EARTH AND LIFE SCIENCE

Most Essential Learning Competency/ies:

1. Describe where the Earth’s internal heat comes from (S11/12ES-Ib-14);
2. Describe how magma is formed (magmatism) (S11/12ES-Ic-15)

Earth is able to perform processes for its sustainability due to external and internal
sources of energy. Its primary external source is the sun and energy generated from it is
responsible for the processes in its subsystems. Its internal source, on the other hand,
is its own internal heat which is responsible for volcanism, formation of mountains and
ridges, and metamorphism.
The three main sources of heat on Earth:
1. Heat that have never been lost during the formation and accretion of the
planets.
2. The process of sinking core materials through frictional heating to the center
of the planet.
3. Heat from the decay of radioactive elements.

Heat gathered from these sources are distributed within the planet through
conduction, convection and radiation.

The molten materials present in the mantle heats up and expands, becoming
less dense than the material present above it, causing for it to rise while the denser
material flows in from side to side. This repeated process distributes the heat within the
mantle, causing for various activities to take place at the surface. This molten material is
referred to as magma.
Magma is mostly composed of eight elements named as oxygen, silicon,
aluminum, iron, calcium, sodium and potassium. As from the diagram, you can observe
that oxygen covers the bigger portion. The composition of magma is basically based on
the rock it formed after melting and the conditions during the process.

It came from molten rocks that can be found on the upper part of the Earth’s
mantle. In this area, the temperature is relatively 1,100 degree Celsius that causes for
the materials inside to melt. More than that, the lower crust and mantle that are widely
composed of radioactive decay elements (potassium, uranium and thorium) also
releases heat that adds up to make the materials melt, with the help of a decrease in
pressure (decompression melting) up to the upper mantle rock.
In a subduction zone where the oceanic crust sinks back to the mantle, we could
expect that water will be added to the mix. Water can induce the melting process. It
means that it lowers the melting temperature of the rock (flux melting). Remember in the
process of convection, hotter materials tend to move upward. This causes for the
magma to rise through Earth’s crust, melting surrounding rocks thus once again
generating magma (heat transfer melting). Another reason is that magma is less dense
and more buoyant than the surrounding rocks.

References:

Vočadlo, L. (2009, February 24). Heat and Convection in the Earth. Retrieved August
12, 2020, from
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/EarthSci/people/lidunka/GEOL2014/Geophysics8 -
Thermal evolution/Heat.htm
Panchuk, K. (2018, November 10). 3.3 Earth’s Interior Heat – Physical Geology, First
University of Saskatchewan Edition. Pressbooks.. Retrieved August 12, 2020,
from https://openpress.usask.ca/physicalgeology/chapter/3-3-earths-interior-heat/
National Geographic Society. (2019a, April 4). Magma.
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/magma/
Earle, S. (2015a, September 1). 4.1 Plate Tectonics and Volcanism – Physical Geology.
Pressbooks. https://opentextbc.ca/geology/chapter/4-1-plate-tectonics-and-
volcanism/