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Geology

Geology (from Ancient Greek γῆ () 'earth', and λoγία (-logía) 'study of, discourse')[1][2] is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time.[3] Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth sciences, including hydrology. It is integrated with Earth system science and planetary science.

This article is about the Earth science. For the scientific journal, see Geology (journal).

Geology describes the structure of the Earth on and beneath its surface and the processes that have shaped that structure. Geologists study the mineralogical composition of rocks in order to get insight into their history of formation. Geology determines the relative ages of rocks found at a given location; geochemistry (a branch of geology) determines their absolute ages.[4] By combining various petrological, crystallographic, and paleontological tools, geologists are able to chronicle the geological history of the Earth as a whole. One aspect is to demonstrate the age of the Earth. Geology provides evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and the Earth's past climates.


Geologists broadly study the properties and processes of Earth and other terrestrial planets. Geologists use a wide variety of methods to understand the Earth's structure and evolution, including fieldwork, rock description, geophysical techniques, chemical analysis, physical experiments, and numerical modelling. In practical terms, geology is important for mineral and hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation, evaluating water resources, understanding natural hazards, remediating environmental problems, and providing insights into past climate change. Geology is a major academic discipline, and it is central to geological engineering and plays an important role in geotechnical engineering.

Color: Minerals are grouped by their color. Mostly diagnostic but impurities can change a mineral's color.

: Performed by scratching the sample on a porcelain plate. The color of the streak can help identify the mineral.

Streak

Hardness: The resistance of a mineral to scratching or indentation.

Breakage pattern: A mineral can either show fracture or , the former being breakage of uneven surfaces, and the latter a breakage along closely spaced parallel planes.

cleavage

: Quality of light reflected from the surface of a mineral. Examples are metallic, pearly, waxy, dull.

Luster

: the weight of a specific volume of a mineral.

Specific gravity

Effervescence: Involves dripping on the mineral to test for fizzing.

hydrochloric acid

Magnetism: Involves using a magnet to test for .

magnetism

Taste: Minerals can have a distinctive taste such as (which tastes like table salt).

halite

high regions on the seafloor where hydrothermal vents and volcanoes exist, are seen as divergent boundaries, where two plates move apart.

Mid-ocean ridges

Arcs of volcanoes and earthquakes are theorized as , where one plate subducts, or moves, under another.

convergent boundaries

such as the San Andreas Fault system, are where plates slide horizontally past each other.

Transform boundaries

4.567 (gigaannum: billion years ago): Solar system formation[14]

Ga

4.54 Ga: , of Earth[15][16]

Accretion, or formation

c. 4 Ga: End of , the first life

Late Heavy Bombardment

c. 3.5 Ga: Start of

photosynthesis

c. 2.3 Ga: Oxygenated , first snowball Earth

atmosphere

730–635 (megaannum: million years ago): second snowball Earth

Ma

541 ± 0.3 Ma: – vast multiplication of hard-bodied life; first abundant fossils; start of the Paleozoic

Cambrian explosion

c. 380 Ma: First land animals

vertebrate

250 Ma: – 90% of all land animals die; end of Paleozoic and beginning of Mesozoic

Permian-Triassic extinction

66 Ma: – Dinosaurs die; end of Mesozoic and beginning of Cenozoic

Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction

c. 7 Ma: First appear

hominins

3.9 Ma: First , direct ancestor to modern Homo sapiens, appear

Australopithecus

200 (kiloannum: thousand years ago): First modern Homo sapiens appear in East Africa

ka

Geological mapping

[25]

topographic maps

[27]

stratigraphic sections

Biogeochemistry

[28]

Paleontology

evolution

Collection of samples for and thermochronology[29]

geochronology

: measurement of characteristics of glaciers and their motion[30]

Glaciology

Georgius Agricola, German mineralogist, founder of geology as a scientific field

Georgius Agricola, German mineralogist, founder of geology as a scientific field

Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian polymath, author of the first systematic treatise in scientific geology (1763)

Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian polymath, author of the first systematic treatise in scientific geology (1763)

James Hutton, Scottish geologist and father of modern geology

James Hutton, Scottish geologist and father of modern geology

The study of the physical material of the Earth dates back at least to ancient Greece when Theophrastus (372–287 BCE) wrote the work Peri Lithon (On Stones). During the Roman period, Pliny the Elder wrote in detail of the many minerals and metals, then in practical use – even correctly noting the origin of amber. Additionally, in the 4th century BCE Aristotle made critical observations of the slow rate of geological change. He observed the composition of the land and formulated a theory where the Earth changes at a slow rate and that these changes cannot be observed during one person's lifetime. Aristotle developed one of the first evidence-based concepts connected to the geological realm regarding the rate at which the Earth physically changes.[60][61]


Abu al-Rayhan al-Biruni (973–1048 CE) was one of the earliest Persian geologists, whose works included the earliest writings on the geology of India, hypothesizing that the Indian subcontinent was once a sea.[62] Drawing from Greek and Indian scientific literature that were not destroyed by the Muslim conquests, the Persian scholar Ibn Sina (Avicenna, 981–1037) proposed detailed explanations for the formation of mountains, the origin of earthquakes, and other topics central to modern geology, which provided an essential foundation for the later development of the science.[63][64] In China, the polymath Shen Kuo (1031–1095) formulated a hypothesis for the process of land formation: based on his observation of fossil animal shells in a geological stratum in a mountain hundreds of miles from the ocean, he inferred that the land was formed by the erosion of the mountains and by deposition of silt.[65]


Georgius Agricola (1494–1555) published his groundbreaking work De Natura Fossilium in 1546 and is seen as the founder of geology as a scientific discipline.[66]


Nicolas Steno (1638–1686) is credited with the law of superposition, the principle of original horizontality, and the principle of lateral continuity: three defining principles of stratigraphy.


The word geology was first used by Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1603,[67][68] then by Jean-André Deluc in 1778[69] and introduced as a fixed term by Horace-Bénédict de Saussure in 1779.[70][71] The word is derived from the Greek γῆ, , meaning "earth" and λόγος, logos, meaning "speech".[72] But according to another source, the word "geology" comes from a Norwegian, Mikkel Pedersøn Escholt (1600–1669), who was a priest and scholar. Escholt first used the definition in his book titled, Geologia Norvegica (1657).[73][74]


William Smith (1769–1839) drew some of the first geological maps and began the process of ordering rock strata (layers) by examining the fossils contained in them.[59]


In 1763, Mikhail Lomonosov published his treatise On the Strata of Earth.[75] His work was the first narrative of modern geology, based on the unity of processes in time and explanation of the Earth's past from the present.[76]


James Hutton (1726–1797) is often viewed as the first modern geologist.[77] In 1785 he presented a paper entitled Theory of the Earth to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In his paper, he explained his theory that the Earth must be much older than had previously been supposed to allow enough time for mountains to be eroded and for sediments to form new rocks at the bottom of the sea, which in turn were raised up to become dry land. Hutton published a two-volume version of his ideas in 1795.[78]


Followers of Hutton were known as Plutonists because they believed that some rocks were formed by vulcanism, which is the deposition of lava from volcanoes, as opposed to the Neptunists, led by Abraham Werner, who believed that all rocks had settled out of a large ocean whose level gradually dropped over time.


The first geological map of the U.S. was produced in 1809 by William Maclure.[79] In 1807, Maclure commenced the self-imposed task of making a geological survey of the United States. Almost every state in the Union was traversed and mapped by him, the Allegheny Mountains being crossed and recrossed some 50 times.[80] The results of his unaided labours were submitted to the American Philosophical Society in a memoir entitled Observations on the Geology of the United States explanatory of a Geological Map, and published in the Society's Transactions, together with the nation's first geological map.[81] This antedates William Smith's geological map of England by six years, although it was constructed using a different classification of rocks.


Sir Charles Lyell (1797–1875) first published his famous book, Principles of Geology,[82] in 1830. This book, which influenced the thought of Charles Darwin, successfully promoted the doctrine of uniformitarianism. This theory states that slow geological processes have occurred throughout the Earth's history and are still occurring today. In contrast, catastrophism is the theory that Earth's features formed in single, catastrophic events and remained unchanged thereafter. Though Hutton believed in uniformitarianism, the idea was not widely accepted at the time.


Much of 19th-century geology revolved around the question of the Earth's exact age. Estimates varied from a few hundred thousand to billions of years.[83] By the early 20th century, radiometric dating allowed the Earth's age to be estimated at two billion years. The awareness of this vast amount of time opened the door to new theories about the processes that shaped the planet.


Some of the most significant advances in 20th-century geology have been the development of the theory of plate tectonics in the 1960s and the refinement of estimates of the planet's age. Plate tectonics theory arose from two separate geological observations: seafloor spreading and continental drift. The theory revolutionized the Earth sciences. Today the Earth is known to be approximately 4.5 billion years old.[16]

One Geology: This interactive geological map of the world is an international initiative of the geological surveys around the globe. This groundbreaking project was launched in 2007 and contributed to the 'International Year of Planet Earth', becoming one of their flagship projects.

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Chronostratigraphy benchmarks