The Elements of Geology by William Harmon Norton (the beginning after the end novel read TXT) 📖

worn and rounded. They are sorted also, those of each layer being about of a size. By some means they have been brought hither from some more ancient source. Surely these grains have had a history before they here found a resting place,—a history which we are to learn to read.

The successive layers of the rock suggest that they were built one after another from the bottom upward. We may be as sure that each layer was formed before those above it as that the bottom courses of stone in a wall were laid before the courses which rest upon them.

We have no reason to believe that the lowest layers which we see here were the earliest ever formed. Indeed, some deep boring in the vicinity may prove that the ledges rest upon other layers of rock which extend downward for many hundreds of feet below the valley floor. Nor may we conclude that the highest layers here were the latest ever laid; for elsewhere we may find still later layers lying upon them.

A short search may find in the rock relics of animals, such as the imprints of shells, which lived when it was deposited; and as these are of kinds whose nearest living relatives now have their home in the sea, we infer that it was on the flat sea floor that the sandstone was laid. Its present position hundreds of feet above sea level proves that it has since emerged to form part of the land; while the flatness of the beds shows that the movement was so uniform and gentle as not to break or strongly bend them from their original attitude.

The surface of some of these layers is ripple-marked. Hence the sand must once have been as loose as that of shallow sea bottoms and sea beaches to-day, which is thrown into similar ripples by movements of the water. In some way the grains have since become cemented into firm rock.

Note that the layers on one side of the valley agree with those on the other, each matching the one opposite at the same level. Once they were continuous across the valley. Where the valley now is was once a continuous upland built of horizontal layers; the layers now show their edges, or OUTCROP, on the valley sides because they have been cut by the valley trench.

The rock of the ledges is crumbling away. At the foot of each step of rock lie fragments which have fallen. Thus the valley is slowly widening. It has been narrower in the past; it will be wider in the future.

Through the valley runs a stream. The waters of rains which have fallen on the upper parts of the stream's basin are now on their way to the river and the sea. Rock fragments and grains of sand creeping down the valley slopes come within reach of the stream and are washed along by the running water. Here and there they lodge for a time in banks of sand and gravel, but sooner or later they are taken up again and carried on. The grains of sand which were brought from some ancient source to form these rocks are on their way to some new goal. As they are washed along the rocky bed of the stream they slowly rasp and wear it deeper. The valley will be deeper in the future; it has been less deep in the past.

In this little valley we see slow changes now in progress. We find also in the composition, the structure, and the attitude of the rocks, and the land forms to which they have been sculptured, the record of a long succession of past changes involving the origin of sand grains and their gathering and deposit upon the bottom of some ancient sea, the cementation of their layers into solid rock, the uplift of the rocks to form a land surface, and, last of all, the carving of a valley in the upland. Everywhere, in the fields, along the river, among the mountains, by the seashore, and in the desert, we may discover slow changes now in progress and the record of similar changes in the past. Everywhere we may catch glimpses of a process of gradual change, which stretches backward into the past and forward into the future, by which the forms and structures of the face of the earth are continually built and continually destroyed. The science which deals with this long process is geology. Geology treats of the natural changes now taking place upon the earth and within it, the agencies which produce them, and the land forms and rock structures which result. It studies the changes of the present in order to be able to read the history of the earth's changes in the past.

The various agencies which have fashioned the face of the earth may. be divided into two general classes. In Part I we shall consider those which work upon the earth from without, such as the weather, running water, glaciers, the wind, and the sea. In Part II we shall treat of those agencies whose sources are within the earth, and among whose manifestations are volcanoes and earthquakes and the various movements of the earth's crust. As we study each agency we shall notice not only how it does its work, but also the records which it leaves in the rock structures and the land forms which it produces. With this preparation we shall be able in Part III to read in the records of the rocks the history of our planet and the successive forms of life which have dwelt upon it.

PART I EXTERNAL GEOLOGICAL AGENCIES CHAPTER I THE WORK OF THE WEATHER

In our excursion to the valley with sandstone ledges we witnessed a process which is going forward in all lands. Everywhere the rocks are crumbling away; their fragments are creeping down hillsides to the stream ways and are carried by the streams to the sea, where they are rebuilt into rocky layers. When again the rocks are lifted to form land the process will begin anew; again they will crumble and creep down slopes and be washed by streams to the sea. Let us begin our study of this long cycle of change at the point where rocks disintegrate and decay under the action of the weather. In studying now a few outcrops and quarries we shall learn a little of some common rocks and how they weather away.

STRATIFICATION AND JOINTING. At the sandstone ledges we saw that the rock was divided into parallel layers. The thicker layers are known as STRATA, and the thin leaves into which each stratum may sometimes be split are termed LAMINAE. To a greater or less degree these layers differ from each other in fineness of grain, showing that the material has been sorted. The planes which divide them are called BEDDING PLANES.

Besides the bedding planes there are other division planes, which cut across the strata from top to bottom. These are found in all rocks and are known as joints. Two sets of joints, running at about right angles to each other, together with the bedding planes, divide the sandstone into quadrangular blocks.

SANDSTONE. Examining a piece of sandstone we find it composed of grains quite like those of river sand or of sea beaches. Most of the grains are of a clear glassy mineral called quartz. These quartz grains are very hard and will scratch the steel of a knife blade. They are not affected by acid, and their broken surfaces are irregular like those of broken glass.

The grains of sandstone are held together by some cement. This may be calcareous, consisting of soluble carbonate of lime. In brown sandstones the cement is commonly ferruginous,—hydrated iron oxide, or iron rust, forming the bond, somewhat as in the case of iron nails which have rusted together. The strongest and most lasting cement is siliceous, and sand rocks whose grains are closely cemented by silica, the chemical substance of which quartz is made, are known as quartzites.

We are now prepared to understand how sandstone is affected by the action of the weather. On ledges where the rock is exposed to view its surface is more or less discolored and the grains are loose and may be rubbed off with the finger. On gentle slopes the rock is covered with a soil composed of sand, which evidently is crumbled sandstone, and dark carbonaceous matter derived from the decay of vegetation. Clearly it is by the dissolving of the cement that the rock thus breaks down to loose sand. A piece of sandstone with calcareous cement, or a bit of old mortar, which is really an artificial stone also made of sand cemented by lime, may be treated in a test tube with hydrochloric acid to illustrate the process.

A LIMESTONE QUARRY. Here also we find the rock stratified and jointed (Fig. 2). On the quarry face the rock is distinctly seen to be altered for some distance from its upper surface. Below the altered zone the rock is sound and is quarried for building; but the altered upper layers are too soft and broken to be used for this purpose. If the limestone is laminated, the laminae here have split apart, although below they hold fast together. Near the surface the stone has become rotten and crumbles at the touch, while on the top it has completely broken down to a thin layer of limestone meal, on which rests a fine reddish clay.

Limestone is made of minute grains of carbonate of lime all firmly held together by a calcareous cement. A piece of the stone placed in a test tube with hydrochloric acid dissolves with brisk effervescence, leaving the insoluble impurities, which were disseminated through it, at the bottom of the tube as a little clay.

We can now understand the changes in the upper layers of the quarry. At the surface of the rock the limestone has completely dissolved, leaving the insoluble residue as a layer of reddish clay. Immediately below the clay the rock has disintegrated into meal where the cement between the limestone grains has been removed, while beneath this the laminae are split apart where the cement has been dissolved only along the planes of lamination where the stone is more porous. As these changes in the rock are greatest at the surface and diminish downward, we infer that they have been caused by agents working downward from the surface.

At certain points these agencies have been more effective than elsewhere. The upper rock surface is pitted. Joints are widened as they approach the surface, and along these seams we may find that the rock is altered even down to the quarry floor.

A SHALE PIT. Let us now visit some pit where shale—a laminated and somewhat hardened clay—is quarried for the manufacture of brick. The laminae of this fine-grained rock may be as thin as cardboard in places, and close joints may break the rock into small rhombic blocks. On the upper surface we note that the shale has weathered to a clayey soil in which all traces of structure have been destroyed. The clay and the upper layers of the shale beneath it are reddish or yellow, while in many cases the color of the unaltered rock beneath is blue.

THE SEDIMENTARY ROCKS. The three kinds of layered rocks whose acquaintance we have made—sandstone, limestone, and shale—are the leading types of the great group of stratified, or sedimentary, rocks. This group includes all rocks made of sediments, their materials having settled either in water upon the bottoms of rivers, lakes, or seas, or on dry land, as in the case of deposits made by the wind and by glaciers. Sedimentary rocks are divided into the fragmental rocks—which are made of fragments, either coarse or fine—and the far less common rocks which are constituted of chemical precipitates.

The sedimentary rocks are divided according to their composition into the following classes:

1. The arenaceous, or quartz rocks, including beds of loose sand and gravel, sandstone, quartzite, and conglomerate (a rock made of cemented rounded gravel or pebbles).

2. The calcareous, or lime rocks, including limestone and a soft white rock formed of calcareous powder known as chalk.

3. The argillaceous, or clay rocks, including muds, clays, and shales. These three classes pass by mixture into one another. Thus there are limy and clayey sandstones, sandy and clayey limestones, and sandy and limy shales.

GRANITE. This familiar rock may be studied as an example of the second great group of rocks,—the unstratified, or igneous rocks. These are not made of cemented sedimentary grains, but of interlocking crystals which have crystallized from a molten mass. Examining a piece of granite, the most conspicuous crystals which meet the eye are those of feldspar. They are commonly pink, white, or yellow, and break along smooth cleavage planes which reflect the light like