Endogenic Forces

Basics

• The interaction of matter and temperature generates these forces or movements inside the earth’s crust.
• These internal forces lead to vertical and horizontal movements and result in subsidence, land upliftment, volcanism, faulting, folding, earthquakes, etc.
• The energy emanating from within the earth is the main force behind endogenic geomorphic processes.
• This energy is mostly generated by radioactivity, rotational and tidal friction and primordial heat from the origin of the earth.

Classification of  Endogenic Forces 

• Diastrophism
  • Diastrophic forces can be defined as the pressure that is created due to the motion of the solid material on the earth’s surface.
  • Diastrophism is the general term applied to slow bending, folding, warping, and fracturing
  • They include:
    • Orogenic Processes
      • It involve Horizontal Movements
      • Orogenic processes involve mountain building through severe folding and affects long and narrow belts of the earth’s crust.
      • In the process of orogeny, the crust is severely deformed into folds.
      • Main forces acting are tension and compression that create fissures and folds respectively.
      • Fold mountains like Andes are created through this process.

• • • Epeirogenic Processes
      • It is a vertical movement.
      • Epeirogenic processes involve uplift or warping of large parts of the earth’s crust.
      • Epeirogenic or continent forming movements act along the radius of the earth; therefore, they are also called radial movements.
      • Their direction may be towards (subsidence) or away (uplift) from the centre.
        • Example for subsidence – Rann of Kachchh region.
        • Example for Uplift – Coringa near the mouth of the Godavari.

• 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 (convection currents).
  • These movements cause considerable deformation over a short period.
  • For example – earthquake, and volcanism.