Earth Science Unit 1.

3
Rocks & Minerals
 ELEMENTS
• EIGHT ELEMENTS MAKE UP MOST OF
ALL MINERALS ON THE EARTH
– Elements combine to form Minerals

• LISTED IN ORDER OF ABUNDANCE

– OXYGEN (O)
– SILICON (Si)
– ALUMINIUM (Al)
– IRON (Fe)
– CALCIUM (Ca)
– POTASSIUM (K)
– SODIUM (Na)
– MAGNESIUM (Mg)
PERIODIC TABLE OF ELEMENTS
 MINERALS
• BUILDING BLOCKS FOR ROCKS

• DEFINITION:
– naturally occurring, inorganic solids,
consisting of specific chemical elements, and
a definite atomic array

• CRYSTALLINE STRUCTURE – ‘CRYSTAL’

 MINERALS
• MINERALS: TWO CATEGORIES

– SILICATES – CONTAIN SILICON & OXYGEN

MOLECULES (SiO)

– NON-SILICATES (NO SiO)

 NON-SILICATE MINERALS
• Make up 5% of Earth’s crust
• Native metals: gold, silver, copper
• Carbonates: calcite (used in cement)
• Oxides: hematite (iron ores)
• Sulfides: galena (lead ores)
• Sulfates: gypsum (used in plaster)
 SILICATE MINERALS
• Make up 90-95% of the Earth’s Crust

• Dominant component of most rocks,

include:
– QUARTZ (SiO2)
– FELDSPARS
– MICAS
 ROCKS
• AGGREGATIONS OF 2 OR MORE
MINERALS
– Same or different minerals combine together
• THREE CATEGORIES
– IGNEOUS
– SEDIMENTARY
– METAMORPHIC
 IGNEOUS ROCKS
• FORMED FROM COOLED, SOLIDIFIED
MOLTEN MATERIAL, AT OR BELOW THE
SURFACE
• PLUTONIC – INTRUSIVE: COOLED
BELOW SURFACE AT GREAT DEPTHS
• VOLCANIC – EXTRUSIVE: COOLED AT
OR NEAR THE SURFACE THROUGH
VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS
 IDENTIFICATION OF IGNEOUS
ROCKS
• IDENTIFICATION PROCESSES:
– TEXTURE:
• Size, shape and manner of growth of
individual crystals
– MINERAL COMPOSITION
• Based on SiO content
 COMMON IGNEOUS ROCKS
• GRANITE: PLUTONIC-INTRUSIVE; PHANERITIC TEXTURE; FELSIC
MINERAL COMPOSITION
• RHYOLITE: VOLCANIC-EXTRUSIVE; APHANETIC TEXTURE;
FELSIC MINERAL COMPOSITION
• DIORITE: PLUTONIC-INTRUSIVE; PHANERITIC TEXTURE;
INTERMEDIATE MINERAL COMPOSITION
• ANDESITE: VOLCANIC-EXTRUSIVE; APHANETIC TEXTURE;
INTERMEDIATE MINERAL COMPOSITION
• GABBRO: PLUTONIC-INTRUSIVE; PHANERITIC TEXTURE; MAFIC
MINERAL COMPSITION
• BASALT: VOLCANIC-EXTRUSIVE; APHANETIC TEXTURE; MAFIC
MINERAL COMPOSITION
 OTHER IGNEOUS ROCKS
• VOLCANIC GLASS:
– OBSIDIAN: VOLCANIC-EXTRUSIVE; NO
CRYSTALS FORM; SILICA-RICH, COOLED
INSTANEOUSLY
– PUMICE: VOLCANIC-EXTRUSIVE; NO
CRYSTALS FORM; SILICA-RICH;
SOLIDIFIED FROM ‘GASSY’ LAVA
• PYROCLASTIC ROCKS
– TUFF: VOLCANIC-EXTRUSIVE;
SOLIDIFIED ‘WELDED’ ASH
 SEDIMENTARY ROCKS

• Weathering processes break rock

into pieces, sediment, ready for
transportation deposition burial
lithification into new rocks.
CLASSIFYING SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
THREE SOURCES

• Detrital (or clastic) sediment is composed of

transported solid fragments (or detritus) of pre-existing
igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic rocks

• Chemical sediment forms from previously dissolved

minerals that either precipitated from solution in water ,
or were extracted from water by living organisms

• Organic sedimentary rock consisting mainly of plant

remains
SEDIMENTARY ENVIRONMENTS
• Lakes
• Lagoons
• Rivers
• Ocean bottoms

• Estuaries
• Salt Flats
• Playas
• Glacial environments
 SEDIMENTARY PROCESSES
• LITHIFICATION:
• As sediment is buried several kilometers beneath the surface, heated from
below, pressure from overlying layers and chemically-active water
converts the loose sediment into solid sedimentary rock
• Compaction - volume of a sediment is reduced by
application of pressure
• Cementation - sediment grains are bound to each other
by materials originally dissolved during chemical
weathering of preexisting rocks
– typical chemicals include silica and calcium carbonate.
 METAMORPHIC ROCKS
• METAMORPHISM : process by which
conditions within the Earth alter the
mineral content and structure of any rock,
igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic,
without melting it.
• Metamorphism occurs when heat and
pressure exceed certain levels,
destabilizing the minerals in rocks...but not
enough to cause melting
Time for a break…
 GEOLOGIC TIME AND DATING
• Four basic principles
– Principle of Original Horizontality
– Beds of sediment deposited in water formed as horizontal or
nearly horizontal layers.
– Principle of Superposition
– Within a sequence of undisturbed sedimentary or volcanic
rocks, the layers get younger going from bottom to top.
– Lateral Continuity
– An original sedimentary layer extends laterally until it tapers or
thins at its edges
– Cross-cutting Relationships
– A disrupted pattern is older than the cause of the disruption.
 DATING - RELATIVE
• Physical Continuity
– Physically tracing the course of a rock unit to correlate rocks between two
different places
• Similarity of Rock Types
– Correlation of two regions by assumption that similar rock types in two regions
formed at same time, under same circumstances
• Correlation by Fossils
– Plants and animals that lived at the time rock formed were buried by
sediment

– fossil remains preserved in the layers of sedimentary rock -fossils

nearer the bottom (in older rock) are more unlike -those near the top

– Observations formalized into Principle of Faunal Succession – fossil

species succeed one another in a definite and recognizable order.

– Index Fossil – a fossil from a short-lived, geographically widespread

species known to exist during a specific period of geologic time.
 ABSOLUTE DATING -
DENDROCHRONOLGY
• Using annual growth rings of trees
• Dates for trees now extending back more
than 9,000 years.
• Bristlecone Pine, White Mountains, CA (pinus
longaeva) provides a continuous time scale for last
9,000 years (to 7000 B.C)
• Provides calibration of radiocarbon dates
over most of the last 10,000 years
(Holocene epoch)
DENDROCHRONOLOGY
 ABSOLUTE DATING
VARVE CHRONOLOGY
• Varves are parallel strata deposited in deep
ocean floors or lake floors
• A pair of sedimentary layers are deposited
during seasonal cycle of a single year
– Laminae (similar to annual growth rings in trees)
record climatic conditions in a lake or large water
body from year to year
• Cores extracted from sea floor or lake floor are
used to date back several million years to 200
million years
VARVE CHRONOLOGY
 DATING - ABSOLUTE
• Radiometric dating – based on radioactive
decay of ‘isotopes’
• Decay rate can be quantified because it
occurs at a constant rate for each known
isotope – “half-life” from parent isotope to
stable ‘daughter’ isotope
• Measuring ratio of parent to daughter
isotopes determines absolute ages of
some rocks.
 ABSOLUTE DATING ISOTOPES
• URANIUM–LEAD (U238–Pb206)
– Half-life: 4.5 billion years
– Dating range: 10 million – 4.6 billion years
• URANIUM–LEAD (U235-Pb207)
– Half-life: 713 million years
– Dating Range: 10 million – 4.6 billion years
• POTASSIUM-ARGON (K40-Ar40)
– Half-life: 1.3 billion years
– Dating Range: 100,000 – 4.6 billion years
• CARBON-14 (C14-N14)
– Half-life: 5730 years
– Dating Range: 100 – 100,000 years