Chapter-1

Introduction
What is Geology?
Geology deals with the origin, age and structure of the earth. It
also studies the evolution, modification and extinction of
surface and subsurface features.

Similarly Geology also includes the study of various natural

dynamic and physiochemical processes operating on and in the
earth, and the agents, forces involved and evolved in such
processes.

Geology is the study of the Earth, its processes, its materials, its
history, and its effect on humans and life in general.

Rocks, crystals, mountains, earthquakes, volcanoes, rivers,

glaciers, landslides, floods, and many other subjects fall into
this broad field of research.
• Geology is a multi-disciplinary science, which studies the
physical and chemical aspects of the Earth - its surface
processes, composition, structure and origin. Central to this is the
study of the formation and distribution of minerals and rocks.

• Geologists perform a wide range of important services for our

civilization:
they determine the stability of building sites, find abundant
supplies of clean water, search for valuable deposits of
natural resources such as iron, coal, and oil, and they also try
to minimize the threat to communities at risk from geologic
hazards.
Branches of Geology
Geology can be divided into Pure and Applied
Geology fields.
I. Pure Geology deals with the
 origin of the earth,
 the process which formed and change it and
 the nature of the materials which constitute it.
Some of the areas of specialization of pure Geology include:

1. Mineralogy and crystallography: deals with minerals and the

crystals that constitute them;
2. Petrology and petrography: deals with rocks (their formation
processes, classification and identification at macro-and micro-
scales, respectively);
3. Historical geology (paleontology, stratigraphy): deals with
fossils and Earth history;
4. Physical geology (geomorphology): deals with Earth’s surface
features and their origin;
 Cont…
5. Structural geology and tectonics: deals with the structural
features of the Earth and the effects of internal processes on the
Earth’s surface, including ocean formation and mountain building
processes.
II. Applied geology uses the principles of pure geology and other
sciences to understand
 the nature of the Earth
 the Earth processes
 the Earth material,
 and to extract the natural resources of the Earth.
 Some of the most common applied fields include:
1. Economic Geology deals with the study of economic
minerals and rocks such as Gold (and other metals),
diamond, marble, etc,;
2. Mining geology deals with the techniques of explorations
and extractions of economic minerals and rocks;
3. Petroleum Geology studies the origin and occurrence of
petroleum and natural gases;
4. Hydrogeology deals with surface and ground water;
5. Engineering geology applies the principles of Geology to
civil engineering works such as dams, roads, etc;
6. Geochemistry applies the principles of chemistry and
geology to investigate the composition of the Earth
7. Geophysics deals with the Earth’s internal structure and
processes by applying the principles of physics and basic
geology;
8. Environmental Geology (science) systematically deals
with the impact of human activity on the natural environment
(Earth) and vice versa.
9. Remote sensing and GIS (Geographic Information
System) apply the principles of space and computer science
to study the Earth and its resources, and to store and
manipulate geological and geographic information.
 There are also some relatively new and of little application
Applied Geology streams, including
 Military Geology (the application of geologic knowledge to
warfare).
 Medical Geology (the study of the effects geologic materials
and processes on human , animal and plant healthy), and
 Forensic Geology (applications of the principles of Earth
sciences to law enforcement, like using soil evidence to trace
crimes and criminals).
What is Engineering Geology?
• Engineering Geology is an applied discipline of
Geology that relies heavily on geologic principles and
processes in the application of geologic fundamentals to
engineering practice.
• Engineering geology is a branch of geology that applies
geological principles of rock, soil and groundwater to
the appropriate location, design and construction of a
wide variety of engineering structures; and the
assessment and design of mitigative measures for a
wide variety of natural and man-made hazards.
Scope of Engineering Geology

a) In construction jobs
 In the matter of planning of an engineering project, geology
serves the engineer in the following ways.
 It provides the engineer with a general guidance about
the suitability of site for a proposed project.
 It enables him to appreciate the limiting factors imposed
upon his planning by topography, geomorphology, and
ground water conditions of the area.
 It gives him a general idea about the availability of
different types of construction materials.
 It guides him in limiting the exploratory operations
(drilling etc) for selecting the final site.
(b) In town and regional planning
(c) In water resources development
(d) In Miscellaneous fields
These include land evaluation, oceanography, space
exploration and nuclear explosion for industrial and
engineering purposes.
Significance of Engineering Geology

In engineering geology; there are three

premises or reasoning statements:
1.All engineering works are built in or on the ground.
2.The ground will always react to the construction of
the engineering works.
3.The reaction of the ground (engineering behaviour) to
the engineering work must be accommodated (within
allowable limit).
 Cont…

To arrive at the engineering behaviour of the ground, there are

common relations or equations between rock, rock mass and
engineering structure:
1.Material properties + mass fabric = Mass property
2.Mass property + environment = Engineering geological
condition (matrix).
3.Engineering geological condition/matrix + changes produced by
engineering work = Engineering Behaviour of the Ground.
Let’s see all the variables in the equations above and their
significance:
•Material: rock, soil, and fluids and/or gas
•Material property: density, shear strength, deformability, etc.
 Cont…

• Mass fabric: beds, dykes, veins, joints, faults, etc.

• Mass: ground mass, volume of ground which will be influenced by
or will influence the engineering work.
• Environment: includes
climate,
stress condition,
Natural and man-made hazards and earthquakes, etc.
Time: immediate after construction, after construction
and through its life time.
In the three equations all the factors leading up to the description of
the engineering geological situation/ condition may be established by
the process of site investigation.
Main tasks of Engineering Geologist include:
Description of the geologic environment pertinent to the
engineering practice
Description of earth materials, their distribution, and general
physical and chemical characteristics
Deduction of the history of relevant events affecting the earth
materials
Forecasting of future events and conditions that may develop
Recommendation of materials for representative sampling and
testing
Recommendation of ways to handle and treat various earth
materials and processes; recommending or providing criteria for
excavation design, particularly angle of cut slopes, in materials
where engineering testing is inappropriate or where geologic
elements control stability, &
Inspection during construction activities to confirm conditions.
 The eath’s interior

• The earth and the rest of the solar system were formed about
4.57 billion years ago from an enormous cloud of fragments of
both icy and rocky material which was produced from the
explosions (super novae) of one or more large stars.

• The origin of the universe is explained by the Big Bang

Theory. It states that there was a fireball that condensed
together, due to centripetal forces it becomes to a disc-like
shape. Then the big super novae explosion creates the proto-
sun and other fragments. The fragments become the planets
• Early Earth was undifferentiated, homogeneous material
similar to average solar system composition, and was extremely
hot (gravitational potential energy of nebular dust becomes
kinetic energy and finally thermal energy as Earth condensed).

• The Earth was later differentiated into different layers whereby

the interior most part (core) center of the planet due to its high
density.

• Soon after core formation, a mars sized body collides with the
molten Earth spraying material that become the moon into Earth
orbit. Meteorite bombardment was intense on early Earth .
• The crust, oceans and atmosphere develop slowly.
• Most of the evidence for this stage of the Earth’s history comes
from meteorites and lunar samples.
Evidences on the structure and composition of the Earth

• The deepest part of the Earth that can be directly accessed so far is
only 12.5km
• Therefore, indirect methods have been used to study the interior
structure and composition of the Earth.
• These indirect evidences come largely from the study of physical
properties of the planet itself.
These are:
1. Density evidence
2. Meteoritic evidence
3. Volcanic evidence
4. Earthquake (seismic waves) evidence
1. Density evidence
• The average density of the earth is determined to be 5.52
g/cc

• While rocks have an average density of 2.7-3 g/cc, from

about 40-3000 km depth and 3000 km –center with average
density of 6-7g/cc and 9-13g/cc, respectively
• This indicates the interior of the Earth should be composed of
heavier than surficial materials.

• Based on this simple evidence the earth was modeled to be

composed of 3 layers of different density .
 2. Meteoritic evidence
 Meteoritic are fragments of planetary matter that are
representatives of the asteroids.
 Asteroids are similar in nature to the inner planetary
groups to which the Earth belongs .
 The meteorites are of 3 types representing 3 different
layers of the aborted or disintegrated planet.
1. The stony meteorites (composed of silicates similar to rocks
of the Earth’s crust).
2. Iron meteorites (composed of Fe –Ni alloys and are different
from any type of earth materials on the earth’s surface and are
assumed to represent the interior of the asteroid
3. The stony iron meteorites (which are composed of both
silicate and Iron-nickel alloys representing the intermediate
parts of the asteroids )
 3. Volcanic evidence

• Apart from meteorites there are some materials known as

xenolith that directly come from the depth (100km) of the
earth enclosed within magma ,which are not contaminated
by surfacial rocks.

• The composition of the xenolith represents the composition

of the materials at that depth and is found out to be heavy
silicate of Mg and Fe.
4. Earthquake
• Earthquake waves commonly called seismic waves
pass through the earth’s interior and then
emerges at the surface where they can be
recorded by wave sensitive device called
seismographs at seismograph station.
• The seismic waves do not travel at uniform
velocity through the Earth’s interior .
• The velocity of the waves directly related the
density of the material .
• high in solid & low in fluids and increases with
depth.
• Seismic waves shows particular sharp changes at depth
40km and 2900km .These discontinuities are called
Mohorovic and Gutenberg discontinuity, respectively.

• Indicates fundamental change in the properties of the

material and they show earth’ s interior is made up of 3
layers of different density and their over all nature .
• The crust from the surface up to an average depth of 40km
solid made up of light silicate rocks.

• Mantle from 40-2900km depth solid made up of heavy

silicate rocks and

• The core from 2900km to center liquid at its upper part

(outer core) and solid at its central part (inner core ) made
up of Fe Ni alloy of heavy density.
• The most detailed information on the variation of physical
properties or composition of the Earth with depth comes
from seismological observations of elastic-wave
propagation in the Earth.
• Various types of elastic waves are used to probe the Earth,
including body waves, surface waves

• The vibrations of the Earth due to natural earthquakes or

artificial explosions are recorded on seismograms.

• Seismic waves recorded at a long distance from the focal

point of an earthquake pass through deeper portions of the
Earth's interior than waves recorded at a nearby station.
Factors affect seismic waves

• distance: farther = more attenuation

• density: higher = faster
• temperature: colder = faster
• liquid vs. solid
- solid = faster; p-waves and s-waves
- liquid = slower; no s-waves
 Angle of incidence- controls how much is reflected
and how much is absorbed
 Vertical arrangement of layers
- controls the resultant direction of travel
Earth’s interior is divided into layers:
• based on composition;
crust,
mantle, &
core,
• based on physical properties;
 Lithosphere,
 Asthenosphere, &
 Mesosphere,
Although the Earth’s crust seem stable, the
extreme heat of the Earth’s interior causes
changes that slowly reshape the surface.
• Lithosphere.
The solid, brittle rock that occurs just above
the asthenosphere.
Includes the crust, the Moho, and the upper part
of the mantle.
• Asthenosphere.
A thin zone in the mantle that is from 130 to
160 km deep, where seismic waves undergo a
sharp decrease in velocity.
This is a layer of hot, elastic semi-fluid
material that extends around the entire Earth.
• Mesosphere.
The material below the asthenosphere.
The Crust
• Outermost layer of earth made of rock that
forms earth’s outer skin
• 5 to 100 km thick, average thickness is 35
km
• thinnest layer
• less than 1% of Earth’s mass
• Composition of crust: oxygen, silicon,
aluminum, calcium, iron, sodium,
potassium, magnesium
Cont…

• Oceanic Crust
– crust beneath the oceans
– consist mainly of dense rock (basalt - dark in color)
– 5-8 km thick
• Continental Crust
– crust that forms the continents
– consist mainly of less dense rock (granite - lighter in
color)
– 30 km average thickness
 Basalt is much denser than the granite. Because of this
the less dense continents ride on the denser oceanic
plates.
Crust to Mantle

• The upper part of the mantle and the crust

together form a rigid layer called the
lithosphere.
» Lithos is greek for stone, 100 km thick
» made of pieces called tectonic plates
 Cont.……

• The asthenosphere is a soft layer of the

mantle on which pieces of the lithosphere move
– asthenes is Greek for soft or weak
– material is like warm tar and can flow slowly
• The rigid crust and lithosphere float on the hot,
plastic material of the asthenosphere.
 The Mantle
• layer of rock between crust and core
• 2900km thick, 67% of Earth’s mass
• Composition - silicon, oxygen, iron and
magnesium
• physical conditions in mantle change because
pressure and temperature increase with depth
– temp ranges from 870 °C to 2,200°C
 Cont.…..

• The mantle is composed of hot iron-rich

silicate rocks.
• Flow in the mantle occurs as convection
currents
hot material in the mantle rises
cools and then sinks
• Mantle is elastic which means it behave in
plastic manner.
 Convection Currents inside the Mantle
• Hot columns of mantle material rise slowly through
the asthenosphere
 The Core
• Inner most layer of the Earth
• 6800 km in diameter (3,400 km from outside
edge of core to center of core)
• 1/3 of Earth’s mass, 15% of its volume
• Temperature ranges from 2,000 °C to 5,000°C
Consist of two parts;
Inner Core and
 Outer Core
 The Outer Core
• layer of molten metal (iron and nickel) beneath the mantle
surrounds the inner core
• 2,200 km thick
• It is liquid state, but why?
 Cont.….
• Because less weight is exerted on the outer
core, the pressure is less there, so iron and
nickel present here in liquid state.
• The molten outer core flows at the very slow
rate which means electrons from the metals
produce an electrical current.
• This electrical current powers the earth’s
magnetic field.
 The Inner Core
• dense ball of solid metal (iron and nickel)
• extreme pressure from layers above
• 1200 km, from outside edge of inner core to
center
• In the inner core, iron and nickel are solid,
but why?
 Cont.……
• Although the inner core is very hot, pressure
from the weight of the rest of the Earth
doesn’t allowed the material to melt.
• The core is composed mainly of iron and
nickel.
• Iron’s normal temperature of melting is
15,350c°, but in the earth inner core it could
stand 40,000c° with no melting.