Measuring Geologic Time Through Earth's Processes in Rock Layers
E.ST.06.41 - Explain how Earth processes (erosion, mountain building, and glacier movement) are used for the measurement of geologic time through observing rock layers.
Earthquake: is the shaking and trembling that results from the movement of rock beneath Earth’s surface.
Stress: A force that acts on rock to change its shape or volume.
Shearing, tension, and compression work over millions of years to change the shape and volume of rock- occurs in crust.
Shearing: Stress that pushes a mass of rock in two opposite directions.
Tension: pulls on the rock- stretching the rock so it becomes thinner in the middle.
Compression: Squeezes rock until it folds or breaks.
Deformation: Any change in the volume or shape of Earth’s crust.
Fault: A break in the Earth’s crust where slabs of crust slip past eachother.
Faults usually occur along plate boundaries, where the forces of plate motion compress, pull, or shear the crust so much that the crust breaks.
Strike-slip fault: Shearing creates this fault. Happens when rocks on either side of the fault slip past each other.
Normal fault: Where one boundary rock lies on top of the other.
Hanging Wall: The half of the normal fault that lies on top.
Footwall: The half of the normal fault that lies on the bottom.
Reverse Faults: Same structure as a normal fault (one on top of the other), but the blocks move in the opposite direction.
Over millions of years, fault movement can change a flat plain into a towering mountain range.
Fault-Block Mountain: When a normal fault uplifts rock into mountains. (Ex. Rockie Mountains)
Folds: Bends in the rock that form when compression shorten’s and thicken’s parts of the Earth’s crust.
Anticline: The fold in the rock that bends upwards.
Syncline: A fold in the rock the bends downwards.
Plateau: A large area of flat land elevated high above sea level.
Stress: A force that acts on rock to change its shape or volume.
Shearing, tension, and compression work over millions of years to change the shape and volume of rock- occurs in crust.
Shearing: Stress that pushes a mass of rock in two opposite directions.
Tension: pulls on the rock- stretching the rock so it becomes thinner in the middle.
Compression: Squeezes rock until it folds or breaks.
Deformation: Any change in the volume or shape of Earth’s crust.
Fault: A break in the Earth’s crust where slabs of crust slip past eachother.
Faults usually occur along plate boundaries, where the forces of plate motion compress, pull, or shear the crust so much that the crust breaks.
Strike-slip fault: Shearing creates this fault. Happens when rocks on either side of the fault slip past each other.
Normal fault: Where one boundary rock lies on top of the other.
Hanging Wall: The half of the normal fault that lies on top.
Footwall: The half of the normal fault that lies on the bottom.
Reverse Faults: Same structure as a normal fault (one on top of the other), but the blocks move in the opposite direction.
Over millions of years, fault movement can change a flat plain into a towering mountain range.
Fault-Block Mountain: When a normal fault uplifts rock into mountains. (Ex. Rockie Mountains)
Folds: Bends in the rock that form when compression shorten’s and thicken’s parts of the Earth’s crust.
Anticline: The fold in the rock that bends upwards.
Syncline: A fold in the rock the bends downwards.
Plateau: A large area of flat land elevated high above sea level.