Exogenic and Endogenic Processes

• Exogenic processes occur outside the Earth and change its features.
• Endogenic processes occur inside the Earth and form its features.

Exogenic Processes

• Weathering breaks down rocks without movement, influenced by temperature, wind, water, and human activities.
• Erosion involves the transportation and movement of worn Earth materials, affected by wind, water, and glaciers.
• Mass wasting is the downslope movement of Earth materials due to gravity, influenced by water, gravity, slope, and human activities.

Weathering Types

• Physical weathering changes the physical composition of rocks.
• Frost-wedging is caused by water expansion.
• Thermal stress is caused by heat-induced contraction and expansion.
• Hydration is a type of physical weathering.
• Salt crystallization occurs when salt gets into cracks and evaporates.
• Chemical weathering involves chemical reactions with rainwater to form new minerals like rust.
• Biological weathering is caused by living organisms, such as plants growing inside rocks.

Endogenic Processes

• Magmatism involves the generation, accumulation, and transfer of magma within the Earth's interior; occurs in the mantle and lower crust due to pressure changes, volatile content, and temperature.
• Volcanism is the release or eruption of molten rock onto the planet's surface, creating new landmass and enriching soil; occurs through volcanoes and within plate interiors/hotspots due to pressure buildup in magma chambers.
• Metamorphism changes rocks due to heat, pressure, and chemical conditions, creating new rocks with similar compositions as parent rocks; influenced by pressure, temperature, and fluid phase.
• Dynamic metamorphism occurs at lower temperatures.
• Contact metamorphism occurs at higher temperatures.
• Regional metamorphism forms mountains and involves partial melting of rock.
• Diastrophism changes the Earth's crust, causing thickening of the lithosphere.

Volcanism

• Eruption is when hot magma rises through the crust and emerges at the surface.
• Eruptions can be violent (explosive) or quiet (abusive).

Volcanic Hazards

• Lava flow is the slow movement of molten rock.
• Ashfall consists of showers of coarse-grained volcanic particles, dependent on wind.
• Pyroclastic current is a mass of fragmented volcanic materials mixed with hot gasses, characterized by high temperature, velocity, destructive potential, and mobility.
• Lahars are a rapid flow of pyroclastic material mixed with flooding.
• Volcanic gases released into the atmosphere include water and sulfur dioxide.
• Volcanic landslides are the collapse of a volcano due to slope instability.
• Ballistic projectiles are materials ejected from the vent with force and trajectory.
• Tsunamis are sea waves generated by sudden displacement of water, often triggered by underwater eruptions.

Earthquake and Volcano Generation

• Older oceanic lithosphere is destroyed at subduction zones to make way for new materials.
• Chemical reactions in the descending plate release water.
• Rocks partially melt due to increasing temperature, decreasing pressure, and the addition of water.

Plate Boundaries

• Plate boundaries are a consequence of plate tectonics.
• Divergent boundaries involve plates moving away from each other.
• Convergent boundaries involve plates moving together.
• Transform boundaries involve plates sliding past each other.

Geological Stress

• Geological stress is the force that acts on rocks.
• Compression involves rocks pushing against each other.
• Tension involves rocks being pulled away from each other.
• Shear involves horizontal sliding.
• Folds are wavelike plastic deformations in rock layers caused by horizontal compression.
• A monocline is a fold with a single bend (up then down).
• An anticline is an upfold.
• A syncline is a downfold.
• Faults are breaks in rock layers.
• In a normal fault, the hanging wall moves up relative to the footwall.
• In a reverse fault, the hanging wall moves down relative to the footwall.
• In a strike-slip fault, rocks slide past each other horizontally.

Erosion and Deposition of Meandering Rivers

• Mender formation is caused by initial bends in rivers, velocity variation, erosion, and deposition.

Erosion Processes

• Erosion occurs on the outside bend (cut bank) due to faster-moving water.
• Undercutting leads to collapse and erosion.
• The fast moving water has hydralic action, abrasion, and solution.

Deposition Processes

• Deposition occurs on the inside bend (point bar) due to slower-moving water.

• Sediment transport occurs downstream where water velocity decreases.

• Chemical reactions in water lower the temperature necessary to melt materials.