Earth Science 10th ed

by Tarbuck and Lutgens

Introduction

0-1    Three major parts of Earth's physical environment:

0-1-1    Hydrosphere:

• Composed of water

• On Earth's surface forms a continuous thin layer

• Includes oceans, rivers, lakes, glaciers, and groundwater

0-1-2    Atmosphere:

• Continuous gas blanket covers the Earth

• Provide us with air to breath

• Protect us from UV and heat loss

0-1-3    Solid Earth: made of three parts: crust, mantle, and core

• Crust: < 80 km, thin layer of rock average of 5-40 km, lighter

• Mantle: solid rocks made of Mg/Fe silicates, ~2885 km, dense

• Core: outer core: show fluid property ~ 2270 km, inner core: solid metallic sphere ~1216 km, denser

        Lithosphere: crust plus upper mantle.

Biosphere: incorporated with these 3 major parts where living organisms can be found.

Constant interaction among these 4 spheres.

0-2    Earth in constant motion:

0-2-1    Earth System:

• Different parts and spheres interact with each other making a whole system

• Time scale for the system - milliseconds to billion years.

• Dimension scale for the system - millimeters to 10³ km.

0-2-2    Endless recycles

• hydrologic cycle

• rock cycle

0-2-3    Energy powered by:

• Sun - drives the external processes, such as weathering and erosion.

• Internal heat, due to radioactive decay and the remaining heat since the formation of the Earth - controls the internal processes, such as earthquake and volcanoes.

0-3    People and the Environment:

population overgrowth- an exponential increase

limited natural resources - particularly nonrenewable resources such as coal, natural gas, and oil.

Environmental problems? natural (earthquake and volcanoes) and vs. human-induced (contamination of soils and water by toxic compounds). However, they are interrelated, e.g. flood.

0-4    Earth science:

1. Geology: study of the Earth, its dynamic environment; it's internal and external forces and processes; its history and its chronological arrangement.

2. Oceanography: mainly study of the ocean, its chemistry, physics, geology and biology.

3. Atmospheric science or meteorology: study the dynamic process that occurs in atmosphere.

4. Astronomy: study of the universe.

0-5    The nature of scientific inquiry:

• find a question

• collecting data

• analyze data and present a hypothesis

• from hypothesis to theory- extensive testing to verify and to improve.

• scientific laws: more general in describing what happen in nature, e.g. gravitational forces pulls objects down.

Homework:

• Read chapter summary

• Use your own word to explain the key terms on page 14.

• Answer the review questions.