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Lecture 2: Understanding Earth

Lecture 2: Understanding Earth. The Science of Geology. Geology - the science that pursues an understanding of planet Earth Physical geology - examines the materials composing Earth and seeks to understand the many processes that operate beneath and upon its surface

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Lecture 2: Understanding Earth

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  1. Lecture 2:Understanding Earth

  2. The Science of Geology • Geology - the science that pursues an understanding of planet Earth • Physical geology - examines the materials composing Earth and seeks to understand the many processes that operate beneath and upon its surface • Historical geology - seeks an understanding of the origin of Earth and its development through time

  3. The Science of Geology

  4. The Nature of Scientific Inquiry • How or why things happen is explained using: • Hypothesis – a tentative (or untested) explanation • Theory – a well-tested and widely accepted view that the scientific community agrees best explains certain observable facts

  5. Evolution of Solar System • Nebular hypothesis(1734 by Emanuel Swedenborg) • Rotating cloud called the solar nebula (cloud of dust, hydrogen gas, helium gas and other ionized gases) • Nebula began to contract about 5 billion years ago • 99.9 % of mass is in the Sun (composed mainly of hydrogen and helium) • Planets in two groups: • Inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) begin to form from metallic and rocky substances. They are mostly O, Si, Fe, Mg. • Larger outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) began forming from fragments of ices (H2O, CO2,and others) and gases.

  6. Evolution of the Solar System

  7. Evolution of the Solar System

  8. Evolution of the Solar System

  9. Evolution of the Solar System

  10. The Solar System

  11. A view of Earth • Earth is a planet that is small and self-contained • Earth’s four spheres • Hydrosphere • Atmosphere • Biosphere • Solid Earth

  12. Earth Internal Structure • Layers defined by composition • Crust • Mantle • Core • Layers defined by physical properties • Lithosphere • Asthenosphere • Mesosphere • Inner and Outer Core

  13. Earth’s layered structure

  14. The face of Earth • Earth’s surface • Continents • Oceans • Continents • Mountain belts • Most prominent feature of continents • The stable interior • Composed of shields and stable platforms

  15. The Continents

  16. The face of Earth • Ocean basins • Oceanic ridge system • Most prominent topographic feature on Earth • Composed of igneous rock that has been fractured and uplifted

  17. Oceanic Ridge System

  18. Tectonic Plates

  19. Iceland is being pulled apart

  20. San Andreas Fault

  21. Geologic time • The magnitude of geologic time Involves vast times – millions or billions of years • An appreciation for the magnitude of geologic time is important because many processes are very gradual • The big difference between geology and other sciences: TIME (Geologically speaking, not much happens in a human lifetime!) • Therefore, geologists use millions of years as the standard unit of time

  22. Age of Earth • ~ 4,600 million years • How we estimate the age: • Radioactive minerals • Radium, uranium, lead • Salts in the oceans and its accumulation (not accurate) • For younger ages, deposits and C14

  23. The geologic time scale

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