movement is a combination of falls, topples, slides, spreads and flows

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Topic Causes of landslides

They are usually related to instabilities in slopes. It is usually possible to identify one or more landslide causes and one landslide
trigger. The difference between these two concepts is subtle but important. The landslide causes are the reasons that a landslide
occurred in that location and at that time. Landslide causes are listed in the following table, and include geological factors,
morphological factors, physical factors and factors associated with human activity.

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Causes may be considered to be factors that made the slope vulnerable to failure, that predispose the slope to becoming unstable. The
trigger is the single event that finally initiated the landslide. Thus, causes combine to make a slope vulnerable to failure, and the
trigger finally initiates the movement. Landslides can have many causes but can only have one trigger as shown in the next figure.
Usually, it is relatively easy to determine the trigger after the landslide has occurred (although it is generally very difficult to
determine the exact nature of landslide triggers ahead of a movement event).

Geological causes

 Weathered materials
 Sheared materials
 Jointed or fissured materials
 Adversely orientated discontinuities
 Permeability contrasts
 Material contrasts
 Rainfall and snow fall
 Earthquakes

Morphological causes

 Slope angle
 Uplift
 Rebound
 Fluvial erosion

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  Wave erosion
 Glacial erosion
 Erosion of lateral margins
 Subterranean erosion
 Slope loading
 Vegetation change
 Erosion

Physical causes

Topography

 Slope Aspect and Gradient

Geological Factors

 Discontinuity Factors (Dip Spacing, Asparity, Dip and length)

 Physical Characteristics of the Rock (Rock Strength etc.)

Tectonic Activity

 Seismic activity (Earthquakes)

 Volcanic eruption

Physical Weathering

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  Thawing
 Freeze-thaw
 Soil erosion

Hydrogeological Factors

 Intense rainfall
 Rapid snow melt
 Prolonged precipitation
 Ground water changes (Rapid drawdown)
 Soil pore water pressure
 Surface runoff

Human causes

 Deforestation
 Excavation
 Loading
 Water management (Groundwater Draw-down and Water leakage)
 Land use (e.g. construction of roads, houses etc.)
 Mining and Quarrying
 Vibration

Topic Relation between Vegetation and Slope Stability

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Material is constantly moving downslope in response to gravity. Movement can be very, very slow, barely perceptible over many
years. . . . . Or, movement can be devastatingly rapid, apparent within minutes. Whether or not slope movement occurs depends on
slope steepness and slope stability.

slope Stability (a lesson in physics)

When is a slope not stable? Slope stability is based on the interplay between two types of forces, driving forces
and resisting forces. Driving forces promote downslope movement of material, whereas resisting forces deter movement. So,
when driving forces overcome resisting forces, the slope is unstable and results in mass wasting.
Driving Forces
The basic concept of these two types of forces is quite simple. You experience the interplay between driving forces and resisting
forces each time you drive down a steep slope. The driving forces are gravity and the acceleration of the vehicle (if you step on the
accelerator), the resisting force is the brake on the vehicle.
The main driving force in most land movements is gravity. The main resisting force is the material's shear strength.
Does gravity act alone? NO!! Slope angle, climate, slope material, and water contribute to the effect of gravity. Mass movement
occurs much more frequently on steep slopes than on shallow slopes.
Water plays a key role in producing slope failure. In the form of rivers and wave action, water erodes the base of slopes, removing
support, which increases driving forces. Water can also increase the driving force by loading, i.e., adding to the total mass that is
subjected to the force of gravity.
Chemical weathering (interaction of water with surface rock and soil) slowly weakens slope material (primarily rock), reducing its
shear strength, therefore reducing resisting forces.
An increase in water also contributes to driving forces that result in slope failure. The weight (load) on the slope increases when
water fills previously empty pore spaces and fractures. The shear strength of the slope material is decreased by increasing the pore
water pressure (pressure that develops in pore spaces due to the increased amount of water).
RESISTING FORCES
Resisting forces act oppositely of driving forces. The resistance to downslope movement is dependent on the shear strength of the
slope material. And shear strength is a function of cohesion (ability of particles to attract and hold each other together) and internal
friction (friction between grains within a material).

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 Water contributes to resisting forces when sediment pores are partially filled with water. The thin film of water acts as a binder,
making the particles cohesive (remember surface tension of water? The ratio of resisting forces to driving forces is the safety factor
(SF):
SF = Resisting Forces
         Driving Forces
If SF > 1 then SAFE
If SF < 1 then UNSAFE

Slope stability refers to the condition of inclined soil or rock slopes to withstand or undergo movement.

The role of vegetation in landslides and related phenomena is complex because the vegetation in an area is a function of several
factors, including climate, soil type, topography, and fire history, each of which also influences what happens on slopes. Vegetation is
a significant factor in slope stability for three seasons. First, vegetation provides the cover that cushions the impact of rain falling on
slope, thus facilitating infiltration of water into the soil while retarding grain –by grain erosion on the surface. Second, vegetation has
root systems that tend to provide an apparent cohesion to the slope materials. And third, vegetation adds weight to the slope.

Most problems concerning slope stability and vegetation result from disturbance or removal of vegetation from slopes. In some cases,
however, vegetation increases the probability of a landslide, especially for specific types of shallow soil slips on steep slopes. During
especially wet winter months, the shallow rooted ice plants take water adding considerable weight to steep slopes and increasing the
driving forces.

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Topic

Weathering

Weathering is the breaking down of rocks, soil, and minerals as well as wood and artificial materials through contact with the Earth's
atmosphere, water, and biological organisms.

Physical weathering, also called mechanical weathering or disaggregation, is the class of processes that causes the disintegration of
rocks without chemical change. The primary process in physical weathering is abrasion (the process by which clasts and other
particles are reduced in size). However, chemical and physical weathering often goes hand in hand. Physical weathering can occur due
to temperature, pressure, frost etc. For example, cracks exploited by physical weathering will increase the surface area exposed to
chemical action, thus amplifying the rate of disintegration.

Chemical weathering changes the composition of rocks, often transforming them when water interacts with minerals to create various
chemical reactions. Chemical weathering is a gradual and ongoing process as the mineralogy of the rock adjusts to the near surface
environment. New or secondary minerals develop from the original minerals of the rock. In this the processes of oxidation and
hydrolysis are most important. Chemical weathering is enhanced by such geological agents as the presence of water and oxygen, as
well as by such biological agents as the acids produced by microbial and plant-root metabolism.

Biological weathering

A number of plants and animals may create chemical weathering through release of acidic compounds, i.e. the effect of moss growing
on roofs is classed as weathering. Mineral weathering can also be initiated or accelerated by soil microorganisms. Lichens on rocks are
thought to increase chemical weathering rates.

Erosion

It  is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on
the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location (not to be confused with weathering which involves no movement). This
natural process is caused by the dynamic activity of erosive agents, that is, water, ice (glaciers), snow, air (wind), plants, animals, and
humans. In accordance with these agents, erosion is sometimes divided into water erosion, glacial erosion, snow erosion, wind (aeolic)
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erosion, zoogenic erosion, and anthropogenic erosion.[2] The particulate breakdown of rock or soil into clastic sediment is referred to
as physical or mechanical erosion; this contrasts with chemical erosion, where soil or rock material is removed from an area by its
dissolving into a solvent (typically water), followed by the flow away of that solution. Eroded sediment or solutes may be transported
just a few millimetres, or for thousands of kilometres.

Fluvial processes 

They are associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them. When the stream or rivers are associated
with glaciers, ice sheets, or ice caps, the term glaciofluvial or fluvioglacial is used

Fluvial processes include the motion of sediment and erosion or deposition on the river bed. Erosion by moving water can happen in
two ways. Firstly, the movement of water across the stream bed exerts a shear stress directly onto the bed. If the cohesive strength of
the substrate is lower than the shear exerted, or the bed is composed of loose sediment which can be mobilized by such stresses, then
the bed will be lowered purely by clearwater flow. However, if the river carries significant quantities of sediment, this material can act
as tools to enhance wear of the bed (abrasion). At the same time the fragments themselves are ground down, becoming smaller and
more rounded (attrition).
Sediment in rivers is transported as either bedload (the coarser fragments which move close to the bed) or suspended load (finer
fragments carried in the water). There is also a component carried as dissolved material.
For each grain size there is a specific velocity at which the grains start to move, called entrainment velocity. However the grains will
continue to be transported even if the velocity falls below the entrainment velocity due to the reduced (or removed) friction between
the grains and the river bed. Eventually the velocity will fall low enough for the grains to be deposited. This is shown by the Hjulström
curve.
A river is continually picking up and dropping solid particles of rock and soil from its bed throughout its length. Where the river flow
is fast, more particles are picked up than dropped. Where the river flow is slow, more particles are dropped than picked up. Areas
where more particles are dropped are called alluvial or flood plains and the dropped particles are called alluvium.
Even small streams make alluvial deposits, but it is in the flood plains and deltas of large rivers that large, geologically-significant
alluvial deposits are found.

Glacial processes
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A glacier is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation
of snow exceeds its ablation (melting and sublimation) over many years, often centuries.

Glacial Erosion

Abrasion - Glaciers carry a large amount of material with them. Some of these sharp boulders are embedded in the bottom of the
glacier and act as erosive agents for the glacier. These rocks mean that the glacier acts like sandpaper, scouring along the valley floor.
The effects of abrasion are that the rock surface of the valley will be polished and may have deep grooves cut in them. These grooves
are called striations.

Plucking - This is the main erosive process of a glacier. As the glacier moves along the valley the ice melts slightly around large
boulders, before re-freezing around them. As it then moves on the boulders are literally ripped out of the ground and will often
become agents of abrasion.

Freeze-Thaw - Water enters cracks in the rock during the day. Overnight the temperature drops and the water freezes. As it freezes, it
expands. The expanded ice places pressure on the rocks around it. Over time this constant pressuring of the rock causes it to crack and
split. This process will break of rocks ready to be plucked by the glacier.

Glacial Transportation

Glaciers carry a huge amount of material. These rocks are called moraine and can be carried great distances by a glacier.

The rocks are mainly carried once they have been plucked away from the valley surface by the glacier. Most of the material is carried
nearer to the base of the glacier. The glacier also carries however frost shattered material from the valley sides once it has fallen onto
the ice surface. This material is called lateral moraine, and is carried at the sides of the glacier. When two valley glaciers meet and
merge the two lateral moraines will form a medial moraine, running down the centre of the new, larger glacier.

Glacial Deposition

Glaciers will always reach a point when they will start to melt, mainly due to the rise in temperature as they descend in height down
the valley. As the ice melts it cannot carry as much material and so this is deposited. The main depositional feature of a glacier is
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its terminal moraine, but it will also create recessional moraines and eventually also leave behind lateral, medial and ground
moraines.

Aeolian processes

Aeolian processes, also spelled eolian or æolian, pertain to wind activity in the study of geology and weather and specifically to the
wind's ability to shape the surface of the Earth (or other planets). Winds may erode, transport, and deposit materials and are effective
agents in regions with sparse vegetation, a lack of soil moisture and a large supply of unconsolidated sediments. Although water is a
much more powerful eroding force than wind, aeolian processes are important in arid environments such as deserts.

Wind erodes the Earth's surface by deflation (the removal of loose, fine-grained particles by the turbulent action of the wind) and
by abrasion (the wearing down of surfaces by the grinding action and sandblasting by windborne particles).

Particles are transported by winds through suspension, saltation (skipping or bouncing) and creeping (rolling or sliding) along the
ground.
Small particles may be held in the atmosphere in suspension. Upward currents of air support the weight of suspended particles and
hold them indefinitely in the surrounding air. Typical winds near Earth's surface suspend particles less than 0.2 millimeters in diameter
and scatter them aloft as dust or haze.

Wind-deposited materials hold clues to past as well as to present wind directions and intensities. These features help us understand the
present climate and the forces that molded it. Wind-deposited sand bodies occur as sand sheets, ripples, and dunes.

Topic 25

Main exogenous (surface) process and landforms development

And

Topic 16 erosion and depositional land forms

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A landform is a natural or artificial feature of the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. Landforms together make up a
given terrain, and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography.

Exogenous refers to all the processes that are produced at the surface of the Earth (and other planets). Weathering, erosion,
transportation, and sedimentation are the main exogenous processes. The result of these processes is the formation of sediments
and  sedimentary rocks.

Main exogenous process is:

Weathering: as described above

Transportation (mass – wasting):

Erosion: as described above

Erosion takes place by

Water (fluvial process): as described above

Glacier (glacial process): as described above

Wind (Aeolian process): as described above

Important Land Features Produced by Water Erosion

1. Pot –Holes

A pothole is a depression in a road surface, usually asphalt pavement, where traffic has removed broken pieces of the pavement. It is
usually the result of water in the underlying soil structure and traffic passing over the affected area. Water first weakens the underlying
soil; traffic then fatigues and breaks the poorly supported asphalt surface in the affected area. Continued traffic action ejects both
asphalt and the underlying soil material to create a hole in the pavement.
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 2. Water Falls

A waterfall is an area where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops in the course of a  stream or river. Waterfalls
also occur where melt water drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg .

Waterfalls are commonly formed in the upper course of a river in steep mountains. [1] Because of their landscape position, many
waterfalls occur over bedrock fed by little contributing area, so they may be ephemeral and flow only during rainstorms or significant
snowmelt. The further downstream, the more perennial a waterfall can be. Waterfalls can have a wide range of widths and depths.

3. Valley Deepening

Gorges or Canyon

gorge is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic

timescales. Rivers have a natural tendency to cut through underlying surfaces, eventually wearing away rock layers as sediments are
removed downstream. A river bed will gradually reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water into
which the river drains. The processes of weathering and erosion will form canyons when the river's headwaters and estuary are at
significantly different elevations, particularly through regions where softer rock layers are intermingled with harder layers more
resistant to weathering.

Important Landforms Produced by River Deposition

1. Alluvian Fans and Cones

Alluvial fans are triangular-shaped deposits of water-transported material, often referred to as alluvium. They are an example of
an unconsolidated sedimentary deposit and tend to be larger and more prominent in arid to semi-arid regions. These alluvial fans
typically form in elevated or even mountainous regions where there is a rapid change in slope from a high to low gradient. The
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 river or stream carrying the sediment flows at a relatively high velocity due to the high slope angle, which is why coarse material
is able to remain in the flow. When the slope decreases rapidly into a relatively planar area or plateau, the stream loses the energy
it needs to move its sediment. Deposition subsequently occurs and the sediment ultimately spreads out, creating an alluvial fan.
Three primary zones occur within an alluvial fan which includes the proximal fan, medial fan, and the distal fan.

2. Flood Plain Deposits

A floodplain or flood plain is an area of land adjacent to a stream or river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of
the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge. The soils usually consist of clays, silts,
and sands deposited during floods.

Floodplains are formed when a meander erodes sideways as it travels downstream. When a river breaks its banks, it leaves behind
layers of alluvium (silt). These gradually build up to create the floor of the plain. Floodplains generally contain unconsolidated
sediments, often extending below the bed of the stream. These are accumulations of sand, gravel, loam, silt, and/or clay, and are often
important aquifers, the water drawn from them being pre-filtered compared to the water in the river.
Geologically ancient floodplains are often represented in the landscape by fluvial terraces. These are old floodplains that remain
relatively high above the present floodplain and indicate former courses of a stream.

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3. Delta

A river delta is a landform created by deposition of sediment that is carried by a river as the flow leaves its mouth and enters
slower-moving or stagnant water. This occurs where a river enters an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, or (more rarely) another
river that cannot carry away the supplied sediment. The size and shape of a delta is controlled by the balance between watershed
processes that supply sediment, and receiving basin processes that redistribute, sequester, and export that sediment. The size,
geometry, and location of the receiving basin also plays an important role in delta evolution. River deltas are important in human
civilization, as they are major agricultural production centers and population centers. They can provide coastline defense and can
impact drinking water supply. They are also ecologically important, with different species' assemblages depending on their
landscape position.

Important Landforms Produced By Wind

Sand Dunes Dunes are large masses of wind-blown sand, and are most common in deserted environments, such as the Sahara,
and also near beaches. An area with dunes is called a dune system. In physical geography, a dune is a hill of loose sand built
by aeolian processes (wind) or the flow of water. Dunes occur in different shapes and sizes, formed by interaction with the flow of
air or water. Dunes can be natural, but also man-made (artificial). Most kinds of dunes are longer on the stoss (upflow) side, where
the sand is pushed up the dune, and have a shorter "slip face" in the lee side. The valley or trough between dunes is called a slack.

Important Landforms Produced by Glacier

Moraines

A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris (regolith and rock) that occurs in both currently
and formerly glaciated regions on Earth (i.e. a past glacial maximum), through geomorphological processes. Moraines are formed
from debris previously carried along by a glacier, and normally consist of somewhat rounded particles ranging in size from large
boulders to minute glacial flour. Lateral moraines are formed at the side of the ice flow and terminal moraines at the foot, marking
the maximum advance of the glacier. Other types of moraine include ground moraines (till-covered areas with
irregular topography) and medial moraines (moraines formed where two glaciers meet).

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Topic 17 Relation between Plant Growth and Earth Surface Process

Earth surface process refers to all the processes that are produced at the surface of the Earth (and other planets). Weathering,
erosion, transportation, and sedimentation are the main exogenous processes. The result of these processes is the formation of
sediments and sedimentary rocks

Weathering and plant growth

The most common forms of biological weathering are the release of chelating compounds (i.e. organic acids, siderophores) and of
acidifying molecules (i.e. protons, organic acids) by plants so as to break down aluminium and iron containing compounds in the soils
beneath them. Decaying remains of dead plants in soil may form organic acids which, when dissolved in water, cause chemical
weathering. Extreme release of chelating compounds can easily affect surrounding rocks and soils, and may lead to podsolisation of
soils.
The symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi associated with tree root systems can release inorganic nutrients from minerals such as apatite or
biotite and transfer these nutrients to the trees, thus contributing to tree nutrition. It was also recently evidenced that bacterial
communities can impact mineral stability leading to the release of inorganic nutrients. To date a large range of bacterial strains or
communities from diverse genera have been reported to be able to colonize mineral surfaces or to weather minerals, and for some of
them a plant growth promoting effect was demonstrated. The demonstrated or hypothesised mechanisms used by bacteria to weather
minerals include several oxidoreduction and dissolution reactions as well as the production of weathering agents, such as protons,
organic acids and chelating molecules.
Q. How does weathering affect nutrient availability and plant growth? 2

Erosion and plant growth

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Soil erosion leads to decrease in agricultural productivity because of loss of nutrient rich top soil layer, eventually leading to
desertification.

Organic matter is a small fraction of soil, mainly present on the soil surface. Erosion gradually depletes organic matter and decreases
soil productivity.
Soil erosion leads to degradation of soil structure leading to hard, compact and cloddy soil. This results in poor soil aeration.
Water holding capacity and soil permeability are also decreased.

Decreased aeration results in less oxygen availability for plant roots.

Decreased water content results in results in less water availability for healthy plant growth.
Decreased water permeability results in a great deal of runoff water.

Beneficial organisms that suppress diseases and breakdown of organic residues do not function well due to reduced nutrient storage
and supply ability of the soil.
Thus soil erosion affects healthy plant growth.

Q. How does erosion affect nutrient availability and plant growth? 2

Landslide and plant growth

1. Landslide colonists have adaptations to survive low-nutrient, unstable substrates, where they may also experience temperature and
water stress. Many of the species that colonize landslides are found exclusively in disturbed habitats and are known as gap specialists.
Other colonists are common species in the adjacent undisturbed environment where their proximity to the landslide may have enabled
rapid dispersal.

2. Microbes (including bacteria and fungi) are probably the first organisms to disperse to and colonize landslides. Symbiotic
relationships, such as lichens, and plants with mycorrhizal fungi or nitrogen fixing bacteria, represent adaptations for survival in newly
exposed, low nutrient landslide substrates.

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3. All plant life forms are found on landslides, but tend to segregate by slope. Small plants including bryophytes and forbs tend to
dominate steep slopes, while tree ferns and trees tend to dominate less steep slopes. Grasses, vines, vine-like scrambling ferns, and
shrubs, as well as most wind-dispersed plants, are common colonists on many landslides.

4. Arthropods are typically the first animals to colonize landslides, and include mites, Collembola, and ants, which are well adapted to
temperature extremes and drought conditions. 5. Vertebrates associated with landslides are generally visitors rather than residents of
the landslides. Birds and small mammals are the most common visitors, yet most vertebrates do not visit landslides until sufficient
ground cover or foraging material has become established.

Q. How does landslide affect nutrient availability and plant growth? 2

Topic 20 Process of Soil Formation, Types Controlling Factors

FOR THIS TOPIC SEE NOTE OF SOIL SCIENCE

Topic Physiographic Division of the Nepal Himalaya

Physiographic division of Nepal has been in practice since 1950s. It was 1969; Tony Hagen successively divided Nepal into eight well
defined physiographic provinces from south to north. These provinces are E-W running and can also be incorporated in Indian
Himalayan belt. The Hagen classification is the most appropriate classification and represents all characteristic physiographic zones of
Nepal. Some geographer and geomorphologists also used fivefold classification in the general sense namely Terai, Churai, Middle
Mountain, High Mountain and High Himalaya. Nevertheless, detail physiographical provinces of Nepal are given in Table 1.1 and Fig
1.12. and Fig 1.13 illustrates the generalized physiographic profile of the Nepal Himalaya.

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Table 1.1, Physiographical division of the Nepal Himalaya (modified after Upreti, 1999)

SN Geomorphic Unit Width Altitudes Main Rock Types Main processes for landform development
(km) (m)

1 Terai (Northern edge of20-50 100-200 Alluvium: coarse gravels in theRiver deposition, erosion and tectonic
the Gangetic Plain) north near the foot of theupliftment
mountains, gradually becoming
finer southward

2 Churia Range (Siwaliks) 10-50 200-1300 Sandstone, mudstone, shale andTectonic upliftment, erosion, and slope failure
conglomerate.

3 Dun Valleys 5-30 200-300 Valleys within the Churia HillsRiver deposition, erosion and tectonic
filled up by coarse to fine alluvialupliftment
sediments

4 Mahabharat Range 10-35 1000-3000 Schist, phyllite, gneiss, quartzite,Tectonic upliftment, Weathering, erosion, and
granite and limestone belonging toslope failure
the Lesser Himalayan Zone

5 Midlands 40-60 300-2000 Schist, phyllite, gneiss, quartzite,Tectonic upliftment, Weathering, erosion, and
granite, limestone geologicallyslope failure
belonging to the Lesser
Himalayan Zone

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6 Fore Himalaya 20-70 2000-5000 Gneisses, schists, phyllites andTectonic upliftment, Weathering, erosion, and
marbles mostly belonging to theslope failure
northern edge of the Lesser
Himalayan Zone

7 Higher Himalaya 10-60 >5000 Gneisses, schists, migmatites andTectonic upliftment, Weathering, erosion (rivers
marbles belonging to the Higherand glaciers), and slope failure
Himalayan Zone

8 Inner and Trans Himalaya 5-50
2500-4500 Gneisses, schists and marbles ofTectonic upliftment,  wind and glacial erosion,
the Higher Himalayan Zone andand slope degradation by rock disintegrations
Tethyan sediments (limestones,
shale, sandstone etc.) belonging to
the Tibetan-Tethys Zone

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Generalized geographical cross section of the Nepal Himalaya (modified after Dahal 2006) 

Topic: The Geology of Nepal

It is dominated by the Himalaya, the highest, youngest and a very highly active mountain range (Upreti 2014, p. 1). Himalaya is a
type locality for the study of on-going continent-continent collision tectonics (Upreti 2014, p. 1). The Himalayan arc extends about
2,400 km (1,500 mi) from Nanga Parbat (8,138 m (26,699 ft)) by the Indus River in northern Pakistan eastward to Namche Barwa
(7,756 m (25,446 ft)) by the gorge of the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra in eastern Tibet (Le Fort 1996). About 800 km (500 mi) of this extent
is in Nepal; the remainder includes Bhutan and parts of Pakistan, India, and China.

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Since 55 Ma the Himalayan orogeny beginning with the collision of Indian subcontinent and Eurasia at the Paleocene/Eocene epoch
(Rowley 1996), has thickened the Indian crust to its present thickness of 70 m (230 ft) (Le Fort 1975). The northwest tip of India after
colliding with Asia seems to have met along the full length of the suture by about 40 Ma (Dewey et al. 1988).

Immediately prior to the onset of the Indo-Asian collision, the northern boundary of the Indian shield was likely a thinned continental
margin on which Proterozoic clastic sediments and the Cambrian ±Eocene Tethyan shelf sequence were deposited (Le Fort 1996).

Morpho-tectonic division of Nepal Himalaya

Heim & Gansser 1939, and Gansser 1964 divided the rocks of the Himalaya into four tectonostratigraphic zones that are characterized
by distinctive stratigraphy and physiography. From south to north, it can be divided into five latitudinal morpho-tectonic zones and
these are:

1. The Gangatic Plain (Terai)

2. The Sub Himalayan (Chure or Siwalik)

3 Lesser Himalayan (Mahabharat Mountain Range),

4. Greater Himalayan, and

5. Tibetan Himalayan zones (Tethys Himalaya).

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Gangetic plain

The gangetic plain is also called the Terai which is a rich, fertile and ancient land in the southern parts of Nepal. It represents
Holocene/Recent sedimentation belt where fluvial sedimentation is still in progress. This plain is less than 200 m above sea level and
has thick (about 1500 m) alluvial deposit. The alluvial deposits mainly consist of boulders, gravel, sand, silt and clay. It is a foreland
basin which consists of the sediments brought down from the northern part of Nepal. It is the Nepalese extension of the Indo-Gangetic
Plains, which covers most of northern and eastern India, the most populous parts of Pakistan, and virtually all of Bangladesh. The
Plains get their names from the rivers Ganges and Indus.
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The vast alluvial plains of the Indo-Gangetic Basin evolved as a foreland basin in the southern part of the rising Himalaya, before
breaking up along a series of steep faults known as the Himalayan Frontal Fault (Nakata 1989) or the Main Frontal Thrust (Gansser
1981). It comprises several sub-basins and all of them are quite shallow towards the south, but rather deep in the northern sections.

Sub-Himalaya (Siwaliks)

The Sub-Himalayan Sequence borders the Indo-Gangetic Floodplain along the Himalayan Frontal Fault and is dominated by thick
Late Tertiary mollassic deposits known as the Siwaliks that resulted from the accumulating fluvial deposits on the southern front of
the evolving Himalaya. In Nepal, it extends throughout the country from east to west in the southern part. It is delineated by the
Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT) and Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) in south and north respectively. The youngest sediments on the
top are the conglomerates, and the sandstones and mudstones are dominant in the lower portions. The upward coarsening sequence of
the sediments obviously exhibit the time-history in the evolution and growth of the Himalaya during the early Tertiary time (Gansser
1964).

The Sub Himalayan zone is the 10 to 25 km wide belt of Neogene Siwaliks (or Churia) group rocks forming the topographic front of
the Himalaya. It rises from the fluvial plains of the active foreland basin, and this front generally mapped as the trace of the Main
Frontal Thrust (MFT). The Siwaliks Group consists of upward-coarsening successions of fluvial mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, and
conglomerate.

The Siwaliks Group in Nepal is composed of three units that are known as lower, middle and upper members. These units can be
correlated with the Sub Himalaya of Pakistan and of northern India (Burbank, Beck & Mulder 1996). Palaeocurrent and petrographic
data from the sandstone and conglomerate indicate that these rocks were derived from the fold-thrust belt, and deposited within the
flexural foredeep of the Himalayan foreland basin (Tokuoka et al. 1986; DeCelles et al. 1998).

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  Interbedding sandstone and mudstone in Middle Siwalik, Butwal-Tansen section of Siddhartha Highway

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Aerial photograph of Udaypur district (eastern Nepal), well marked Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) is passing through middle of
photograph

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MBT observed in Butwal-Tansen section of Siddhartha Highway

Lesser Himalaya

The Lesser Himalayas lies in between the Sub-Himalayas and Higher Himalayas separated by the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) and
the Main Central Thrust (MCT) respectively. The total width ranges from 60–80 km. The Lesser Himalayas is made up mostly of the
unfossiliferous sedimentary and metasedimentary rocks; such as shale, sandstone, conglomerate, slate, phyllite, schist, quartzite,
limestone and dolomite. The rocks range in age from Precambrian to Miocene. The geology is complicated due to folding, faulting
and thrusting and are largely unfossiliferous. Tectonically, the entire Lesser Himalayas consists of two sequences of rocks:
allochthonous, and autochthonous-paraautochthonous units; with various nappes, klippes and tectonic windows.

The northernmost boundary of the Siwaliks Group is marked by the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT), over which the low-grade
metasedimentary rocks of the Lesser Himalaya overlie. The Lesser Himalaya, also called the Lower Himalaya, or the Midlands, is a
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thick (about 7 km) section of para-autochthonous crystalline rocks made up of low- to medium grade rocks. These lower Proterozoic
clastic rocks (Parrish & Hodges 1996) are subdivided into two groups. Argillo-arenaceous rocks dominate the lower half of the
succession, whereas the upper half consists of both carbonate and siliciclastic rocks (Hagen (1969); Le Fort 1975; Stöcklin 1980).

The Lesser Himalaya thrust over the Siwaliks along the MBT to the south, and is overlained by the allochthonous thrust sheets of
Kathmandu and HHC along the MCT. The Lesser Himalaya is folded into a vast post-metamorphic anticlinal structure known as the
Kunchha-Gorkha anticlinorium (Pêcher 1977). The southern flank of the anticlinorium is weakly metamorphosed, whereas the
northern flank is highly metamorphosed.

South Tibetan Detachment System (STDS) separating Higher Himalayan Zone from Tibetan-Tethys Zone, Chhaktan Khola, north
west from Kokhethati, Mutang (Adopted from Dahal 2006)

Higher Himalaya

This zone extends from the MCT to Tibetan-Tethys Zone and runs throughout the country. This zone consists of almost 10  km thick
succession of the crystalline rocks, commonly called the Himal Group. This sequence can be divided into four main units, as Kyanite-

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Sillimanite gneiss, pyroxenic marble and gneiss, banded gneiss, and augen gneiss in the ascending order (Bordet, Colchen & LeFort
1972).

The High Himalayan Crystalline units (HHC) (Bollinger et al. 2004) are mainly composed of kyanite- to sillimanite-grade gneisses
intruded by High Himalayan leucogranites at structurally higher levels (Upreti 1999). Throughout much of the range, the unit is
divided into three formations (Pêcher & Le Fort 1986). In central Nepal (Guillot 1999), the upper Formation III consists of augen
orthogneisses, whereas the Middle Formation II are calcsilicate gneisses and marbles, and the basal Formation I are kyanite- and
sillimanite bearing metapelites, gneisses, and metagreywacke with abundant quartzite.

The gneiss of Higher Himalayan zone (HHZ) is a thick continuous sequence of about 5 to 15 km (Guillot 1999). The northern part is
marked by North Himalayan Normal fault (NHNF), which is also known as the South Tibetan Detachment system (STDS). At its
base, it is bounded by the MCT. The protolith of the HHC is interpreted to be Late Proterozoic clastic sedimentary rocks deposited on
the northern Indian margin (Parrish & Hodges 1996).

Tibetan-Tethys

The Tibetan-Tethys Himalayas generally begins from the top of the Higher Himalayan Zone and extends to the north in Tibet. In
Nepal these fossiliferous rocks are well developed in Thak Khola (Mustang), Manang and Dolpa area. This zone is about 40 km wide
and composed of fossiliferous sedimentary rocks such as shale, sandstone and limestone etc.

The area north of the Annapurna and Manaslu ranges in central Nepal consists of metasediments that overlie the Higher Himalayan
zone along the South Tibetan Detachment system. It has undergone very little metamorphism except at its base where it is close to the
Higher Himalayan crystalline rocks. The thickness is currently presumed to be 7,400 m (Fuchs, Widder & Tuladhar 1988). The rocks
of the Tibetan Tethys Series (TSS) consist of a thick and nearly continuous lower Paleozoic to lower Tertiary marine sedimentary
succession. The rocks are considered to be deposited in a part of the Indian passive continental margin (Liu & Einsele 1994).

Topic Why is Himalaya restless? Causes of critical zone formation in Nepal

The Himalayan Range is a young mountain system of world. It is a broad continuous arc along the northern fringes of the Indian
subcontinent, from the bend of the Indus River in the northwest to the Brahmaputra River in the east. The Himalayan mountain chain
extends in an east-west direction between the wide plains of the Indus and Brahmaputra in the south and the vast expanse of the high
Tibetan Plateau in the north. The limit of the Himalayas in the east and west is marked by the eastern and western arc of Himalayan
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bends. Between these bends the Himalayan range is approximately 2400 km long and 200 km to 300 km wide. The Himalayas cover
an area of approximately 600,000 sq. km in south Asia.
The Himalayas have been formed as a result of the collision between the Eurasian plate and the Indian plate. The Indian plate has been
moving north for millions of years now and the rocks on the periphery of both these plates have undergone tremendous pressure which
has ultimately given rise to the Himalayas. This has given rise to a large number of reverse faults (Thrusts) in the Himalayas. At a
certain point pressure along these faults causes them to move. This movement on a regional scale is what we experience as an
earthquake. The frequency of earthquakes in the Himalayas is high because of the speed at which the Indian plate is moving. Mount
Everest is increasing in height at a rate of about 5cm/year, which is very fast as compared to other orogenies.

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  Cliff of limestone belongs to Tibetan-Tethys Zone, Jomsom, and Mustang

Topic Thrust or Fault Zones of Nepal Himalaya

Main Frontal Thrust (MFT) Also Known as Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT)

It bounds the Terai Zone from north. It is the youngest, most active, and southernmost thrust system in the Himalaya.Although often
considered a single, continuous fault, in reality as many as four subparallel faults, spaced 5-30 km apart, and make up this fault
system. Estimates of total shortening across the MFT for eastern and central Nepal vary from 15 to 40 km, based on cross-sections and
surface measurements. 

Main Boundary Thrust (MBT)

It bounds the Siwalik Zone from north.

Main Central Thrust (MCT)

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 It bounds the Lesser Himalaya Zone from north.It is a major geological fault where the Indian Plate has pushed under the Eurasian
Plate along the Himalaya. It is a thrust fault that continues along 2200 km of the Himalaya mountain belt.

North Himalayan Normal fault (NHNF), which is also known as the South Tibetan Detachment system (STDS).

It bounds the Higher Himalaya Zone from north.

There are three primary rock units present in the Himalaya:

 Lesser Himalayan Sequence (LHS): mainly low-grade Proterozoic meta-sediments, 

 Greater Himalayan Crystalline Complex (GHCC): largely high-grade paragneisses and migmatite

 Tethyan Himalayan Sequence (THS) dominantly low-grade late Proterozoic to Eocene shelf sediments

Topic Geomorphic Zones of Nepal and Vegetation Types (Ecology of Nepal Himalaya)

Terai zone (100-200) m

Geomorphic environment

The Terai is made up of recent river deposits and consists of coarse sediment in the north, near to the base of Siwaliks Range and fine
in the south, near to the Indian border to Nepal. The elevation of Terai ranged from 65 m in eastern Nepal to 200 m in western Nepal
with broad plain area.

Vegetation

The Terai has a high water table due to groundwater percolating down from the adjacent zone. The central part of the Terai belt is
occupied by the Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands, a mosaic of grasslands, savannas, deciduous and evergreen forests that includes
some of the world's tallest grasslands. The grasslands of the Terai belt are home to the Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis).

The vegetation in tropical zone is the dominance of Shorea robusta on flat terraces and alluvium deposits whereas riveine vegetation is
grassland and deciduous forest of Acacia Catechu and Dalbergia sisoo along the stream of Bhabar and Dun valleys.

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Environmental problems:

All rivers of Nepal drain to the Ganga River of India through the Terai. As a result, every year, Terai is facing extreme problems of
floods and river bank erosion. Area near to the Siwaliks Range is also confronting problems of debris flows. Moreover, both small and
large rivers have shown channel shifting nature in the last 300 years.  Riverbeds in the Terai may rise at annual rates of 15 to 30 cm,
and satellite imagery clearly shows that the Koshi River in eastern Nepal has shifted about 125 km west of its original course in 250
years (Joshi, 1985).

The Siwalik (Churia) (200-1300) m

Geomorphic environment

Range is made up of geologically very young sedimentary rocks such as mudstones, shale, sandstones, siltstones and conglomerates.
These rocks are soft, unconsolidated and easily disintegrable. The Upper Siwalik contains thick beds of conglomerates and they are
loose and fragile. Similarly Lower Siwalik and Middle Siwalik have problem from alternating beds of mudstones and sandstone. In
such alternating bands, mudstone can flow when saturated with water which results overhanging sandstone beds. Such overhang
jointed sandstone beds easily disintegrate into blocks. Similarly, throughout Nepal, the rainfall within Churia Range is normally in the
range of 2000 to 2500 mm per year. As a result, geological conditions and the climate render the Churia Range highly susceptible for
landslides processes. Basically, rock failures, shallow slides and debris flows are common in Siwaliks.

Vegetation

It supports dense sub-tropical forest. Trees such as Engelhardia spicata, Acer oblongum, Micheliasp, etc and Maesa chisia, Euraya
Acuminate, Eupatorium adenophorum, etc. dominates under growth surface. These are the association tree species in this zone.

The Mahabharat Range (1000-3000)

Geomorphic environment

It is belongs to the Lesser Himalayan Zone. It is the most important barrier of the monsoon clouds and it greatly influences the rainfall
distribution pattern in Nepal. Almost in whole Nepal, southern face of Mahabharata Range gets extensive rainfall in comparison to
Midland. The annual rainfall in Mahabharat Range area is comparatively higher and the frequency of high intensity rainfall is also
high.

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The Midlands (200-2000)

Geomorphic environment

It also belongs to the Lesser Himalayan Zone and situated at north of the Mahabharat Range. It has a gentle topography compared to
Churia and Mahabharat ranges.  The slopes are also comparatively less steep than in other zones of Himalaya. Thick soil formations
are found in slopes of the Midlands because of deeply weathered rocks.  As a result, the slopes are very prone to landslides after
intense rainfall. Usually, Midlands is considered as rain shadow zone of the Mahabharat Range, it receives rainfall between 1000 to
2000 mm, but some area has high rainfall record also.

Vegetation

Above the broadleaf forests, between 3,000 and 4,000 meters, are temperate coniferous forests,

The Fore Himalaya (2000-5000) m

Geomorphic environment

It is a northern part of Midlands and it is the frontal portion of the Higher Himalaya. Geologically, it is generally belongs to the Lesser
Himalayan Zone in many places and in some places it is the Higher Himalayan Zone. Thus, main rock types of this province are
phyllites, schists, marble, quartzites, and gneisses.

Tectonically, this zone is very active and uplifting at a high rate and the topography is steep and rugged. Similarly, like the south faced
slope of the Mahabharat Range, the Fore Himalaya also gets high rainfall in the range between 2000 to 3500 mm. This province is
also another vulnerable area for landslide occurrence, but because of less soil on steep slope, mainly rock related failure problems are
very frequent. Deep seated landslides are also common in this zone. Some landslide dams can be also noticed in narrow river valleys
of this province.

Vegetation

At the middle elevations of the range, the subtropical forests yield to a belt of temperate broadleaf and mixed forests growing between
1,500 and 3,000 meters

The Higher Himalaya (>5000) m

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Geomorphic environment

It province is the highest area of Himalaya. It includes all elevated peaks and their slope exceeding 5000 m in altitude. Geologically,
this province belongs to the Higher Himalayan Zone and the Tibetan-Tethys Himalayan Zone in some extent and main rock types of
this zone are gneisse, schist, marble and quartzite. Vertical or steeps rocky slopes are very common in this province.

Vegetation

Alpine tundra lies above tree line. The areas above natural treeline are chiefly composed of annuals, which is differentiated into alpine
grasslands and meadows. The steep slopes are mainly predominated by grasses whereas the meadows are dominated by herbaceous
species.

Tibetan-Tethys Himalayan Zone (2500-4500)

This area is situated in the rain shadow zone of the greater Himalayan Range. This zone has average annual rainfall very low in
comparison to the Midlands and the Fore Himalaya. Thus soil related landslides are less frequent but debris flow in a snow fed stream
is quite common. The river bank made of alluvial and glacial moraine possesses bank failure problem.

Topic The geologic time scale (GTS)

It is a system of chronological dating that relates geological strata (stratigraphy) to time. It is used by geologists, paleontologists, and

other Earth scientists to describe the timing and relationships of events that have occurred during Earth's history.

The primary defined divisions of time are eons, in sequence the Hadean, the Archean, the Proterozoic and the Phanerozoic. The first
three of these can be referred to collectively as the Precambrian supereon. Eons are divided into eras, which are in turn divided
into periods, epochs and ages.

The following four timelines show the geologic time scale. The first shows the entire time from the formation of the Earth to the
present, but this gives little space for the most recent eon. Therefore, the second timeline shows an expanded view of the most recent
eon. In a similar way, the most recent era is expanded in the third timeline, and the most recent period is expanded in the fourth
timeline.

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Millions of Years

Corresponding to eons, eras, periods, epochs and ages, the terms "eonothem", "erathem", "system", "series", "stage" are used to refer
to the layers of rock that belong to these stretches of geologic time in Earth's history.
Geologists qualify these units as "early", "mid", and "late" when referring to time, and "lower", "middle", and "upper" when referring
to the corresponding rocks. For example, the lower Jurassic Series in chronostratigraphy corresponds to the early Jurassic Epoch

100
in geochronology. The adjectives are capitalized when the subdivision is formally recognized, and lower case when not; thus "early
Miocene" but "Early Jurassic."

Model question

1. Define geology. How and why study of geology is important in environment and natural disaster management?1+4

2. Define lithosphere and aesthenosphere. Which layer is mainly responsible for endogenous processes? Describe internal
structure of the earth.1+4

3. What are the properties a substance should have to be called mineral? Describe factors that cause chemistry of mineral.
How chemical composition of mineral changes? 1+2+2

4. Describe physics properties of minerals 5

5. Write chemical formula, properties and uses of silicates and non silicates minerals.

6. Define igneous rock. How they formed? And describe their types on the basis of origin.

7. Differtiate between plutonic and volcanic rocks. How igneous rocks are classified on the basis of chemical
composition? 2.5+2.5

8. Define sedimentary rocks. Describe the process of their formation. Name any four clastic sedimentary rocks 1+3+1

9. What does clastic mean? Which type of rock coal is? Describe types of sedimentary rocks.1+1+3
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10. What is protolith? what are the causes of metamorphism ?Describe types of meta morhism.1+1+3

11. Define metamorphic rock. How does metamorphic rock form? Describe foliated and non foliated rocks.1+2+2

12. What is plate tectonic? Discuss reason behind plate tectonic? How does plate tectonic is related to earthquake
phenomenon in Nepal? explain.1+2+2

13. What is plate boundary? Describe its types. why is study of plate tectonic is important, give reasons?1+3+2

14. Define fold. What are causes of fold formation? Describe economic implication of fold formation1+2+2

15. What is syncline and anti-syncline formation? What are causes of fold formation? Describe economic implication of
fold formation1+2+2

16. Define fault. What are the causes of fault formation ?describe its different types.1+2+2

17. What is joint? What are causes of joint? Describe its types based on geometry.1+2+2

18. What is columnar joint? Describe joint types based on formation. Write importance of joint.1+3+1

19. What is stratigraphy? what are the principles of stratigraphy ?why is stratigraphy important?1+3+1

20. What are the types of stratigraphy? Describe.5

21. What is mass wasting? How is mass wasting broadly classified? Describe.1+4

22. What is landslide? How does differ from mass movement? How is it classified? Describe all of its types in
brief.1+1+2+6

23. What are the geological and geomorphic factors causing landslide? Does presence of vegetation trigger landslide and
related phenomena? Discuss.3+2
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24. How weathering differs from erosion? describe different types of landforms created by fluvial process.1+4

25. What does exogenous process mean? What are the erosive agents? Describe.1+1+3

26. Why is Himalaya restless? Describe.5

27. What are the physiographic divisions of Nepal? Describe geological process happening in each of these divisions in .5

28. How is country Nepal divided geologically? Describe 10

29. Why different thrusts are found in Nepal Himalaya? What are major boundary thrusts? Describe 2+3

30. How does weathering and landslide affect nutrient availability and plant growth? 2+3

31. Write short note on

a. Geological time scale

b. Fossil formation

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