Lecture 11: Rock deformation

 The movements of Earth's tectonic plates creates stresses

rocks subject to stress will deform (change in volume or shape of a body of rock)
 ways in which rocks deform are varied; which style a particular rock mass adopts
depends on the nature of the stress applied to it and properties of the rock itself.

 Types of deformation

 ELASTIC (temporary deformation) -Small deformations are elastic, meaning the rock
will return to its original shape when the stress is removed.
 DUCTILE & BRITTLE - Larger deformations, the deformations that produce mountains
and faults, are permanent.

 Stress- force acting on a body; not applied uniformly in all directions

 Types of stress:
 Compressional - rocks are squeezed along the direction of stress
 Tensional - rocks are pulled apart
 Shear - cause slippage and translation within the rock

 Measuring deformation in rocks

 Strike is the azimuth (degrees east of north) of the line formed by the intersection
of a layer interface or bedding plane with the horizontal
 Dip is the angle between the layer interface or bedding plane and the horizontal
measured perpendicular to the strike direction
 Plastic deformation
 Compressional stress may cause rocks to be deformed into a series of wrinkles or
folds (from few inches to hundreds of kilometers across)

 Parts of a fold
 Axial plane as the imaginary surface that divides a fold as symmetrically as
possible, one limb on each side.
 Fold axis is the line made by the length-wise intersection of the axial plane
with beds in the fold
 Limbs correspond to the two sides of an anticline or syncline

 Types of folds
 Symmetrical folds – axial plane is vertical
 Asymmetrical folds – beds in one limb deep more steeply than those in the
other limb
 Overturned folds – both limbs tilted beyond the vertical in the same direction
 Recumbent folds – horizontal axial plane
 Assymetrical Fold Recumbent fold (upper right)

 Fold Nomenclature
 Monocline – bend in a gently dipping
horizontal strata
 Anticline – an arch in the form of an
inverted letter U
 Syncline – an arch shaped like the letterU

(where is the anticline? syncline?)

 Brittle deformation
 Rocks under surface conditions also deform plastically but once elastic limit is exceeded, the
rocks will behave like a brittle solid and fracture
 Joint = break in rock mass in which sections on each side of the break DO NOT move
relative to each other
 Fault = break in rock mass in which sections on either side of the break move relative
to each other
 Fault Nomenclature
hanging wall, foot wall

(Where is the fault? What type of fault is it?

Where is the hanging wall? footwall?)
  Classification of faults
 Strike-slip fault – horizontal movement (can be right lateral or left lateral)
 Dip-slip fault – vertical movement (can be normal or reverse/thrust)
 Normal- tensional stress occur; hanging wall moves down
 Reverse- compressional stress occur; hanging wall moves up
 Thrust- same as reverse but small angle of inclination
 Oblique-slip fault – both horizontal and vertical

 Summary
Type of Stress Ductile Deformation Brittle Deformation
Compressional Folding Reverse Fault
Extensional Thinning Normal Fault
Shearing Shearing Strike Slip Fault

What is an active fault? There is evidence to show that it has moved in the past
10,000years.
PHILIPPINE FAULT is a left lateral fault

Lecture 12: Earthquakes

 What is an earthquake?
 intense ground shaking caused by sudden release of energy
 can be generated by bomb blasts, volcanic eruptions and sudden slippage along faults
 a geologic hazard for those living in earthquake-prone areas
 also provided valuable information about the Earth’s interior

 Elastic Rebound Theory

 Before an earthquake, areas on opposite sides of a fault are subjected to force and
accumulate energy. They undergo deformation until such time that their internal
strength is exceeded, which will cause a sudden release in energy (earthquake).

 Parts of an earthquake:
 Fault
 hypocenter/focus- source of earthquake; point in a fault plane where slippage occur
 Epicenter- point on the surface directly above focus

 Seismology – study of behavior of seismic waves

 Seismometer – instrument that records ground motion
 Seismograph – instrument that records seismic waves

 Kinds of Seismic Waves

 Body waves – emanate from the focus and emanate in all directions through the Earth’s
interior
  P-wave – compressional (primary wave); fastest waves; can travel through solids
and liquids
 S-wave – movement is perpendicular to propagation (secondary or shear wave);
can travel through solids only
 Surface waves – travel along paths nearly parallel to the Earth’s surface but not through
the interior
 Love wave – horizontal motion that is perpendicular to propagation
 Rayleigh wave – rolling surface wave that moves the ground up and down

 Describing the strength of an earthquake

 Intensity is the degree of ground shaking at a given locale based on the amount of
damage (Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale; Philippine Earthquake Intensity Scale)
 Magnitude is calculated from seismic records and estimates the amount of energy
released at the source (Richter Scale)

 Locating the epicenter: at least 3 seismic graph is needed, their intersection is the
epicenter of the earthquake.

 Structural damage due to earthquake vibrations depends on:

 Wave amplitudes
 Duration of vibrations
 Nature of material upon which the structure rests ( ground shaking on bedrock is
lesser than shaking in sandstone)
 Design of structure

 Secondary effects of earthquakes

 Tsunamis – offshore fault’s movement causes the water to displace, this
displacement causes the formations of waves and waves accumulates to bigger
waves as it approaches the shore
 landslides
 fire
 ground subsidence
 liquefaction – soil shakes as a liquid (i.e earthquake in sediment)
material: thixotrophic

 Recent destructive earthquakes in the Philippines

 July 16, 1990, Luzon (7.7)
 Nov. 15, 1994, Mindoro (7.8)
 Mar. 6, 2002, Sultan Kudarat (6.8)
 Feb. 15, 2003, Masbate (6.2)

 Earthquake prediction: short term

 Monitor to look for patterns of recurrence
 Strange animal behavior
  Increase in seismic tremors (mini-quakes)
 Seismic gaps
 Gas emissions
 Electromagnetic signals

 Earthquake prediction: earthquake cycles

 Seismic waves and the interior of the earth

 Much of what we know about the interior of the Earth comes from knowledge of
seismic wave velocities and their variation with depth in the Earth.
 Body wave velocities are as follows:

( )µ
Vp =

Vs = 1/ [µ/ρ]2

where K = incompressibility
µ = rigidity
ρ = density

 Higher density, higher velocity

 If the earth were homogeneous, it is possible to predict when a seismic
signal will travel any given distance.
 If the seismic wave velocity in the rock above an interface is less than the
seismic wave velocity in the rock below the interface, the waves will be
refracted or bent upward relative to their original path.

 Propagation of seismic waves through the earth:

 P waves are refracted
 S waves do not propagate through a certain depth

 Layers of the Earth

 Crust
 Mantle – seismic wave velocities increase rapidly at the Moho
 Core – P wave velocities suddenly decrease and S wave velocities go to zero (outer
core); at depth of ~4800 km, P wave velocities suddenly increase (inner core)

 Boundaries/discontinuities
 Mohorovicic discontinuity- between lithosphere and astenosphere
 Guttenberg discontinuity- between mantle and outer core
 Lehmann discontinuity- between outer core and inner core
Lecture 13: Plate Tectonics
 Continental Drift Theory
 Introduced by Alfred L. Wegener in his book “The Origin of Continents and Oceans”
in 1915
 200 mya, all the continents were joined into a supercontinent (Pangaea) and started
to drift apart (first into Laurasia and Gondwana) until their present position today
 Evidence for continental drift:
 fit of the continents (especially when joined at the continental shelf)
 fossils (Mesosaurus, Lystrosaurus, Cynognathus, Glossopteris)
 rock type (rocks found in one continenet closely match those rocks found in the
matching continent); structures and mountain belts
 paleoclimate (layers of glacial deposits found in S. Africa and S. America, India
and Australia and there are coal deposits in Antarctica. Why? Ans. Antarctica
must have been situated closer to the equator, in a more temperate climate
where lush, swampy vegetation could grow)

 Sea Floor Spreading - process in which the ocean floor is extended when two plates
move apart in mid-oceanic ridges
 Habang lumalayo sa mid-ocean ridges, tumatanda ang rocks
 New material is being formed along mid-oceanic ridges
 If new crust is being created along mid-oceanic ridges, does this mean that the Earth
is expanding? (Recall Wilson Cycle)
 Wilson cycle- oceanic crust subducts and destroyed in subducting zones

 Paleomagnetism
 Magnetic minerals in rocks align themselves in the direction of the existing magnetic
field at the time they were formed
 Rocks formed at the same time - record of magnetic field should be the same
 Evidence for continental drift:
 rocks of the same age at different places point to different locations of magnetic
north;
 rocks of different ages in the same place shows that the magnetic north have
moved through time (polar wandering);
 It would make more sense if the magnetic north did not move but rather, the
continents have moved!

 The concepts of continental drift, sea floor spreading and paleomagnetism gave rise to
the plate tectonics concept

 Plate Tectonics
 Unifying theory of geology
 All geological features and processes are related
 Concepts were drawn together in 1968
  Lithosphere is made up moderately rigid plates (may consist of oceanic or continental
lithosphere)
 7 major plates (N America, S America, Antarctica, Eurasia, Africa, Australia, Pacific)

 Plate boundaries
 convergent – plates move toward each other;
 oceanic-continental (volcanic arc)
 continental-continental (mountain range) (orogenesis)
 oceanic-oceanic (island arc) i.e. Philippines
 divergent – plates move away from each other; mid-oceanic ridge
 transform – plates slide past each other (strike-slip faults)

*Plate boundaries are locations of volcanism and earthquakes (Why do you think so?)

 What causes the plates to move? (Read on this!!!)

 Convection currents (one layer and two layers)
 Slab pull
 Mantle plumes

 Additional evidence for plate tectonics:

 hotspots and Global Positioning System (GPS)

 Philippine Tectonics (where are

these features located?)
 Plates – Sundalan/Eurasia Plate;
Philippine Sea Plate (where is the
Palawan Microcontinental Block?)
 Trenches – Manila, Negros, Sulu,
Cotabato; East Luzon Trough,
Philippine Trench
 Philippine Fault – what type of
fault? (left lateral fault)
 Sea – South China Sea, Sulu Sea,
Celebes, Philippine Sea (where is
the Pacific Ocean?)
Lecture 14: Historical Geology
 Historical geology
 Deals with the origin of the Earth and its development through time
 strives to establish an orderly chronological arrangement of the physical and
biological changes and events that have occurred in the geologic past.

 Previous estimates of the age of the Earth:

• Cooling through conduction and radiation (Lord Kelvin, 1897): ~24 – 40 m.y.
• Rate of delivery of salt to the oceans (John Joly, 1899-1901): ~90 – 100 m.y.
• Thickness of total sedimentary record divided by average sedimentation rates
(1910): ~1.6 b.y.

 Oldest rocks on Earth found so far:

1. Acasta Gneisses in northwestern Canada near Great Slave Lake (4.03 Ga)
2. Isua Supracrustal rocks in West Greenland (3.7 to 3.8 Ga)
3. rocks found in the Minnesota River Valley and northern Michigan (3.5-3.7 billion
years), in Swaziland (3.4-3.5 billion years), and in Western Australia (3.4-3.6 billion
years)

 Oldest materials to be found on Earth:

 Zircon grains found in sedimentary rocks in west-central Australia = 4.4 b.y.
 70 well-dated meteorites using different dating methods (e.g. Rb-Sr, Sm-Nd, Ar-Ar)
=4.4-4.6 b.y.
 Iron meteorite (Canyon Diablo meteorite) = 4.54 b.y.

 Age of the Earth:

 Most accepted age for the Earth and the rest of the solar system: ~4.55 b.y. old (+
~1%)
 “Best” age of the Universe: 14 – 17 b.y. Evidence: rate of evolution of stars and age
of elements in the galaxy based on the production ratios of Os isotopes in
supernovae)

 Relative dating
 Putting rocks and events in their proper sequence of formation
 Dating of rocks and rock units with the use of fossils and correlation of different strata
 Does not require numerical ages of rocks or fossils or events

 Principles used in relative dating

 Principle of Uniformitarianism
 “The present is the key to the past.”
 Former changes of the earth’s surface may be explained by reference to causes in
operation
  The history of the earth may be deciphered in terms of present observations, on
the assumption that physical and chemical laws are invariant with time.

 Steno’s Laws
 Law of Superposition
 When examining an undisturbed sequence of stratified rocks, the oldest
strata will be at the bottom and the youngest strata will be on the top of
the sequence.
 Law of Original Horizontality
 Most layers are deposited horizontally or subhorizontally
 Sedimentary beds which are inclined at an angle must have undergone
deformation after they had been deposited and lithified
 Law of Lateral Continuity
 Sediments would spread out until they thin out at the edge of the
depositional basin, stop at a depositional barrier or grade into another
type of sediment (indicative of a change in the depositional
environment)
 Cross-cutting relationships
 When a fault or intrusion cuts through another rock, the fault or
intrusion is younger that the rocks which it cuts.

 Principle of Inclusions
 The rock mass containing the inclusion is younger than the rock that provided
the inclusion.
 Unconformity
 Any significant break in time within a stratigraphic column.
 Gaps in the rock record representing
 a long period during which deposition ceased, erosion removed
previously formed rocks and then deposition resumed
 a period of non-deposition.
 Types:
 Angular Unconformity - Tilted or folded sedimentary rocks that are
overlain by younger, more flat-lying strata.
 Disconformity - Strata on either side of the unconformity are
essentially parallel with a distinctly recognizable surface
 Paraconformity - Beds above and below are parallel and the
unconformity is identified by some evidence such as lack of certain
diagnostic zone fossils in some horizon
 Nonconformity - Older metamorphic or igneous rocks are overlain by
younger sedimentary strata
  Principle of Faunal Succession
 Fossil organisms succeed one another in a definite and determinable order.
 Thus, any time period can be recognized by its fossil content.

 Correlation
 To show correspondence in character and in stratigraphic position (International
Stratigraphic Guide)
 To demonstrate correspondence between geographically separated parts of a
geologic unit (North American Stratigraphic Code)
 Based on similarity of lithologic and paleontologic features

Key: E, Erosion, G, L, C, Tilting, H, Erosion, M, D,

J, A, Erosion, N, K, B, Tilting, Erosion, F, Erosion
http://facweb.bhc.edu/academics/science/harwoo
dr/Geol101/labs/dating

 Fossils and fossilization

 What are fossils?
 Remains or traces of prehistoric life preserved in sedimentary rocks
 Important time indicators and play a key role in the correlation of rocks;
 Include both the remains of organisms (bones or shells) and traces of organisms
(trails, burrows or imprints)

 Requirements for preservation

 Rapid burial to prevent decomposition;
 Presence of protective cover or preserving medium;
 Possession of hard parts or durable tissues such as shells, bones, teeth and woody
tissue

 Types of fossilization
1. Preservation of unaltered body parts:
a. Hard parts – usually shells, bone, teeth or pollen
b. Soft tissue – by mummification or freezing
2. Chemical alteration of hard parts:
a. Carbonization – soft tissues preserved as thin carbon film
b. Recrystallization – conversion of a mineral polymorph to another
(e.g. aragonite → calcite)
 c. Replacement – dissolution of original material and precipitation of new
mineral
d. Permineralization – porous material filled with secondary materials
e. Petrification – replacement of wood
3. Imprints of hard parts in sediment or trace fossils:
a. Mold – dissolution of shell
b. Cast – filling of mold
c. Borings and burrows – worms, clams and other invertebrates burrow into
rocks and sediments
d. Coprolites – fossil excrement
e. Gastroliths – smooth, polished stones found in the abdominal cavities of
dinosaur skeletons
 Oldest human fossil - complete skeleton of a 3-year-old female; remains found in Africa
are 3.3 million years old, making this the oldest known skeleton of such a youthful
human ancestor (Australopithecus afarensis) (Reported in Nature by Zeresenay
Alemseged (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology) and Fred Spoor
(University College London) and others

 Oldest fossils in the Philippines?

a. oldest human fossil - skull cap of the “Tabon Man”; ~22,000 years old; discovered by
Dr. Robert B. Fox, American anthropologist of the National Museum, inside
Tabon Cave, Palawan, on May 28, 1962.
b. fusulinids – Permian; found in Calamian Islands, Palawan

 Uses of fossils?
 tracing the evolutionary history of extinct as well as living organisms;
 reconstructing paleoclimates and paleoenvironments ;
 providing the source of energy resources (e.g. oil, gas, coal)

 Absolute dating
 Numerical dating of rocks, minerals and fossils; Utilizing radioactive isotopes

 Radioactive isotopes
 variants of the same atom but with different mass numbers (number of protons?
neutrons? electrons?)
 Undergo spontaneous breaking apart (decay) of certain unstable atomic nuclei
 Unstable parent isotope decay into stable daughter isotope
 Half – life – the length of time required for one-half of the nuclei of a radioactive
isotope to decay
 * After 1 half life, 50% of the parent and 50% of
the daughter isotope is present.
*After 2 half-lives, 25% of the parent and 75%
of the daughter is present and so on…

In dating rocks, the ratio of the parent to the

daughter isotope is measured. With
knowledge of the half-life of the isotope, the
age of the rock can be computed based on
how much parent isotope remained versus
how much daughter isotope was formed.
(Assumption: there were no amount of
daughter isotope present in the original
mineral being analyzed; no amount of parent
isotope escaped to the environment)

Radioactive Parent Stable Daughter Half life Dating Range

Rubidium 87 Strontium 87 48.8 b.y. 10 m.y. – 4.6 b.y.

Thorium 232 Lead 208 14 b.y. 10 m.y. – 4.6 b.y.

Uranium 238 Lead 206 4.47 b.y. 10 m.y. – 4.6 b.y.

Potassium 40 Argon 40 1.25 b.y. 50,000 – 4.6 b.y.

Uranium 235 Lead 207 704 m.y. 10 m.y. – 4.6 b.y.

Carbon 14 Nitrogen 14 5730 yrs. 100 – 70,000

 C-14 is used for dating younger materials. The older dating methods (e.g. U-Pb) cannot
be used for young materials because only a small amount of parent has decayed and
therefore negligible because of poor resolution.

 Most minerals which contain radioactive isotopes (except C14) are in igneous and
metamorphic rocks.
 K40 is usually found in potassium feldspar, muscovite and amphibole.
 Uranium may be found in zircon, uraninite, apatite and sphene.

 Geologic Time Scale

 The history of the earth is broken up into a hierarchical set of divisions for describing
geologic time.
 Units of time include eon, era, period, epoch, age (arranged from largest division ).
 based on the type of organisms that were abundant at the time (from the fossil record)

 Early efforts to develop the time scale

1. Giovanni Arduino – applied Steno’s Laws and classified rocks in Italian mountain
exposures into: Primary, Secondary and Tertiary groups
2. Abraham G. Werner – saw similar transitions in Germany
3. William Smith – saw same subdivisions in Great Britain

 Modern Time Scale

 Carboniferous System (1822) – coal-rich interval in Northern Europe
 Cretaceous System (1822) – chalk-rich rocks in France (“creta” = chalk in Latin)
 Tertiary System (1831) – subdivided by Charles Lyell based on % of fossil species still
living today
 Cambrian System (1835) – defined by Adam Sedgwick for the fossil-poor strata in NW
Wales
 Silurian System (1835) – defined by R.I. Murchison based on the rocks in SE Wales;
contained fossils
 Ordovician System (1879) – named by Charles Lapworth based on the presence of a
distinct fossil assemblage
 Jurassic System (1839) – named after the strata in the Jura Mountains in France and
Switzerland
 Devonian System (1840) – named after sandstones in Devonshire, SE England

 Relative Geologic Time Scale

 No numbers to indicate how long ago each of these times occurred;
 Absolute dating allowed the numerical dating of each time division

 International Commission on Stratigraphy – provided a standard Geologic Time Scale