Unit-2

Basic Geology
Objective: After reading this unit you would be able to: Explore the properties of the three main types of rock. Understand the concept and importance Geologic time Scale. Understand Geological Maps and Application of Contour lines 2.1 Type of Rocks 2.2 Geologic time Scale Rock Types There are three principle rock types: Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic. The classification of rocks within these groups aims to give an understanding of both what the rock looks like and how it was formed. Igneous Rocks Igneous rocks are rocks that have cooled from a molten state, called "magma". When the magma cools and solidifies, the resulting rock will reflect the conditions under which it cooled, and the chemical composition of the magma. These conditions are indicated by the grain size and color of the rocks respectively. Individual crystals crystallize from the magma and grow until they come into contact with another crystal, producing an interlocking texture. If magma cools deep underground, the rate of cooling is very slow, allowing time for large crystals to form. The resulting rock is coarse-grained, with individual minerals easy to see with the naked eye. These are known as intrusive rocks, as the magma intruded into pre-existing rocks before it cooled. Magmas that erupt through volcanic vents to form lava cool very rapidly at the earth's surface. The resulting rock is very fine-grained, with most minerals not able to be distinguished without a hand lens. These are known as extrusive rocks, because the magma extruded to the surface before it cooled. Grain size, therefore, gives an indication of the conditions under which the maga solidified to form a rock. About 72% of the earth's crust consists of oxygen (45.2wt %) and silica (27.2wt %). The chemical composition of magmas is therefore largely controlled by these elements. The mineral quartz is composed solely of silica and oxygen, so the proportion of quartz in a rock is a good guide to its bulk chemical composition. The other major mineral (actually a mineral group) is feldspar, which also contains aluminum, calcium, sodium and potassium. Quartz and feldspar are both light colored minerals. Minerals that are low in the above elements tend to be higher in iron and magnesium. These minerals tend to be dark colored. A rock with a large amount of silica will therefore tend to be light colored, whereas a rock with low silica tends to be dark colored.

Color, therefore, gives an indication of the chemical composition of the magma that solidified to form a rock. Grain size and color can therefore be used to give an first-pass classification of igneous rocks. Light colored Coarse grained Fine grained GRANITE RHYOLITE <-------------------> Diorite Andesite Dark colored GABBRO BASALT

There are, of course, many variations within and between these groups. Sedimentary Rocks Sedimentary rocks are formed from the accumulation of particles of pre-existing rocks, organic debris, and the precipitation of dissolved chemicals. The classification of sedimentary rocks aims to indicate the conditions under which the sediments settled, and the types of sediment accumulating. Clastic sedimentary rocks One set of sedimentary rocks consists of mineral grains, or clasts, that occur in sediments. These minerals quartz and clays are made by the breakdown and alteration of igneous and metamorphic rocks. Look around you at where the world's clastic sediment goes: sand and mud is carried down rivers to the sea, mostly. Sand is made of quartz, and mud is made of clay minerals. As these sediments are steadily buried over geologic time, they get packed together under pressure and low heat, not much more than 100C. In these conditions the sediment is cemented into rock: sand becomes sandstone and clay becomes shale. If gravel or pebbles are part of the sediment, the rock that forms is conglomerate. If the rock is broken and recemented together it is called breccia. Organic sedimentary rocks Another type of sediment actually forms in the sea as microscopic organisms plankton build shells out of dissolved calcium carbonate or silica. Dead plankton steadily showers their dustsized shells onto the seafloor, where they accumulate in thick layers. That material turns to two more rock types, limestone (carbonate) and chert (silica). Still another type of sediment forms in certain kinds of swamps where dead plant material builds up into thick layers; after burial, this material becomes coal. There happen to be no coal swamps around today, because conditions do not favor them. The sea needs to be much higher. Most of the time, geologically speaking, the sea is hundreds of meters higher than today. That's why we have sandstone, limestone, shale and coal over most of the central United States and elsewhere around the world's continents. The other way that sedimentary rocks become exposed is when the land rises. This is common around the edges of the Earth's lithospheric plates

10

Chemical sedimentary rocks These same ancient shallow seas sometimes allowed large areas to become isolated and begin drying up. As the seawater grows more and more concentrated, minerals begin to come out of solution, starting with calcite, then gypsum, then halite. The resulting rocks are certain limestones or dolomites, gypsum rock, and rock salt respectively. These rocks, called evaporites, are also part of the sedimentary clan. Sedimentary rocks are stories: Each type of sedimentary rock has a story behind it. The beauty of sedimentary rocks is that their strata are full of clues to what the past world was like. Those clues might be fossils, marks left by water currents, mud cracks or more subtle features seen under the microscope or in the lab. From these clues we know that most sedimentary rocks are of marine origin, usually forming in shallow seas. But some sedimentary rocks formed on land: clastic rocks on the bottoms of large freshwater lakes or as accumulations of desert sand, organic rocks in peat bogs or lake beds, and evaporites in playas. These are called continental or terrigenous (land-formed) sedimentary rocks. The most common sediments are clastic or detrital sediments that are produced from the break down of pre-existing rocks. Grains are typically rounded to some degree and form point contacts with other grains, rather than being interlocked. Detrital sedimentary rocks are classified according to grain size. Grain size Grains larger than 2mm Sand sized grained Silt sized grains Mud sized grains - that break along distinct layers Rock Type Conglomerate Sandstone Siltstone Mudstone - shale

Rocks derived from organic sediments are classified by the type of organisms. Type of organic sediments Plants Carbonate secreting organisms Silica secreting organisms Rock type Coal Limestone Chert

Rocks derived from chemically precipitated sediments are classified by the type of inorganic material precipitated.

Matter precipitated Salts Calcium carbonate Silica

Rock Evaporites Limestone Chert

11

Metamorphic Rocks Metamorphic rocks are rocks that have altered their texture and mineralogy due to changes in temperature and pressure. The classification of metamorphic rocks aims to indicate the pressuretemperature conditions that the rock was subjected to and the type of rock it was before it was metamorphosed. Rocks buried deep within the earth's crust are subjected to directed stress. Their constituent minerals become aligned to the direction of least stress and they develop a layering, known as a foliation. Because large areas are affected, this type of metamorphism is known as regional metamorphism. With increasing temperature and pressure, the rocks tend to become progressively coarser. If rocks are intruded by a large body of magma, the adjacent rocks re-crystallize due to the heat. There is no directed pressure involved, so a foliation does not develop. As rocks are poor conductors of heat, the zone of metamorphism is restricted to the area immediately surrounding the intrusive body. Because the metamorphism only affects a relatively narrow contact zone, this type of metamorphism is called contact metamorphism. Regional metamorphism low P, low T Mudstone Basalt / gabbro Granite / rhyolite Sandstone Limestone slate greenschist (granite) <----------> high P, high T Contact M/m low P, high T hornfels hornfels (granite) quartzite marble

schist gneiss amphibolite granulite foliated granitic gneiss granite < - - - - - - - quartzite - - - - - - - > < - - - - - - - - marble - - - - - - - - >

Common metamorphic rocks include schist, marble, and gneiss. Sedimentary rock shale (formed mostly of clay sediments) when buried and heated to high temperatures (300-500C) becomes transformed or metamorphosed into schist. The Geologic Time Scale By modern scientific calculations, the earth is many millions of years old. The Absolute Geologic Time Scale has been developed by using a process called "Isotopic Dating", in which the decay rates of certain radioactive materials are established and measured, and used as "clocks" to calculate the ages of various rocks. Earth's history is subdivided into eons, which are subdivided into eras, which are subdivided into periods, which are subdivided into epochs. The names of these subdivisions, like Paleozoic or Cenozoic, may look daunting, but to the geologist there are clues in some of the words. For example, zoic refers to animal life, and paleo means ancient, meso means middle, and ceno means recent. So the relative order of the three youngest eras, first Paleoozoic, then Mesozoic, then Cenoozoic, is straightforward. All of geologic time, from the Earth's origin about 4600 million years ago to today, is divided into ten eras that make up three eons. The first two eons are also informally referred to as Precambrian time. Precambrian" is an established informal name for the 4 billion years of Earth

12

history before hard-bodied organisms arose at the beginning of the Cambrian Period, earliest division of the Phanerozoic Eon. Phanerozoic means "visible life," referring to the first appearance of hard-shelled fossils at the beginning of the Cambrian Period. Earlier life, during Precambrian time, consisted entirely of soft-bodied forms that are rarely fossilized. The names of the three eras in the Phanerozoic eon mean "old life," "middle life" and "recent life." The Proterozoic and Phanerozoic eons are each further divided into periods. The Phanerozoic periods are divided in turn into epochs and epochs into ages. Fossils are the recognizable remains, such as bones, shells, or leaves, or other evidence, such as tracks, burrows, or impressions, of past life on Earth. Scientists who study fossils are called paleontologists. Remember that paleo means ancient; so a paleontologist studies ancient forms of life. Fossils are fundamental to the geologic time scale. The names of most of the eons and eras end in zoic, because these time intervals are often recognized on the basis of animal life. Rocks formed during the Proterozoic Eon may have fossils of relative simple organisms, such as bacteria, algae, and wormlike animals. Rocks formed during the Phanerozoic Eon may have fossils of complex animals and plants such as dinosaurs, mammals, and trees. The Petroleum Geologist must know the relative sequence of the deposition, and the time period to which they belong. That is because that certain condition existed on earth during each of the geologic time periods which help the petroleum geologist to interpret rocks in a certain area. Also, petroleum geologists are mainly interested in rocks from the Cenozoic, Mesozoic, or Paleozoic Eras. This is because almost all of the oil and gas found so far is contained within these rocks...600 million years old, or less. These rocks represent only a small fraction of the total age of the earth. Geological maps Geological maps are drawn on base map (topographical maps) using plane table. Geological maps show field disposition of attitude (Horizontal, vertical, inclined) of the bed and topography (Ridge, valley etc) and line of intersection represent outcrop. If only one rock is exposed in the map that represent either horizontal bed or low angle bed. If more than one bed is exposed than the rocks may be dipping, folded (repetition of bed) or faulted (repetition or omission). For drawing profile both vertical and horizontal scale should be same. Component of Map: Rock unit and structural Unit Outcrop lines of vertical beds are always straight. Rock Unit: It is difficult to map Igneous and Metamorphic rocks as they do not posses whereas sedimentary beds are easier. Structural unit comprises bedding plane, fold, fault, unconformity etc. Information to be read from map:

13

No. of conformable series. Attitude of individual series. Order of superposition of the bed belonging to individual series. Thickness of individual bed. Nature of faulting. Effect of faulting: Repetition and omission of beds. Nature of igneous activity. Deciphering geological history: Establishment of geological events in a chronological order.

Topographical /Contour Map Topographical/contour map represent relief of a region projected in a horizontal plane Contour is an imaginary line connecting points of equal elevation. Contour lines are always parallel to each other. No contour line starts or terminates abruptly in the middle of the map.

Closing contours represent basin or hill Contours are drawn with the help of surveying instruments e.g. theodolite, compass or directly from aerial photographs.

14

Topographical maps represents three dimensional structure into two dimension and the third dimension i.e. height is represented by between the successive contours. Slopes is determined from closeness of contours in per unit distance e.g. gentle slope, steep slope. V shape of contours represent a valley

CHARACTERISTICS OF CONTOUR LINES The following characteristics of contour lines govern the construction and reading of contour maps: 1. Every point on the same contour line has the same elevation. 2. A contour line always rejoins or closes upon itself to form a loop, although this may or may not occur within the map area. Thus, if you walked along a contour, you would eventually get back to your starting point. 3. Contour lines never split. 4. Contour lines never cross one another; however, if there is a steep cliff, they may appear to overlap because they are superimposed on one another. 5. Slopes rise or descend at right angles to any contour line. Evenly spaced contours indicate a uniform slope Closely spaced contours indicate a steep slope Widely spaced contours indicate a gentle slope Unevenly spaced contours indicate a variable or irregular slope

15

Slope (Brown) The steeper the slope, the closer the contours, because it takes less distance to rise or fall a given amount on a steep slope. Hill (Yellow) Contours are concentric with maximum elevations in the center Valley (Blue) Lower elevations in the center. Contours form V's that point upstream. Ridge (Green) An elongate hill. Elevations high in the center. Contours form V's pointing downhill. Depression (Red) Uncommon, and usually shown with hachured contours. The hachures are on the downhill side. Saddle (Purple) The landform that confuses more beginners than any other. Land slopes downhill in some directions, uphill in others. Any time you have four elevation points, with the points on one diagonal high and the other low, you probably have a saddle. Summary: In this section we have learned about three major rock types (igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic) based on visible physical characteristics and explain how these rocks formed. We also got an overview of the geological time scale, Cenozoic, Mesozoic, Paleozoic, and Precambrian Eras, also having basic ideas of Geological Maps and Contours.

16