Understanding External and Internal Geological Processes

External geological agents: External agents, which "destroy" the relief by wearing down the mountains and filling the lower parts of the terrestrial surface. They include: the atmosphere, wind, living organisms, and water (in all its forms: rivers, streams, rain, glaciers, oceans, etc.). External geological processes are: erosion, transportation, and sedimentation.

Physical and Chemical Processes: Changes in temperature, frost, the action of plant roots, wind, and water movements.

Sediments: These are the eroded materials that are deposited when there is no further transport occurring.

Internal Geological Processes: Earthquakes and volcanoes.

External Geological Processes: Wind, ocean tides, rivers, ice, temperature changes, atmospheric components, living beings, and groundwater.

Relationship Between Weathering and Erosion: Erosion is the wearing away of the surface by the action of external phenomena, while weathering is the breakdown and disintegration of rock by atmospheric and biological phenomena.

Types of Rocks:

• Detrital: Transformed rock sediment.
• Organic: Remnants obtained from plants.
• Limestone: Formed by the accumulation of remains of shells, skeletons, and other organic materials.

The internal geological processes include volcanism, continental drift, earthquakes, and the destruction of oceanic crust.

Effort: When the rocks of the crust are under great stress. There are two types: plastic and rigid.

• Plastic: Bends and deforms.
• Rigid: Results in failure.

Magma: Huge drops consisting of a mixture of melted minerals and gases.

Igneous Rock: The magma cools enough to solidify, forming new rocks. There are two types of igneous rocks:

• Plutonic: If the magma cools without reaching the surface, it solidifies slowly. Mineral crystals have time to grow, forming rocks that appear grainy.
• Volcanic: If there is a crack for the magma to escape, it solidifies on the surface. Minerals cool rapidly, hardly having time to crystallize, resulting in rocks with few visible crystals.

Metamorphic Rocks: Rocks that, without melting, are subjected to temperatures and/or pressures, transforming into other types of rocks. Geologists refer to these new rocks as slates, schists, and banded rocks.