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Physical Geology

Deepak Gautam
Engineering Geologist

Physical Geology Definition:

It is branch of geology that deals with the internal and
external agencies and processes that bring change on earth
surface
Earth Processes:
The natural processes occurred on the earth surface that
change the existing landforms are called earth processes.
For example: weathering, erosion, mass wasting,
volcanism, earthquake, glaciation, etc. These processes
effect on the development of surfaces of earth.

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Geographical Process: Weathering and Erosion

Weathering:
• A process that produces rock-wastes by mechanical
breaking or chemical decay of rocks is called
weathering. Rain and heat from sunlight are essential
weathering factors. The variation in atmospheric
temperature and biological components also play the
vital role on weathering of rock mass.
• Weathering is one of the major processes of producing
soil from rock mass.
• In the weathering process, the decayed or mechanically
broken earth materials do not move from the location
of their parent rock masses.

Types of weathering:
i. Physical weathering ( Mechanical weathering):It
is the process of disintegration of rocks into smaller
pieces without any chemical change. It brought abo
ut by physical effects of water, ice, wind and temper
ature change.
ii. Chemical weathering: It is the process of disintegr
ation of rocks into smaller pieces by chemical decay
of minerals. It brought about by chemical effects of
water and organisms.

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Factors affecting rate of weathering

a. Nature of rock

b. Type of rock

c. Climate conditions

d. Topography of area

e. Vegetation cover

f. Grain size

Erosion
• Erosion is a process in which the rock-wastes are produced
and removed due to the effects of geological agents such as
river, glacier, wind etc., and followed by transportation of
those rock materials.
• The main difference between weathering and erosion is that
in weathering, there is little or no transport of the resulting
products except by gravity, while in the erosion, the land
destruction occurs by subsequent transportation of the
resulting products by geological agents.

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Geological Agents
• The geological agents are the physical processes that
lead to erosion, transportation and deposition of the
earth materials. Or geological agents are those
phenomenon which bring about the change on earth
surface from there activities

• Main geological agents are: running water (stream,

river), wind, glacier, sea water, and groundwater.

Activities of geological agents

Geological work can be divided into three stage:
1. Erosion
2. Transportation
3. Deposition

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Deposition of Sediment
• The sediment carried away by the transporting agents
is sooner or later deposited again in a favorable
environment. For example, river deposits its load on
the floodplains while its velocity reduces. Where
glaciers melt away, the debris dumps down on their
way. Very fine sediments settle down on the bottom of
lake or sea below the still water.

Geological works of running water

Water is continuous movements from higher relief to low
relief is called running water. e.g. stream, river
River channel morphology refers to the channel pattern
and channel geometry at several points along a river
channel. It is also known as channel morphology, fluvio
morphology etc.
Type of river channels: River channel mainly divided
into three types

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a. Straight river
• Following straight
path.
• Topography of area is
characterized by high
relief. River mostly
occur in Himalayan
region
• Velocity of water is
high. Erosional rate is
higher than
depositional
• Deep scouring along
the river path is higher
than side cutting

b. Meandering river
• Follow Zig- Zag Path
• Topography of area is
characterized by moderate
relief
• Velocity of water is medium
and erosional and
depositional rate almost
equal
• Side cutting is higher in the
striking bank and
depositional of sediments
take place in depositional
bank
• This type of river mostly
occur in the midland and
lesser himalayas

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c. Braided river
• Single river path is
divided into several paths
• Topography of area is
characterized by low
gradient
• Velocity of water is low
and depositional rate of
sediments is higher than
erosional rate
• Channel shifting is
prominent
• Channel bar deposits
occur along the river path
• These type of river mostly
occur in the Terai region

Landforms Produced by River Works

• Rivers are one of the most active geological agents to
build landforms. The velocity of running water
determines the place of erosion and deposition. This
velocity varies with the size of sediments to be eroded
and deposited.
• Erosional Landforms :
1. River Valley is the route of water drain on earth surface
from higher altitude to lower. The shape and form of river
valleys is formed by the activity of running water. River
valleys are V-shaped in the mountainous region, while their
width increases on plain areas. Steep sided valleys are
generally found in young mountains where the land is still
being uplifted such as in Himalayas.

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Landforms Produced by River Works

V-shaped river valley

Steep sided river valley

Common river action on valley sides

Landforms Produced by River Works

2. Water Falls – Sometimes, the slope of river changes
abruptly along its course due to faulting or change in
bedrock from hard to soft. It can cause a sharp increase in
the river slope. These increase in slopes can lead to form
rapids and falls.

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Landforms Produced by River Works

3. Badlands – The areas with almost bare of vegetation that
are separated by complex network of small valleys are
called badlands. These areas generally consist of rugged
and harsh landscapes.

4. Pothols
These are various shaped depressions
of different dimensions that are
developed in the river bed by excessiv
e localized erosion by the streams. The
pot holes are generally cylindrical or
bowl shaped in outlinethese are comm
only formed in the softer rocks occurri
ng at critical location in the bedrock of
a stream. The formation process for
a pothole may be initiated by a simple
plucking out of a outstanding rock
projection at the river bed by hydrauli
c action.

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5. Georges and Canyons

• The process of valley

deepening often gives rise
to magnificent surface
features known as Georges
and canyons.
• Georges are very deep and
narrow valley with very
steep and high walls on
either side.
• A canyon is a specific type
of George where the layers
cut down by a river are
essentially stratified and
horizontal in attitude.

Canyons

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6. Stream/ River Terraces

• These are bench like ledges or flat surfaces that occur
on the sides of many river valley. From a distance
they may appear as successions of several steps of a
big natural staircase rising up the riverbed.

Stream/ River Terraces

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Landforms Produced by River Works

• Depositional Landforms :
1. Alluvial fan and cone – When river bed slope decreases
abruptly, all the sediments carried by river are deposited to
form a fan-shaped structure, called alluvial fan. The
alluvial fan has a gentle gradient (less than 15o). If the slope
exceeds 15o, the structure is called alluvial cone. Alluvial
fans are common features in the Himalaya.

Alluvial fans and cones

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Landforms Produced by River Works

• Depositional Landforms :
2. Floodplain – Floodplains are the areas of low relief and
relatively flat, on which sediments are deposited during the
high flooding. The areas that can be covered by high flood
are active floodplains.

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Landforms Produced by River Works

• Depositional Landforms :
3. River terrace – River terraces are relatively flat or gently
inclined land on either bank of river channel that comprise
fluvial sediments. Terraces form by deposition of sediments
in different time period or different level of erosion. In the
Himalayas, river erosion is active, so floodplains convert to
terraces after long time.

Landforms Produced by River Works

• Depositional Landforms :
4. Point bar and longitudinal bar – These are common
landforms made by river channel. These features are
temporary and generally observed on floodplain that are
composed with coarse sediments.

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Landforms Produced by River Works

• Depositional Landforms :
5. Meandering river and Ox-bow lake – When the gradient of
river decreases due to flat topography, especially in the
terai region, the bedload itself becomes obstacle to water
current. The river flows by bending inward and outward,
which is called meandering of river channel. Sometimes,
the river takes short course to leave a bent old path to form
an ox-bow like channel filled with water called ox-bow lake.

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Ox-bow or ox-bow lake

Landforms Produced by River Works

• Depositional Landforms :
6. Natural levees – Natural levees are low altitude ridges
formed along both banks of river channel produced
naturally by deposition of river. During floods, the
overflowing of the river decreases the speed of the water
and permits the deposition of fine sediments. These features
are formed due to low gradient of river, so we can observe
the natural levees in terai rivers but not in mountains.

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Landforms Produced by River Works

• Depositional Landforms :
6. Delta and bird foot structure – Delta is the deposit of fine
sediments formed where a river or stream enters to lake,
sea, or large river. The shape of this feature is triangular,
like Greek letter ‘Δ’. The river channel cannot confined
into a single channel on the delta, instead the channel
distributes forming a feature like bird foot, called bird-foot
structure.

Deltas

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Glaciers
• Glacier is a large body of continuously accumulating
ice and compacted snow, formed in mountain valleys
and on the poles.

• The mass of glacier has very high weight itself and it

moves slowly towards downslopes. Because of high
weight and abrasive nature, several landforms can be
produced due to glacial erosion.

• Glaciers can be classified as alpine, valley, and

piedmont glaciers.

Types of Glaciers
• Alpine glaciers are also called mountain glaciers. They are
located on the topmost part of mountains and tend to be
smaller than valley glaciers.
• Valley glaciers flow from ice caps or originate in high
mountain basins where snow accumulates.
• Piedmont glaciers are wide lobe-shaped ice masses that
form when one or more valley glaciers flow from a
confined valley and dispersed over the lower slopes on the
base of mountains.

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Landforms Produced by Glaciers

• Erosional Landforms:
1. Cirques – A cirque is a rounded bowl-shaped depression found at
the head of glacial valleys in which snow easily accumulates.
Generally, in most of the mountain glaciers, snow accumulates in
the cirques and change into glaciers.
2. Horn and Col – Horns are pyramidal peaks that were formed
when several cirques carved or plucked a rock mass from three or
more sides. Col is a depressed part on a mountain ridge that
forms by joining two opposite sided cirques.

Landforms Produced by Glaciers

• Erosional Landforms:
3. Arȇtes – These features are narrow sharp ridges consisting of
several peaks found in the alpine glaciers.
4. Hanging Valley – A larger glacier erodes more and makes deeper
valleys while small glacier makes shallow valleys. When the small
glacier meets the larger glacier, the base level of valley made by
small glacier does not reach as that of large. Instead, it looks
upper than the main valley, called hanging valley.

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5.Fiords:
These are highly over deepened narrow elongated valley-
like channels that have been excavated by the glacial ice
between high walled rock. It is typical of many of the
fiords that they reach the coastline below the sea level.
Due to this reason, many of the fiord become inland
extensions of the sea.

Landforms Produced by Glaciers

• Depositional Landforms:
1. Moraines – Moraines are sediments or rock fragments
deposited by glaciers. There are two major types of
moraines: Subglacial moraines, marginal moraines. The
moraine that is deposited on the surface beneath a glacier is
called Subglacial moraine, while the marginal moraines are
deposited at the edge of a glacier.

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Landforms Produced by Glaciers

• Depositional Landforms:
2. Erratic blocks – Glaciers are highly active erosion agents.
The large boulders plucked from bed rock and transported
and subsequently deposited far from the source area are
called erratic blocks.

Landforms Produced by Glaciers

• Depositional Landforms:
3. Glacio-fluvial deposits – After melting ice, streams are
initiated to drain out the melted glaciers. These streams are
called glacier-fed streams. The sediments deposited by such
streams are called glaciofluvial deposits.

4. Varves – In glaciated region, many temporary lakes form

due to accumulation of moraines and blocking of melt
water routes. Fine-grained silt and clay generally deposit in
such lakes. The deposits are called varves.

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Landforms Produced by Wind

• Wind erosion generally occurs in three forms: deflation,
abrasion, and attrition. Wind action is dominant in desert
areas.
• Deflation - Movement of sediments from the source area
by the force of wind is called deflation. In this mechanism,
small sand sized sediments are shifted with wind.

• Abrasion – It is a process of corrosion. Wind carries small

particles that hit on the surface of other rock. After a long
time, the rock is changed into other form due to abrasion.

• Attrition - It generally does not produce landform. The

size of sediment reduces due to friction on the surface.

Landforms Produced by Wind

• Erosional Landforms:
1. Ventifacts - In desert area, bedrocks and loose rock
fragments are abraded by wind. After continuous abrasion,
the surface of rock fragments is polished. The polished
surface shows the wind direction. These polished rock
fragments are called ventifacts.

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Landforms Produced by Wind

• Erosional Landforms:
2. Pedestal rock – Wind usually carries sand particles on surface.
The density of sand particles decreases rapidly upwards. If wind
hit a column of soft rock capped by hard rock, the soft rock is
abraded quickly to produce a mushroom like structure, called
pedestal rock.

Landforms Produced by wind

3. Yardangs:
Yardangs become elongated features typically three or more times longer t
han wide, and when viewed from above, resemble the hull of a boat. They
are formed in the area where rocks of harder and softer materials. The sof
t materials is eroded and removed by wind and hard materials remains.

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Landforms Produced by Wind

• Depositional Landforms:
1. Sand ripples – The sand sized particles carried by wind are
deposited where the wind speed is decreased. Ripples are
common features in sandy areas.

Landforms Produced by Wind

• Depositional Landforms:
2. Sand dunes – When the velocity of wind is abruptly reduced by
some obstacles, the carried load continuously starts to be settled
and heap up. The deposits that mainly comprises sand sized
particles are called sand dunes. There different types of sand
dunes based on morphology: barchan, parabolic dunes,
transverse dunes, and longitudinal dunes.

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Landform Produced by wind

3. Loess: It is extensive deposite of unconsolidated, unstratified
and porous sediments by wind in many area over the year

Landforms Produced by Sea

• Sea waves are the main eroding agents along the coast side. The
wave pushes seawater sometimes with fine particles and hits
the bedrocks on the seashore. The forces of water on cracks of
bedrock making wide and plucked out.
• Calcareous rocks like limestone are eroded by dissolving into
the chemically favorable seawater.
• Sea cliffs are major landforms found along seashore that are
produced by erosion.

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Landforms produced by Sea

• Marine Erosion: Marine water erodes the rocks at the shore and
else where with which it comes in contact in a manner broadly
similar to that of stream water.
The work of erosion is accomplished in three ways. Hydraulic
action, abrasion, and corrosion.
• Hydraulic Action: This is 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.
• Marine Abrasion This involves the rubbing and grinding action
of seawater on the rocks of the shore with the help of sand particles
and other small fragments that are hurdled up again these rocks.
• Corrosion: It is the solvent action of seawater which is
particularly strong in environment where the shore is of vulnerable
chemical composition.

Landforms produced by Sea

• Feature of Marine Erosion:
• Some very common features of marine erosion are headlands,
bays, sea cliff and wave-cut terraces.
• Headlands and Bays
In an originally uniform sloping shoreline composed of
materials of unequal hardness, the softer rocks get eroded
easily and quickly. Seawater enters the inland spaces so
created along the shore, These form the bays. The stronger
rocks, however, resist erosion to a great extent and stand for a
considerable time. These may get smoothened and variously
modified but still stand as projecting parts of original as
headlands.

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Landforms produced by Sea

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Landforms produced by Sea

• Sea Cliffs
• A Sea cliff is seaward facing steep front of a moderately high shoreline and
indicates the first stage of the work of waves on the shore rocks. There may
be a number of sea cliffs seen on a shore line. They are outstanding rock
projection having smoothened seaward sloping surface.
• Wave-Cut Terraces
• A wave-Cut Terrace is a shallow shelf type structure, carved out from the
shore rocks by the advancing sea waves. The waves first of all cut a notch
where they strike against the cliff rock again and again. The notch is
gradually extended backward to such a depth below the overlying rock that
the latter becomes unsupported from below. The cliff eventually falls down
along the notch. A platform or bench is thus created over which the seawater
may rush temporarily and periodically. The resulting structure is called a
wave curt terrace.

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Depositional landform
• Seas are regarded as most important and extensive sedimentation
basins, this becomes evident from the fact that marine deposits of
practically of all the geological ages. These deposits are exposed
at many places in almost all the continents all the marine deposits
are conveniently classified into two groups: Shallow water
deposits and Deep-water deposits.

• Shallow Water (Neritic Deposits)

• These include marine deposits laid down in neritic zone of the
sea, which extends from the lowest tide limit to the place of the
continent shelf where the slope becomes steeper.
• (i). Beaches: These are loose deposits made by the sea near the
shore from the materials eroded from nearby regions. The lower
margin of a beach is commonly beneath the waves whereas the
upper margin is a few meter above the still water. Waves and
currents play a greater role in formation of a beach.

• ii) Barriers and Bars: These are ridge shaped deposits of sand an
d shingle that often extends across the embayment.
• (iii) Tombola: It is the form of marine deposit that connects a head
land and an island or one island with another island.
• (iv) Spit: Stretch of sand extending from mainland out to the sea

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Spits

Bar and Barrier

Tombolo

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Landform Produced By Groundwater

• Erosional Landform:
 Karst Topography:

Any limestone, dolomite

or gypsum region
showing typical landforms
produced by the action of
groundwater through the
process of solution and
deposition is called as
Karst Topography

Landform Produced By Groundwater

Cave: Working slowly ov
er many years, groundwater
travels along small cracks.
The water dissolves and
carries away the solid rock
, gradually enlarging the
cracks. Eventually, a cave
may form.
Sink Holes: A sinkhole is
an opening more or less
circular at the top and funne
l -shaped towards the
bottom.

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Depositional Landform
They are formed when the calcium carbonates dissolved
in groundwater get deposited once the water evaporates.
These structures are commonly found in limestone caves.

Stalactites are calcium carbonate deposits hanging as

pillars while Stalagmites are calcium carbonate deposits
which rise up from the floor.
When a stalactite and stalagmite happened to join
together, it gives rise to pillars or columns of different
diameters.

Stalactite
Stalagmite

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2.4 Volcanism

A volcano is the vent through which the molten rock

materials and associated gases pass upward to the
earth’s surface from interior of earth. Volcanism
produces a conical or dome-shaped mountain called
volcanic mountain.

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Fig. Volcanism.

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Materials of volcanoes
a) Solid materials (pyroclast)
These are derived from the country rock broken by the next and pressure of the
rising, hence fragments of different size can be generated and come together
along with the volcanoes. Solidified or semi solidified clots of lave also thrown
away along with other which is called volcanic bowls. Different terminology are
used to described the solid materials ( pyroclasts) of volcano
Agglutinate
Cinders, scoria or pumice fragments that have partially welded together to from
a cohesive mass. Agglutinate forms when the individual pyroclasts retain a high
enough temperature to partially melt together (welding) because of impact with
each other. If the fragment are completely molten after impact, they may begin
to flow downhill, the processes normally called rootless flow.
Volcanic Ash
These are fragments less than 2 millimeters in diameter of lava or rock thrown
into the air by volcanic explosions.
Blocks
These are fragments of lava or rock larger than 64 millimeters in size that are
thrown into the air by volcanic explosions. Blocks are ejected during the
eruption in a solid state. Generally, blocks have an angular appearance because
of the fracturing of solid materials during the eruption.

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Bombs
Fragments of fluid or partially fluid lava or rock larger than 64 millimeters in size
that are thrown into the air by volcanic explosions are called volcanic bombs.
Bombs are ejected during the eruption is a semi-solid, or partial molten condition,
while blocks are ejected during the eruption in a solid state. The bombs are
ejected during the eruption in a semi-solid, or partial molten condition.

Cinders
Cinders are vesicular lava fragments that are 1 centimeter or larger in diameter.

Lapilli
These are fragments of lava or rocks fragments between 2 and 64 millimeters in
size that are thrown into the air by volcanic explosions

Tephra
These are solid materials of all sizes explosively ejected from a volcano into the
atmosphere. However, it is common to find various terms to describe of different
sizes. Fragment volcanic products less than 2 mm in diameter are called ash,
between 2 and 64 mm is diameter are called lapilli, fragments larger than 64 mm
are called blocked if they erupted in a solid state.

Reticulite
During the exceptionally high explosive episodes of eruption, an extremely
vesicular, feathery light pumice, called reticulite or thread –lace scoria, can form.
They can be carried many miles downwind from the high lava fountains. 59
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Deepak Gautam, Engineering Geologist

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Even though reticulite is the least dense kind of tephra , it does not float on
water, because its vesicles are open and interconnected. Therefore , if it falls
on water, it becomes waterlogged and sinks easily .

Pumice
Pumice is a light –colored, vesicular volcanic rocks, generally of intermediate
and felsie composition, formed by the expansion of gas in eruption lava.
These are commonly perceived as lumps or fragments in the size of pea or
larger but can also occur abundantly as ash-size particles. Because of its
numerous gas bubbles, pumice is light and commonly floats on water .
Scoria
Scoria is a dark to reddish-colored, vesicular rock, usually of mafic composition.
Scoria forms when blobs of gas-charged lava are thrown into the air during an
eruption and cool in flight, falling as dark volcanic rock containing cavities
created by trapped gas bubbles .
b) Liquid material ( The Lava)
Most of the gases portion escaped early before the crystallization and
therefore they may show vesicular structures. Temperature of lava during
eruption is 900 to 1200 C . Lava may also be acidic, medium and basic. Acidic
lavas have high melting point, they cool very slowly. Basic lavas have high
density and melt at lower temperature. When we talks about the liquid
materials
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of volcano, it can be divided into different types based on 61
composition, structure and origin mode.
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c) Gases
These are the materials of volcano which are first to reach the
surface and acquire a great heights over a volcano. If we look at
the composition, most gas is steam. Other major gases include
CO2, N2 and H2, CO,SO2. volcanic gases are also produced when
water is heated by magma . Gases can escape from pyroclastic
flows, lahars, and lava flows, and sometimes may also be
produced from burning vegetation. It is reported that harmful
concentrations of volcanic gases usually do not extend further
than 10 km from the volcano (Scott, 1989) To track volcanic
gases such as SO2, remote sensing instruments have been used .
Others instruments are also being used to measure amounts
and types of volcanic cases . Currently many researches are
focused on how volcanic gases my contribute to changes in
climate.

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Types of volcanoes
Geologists have classified volcanoes into five different types.
This classification is based on geomorphic form, chemistry
of magma and the explosiveness of the eruption. The vari
ous types include : basalt plateau volcanoes, shield volcan
oes, cinder cones, explosive calderas and composite volca
noes.
Based on continuity of eruption, can be classified as three t
ypes :
i. Active: hot material is presently being thrown out
ii. Dormant: There is possibility of its eruption in future.
iii. Dead or Extinct : Through which these have been no erup
tion

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On this basis nature of eruption

i. Quite: The lava erupts quietly without any explosion.
ii. Intermediate: The volcanoes erupt intermediate.
iii. Violent: The volcano erupts explosively.
On the basis of Mode of eruption
i. Central type: These are also referred as cone and crat
er type eruption.
ii. Fissure type: these from another major group of erup
tion in which there is neither a cone nor a crater.

Effect of Volcanoes
• Causes a lot of destruction
• Primary effect is lava flow, ash flow, lateral blasts or ash falls
• Secondary effect is mud flows, floods, and fires
• Lava flow block roads by piling up
• Volcanic ash and lava flow destruct vegetation including crops and trees
• Water may be contaminated by volcanic dust and increase acidity in water
• Buildings may be damaged due to increased loads in roofs
• Mudflow are produces when the volcanic ash becomes saturated with rain
• Volcanic activity also creates a small-scale earthquake
• Intense explosion put large quantities of volcanic dust high into the
atmosphere and it may take a long time to settle
• The mist of sulphuric acid droplets in the atmosphere scatter the
sunlight and may cause cooling of temperature
• Impact of SO will have effect on ozone layer depletion.
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Assignments
1. Discuss on role of the river activities in land surface
modification.
2. Describe the different types of land forms produced by
wind and glacier
3. Write short notes on:
a) Types of river channel
b) Volcano

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