The planet we live on: The beginnings of the Earth Sciences

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Oolites Tiny balls of limestone (aragonite, CaCO 3 ) formed by waves and currents instrongly evaporating seasOolitic limestone A sedimentary rock made of oolites, tiny balls of calcium carbonatethat first formed as aragonite and usually later changed to calcite (CaCO 3 )OreAn economic concentration of metal mineralsOre mineral A metal-containing mineral that is rich enough to mineOriginal horizontality (principle of) <strong>The</strong> stratigraphic principle that strata <strong>we</strong>re originallydeposited as near-horizontal layersPangaea A ‘supercontinent’ of all the continents on Earth (including Gondwana) thatexisted bet<strong>we</strong>en about 300 and 250 million years agoPartial melting When a substance is heated so that only the low melting point componentsmelt, it is described as a ‘partial melt’; in rocks, silicon-rich minerals meltbefore iron- and magnesium-rich minerals“Peer review” <strong>The</strong> checking of scientific publications by other scientists of equal standing- their peers’Percolation (of water) Water flowing through pore spaces in the ground/soil/rockPeridotite A coarse-grained ultramafic rock (very rich in magnesium/iron) found in theEarth’s mantlePermeability How quickly a fluid can flow through a rock; given as a flow rate persurface area of rockPhysical <strong>we</strong>athering <strong>The</strong> break up of rock surfaces by physical <strong>we</strong>athering processes,such as freeze-thaw and heating and coolingPiles Vertical columns of steel-reinforced concrete hammered into <strong>we</strong>ak ground to supportfoundationsPillow basalt Basalt that has erupted under water to form pillow-like shapesPlate (tectonic) <strong>The</strong> slabs of rigid, solid rock made of lithosphere (comprising the crustand part of the upper mantle) that are moved across the surface of the Earth byplate tectonic movementPlate Tectonics (<strong>The</strong>ory of) J. (John) Tuzo Wilson’s theory of the late 1960s linkingtogether earlier ideas into a global theory of tectonic plate movementPlateau A horizontal flat upland area, typical of regions where tough rocks are horizontalPluton A large igneous intrusion, often inverted drop-shaped; may be several kilometresacross163
Pore spaces (or pores) Gaps bet<strong>we</strong>en the grains; fluids such as oil, natural gas or watercan flow through pores, or they may become filled with cement as a porous rockhardensPore water pressure <strong>The</strong> pressure of water in the pore spaces of rocks; high pore waterpressure contributes to landslidesPorosity <strong>The</strong> amount of pore space in a rock; given as a percentagePositive feedback Change in a system, where the effects increase the changePrimate An order (group) of mammals that includes lemurs, monkeys, apes and humansProduction <strong>we</strong>ll A borehole drilled to extract the oil and gas (or sometimes, water)found by previous exploration <strong>we</strong>llsPumping tests Tests carried out by drilling a line of boreholes, pumping water from thecentral one and monitoring the height of the water table in the others, to establishwhether or not a water <strong>we</strong>ll is viablePyroclastic Material ejected by explosive eruptions, including fine-grained ash and volcanicblocks; from the Greek, (pyro = fire-formed; clastic = broken material)Pyroclastic flow (nuée ardente) A density flow of red hot ash that flows downhillfrom a volcanic blast at speeds of up to hundreds of kilometres per hour (does notinclude lahars)Quarry A pit or hillside excavated for its raw materials (large pits dug for coal are usuallycalled opencast mines; pits dug for sand or clay may be called sand- or clay-pits)Quartz A mineral, silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ), usually grey, white or colourless, hard with nocleavage and a glassy lustre - found in a variety of rocks as <strong>we</strong>ll as in mineral veinsQuartzite (metaquartzite) Metamorphic rock formed largely of quartz, formed by themetamorphism of pure quartz sandstones (also called metaquartzite)Radiometric dating Method of calculating the age (in years/millions of years) of a rock(subject to a measurable margin of error) from the decay of the radioactive elementsit containsRaised beach A narrow flat coastal area, often backed by a cliff, that was formed whensea level was higher, relative to the land; linked to changes in sea level during andafter ice agesRegional metamorphism Rock recrystallisation caused by heat and increased pressureduring the mountain-building episodes caused by plate tectonics; affects large areasRegionally Important Geological and Geomorphological Sites (RIGS) Sites inthe UK listed for their geological importance164
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Basic Books in ScienceBook 6<strong
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BASIC BOOKS IN SCIENCE- a Series of
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BASIC BOOKS IN SCIENCE- a Series of
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Looking ahead - If you came across
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3.2 Plate tectonics (20th Century)
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1.30 Coal seams in an opencast coal
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3.4 Alfred Wegener, the polar explo
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5.14 A GPS remote volcano monitorin
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Figure 1.2:minerals.A sandstone roc
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Even diamond can have different col
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Figure 1.8: A red garnet crystal in
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Figure 1.12: Crystals of minerals i
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Hematite, Fe 2 O 3 - earthy red, me
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Figure 1.17: Sedimentary rocks show
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Figure 1.20: A close up view of a p
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Figure 1.26: Ancient wave ripple ma
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Figure 1.30: Coal seams in an openc
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Figure 1.32: Close up view of a pie
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Figure 1.35: A fossil colonial cora
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Figure 1.38: Fossil ammonites, indi
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Figure 1.39: ‘Massive’ igneous
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Figure 1.41: A close up view of a p
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Figure 1.44: A basalt flow that coo
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Figure 1.47: Deposit of volcanic as
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Figure 1.49: An old slate quarry, s
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Figure 1.51: Slate, a low-grade met
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Figure 1.53: Schist, a medium-grade
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Figure 1.56: Metaquartzite, produce
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Figure 1.58: A region of folded roc
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Figure 1.61: A normal fault. This s
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Figure 1.64: An unconformity. Older
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proper geological maps. Fossils hav
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Cephalopods are not extinct, but th
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Figure 1.68: A shelled cephalopod f
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You can try the rock sequencing pri
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Chapter 2Reading landscapes: how la
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Figure 2.3: Rock fragments loosened
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Figure 2.6: The jo
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Figure 2.10: The m
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are forming them. Similarly the sha
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Figure 2.19: This photo was taken f
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Figure 2.25: Dinosaur tracks conser
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• On coastal sections, whenever p
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found evidence that the Earth was a
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Figure 3.3: James Hutton, the ‘Fo
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Figure 3.5: A page of Wegener’s 1
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Figure 3.7: The st
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Figure 3.10: The r
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Figure 3.13: The m
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Figure 3.15: The S
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Figure 3.19: An ocean versus contin
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Figure 3.23: Map of the major tecto
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Figure 3.26: Global temperature cha
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Figure 3.29: A computer generated p
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Figure 3.31: The
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planet extended th
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Figure 4.1: William Smith’s geolo
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Millionsof yearsago (Ma)01000Some M
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ocks whilst the first definite plan
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Figure 4.9: The ch
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Figure 4.12: The 4
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Millionsof years Some Major Earth E
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Figure 5.2: Strike-slip movement (r
Page 127 and 128: Figure 5.4: The So
Page 129 and 130: Figure 5.6: An ash eruption rising
Page 131 and 132: Figure 5.10: A hazard zone map of t
Page 133 and 134: isk to humans. The
Page 135 and 136: Figure 5.14: A GPS (global satellit
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Page 139 and 140: Figure 5.17: A windfarm in Ireland.
Page 141 and 142: Figure 5.19: A beautifully preserve
Page 143 and 144: Another ‘missing link’ find has
Page 145 and 146: Figure 5.22: A dinosaur reconstruct
Page 147 and 148: Figure 5.25: A working aggregate-pr
Page 149 and 150: Figure 5.26: The E
Page 151 and 152: Chapter 6Understanding what geologi
Page 153 and 154: Figure 6.2: A drilling rig used for
Page 155 and 156: When an oil/gas field has been foun
Page 157 and 158: Figure 6.6: Groundwater flowing out
Page 159 and 160: Dam disaster in Italy, when the wav
Page 161 and 162: Figure 6.10: A slab foundation, bui
Page 163 and 164: An example of this is investigation
Page 165 and 166: GlossaryAbsolute age The</s
Page 167 and 168: Carbon capture The
Page 169 and 170: Crustal shortening This results of
Page 171 and 172: Evaporite deposits (or evaporites)
Page 173 and 174: Geophysical survey Using the method
Page 175 and 176: “Integrated waste management” <
Page 177: Metamorphism The r
Page 181 and 182: Saltation Sediment movement by flui
Page 183 and 184: Suspension Sediment movement by flu
Page 185 and 186: AcknowledgementsPermission to repri
Page 187 and 188: Figure 2.3 A scree slope. Photo ID:
Page 189 and 190: Figure 1.15a Hematite.Figure 1.15b
Page 191 and 192: Figure 1.28 Dune cross bedding in s
Page 193 and 194: Figure 3.18 An island arc volcano,
Page 195 and 196: Figure 5.21 Excavations at the dino
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