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[Supersnes]

Mineral and rock types are created in world/fortress gen.  This simulates what has occurred until that point.  The earth shouldn't stop changing since the end of world gen but should instead continue.  Geologic events such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods, landslides, tidal waves/tsunami, etc should occur and alter both the surface and underground landscapes.  These event could then give opportunity for other formations to occur/change.

Volcanic events, either at your fortress or nearby, can either spell doom or a boom for your fortress.  Volcanic eruptions would be historic events that would affect wide areas.  This would be due to pyroclastic flows, lahars, poisonous gas and ash (cause syndromes),and the magma itself.  If a fortress were to be far enough away to survive and/or just lucky, they can utilize the output resources from the volcano.  Volcanic ash could be used for glass/soap/fertilizer, lava flows can be pumped to cisterns and other structures for later FUN, and an eventual large supply of igneous rocks once/if it cools .  Volcanism could also cause hydrothermal and metamorphic events.  Hydrothermal activity may cause underground, and aquifer water to begin to steam and rise to higher elevations as hot springs.  This can be utilized to increase your dwarves happiness and increase value of the fortress.  Also the hydrothermal changes could begin the precipitation of gemstones and metals into rocks as veins. 
Metamorphic events could just be the turn existing rock into other rocks, such a limestone into marble.

Earthquakes could, just like real life, vary in intensity.  Weak earthquakes may just cause a dwarf to get unhappy thoughts while strong earthquakes would cause faults; along which rocks/minerals would change z levels and/or rip apart creating fissures.  Structural damage should be a factor in that a poorly built fortress may just bury its inhabitants alive.  Earthquakes should also be able to trigger landslides and tsunamis which could bury/wash away entire villages/fortresses/regions. 
The fissures created may be a bonus if hydrothermal activity begins in that mineral veins may form, more cave space can be etched from weak rocks, hot spring of clean water will rise to the surface, and it could create a natural buffer from non-flying enemies. 

More subtle events could involve rivers and stream eroding/depositing over time leading to deeper and or shallower sediments.  Small cave may form and collapse in areas of high precipitation/ground water retention.  Collapses could result in sinkholes proportional to the overall size of the cave. 

Just a few ideas but overall there is a lot that can be done to create a more kinetic geologic world.

[NW_Kohaku]

This is one of those things that you probably should have searched for beforehand - earthquakes and volcanoes are pretty frequently suggested. 

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=79863.msg2082909#msg2082909
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=31613.0
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=20331.msg216831#msg216831
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=44973.msg873183#msg873183
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=5083.msg67497#msg67497

Search for something like "earthquake" or "volcano"

The game, meanwhile, takes place over a course of no more than 20 years, so basically, unless you're talking about Niagra Falls, erosion should not be a major factor in-game. 

[Supersnes]

I figured they were talked about but they didn't show up when i searched, my mistake.  However, my main point is not the events themselves but their aftermath and lasting effects.  It should be more than "oh the dwarves died", their should be lasting evidence that the event happened beside in Legends and books.  This can be due to simple things such as drop-blocks and misaligned formations for earthquakes and thick ash and tuff deposits for volcanically active areas.

And the erosion is meant to be subtle but as nature shows can be a powerful force.  Rivers and stream in an early fortress may be shallow and overall lack luster.  Over 1000 years however if the fortress is revisited the stream/ river may have cut deep into the rock creating new valleys, ravines, lakes and tunnel openings or may have dried up leaving conglomerates filled with exotic rocks from far upstream.  Hell the streams should change directions over time, meandering in such ways as to create ox bows lakes and eroding outcrops, even to the point part of the fortress may be washing/had washed away. 

Glaciers could regress/transgress on maps--albeit over great amounts of time--cutting swaths in mountains, depositing tillite into moraines at its furthest extents, and carry massive boulder of material hundreds of miles from where it originated.

Ocean environments would be subject to various factors. Deltaic generation involves the creating more landmass over time while at a constant threat of erosion (think Louisiana).  Cliffs (Cliffs of Dover) and beaches can be eroded over time making fortress close to the water be subject to the water's eb and flow.  Abandoned fortresses can be inundated and even become like an artificial reef which can slowly fill in with marine sediments over time. 

Deserts could bury fortresses rather quickly entombing them under units of sand  to be exposed periodically depending on wind forces.  Deposition and erosion of the sand may pertain to seasonal winds to drive the sand creating a more difficult environment to live in but with some bonuses.  Sandstorms can hide your fortress from invaders and other hostiles but may even bury those forces, effectively creating a naturally occurring trap.  This could make reclaiming and adventuring interesting in that the site will likely need to be dug out, leaving the embarkers and adventures vulnerable to the sparse wildlife and exposure.

Sinkholes can develop due to high water saturation in the formations surrounding caverns.  When saturation becomes to much and the cavern roof can no longer sustain the weight it could collapse dropping the blocks above it down.  This can make the location of a fortress important into that a large heavy structure may cause the overall failure of the system.  Moreover the caverns in question would not be large but more like secluded pockets in the rock.  Finding this pockets, or creating your own, can be an effective way way of creating fun for your dwarves and/or their enemies.

[NW_Kohaku]

Remember that you are dealing with Boolean "AND" searching, rather than the typical "OR" - the more search terms you use, the less results you get.  Searching for those words individually will get you the best shot of snagging a positive result (although you'll get plenty of false positives, as well.)

One of the things about these events is that an earthquake that really does something as dramatic as rips open a fault is something that, realistically, doesn't happen anywhere near often.

The closest thing you could have is a Hawaii-style mafic volcano that burbles out lava relatively constantly, but slowly.

Beaches having sand being pulled away can occur at nearly the sort of timescale we are talking about having realistically make sense in a fortress, so that can make some sense, although beaches don't just lose sand, they have sand wash up, as well. 

Things like cavern collapses don't really happen short of corrupted save data until Toady gets support fixed. 

Sand sinkholes would make more sense if the game didn't treat sand as just another type of soil, where you can have sand soil layers in forests right under the clay, and where crops grow just as fine on sand as they do on loam.

Unless we are introducing global warming, glacial melt, large scale erosion, and general climate change phenomenon are just too epochal in timescale to really be considered in a game where the average worldgen is only a couple hundred years long, and where we consider a "long-term fort" to be anything over 10 years.

[tsen]

I would generally agree that if we are to introduce geological events, there would need to be an underlying system that allowed for actions on the geological time scale. It might be useful in terms of an interesting simulation to allow for "fast" changes such as volcanic eruptions, sand movement, tsunami, and earthquakes though, if they were "front ends" whose values were hooks left open to later implementation of a more sophisticated system.

Not really sure how low that particular fruit hangs though.