 physical environment is traditionally divided into three major parts:

o Atmosphere - Earth’s gaseous envelope

o Hydrosphere – Earth’s water portion
o Geosphere – the solid earth
 biosphere, which is the totality of all plant and animal life on our planet, interacts with each of
the three physical realms and is an equally integral part of the planet.
 Earth can be thought of as consisting of four major spheres:
o the hydrosphere,
o atmosphere,
o geosphere, and
o biosphere.
 The hydrosphere is a dynamic mass of water that is continually on the move, evaporating from
the oceans to the atmosphere, precipitating back to the land, and running back to the ocean
again.


 Atmosphere provides us with air to breathe and protect us from Sun’s intense heat and
radiation
 The energy exchanges that continually occur between the atmosphere and the surface and
between the atmosphere and space produce the effects we call weather and climate.
 The geosphere extends from the surface to the center of the planet, a depth of 6400 kilometers,
making it by far the largest of Earth’s four spheres

Early Evolution of the Earth

 Big Bang, an incomprehensibly large explosion that sent all matter of the universe flying
outward at incredible speeds
o Began 13.7 billion years ago
 o The first debris where hydrogen and helium
o The debris cooled down to form stars and galaxies
 The nebular theory states that the bodies of our solar system evolved from an enormous
rotating cloud called the solar nebula
o Reason why earth is formed
o Aside from the H and HE from BB, solar nebula also consists of microscopic dust grains
and the ejections from the Stars
 Nuclear fusion in stars converts hydrogen and helium into the other elements
found in the universe.
o Nebula rotated faster and faster due to gravity. This causes the spherical nebula to
develop into a flat disk
 The formation of the earth: Earth was hot enough for iron and nickel to melt. They soon sank to
the center of the planet and became the core.
o During the heating, buoyant substances stay in the surface .
o Chemical segration established the thre basic division of the earth: crust, mantle, core
o The heating also caused gas to escape which formed the atmosphere

Earth’s Internal Structure

 Crust – has two types: continental and oeanic crust

o Oceanic crust – 7 km average
o Continental crust – 35 km average, density: 2.7 g/cm3
 Average composition is of granite or specifically, granadiorite
 Mantle – solid, rocky shell, extends up to 2900 km
o Periodite – dominant rock in the uppermost mantle
o Upper mantle:
 Lithosphere (sphere of rock)
 100 km, Crust + upper mantle, forms the cool outer shell of earth
 Asthenosphere (weak sphere)
 250 km, Soft layer, near its melting point
o Lower mantle – 660 km, it strengthens with depth due to pressure. Capable of gradual
flow
 Core – mostly made of iron and nickel, minor amounts of O, Si and S
o Outer core – 2270 km, liquid layer, its movement generates the magnetic field
o Inner core – 1216 km, solid due to immense pressure

The Face of the Earth

 Two principal divisions of earth’s surface: continents and oceans basins

o Their elevation difference is due to the difference in density/
o The continents average 35 to 40 kilometers in thickness and are composed of granitic
rocks having a density of about 2.7 g/cm3. The basaltic rocks that comprise the oceanic
crust average only 7 kilometers thick and have an average density of about 3.0 g/cm3.
Thus, the thicker and less dense continental crust is more buoyant than the oceanic
crust.
  Major features of the continents:
o Mountain belts
o Stable interior
 Major features of the ocean basins
o Continental margins – area of seafloor adjacent to major landmass
 Continental slopes – steep drop=offs
 Continental rise – gradual incline, happens when no trenches
o Deep-ocean basins – flat features called abyssal plains
o Oceanic ridges

Is Earth Unique?

 The right Planet:

o Right size
o Plate tectonics
o Molten metallic core – magnetic field deters cosmic rays
 The right location
o Goldilocks zone
o Sun is modest sized
 The right time
o Development of modern atmosphere
o An asteroid struck killing dinosaurs but caused the rise of mammals

Birth of a planet

 Big bang caused formation of atomic particles then atoms then stars then heavier elements
through nuclear fusion
 Planetesimals - Within this spinning disk, matter gradually coalesced into clumps that collided
and stuck together to become asteroid-size objects
 Protoplanets – planetesimals where repeatedly bombarded my space objects
 Supernova - cataclysmic event in which an exploding star produces all of the elements heavier
than iron
 Earth’s evolution
o High velocity impact and decay of radioactive elements caused intense heat that
resulted the melting of Fe and Ni. The heavy metals sank (chemical differentiation).
 Intense heat also caused magma ocean to form and buoyant masses eventually
became the crust. First crust has basalt composition
o This period of chemical differentiation established the three major divisions of Earth’s
interior—the iron-rich core, the thin primitive crust, and Earth’s thickest layer, the
mantle, located between the core and the crust. In addition, the lightest materials,
including water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other gases, escaped to form a primitive
atmosphere and shortly thereafter the oceans

Origin of the Atmosphere and Oceans

 T-Tauri phase – all stars experience a highly active stage

  Earth’s primitive atmosphere
o Earth’s atmosphere is consisted of H, He, CH3, NH3, CO2, water vapor.
o H and HE evaporated to space, others are dispersed by solar winds
o Outgassing – reason of the first enduring atmosphere, gasses in earth;s interior are
released.
 Oxygen in atmosphere
o As earth cooled, water vapor condensed into clouds and rained to form oceans.
o Photosynthesizing bacteria released O2. (cyanobacteria)
o The oxygen released would bond with iron to form rust and they created iron-rich rocks
with alternating layers called banded iron formations
o As more organisms produce o2, O2 levels beceme more stable.
o O2 absorb UV and form O3 which is now found in stratosphere ad absorbs UV that
strikes earth. This protected life on earth as UV damages DNA.
 The organisms in ocean aren’t affected by UV but after UV lessening, life on
continental crust is now posssible
 Evolution of Oceans
o Acid rain caused weathering of crust
o Some chemicals caused sedimentation of ocean floor and others increased salinity of
seawater.
o Ocean became depository of co2
 Formed CaCO3 that makes up limestone -> most common sedimentary rock in
ocean

An emerging picture of the ocean floor

 Mapping of sea floor

o Bathymetry – measure of the ocean depths
 Sonar – Sound Navigation and Ranging – measure water depth by obtain an
“image” of a narrow swath of seafloor every few seconds
 Echo sounder- determines the water depth by measuring the time interval
required for an acoustic wave to travel from a ship to the seafloor and back.
o From space








 a