Geological Folds
A fold is a stack of originally planar surface that are bent or curved
formed when rocks deform. Geological folds are undulations, bends or
curvatures developed in the rocks of the crust as a result of stresses to
which these rocks have been subjected from time to time. The process of
development of folds in the rocks is called folding. It is a slow
geological process that takes time to occur. There are three main types of
folds that is anticline, synclines and monoclines. Anticlines close up
while synclines open up and monoclines just have one limb.
Geological folds were discovered by a Scottish farmer and naturalist
called James Hutton in the eighteenth century. He was a farmer and
naturalist who was very observant of the world around him. He made
carefully reasoned geological arguments and he understood processes
such as erosion and sedimentation work which greatly influenced and
were key in the formation of folds. Hutton began to devote his scientific
knowledge and observations. His ideas and approach to studying the
earth helped to establish geology as a science. Hutton described the
universe differently from the bible as one formed by a continuous cycle
in which rocks and soil are washed into the sea, compacted into bedrock,
forced up to the surface by volcanic processes, and eventually worn
away into sediment. Hutton relied on the same methods used by the
modern day geologists.
In addition to that, Hutton cited a cliff as evidence, where the proximity
of vertical layers and overlying horizontal layers could only be
explained by the action of tremendous forces over vast periods of time.
After studying, they realized that the sediments represented by the gray
shale, had eroded away after deposition and then covered by an ocean
from which the red sandstone was then deposited. A lot of big major
breakthroughs were made in the study of geological folds, like the
uncovering of a one hundred and twenty million yearlong geological
record of a time by Stanford when land, plants and animals first evolved
and ocean oxygen levels began to approach those in modern world. A
trove of fossils and rock layers formed on that ocean flow have now
been unearthed by an international team of scientists. The discovery
reveals that oxygen changes at the seafloor.
Geology has also helped to bring the context of life. Learners and
researchers at Stanford carried rock samples along Peel River in Canada
for study. After they finished identifying and dating fossils, they
analyzed new samples which could be dated back to millions of years
ago. This was a breakthrough and useful for figuring out the
environmental backdrop of ancient times and importantly the context of
past life.
Charles Darwin’s theory was another great breakthrough made in study
of geological folds. Darwin was a naturalist whose fossil discoveries
raised questions. The Darwin theory stated that, diverse groups of
animals evolved from one or a few common ancestors, and the
mechanism by which this evolution takes place is by natural selection.
This did not only help geological studies but helped human beings to
understand their history.
Recently, scientists discovered underwater rivers that were found near
Australia. The massive rivers of cold, salty water flows from the
Australian coast out into the deep ocean. On top of that the earth’s inner
core was found to be a billion years old confirming that the earth was
formed a long time ago. In addition to that, scientists also discovered a
giant sinkhole in china with a forest beneath. This breakthroughs made
in geology has helped us understand our history and the history of the
whole earth.
Geology, has been a major topic and a source of information to the
scientists to rely on. It has also helped the scientists to keep track on
earth’s history. Also, scientists are using geology to study past climatic
changes and use them to predict future climatic changes.
Geology has given humans a better understanding of the context of life
but some questions are still left unanswered. Charles Darwin theory
states that humans evolved and were not created. This has been an idea
that has been bought by many people but also denied by many. Most
people believe that they were created by a super being while others have
spiritual and cultural beliefs. This has been among the top topics being
debated to today and geology does not give enough evidence to support
their theory.
The earth has light alloying elements in its outer core that are
distributed. Earth’s outer core is liquid and dominantly composed of iron
and nickel. Its density, however, is lower than that of liquid iron, and
requires the presence of a significant amount of light elements. Since it
is very difficult to conduct reliable experiments on density and sound
velocity for liquid samples at the core conditions, very few data are
available to infer the composition of the liquid outer core.