Geology Photo credits:
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Photo of mineral collection in a box by Notafly, from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mineral_collections,
used with permission
Photos of river rocks and handful of dirt are clipart pieces from Microsoft, released to public domain
Photo of ice berg in the ocean by Kim Hansen, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water, used with permission
Illustration of interior of earth by Ignacio Icke from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology, used with permission
Illustration of fault types owned by U.S. Government, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology, released to public
domain
Illustration of composite (aka strato) volcano, by MesserWoland from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanoes, used with
permission
Photo of sea cave by Dave Bunnell, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavern, used with permission
Photo of butte by Ernst Brötz, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butte, used with permission
Photo of Yosemite Falls by Chensiyuan from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosemite_Falls, used with permission
Illustration of Pacific ring of fire by Gringer, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_Fire, released to public domain
Photo of San Andreas Fault, by Leohotens, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquakes, released to public domain
Photo of volcanic eruption by Wolfgang Beyer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_eruption,
Photo of glacier movement by Saperaud, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_environment, used with permission
Photo of meandering river scars by Tillman, owned by NASA, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meandering_river, used
with permission
Photo of honeycomb weather by Komencanto, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weathering, used with permission
Photo of natural arch by Etan J. Tal, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erosion, used with permission
Radar topography image of Yucatan Peninsula by NASA-JPL from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_Crater,
released to public domain
Photo of plant fossil by Ghedoghedo from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_plant, used with permission
Photo of fish fossils by Totodu74 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_fish, released to public domain
Photo of the Grand Canyon by from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_the_Grand_Canyon_area, used with
permission
Clipart by Microsoft, released to public domain
How old is planet Earth? 4.5 billion years old
More History of the Earth
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Formation of the earth (solar system formation, asteroid bombardment, moon separation, ocean formation)
o
4-5 billions of years
Early life (simple/single celled – photosynthesis, oxygen atmosphere)
o
1-4 billion years
Complex life (examples: plants, insects, vertebrates, dinosaurs, mammals, human - fossils)
o
hundreds of millions of years
Motion of tectonic plates (continents, mountains)
o
hundreds of millions of years
Ice Ages and erosion (rivers, valleys)
o
hundreds of thousands of years
History of man
o
thousands of years
What is Geology?
The science that deals with
 the things that make up the Earth
 the physical structure of the Earth
 the processes that act on the Earth
 the history of how the Earth has
changed over time
Things that Make Up the Earth
Minerals
Rocks
Water
Dirt
Physical Structure of the Earth
Earth’s Layered Structure
(1) inner core, (2) outer core
(3) lower mantle, (4) upper mantle
(5) lithosphere, (6) crust
Fault Types
Strike-slip faults slide
sides past each other.
Normal faults drop the high
side below the low side.
Thrust faults push the low
side above the high side
Cross Section of Composite Volcano
(1) magma chamber, (2) bedrock, (3) conduit, (4) base, (5) sill,
(6) dike, (7) layers of ash from eruptions, (8) flank,
(9) layers of lave from eruptions, (10) throat, (11) parasitic cone,
(12) lava flow, (13) vent, (14) crater, (15) ash cloud
Sea Cave
Painted Cave, one of the world’s longest
known sea caves, Santa Cruz Island,
California
Butte
Merrick’s Butte, Monument Valley, Arizona
Water Fall
Yosemite Falls, Yosemite National Park
Highest waterfall in North America
Look! There
are many cool
natural wonders
all over this
planet!
Pacific Ring of Fire
The Ring of Fire has 452 volcanoes and is home to over 75% of the world’s
active and dormant volcanoes. About 90% of the world’s earthquakes and
81% of the world’s largest earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire.
Processes that Act on the Earth
Volcanic Eruptions
Eruption of Mt.
Stromboli, Italy in 1980
Earthquakes
San Andreas Fault in the Carrizo Plain,
northwest of Los Angeles
Water Movement
Meander scars, oxbow lakes, and abandoned
meanders in the broad flood plain of the Rio
Negro, Argentina (Photo from ISS, 2010)
Erosion and Deposition
A natural arch, produced by the erosion of
differentially weathered rock in
Jebel Kharaz, Jordan
Glacier Movement
Aletsch Glacier in the Swiss Alps
(Photos in 1979, 1991 and 2002)
Weathering
Honeycomb weathering, caused by salt
crystallization in Yehliu, Taiwan
Chicxulub Crater, Yucatan, Mexico
This shaded relief image shows a subtle but clear
indication of the impact of a crater. Most
scientists now agree that this impact was the
cause of the sudden extinction of the dinosaurs
as well as the majority of life 65 million years ago.
Plant Fossils
Ginkgoites leaves
from 150-200 million years ago
Animal Fossils
Amphistium fish
from 50 million years ago
History of Earth Changes
How old is
planet Earth?
Grand Canyon, Arizona
Nearly 40 major sedimentary rock layers, ranging in age from 200 million to 2
billion years old are exposed here. Most were deposited in warm shallow seas
and near ancient, long-gone sea shores in western North America. Both marine
and terrestrial sediments are represented, including fossilized sand dunes
from an extinct desert.