1. Ch 15 Geology
Part 1

2. Core Case Study: The Nanotechnology Revolution
Nanotechnology uses science and engineering to create materials out of atoms and molecules at the scale of less than 100 nanometers.
Little environmental harm:
Does not use renewable resources.
Potential biological concerns.
Can move through cell membranes:
Figure 15-1

3. GEOLOGIC PROCESSES
The earth is made up of a core, mantle, and crust and is constantly changing as a result of processes taking place on and below its surface.
The earth’s interior consists of:
Core: innermost zone with solid inner core and molten outer core that is extremely hot.
Mantle: solid rock with a rigid outer part (asthenosphere) that is melted pliable rock.
Crust: Outermost zone which underlies the continents.

4. GEOLOGIC PROCESSES
Major features of the earth’s crust and upper mantle.
Figure 15-2

5. Oceanic crust (lithosphere) Abyssal plain Continental slope
Folded mountain belt
Volcanoes
Abyssal plain
Abyssal floor
Oceanic ridge
Abyssal floor
Abyssal hills
Trench
Craton
Oceanic crust (lithosphere)
Abyssal plain
Continental slope
Continental shelf
Continental rise
Mantle (lithosphere)
Continental crust (lithosphere)
Mantle (lithosphere)
Figure 15.2
Natural capital: major features of the earth’s crust and upper mantle. The lithosphere, composed of the crust and outermost mantle, is rigid and brittle. The asthenosphere, a zone in the mantle, can be deformed by heat and pressure.
Mantle (asthenosphere)
Fig. 15-2, p. 336

6. Inner core Tectonic plate
Fig. 15-3, p. 337
Spreading center
Ocean trench
Plate movement
Subduction zone
Oceanic crust
Continental crust
Material cools as it reaches the outer mantle
Cold dense material falls back through mantle
Hot material rising through the mantle
Mantle convection cell
Two plates move towards each other. One is subducted back into the mantle on a falling convection current.
Mantle
Hot outer core
Inner core
Collision between two continents
Tectonic plate
Oceanic tectonic plate
Figure 15.3
Natural capital: the earth’s crust is made up of a mosaic of huge rigid plates, called tectonic plates, which move around in response to forces in the mantle.
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7. GEOLOGIC PROCESSES
Huge volumes of heated and molten rack moving around the earth’s interior form massive solid plates that move extremely slowly across the earth’s surface.
Tectonic plates: huge rigid plates that are moved with convection cells or currents by floating on magma or molten rock.

8. The Earth’s Major Tectonic Plates
Figure 15-4

9. Animation: Geological Forces
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10. The Earth’s Major Tectonic Plates
The extremely slow movements of these plates cause them to grind into one another at convergent plate boundaries, move apart at divergent plate boundaries and slide past at transform plate boundaries.
Figure 15-4

11. PLAY ANIMATION PLAY ANIMATION PLAY ANIMATION Fig. 15-4, p. 338
Figure 15.4
Natural capital: the earth’s major tectonic plates. The extremely slow movements of these plates cause them to grind into one another at convergent plate boundaries, move apart from one another at divergent plate boundaries, and slide past one another at transform plate boundaries. QUESTION: What plate are you floating on?
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Fig. 15-4, p. 338

12. INDIA-AUSTRALIAN PLATE
EURASIAN PLATE
NORTH AMERICAN PLATE
ANATOLIAN PLATE
JUAN DE FUCA PLATE
CARIBBEAN PLATE
CHINA SUBPLATE
ARABIAN PLATE
AFRICAN PLATE
PHILIPPINE PLATE
PACIFIC PLATE
SOUTH AMERICAN PLATE
NAZCA PLATE
INDIA-AUSTRALIAN PLATE
SOMALIAN SUBPLATE
Figure 15.4
Natural capital: the earth’s major tectonic plates. The extremely slow movements of these plates cause them to grind into one another at convergent plate boundaries, move apart from one another at divergent plate boundaries, and slide past one another at transform plate boundaries. QUESTION: What plate are you floating on?
ANTARCTIC PLATE
Divergent plate boundaries
Convergent plate boundaries
Transform faults
Fig. 15-4a, p. 338

13. Tectonic Plates

14. Volcanic Activities

15. Earthquake Activities 65’-95’

16. GEOLOGIC PROCESSES
The San Andreas Fault is an example of a transform fault.
Figure 15-5

17. Wearing Down and Building Up the Earth’s Surface
Weathering is an external process that wears the earth’s surface down.
Figure 15-6

18. Parent material (rock)
Biological weathering (tree roots and lichens)
Chemical weathering (water, acids, and gases)
Physical weathering (wind, rain, thermal expansion and contraction, water freezing)
Figure 15.6
Natural capital: physical, chemical, and biological processes can weather or convert rock into smaller fragments and particles. It is the first step in soil formation.
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Particles of parent material
Fig. 15-6, p. 340

19. MINERALS, ROCKS, AND THE ROCK CYCLE
The earth’s crust consists of solid inorganic elements and compounds called minerals that can sometimes be used as resources.
Mineral resource: is a concentration of naturally occurring material in or on the earth’s crust that can be extracted and processed into useful materials at an affordable cost.

20. General Classification of Nonrenewable Mineral Resources
The U.S. Geological Survey classifies mineral resources into four major categories:
Identified: known location, quantity, and quality or existence known based on direct evidence and measurements.
Undiscovered: potential supplies that are assumed to exist.
Reserves: identified resources that can be extracted profitably.
Other: undiscovered or identified resources not classified as reserves

21. General Classification of Nonrenewable Mineral Resources
Examples are fossil fuels (coal, oil), metallic minerals (copper, iron), and nonmetallic minerals (sand, gravel).
Figure 15-7

22. Decreasing cost of extraction
Undiscovered
Identified
Economical
Reserves
Other resources
Decreasing cost of extraction
Not economical
Figure 15.7
Natural capital: general classification of nonrenewable mineral resources. (The area shown for each class does not represent its relative abundance.) Hypothetically, other resources could become reserves because of rising mineral prices or improved mineral location and extraction technology. In practice, geologists expect only a fraction of these resources to become reserves. QUESTION: How might this classification scheme change if a full-blown nanotechnology revolution (p. 335) takes place over the next two decades?
Decreasing certainty
Known
Existence
Fig. 15-7, p. 341

23. GEOLOGIC PROCESSES
Deposits of nonrenewable mineral resources in the earth’s crust vary in their abundance and distribution.
A very slow chemical cycle recycles three types of rock found in the earth’s crust:
Sedimentary rock (sandstone, limestone).
Metamorphic rock (slate, marble, quartzite).
Igneous rock (granite, pumice, basalt).

24. Rock Cycle
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Figure 15-8