1.

2 | EARTH PROCESSES

Geology in Civil Engineering

 WEATHERING
• The breaking down of
rocks, soil and
minerals as well as
wood and artificial
materials through
contact with earth’s
athmosphere, water
and biological
organisms.
 WEATHERING
• It occurs on site, that is in the same place,
with little or no movement, and thus
should not be confused with erosion.
 WEATHERING
Classifications:
1. Mechanical or Physical
2. Chemical
 WEATHERING
Physical weathering
• Direct contact with
atmospheric
conditions such as
heat, water, ice and
pressure.
 WEATHERING
Chemical weathering
• Direct effect of
atmospheric
chemicals or
biologically produced
chemicals (biological
weathering).
 GEOLOGICAL WORKS: RIVER
• During the life while
flowing from head to
mouth, the rivers are
capable of exerting
greatly modifying
influence over the
topography of the
region through which
they flow.
GEOLOGICAL WORKS: RIVER
Modes:
1. Erosion
2. Transport
3. Deposition
 GEOLOGICAL WORKS: RIVER
1. Erosion
• Prolonged erosion by a river produces
important surface features like potholes,
river valleys.
 GEOLOGICAL WORKS: RIVER
Erosion
a. Potholes
• Generally cylindrical
or bowl shaped
depressions
developed in softer
rocks in river bed,
resulted by
excessive erosion.
 GEOLOGICAL WORKS: RIVER
Erosion
b. River Valley
• Rivers are responsible
for the origin,
development and
modification of their
valleys through
understood process of
river erosion.
 GEOLOGICAL WORKS: RIVER
2. Transport
• Every river receives enormous amount of
material during its flow from head to mouth.
This material includes rocks and soil particles
that the river acquires by its own work of
erosion along the channel.
 GEOLOGICAL WORKS: RIVER
3. Deposition
• The process of
dropping down of its
loads by any moving
natural agent is
technically called
deposition.
 GEOLOGICAL WORKS: WIND
• Air in motion is called
wind. Wind act as
agent of erosion, as
a carrier or
transporter of
particles and grains
eroded from one
place, depositing it
to another.
GEOLOGICAL WORKS: WIND
Mode:
1. Erosion
2. Transport
3. Deposition
 GEOLOGICAL WORKS: WIND
1. Erosion
• Wind performs the
work of erosion by at
least three different
methods: deflation,
abrassion and
attrition.
 GEOLOGICAL WORKS: WIND
Erosion
a. Deflation
• Process of removal of loose particle of
dust and sand on the ground surface by
strong wind.
 GEOLOGICAL WORKS: WIND
Erosion
b. Wind Abbrasion
• Process of rubbing,
grinding and
polishing of rock
surfaces with
another.
 GEOLOGICAL WORKS: WIND
Erosion
c. Attrition
• Sand and other particles
lifted by the wind are
carried to considerable
distances. The wear and
tear of load particles due
to mutual impacts during
transport is termed as
attrition.
 GEOLOGICAL WORKS: WIND
2. Transport
• Wind is an active agent of
sediment transport in
nature. The wind transport
is carried out mainly by two
processes: suspension and
siltation.
 GEOLOGICAL WORKS: WIND
Transport
a. Suspension
• The light density clay and
silt particles may be lifted
by the wind from the
ground and are carried
high up to the upper layer
of the wind.
 GEOLOGICAL WORKS: WIND
Transport
a. Saltation
• Heavier and course
sediments such as sand
grains, pebbles and gravels
are lifted up periodically
during high velocity wind
only for short distance. They
maybe dropped and picked
up again and again during
transport process.
 GEOLOGICAL WORKS: WIND
3. Deposition
• Wherever and whenever the
velocity of windsuffers a
check from one reason or
another, a part of the wind
load is deposited in that
place. The deposits may take
the shape of landforms of
two types: dunes and loess.
 GEOLOGICAL WORKS: WIND
Deposition
a. Dunes
• A dune is normally developed
when a sand laden wind comes
across some obstruction. The
obstruction cause some check
in velocity of wind, which is
compelled to drop some load
over, against or along the
obstruction. When the process
is continued for a long time, the
accumulated sand takes the
shape of a mound or ridge.
 GEOLOGICAL WORKS: WIND
Deposition
a. Loess
• When dust laden winds
passing over steppes and
other flat surfaces are
intercepted by
precipitation, they drop
their entire load on the
surface below. The process
is repeated for years,
resulting in present loess
deposit.
 GEOLOGICAL WORKS: OCEAN
• Marine water erodes
the rocks at the
shore and elsewhere
with which it comes
in contact in a
manner broadly
similar to that of
river.
GEOLOGICAL WORKS: OCEAN
Mode:
1. Hydraulic Action
2. Marine Abrasion
3. Corrosion
 GEOLOGICAL WORKS: OCEAN
1. Hydraulic Action
• The process of erosion
by water involving
breaking, loosening
and plucking out of
loose, disjointed blocks
of rocks from their
original places by the
strong forces created
by the impact of sea
waves and currents.
 GEOLOGICAL WORKS: OCEAN
2. Marine Abrasion
• Involves rubbing and grinding action of
seawater on the rocks of the shore with the
help of sand particles and other small
fragments hurled up against these rocks.
 GEOLOGICAL WORKS: OCEAN
3. Corrosion
• Solvent action of
seawater which is
particularly strong in
environment where
the shore is of
vulnerable chemical
composition.
 EARTHQUAKE
• An earthquake is the
shaking of the
surface of the Earth
resulting from a
sudden release of
energy in the Earth’s
lithosphere that
creates seismic
waves.
 EARTHQUAKE
• The vibrations that
are set up when an
earthquake takes
place are propagated
as a number of
different types of
waves:
1. P Primary waves
2. S Secondary waves
3. L Long waves
 PROSPECTING
• Prospecting is the
first stage of
geological analysis of
a teritory. It is the
physical search for
minerals, fossils,
precious metals or
mineral specimens,
and is also known as
fossicking.
 GROUNDWATER
• Groundwater is the
largest reservoir of
liquid freshwater on
Earth and is found in
aquifers, porous rocks
and sediment with
water in between.
• To be a good aquifer,
the rocks must have a
good porosity and
permeability.
 GROUNDWATER
• To reach an aquifer, surface
water infiltrates downward
into the ground through tiny
spaces or pores in the rock.
The water travels down
through the permeable rock
until it reaches a layer that
does not have pores; this
rock is impermeable, this
layer forms the base of
aquifer. The upper surface
where water reaches is
called water table.