Geological processes

Obduction was originally defined by Coleman to mean the overthrusting of oceanic lithosphere onto continental lithosphere at a convergent plate boundary where continental lithosphere is being subducted beneath oceanic lithosphere.

Diagenesis (pronunciation: /ˌdaɪəˈdʒɛnəsɪs/) is the change of sediments or existing sedimentary rocks into a different sedimentary rock during and after rock formation (lithification), at temperatures and pressures less than that required for the formation of metamorphic rocks.

A hydrothermal vent is a fissure in a planet's surface from which geothermally heated water issues.

Vaalbara was an Archean supercontinent that consisted of the Kaapvaal craton, today located in eastern South Africa, and the Pilbara craton, today found in north-western Western Australia.

An alluvial fan is a fan- or cone-shaped deposit of sediment crossed and built up by streams.

Karst topography is a landscape formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum.

A geological 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.

A mid-ocean ridge is an underwater mountain system formed by plate tectonics.

A mudflow or mud flow is a form of mass wasting involving "very rapid to extremely rapid surging flow" of debris that has become partially or fully liquified by the addition of significant amounts of water to the source material.

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).

Metamorphism is the change of minerals or geologic texture (distinct arrangement of minerals) in pre-existing rocks (protoliths), without the protolith melting into liquid magma (a solid-state change).

Corrasion is a geomorphological term for the process of mechanical erosion of the earth's surface caused when materials are transported across it by running water, waves, glaciers, wind or gravitational movement downslope.

Mountain formation refers to the geological processes that underlie the formation of mountains.

Various theories of ore genesis explain how the various types of mineral deposits form within the Earth's crust.