Learning Module

Quarter 2
in Week 1 & 2

STEM 11

INSTRUCTIONS: Do all your activities in this module. You may use the space provided for your
answer. When submitting your module, kindly place it in a long plastic envelop with your name.

This module is prepared by:

Name: Ms. Antonette C. Albina
Contact Number: 09366957087
Email Address: tonyangalbina@gmail.com

Learner’s Name: _____________________________

Contact Number: _____________________________
Email Address: ______________________________

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 Earth Science
What you are expected to learn:
 Describe how rocks undergo weathering.
 Explain why the Earth’s interior is hot.
 Describe what happens after magma is formed.
 Describe how rocks behave under different types of stress such as compression, pulling
apart and shearing.
 Describe the structure and evolution of ocean basins.

Below are guidelines for you in going about the module:

1. Read and follow instructions very carefully.

2. Read each lesson and do the activities that are provided for you.
3. Perform all the activities diligently to help you understand the topic.
4. Answer the assessment after each lesson to determine how much you understand the topic.
5. Answer the critical thinking to measure how much you have gained from the lessons.

Good luck and have fun!

UNIT 2: Earth’s Processes and History

Introduction:
Earth is continuously affected by forces that cause changes within Earth called endogenous
processes and above the surface called exogenous processes. These processes affect and are
affected by the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere and have driven rock and mineral
formation, geomorphological processes, volcanism, plate movement, tectonic and seismic
movement on Earth for thousands of years. This unit provides in-depth discussions of these
processes that have shaped and will continue to shape Earth.

Discussion:
Geomorphology is the study of the nature and origin of landforms, particularly of the
formative processes of weathering and erosion that occur in the atmosphere and hydrosphere.
These processes continually shape the Earth’s surface, and generate the sediments that circulate in
the Rock Cycle. Landforms are the result of the interactions among the geosphere, atmosphere and
hydrosphere.

Exogenic processes are interconnected with the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere
and includes the processes of weathering, erosion, transportation, and deposition. Its primary
source is the energy coming from the Sun which drives the weather. While the heat produced inside
the Earth which drives endogenic processes is enormous, it is much less powerful than the energy
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Earth receives from the sun. Earth’s internal heat forms the mountains while the sun’s energy,
which is responsible for exogenic processes, slowly and steadily tears the landforms down.

Weathering
Weathering is the alteration and breakdown of rock minerals and rock masses when they
are exposed to the atmosphere. Weathering processes occur in situ, that is, in the same place, with
no major movement of rock materials involved.
Weathering is a fundamental Earth process. Weathering changes rocks from a hard state, to
become much softer and weaker, making them more easily eroded.

Weathering Processes
Two main groups of weathering processes are identified, with a third supporting group:
Physical weathering: the group of processes, such as frost wedging and volume changes of
minerals, that result in the mechanical disruption of rocks (e.g. granular disintegration,
exfoliation, joint block separation, shattering by changes in temperature or pressure).
Chemical weathering: the decay of rock forming minerals caused by water, temperature,
oxygen, hydrogen and mild acids (e.g. solution, hydration, oxidation, carbonation).
Biological weathering: the group of processes that are caused by, or assisted by, the presence
of vegetation, or to a lesser extent animal, including root wedging and the production of
organic acids.
The type of weathering processes that occur at any particular location depend predominantly upon
the climate:
Physical weathering: mechanical processes dominate in cold and dry climates.
Chemical weathering: processes of mineral decay dominate in warm and humid climates.
Biological weathering: vegetation, and animals, tend to be more active in warm and humid
climates.

Most of the time, physical and chemical weathering occurs simultaneously in disintegrating the
rocks to form sediments. However, rock types do not weather at the same rate when exposed to the
surface. Soft rocks like shale weather faster than hard rocks like sandstone. This creates
indentations in rock slopes composed of alternating soft and hard rock layers.
Weathering is an important process in the formation of soil. The products of weathering along
with organic matter form the soils that host primary producers that sustain life on Earth.

Erosion
Erosion is the separation and removal of weathered and unweathered rocks and soil form its
substrate due to gravity or transporting agents like wind, ice, or water. It involves abrasion,
plucking, scouring, and dissolution. Transport is the process by which sediments are moved along
from the source to where they are deposited.

Wind erosion commonly occurs in flat, bare areas or dry, sandy, and loose soils. It detaches
soil particles and transports them by wind. Sandstorms are common phenomenon in deserts that
transports lots of sediments for hundreds of kilometers. Wind erosion damages the land and
natural vegetation by removing soil from one place and depositing it in another area such as
farmland or built-up area. It results to soil loss, dryness, and deterioration of soil structure, soil
nutrient and productivity losses, and air pollution.
Wind erosion and transport is a serious environmental problem in the driest parts of the
world, removing soil from farmland and covering whole towns with sand and dust.
A strong breeze (wind speed 20 km/h) can easily pick up dry dust and fine sand. The lightest
particles are swirled up into the air and carried in suspension for hundreds of kilometres, whilst
sand grains bounce along the surface by saltation. Small pebbles can be moved along with the sand,
a process called creep.

A glacier is a river of ice formed from compacted snow. They are most common in the Polar regions
(e.g.Antarctica) and in mountain regions like the Alps and Himalayas. Glaciers move slowly down
valleys (at speeds up to a few metres per day), but have enormous erosive power. Glaciers erode
the surface of the Earth in two ways:

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Plucking
Melt water at the base of the glacier enters cracks in the bedrock and
re-freezes, causing the rock to break apart.
As the glacier continues to move the broken rock gets stuck in the ice
and carried away.

Abrasion
As the glacier moves downhill, rock fragments embedded in the ice at
the base of the glacier scrape and grind against rock beneath the ice.
Glaciers erode rapidly downward, forming deep, U-shaped valleys.

By Water
Around the world, moving water picks up and transports millions of
tons of sediment every day, along rivers, coasts, and even in the deep
oceans.
Sediment, whether picked up by flowing water or by waves, is moved
along in one of four ways:
1. Traction is the rolling or dragging of large grains along a river
bed or shore, aided by the push of the smaller grains (below).
2. Saltation is the bouncing of sand grains as they are picked up, carried along, and dropped
repeatedly by flowing water. 
3. Fine particles (silt and clay) are carried in Suspension in the water – they will only settle out
if the water is still. 
4. Soluble salts are carried in Solution in the water – the sea is obviously salty, but rivers
contain dissolved salts, too.
The bed load of a river (pebbles and sand grains) helps to erode the river bed and banks by abrasion,
especially when the river is in flood. In a similar way, waves cause cliffs to erode especially during storms. As
the pebbles and sand grind away the river bed or sea shore, they also become smaller and more rounded, a
process called attrition.

By Gravity
Mass–wasting is the down-slope movement of loose rock and soil due to gravity. Whilst processes
such as soil creep are very slow, landslides can be very sudden, and may cause loss of life.
Mass-wasting is often aided by water, so landslides and mudflows frequently occur after heavy rain.
Soil Creep is slow – a few cm per year. Fences & walls lean over but trees bend as they grow.
Grassland develops terracettes.
Rock falls, like this one at Beachy Head, may occur without warning after heavy rain.
Landslide or less frequently, landslip, refers to several forms of mass wasting that may
include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures,
mudflows, and debris flows.
Mudflows take place after heavy rain has weakened soft clay or mudstone. Mudflows of
volcanic ash are called Lahars.

Deposition 
Deposition is the laying down of sediment carried by wind, water, or ice. Sediment can be
transported as pebbles, sand & mud, or as salts dissolved in water. Salts may later be deposited by
organic activity (e.g. as sea-shells) or by evaporation.
The sediments produced by weathering, which were separated by erosion and transport by
different agents, will eventually settle down in a particular place given the right conditions.
Depositions is the process in which sediments settle out of the transporting medium. When glacier
melts, the rocks are deposited on the ground. When the velocity of water or wind decreases, grains
of particles size are also deposited.

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 For Exogenic Processes

Compare and contrast

1. Mechanical and Chemical Weathering

2. Wind and water erosion

3. River and beach environment

4. Research the different weathering control.

5. List the products of weathering

Essay:
1. What is weathering and why is it important.

2. How do rocks and soil move downslope?

3. Where do sediments go?

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Endogenic Processes
Endogenic processes in geology are a function of a body’s internal geodynamic activity. They
comprise volcanic, tectonic, and isostatic processes, which shaped the surfaces of all terrestrial
planets, the Moon, and basically all other Solar System bodies with solid surfaces that have been
observed in some detail. The most recent spacecraft observations have confirmed this notion, and
revealed past or present endogenic activity even on bodies where this was not previously expected.
The study of endogenic processes and their resulting landforms and landscapes puts important
constraints on the internal evolution and the surface history of a geologic body.

Diatrophism
Diastrophism refers to deformation of the Earth’s crust due to diastrophic movements
(deforming movements) such as folding, faulting, warping (bending or twisting of a large
area) and fracturing.
All processes that move, elevate or build up portions of the earth’s crust come under
diastrophism. They include:
orogenic processes involving mountain building through severe folding (crust is severely
deformed into folds) and affecting long and narrow belts of the earth’s crust;
epeirogenic processes involving uplift or warping of large parts of the earth’s crust (simple
deformation);
earthquakes and volcanism involving local relatively minor movements;
plate tectonics involving horizontal movements of crustal plates.
The most obvious evidence of diastrophic movement can be seen where sedimentary rocks
have been bent, broken or tilted.
Three Main Types of Volcanoes
 stratovolcano (or composite volcano) — a conical volcano consisting of layers of solid lava
flows mixed with layers of other rock.
 cinder cone volcano — doesn’t have any horizontal layers, and is instead a steep conical hill
of tephra (volcanic debris) that accumulates around and downwind from the vent.
 shield volcano —  a type of volcano built entirely or mostly from fluid lava vents. They are
named like this because when viewed from above, you can see just how massive and
imposing they are – like a warrior’s shield.

Sudden Movements
Sudden geomorphic movements occur mostly at the lithospheric plate margins (tectonic
plate margins).
The plate margins are highly unstable regions due to pressure created by pushing and
pulling of magma in the mantle (convectional currents).
These movements cause considerable deformation over a short period.

Deformation is any process that affects the shape, size, or volume of an area of the Earth's crust. The
type of deformation that occurs depends on the type of stress and the type of rock present in the
area of the Earth's crust that you are observing.

How Deformation Works

Rocks aren't stressed out in the same way a college student is stressed out, but they are constantly
under pressure that causes them to change their shape over time. Stress is defined as a force
applied over an area. If stress is applied uniformly, it is called confining stress and the rock or
Earth's crust does not change shape. When the force is not applied equally in all
directions differential stress occurs. There are three types of differential stress to which rocks can
be subjected:
 Compressional stresses cause a rock to shorten. 
 Tensional stresses cause a rock to elongate, or pull apart. 
 Shear stresses causes rocks to slip past each other.

For Endogenic Processes

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Critical Thinking
1. How is magma formed?

2. What are the differences between intensity and magnetism?

3. How do rocks behave under different types of stress?

4. Why is Earth’s interior hot?

5. Why do earthquakes occur?

Plate Tectonics
Plate tectonics is the theory that Earth's outer shell is divided into several plates that glide
over the mantle, the rocky inner layer above the core. The plates act like a hard and rigid shell
compared to Earth's mantle. This strong outer layer is called the lithosphere, which is 100 km (60
miles) thick. The lithosphere includes the crust and outer part of the mantle. Below the lithosphere
is the asthenosphere, which is malleable or partially malleable, allowing the lithosphere to move
around. How it moves around is an evolving idea.

How many plates are there?

There are nine major plates, according to World Atlas. These plates are named after the
landforms found on them. The nine major plates are North American, Pacific, Eurasian, African,
Indo-Australian, Australian, Indian, South American and Antarctic. 
The largest plate is the Pacific Plate at 39,768,522 square miles (103,000,000 square
kilometers). Most of it is located under the ocean. It is moving northwest at a speed of around 2.75
inches (7 cm) per year.
There are also many smaller plates throughout the world. 

How plate tectonics work?

The driving force behind plate tectonics is convection in the mantle. Hot material near the Earth's
core rises, and colder mantle rock sinks. "It's kind of like a pot boiling on a stove," Van der Elst said.
The convection drive plates tectonics through a combination of pushing and spreading apart at mid-
ocean ridges and pulling and sinking downward at subduction zones, researchers think. Scientists
continue to study and debate the mechanisms that move the plates.
Continental drift was a theory that explained how continents shift position on Earth's surface. Set
forth in 1912 by Alfred Wegener, a geophysicist and meteorologist, continental drift also explained

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why look-alike animal and plant fossils, and similar rock formations, are found on different
continents. 

Seafloor
spreading, theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones, known collectively as
the mid-ocean ridge system, and spreads out laterally away from them. This idea played a pivotal
role in the development of the theory of plate tectonics, which revolutionized geologic thought

during the last quarter of the 20th century.

For Plate Tectonics
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True or False: Write T if the statement is true and F if it is false. Write the answer on the space
provided before the number.
_____1. The Philippine Sea Plate is a major plate.
_____2. Seafloor spreading occurs at converging plate boundaries.
_____3. The mid-Atlantic ridge is a fast-spreading center with a rate of 10 km per year.
_____4. Subduction destroys old oceanic crust.
_____5. The tectonic plates are no longer moving.
_____6. New materials are formed along the mid-oceanic ridge.
_____7. The breakup of Pangea started 180 million years ago.
_____8. Wilson cycle refers to the sequence of events leading to the formation, expansion,
contraction, and eventual elimination of ocean basins.

Critical Thinking
1. What would be the consequences if Earth did not divide into different layers?

2. What would be the consequences if all plate tectonics suddenly stopped?

3. How does the evolution of the ocean basins affect the hydrologic cycle?

Love of Lab
This Love of Lab will serve as your performance task. In doing this activity, take a
picture of your final output and send it thru my gmail. Thank you.
Name:

________________________________________ Date Performed: _________________

Section: ______________________________________ Date Submitted: _________________

Fault Block Models

Make a miniature model of these main types of fault motion. There should be five blocks that will
show the different kinds of faults.
You may search on youtube on how to do your model.

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 This Love of Lab will serve as your performance task. In doing this activity, kindly
Love of Lab take a video of yourself while doing the said activity for evidence and grading
purposes. Send your video in my gmail. Thank you.

Name:
________________________________________ Date Performed: _________________
Section: ______________________________________ Date Submitted: _________________

Mentos and Cola Eruptions

Objectives: Learn about a gas-driven eruption through a Mentos-cola demonstration.

Materials:
one roll of Mentos
1.5-L or 2-L bottle of cola or soft drinks

Procedure
1. Unwrap one roll of Mentos candies. Stack the candies in a rolled-up piece of paper.
2. Cover one end of the stack with another piece of paper and place it directly on top of the open 2 L bottle of
cola or soft drinks.
3. Quickly remove the paper at the bottom of the stack of Mentos to allow the candies to drop into the bottle.
Stand back and watch the eruption as it will propel liquid out of the bottle.

Guide Questions
1. Is the eruption a result of an acid-base reaction, like the vinegar and baking soda eruption?

2. What is inside Mentos and Cola that is reacts with each other causing the eruption?

3. What can be done to in order to make the eruption stronger and higher?

Conclusion:

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