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ENGINEERING GEOLOGY
By:
Dr Haryati Awang
T1-A17-2C
SYLLABUS
Environmental Construction
Engineering Engineering
CIVIL
ENGINEERING
Geomorphology
Surveying and
Mapping
Geotechnical
Engineering
Paleontology Transportation
Engineering Engineering
Geology
GEOLOGY Structural
Engineering
Petrology
Geophysics and
Seismology
Economic
Geology
Why geology is important to civil engineers?
The science and nature of soils are derived from the gradation
processes of rocks and as the Earth is in motion, the tectonic and
volcanic processes must be fully understood and how the Earth
has shaped itself.
In addition, time has played a major role in the formation of
rocks, mountain ranges, deep trenches of the ocean and tectonic
plates which give rise to earthquakes, volcanoes and earth
hazards such as tsunami.
Geologist presents the geological data and interpretations for the
use by civil engineers.
The role of geology, begins during planning stage, where the
geological data are required in order to understand the nature of
the formation and to achieve accuracy.
Rockfall at Bukit Lanjan
Neptune
Pluto
Uranus
Jupiter
Saturn
Mars
Earth
Venus
Mercury
Distance Radius Mass Rotation # Moons Orbital Orbital Obliquity Density
(AU) (Earth's) (Earth's) (Earth's) Inclination Eccentricity (g/cm3)
The composite above shows the Sun and the nine planets surrounding
the Sun given in scale.
The Origin of the Universe
Based on observational facts, cosmologist have developed classes of
hypothesis which try to explain the origin of the earth. One of them is:
v) Shape: spherical
Earth is surrounded by a blanket of air, the atmosphere, of
which 77 % is nitrogen, 21 % oxygen and 2 % of other gases.
Only 29 % of the Earth's surface is covered by land.
Principal Division of the Earth
http://marymount.scdsb.edu.on.ca/grassroots/
a) Atmosphere basic_weather_knowledge.html
c) Lithosphere
i) Oceanic Crust
Thickness range between 7 km which have dense rock known as basalt
and an average density of 2.9 g/cm3.
The hot rock, which boils up at mid-ocean ridges, comes from the upper mantle
and spreads out forming new oceanic plates.
When these meet the opposite continents they plunge back down into the mantle,
sometimes going down as far as the outer core.
In addition there are hot spots, which start at the outer core and rise up through
the mantle to form islands such as Hawaii or Iceland.
Sketch
showing
convection
cells
commonly
seen in boiling
water or soup.
This analogy,
however, does
not take into
account the
huge
differences in
the size and
the flow rates
of these cells.
Convection Currents
Large convection systems in the mantle may carry along the plates of the
lithosphere like a conveyor belt
Outer Core
The core of the Earth is like a ball of very
hot metals (4000 oF to 9000 oF).
The outer core is so hot that the metals in it
are all in the liquid state.
The outer core is located about 1800 miles
beneath the crust and is about 1400 miles
thick.
The outer core is composed of the melted
metals nickel and iron.
Inner Core
The inner core of the Earth has temperatures and pressures so great that
the metals are squeezed together and are not able to move about like a
liquid, but are forced to vibrate in place as a solid.
The inner core begins about 4000 miles beneath the crust and is about 800
miles thick and the temperatures may reach 9000 oF where the pressures are
45,000,000 pounds per square inch which is 3,000,000 times the air pressure
on you at sea level!!!
WEEK 2
Lesson Outcomes
http://www.moorlandschool.co.uk/earth/tectonic.htm
Theory of Continental Drift
"Uniformitarian Principle" is proposed in 1785 by James
Hutton, a Scottish geologist and its principle is commonly
stated as follows: The present is the key to the past.
Those holding this viewpoint assume that the geologic forces
and processes, gradual as well as catastrophic, acting on the
Earth today are the same as those that have acted in the
geologic past.
The idea of moving continents was seriously considered as a
full-blown scientific theory known as Continental Drift,
which was introduced in two articles published by a 32-year-
old German meteorologist named Alfred Lothar Wegener.
Wegener contended that, around 200 million years ago, the
supercontinent Pangaea began to split apart.
He then proposed that Pangaea first broke into two large
continental landmasses, Laurasia in the northern hemisphere
and Gondwanaland in the southern hemisphere.
Laurasia consists of North America, Europe and Asia and
Gondwanaland Consists of South America, Africa, Antartica,
Australia with India.
Laurasia and Gondwanaland then continued to break apart
into the various smaller continents that exist today which are
North America, Asia, South America, Africa, Antarctica, India
and Australia.
Evidence to Plate Tectonics Theory
1. Marine and non-marine rock sequences
of the same age are found on widely
separated continents;
2. Mountain ranges and glacial deposits
match up when continents are united
into a single landmass;
3. The shorelines of continents fit together,
forming a supercontinent; and
4. Many extinct fossil organisms are found
today on widely separated continents.
Plate Movements and Boundaries
1. Divergent Boundaries
Divergent boundaries occur along spreading centers where plates are
moving apart and new crust is created by magma pushing up from the
mantle.
Oceans are born and grow wider where plates diverge or pull apart.
The heat from underlying magma wells up from deep within the earth,
weakening and stretching the overlying continental crust. The brittle crust
then fractures on each side of the stressed area, allowing sections to drop.
The result is a rugged terrestrial rift valley.
Example of divergent boundaries is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This
submerged mountain range, which extends from the Arctic Ocean to
beyond the southern tip of Africa, one segment of the global mid-ocean
ridge system that encircles the Earth.
The rate of spreading along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge averages about 2.5
centimeters per year (cm/yr), or 25 km in a million years.
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which splits nearly the entire
Atlantic Ocean north to south, is probably the best-known
and most-studied example of a divergent-plate boundary.
(Illustration adapted from the map This Dynamic Planet.)
Aerial view of
the area around
Thingvellir,
Iceland, showing
a fissure zone (in
shadow) that is
an on-land
exposure of the
Mid-Atlantic
Ridge. Left of the
fissure, the North
American Plate
is pulling
westward away
from the
Eurasian Plate
(right of fissure).
Map of East Africa showing some of the historically active
volcanoes (red triangles) and the Afar Triangle (shaded, center)
a so-called triple junction (or triple point), where three plates are
pulling away from one another: the Arabian Plate, and the two
parts of the African Plate (the Nubian and the Somalian) splitting
along the East African Rift Zone.
2. Convergent Boundaries
The Earth's unchanging size implies that the crust must be destroyed at
about the same rate as it is being created, as Harry Hess surmised.
Such destruction (recycling) of crust takes place along convergent
boundaries where plates are moving toward each other, and sometimes
one plate sinks (is subducted) under another. The location where
sinking of a plate occurs is called a subduction zone.
The type of convergence -- called by some a very slow "collision" -- that
takes place between plates depends on the kind of lithosphere
involved, where the denser plate subducted downwards to the upper
mantle.
The collision can occur between:
oceanic - continental plate,
oceanic oceanic plates
continental-continental plates.
Oceanic-continental Convergence
Oceanic-oceanic convergence
When two oceanic plates converge one
is usually subducted under the other and
in the process a deep oceanic trench is
formed. The Marianas Trench, for
example, is a deep trench created as
the result of the Phillipine Plate
subducting under the Pacific Plate.
Oceanic-oceanic convergence
The collision of two oceanic crust, one is usually subducted under the other,
and in the process a trench is formed.
The Marianas Trench (paralleling the Mariana Islands), for example, marks
where the fast-moving Pacific Plate converges against the slower moving
Philippine Plate.
The Challenger Deep, at the southern end of the Marianas Trench, plunges
deeper into the Earth's interior (nearly 11,000 m) than Mount Everest, the
world's tallest mountain, rises above sea level (about 8,854 m).
Subduction processes in oceanic-oceanic plate convergence also result in the
formation of volcanoes. Over millions of years, the erupted lava and volcanic
debris pile up on the ocean floor until a submarine volcano rises above sea level
to form an island volcano. Such volcanoes are typically strung out in chains
called island arcs. As the name implies, volcanic island arcs, which closely
parallel the trenches, are generally curved.
Magmas that form island arcs are produced by the partial melting of the
descending plate and/or the overlying oceanic lithosphere. The descending
plate also provides a source of stress as the two plates interact, leading to
frequent moderate to strong earthquakes.
Continental-continental Convergence
When two continents meet head-on,
neither is subducted because the
continental rocks are relatively light
and, like two colliding icebergs, resist
downward motion. Instead, the crust
tends to buckle and be pushed upward
or sideways. The collision of India into
Asia 50 million years ago caused the
Eurasian Plate to crumple up and
override the Indian Plate. After the
collision, the slow continuous
convergence of the two plates over
millions of years pushed up the
Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau to
their present heights. Most of this
growth occurred during the past 10
million years.
Continental-continental Convergence
The term volcano refers to the opening or vent through which the molten
rock and associated gases are expelled.
A volcano is most commonly a conical hill or mountain built around a vent
that connects with reservoirs of molten rock below the surface of the
Earth.
Molten rock below the surface of the Earth that rises in volcanic vents is
known as magma, but after it erupts from a volcano it is called lava.
Majority of volcanoes are located along the margins of tectonic plates.
Driven by buoyancy and gas pressure the molten rock, which is
lighter than the surrounding solid rock forces its way upward
and may ultimately break though zones of weaknesses in the
Earth's crust. If so, an eruption begins, and the molten rock may
pour from the vent as non-explosive lava flows, or if may shoot
violently into the air as dense clouds of lava fragments.
A) Mount St. Helens eruption on May 18, 1980. (Source: U.S. Geological
Survey, photograph by Austin Post).
Location of Volcanoes
Location of Volcanoes and the Ring of Fire
World Distribution of Volcanoes and Earthquake Zone
Geological Time Scale