Taking a VERY BROAD regional view...
Earth has 2 levels
Above & below sea level
Earth has 2 types of rock
Earth has 2 processes
Construction and Destruction
Over the course of geologic time these 2 are in balance
The destructional processes are covered in The Hydrosphere
The constructional processes are called tectonics
Constructional processes
My favorite part of geology
Tectonics: the study of earth processes which result in the creation and deformation of magma and rock
Show on overhead and define all terms
Some are real flashy: get videodisc frames
Volcanoes (839, 848, 897, 899, 949, 961, 978)
Earthquakes (1912-15, 3332-38, 3354-56)
All involve stress at varying degrees of intensity (1816-17, 1832, 1868)
Obviously, there is nothing on the surface capable of causing these immense tectonic events
Therefore, major earth stress must originate inside the earth
Volcanoes, earthquakes are excellent indicators of immense stress at depth
It's also pretty obvious that these forces must act fairly slow
Remember, entire continents are moving
Try to move them too fast and the results would be amazing!
DIGRESS TO: Strickler's 2nd Law of GeoFantasy
But the effects can be seen at the surface...
Mt. St. Helens - a good (recent) example of how tectonic processes can affect the surface
Before (913)
During (918-22)
After (927)
The earth is a huge ball of magma, and it gets real hot and tight real soon with depth
In any event we will be studying these and other processes
Need to start at the beginning with a brief overview of ideas on creation