Earth Materials

and Endogenic
Processes
 4 pics
One Word
M M G A A
M A G M A
MAGMA

• Is a molten and semi-molten rock

mixture found under the surface of the
Earth. This mixture is usually made up
of four parts: a hot liquid base, called
the melt; minerals crystallized by the
melt; solid rocks incorporated into the
melt from the surrounding confines;
and dissolved gases.
How Magma Forms
• Earth is divided into three general layers. The core is
the superheated center, the mantle is the thick, middle
layer, and the crust is the top layer on which we live.

• Magma originates in the lower part of the Earth’s crust

and in the upper portion of the mantle. Most of the
mantle and crust are solid, so the presence of magma
is crucial to understanding
the geology and morphology of the mantle.

• Differences in temperature, pressure, and structural

formations in the mantle and crust cause magma to
form in different ways.
Different Ways to Generate
Magma
A. Decompression melting
Decompression melting involves the upward
movement of Earth's mostly-solid mantle. This hot
material rises to an area of lower pressure through
the process of convection. Areas of lower pressure
always have a lower melting point than areas of high
pressure. This reduction in overlying pressure, or
decompression, enables the mantle rock to melt and
form magma.
• Decompression melting often occurs at divergent
boundaries, where tectonic plates separate. The rifting
movement causes the buoyant magma below to rise
and fill the space of lower pressure. The rock then
cools into new crust.

• Decompression melting also occurs at mantle plumes,

columns of hot rock that rise from Earth’s high-
pressure core to its lower-pressure crust. When located
beneath the ocean, these plumes, also known as hot
spots, push magma onto the seafloor. These volcanic
mounds can grow into volcanic islands over millions of
years of activity.
B. Transfer of Heat

• Magma can also be created when hot, liquid rock intrudes

into Earth’s cold crust. As the liquid rock solidifies, it
loses its heat to the surrounding crust. Much like hot
fudge being poured over cold ice cream, this transfer of
heat is able to melt the surrounding rock (the “ice
cream”) into magma.
• Transfer of heat often happens at convergent boundaries,
where tectonic plates are crashing together. As
the denser tectonic plate subducts, or sinks below, or the
less-dense tectonic plate, hot rock from below can
intrude into the cooler plate above. This process transfers
heat and creates magma. Over millions of years, the
magma in this subduction zone can create a series of
active volcanoes known as a volcanic arc.
C. Flux melting

• Flux melting occurs when water or carbon dioxide

are added to rock. These compounds cause the
rock to melt at lower temperatures. This creates
magma in places where it originally maintained a
solid structure.
• Much like heat transfer, flux melting also occurs
around subduction zones. In this case, water
overlying the subducting seafloor would lower the
melting temperature of the mantle, generating
magma that rises to the surface.
Magma Escape Route
• Magma leaves the confines of the upper mantle and crust in
two major ways: as an intrusion or as an extrusion. An
intrusion can form features such as dikes and xenoliths. An
extrusion could include lava and volcanic rock.
• Magma can intrude into a low-density area of another geologic
formation, such as a sedimentary rock structure. When it
cools to solid rock, this intrusion is often called a pluton. A
pluton is an intrusion of magma that wells up from below the
surface.
• Plutons can include dikes and xenoliths. A magmatic dike is
simply a large slab of magmatic material that has intruded
into another rock body. A xenolith is a piece of rock trapped in
another type of rock. Many xenoliths are crystals torn from
inside the Earth and embedded in magma while the magma
was cooling.
• The most familiar way for magma to escape,
or extrude, to Earth’s surface is through lava. Lava
eruptions can be “fire fountains” of liquid rock or
thick, slow-moving rivers of molten material. Lava
cools to form volcanic rock as well as volcanic
glass.

• Magma can also extrude into

Earth’s atmosphere as part of a violent
volcanic explosion. This magma solidifies in the air
to form volcanic rock called tephra. In the
atmosphere, tephra is more often called volcanic
ash. As it falls to Earth, tephra includes rocks such
as pumice.
Magma Chamber
• In areas where temperature, pressure, and structural
formation allow, magma can collect in magma
chambers. Most magma chambers sit far beneath the
surface of the Earth. The pool of magma in a magma
chamber is layered. The least-dense magma rises to
the top. The densest magma sinks near the bottom of
the chamber. Over millions of years, many magma
chambers simply cool to form a pluton or large
igneous intrusion.
• If a magma chamber encounters
an enormous amount of pressure, however, it
may fracture the rock around it. The cracks,
called fissures or vents, are tell-tale signs of a
volcano. Many volcanoes sit over magma chambers.
• As a volcano’s magma chamber experiences
greater pressure, often due to more magma
seeping into the chamber, the volcano may undergo
an eruption. An eruption reduces the pressure
inside the magma chamber. As long as more
magma pools into a volcano’s magma chamber,
there is the possibility of an eruption and the
volcano will remain active.
• Large eruptions can nearly empty the magma
chamber. The layers of magma may be documented
by the type of eruption material the volcano emits.
Gases, ash, and light-colored rock are emitted first,
from the least-dense, top layer of the magma
chamber. Dark, dense volcanic rock from the lower
part of the magma chamber may be released
later. In violent eruptions, the volume of magma
Types of Magma
A. Mafic magma
• Mafic magma has relatively low silica content,
roughly 50%, and higher contents in iron and
magnesium. This type of magma has a low gas
content and low viscosity, or resistance to flow.
Mafic magma also has high meantemperatures,
between 1000o and 2000o Celsius (1832o and
3632oFahrenheit), which contributes to its lower
viscosity.
• Low viscosity means that mafic magma is the most
fluid of magma types. It erupts non-explosively and
moves very quickly when it reaches Earth’s surface
as lava. This lava cools into basalt, a rock that is
heavy and dark in color due to its higher iron and
magnesium levels. Basalt is one of the most
common rocks in Earth’s crust as well as the
volcanic islands created by hot spots. The
Hawaiian Islands are a direct result of mafic
magma eruptions. Steady and relatively calm “lava
fountains” continue to change and expand the “Big
Island” of Hawaii.
B. Intermediate magma
• Intermediate magma has higher silica content (roughly
60%) than mafic magma. This results in a higher gas
content and viscosity. Its mean temperature ranges
from 800o to 1000o Celsius (1472o to
1832o Fahrenheit).
• As a result of its higher viscosity and gas content,
intermediate magma builds up pressure below the
Earth’s surface before it can be released as lava. This
more gaseous and sticky lava tends to explode
violently and cools as andesite rock. Intermediate
magma most commonly transforms into andesite due
to the transfer of heat at convergent plate boundaries.
Andesitic rocks are often found at continental volcanic
arcs, such as the Andes Mountains in South America,
after which they are named.
C. Felsic Magma
• Felsic magma has the highest silica content of all
magma types, between 65-70%. As a result, felsic
magma also has the highest gas content and viscosity,
and lowest mean temperatures, between 650o and
800o Celsius (1202o and 1472o Fahrenheit).

• Thick, viscous felsic magma can trap gas bubbles in a

volcano’s magma chamber. These trapped bubbles can
cause explosive and destructiveeruptions. These
eruptions eject lava violently into the air, which cools
into dacite and rhyolite rock. Much like intermediate
magma, felsic magma may be most commonly found at
convergent plate boundaries where transfer of heat
and flux melting create large stratovolcanoes.
Rock Deformation
Stress and Strain
If stress is not equal from all directions then we say
that the stress is a differential stress. Three kinds of
differential stress occur.
• Tensional stress (or extensional stress), which
stretches rock;
• Compressional stress, which squeezes rock; and
• Shear stress, which result in slippage and
translation.
When rocks deform they are said to strain. A strain
is a change in size, shape, or volume of a material.
We here modify that definition somewhat to say that
a strain also includes any kind of movement of the
material, including translation and tilting.
 Stages of Deformation

• When a rock is subjected to increasing

stress it passes through 3 successive
stages of deformation.
• Elastic Deformation -- wherein the
strain is reversible.

• Ductile Deformation -- wherein the

strain is irreversible.

• Fracture - irreversible strain wherein

the material breaks.
Joints
• As we learned in our discussion of physical weathering,
joints are fractures in rock that show no slippage or offset
along the fracture. Joints are usually planar features, so
their orientation can be described as a strike and dip. They
form from as a result of extensional stress acting on brittle
rock. Such stresses can be induced by cooling of rock
(volume decreases as temperature decreases) or by relief
of pressure as rock is eroded above thus removing weight.
• Joints provide pathways for water and thus pathways for
chemical weathering attack on rocks. If new minerals are
precipitated from water flowing in the joints, this will form a
vein. Many veins observed in rock are mostly either quartz
or calcite, but can contain rare minerals like gold and
silver. These aspects will be discussed in more detail when
we talk about valuable minerals from the earth in a couple
of weeks.
• Because joints provide access of water to rock,
rates of weathering and/or erosion are usually
higher along joints and this can lead to differential
erosion.
• From an engineering point of view, joints are
important structures to understand. Since they are
zones of weakness, their presence is critical when
building anything from dams to highways. For
dams, the water could leak out through the joints
leading to dam failure. For highways the joints may
separate and cause rock falls and landslides.
Faults
• Faults occur when brittle rocks
fracture and there is an offset along
the fracture. When the offset is
small, the displacement can be
easily measured, but sometimes the
displacement is so large that it is
difficult to measure.
Types of Faults

• Dip Slip Faults - Dip slip faults are faults that have
an inclined fault plane and along which the relative
displacement or offset has occurred along the dip
direction. Note that in looking at the displacement
on any fault we don't know which side actually
moved or if both sides moved, all we can determine
is the relative sense of motion.
• Reverse Faults - are faults that result from
horizontal compressional stresses in brittle rocks,
where the hanging-wall block has moved up relative
the footwall block.
• Strike Slip Faults - are faults where the relative motion
on the fault has taken place along a horizontal
direction. Such faults result from shear stresses acting
in the crust. Strike slip faults can be of two varieties,
depending on the sense of displacement. To an
observer standing on one side of the fault and looking
across the fault, if the block on the other side has
moved to the left, we say that the fault is a left-lateral
strike-slip fault. If the block on the other side has
moved to the right, we say that the fault is a right-
lateral strike-slip fault. The famous San Andreas Fault
in California is an example of a right-lateral strike-slip
fault. Displacements on the San Andreas fault are
estimated at over 600 km.
Folds
Deformation of Ductile Rocks
• When rocks deform in a ductile manner, instead of fracturing
to form faults or joints, they may bend or fold, and the
resulting structures are called folds. Folds result from
compressional stresses or shear stresses acting over
considerable time. Because the strain rate is low and/or the
temperature is high, rocks that we normally consider brittle
can behave in a ductile manner resulting in such folds.
•
• Geometry of Folds - Folds are described by their form and
orientation. The sides of a fold are called limbs. The limbs
intersect at the tightest part of the fold, called the hinge. A
line connecting all points on the hinge is called the fold axis.
An imaginary plane that includes the fold axis and divides the
fold as symmetrically as possible is called the axial plane of
the fold.
• Monoclines are the simplest types of folds.
Monoclines occur when horizontal strata are bent
upward so that the two limbs of the fold are still
horizontal
• Anticlines are folds where the originally horizontal
strata has been folded upward, and the two limbs
of the fold dip away from the hinge of the fold.
• Synclines -are folds where the originally horizontal
strata have been folded downward, and the two
limbs of the fold dip inward toward the hinge of the
fold. Synclines and anticlines usually occur
together such that the limb of a syncline is also the
limb of an anticline.
 Activity:
Jumble Letter
M F C G
A A M I
M
J N O I

T
S S E R
T S
D C T L R
F T O I I
E U D M E
A N
Answers

•MAFIC MAGMA
•JOINT
•STRESS
•DUCTILE
DEFORMATION
The End
Members:

Christian Paul Nuarin

Francisco Ocsan
Cynric Jarapa
Quinamae Biong
Rowel Cervantes