Geologi Sejarah

Historical Geology is
the study of changes to Earth
and life in time and space
 Time and Terrestrial Change
► Change is the greatest certainty of all!
► Life on Earth has changed and history
lessons recall past dramatic changes
► Particularly obvious are the so called
"catastrohic geologic events", but subtler
and slower changes are equally important.
 HISTORICAL GEOLOGY
This lecture reviews evidence of
geological change occuring at human
temporal scales, including both
dramatic and slower processes, with
the objective of strecthing our minds
into the geologist frame of temporal
reference.
The word geology comes from the Greek geo,
“earth,” and logia, “the study of.”
Geologists seek to understand how the earth formed
and evolved into what it is today, as well as what
made the earth capable of supporting life.
Geologists study the changes that the earth has
undergone as its physical, chemical, and biological
systems have interacted during its 4.5 billion year
history.
The field of geology includes subfields that examine
all of the earth's systems:
from the deep interior core to the outer
atmosphere, including the hydrosphere (the
waters of the earth) and the biosphere (the living
component of earth).
Generally, these subfields are divided into the two
major categories of physical and historical
geology.
Geologists also examine events such as asteroid
impacts, mass extinctions, and ice ages.

Geologic history shows that the processes that

shaped the earth are still acting on it and that
change is normal.
I. Time

A. How much time?

Oldest meteorites and oldest moon rocks are 4.6 billion

years old 4,600,000,000 years

Oldest rocks found so far on Earth are zircon grains from a

sandstone in western Australia, dated at 4.1 to 4.2 bilion
years old. Previously, the oldest Earth rocks were 3.96
billion years old, from the Northwest Territories of Canada.
B. How do we know?

Radioactive materials serve as geologic clocks

C. What happened on the Earth during this long period
of time?
Many natural events:

meteorite impacts
volcanic eruptions and lava flows
mountain building
earthquakes
erosion
slow movement of continents (plate tectonics)
formation and destruction of ocean basins (plate tectonics)
glaciations
climatic changes
etc.
 All of these natural events are still going on today -
We see evidence in the rock record that these events
have been occurring for a long time.
Geologists call this uniformitarianism
Some events which occurred in the past, and left a record
in the rocks, ARE NOT OCCURRING TODAY, or have not
occurred in the human lifespan:
Huge meteorite imapcts
Large glacial ice sheets

Other events occur so slowly that they are difficult to

measure:
Plate Tectonics - sea floor spreading, continental drift
Erosion of mountain ranges
Still other events are short lived but very catastrophic:

Volcanic eruptions
Earthquakes
Floods
Mudflows, avalanches, etc (mass wasting)

Evidence of all of these events is preserved

in the geologic record.
D. What do you mean by geologic record?
The geologic record consists of rock units, each of which
records some event or series of events that occurred in
the past.

What are rocks?

Rocks are defined as aggregates of one or more
minerals.

What are minerals?

naturally occurring
inorganic
solids
definite chemical composition
characteristic internal crystal structure (arrangement of
atoms in lattice)
E. How do rocks form?

By cooling, hardening, and crystallizing from hot, molten

lava: Igneous rocks
By forming from the compaction and cementation of
sediments: Terrigenous, clastic or detrital sedimentary
rocks
By forming from the precipitation of dissolved chemicals
in water: Chemical and biochemical sedimentary rocks
By forming from accumulated organic matter: Organic
sedimentary rocks (coals)
By the alteration of pre-existing igneous or sedimentary
rocks by heat and pressure: Metamorphic rocks
II. Fundamental principles of Geology
(7 principles to establish the relative ages
of rocks).
Most sedimentary rocks occur in the form of layers
called beds or strata.
Each layer is the result of the deposition of
sediment during some natural event (such as a
flood or storm).
 Guiding Principles of Geology
A. Plate Tectonics; Plate tectonics is useful in the field of
geology because it can be used to explain a variety of
geologic processes, including volcanic activity,
earthquakes, and mountain building. See also Earth.

B. Geologic Cycles; All processes in geology can be viewed

as a series of mostly closed cycles, meaning the
materials of the cycles are found on earth, and very
few materials from outside our world are introduced
into these cycles. The energy that drives geologic
recycling comes from two sources: the sun and the
earth's interior. Two examples of geologic

C. Uniformitarianism; The principle of uniformitarianism

depends on the 'uniformity of laws,' which assumes
that the laws of physics and chemistry have remained
constant
A. Steno's Laws Named for Nicholaus Steno, a Danish
physician living in Florence, Italy in the 1600's.

1. Principle of Superposition
Oldest rocks on the bottom
Younger rocks on top

2. Principle of Original Horizontality

Sediments are deposited in flat layers

3. Principle of Original Lateral Continuity

Sediments are deposited over a large area in a
continuous sheet
B. Other basic principles of Geology which we can use
for relative dating (or determining which rocks are older
or younger)
4. Principle of intrusive relationships

The intrusion is younger than the rocks it cuts

5. Principle of cross-cutting
relationships
The fault is younger than the rocks it
cuts.
6. Principle of components or inclusions

Note the irregular erosional surface. This is an Unconformity.

The clasts (in the bed above the unconformity) are derived
from the underlying (older) bed.
The gravel clasts are older than the layer which contains
them.
The layer containing the gravel must be younger than the
layer from which the clasts originate.
The principle of components or inclusions also
applies to xenoliths.
A xenolith is a fragment of country rocks which
has been broken off during an intrusion, and has
become surrounded by magma.
The xenolith is older than the igneous rock which
contains it.
7. Principle of fossil succession
► Fossils occur in a consistent vertical order in
sedimentary rocks all over the world.
(William"Strata Bill" Smith, late 1700's,
England).
► This principle is valid and does not depend on
any pre-existing ideas of evolution. (In fact,
Charles Darwin's ideas on evolution did not
appear until 50 years later - 1858).
► Geologists interpret fossil succession to be the
result of evolution - the natural appearance and
disappearance of species through time.
 Unconformities:
Unconformities are buried surfaces of erosion
or non-deposition

► Angular unconformities Implies tectonic deformation

and erosion of underlying strata.
► Nonconformity Sedimentary strata overlying igneous or
metamorphic rocks (in an erosional - not intrusive-
contact)
► Disconformity An irregular surface of erosion betwen
two units of parallel strata

► Paraconformity A planar surface between two parallel

units of sedimentary rock, representing a period of non-
deposition, but no erosion.
 Criteria for recognizing unconformities:
Sedimentary criteria
 Basal conglomerate - Many unconformities are overlain by a
layer of conglomerate or gravel. The clasts are commonly
fragments eroded from the underlying rock.
 Buried soil profiles.
 Layers of phosphatized pebbles, glauconite (greensand), or
manganese-rich beds.
Paleontological criteria

 Abrupt changes in fossil assemblages

 Presence of bone or tooth conglomerates
 Abrupt change from marine to continental fossils.
Structural criteria
 Discordance of dip above and below a contact (angular
unconformity).
 Irregular or undulatory contact that cuts across bedding
planes in the underlying unit.
 Truncation of dikes or faults at a contact.
 Dramatic Geologic Events in
Human History
► Explosion of Krakatoa
► Explosion of Santorini
► Tsunami in Aceh
► Earthquake in Kobe
Subtle geological events in
human history

►Climate
►Glaciers
and sealevel
►Crustal change
 How fast is fast?
► Time and rates of Geological processes

Concept of geological time

Examples of rates
Importance of frequency of events (example of floods)
Linear versus non-linear change
 The dimension of geological
time
► Methods for correlating and dating the
rock record:
a. Modern concepts of stratigraphy :
-LITHOSTRATIGRAPHY
-BIOSTRATIGRAPHY
-CHRONOSTRATIGRAPHY
b. RADIOACTIVITY AND ABSOLUTE
AGES
ORIGIN OF THE EARTH TO THE
ARCHEAN TILL RECENT