LECTURE 18: GLACIERS

Glacier ice is a metamorphic rock. As a glacier is nourished by snowfall (deposition of “sediment”), the
older buried snow metamorphoses as the delicate snowflakes become more compact and rounded,
transforming into “old snow” or firn. With further compaction the trapped air is mostly driven out and
the ice crystals continue to coarsen and develop interlocking projections, all of these changes occurring
as the material remains solid, a metamorphic process.

Whether a glacier is confined by valley walls (an Alpine glacier), or whether it is an overspreading ice
sheet, its internal processes are the same. At high elevations there is a zone of net accumulation, and a
glacier in an ideally steady state maintains a constant size and shape as the ice flows to lower elevations,
ultimately to disappear in a zone of net wastage. Wastage can occur by melting or by discharge of
icebergs. A water molecule in a snowflake deposited high upon a glacier travels down into the body of
the ice (it gets buried by later snowfalls), to emerge again to the surface in the zone of net wastage.
Under most circumstances, internal flow is streamline: the pathways of individual particles, whether
H2O molecules or embedded debris, are parallel. Streamline flow is in contrast with turbulent (chaotic)
flow within a river.

Under short-term stress, ice acts as a brittle material. It shatters and can develop deep crevasses (open
fractures). Under high confining pressure equivalent to a depth in the glacier greater than ~100 meters,
and under sustained long-term stress, the ice acts as a ductile material. Deep ice deforms by flowing.
Typically, a glacier flows partly as an entire body of ice sliding across the bedrock, but there is also
internal deformation, the upper part flowing more rapidly while motion at the base of the glacier, or
where it is in contact with valley walls, is retarded by friction against the bedrock.

In a Polar ice sheet, which is a “cold” glacier, the atmospheric temperature remains below freezing
throughout the year; a snowstorm can occur in winter or summer. The surface temperature of the ice
may be -10° or -15°C, and the deeper ice is even colder. (Older ice was precipitated during a colder Ice
Age episode.) The temperature increases toward the base of a Polar ice sheet due to geothermal heat
that continually rises from the bedrock.

In a temperate or “warm” glacier enough melting and transport of heat energy occurs to bring the entire
glacier exactly to the melting (= freezing) point. A temperate glacier is 0°C at the surface, and slightly
colder at the base. Ice floats on water; therefore ice is less dense than water. Application of pressure
tends to shift H2O into the denser state, which is the liquid state. Therefore the base of the glacier, at
higher pressure, must be colder than 0°C to remain solid.

Pure ice is too weak and easily deformed to be an effective agent of erosion. Ice laden with rock
fragments is a highly effective engine of erosion. In contrast to a river, an Alpine glacier fills the valley,
attacking both the valley bottom and its walls. A river valley has a characteristic V-shape cross-
sectional profile; a glacially modified valley has a U-shape profile. The glacier also develops steep
walls at the head of the valley, revealed after the glacier has melted away as a spectacular bowl-shape
depression, a cirque. Both a master glacier and its smaller tributary glaciers maintain the U-shape
profile. After the ice has disappeared the tributaries are left high as hanging valleys, their streams
flowing over the precipice of the master valley as waterfalls, as illustrated in Yosemite National Park,
California. Action of valley glaciers followed by their retreat has created the world’s most spectacular
scenery.

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Glaciers deposit till, a chaotic, unsorted sediment consisting of all particle sizes from microscopic, to
clasts the size of a house. The landform consisting of till is a glacial moraine, which may be deposited
beneath an ice sheet as a ground moraine, or heaped up at the snout of a glacier as an end moraine.
Lateral (side) moraines of merging valley glaciers join down-glacier, forming a medial moraine.

In the northern U. S. and much of Canada, landscape that was recently covered by an ice sheet may be
mantled by ground moraine, a jumbled heap. Drainages are not yet integrated; there are countless
swamps and lakes whose cavities were scooped by the glacier, or that remained after blocks of stranded
ice finally melted. In late stages of glacial retreat, pressurized meltwater passes through tunnels located
within or at the base of a glacier. Water-reworked glacial sediment is left behind as ridges that snake
across the countryside, and may even go up and down over hills.

LECTURE 19: ICE AGES

During most of geologic history the earth was ice-free. The current deepfreeze began some 30 to 40
million years ago when Antarctica, and later the Northern Hemisphere, became glaciated. There was a
prolonged glacial interval between 0.6 and 0.8 billion years ago, and an earlier Ice Age at 2.4 billion
years has been documented. The evidence suggests that at other times, world climate was warm and
equitable from pole to pole in spite of long winter nights in the high latitudes. Geologists refer to a
“Greenhouse” Earth (no glaciation), or an “Icehouse” Earth (extensive ice sheets present, as today), and
there is evidence for a former “Snowball” Earth when the entire planet was frozen, the oceans being
coated with ice a kilometer thick! Snowball Earth was promptly followed by Hothouse Earth, a time of
unbearably hot climate worldwide that would have killed all but microscopic life. You don’t want to
have been around during the harshness of Snowball Earth or Hothouse Earth.

The configuration of land and sea helps to explain the appearance and disappearance of glaciations on
the very long time scale. Ocean water transports heat energy efficiently from tropical to polar regions.
If a polar region is occupied by a continent (such as present-day Antarctica at the South Pole) or by an
ocean (such as the present-day Arctic Ocean at the North Pole) whose interchange with the world ocean
is restricted, the polar regions become thermally isolated and an Ice Age results. The positions of water
and landmasses change because of the drift of continents that are embedded in the tectonic plates,
themselves in motion. Before breakup, the southern supercontinent (Gondwana) drifted across the
South Pole. During early Paleozoic time, ice sheets developed in what is today the Sahara Desert; in
mid-Paleozoic time the ice centered in what is Brazil today, and even later in what is Antarctica today.

As a moist air mass ascends over a Polar ice sheet, precipitating H2O as it goes, the heavy stable isotope
of oxygen (18O) is precipitated more effectively than the light isotope (16O). This process of partial
separation is called isotope fractionation. As precipitation continues with preferential loss of the heavy
isotope, the 18O/16O ratio in water vapor in the air mass becomes smaller and smaller, and so does the
associated later precipitation. Consequently rain and snow, which comprise meteoric water (water
precipitated from the atmosphere) are isotopically “light.” Moreover, the isotope fractionation is more
pronounced at lower temperature. Thus summer snow is isotopically “light” and winter snow is “very
light.”

We can make thousands of isotopic analyses along the length of a core retrieved from the ice sheet in
Greenland or Antarctica, and count annual summer and winter layers, somewhat like counting tree rings,
and the isotopic compositions also provide information about average annual temperature as far back as
about 250 thousand years in Greenland, and back to ~750 thousand years in Antarctica. (Future drilling
in Antarctica may penetrate ice more than a million years old.)

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Associated changes occur in the ocean, the ultimate source of the H2O in glacier ice. As isotopically
light ice accumulates on the continents, the heavy oxygen isotope (18O) is left behind preferentially in
the ocean. Foraminifera, single-celled organisms typically about the size of a sand grain, secrete shells
of calcium carbonate. The oxygen isotopic composition changes from heavier during an Ice Age, to
lighter during intervals when the ice has melted, returning the light H2O to the ocean. We may retrieve
a core of deep-ocean sediment and make many analyses of the oxygen in foraminifera going back
several million years. (Sedimentary deposition in the mid-ocean is very slow). Data from glacier ice
and from deep-ocean cores are complementary, and they spell out details of the Pleistocene Ice Age.

Causes of climatic fluctuation are extraordinarily complex. During the Cenozoic Era, climate became
cooler, culminating within the last 3 or 4 million years in a series of 40-thousand to 100-thousand year
glacial cycles. The overspreading polar ice sheets slowly build, and then melt back catastrophically
repeatedly. To a remarkable degree, this behavior seems to be explained by Milankovitch cycles. The
mathematician M. Milankovitch noted that the eccentricity of the earth’s orbit around the sun varies
from a near-perfect circle, to an ellipse, and back again with ~100 thousand year cycle. The precession,
or “wobble” of the earth’s spinning motion (~23 thousand year cycle) causes the projection of its spin
axis to draw a circle in the sky. The degree of tilt of the earth’s spin axis with respect to the plane of its
orbit oscillates with a period of ~41 thousand years.

These subtle modulations of the earth’s basic orbit and spin cause the distribution of the sun’s heat
energy to vary within the course of a year. Glaciers grow during prolonged intervals of relatively mild
summers and mild winters (low seasonal contrast). During periods of extremely hot summers and cold
winters (high seasonal contrast), the annual snowfall cannot survive the hot summers, and the glaciers
melt back. Timing of the advances and recessions of polar ice sheets correspond well with climatic
cycles that are calculated from Milankovitch theory.

The concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases also influence climate. Water vapor, CO2, and
CH4 (methane) are examples of greenhouse gases. They permit the sun’s visible light to penetrate to the
earth’s surface. Some of the energy that strikes the ground is returned skyward as longer-wavelength
infrared radiation, which is blocked by the greenhouse gases. The greater the concentration of
greenhouse gases, the more effectively the atmosphere traps the heat energy.

Bubbles in glacier ice trap ancient atmosphere that can be dated by counting summer/winter ice layers as
discussed above. The ice preserves a record of ancient fluctuating levels of atmospheric CO2 that, when
combined with historical measurements, show a precipitous increase within the past century or so. CO2
is a by-product of combustion, whether of burning of fossil fuels (industrialized nations) or burning of
fields and forests (developing nations). World climate is currently warming at a pace that is increasingly
alarming to climatologists (and it should alarm all of us!).

LECTURE 20: GRAVITY AND MOUNTAINS

The force of gravity causes every particle that has mass to attract every other particle. As the amount of
mass increases, the gravitational attraction increases. As the distance between the particles increases,
the gravitational attraction decreases. To describe the attractive force between bodies composed of
many particles (for example, gravitative force between your body and the earth), it is convenient to think
of all of the mass to be located at a single point – the object’s “center of gravity.” For example, the
earth’s center of gravity lies at its physical center. The mathematical expression is:

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Force of gravity is proportional to m1m2 / r2, where m1 and m2 are two masses, and r is the distance
between their centers of gravity.

We may describe the shape of the earth by a series of approximations. To a first approximation the earth
is a sphere. Even if it had not started out with a spherical shape, it would have become a sphere as
every particle tries to get as close as possible to the center of the earth (its center of gravity). This
implies that the shape of the earth can change; the earth can deform, which implies further that rocks in
the deep interior, although solid and under very high pressure, do not have much strength. On a short
time scale, a rock acts as a brittle material; it shatters when hit by a hammer or it ruptures by fault
action. On a long time scale of thousands of years or longer, rock acts as a ductile material; it flows
just as a ball of silly putty flattens under its own weight. (On a short time scale, silly putty also acts as a
brittle material. If you abruptly stretch a ball of silly putty it breaks apart.)

Secondly, the spherical earth is rotating, which draws the equatorial region outward into a bulge while
the polar regions are flattened. A sphere, and the modified shape of a rotating earth, the spheroid, are
smooth surfaces described by simple mathematical expressions.

If you were standing at sea level on the Equator, you would weigh less than if you were standing at the
North Pole. This is because (i) the earth’s equatorial radius is larger than polar radius (at the Equator
there is a greater distance between you and the earth’s center), and because (ii) the daily rotation tends
slightly to “levitate” you away from the earth at the Equator, but not at the North Pole.

Thirdly, the spheroid is the basis for a further approximation, an irregular shape with depressions and
humps, the geoid. Sea level describes the shape of the geoid. Because each water molecule is able
freely to seek the lowest possible elevation, the sea surface is level. (It is not flat; it wraps around the
globe!) Sea level in the interior of a continent could be determined in principle by digging a slot canal
to that spot, and connected to the world ocean at the other end. The ups and downs of the geoid are not
well understood, as they are the result of uneven distribution of mass (and associated gravity field) very
deep within the earth.

Ideas about isostasy—flotational equilibrium amongst large segments of the earth’s crust—began in the
mid-1800s in India. The occasion was in measurement of distance between a stake in Kaliana, at the
foot of the Himalaya Mountains, and a stake in Kalianpur 600 kilometers due south. Conventional
surveying techniques gave an answer with a measurement uncertainty of about 0.2 meter, but an
independent astronomical technique that utilizes a plumb bob (a heavy weight dangled on a string) gave
an answer that was discrepant by 150 meters from the result of the surveying technique.

The Rev. J. H. Pratt, Archdeacon of Calcutta, correctly identified the astronomical technique to give an
incorrect result, and it is because the plumb bob in Kaliana is deflected toward the local towering mass
of the Himalaya Mountains. Pratt calculated that if the Himalayas were an “extra mass” perched at high
elevation, that the plumb bob should not just be deflected; in fact it should be deflected three times more
than is noted by actual observation. He had to scrap the extra-mass hypothesis, and this led to the
concept of isostasy.

Pratt’s computations led him to postulate that mountains originate chiefly through vertical uplift, just as
a rising mass of bread dough becomes less dense as it expands into a greater volume. In the Pratt model
of isostasy, high mountains are underlain by least dense crust, low plains by more dense crust, and the
densest crust underlies the ocean floor. All segments of more dense or less dense crust are “floating”
upon even more dense material at depth.

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The British astronomer Airy proposed an alternative model whose analogy is logs of the same density
but different diameters, floating in a pond. In the Airy model of isostasy, high topography is underlain
by thick crust, and low topography is underlain by thin crust of the same density.

To summarize, Airy’s situation of isostasy is accomplished through crust of varying thickness, the base
of the crust being a mirror image of its topographic surface. In Pratt’s model, a dense plate initially of
uniform thickness expands upward to various extents, and in doing so, acquiring different densities.

On a very broad scale of continental crust vs. oceanic crust, both hypotheses are valid. Continental
crust comprised of low-density granitic material stands higher than oceanic crust comprised of high-
density basalt (as explained by Pratt’s hypothesis). Thick continental crust (~35-40 km) stands higher
than thin (~7 ± 1 km) oceanic crust (as explained by Airy’s hypothesis). Within a more restricted
region, such as in the contrast between the Himalaya Mountains in northern India vs. lower country in
South India, Pratt’s hypothesis does not explain isostatic balance very well. South India is comprised of
continental crust, high-grade metamorphic rocks that long ago were mountains perhaps like the modern
Himalayas. On a worldwide basis, Airy’s explanation gets credit for at least 2/3 of isostatic balance, and
Pratt’s explanation gets credit for the remainder, but both are valid explanations.

According to Airy, the Himalaya Mountains should be underlain and buoyantly supported by a
thickened “root zone” of low-density crust, analogous to a big log that both rises higher above and sinks
deeper beneath the pond water level. Seismic evidence brilliantly confirms that the crust beneath the
Himalayas and adjacent Tibetan Plateau is of about double normal thickness.

Currently the Himalayas are experiencing rapid erosional attack. Even if the processes that created the
mountains were no longer active, the Himalayas would respond to erosion by rising vertically as
material is removed from the surface. Material of the surrounding mantle flows inward to occupy space
vacated by the ascending crustal root zone, as silly putty would do. Processes of erosion and isostatic
uplift continue until both the root zone and mountains have disappeared, resulting finally in a low plain
comprised of strongly deformed metamorphic and intrusive igneous rocks that had originated deep
within a mountain range. Vast areas, Precambrian shields, are of this origin. Isostatic compensation
causes eroding mountains to be rejuvenated, to persist about three times longer than they would in the
absence of this process.

What is the origin of the world’s greatest mountain chains (Himalayas, Alps, Andes, great ranges in
China, etc.) that are supported by thickened root zones? Mapping of faults and folds in these mountains
indicates that horizontal transport of material has far exceeded the vertical uplift. Pratt’s postulate of
vertical uplift is correct, but it is a mere side effect of a larger phenomenon. As forces of compression
have jammed the crust together, it deformed and thickened, bulging downward into the mantle and
upward into the sky.

LECTURE 21: EARTH MAGNETISM

A magnetic field (a volume of space where magnetic force is present) is conveniently described by
magnetic lines of force. In principle, the lines could be mapped if we were to position a compass
needle at all points of space, and plot its direction of pointing. A magnetic field has a “size” and
“shape.” The intensity, or strength of the field is symbolized by the degree to which the lines of force
are crowded together, greater crowding corresponding to a more intense field. Any object that has mass

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responds to the force of gravity, but the magnetic force affects only magnets. We cannot sense magnetic
force directly.

Magnetic lines of force can occupy the interior of the earth, and outer space above the earth. Each line,
no matter how complexly shaped, is a closed loop. In the field surrounding the earth, which acts as a
magnet, one end of the compass needle is attracted toward the North Magnetic Pole, while being
repelled away from the South Magnetic Pole. Gravity is an attractive force only, but magnetism has
polarity, i.e., both attraction and repulsion.

Magnetism originates by an organized motion of electrically charged particles. One manifestation of

motion is electron “spin,” and in most materials the electrons are paired such that two counterpart
electrons are spinning in opposite directions. The effects of their spin cancel out; there is no net
organized motion, and the material is non-magnetic. In a permanent magnet there are unpaired
electrons whose directions of spin are aligned, and in this sense there is an organized motion of electrical
charge. In an electromagnet, the organized motion is an electric current, a flow of electrons through a
conductor. The field associated with an electromagnet disappears when the current is shut off.

Could the earth be behaving as a giant permanent magnet? Rocks contain permanently magnetic
minerals such as magnetite—magnetic iron oxide (Fe3O4). As basalt lava emerges at about 1200°C and
cools, it is already fully solid by 900°C, but its grains of magnetite are still too hot to act as magnets.
Thermal agitation causes the directions of electron spin to be chaotic and disorganized. Permanent
magnetism begins to develop as cooling drops through the Curie temperature (580°C for magnetite).
Temperature increases with depth in the earth such that all rocks deeper than the base of the crust are
hotter than the Curie temperature for any magnetic mineral. Permanently magnetized minerals can
account for only about 2% of earth magnetism.

Moreover, monitoring of the earth’s magnetic field shows that both the directions of the lines of force,
and the strength of the field are continually changing in a very impermanent fashion. Currently, the
strength of earth’s magnetic field is rapidly diminishing. Thus, in some sense the earth must act as an
electromagnet. In a dynamo, mechanical motion (spinning of magnets inside the machine) generates
electricity. In an electric motor, electricity causes magnets to spin, producing useful mechanical motion.
Thus mechanical motion, an electric current, and a magnetic field are associated. This condition is
fulfilled in the earth’s outer core, which is capable of internal motion because it is liquid, and which is
comprised of iron-nickel alloy that can conduct electricity. A magnetic field is created in the core, some
of it “leaking” up to the earth’s surface. We postulate that ascending and descending convection cells in
the liquid alloy are what activate the earth’s internal dynamo. As the complex pattern of convection in
the core changes, so do the directionality and strength of the magnetic field observed at the earth’s
surface.

When a basalt flow cools below the Curie temperature for its magnetic minerals, a permanent magnetic
field is created whose lines of force are parallel to the earth’s local lines of force. At the earth’s surface
the lines are horizontal at the magnetic equator, and dipping into the earth at steeper and steeper angles
at higher magnetic latitudes, becoming vertical to the surface at the magnetic pole. We may drill out a
core of rock and determine the orientation of its magnetic lines of force, and from this information we
may calculate the location of the magnetic pole when the rock formed. For rocks that originated
recently, determinations of many magnetic pole positions plot as a swarm that is centered upon the
rotational pole, not the magnetic pole that happens to be located currently in northern Greenland.
Conclusion: the position of the magnetic pole, averaged over thousands of years, centers upon the

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rotational pole. Earth magnetism serves as a proxy (an indirect indicator) for locating ancient rotational
poles, which, as we shall see, may be located very distantly from the modern pole position.

Occasionally, at random times, the magnetic polarity suddenly flips—north becoming south, and vice
versa. Thus we have a “normal” magnetic episode in which the North Magnetic Pole is located where it
is now, or a “reverse” episode of opposite polarity. By using the K-Ar method to date many basalt flows
of normal or reverse magnetic polarity, we may pinpoint the times of magnetic reversal quite
accurately. The most recent reversal occurred about 0.78 million years ago, and the field has reversed
dozens of times within the past few million years. During any time interval of normal or reverse
polarity, the magnetic field strength fluctuates just as it does today. Other than for reversed positions of
the magnetic poles, the normal state behaves the same as the reversed state of the magnetic field.
Causes of the earth’s magnetic field, its fluctuations and reversal behavior, are not well understood.

LECTURE 22: GEOLOGY OF THE OCEAN FLOOR

The character of the mid-ocean ridge system may be seen in Ohio-size Iceland, an island that sits
astride the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland is constructed of basalt volcanoes and flood basalt flows, and it
is subject to numerous but not especially destructive shallow earthquakes. As we follow the Mid-
Atlantic Ridge to the south, we see that it maintains a midway position between Europe and Africa on
the east, and South and North America on the west. It is severed in many places where the ridge crest is
offset laterally by fracture zones. The ridge system, which occupies approximately the central one-
third of the Atlantic Ocean basin, has a symmetrical profile that features a sharp medial valley running
along the crest of the ridge. Parallelism of the ocean margins and the central ridge makes the Atlantic
appear somewhat like a great winding river.

The ridge system runs below Africa, continuing toward the central Indian Ocean where it forks. One
branch leads northward, thence through the Gulf of Aden, which separates the Arabian Peninsula from
the Horn of Africa. There it branches again, one arm leading up the axis of the long, narrow Red Sea,
thence up the Gulf of Aqaba and through the Dead Sea Rift along the Jordan-Israel border. Another
branch leads down through Ethiopia and African countries farther south where it is manifested as the
East African Rift Valleys. These fault-bounded valleys contain active volcanoes and a series of lakes,
some of them with floors well below sea level. These depressions could not have been carved solely by
rivers, which cannot erode significantly deeper than sea level; rather, the valleys were down-dropped
along big faults. In places, the ocean ridge system runs onto a continent, East Africa being an example.
In size and shape, the profile of the continental rift valley system (for example, in Kenya) closely
resembles the profile of the submerged ridge (as in the mid-Atlantic).

Resuming back at the mid-Indian branching point, we follow the ridge system as it maintains a midway
position between Australia and Antarctica, thence into the Pacific Ocean. Here the ridge is not
symmetrically positioned, but trends way toward the eastern side where it is known as the East Pacific
Rise. The crest of the Rise trends up the axis of the Gulf of California, which separates mainland
Mexico from a long prong of Mexican territory called Baja California. The ridge system runs aground
up through the western side of the State of California where it is known locally as the San Andreas
Fault System, thence out into the Pacific just north of San Francisco, and offshore up to its termination
in the Gulf of Alaska. This great underwater mountain range, 75 thousand kilometers long, which
occupies all of the world’s major ocean basins, was not even known until serious exploration of the
ocean floor commenced in the mid-1900s.

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Just as the ridge system is a topographic high in the ocean floor, its opposite is the ocean trench system,
a topographic low. In contrast to the pattern of the mid-ocean ridge system, almost all of the trenches
are associated with the Pacific Ocean, being located along its margin or in adjoining parts of the Atlantic
and Indian Oceans. (One exception is a trench in the distant Mediterranean Sea.) Trenches are long,
linear furrows, some deeper below sea level than Mt. Everest, the highest point of land, rises above sea
level. Trenches are sites of violent earthquakes that are shallow beneath the trench floor, defining a
dipping plane oriented downward toward the neighboring continent. That is, the plane dips down to the
east beneath South and North America, to the north beneath the Aleutian Islands, and to the west along a
complex series of trenches offshore from Asia and Australia. Foci of the deepest of these deep-focus
earthquakes approach 650 kilometers below the earth’s surface. Explosive andesite volcanism is
associated with the trenches, either as giant volcanoes perched atop the Andes Mountains (namesake of
andesite), or as a string-of-pearls-like series of islands comprising an island arc, of which the Aleutian
Islands are an example. Andesite composition is midway between that of basalt and granite (or its
extrusive equivalent, rhyolite), and andesite volcanism can be substantially explosive.

LECTURE 23: CONTINENTAL DRIFT

For decades preceding the 1970s, geologists had noted some amazing features about the earth that can
be explained only by postulating that a former supercontinent (or perhaps two supercontinents) had
rifted apart, and the fragments that today are recognized as continents had drifted laterally over the face
of the globe. For example, restoration of the Americas against Europe and Africa reveals an excellent
fit if the edges of continental shelves, not coastlines, are used in the fit. (Continental shelves are
underlain by true continental crust.) A possible problem is seen where Africa would overlap the
northeast corner of Brazil if the two landmasses were to be restored. In fact, this is not a problem
because in Africa the overlapping area, the Niger Delta is constructed of new land deposited since
breakup and drifting apart. The region of Mexico, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean is very
complex, consisting of small blocks (called terranes) that presumably have drifted or rotated. For
example, Yucatan once lay in what is South Texas today.

In ancient rocks we see evidence that local climate differed from today’s climate. For example, glacial
deposits are abundant in the tropical regions of the Southern Hemisphere. Conversely, in islands of the
High Arctic we see rocks that must have formed in the tropics. There must have been a radically
different relationship among the continents, the poles, and the tropics.

Distribution of fossils provides another line of evidence for continental drift. Even in the 19th century
it was recognized that fossil organisms of the same species are distributed on landmasses now widely
dispersed (for example, South America, Africa, and Antarctica). Many of these organisms could not
have crossed the ocean, as we see from their fossil forms and associated sediments that they adapted to
life in freshwater streams or swamps. Wide dispersal of fossils of an organism that could swim, drift, or
fly across the ocean would be consistent with continental drift, but such evidence would present a less
convincing case for drift.

Yet another line of evidence is seen in the distribution of ancient mountain belts and zones of regional
metamorphism. For example, a belt of a distinctive age crosses from Brazil out to sea, and resumes in
west Africa. Another such belt consists of the Appalachians in the eastern U.S. and Canada, which
heads out to sea in Newfoundland. It resumes in Ireland and continues through Scandinavia where it is
known as the Caledonian Mountains. In these zones the fossil organisms, rock types, ages, structures,
etc. can be correlated nicely across the two sides of the Atlantic. These ancient mountain belts must
have been continuous strands that were broken apart and separated.

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Yet another piece of evidence is seen in apparent polar wandering curves. We may observe the
orientation of magnetic lines of force locked into a rock, and from that information calculate where the
magnetic pole must have been when the rock received its magnetic imprint. Another important
assumption is that the magnetic pole and geographic pole (where the earth’s spin axis intersects the
surface) were always located near to one another, just as they are today. If that is so, then magnetic pole
positions serve as a proxy for rotational pole positions, which in turn correlate with locations of ancient
climatic zones.

From the viewpoint of rocks in North America, in early Paleozoic times the North Pole appeared to be in
what is today the southwest Pacific. Analysis of younger and yet younger North American rocks reveals
a broadly curved pathway, the “apparent polar wandering curve.” As we come to more recently formed
rocks, the Pole appears to approach its modern position. Which moved, the North American continent,
the Pole, or both? We can state positively only that there was a relative movement between the Pole and
the continent.

However, if the same analysis is done on rocks from Europe, another polar wandering path appears,
which is not the same as the North American pathway. In principle, the two wandering paths could be
reconciled by repositioning these two continents back together. As the continents drifted apart, their
polar wandering paths also drifted apart, and thus we can state that at least the two continents have
moved apart with respect to one another.

How is continental drift accomplished? For years, geologists were facing the evidence for its reality, but
because they could not understand the geologic mechanism that would cause drift, many of them felt
obligated to declare that continental drift does not occur! They were not stupid; rather, it is a familiar
situation in science that unless you have a theory to explain the observations, then you do not know what
to do with the observations even though you know that existing theory is inadequate. The theory of
plate tectonics was to change all this in the 1970s.

LECTURE 24: PLATE TECTONICS

A global map of earthquake epicenters shows them to be generally distributed in long, narrow belts
whose locations we already recognize. Epicenters are narrowly confined to the crest of the mid-ocean
ridge system. A broader band of epicenters traces the trenches of the Pacific perimeter, and an even
more diffuse swath of epicenters occupies the world's greatest mountain belt from the Pyrenees on the
Atlantic seaboard, through the Alps, Carpathians, mountain ranges of the Middle East, Himalayas, and
into southeast Asia. Throughout the remainder of the globe, earthquake activity is sparse and seldom.

We postulate that the earth's surface is composed of a small number of tectonic plates that are in
motion, chiefly in a horizontal sense. Belts of epicenters and volcanoes mark the margins where
adjacent plates are interacting with one another. Thus "plates" comprise the noun, and "tectonics" is the
verb, referring to these interactions. An analogy is floes of pack ice drifting about, being driven by
water currents underneath. Continents are analogous to ships embedded in the ice, drifting passively
with the pack. Continental drift is not the most fundamental activity but rather, it is a surface
manifestation of motions deeper within the earth.

The top of a tectonic plate is simply the land surface in continents, or ocean floor in ocean basins. The
land surface is being eroded while the ocean floor receives deposition of sediment. Plate margins do not
pay particular attention to edges of continents and oceans. For example, the African Plate contains the

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entire African continent, the Atlantic Ocean east of the mid-Atlantic Ridge, the western Indian Ocean,
the northern part of the Southern Ocean (between Africa and Antarctica), and part of the Mediterranean
Sea. The northern margin of the Indian Plate slices between the Indian subcontinent and the Tibetan
Plateau, both within Asia. Thus a plate must be thicker than either continental or oceanic crust, to
include also some of the earth's mantle.

We identify the bottom of a plate as a narrow zone within the upper mantle where P and S waves slow
down. As we go deeper in the earth it gets hotter, and higher temperature tends to melt materials. But
the pressure is also greater at depth, a factor that tends to inhibit melting. In this critical zone, called the
asthenosphere (Greek: "weak sphere"), the competing factors of high temperature and high pressure
are almost in balance such that the mantle is softened, and perhaps a tiny bit melted. In fact, high-
frequency S waves, which travel only through solids, almost don’t make it through this zone. Melted
asthenosphere becomes basaltic magma upon ascent to the earth's surface. The asthenosphere acts as a
ductile "lubricating" layer over which the strong, rigid, brittle plates are in motion. The plates are the
lithosphere (Greek: "rock sphere" implying strength and rigidity), comprised of either continental or
oceanic crust and uppermost mantle acting coherently as a unit.

Three logical types of interaction among plates are possible at their margins. Plates may be (i) pulling
apart from one another, or (ii) colliding head-on, or (iii) slipping sideways past one another. Pull-apart
zones are identified with the mid-ocean ridge system, where oceanic crust is being created. On
continents, pull-apart zones correspond to rift valleys. Collision zones are equated either with the ocean
trench system where oceanic crust is being consumed, or on the continents with compressional
mountain ranges such as the Himalayas. Regions of strike-slip motion are identified with fracture zones.
Most of these are submarine, but in places such a zone cuts through a continent, as in the San Andreas
Fault system. In zones of strike-slip motion, crust is neither created nor consumed, but rather, it is
conserved.

Ocean Ridge System: Consider the region of the Arabian Peninsula, Red Sea, adjacent northeast
Africa, and the Gulf of Aden. A few million years ago an unusually warm part of the mantle developed
beneath this region. The mantle expanded and bulged upward, stretching and thinning the continental
crust overhead, and then causing the crust to rift along faults. The Arabian Peninsula, initially
contiguous with Africa, began to drift away to the northeast, opening two new, long, narrow seaways:
the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. A third rift that passes southwestward through Ethiopia has never
widened and deepened sufficiently to be invaded by a new seaway. In this sense, the East African Rift
Valleys are a failed arm—one that fell short of its potential to develop into a new ocean basin.

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge illustrates a divergent plate boundary in a more mature stage of development.
Under the medial valley at the ridge crest, adjacent plates are pulling apart from one another, opening
fractures that are filled with basalt magma ascending from the asthenosphere. The basalt cools and
crystallizes, thus "healing" the fracture which then opens anew. The process of fracture opening and
healing continues such that the two plates not only drift away from one another, but also receive the
addition of new basaltic ocean crust onto their trailing margins.

While this continuous process of seafloor spreading is in progress, the earth's magnetic field
occasionally reverses at randomly long and short intervals of time. Basalt that crystallizes during a
"normal" episode of magnetic field polarity (in which the magnetic North Pole and South Pole are where
we see them today) inherits a “normal” magnetic directionality. The magnetic field generated by
magnetic minerals (for example, magnetite) in this basalt is added to the magnetic field currently being
generated in the earth's core. The result is a positive magnetic anomaly—a place where the earth's

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magnetic field strength is higher than the regional average. Adjacent to this ocean-floor stripe is another
magnetic stripe that crystallized in a reverse magnetic field, in which the South and North magnetic
poles occupied positions that are the opposite of what we see today. Magnetism in magnetic minerals in
this stripe is oriented in the opposite direction; it partially cancels the magnetism coming from the
earth's core, resulting is a negative magnetic anomaly where the field is weaker than the regional
average.

These stripes are alternately normally and reversely magnetized, being broad if generated during a
prolonged magnetic polarity episode, or narrow if the polarity episode was brief. The stripes are older
going away from the ridge crest where they had originated. There is a symmetrical magnetic pattern on
the opposite side of the ridge crest.

Of course, magnetic polarity reversals are experienced worldwide, on land as well as at sea. We may
sample basalt flows on land and date them using the potassium-argon (K-Ar) method of age
determination. As a result of intensive sampling and dating, the times of magnetic field reversal have
become quite well known, the most recent reversal having occurred about 0.78 million years ago. This
permits us to assign ages to seafloor magnetic stripes, analogous to a pattern of randomly thick and thin
tree rings of known ages. And since speed = distance/time, referring to the age and the distance of a
given stripe from the ridge crest, we may determine the rate of seafloor spreading.

Rates of spreading are different in the various ocean basins, but a typical value is on the order of an inch
per year, about the rate that one's fingernails grow. This rate, sustained since the Atlantic Ocean began
to rift open in the Mesozoic, can nicely account for the observed width of that ocean. Creation of the
pattern of ocean-floor magnetic stripes encompasses a process of many millions of year’s duration.
Modern technology that utilizes GPS (Global Positioning System) can be used to determine the position
of a point on land within an error of a few millimeters—the distance of continental drift occurring in just
a few weeks to months. By making repeated precise measurements we may track the widening gap
between, say, specified points in New York and London. The instantaneous rate of continental drift
(involving Atlantic seafloor spreading in both directions) over a period of a few years is seen to be the
same as the average rate determined from the analysis of magnetic stripes created over periods of
millions of years. The spreading process must be extremely constant, continuous, and prolonged on the
geologic time scale. It is remarkable! Moreover the distance, for example from Austin to New York,
both cities being located on the same tectonic plate, is shown not to change. This is consistent with the
notion that the internal parts of tectonic plates are quite inert.

Different parts of the world ocean are of different age but the oldest ocean floor, the area that has
migrated the greatest distance from the ridge crest, is located in the western Pacific off Japan, having
traveled almost the entire width of the world's largest ocean. Even here the age is Jurassic, about 150
million years, representing less than the latest 4% of earth history! Older ocean floor has been
swallowed up, disappeared from view, which brings us to our second type of plate interaction.

Ocean Trench System: Three different possibilities are seen where plates converge in head-on
collision. If one plate contains oceanic crust and the other continental crust, as along the west coast of
South America, the oceanic plate heels over and plunges down under the continental plate. This is
because oceanic crust is relatively thin and dense. The ocean floor is bent downward into a trench
where the plate subducts (Latin: "to lead under") into the mantle. Stored elastic energy that is abruptly
released as earthquakes traces the progress of the subducting plate down a dipping plane to depths
approaching 650 kilometers beneath the earth's surface. The plate, containing material formerly on the
ocean floor, carries H2O down into the mantle. This added H2O lowers the melting point, encouraging

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melting. Andesitic or granitic magma ascends to form surface volcanoes, or granite or granodiorite
batholiths are emplaced within the crust.

What happens to the subducting plate at greater depths is a subject on the frontier of scientific
investigation, and evidence suggests that the plates can descend all the way to the core-mantle boundary.
In this sense, oceanic crust has been consumed back into the mantle.

If both plates contain oceanic crust, one of them subducts beneath the other. Sometimes the roles of
these plates "flip" such that the formerly overriding plate becomes the subducting plate.

If both plates contain thick, strong, low-density, buoyant continental crust, sustained subduction of such
material into the high-density mantle is not possible. The analogy is of a cork caught in a whirlpool.
The cork may be sucked down for a while, but eventually its buoyancy will cause it to pop back to the
surface. In continental collision zones we see one plate thrusting over the other, creating continental
crust approaching double the normal thickness, consisting of an enormous pile-up of crumpled rocks. A
mountain range has been born, the classic example being the greatest of them all, the Himalayas. The
crust thickens, bulging downward into the mantle and towering high into the sky. Ancient collision
zones, long since beveled by erosion down almost to sea level, are present in Precambrian shields.

Transform Faults: The third type of plate margin experiences strike-slip motion. As one plate slips
past the adjacent plate, lateral transport over vast distances of hundreds to thousands of kilometers can
be accommodated. The vertical component of such motion is relatively trivial. These faults,
exemplified by oceanic fracture zones or by the San Andreas, are called transform faults because at
their two ends they transform into some other type of plate tectonic boundary. For example, the ends of
an oceanic fracture zone may terminate against offset segments of a mid-ocean ridge. The zigzag offset
segments of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge apparently were present from the very beginning when the
supercontinent rifted apart.

Hot Spots: The Hawaiian Islands illustrate a hot spot, which in this case is in the middle of the Pacific
plate far from its margins. In a hot spot, ascending heat is concentrated into a relatively small area, not
along an extensive elongated zone such as a mid-ocean ridge. As the Pacific plate rides over the
stationary Hawaiian hot spot, the plate is perforated by rising basaltic magma, which builds a linear
chain of islands. The analogy is of puffs of smoke ascending from a chimney, then drifting downwind.
Currently the volcanically active island is the "Big Island" of Hawaii, the southeasternmost island in the
chain. To the northwest, the islands are progressively older and more eroded. There is minor volcanic
activity on the adjacent island, and none further beyond. A giant volcano is building offshore from the
Big Island, destined one day to become the next new island in the Hawaiian chain. The offshore
volcano has yet to build up another kilometer before emerging above the waves.

What drives the tectonic plates? We can observe plate processes at the earth's surface but we are only
beginning to understand the pattern of flow of material at depth in the earth. Plate motion is believed to
be driven thermally. Where a portion of the mantle is abnormally warm it expands, becoming less
dense, and it rises toward the surface. Recall that this is possible because rock has two "personalities."
Rock shatters when struck with a hammer, but stress applied to a rock over a prolonged time scale
causes it to flow in a ductile manner, even while remaining solid. (Glacier ice does the same.) Where
the mantle is relatively cool it contracts, becoming denser, and it sinks. A rising-and-sinking internal
motion, called convection, is established in the mantle.

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Where deep mantle is rising we have the ocean ridge system. This provides an efficient way to transfer
excess heat energy up to the earth's surface where it is quickly dissipated. The sense of convective
motion turns laterally, parallel to the earth's surface as the ocean floor spreads and continents embedded
in the plate drift. Where the convection cell heads back into the depths we have subduction of plates. If
the earth maintains a constant volume, the global average rate of creation of new crust in the ridge must
equal the rate of subduction of old crust into trenches.

By tracing seismic waves whose ray paths pass through the deep earth in many directions we may
construct a picture of mantle that conducts seismic waves just a little faster in one place, and just a little
slower in another place. “Faster” is equated with “cooler,” and “slower” is equated with “hotter.” These
zones in the mantle in turn correspond to locations of hotspots (hotter) and old, dead, subducting
(sinking) tectonic plates (cooler).

LECTURE 25: PETROLEUM

Petroleum (also known as crude oil) is composed of simple to complex hydrocarbon molecules.
Hydrocarbons are molecules composed chiefly of hydrogen (H) and carbon (C). Petroleum is primarily
composed of a simple group of hydrocarbons molecules called the alkanes. Alkanes are composed of
chains of carbon bonded to hydrogen and have the chemical formula CnH2n+2, where n refers to the
number of carbon atoms. Methane (CH4), also called natural gas, is the simplest (shortest C-chain)
alkane.

As organic matter is buried, it undergoes diagenesis (any changes to the sediment and fossils that occur
after deposition at relatively low temperature and pressure). As burial temperature and pressure
increases, diagenesis transforms the buried organic matter into kerogen, a waxy solid composed of
complex hydrocarbon molecules. At even higher temperature and pressure, kerogen breaks down into
simpler hydrocarbons to make crude oil and natural gas. This breakdown of kerogen into oil and gas is
called cracking. Crude oil can then be refined by distillation so that the lighter hydrocarbons like
gasoline are separated from the heavier hydrocarbons like diesel fuel.

In order to form economical and extractable accumulations of oil and gas, four things are necessary: a
source rock, reservoir rock, seal, and trap. First, a seals and prevent the oil and gas from leaving the
reservoir rock. A trap is also required in order for oil to be concentrated in a particular part of the
reservoir rock. Traps may be geologic structures like anticlines, faults, and salt domes. However, they
may also be stratigraphic traps. In a stratigraphic trap, a reservoir rock body is surrounded by source
and seal rocks just by the way that sediments with different properties were originally deposited in
adjacent environments. Fro example, as a meandering river migrates laterally, point bar sand (a
potential reservoir rock) is buried by floodplain mud (a potential source and seal), setting up a potential
stratigraphic trap for oil and gas. In a hydrocarbon reservoir, pore space in the rock may be occupied by
water, oil, and gas. In this situation, water (more dense than oil) will settle to the bottom of the
reservoir, while gas (less dense than oil) will rise to the top of the reservoir; oil will accumulate in
between the water and gas.

Drilling a well to pump oil and gas is expensive, so geologists rely on seismic surveys to help them
decide where to drill. Artificially generated seismic waves are blasted into the ground and the seismic
waves are reflected off of different layers below the source rock for the hydrocarbons is required. The
source rock contains the organic material that is transformed into oil and gas. Shale, which would have
originally been deposited as organic-rich mud in a barrier island lagoon, the prodelta, or a meandering
river floodplain, makes a good source rock. When the source rock is buried and exposed to high

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temperature and pressure, the hydrocarbons will migrate out of the source rock and into overlying strata.
A reservoir rock is a rock that will store the oil and gas that gets “squeezed out” of the source rock.
Reservoir rocks have high porosity and permeability. Mature, well-sorted sandstone, which would have
originally been deposited as sand in the dunes of a barrier island, the point bar of a meandering stream,
or the channel of a delta distributary, makes a good reservoir rock. In order for the hydrocarbons to stay
in the reservoir, there must be a rock to serve as a seal above the reservoir rock. Impermeable rocks like
shale and evaporites make good earth’s surface. Geophone or hydrophone receivers record the reflected
waves. Finally, computer-processed seismic data is used to create detailed images of the rock and
structures below the Earth’s surface. Because some oil may stick to mineral grains in the reservoir rock,
not all the oil can be pumped out. Secondary recovery techniques, like injecting gas or chemical
solvents into a well, mobilize the oil so that more oil (up to 50-60% of the oil) can be recovered from the
reservoir.

Production of oil is expected to peak world wide in this decade, and world oil reserves will only last a
few more decades. U.S. oil production has already peaked. Domestic oil production has been declining
over the last 20 years or so, while consumption has increased. To satisfy this increasing demand, the
U.S. has been increasingly relying on imports of foreign oil. A majority of the world’s oil reserves are
located in the Middle East. Production and consumption of this nonrenewable resource (fossil fuels
take millions of years to form) is associated with a variety of economic, political and environmental
consequences.

LECTURE 26: LIMITATIONS OF THE EARTH FROM A GEOLOGIST’S PERSPECTIVE

Demographers are monitoring worldwide population, which is experiencing a net increase of births more
than deaths of approximately 2.4 persons/second, or about 1.14% increase per year. However, the
increase is "compound interest" in the sense that the previous year also included a population increase
over its preceding year. Compounded at a 1.14% annual increase, population will double in about 50
years. Another factor is the technological advantages resulting from the Industrial Revolution, resulting
in greater human longevity. Since approximately 1700 AD, the rate of population increase has been 100
times greater than it was before that time. World population currently is 6.6 billion persons, increasing
at an alarming rate of 75 million persons/year.

At the same time, we see favorable population trends. Population will remain at a steady state if the
statistical average female fertility rate is 2.1 children per female. In many industrial nations, the female
fertility rate is about 1.6 to as low as 1.2 children—substantially below the steady-state rate of
replacement. (U. S. population is currently growing, but more due to a high influx by immigration.)
The counterpart of low birth rates in technologically advanced nations are much higher rates in the
poorer nations that ironically are least able to care for their citizens. However, in many of these
countries the high rates are being dramatically reduced. If human reproduction were to decline instantly
to just the replacement rate, population would still continue to climb to 10 or more billion because so
many persons today are young children who are yet to begin families.

The vigorously debated theory proposed by Thomas Malthus (English clergyman, late 1700s) relates
population growth to food supply. According to Malthus, population grows in a geometric progression
(1 unit, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc.), whereas food supply increases only arithmetically (1 unit, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.), and
thus insufficient food supply will ultimately limit the growth of human population. Those who contest
this theory argue that there is sufficient time for world population to be brought under control before
Malthusian starvation becomes a serious threat. What seems to be happening is that Malthusian doom is

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actually occurring, but in limited parts of the world such as some countries in sub-Saharan Africa,
notably in Somalia.

Studies show a poor correlation between the birth rate in a given country, and certain factors that
admittedly are difficult to quantify. These include radical methods of birth control, quality of public
education, and religious orthodoxy. However, there is a very good anti-correlation between birth rate
and per capita usage of energy. To have abundant available energy is the key to averting the
consequences of Malthus.

We needy persons must be sustained by the earth's resources, which may be classified as renewable or
non-renewable. Renewable resources include food, timber, and in some situations groundwater, which
are replenished on a time scale of months (food) to decades (lumber), to centuries (an average for
groundwater). Thus renewable resources have a short time scale of renewal but they are also consumed
rapidly such that replenishment must be continuous. In principle, the stockpile of food would sustain
world population for 9 months if production suddenly were to cease.

Natural processes also replenish non-renewable resources but the time scale is vastly longer than a
human lifetime. Hence these resources, which include metals and fossil fuels, are non-renewable in
practical terms. In principle, fossil fuels could be renewed by combining the combustion products, CO2
and H2O, back into hydrocarbons. However, the energy required to make these synthetic fuels would be
more than the energy gained by burning them, and so this procedure is not feasible.

Non-renewable resources are characterized by (i) sporadic distribution, (ii) increasing rate of usage
and extent of usage (finding uses for more chemical elements), and (iii) exhaustibility. It is a fact of
nature that fossil fuel resources and ore deposits are concentrated into just a few "pinpoint" localities.
An ore deposit contains some valuable metal (not groundwater, sand and gravel, or fossil fuel) in
concentrations high enough to make it profitable to mine. Depending upon market fluctuations, a
marginal deposit may be an ore one day but not the next. Improved efficiency of extraction of rare
constituents can make a deposit to be an ore that formerly was not an ore with older technology.

Because of sporadic distribution, large nations are more likely to contain somewhere within their
borders the "mix" of resources necessary to sustain modern technological civilization. Small nations are
more likely to contain just a handful of valuable economic deposits, or none at all. Russia is the most
nearly self-sufficient of all nations, but no one country or entire continent is completely so. All nations
must engage in buying and selling of resources in order to develop. Even abundant resources such as
coal are sporadically distributed. Coal resources are heavily concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere in
contrast to the impoverished Southern Hemisphere.

The rate of usage of resources has stepped up enormously. Some of them are currently being used at
rates that are tens of thousands of times faster than the rate of usage when records first began to be kept.

Exhaustibility is described by mathematical models based on the history of resource usage. We may
plot the rate of production of a resource (units/year where a unit could be tons of iron, barrels of oil,
ounces of gold, etc.) against time (years). The result is a bell-shape curve pertaining to the time span
since the resource first began to be utilized, until its ultimate exhaustion. The area under the curve
(height x width, or units/year x years = units) represents the total number of units of resource that once
existed.

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The area under the curve may be further subdivided. Take petroleum, for example. The sub-areas
consist of oil already produced, oil in proven reserves, and oil postulated yet to be discovered. Analysis
of the history of oil production indicates that for domestic U. S. production, the peak of the bell-shape
curve was reached in the 1970s and we have been on the far downslope ever since. On a worldwide
basis, we are today approaching the top of curve. Fortunately, advances in technology have improved
discovery, and have enabled us to extract oil much more efficiently out of existing fields. The result is
to stretch the curve, sustaining its high level farther into the future and giving us several decades of
opportunity to develop alternative sources of energy. In regard to domestic coal in the U.S., we have
already used only a small fraction, and supplies at the present rate of consumption will last at least for
several centuries.

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