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INTRODUCTION
What is Geology?
The term "Geology" means: Geo -Earth and logy - study or reasoning.
Geology is " the study of the whole Earth
But Geology can not be generally defined as the only science of the Earth,
for the Earth is studied by many other sciences apart from geology, such
as Astronomy, Meteorology, Oceanography, etc.
Geology can be defined as the science which deals with the description
and understanding of the Earth from its origin to the present day.
Geology is the science which deals:
With the processes which gave rise to the existence of the Earth
(Physical, chemical, biochemical)
With the processes which are active in the Earth at present.
With the general structure and compositional makeup of the Earth.
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Generally, Geology studies the Earth
How it was born or originated?
How it (the continents, the atmosphere, the oceans) evolved?
What it is made of or composed of?
What are the internal & external earth processes that gave rise
to the existence of the earth?
Where can the important natural resources (minerals, fuels,
groundwater, Geothermal energy, etc) be found in the earth?
How is the earth affected by people? And How we can help
preserve it?
Today, with the development of space exploration Geologists
are beginning to study specimens and photographs (images)
from the other planets. Perhaps in the near future it may be
renamed as Planetology?
History
Modern Geology started by James Hutton( 1785)
Earth must be much older than had previously been
supposed in order to allow enough time for mountains to
be eroded and for sediments to form new rocks at the
bottom of the sea, which in turn were raised up to become
dry land.
Sir Charles Lyell (Principle of Geology ,successfully
promoted the doctrine of uniformitarianism(This theory
states that slow geological processes have occurred
throughout the Earth's history and are still occurring
today).
catastrophism -Earth's features formed in single,
catastrophic events and remained unchanged thereafter.
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Much of 19th-century geology revolved around the question of
the Earth's exact age
By the early 20th century, radiometric dating allowed the Earth's
age to be estimated at 2billion yrs.
The awareness of this vast amount of time opened the door to new
theories about the processes that shaped the planet.
followed by Plutonists (some rocks were formed by volcanism,
which is the deposition of lava from volcanoes), as opposed to
the Neptunists (all rocks had settled out of a large ocean whose
level gradually dropped over time).
The most significant advances the development of the theory
of plate tectonics (in the 1960s), and the refinement of estimates of
the planet's age
The theory revolutionized the Earth sciences
Today the Earth is known to be approximately 4.5 billion years old
Branches of Geology
Although there is no standard way of classifying the subdivisions of
geology, it is better to classify them in to two major parts
PURE
part of geology deals with the origin of the Earth, the processes which
form and change it and the nature of the materials which constitute it.
Some of the areas of specialization in pure Geology include:
Mineralogy - deals with minerals
Petrology - deals with rocks
Historical Geology (Paleontology, stratigraphy, Palaeoclimatology, etc)
Physical Geology (Geomorphology) - deals with earth's surface features
and their origin
Structural Geology and Tectonics - deals with the structural features of the
earth and the effects of internal processes on earth's surfaces, including
ocean formation and mountain building.
Introd..
APPLIED Geology
applies the principles of pure geology and other sciences to
understand the nature of the earth and to extract the natural
resources of the Earth
Some of the most common and important applied fields:
Economic Geology - deals with economic minerals and rocks
Mining Geology - deals with the techniques of extraction of the
economic minerals and rocks
Hydrogeology - deals with surface and underground water
Engineering Geology - applies the principles of Geology to Civil
Engineering works such as dams, roads etc
Geochemistry - studies the composition of the earth by applying the
principles of Chemistry
Geophysics - studies Earth's internal structure and processes by
applying the principles of physics
Introd..
The Relation of Geology to other Sciences
The earth is studied by many science disciplines, which are
collectively called the " Earth Science"; amongst Geology is
the one and the major element.
Although there are many specializations, the four major
areas of study in earth science are:
Geology - deals with the materials of the earth, the
processes, which formed and have been changing it.
Astronomy - the study of cosmic objects, i.e. objects in the
universe beyond the earth's outer atmosphere.
Meteorology - the study of weather and climate conditions
and the process that causes it.
Oceanography - the study of the earth's oceans and seas
Intr.
But these all are interrelated in essence
E.g. Geology depends on Astronomy to study the origin
of the earth, in the Universe and conversely Astronomy
depends on Geology to infer the composition and
structure of the cosmic bodies
Geology is also related with the natural science
disciplines of chemistry, physics, and biology.
So geology as a science can not stand alone but
depends on many other sciences and at the same time
geology enhances the achievement of other sciences.
Cond.
Geology is commercially important for mineral and
hydrocarbon exploration
for evaluating water resources
is publicly important for the prediction and
understanding of natural hazards
the remediation of environmental problems, and for
providing insights into past climate change
plays an essential role in geotechnical engineering
is also a hobby for those who enjoy collecting various
rocks, minerals and/or fossils
CHAPTER - TWO
If the Big Bang did occur, all of the objects within the Universe
should be moving away from each other. In 1929, Edwin Hubble
documented that the galaxies in our Universe are indeed moving
away from each other.
If the Universe began with a Big Bang, extreme temperatures
should have caused 25 percent of the mass of the Universe to
become helium. This is exactly what is observed.
Matter in the Universe should be distributed homogeneously.
Astronomical observations from the Hubble Space Telescope do
indicate that matter in the Universe generally has a
homogeneous distribution.
Origin of the Solar System
Cond
crystals and minerals
matter exists in either gas, liquid or solid form
A solid can be crystalline or non-crystalline
But what is crystal, crystalline and non-
crystalline?
Cond.
Crystal
the building block of every solid ( and every matter as a
whole) are atoms and ions
The external form of solids is dependent on the internal
arrangement of these atoms and ions.
If the atoms and ions have a regular internal arrangement, the
solid will have a regular geometric shape or form.
a 3-dimentional solid which is bounded by symmetrically
arranged faces having a regular geometric shape which is an
outward expression of the regular internal arrangement of the
atoms and ions that make up the solid.
Cond
Crystalline Solid
Any solid having a regular internal
arrangement of atoms and ions. But
depending on the conditions of growth, this
regular internal arrangement may or may not
be expressed in a regular shape of the solids.
E.g. Rock salt
Cond.
Non-Crystalline (Amorphous) Solids
is any solid having a random internal arrangement of
its constituent atoms and ions, with no external
crystal structure.
E.g. Graphite
is similar to a liquid in that the atoms are randomly
arranged, but to a solid in that the atoms are strongly
held together and can't move freely
E.g. Glass( super cooled solid)
Cond.
A Mineral
a mineral is defined to be a naturally occurring element or chemical
compound possessing a definite crystalline structure based on regular
arrangement of the constituent atoms and ions
A substance is said to be a mineral if:
it is natural
it is inorganic
it is structurally homogeneous solid with definite crystalline structure.
It has a well defined regular internal arrangement of its constituent atoms
and ions.
It has definite chemical composition which can be expressed by a
chemical formula.
It has a definite set of physical properties that are fixed with in certain
limits. E.g hardness, density, color, etc.
Cond.
Water in the form of ice is a mineral but not at its liquid state.
Coal and petroleum, although natural are not minerals, for they are
organic in nature. They are however, called mineral fuels.
Most minerals are compounds of two or more elements, but a few
such as sulfur, graphite, diamond, native gold, iodine, etc are single
elements.
A certain mineral anywhere in the world has the same crystalline,
chemical and physical properties.
About 2000 different minerals are so far identified in the Earth. But
among these lot only 20 common ones make up the bulk
composition of the Earth.
The abundance of minerals more or less reflects the quantities of
the component elements that are available for its formation in the
earth.
E.g. oxygen and silicon
Cond.
ORIGIN OF MINERALS
from the matter that gave rise to the planet itself
minerals are originated from the elements which are in turn,
originated from the original stellar matter
are either primary or secondary in origin
The primary minerals are necessarily the product of consolidation
of magmas under suitable conditions
E.g. all minerals constituting the igneous rocks
The secondary minerals have crystallized from the solutions
containing the relevant ions
E.g. halite, borax, etc
Metamorphism of the country rock, due to change in temperature,
pressure or stress, may also cause the formation of new minerals
under appropriate conditions. E.g. kyanite, Sillimanite, Staurollite
Cond.
Formation of Minerals
How do minerals form?
are formed by the process of crystallization (the growth of a
solid from a material whose constituent atoms can come
together in the proper chemical proportions and crystalline
arrangement).
E.g. Diamond (covalent), NaCl (ionic)
Crystallization starts with the formation of microscopic single
crystal bodies whose boundaries are natural flat (plane)
surfaces called crystal faces, are the defining external
characteristic of a crystal
The crystal faces of a mineral are the external expression of
the mineral's internal atomic structure.
Cond.
During crystallization, the initially microscopic crystals grow
larger, maintaining their crystal faces as long as they are
free to grow.
Large crystals with well-defined faces form when growth is
slow and steady and space is adequate to allow growth
with out interference from other crystals nearby.
Most large crystals form in open spaces in rocks, such as
open fractures or cavities.
Glassy materials, which solidify from liquids so quickly that
they lack any internal atomic order, do not form crystals
with plane faces.
found as masses with curved, irregular surfaces.
E.g. volcanic glass.
Cond
When do Minerals form?
Lowering the temperature of a liquid below its freezing point is one
way to start the process of crystallization
Magma, a hot molten liquid rock, crystallizes solid material when it
cools.
As a magma falls below its melting point, which may be 10000c
crystals of silicate minerals such as olivine or feldspar begin to form.
During precipitation, as liquids evaporate from a
solution. E.g. Deposits of halite from hot, arid bays or
arms of the ocean.
when atoms and ions in solids become mobile and
rearrange themselves at the high temperatures. E.g. mica
Cond.
Mineral Groups