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Earth materials include minerals, rocks, soil and water. These are the naturally occurring materials found on Earth that constitute the raw materials upon which our global society exists. Earth materials are vital resources that provide the basic components for life, agriculture and industry .
The temperatures and pressures required for this process are always higher than those found at the Earth's surface: temperatures greater than 150 to 200 °C and pressures greater than 1500 bars. [18] This occurs, for example, when continental plates collide. [19]: 31–33, 134–139 Metamorphic rocks compose 27.4% of the crust by volume. [13]
Solidified lava flow in Hawaii Sedimentary layers in Badlands National Park, South Dakota Metamorphic rock, Nunavut, Canada. Geology (from Ancient Greek γῆ (gê) 'earth' and λoγία () '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]
Geology – one of the Earth sciences – is the study of the Earth, with the general exclusion of present-day life, flow within the ocean, and the atmosphere. The field of geology encompasses the composition, structure, physical properties, and history of Earth's components, and the processes by which it is shaped.
In Earth science, it is common to conceptualize the Earth's surface as consisting of several distinct layers, often referred to as spheres: the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and the biosphere, this concept of spheres is a useful tool for understanding the Earth's surface and its various processes [30] these correspond to rocks ...
Weathering and erosion break the original rock down into smaller fragments and carry away dissolved material. This fragmented material accumulates and is buried by additional material. While an individual grain of sand is still a member of the class of rock it was formed from, a rock made up of such grains fused together is sedimentary.
In the case of silicate materials, the substitution of Si 4+ by Al 3+ allows for a variety of minerals because of the need to balance charges. [56] Because the eight most common elements make up over 98% of the Earth's crust, the small quantities of the other elements that are typically present are substituted into the common rock-forming minerals.
Deposition is the geological process in which sediments, soil and rocks are added to a landform or landmass. Wind, ice, water, and gravity transport previously weathered surface material, which, at the loss of enough kinetic energy in the fluid, is deposited, building up layers of sediment.