1

Geology

Muhammad Shafiq

Introduction
Throughout history humans have sought to control and
understand their environment. Practical activities like
agriculture and quarrying naturally lead to enhanced
knowledge, and science suggests further ways of utilizing the
Earth.
Growing interaction with the Earth has been important in
the development of numerous sciences - not just geology but
cosmogony and geophysics ; alchemy and chemistry ;
mineralogy and crystallography ; meteorology, physical
geography, topography, and oceanography ; natural history,
biology, and ecology. Distinct investigation of the Earth
itself - geology - has been a recent development. Geology
(literally ` Earth - knowledge ´) does not date back more than
two hundred years.

Antiquity:-
Scientific thinking about the Earth grew out of traditions of
thought which took shape in the Middle East and the
Eastern Mediterranean. Early civilization needed to adapt to
the seasons, to deserts and mountains, volcanoes and
earthquakes. Yet inhabitants of Mesopotamia, the Nile
Valley, and the Mediterranean littoral had experience of only
a fraction of the Earth. Beyond laid terra incognita. Hence
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legendary alternative worlds were conjured up in myths of

burning tropics, lost continents, and unknown realms where
the gods lived.

The Greeks:-
The first Greek philosopher about whom much is known was
Thales of Miletus (c. 640 - 546 BC). He postulated water as
the primary ingredient of material nature. Thales' follower,
Anaximander, believed the universe began as a seed which
grew; and living things were generated by the interaction of
moisture and the Sun. Xenophanes (c. 570 - 475 BC) is
credited with a cyclic worldview: eventually the Earth
would disintegrate, returning to a watery state.
Like many other Greek philosophers, Empedocles (c. 500 - C.
430 BC) was concerned with change and stability, order and
disorder, unity and plurality. The terrestrial order was
dominated by strife. In the beginning, the Earth had brought
forth living structures more or less at random. Some had died
out. The survivors became the progenitors of modern species.
The greatest Greek thinker was Aristotle. He considered the
world was eternal. Aristotle drew attention to natural
processes continually changing its surface features.
Earthquakes and volcanoes were due to the wind coursing
about in underground caves. Rivers took their origin from
rain. Fossils indicated that parts of the Earth had once been
covered by water.
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Ptolemy and Pliny:-

In the 2nd century AD, Ptolemy composed a geography that
summed up the Ancients' learning. Ptolemy accepted that the
equatorial zone was too torrid to support life, but he
postulated an unknown land mass to the south, the terra
australis incognita. Antiquity advanced a ` geocentric ´ and `
anthropocentric ´ view. The planet had been designed as a
habitat for humans. A parallel may be seen in the Judaeo -
Christian cosmogony.
The centuries from Antiquity to the Renaissance accumulated
knowledge on minerals, gems, fossils, metals, crystals, useful
chemicals and medicaments, expounded in encyclopedic
natural histories by Pliny (AD 23 - 79) and Isidore of Seville
(AD 560 - 636). The great Renaissance naturalists were still
working within this ` encyclopedic ´ tradition. The most
eminent was Konrad Gesner, whose On Fossil Objects was
published in 1565, with superb illustrations. Gesner saw
resemblances between ` fossil objects ´ and living sea
creatures.

The Christian view:-

At the same time, comprehensive philosophies of the Earth
were being elaborated, influenced by the Christian revelation
of Creation as set out in ` Genesis ´. This saw the Earth as
recently created. Bishop Ussher (1581 - 1656) in his Sacred
Chronology (1660) arrived at a creation date for the Earth of
4004 BC. In Christian eyes, time was directional, not
cyclical. God had made the Earth perfect but, in response to
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Original Sin, he had been forced to send Noah's Flood to

punish people by depositing them in a harsh environment,
characterized by the niggardliness of Nature. This physical
decline would continue until God had completed his purposes
with humans.

The scientific revolution:-

The 16th and 17th centuries brought the discovery of the
New World, massive European expansion and technological
development. Scientific study of the Earth underwent
significant change. Copernican astronomy sabotaged the old
notion that the Earth was the centre of the system. The new
mechanical philosophy (Descartes, Gassendi, Hobbes, Boyle
and Hooke) rejected traditional macrocosm - microcosm
analogies and the idea that the Earth was alive. Christian
scholars adopted a more rationalist stance on the relations
between Scripture and scientific truth. The possibility that
the Earth was extremely old arose in the work of ` savants’ ´
like Robert Hooke. For Enlightenment naturalists, the Earth
came to be viewed as a machine, operating according to
fundamental laws.
The old quarrel as to the nature of fossils was settled.
Renaissance philosophies had stressed the living aspects of
Nature. Similarities between fossils and living beings seemed
to prove that the Earth was capable of growth. Exponents of
the mechanical philosophy denied these generative powers.
Fossils were petrified remains, rather like Roman coins, relics
of the past, argued Hooke. Such views chimed with Hooke's
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concept of major terrestrial transformations and of a

succession of faunas and floras now perished. Some species
had been made extinct in great catastrophes.

The significance of fossils:-

This integrating of evidence from fossils and strata is
evident in the work of Nicolaus Steno (1638 - 1686). He was
struck by the similarity between shark's teeth and fossil
glossopetrae. He concluded that the stones were petrified
teeth. On this basis, he posited six successive periods of
Earth's history. Steno's work is one of the earliest `
directional ´ accounts of the Earth's development that
integrated the history of the globe and of life. Steno treated
fossils as evidence for the origin of rocks.

The Enlightenment:-
Mining schools developed in Germany. German mineralogists
sought an understanding of the order of rock formations
which would be serviceable for prospecting purposes. Johann
Gottlob Lehmann (1719 - 1776) set out his view that there
were fundamental distinctions between the various
Ganggebergen (masses formed of stratified rock). These
distinctions represented different modes of origin, strata
being found in historical sequence. Older strata had been
chemically precipitated out of water, whereas more recent
strata had been mechanically deposited.
Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749 - 1817) was appointed in
1775 to the Freiberg Akademie. He was the most influential
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teacher in the history of geology. Werner established a well -

ordered, clear, practical, physically - based stratigraphy. He
proposed a succession of the laying down of rocks, beginning
with ` primary rocks ´ (precipitated from the water of a
universal ocean), then passing through ` transition ´ , ` fl ú
tz ´ (sedimentary), and finally ` recent ´ and ` volcanic ´ .
The oldest rocks had been chemically deposited; they were
therefore crystalline and without fossils. Later rocks had
been mechanically deposited. Werner's approach linked strata
to Earth history.

The development of stratigraphy:-

Thanks to the German school, but also to French observers
like Guettard, Lavoisier, and Dolomieu, to Italians such as
Arduino, and to Swedes like Bergman, stratigraphy was
beginning to emerge in the 18th century.
Of course, there were many rival classifications and all were
controversial. In particular, battle raged over the nature of
basalt: was it of aqueous or igneous origin? The Wernerian,
or Neptunist, school saw the Earth's crust precipitated out of
aqueous solution. The other, culminating in Hutton, asserted
the formation of rock types from the Earth's central heat.

The ideas of Buffon and Hutton:-

A pioneer of this school was Buffon (1707 - 1778). He
stressed ceaseless transfigurations of the Earth's crust
produced by exclusively ` natural ´ causes. In his Epochs of
Nature (1779) he emphasized that the Earth had begun as a
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fragment thrown off the Sun by a collision with a comet.

Buffon believed the Earth had taken at least 70,000 years to
reach its present state. Extinction was a fact, caused by
gradual cooling. The seven stages of the Earth explained
successive forms of life, beginning with gigantic forms, now
extinct, and ending with humans.
Though a critic of Buffon, James Hutton shared his
ambitions. Hutton (1726 - 1797) was a scion of the Scottish
Enlightenment, being friendly with Adam Smith and James
Watt. In his ` Theory of the Earth ´ (1795), Hutton
demonstrated a steady - state Earth, in which natural causes
had always been of the same kind as a present, acting with
precisely the same intensity ( ` uniformitarianism ´ ). There
was ` no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end ´. All
continents were gradually eroded by rivers and weather.
Debris accumulated on the sea bed, to be consolidated into
strata and thrust upwards by the central heat to form new
continents. Hutton thus postulated an eternal balance
between uplift and erosion. All the Earth's processes were
gradual. The Earth was incalculably old. His maxim was
that ` the past is the key to the present ´.
Hutton's theory was much attacked in its own day.
Following the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789,
conservatives saw all challenges to the authority of the Bible
as socially subversive. Their writings led to ferocious `
Genesis versus Geology ´ controversies in England.
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The 19th century:-

New ideas about the Earth brought momentous social,
cultural, and economic reverberations. Geology clashed with
traditional religious dogma about Creation. Modern state -
funded scientific education and research organizations
emerged. German universities pioneered scientific education.
The Geological Survey of Great Britain was founded, after
Henry De la Beche (1796 - 1855) obtained state finance for a
geological map of south - west England. De la Beche's career
culminated in the establishment of a Mines Record Office
and the opening in 1851 of the Museum of Practical Geology
and the School of Mines in London.
Specialized societies were founded. The Geological Society of
London dates from 1807. In the United States, the
government promoted science. Various states established
geological surveys; New York's being particularly productive.
The US Geological Survey was founded in 1879, under
Clarence King and later John Wesley Powell. In 1870
Congress appointed Powell to lead a survey of the natural
resources of the Utah, Colorado and Arizona area.

The stratigraphical column:-

Building on Werner, the great achievement of early 19th -
century geology lay in the stratigraphical column. After 1800,
it was perceived that mineralogy was not the master key.
Fossils became regarded as the indices enabling rocks of
comparable age to be identified. Correlation of information
from different areas would permit tabulation of sequences of
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rock formations, thereby displaying a comprehensive picture

of previous geological epochs.

Britain:-
In Britain the pioneer was William ` Strata ´ Smith (1769 -
1839). Smith received little formal education and became a
canal surveyor and mining prospector. By 1799 he set out a
list of the secondary strata of England. This led him to the
construction of geological maps. In 1815 he brought out A
Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, using a
scale of five miles to the inch. Between 1816 and 1824 he
published Strata Identified by Organized Fossils, which
displayed the fossils characteristic of each formation.

France:-
Far more sophisticated were the French naturalists Georges
Cuvier (1769 - 1832) and Alexandre Brongniart (1770 -
1837), who worked on the Paris basin. Cuvier's contribution
lay in systematizing the laws of comparative anatomy and
applying them to fossil vertebrates. He divided invertebrates
into three phyla and conducted notable investigations into
fish and molluscs. In Researches on the Fossil Bones of
Quadrupeds (1812), he reconstructed such extinct fossil
quadrupeds as the mastodon, applying the principles of
comparative anatomy. Cuvier was the most influential
paleontologist of the 19th century.
Fossils, in Cuvier's and Brongniart's eyes, were the key to the
identification of strata and Earth history. Cuvier argued for
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occasional wholesale extinctions caused by geological

catastrophes, after which new flora and fauna appeared by
migration or creation. Cuvier's Discours sur les r é volutions
de la surface du globe (1812) became the foundation text for
catastrophist views.

Older rock types:-

Classification of older rock types was achieved by Adam
Sedgwick (1785 - 1873) and Roderick Murchison (1792 -
1871). Sedgwick unravelled the stratigraphic sequence of
fossil - bearing rocks in North Wales, naming the oldest of
them the Cambrian period (now dated at 500 - 570 million
years ago). Further south, Murchison delineated the Silurian
system amongst the grauwacke. Above the Silurian, the
Devonian was framed by Sedgwick, Murchison and De la
Beche. Shortly afterwards, Charles Lapworth developed the
Ordovician.

Uniformitarianism:-
Werner's retreating - ocean theory was quickly abandoned,
as evidence accumulated that mountains had arisen not by
evaporation of the ocean, but through processes causing
elevation and depression of the surface. This posed the
question of the rise and fall of continents. Supporters of `
catastrophes ´ argued that terrestrial upheavals had been
sudden and violent. Opposing these views, Charles Lyell
advocated a revised version of Hutton's gradualism. Lyellian
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uniformitarianism argued that both uplift and erosion

occurred by natural forces.
Expansion of fieldwork undermined traditional theories
based upon restricted local knowledge. The retreating - ocean
theory collapsed as Werner's students travelled to terrains
where proof of uplift was self - evident.
Geologists had to determine the earth movements that had
uplifted mountain chains. Chemical theories of uplift yielded
to the notion that the Earth's core was intensely hot, by
consequence of the planet commencing as a molten ball.
Many hypotheses were advanced. In 1829, Elie de Beaumont
published Researches on some of the Revolutions of the
Globe, which linked a cooling Earth to sudden uplift: each
major mountain chain represented a unique episode in the
systematic crumpling of the crust. The Earth was like an
apple whose skin wrinkled as the interior shrank through
moisture loss. The idea of horizontal (lateral) folding was
applied in America by James Dwight Dana to explain the
complicated structure of the Appalachians. Such views were
challenged by Charles Lyell in his bid to prove a steady - state
theory. His classic Principles of Geology (1830 - 33) revived
Hutton's vision of a uniform Earth that precluded
cumulative, directional change in overall environment; Earth
history proceeded like a cycle, not like an arrow. In Principles
of Geology, Lyell thus attacked diluvialism and
catastrophism by resuscitating Hutton's vision of an Earth
subject only to changes currently discernible. Time replaced
violence as the key to geomorphology.
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Lyell discounted Cuvier's apparent evidence for the

catastrophic destruction of fauna and flora populations. For
over 30 years he opposed the transmutation of species,
reluctantly conceding the point at last only in deference to his
friend, Charles Darwin, and the cogency of Darwin’s Origin
of Species (1859).

Ice ages:-
Landforms presented a further critical difficulty. Geologists
had long been baffled by beds of gravel and ` erratic boulders
´ strewn over much of Northern Europe and North America.
Bold new theories in the 1830s attributed these phenomena
to extended glaciation. Jean de Charpentier and Louis
Agassiz contended that the ` diluvium ´ had been moved by
vast ice sheets covering Europe during an ` ice age ´.
Agassiz’s Studies on Glaciers (1840) postulated a
catastrophic temperature drop, covering much of Europe with
a thick covering of ice that had annihilated all terrestrial life.
The ice - age hypothesis met opposition but eventually found
acceptance through James Geikie, James Croll, and Albrecht
Penck. Syntheses were required. The most impressive unifying
attempt came from Eduard Suess. His The Face of the Earth
(1885 - 1909) was a massive work devoted to analyzing the
physical agencies contributing to the Earth's geographical
evolution. Suess offered an encyclopedic view of crustal
movement, the structure and grouping of mountain chains, of
sunken continents, and the history of the oceans. He made
significant contributions to structural geology. Suess
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disputed whether the division of the Earth's relief into

continents and oceans was permanent, thus clearing the path
for the theory of continental drift. Around 1900, the US
geologist and cosmologist Thomas C Chamberlin (1843 -
1928) proposed a different synthesis: the Earth did not
contract; its continents were permanent. Continents,
Chamberlin argued, were gradually filling the oceans and
thereby permitting the sea to overrun the land.

The 20th century:-

By 1900, study of the Earth had become fragmented into
specialisms like stratigraphy, mineralogy, crystallography,
sedimentology, petrography, and palaeobotany, and there was
no universally - accepted unifying research programme.
Geophysics increasingly provided intellectual coherence.
Geophysics emerged as a distinct discipline in the late 19th
century. Study of the Earth's magnetic field came to early
prominence. In 1919 the American Geophysical Union was
formed, and 1957 was designated the International
Geophysical Year. The modern term ` earth sciences ´, to some
degree replacing geology, marks the triumph of geophysics.
Fieldwork in the 19th century had set the agenda for an
enduring tradition of stratigraphic surveying and
investigation of landforms. These traditions continued to
yield valuable harvests. Immensely influential was the US
geomorphologist William Morris Davis (1850 - 1934). Davis
developed the organizing concept of the cycle of erosion. He
proposed a stage - by - stage life - cycle for a river valley,
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marked by youth (steep - sided V - shaped valleys), maturity

(flood - plain floors), and old age, as the river valley was
imperceptibly worn down into the rolling landscape he
termed a ` peneplain ´ .

Use of radioactivity for dating purposes:-

Geology during the 19th century built on the idea of the
cooling Earth. Lord Kelvin's estimates of the Earth's age
suggested a relatively low antiquity, but this was soon
challenged from within physics itself, for in 1896 the
discovery of radioactivity revealed a new energy source
unknown to Kelvin. In The Age of the Earth (1913), Arthur
Holmes (1890 - 1965) pioneered the use of radioactive decay
methods for rock - dating. By showing the Earth had cooled
far more slowly than Kelvin asserted, the new physicists
undermined the ` wrinkled apple ´ analogy.

Continental drift:-
Amidst such challenges Alfred Wegener (1880 - 1930) went
further and declared that continental rafts might actually
slither horizontally across the Earth's face. From 1910
Wegener developed a theory of continental drift. Empirical
evidence for such displacement lay, he thought, in the close
jigsaw - fit between coastlines on either side of the Atlantic,
and notably in palaeontological similarities between Brazil
and Africa. Wegener was also convinced that geophysical
factors would corroborate wandering continents. Wegener
supposed that a united supercontinent, Pangaea, had existed
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in the Mesozoic. This had developed numerous fractures and

had drifted apart, some 200 million years ago. During the
Cretaceous, South America and Africa had largely been split,
but not until the end of the Quaternary had North America
and Europe finally separated. Australia had been severed
from Antarctica during the Eocene.

The causes of continental drift:-

What had caused continental drift? Wegener offered a
choice of possibilities. One was a westwards tidal force
caused by the Moon. The other involved a centrifugal effect
propelling continents away from the poles towards the
equator (the ` flight from the pole ´). In its early years, drift
theory won few champions, and in the English - speaking
world reactions were especially hostile. A few geologists were
intrigued by drift, especially the South African, Alexander
Du Toit (1878 - 1948), who adumbrated the similarities in
the geologies of South America and South Africa, suggesting
they had once been contiguous. In Our Wandering
Continents (1937), Du Toit maintained that the southern
continents had formed the supercontinent of Gondwanaland.
The most ingenious support for drift came, however, from the
British geophysicist Arthur Holmes. Assuming radioactivity
produced vast quantities of heat, Holmes argued for
convection currents within the crust. Radioactive heating
caused molten magma to rise to the surface, which then
spread out in a horizontal current before descending back
into the depths when chilled. Such currents provided a new
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mechanism for drift. The real breakthrough required diverse

kinds of evidence accumulating from the 1940s, especially
through oceanography and palaeomagnetism. Advances in
palaeomagnetism arose from controversies over origins of the
Earth's magnetic field. The evidence for changing directions
of the magnetic field recorded by the rocks was linked to a
baffling anomaly: in many cases the direction of the field
seemed to be reversed. This led geophysicists to suspect that
the terrestrial magnetic field occasionally switched. Over
millions of years, there would be intermittent reversal events
in which the North and South magnetic poles would
alternate. Remnant magnetization would record these events,
and, if the rocks could be dated sufficiently precisely, a
complete register of reversals could be traced against the
geological record. By 1960, US scientists had refined the
radiometric technique for dating rocks, deploying especially
the potassium - argon method. A group at Berkeley developed
a timescale of reversals for the Pleistocene era; Australian
scientists produced their own scale, based on the dating of
Hawaiian lava flows. Oceanography was developing too.
Here the work of William Maurice Ewing (1906 - 1974) was
especially significant. Ewing ascertained that the crust under
the ocean is much thinner than the continental shell. Ewing
also demonstrated that mid - ocean ridges were common to all
oceans. Ewing's work demonstrated that far from being
ancient, ocean rocks were recent. The US geophysicist Harry
Hess (1906 - 1969) played a key role in promoting the new
theories, viewing the oceans as the major centre of activity.
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The new crust was produced in the ridges, whereas trenches

marked the sites where old crust was subtended into the
depths, completing the convection current's cycle. Carried by
the horizontal motion of the convection current, continents
would glide across the surface. Constantly being formed and
destroyed, the ocean floors were young; only continents - too
light to be drawn down by the current - would preserve
testimony of the remote geological past. Support came from J
Tuzo Wilson (1908 - 1993), a Canadian geologist, who
provided backing for the sea - floor spreading hypothesis. A
dramatic new line of evidence, developed by Drummond
Hoyle Matthews (1931 - ) and Fred Vine (1939 - 1988) of
Cambridge University, confirmed sea - floor spreading. (1931
- ) and Fred Vine (1939 - 1988) of Cambridge University,
confirmed sea - floor spreading.
The majority of Earth scientists accepted the new plate
tectonics model with remarkable rapidity. In the mid - 1960s,
a full account of plate tectonics was expounded. The Earth's
surface was divided into six major plates, the borders of
which could be explained by way of the convection - current
theory. Deep earthquakes were produced where one section of
crust was driven beneath another, the same process also
causing volcanic activity in zones like the Andes. Mountains
on the western edge of the North and South American
continents arose from the fact that the continental ` raft ´ is
the leading edge of a plate, having to face the oncoming
material from other plates being forced beneath them. The
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Alps and Himalayas are the outcome of collisions of

continental areas, each driven by a different plate system.
Geologists of the late 1960s and 1970s undertook immense
reinterpretation of their traditional doctrines. Well -
established stratigraphical and geomorphological data had to
be redefined in terms of the new forces operating in the crust.
Tuzo Wilson’s A Revolution in Earth Science (1967) was a
persuasive account of the plate tectonics revolution. Geology
is remarkable for having undergone such a dramatic and
comprehensive conceptual revolution within recent decades.
The fact that the most compelling evidence for the new theory
originated from the new discipline of ocean - based geophysics
has involved considerable revaluing of skills and priorities
within the profession. Above all, the ocean floor now appears
to be the key to understanding the Earth's crust, in a way
that Wegener never appreciated.

Satellite observations:-
In recent years Earth observation satellites have measured
continental movements with unprecedented accuracy. The
surface of the Earth can be measured using global positioning
geodesy (detecting signals from satellites by Earth - based
receivers), satellite laser ranging (in which satellites reflect
signals from ground transmitters back to ground receivers),
and very long - long - baseline interferometry, which
compares signals received at ground - based receivers from
distant extraterrestrial bodies. These techniques can measure
distances of thousands of kilometres to accuracies of less than
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a centimetre. Movements of faults can be measured, as can

the growth of tectonic plates. Previously, such speeds were
calculated by averaging displacements measured over decades
or centuries. The results show that in the oceanic crust, plate
growth is steady: from 12 mm / 0.05 in per year across the
Mid - Atlantic Ridge to 160 mm / 6.5 in per year across the
East Pacific Rise. The major continental faults seem to be
very irregular in their movement ; the Great Rift Valley has
remained stationary for 20 years, when long - term averages
suggest that it would have opened up about 100 mm / 4 in in
that time.

Feldspar:-
Large group of minerals composed of aluminosilicates
of potassium, sodium, calcium, or occasionally barium. They
occur as single crystals or as masses of crystals and form an
important constituent of many igneous and metamorphic
rocks, including granite, gneiss, basalt, and other crystalline
rocks. Feldspars are the most abundant of all minerals and
account for nearly half of the volume of the earth's crust.
Although the feldspar minerals may belong to either the
monoclinic or triclinic systems, they nevertheless resemble
each other in crystal habit, methods of twining, and
especially by having cleavage surfaces inclined to each other
at an angle of nearly 90°. They have a hardness of 6 to 6.5
and a specific gravity ranging from 2.5 to 2.8. Feldspars
have vitreous luster and vary in color from white or
colorless to various shades of pink, yellow, green, and red.
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All the feldspars weather readily to form a type of clay

known as kaolin.
Orthoclase, monoclinic feldspar with the formula
KAlSi3O8, is one of the most common of all minerals. It is
often white, gray, or flesh-red in color and sometimes occurs
as colorless crystals. Orthoclase is used extensively in the
manufacture of porcelain and glass. Adularia is a colorless,
translucent to transparent variety of orthoclase.
Microcline, which crystallizes in the triclinic system, is
identical with orthoclase in chemical composition and
virtually identical in physical properties. It occurs
occasionally in the form of enormous single crystals. The
industrial uses of microcline are similar to those of
orthoclase. A green variety of microcline, amazonstone, is
valued as a gemstone when highly polished.
The plagioclase feldspars comprise an isomorphous series of
triclinic mineral ranging from pure sodium aluminosilicate
to pure calcium aluminosilicate (see Crystal). Pure sodium
aluminosilicate is called albite, and oligoclase, andesine,
labradorite, bytownite, and anorthite are minerals with
increasing percentages of calcium. Anorthite is pure calcium
aluminosilicate with the formula CaAl2Si2O8. The
plagioclase feldspars are of lesser commercial importance
than orthoclase and microcline. They sometimes show an
attractive play of colors and are polished as semiprecious
stones. Opalescent albite and iridescent labradorite are
called moonstones. Oligoclase with included impurities that
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cause a sparkling effect is called sunstone.

Gabbro:- general name for a large group of granular igneous

rocks, the intrusive equivalents of basalt, composed of
plagioclase feldspar with a predominance of dark minerals,
usually pyroxenes, hornblende, or olivine. The rocks are
heavy, often greenish in color. Gabbros occur in the
Adirondack Mountains, in the vicinity of Baltimore,
Maryland, and in the highlands along the north shore of
Lake Superior.

Sismology: -
Study of earthquakes and how their shock waves travel
through the Earth. By examining the global pattern of waves
produced by an earthquake, seismologists can deduce the
nature of the materials through which they have passed. This
leads to an understanding of the Earth's internal structure.

On a smaller scale, artificial earthquake waves, generated by

explosions or mechanical vibrators, can be used to search for
subsurface features in, for example, oil or mineral
exploration. Earthquake waves from underground nuclear
explosions can be distinguished from natural waves by their
shorter wavelength and higher frequency.

Plate tectonics:-
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Theory formulated in the 1960s to explain the phenomena of

continental drift and seafloor spreading, and the formation
of the major physical features of the Earth's surface. The
Earth's outermost layer, the lithosphere, is regarded as a
jigsaw puzzle of rigid major and minor plates that move
relative to each other, probably under the influence of
convection currents in the mantle beneath. At the margins of
the plates, where they collide or move apart, major landforms
such as mountains, volcanoes, ocean trenches, and ocean
ridges are created. The rate of plate movement is at most 15
cm / 6 in per year. The concept of plate tectonics brings
together under one unifying theory many previously unrelated
phenomena observed in the Earth's crust. The size of the
crust plates is variable, as they are constantly changing, but
six or seven large plates now cover much of the Earth's
surface, the remainder being occupied by a number of smaller
plates. Each large plate may include both continental and
ocean crust. As a result of seismic studies it is known that
the lithosphere is a rigid layer extending to depths of 50 - 100
km / 30 - 60 mi, overlying the upper part of the mantle (the
asthenosphere ), which is composed of rocks very close to
melting point, with a low shear strength. This zone of
mechanical weakness allows the movement of the overlying
plates. Each large plate may include both continental and
ocean crust. As a result of seismic studies it is known that
the lithosphere is a rigid layer extending to depths of 50 - 100
km / 30 - 60 mi, overlying the upper part of the mantle (the
 23

asthenosphere ), which is composed of rocks very close to

melting point, with a low shear strength. This zone of
mechanical weakness allows the movement of the overlying
plates. The margins of the plates are defined by major
earthquake zones and belts of volcanic and tectonic activity,
which have been well known for many years. Almost all
earthquakes, volcanic, and tectonic activity is confined to the
margins of plates, and shows that the plates are in constant
motion.

Constructive margins:-
Where two plates are moving apart from each other, molten
rock from the mantle wells up in the space between the plates
and hardens to form new crust, usually in the form of an
ocean ridge (such as the Mid - Atlantic Ridge ). The newly
formed crust accumulates on either side of the ocean ridge,
causing the seafloor to spread; the floor of the Atlantic Ocean
is growing by 5 cm / 2 in each year because of the welling -
up of new material at the Mid - Atlantic Ridge.

Destructive margins:-
Where two plates are moving towards each other, the denser
of the two plates may be forced under the other into a region
called the subduction zone. The descending plate melts to
form a body of magma, which may then rise to the surface
through cracks and faults to form volcanoes. If the two
plates consist of more buoyant continental crust, subduction
 24

does not occur. Instead, the crust crumples gradually to form

ranges of young mountains, such as the Himalayas in Asia,
the Andes in South America, and the Rockies in North
America. This process of mountain building is termed
orogenesis

Conservative margins:-
Sometimes two plates will slide past each other - an example
is the San Andreas Fault, California, where the movement of
the plates sometimes takes the form of sudden jerks, causing
the earthquakes common in the San Francisco - Los Angeles
area. Most of the earthquake and zones of the world are
found in regions where two plates meet or are moving apart.

Sea - floor spreading:-

New plate material is generated along the mid - ocean ridges,
where basaltic lava is poured out by submarine volcanoes.
The theory of sea - floor spreading has demonstrated the way
in which the basaltic lava spreads outwards away from the
ridge crest at 1 - 6 cm / 0.5 - 2.5 in per year. Plate material is
consumed at a rate of 5 - 15 cm / 2 - 6 in per year at the site
of the deep ocean trenches, for example, along the Pacific
coast of South America. The trenches are sites where two
plates of lithosphere meet ; the one bearing ocean - floor
 25

basalts plunges beneath the adjacent continental mass at an

angle of 45 º , giving rise to shallow earthquakes near the
coast and progressively deeper earthquakes inland. In places
the sinking plate may descend beneath an island arc of
offshore islands, as in the Aleutian Islands and Japan, and
in this case the shallow earthquakes will occur beneath the
island arc. The destruction of ocean crust in this way
accounts for another well - known geological fact - that there
are no old rocks found in the ocean basins. The oldest
sediments found are 150 million years old, but the vast
majorities are less than 80 million years old. This suggests
that plate tectonics has been operating for at least the last
200 million years. In other areas plates slide past each other
along fault zones, giving rise to shallow earthquakes. Sites
where three plates meet are known as triple junctions.

Causes of plate movement:-

The causes of plate movement are all very hypothetical. It
has been known for some time that heat flow from the
interior of the Earth is high over the mid - ocean ridges, and
so various models of thermal convection in the mantle have
been proposed; the geometry of the flow in any convective
system must be complex, as there is no symmetry to the
arrangement of ridges and trench systems over the Earth's
surface. It seems likely that a plume of hot, molten material
rises below the ridges and is extruded as basaltic lava. In
zones of descending flow, at deep ocean trenches, the surface
 26

sediment is scraped off the descending plate onto the margin

of the static plate, causing it to grow outwards towards the
ocean, while the basaltic rocks of the descending plate,
together with any remaining sediment, suffer partial fusion
as they descend. This gives rise to large volumes of molten
rock material, or magma, which ascends to form andesitic
lavas and intrusions of diorite or granodiorite at the margin
of the overlying continent. These theories of plate tectonics
may provide explanations for the formation of the Earth's
crust ; by partial fusion of the mantle, oceanic crust is
generated at the mid - ocean ridges, while partial fusion
below active continental margins generates the more silica -
rich continental rocks. Ocean crust is continually produced
by, and returned to, the mantle, but the continental crust
rocks, once formed, remain on the surface and are not
returned to the mantle.

Development of plate tectonics theory:-

The concept of continental drift was first put forward in
1915 in a book entitled The Origin of Continents and Oceans
by the German meteorologist Alfred Wegener, who
recognized that continental plates rupture, drift apart, and
eventually collide with one another. Wegener's theory
explained why the shape of the east coast of the Americas
and that of the west coast of Africa seem to fit together like
pieces of a jigsaw puzzle ; evidence for the drift came from
 27

the presence of certain rock deposits which indicated that

continents have changed position over time. In the early
1960s scientists discovered that most earthquakes occur along
lines parallel to ocean trenches and ridges, and in 1965 the
theory of plate tectonics was formulated by Canadian
geophysicist John Tuzo Wilson; it has now gained
widespread acceptance among earth scientists who have
traced the movements of tectonic plates millions of years into
the past. The widely accepted belief is that all the continents
originally formed part of an enormous single land mass,
known as Pangaea. This land was surrounded by a giant
ocean known as Panthalassa. About 200 million years ago,
Pangaea began to break up into two large masses called
Gondwanaland and Laurasia, which in turn separated into
the continents as they are today, and which have drifted to
their present locations. In 1995 US and French geophysicists
produced the first direct evidence that the Indo - Australian
plate has split in two in the middle of the Indian Ocean, just
south of the Equator. They believe the split began about 8
million years ago.

Earthquake:-

Abrupt motion that propagates through the Earth and along

its surfaces. Earthquakes are caused by the sudden release in
rocks of strain accumulated over time as a result of tectonics.
 28

The study of earthquakes is called seismology. Most

earthquakes occur along faults (fractures or breaks) and
Benioff zones. Plate tectonic movements generate the major
proportion: as two plates move past each other they can
become jammed. When sufficient strain has accumulated, the
rock breaks, releasing a series of elastic waves (seismic waves)
as the plates spring free. The force of earthquakes
(magnitude) is measured on the Richter scale, and their effect
(intensity) on the Mercalli scale. The point at which an
earthquake originates is the seismic focus or hypocentre; the
point on the Earth's surface directly above this is the
epicentre.

The Alaskan (USA) earthquake of 27 March 1964 ranks as

one of the greatest ever recorded, measuring 8.3 to 8.8 on the
Richter scale. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake is among
the most famous in history. Its magnitude was 8.3 on the
Richter scale. The deadliest, most destructive earthquake in
historical times is thought to have been in China in 1556. In
1987, a California earthquake was successfully predicted by
measurement of underground pressure waves; prediction
attempts have also involved the study of such phenomena as
the change in gases issuing from the crust, the level of water
in wells, slight deformation of the rock surface, a sequence of
minor tremors, and the behaviour of animals. The possibility
of earthquake prevention is remote. However, rock slippage
might be slowed at movement points, or promoted at
stoppage points, by the extraction or injection of large
 29

quantities of water underground, since water serves as a

lubricant. This would ease overall pressure.

Most earthquakes happen at sea and cause little damage.

However, when severe earthquakes occur in highly populated
areas they can cause great destruction and loss of life. A
reliable form of earthquake prediction has yet to be
developed, although the seismic gap theory has had some
success in identifying likely locations.

The San Andreas Fault in California, where the North

American and Pacific plates move past each other, is a
notorious site of many large earthquakes.

Earthquakes have been responsible for moving the North

Pole towards Japan at a rate of about 6 cm / 2 in every 100
years. This is because most major earthquakes occur along the
Pacific Rim, and tend to tilt the pole towards their
epicentres.

Volcano:-
Crack in the Earth's crust through which hot magma (molten
rock) and gases well up. The magma is termed lava when it
reaches the surface. A volcanic mountain, usually cone
shaped with a crater on top, is formed around the opening, or
vent, by the build - up of solidified lava and ashes (rock
fragments). Most volcanoes arise on plate margins (see plate
 30

tectonics), where the movements of plates generate magma or

allow it to rise from the mantle beneath. However, a number
are found far from plate - margin activity, on ` hot spots ´
where the Earth's crust is thin.

There are two main types of volcano:

Composite volcanoes: - such as Stromboli and Vesuvius in

Italy, are found at destructive plate margins (areas where
plates are being pushed together), usually in association with
island arcs and coastal mountain chains. The magma is
mostly derived from plate material and is rich in silica. This
makes very stiff lava such as andesite, which solidifies
rapidly to form a high, steep - sided volcanic mountain. The
magma often clogs the volcanic vent, causing violent
eruptions as the blockage is blasted free, as in the eruption of
Mount St Helens, USA, in 1980. The crater may collapse to
form a caldera.

Shield volcanoes :- such as Mauna Loa in Hawaii, are

found along the rift valleys and ocean ridges of constructive
plate margins (areas where plates are moving apart), and also
over hot spots. The magma is derived from the Earth's mantle
and is quite free - flowing. The lava formed from this magma
- usually basalt - flows for some distance over the surface
before it sets and so forms broad low volcanoes. The lava of a
shield volcano is not ejected violently but simply flows over
the crater rim.
 31

The type of volcanic activity is also governed by the age of

the volcano. The first stages of an eruption are usually
vigorous as the magma forces its way to the surface. As the
pressure drops and the vents become established, the main
phase of activity begins, composite volcanoes giving
pyroclastic debris and shield volcanoes giving lava flows.
When the pressure from below ceases, due to exhaustion of
the magma chamber, activity wanes and is confined to the
emission of gases and in times this also ceases. The volcano
then enters a period of quiescence, after which activity may
resume after a period of days, years, or even thousands of
years. Only when the root zones of a volcano have been
exposed by erosion can a volcano be said to be truly extinct.
Many volcanoes are submarine and occur along mid -
ocean ridges. The chief terrestrial volcanic regions are around
the Pacific rim (Cape Horn to Alaska) ; the central Andes of
Chile (with the world's highest volcano, Guallatiri, 6,060 m /
19,900 ft) ; North Island, New Zealand ; Hawaii ; Japan ;
and Antarctica. There are more than 1,300 potentially active
volcanoes on Earth. Volcanism has helped shape other
members of the Solar System, including the Moon, Mars,
Venus, and Jupiter's moon Io.

There are several methods of monitoring volcanic activity.

They include seismographic instruments on the ground,
aircraft monitoring, and space monitoring using remote
sensing satellites.
 32

Lava: - Molten rock (usually 800 - 1,100 º C / 1,500 - 2,000 º

F) that erupts from a volcano and cools to form extrusive
igneous rock. It differs from magma in that it is molten rock
on the surface; magma is molten rock below the surface.
Lava that is viscous and sticky does not flow far; it forms a
steep - sided conical composite volcano. Less viscous lava can
flow for long distances and forms a broad flat shield volcano.
The viscosity of lava, and thus the form of volcano they
form, depends on silica content, temperature, and degree of
solidification upon extrusion. It is often said that viscosity
increases with silica content because silica polymerizes, but
this rule can be misleading. Lavas having the composition of
basalt, which is low in silica content, tend to flow easily and
form broad flat volcanoes as in the Hawaiian Islands. But
some very silica - rich lavas of rhyolite composition can also
flow readily. Lavas that are especially viscous are often of
andesite composition and intermediate in silica content.
Andesite lavas can therefore give rise to explosive volcanoes
like the island of Montserrat, West Indies. The viscosity of
lava was once ascribed to whether lava was acidic or basic.
These terms are misleading and no longer used. (See acid rock
and basic rock).

Rock;-
 33

Constituent of the Earth's crust composed of minerals or

materials of organic origin that have consolidated into hard
masses as igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic rocks. Rocks
are formed from a combination (or aggregate) of minerals, and
the property of a rock will depend on its components. Where
deposits of economically valuable minerals occur they are
termed ores. As a result of weathering, rock breaks down into
very small particles that combine with organic materials from
plants and animals to form soil. In geology the term ` rock ´
can also include unconsolidated materials such as sand ,
mud, clay , and peat .

Igneous rock is formed by the cooling and solidification of

magma, the molten rock material that originates in the lower
part of the Earth's crust, or mantle, where it reaches
temperatures as high as 1,000 º C. The rock may form on or
below the Earth's surface and is usually crystalline in
texture. Larger crystals are more common in rocks such as
granite which have cooled slowly within the Earth's crust ;
smaller crystals form in rocks such as basalt which have
cooled more rapidly on the surface. Because of their acidic
composition, igneous rocks such as granite are particularly
susceptible to acid rain

Sedimentary rocks are formed by the compression of particles

deposited by water, wind, or ice. They may be created by the
erosion of older rocks, the deposition of organic materials, or
they may be formed from chemical precipitates. For example,
 34

sandstone is derived from sand particles, limestone from the

remains of sea creatures, and gypsum is precipitated from
evaporating sea water. Sedimentary rocks are typically
deposited in distinct layers or strata and many contain
fossils.

Metamorphic rocks are formed through the action of high

pressure or heat on existing igneous or sedimentary rocks,
causing changes to the composition, structure, and texture of
the rocks. For example, marble is formed by the effects of
heat and pressure on limestone, while granite may be
metamorphosed into gneiss, a coarse - grained foliated rock.

Rock studies:-
The study of the Earth's crust and its composition fall under
a number of interrelated sciences, each with its own
specialists. Among these are geologists, who identify and
survey rock formations and determine when and how they
were formed, petrologists, who identify and classify the rocks
themselves, and mineralogists, who study the mineral
contents of the rocks. Palaeontologists study the fossil
remains of plants and animals found in rocks.

Applications of rock studies

Data from these studies and surveys enable scientists to
trace the history of the Earth and learn about the kind of life
that existed here millions of years ago. The data are also used
in locating and mapping deposits of fossil fuels such as coal,
 35

oil, and natural gas, and valuable mineral - containing ores

providing metals such as aluminium, iron, lead, and tin, and
radioactive elements such as radium and uranium. These
deposits may lie close to the Earth's surface or deep
underground, often under oceans. In some regions, entire
mountains are composed of deposits of iron or copper ores,
while in other regions rocks may contain valuable nonmetallic
minerals such as borax and graphite, or precious gems such as
diamonds and emeralds.

Rock as construction material and building stone

In addition to the mining and extraction of fuels, metals,
minerals, and gems, rocks provide useful building and
construction materials. Rock is mined through quarrying, and
cut into blocks or slabs as building stone, or crushed or
broken for other uses in construction work. For instance,
cement is made from limestone and, in addition to its use as a
bonding material; it can be added to crushed stone, sand, and
water to produce strong, durable concrete, which has many
applications, such as the construction of roads, runways, and
dams. Among the most widely used building stones is granite,
limestone, sandstone, marble, and slate. Granite provides one
of the strongest building stones and is resistant to weather,
but its hardness makes it difficult to cut and handle.
Limestone is a hard and lasting stone that is easily cut and
shaped and is widely used for public buildings. The colour
and texture of the stone can vary with location ; for
instance, Portland stone from the Jurassic rocks of Dorset is
 36

white, even - textured and durable, while Bath stone is an

oolitic limestone that is honey - coloured and more porous.
Sandstone varies in colour and texture; like limestone, it is
relatively easy to quarry and work and is used for similar
purposes. Marble is a classic stone, worked by both builders
and sculptors. Pure marble is white, streaked with veins of
black, grey, green, pink, red, and yellow. Slate is fine -
grained rock that can be split easily into thin slabs and used
as tiles for roofing and flooring. Its colour varies from black
to green and red.

Rock identification
Rocks can often be identified by their location and
appearance. For example, sedimentary rocks lie in stratified,
or layered, formations and may contain fossils; many have
markings such as old mud cracks or ripple marks caused by
waves. Except for volcanic glass, all igneous rocks are solid
and crystalline. Some appear dense, with microscopic crystals,
and others have larger, easily seen crystals. They occur in
volcanic areas, and in intrusive formations that geologists
call batholiths, laccoliths, sills, dikes, and stocks. Many
metamorphic rocks have characteristic bands, and are easily
split into sheets or slabs. Rock formations and strata are
often apparent in the cliffs that line seashore, or where rivers
have gouged out deep channels to form gorges and canyons.
They are also revealed when roads are cut through hillsides or
by excavations for quarrying and mining. Rock and fossil
collecting has been a popular hobby since the 19th century
 37

and such sites can provide a treasure trove of finds for the
collector.

Igneous rock
Rock formed from cooling magma or lava, and solidifying
from a molten state. Igneous rocks are largely composed of
silica (SiO 2) and they are classified according to their crystal
size, texture, method of formation, or chemical composition,
for example by the proportions of light and dark minerals.

Igneous rocks that crystallize from magma below the Earth's

surface are called plutonic or intrusive, depending on the
depth of formation. They have large crystals produced by
slow cooling; examples include dolerite and granite. Those
extruded at the surface from lava are called extrusive or
volcanic. Rapid cooling results in small crystals; basalt is an
example.

Metamorphic rock
Rock altered in structure and composition by pressure, heat,
or chemically active fluids after original formation. (If heat is
sufficient to melt the original rock, technically it becomes an
igneous rock upon cooling.) The term was coined in 1833 by
Scottish geologist Charles Lyell (1797 - 1875).

The mineral assemblage present in a metamorphic rock

depends on the composition of the starting material (which
may be sedimentary or igneous) and the temperature and
 38

pressure conditions to which it is subjected. There are two

main types of metamorphism. Thermal metamorphism, or
contact metamorphism, is brought about by the baking of
solid rocks in the vicinity of an igneous intrusion (molten
rock, or magma, in a crack in the Earth's crust). It is
responsible, for example, for the conversion of limestone to
marble. Regional metamorphism results from the heat and
intense pressures associated with the movements and collision
of tectonic plates (see plate tectonics). It brings about the
conversion of shale to slate, for example.

Sedimentary rock
Rock formed by the accumulation and cementation of
deposits that have been laid down by water, wind, ice, or
gravity. Sedimentary rocks cover more than two - thirds of
the Earth's surface and comprise three major categories:
clastic, chemically precipitated, and organic (or biogenic).
Clastic sediments are the largest group and are composed of
fragments of pre - existing rocks; they include clays, sands,
and gravels.
Chemical precipitates include some limestones and evaporated
deposits such as gypsum and halite (rock salt). Coal, oil shale,
and limestone made of fossil material are examples of organic
sedimentary rocks. Most sedimentary rocks show distinct
layering (stratification), caused by alterations in composition
or by changes in rock type. These strata may become folded or
fractured by the movement of the Earth's crust, a process
known as deformation.
 39

Isostasy:-
The theoretical balance in buoyancy of all parts of the
Earth’s crust, as though they were floating on a denser layer
beneath. There are two theories of the mechanism of isostasy,
the Airy hypothesis and the Pratt hypothesis, both of which
have validity. In the Airy hypothesis crustal blocks have the
same density but different depths: like ice cubes floating in
water, higher mountains have deeper roots. In the Pratt
hypothesis, crustal blocks have different densities allowing
the depth of crustal material to be the same. There appears to
be more geological evidence to support the Airy hypothesis of
isostasy. During an ice age the weight of the ice sheet pushes
that continent into the Earth's mantle; once the ice has
melted, the continent rises again. This accounts for shoreline
features being found some way inland in regions that were
heavily glaciated during the Pleistocene period