Chapter 5

THE LITHOSPHERE
Goals: Upon completion of this chapter, the student will be able to:
1. describe lithosphere,
2. classify minerals,
3. find out the composition of minerals,
4. find out the composition, classification and application of rocks,
5. enumerate the three layers of the earth,
6. find out what the characteristics of these layers are believed to be,
7. describe an earthquake,
8. find out what causes most earthquakes,
9. discuss how earthquake waves are measured,
10. enumerate three kinds of seismic waves,
11. find out that the earth’s crust is made up of plates that drift or move about,
12. state the types of plate boundaries,
13. describe a mountain,
14. state the two kinds of folds,
15. find out how volcanic mountains are formed,
16. define weathering,
17. enumerate three processes that cause weathering,
18. differentiate weathering and erosion, and
19. discuss carbon dating.
The Lithosphere
The Lithosphere
 The lithosphere is underlain by the asthenosphere, the
weaker, hotter, and deeper part of the upper mantle.
 The boundary between the lithosphere and the
underlying asthenosphere is defined by a difference in
response to stress: the lithosphere remains rigid for
very long periods of geologic time in which it deforms
elastically and through brittle failure, while the
asthenosphere deforms viscously and accommodates
strain through plastic deformation.
 The lithosphere is broken into tectonic plates.
 The uppermost part of the lithosphere that chemically
reacts to the atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere
through the soil forming process is called
the pedosphere.
The Lithosphere
Minerals
 Minerals are substances formed naturally
in the Earth.
 They are formed inorganic substances
with a particular chemical composition
and a regularly repeating internal
structure.
 Either in their perfect crystalline form or
otherwise, minerals are constituents of
rocks.
 They may be economically valuable for
mining.
Minerals
 The mineral forming processes include:
 (1) melting of pre-existing rock,
 (2) subsequent crystallization of a mineral to form
magmatic or volcanic rocks,
 (3) weathering of rocks exposed at the land
surface,
 (4) subsequent transport and grading by surface
water, ice or wind to form sediments, and
 (5) recrystallization through increasing
temperatures and pressure with depth to form
metamorphic rocks.
Classification of Minerals
 Magmatic – include the feldspar, quartz,
pyroxenes, amphiboles, micas and olivines that
crystallize from silica-rich rock that melts within
the crust or from extruded lavas.
 Sedimentary – The most commonly occurring
sedimentary minerals are either pure
concentrates or mixtures of sand, clay minerals
and carbonates. Ex. calcite, aragonite and
dolomite.
 Metamorphic – These minerals include andalusite,
cordierite, garnet, tremolite, lawsonite,
pumpellyite, glaucophane, wolloasnite, chlorite,
micas, hornblende, staurolite, kyanite and
diopside.
Composition of Minerals
 The chemical composition of the minerals is
variable, but in the exterior layers of the Earth's
crust the most common chemical elements are:
 Oxygen (O) 47%,
 Silica (Si) 28%,
 Aluminum (Al) 8%,
 Iron (Fe) 5%,
 Calcium (Ca) 3.5%,
 Sodium (Na) 3%,
 Potassium (K) 2.5%,
 Magnesium (Mg) 2 %,
 and the remaining 1% are the others elements
found in the Periodic Table.
Composition, Classification and
Application of Rocks
 Rocks are solid pieces of the Earth or any other
inorganic body in the Solar System.
 They are composed of minerals or materials of
organic origin.
Composition, Classification and
Application of Rocks
 The types of rocks are:
 (1) 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 deg C,
 (2) Sedimentary rocks – are formed by the
compression of particles deposited by water, wind
or ice, and
 (3) Metamorphic rocks – are formed through the
action of high pressure or heat on existing
igneous or sedimentary rocks.
Composition, Classification and
Application of Rocks
 The study of the Earth’s crust and its composition
falls under a number of interrelated sciences,
each with its own specialists.
 Geologists identify and survey rock formations.
 Petrologists identify and classify the rocks
themselves.
 Mineralogists study the mineral contents of the
rocks.
 Palaeontologists study the fossil remains of plants
and animals found in rocks.
 Data from the rock studies and surveys enable
scientist to trace the history of the Earth and
learn about the kind of life existed here millions of
years ago. The data can be used to locate and
map deposits of fossil fuels and minerals.
 Rocks can be used as/for building materials, tools,
artifacts, decorations and jewelries.
Layers of Earth
 Our planet Earth is the third planet from the Sun.
 It is almost spherical, flattened slightly at the
poles and is composed of five concentric layers:
inner core, outer core, mantle, crust and
atmosphere.
 Mean distance from the Sun: 149,500,000 km
 Equatorial diameter: 12, 755 km
 Circumference: 40,070 km
 Rotation period: 23 ho 56 min 4.1 sec
 Year: 365 days 5 hr 48 min 46 sec.
 Average speed around the Sun: 30 kps or 18.5
mps
 The plane of its orbit is inclined to its equatorial
plane at an angle of 23.5 deg
Layers of Earth

 The three major layers of the earth

are:
 (1) Crust
 (2) Mantle
 (3) Core
The Earth’s Crust
 The crust is a rocky outer layer of the Earth, consisting of
two distinct parts, the oceanic crust and the continental
crust.
 Oceanic crust. This is on average about 10 km thick
and consists mostly of basaltic rock overlain by muddy
sediments.
 Continental crust. It is complex largely of granitic
composition and is more complex in its structure.
Because it is continually recycled back into mantle by
the process of subduction.
 Beneath a layer of surface sediment, the oceanic crust is
made of a layer of basalt, followed by a layer of gabbro.
The continental crust varies in thickness from about 40
km to 70 km, being deepest beneath mountain ranges,
and thinnest above continental rift valleys. Whereas the
oceanic crust is composed almost exclusively of basaltic
igneous rocks and sediments, the continental crust is
made of a wide variety of sedimentary, igneous, and
metamorphic rocks.
The Earth’s Crust
The Mantle
 The mantle is a part of a terrestrial planet or other
rocky body large enough to have differentiation by
density.
 The interior of Earth, similar to the other terrestrial
planets, is chemically divided into layers.
 The mantle is a layer between the crust and
the outer core. Earth's mantle is a silicate rocky
shell about 2,900 kilometers (1,800 mi) thick that
constitutes about 84% of Earth's volume.
 It is predominantly solid but in geological time it
behaves as a very viscous fluid.
 The mantle encloses the hot core rich in iron and
nickel, which occupies about 15% of Earth's volume.
The Core
 The core is the innermost part of Earth. It is divided into an
outer core, which begins at a depth of 2900 km, and an inner
core, which begins at a depth of 4980 km. Both parts are
thought to consist of iron-nickel alloy. The outer core is liquid
and the inner core is solid.
 The fact that seismic shear waves disappear at the mantle-
outer core boundary indicates that the outer core is molten,
since shear waves cannot travel through fluid. Scientist infers
the iron-nickel rich composition of the core from Earth’s
density and its moment of inertia, and the composition of iron
meteorites, which are thought to be pieces of cores of small
planets. The temperature of the core, as estimated from the
melting point of iron at high pressure, is thought to be at
least 4,000 deg C, but remains controversial. Earth’s
magnetic field is believed to be the result of the movement of
liquid metal in the outer core.
Earthquake
 Earthquake is an abrupt motion that propagates through the
Earth and along its surfaces.
 They are caused by the sudden release in rocks of strain
accumulated over time as a result of tectonics.
 The study of earthquakes is called seismology.
 Most earthquakes occur along the 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 hypocenter; the point on the Earth’s surface directly
above this is the epicenter.
Earthquake
 Most of the earthquake happens 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.
 Earthquakes have been responsible for moving the
North Pole towards Japan at a rate of about 6 cm or
2 in every 100 years. This is because most of the
major earthquakes occur along the Pacific Rim, and
tend to tilt the pole towards their epicenters.
Earthquake
 Fault is a planar break in rocks, along which the rock
formations on either side have moved relative to one another.
They involve displacements, or offsets, ranging from the
microscopic scale to hundreds of kilometers. Large offsets
along a fault are the results of the accumulation of smaller
movements (meters or less) over long periods of time. Large
Motions cause detectable earthquakes.
 Faults produce lines of weakness on the Earth’s surface
(along their strike) that are often exploited by processes of
weathering and erosion. Coastal caves and geos (narrow
inlets) often form along faults and, on a larger scale; rivers
may follow the line of a fault.
Earthquake
 The types of faults are:
 (1) Normal Faults – occur when the hanging wall moves down
relative to the footwall. They occur where rocks on either
side have moved apart.
 (2) Reverse Faults – happen where the hanging wall has
moved up relative to the footwall. A reverse fault that forms
a low angle with the horizontal plane is called a thrust fault.
Reverse faults occur where rocks on either side have been
forced together.
 (3) Lateral Faults or Strike-slip Fault – happens where the
relative movement along the fault plane is sideways.
 (4) Transform Fault – is a major strike-slip fault along a plate
boundary, that joins two other plate boundaries, or one
spreading centers, two subduction zones, or one spreading
center and one subduction zone. The San Adreas fault is a
transform fault.
Causes of Earthquake
 Earthquakes are caused by faulting, a sudden lateral or
vertical movement of rock along a rupture (break) surface.
 Most earthquakes are causally related to compressional or
tensional stresses built up at the margins of the huge moving
lithospheric plates that make up the earth's surface.
 The immediate cause of most shallow earthquakes is the
sudden release of stress along a fault, or fracture in the
earth's crust, resulting in movement of the opposing blocks of
rock past one another. These movements cause vibrations to
pass through and around the earth in wave form, just as
ripples are generated when a pebble is dropped into water.
 Volcanic eruptions, rockfalls, landslides, and explosions can
also cause a quake, but most of these are of only local
extent. Shock waves from a powerful earthquake can trigger
smaller earthquakes in a distant location hundreds of miles
away if the geologic conditions are favorable.
Measurement of
Earthquake Waves
 There are a number of ways to measure the magnitude of an
earthquake. The first widely-used method, the Richter scale,
was developed by Charles F. Richter in 1934. It used a
formula based on amplitude of the largest wave recorded on
a specific type of seismometer and the distance between the
earthquake and the seismometer.
 Unfortunately, many scales, such as the Richter scale, do not
provide accurate estimates for large magnitude earthquakes.
Today the moment magnitude scale, abbreviated MW, is
preferred because it works over a wider range of earthquake
sizes and is applicable globally. The moment magnitude scale
is based on the total moment release of the earthquake.
Moment is a product of the distance a fault moved and the
force required to move it. It is derived from modeling
recordings of the earthquake at multiple stations. Moment
magnitude estimates are about the same as Richter
magnitudes for small to large earthquakes. But only the
moment magnitude scale is capable of measuring M8 (read
‘magnitude 8’) and greater events accurately.
Measurement of
Earthquake Waves
 Another scale to measure earthquake is the Mercalli
intensity scale is a seismic scale used for measuring
the intensity of an earthquake.
 It measures the effects of an earthquake, and is
distinct from the moment magnitude usually
reported for an earthquake (sometimes misreported
as the Richter magnitude), which is a measure of
the energy released. The intensity of an earthquake
is not totally determined by its magnitude.
Measurement of
Earthquake Waves
Measurement of
Earthquake Waves
Seismic Waves
 Seismic wave is the energy wave generated by an
earthquake or an artificial explosion. The types of
seismic waves are:
 Body Waves – seismic waves that travel through
Earth’s interior.
 Examples:
P-Waves or Primary Waves
 S-Waves or Secondary Waves
 L-Waves or Love Waves
 Surface Waves – travel in the surface and
subsurface layers or the crust.
 Examples:
 Rayleigh Waves
 Love Waves
Seismic Waves
Plate Tectonics
 Plate tectonics is a 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 or slide past one another, major landforms such as
mountains, rift valleys, volcanoes, ocean trenches, and ocean
ridges are created. The rate of plate movement is at most 15
cm/6 in per year.
Plate Tectonics
 The concept of plate tectonics brings together under one
unifying theory many phenomena observed in the Earth’s
crust that were previously thought to be unrelated.
 The causes of plate tectonics are: (1) heat flow from the
interior, (2) geometry of the flow, and (3) descending flow.
Seafloor Spreading
 Seafloor spreading is a part of the theory of plate
tectonics.
 It is the process by which continental drift occurs.
 This mechanism, which is a more accurate version of
Alfred Wegener's original drift of continents that
"plow" through the sea, was proposed by Harry Hess
from Princeton University in the 1960s.
 This phenomenon is known to be caused by
convection currents in the plastic, very weak upper
mantle, or asthenosphere.
Types of Plate Boundaries
 The following are the types of plate boundaries:
 (1) Constructive margins (Diverging Boundaries),
 (2) Destructive margins (Converging Boundaries),
and
 (3) Conservative margins (Transform Fault).
Mountain
 A mountain is a natural upward projection of the
Earth’s surface, higher and steeper than a hill. They
are at least 330 m or 1000 ft above the surrounding
topography.
Fold
 Folds are the ways how mountains created (by
means of folding).
 The two types of folds are:
 (1) Anticlines – forms when the layers of rocks are
bent into an arch.
 (2) Synclines – occurs when the layers of rocks are
bent downward to form a trough.
 The highest mountain of the world is Mt. Everest. It
is located in Nepal and Tibet. Mt. Apo is the highest
peak in the Philippines.
Top 10 Mountains
of the World
Top Ten Highest Mountains
in the Philippines
Volcanoes
 A volcano is a crack in the Earth’s crust through
which hot magma (molten rock) and gases well up.
 The 3 main types of volcanoes are:
 (1) composite volcanoes,
 (2) shield volcanoes, and
 (3) cinder cone volcanoes.
Weathering
 Weathering is the process by which exposed rocks
are broken down on the spot by the action of rain,
frost, wind, and other elements of weather. It
differs from erosion in that no movement of the
broken-down materials takes place.
 The three types of weathering are:
 (1) physical weathering,
 (2) chemical weathering, and
 (3) biological weathering (or organic weathering).
Soil Erosion
 Soil erosion is the wearing away of the Earth’s
surface, caused by the breakdown and
transportation of particles of rock or soil (by
contrast, weathering does not involve
transportation).
 Agents of erosion include the sea, rivers, glaciers
and wind.
 Processes of erosion are hydraulic action, corrosion,
attrition and solution or dissolution.
Carbon Dating
 Carbon dating is the process of determining the age
of minerals, rocks, fossils and geological formations.
The types of dating are relative dating and absolute
dating.
 Radiometric dating is a method of dating rock by
assessing the amount of radioactive decay of
naturally occurring isotopes.
 The types of radiometric methods are: (1) carbon
dating, (2) potassium dating, and (3) uranium
dating.
Fossil
 Fossil is the actual remains of an animal or
plant preserved in rock.
 The types of fossil preservation are:
1. Preservation without change
2. Replacement by a mineral
3. Filling of a hollow space in a shell or
bone with a mineral
4. Formation of the thin carbon film
5. Formation of an imprint
Plate No. 5

Note:
 Short bond paper

 Black ink
Plate No. 5
1. Describe a mineral. What are the classifications of minerals?
2. Describe each classification of rocks. Differentiate each rock from
the other.
3. What are the three main layers of the Earth?
4. Differentiate the two types of faults from one another.
5. What is the cause of most earthquakes?
6. List the three types of body waves. Describe each.
7. Describe the theory Plate Tectonics.
8. Name the types of plate boundaries. Describe each.
9. Describe the Seafloor Spreading Theory.
10. Differentiate an anticline from syncline.
11. Explain how a mountain is formed in relation to plate movements.
12. Relate folding to mountain formation.
13. Differentiate weathering from erosion.
14. Explain how erosion occurs.
15. List the four types of erosion. Describe each.
16. Explain how water, wind and sea erode the land.
17. What are the possible factors that affect the rate of weathering?
18. How does a geologist use dating in determining for the age of earth
particularly rocks?
19. What are the five types of fossil preservation?
20. What are the most likely conditions for making a fossil?
Thank You!