The Geological Processes Of The Earth

On planet Earth, there are many geological processes (aka earth processes) that occur. These natural geological earth processes certainly have an utmost significance and it is important that we are aware of their abilities. A few of these natural processes include plate tectonics, volcanism, earthquakes, mass-wasting, and tidal waves. These processes affect the environmental conditions around the Earth. In the history of our planet, it has been shown that these geological processes have changed the appearance of our planet into what it is present day. Earthquakes, plate tectonics, and tidal waves are three prime examples of causality and the extreme environmental impacts of these geological processes. First off, earthquakes clearly have a

“Before plate tectonics, people had to come up with explanations of the geologic features in their region that were unique to that particular region, plate tectonics unified all these descriptions and said that you should be able to describe all geologic features as though driven by the relative motion of these tectonic plates” (Oskin). Plate tectonics is a theory that Earth’s outer shell is divided into eleven plates from the interaction of rigid lithospheric plates that move slowly over the underlying mantle. The movement of the plates is slow and is often compared to the rate at which fingernails grow. These plates all glide over a hot surface in our earth, otherwise known as the core. “The driving force behind plate tectonics is convection in the mantle. Hot material near the Earth's core rises, and colder mantle rock sinks” (Oskin). The prime example of the process of plate tectonics is the idea of the once supercontinent, Pangea, and its separation into the continents of the world today. Plate tectonics have also created and caused many features on planet Earth (other than earthquakes) such as faults, volcanoes, and mountains. For example, the Himalayan Mountains, located in Japan, are a model of causality from plate tectonics. Another example would be the volcanoes located around the Ring of