EARTH AND LIFE SCIENCE

What is the Big Bang Theory?

The Big Bang Theory is our best guess about how the universe began.
What was the Big Bang?
The Big Bang Theory is the leading explanation for how the universe began. Simply
put, it says the universe as we know it started with an infinitely hot and dense
single point that inflated and stretched — first at unimaginable speeds, and then at
a more measurable rate — over the next 13.8 billion years to the still-expanding
cosmos that we know today.
Existing technology doesn't yet allow astronomers to literally peer back at the
universe's birth, much of what we understand about the Big Bang comes from
mathematical formulas and models. Astronomers can, however, see the "echo" of
the expansion through a phenomenon known as the cosmic microwave background.

While the majority of the astronomical community accepts the theory, there are
some theorists who have alternative explanations besides the Big Bang — such as
eternal inflation or an oscillating universe.
Around 13.7 billion years ago, everything in the entire universe was condensed in
an infinitesimally small singularity, a point of infinite denseness and heat. 
Suddenly, an explosive expansion began, ballooning our universe outwards faster
than the speed of light. This was a period of cosmic inflation that lasted mere
fractions of a second — about 10^-32 of a second, according to physicist Alan
Guth’s 1980 theory that changed the way we think about the Big Bang forever. 

When cosmic inflation came to a sudden and still-mysterious end, the more classic
descriptions of the Big Bang took hold. A flood of matter and radiation, known as
“reheating,” began populating our universe with the stuff we know today: particles,
atoms, the stuff that would become stars and galaxies and so on.

This all happened within just the first second after the universe began, when the
temperature of everything was still insanely hot, at about 10 billion degrees
Fahrenheit (5.5 billion Celsius), according to NASA(opens in new tab). The cosmos
now contained a vast array of fundamental particles such as neutrons, electrons
and protons — the raw materials that would become the building blocks for
everything that exists today.

This early "soup" would have been impossible to actually see because it couldn't
hold visible light. "The free electrons would have caused light (photons) to scatter
the way sunlight scatters from the water droplets in clouds," NASA stated. Over
time, however, these free electrons met up with nuclei and created neutral atoms,
or atoms with equal positive and negative electric charges. 

This allowed light to finally shine through, about 380,000 years after the Big Bang.
Sometimes called the "afterglow" of the Big Bang, this light is more properly known
as the cosmic microwave background (CMB). It was first predicted by Ralph Alpher
and other scientists in 1948 but was found only by accident almost 20 years later.

This accidental discovery happened when Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, both of
Bell Telephone Laboratories in New Jersey, were building a radio receiver in 1965
and picked up higher-than-expected temperatures, according to NASA(opens in
new tab). At first, they thought the anomaly was due to pigeons trying to roost
inside the antenna and their waste, but they cleaned up the mess and killed the
pigeons(opens in new tab) and the anomaly persisted.

Simultaneously, a Princeton University team led by Robert Dicke was trying to find
evidence of the CMB and realized that Penzias and Wilson had stumbled upon it
with their strange observations. The two groups each published papers in the
Astrophysical Journal in 1965.

Because we can't see it directly, scientists have been trying to figure out how to
"see" the Big Bang through other measures. In one case, cosmologists are pressing
rewind(opens in new tab) to reach the first instant after the Big Bang by simulating
4,000 versions of the current universe on a massive supercomputer. 

"We are trying to do something like guessing a baby photo of our universe from the
latest picture," study leader Masato Shirasaki, a cosmologist at the National
Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), wrote in an email to Live Science. 
With what is known about the universe today, the researchers on this 2021 study
compared their understanding of how gravitational forces interacted in the
primordial universe with their thousands of computer-modeled universes. If they
could predict the starting conditions of their virtual universes, they hoped to be able
to accurately predict what our own universe may have looked like back at the
beginning. 

Other researchers have chosen different paths to interrogate our universe's

beginnings. 

In a 2020 study, researchers did so by investigating the split between matter and
antimatter. In the study, not yet peer-reviewed, they proposed that the imbalance
in the amount of matter and antimatter in the universe is related to the universe's
vast quantities of dark matter, an unknown substance that exerts influence over
gravity and yet doesn't interact with light. They suggested that in the crucial
moments immediately after the Big Bang, the universe may have been pushed to
make more matter than its inverse, antimatter, which then could have led to
the formation of dark matter.

The Sun and the planets formed together, 4.6 billion years ago, from a cloud of gas
and dust called the solar nebula. A shock wave from a nearby supernova explosion
probably initiated the collapse of the solar nebula. The Sun formed in the center,
and the planets formed in a thin disk orbiting around it. In a similar manner, moons
formed orbiting the gas giant planets. Comets condensed in the outer solar system,
and many of them were thrown out to great distances by close gravitational
encounters with the giant planets. After the Sun ignited, a strong solar wind cleared
the system of gas and dust. The asteroids represent the rocky debris that
remained.

Size and Time Scales of the Solar System

The Earth revolves around the Sun at a distance of 150 million kilometers (93
million miles).
The orbits of the planets are nearly circular, and measure from one-third to 30
times the size of Earth's orbit.

Mercury, the innermost planet, orbits the Sun in about three months, while Neptune
takes 165 years.

The Sun contains about 99.9 percent of all the mass of the solar system.

The terrestrial planets, as well as the larger moons and asteroids, have spherical
layers that were created by melting and differentiation. Heavier elements sank to
the center, forming iron-rich cores. Lighter materials were buoyed upward to form
the outer rocky layers.

The slowly rotating solar nebula collapsed under its own gravity to form a rapidly
rotating disk, with the Sun at the center. Collisions of gas and dust within the disk
concentrated the material into a thin plane.

The inner region of the solar nebula was hot, allowing only rocky material to
condense. The rocky terrestrial planets formed there. Gases and ice could condense
in the cooler outer regions, where the gas giant planets and their icy moons
formed.

Small bodies collided and stuck together to slowly build up the terrestrial planets.
Such accretion also built the cores of the gas giants until they were massive enough
for their gravity to capture the abundant gases.

The terrestrial planets, as well as the larger moons and asteroids, have spherical
layers that were created by melting and differentiation. Heavier elements sank to
the center, forming iron-rich cores. Lighter materials were buoyed upward to form
the outer rocky layers.

The slowly rotating solar nebula collapsed under its own gravity to form a rapidly
rotating disk, with the Sun at the center. Collisions of gas and dust within the disk
concentrated the material into a thin plane.

The inner region of the solar nebula was hot, allowing only rocky material to
condense. The rocky terrestrial planets formed there. Gases and ice could condense
in the cooler outer regions, where the gas giant planets and their icy moons
formed.

Small bodies collided and stuck together to slowly build up the terrestrial planets.
Such accretion also built the cores of the gas giants until they were massive enough
for their gravity to capture the abundant gases.

The terrestrial planets, as well as the larger moons and asteroids, have spherical
layers that were created by melting and differentiation. Heavier elements sank to
the center, forming iron-rich cores. Lighter materials were buoyed upward to form
the outer rocky layers.
How did the solar system form?

Solar system formation began about 4.5 billion years ago. Scientists have
developed three models of how it happened.

Solar system formation began approximately 4.5 billion years ago, when gravity
pulled a cloud of dust and gas together to form our solar system.

Scientists can't directly study how our own solar system formed, but combining
observations of young stellar systems in a range of wavelengths with computer
simulations has led to models of what could have happened so many years ago.

Before the solar system existed, a massive concentration of interstellar gas and
dust created a molecular cloud that would form the sun's birthplace. Cold
temperatures caused the gas to clump together, growing steadily denser. The
densest parts of the cloud began to collapse under their own gravity, perhaps with
a nudge from a nearby stellar explosion, forming a wealth of young stellar objects
known as protostars.

Gravity continued to collapse the material onto the infant solar system, creating a
star and a disk of material from which the planets would form. Eventually, the
newborn sun encompassed more than 99% of the solar system's mass, according
to NASA(opens in new tab). When pressure inside the star grew so powerful that
fusion kicked in, turning hydrogen to helium, the star began to blast a stellar wind
that helped clear out the debris and stopped it from falling inward.
Although gas and dust shroud young stars in visible wavelengths, infrared
telescopes have probed many clouds in the Milky Way galaxy to study the
environment of other newborn stars. Scientists have applied what they've seen in
other systems to our own star.

The planets, moons, asteroids and everything else in the solar system formed from
the small fraction of material in the region that wasn't incorporated in the young
sun. This material formed a massive disk around the baby star, which surrounded it
for about 100 million years — an eyeblink in astronomical terms.
During that time, planets and moons formed out of the disk. Among the planets,
Jupiter likely formed first, perhaps as soon as a million years into the solar system's
life, scientists have argued(opens in new tab).
Scientists have developed three different models to explain how planets in and out
of the solar system may have formed. The first and most widely accepted model,
core accretion, works well with the formation of the rocky terrestrial planets but has
problems with giant planets. The second, pebble accretion, could allow planets to
quickly form from the tiniest materials. The third, the disk instability method, may
account for the creation of giant planets. 

The core accretion model

Approximately 4.6 billion years ago, the solar system was a cloud of dust and gas
known as a solar nebula. Gravity collapsed the material in on itself as it began to
spin, forming the sun in the center of the nebula.

With the rise of the sun, the remaining material began to clump together. Small
particles drew together, bound by the force of gravity, into larger particles,
according to the core accretion model. The solar wind swept away lighter elements,
such as hydrogen and helium, from the closer regions, leaving only heavy, rocky
materials to create terrestrial worlds. But farther away, the solar winds had less
impact on lighter elements, allowing them to coalesce into gas giants. In this
way, asteroids, comets, planets and moons were created.
Some exoplanet observations seem to confirm core accretion as the dominant
formation process. Stars with more "metals" — a term astronomers use for
elements other than hydrogen and helium — in their cores have more giant planets
than their metal-poor cousins. According to NASA(opens in new tab), core accretion
suggests that small, rocky worlds should be more common than the large gas
giants.

The 2005 discovery of a giant planet with a massive core orbiting the sun-like star
HD 149026 is an example of an exoplanet that helped strengthen the case for core
accretion. The planet's core is about 70 times more massive than Earth, scientists
found; they believe that is too large to have formed from a collapsing cloud,
according to a NASA statement about the research(opens in new tab).

Pebble accretion

The biggest challenge to core accretion is time — building massive gas giants fast
enough to grab the lighter components of their atmosphere. Research published in
2015 probed how smaller, pebble-size objects fused together to build giant planets
up to 1,000 times faster than earlier studies.

"This is the first model that we know about that you start out with a pretty simple
structure for the solar nebula from which planets form, and end up with the giant-
planet system that we see," study lead author Harold Levison, an astronomer at
SwRI, told Space.com at the time.
In 2012, researchers Michiel Lambrechts and Anders Johansen of Lund University in
Sweden proposed that tiny rubble, once written off, held the key to rapidly building
giant planets. "They showed that the leftover pebbles from this formation process,
which previously were thought to be unimportant, could actually be a huge solution
to the planet-forming problem," Levison said.

In simulations that Levison and his team developed, larger objects acted like
bullies, snatching away pebbles from the mid-size masses to grow at a far faster
rate. "The bigger guy basically bullies the smaller one so they can eat all the
pebbles themselves, and they can continue to grow up to form the cores of the
giant planets," study co-author Katherine Kretke, also from SwRI, told Space.com.

The disk instability model

Other models struggle to explain the formation of the gas giants. According to core
accretion models, the process would take several million years, longer than the
light gases were available in the early solar system.

"Giant planets form really fast, in a few million years," Kevin Walsh, a researcher at
the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado, told Space.com.
"That creates a time limit because the gas disk around the sun only lasts 4 to 5
million years."
A relatively new theory called disk instability addresses this challenge. In the disk
instability model of planet formation, clumps of dust and gas are bound together
early in the life of the solar system. Over time, these clumps slowly compact into a
giant planet.

Planets can form in this way in as little as 1,000 years, the models suggest,
allowing them to trap the rapidly vanishing lighter gases. They also quickly reach an
orbit-stabilizing mass that keeps them from death-marching into the sun.

FORMATION OF ELEMENTS
Our world is made of elements and combinations of elements called compounds.
An element is a pure substance made of atoms that are all of the same type. At
present, 116 elements are known, and only about 90 of these occur naturally.

Elements and the ‘Big Bang’ theory

During the formation of the universe some 14 billion years ago in the so-called ‘Big
Bang’, only the lightest elements were formed – hydrogen and helium along with
trace amounts of lithium and beryllium. As the cloud of cosmic dust and gases from
the Big Bang cooled, stars formed, and these then grouped together to form
galaxies.
The other 86 elements found in nature were created in nuclear reactions in these
stars and in huge stellar explosions known as supernovae.
Elements and our Sun
For most of their lives, stars fuse elemental hydrogen into helium in their cores.
Two atoms of hydrogen are combined in a series of steps to create helium-4. These
reactions account for 85% of the Sun’s energy. The remaining 15% comes from
reactions that produce the elements beryllium and lithium.
The energy from these nuclear reactions is emitted in various forms
of radiation such as ultraviolet light, X-rays, visible
light, infrared rays, microwaves and radio waves. In addition, energized particles
such as neutrinos and protons are released, and it is these that make up the solar
wind.
Earth is in the path of this energy stream, which warms the planet,
drives weather and provides energy for life. The Earth’s atmosphere is able to
screen out most of the harmful radiation, and the Earth’s magnetic field can deflect
the harmful effects of the solar wind.
Dying stars
When a star’s core runs out of hydrogen, the star begins to die out. The dying star
expands into a red giant, and this now begins to manufacture carbon atoms by
fusing helium atoms.
More massive stars begin a further series of nuclear burning or reaction stages. The
elements formed in these stages range from oxygen through to iron.
During a supernova, the star releases very large amounts of energy as well as
neutrons, which allows elements heavier than iron, such as uranium and gold, to be
produced. In the supernova explosion, all of these elements are expelled out into
space.
Our world is literally made up of elements formed deep within the cores of stars
now long dead. As Britain’s Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees said, “We are literally
the ashes of long dead stars.” When you buy a party balloon that floats in air, it is
filled with helium gas – most of which was created when the universe was only 3
minutes old!
Examples of element making (nucleogenesis) in helium burning reactions:
 3 helium atoms fusing to give a carbon atom: 3 @ 4He → 12C
 carbon atom + helium atom fusing to give an oxygen atom: 12C + 4He → 16O
 oxygen atom + helium atom fusing to give a neon atom: 16O + 4He → 20Ne
 neon atom + helium atom fusing to give a magnesium atom: 20Ne + 4He
→ 24Mg
Man-made elements
Only 90 of the 116 known elements occur naturally, so where have the other 26
come from?
The answer is to be found in the development of nuclear power plants and
machines known as particle accelerators:
 Scientists discovered that, by allowing fast neutrons to collide with the
common isotope of uranium known as U-238 in a nuclear reactor, the
‘new’ element plutonium was made.
 By smashing atoms together in machines known as particle accelerators, it
was discovered that new elements could be made. For example, bombarding
atoms of the element curium with atoms of neon made element 106 –
seaborgium.

STELLAR NUCLEOSYNTHESIS

Stellar nucleosynthesis is the process by which elements are created within stars by
combining the protons and neutrons together from the nuclei of lighter elements.
All of the atoms in the universe began as hydrogen. Fusion inside stars transforms
hydrogen into helium, heat, and radiation. Heavier elements are created in different
types of stars as they die or explode.

History of the Theory

The idea that stars fuse together the atoms of light elements was first proposed in
the 1920s, by Einstein's strong supporter Arthur Eddington. However, the real
credit for developing it into a coherent theory is given to Fred Hoyle's work in the
aftermath of World War II. Hoyle's theory contained some significant differences
from the current theory, most notably that he did not believe in the  big bang
theory but instead that hydrogen was continually being created within our universe.
(This alternative theory was called a steady state theory and fell out of favor when
the cosmic microwave background radiation was detected.)

The Early Stars

The simplest type of atom in the universe is a hydrogen atom, which contains a
single proton in the nucleus (possibly with some neutrons hanging out, as well) with
electrons circling that nucleus. These protons are now believed to have formed
when the incredibly high energy quark-gluon plasma  of the very early universe lost
enough energy that quarks began bonding together to form protons (and
other hadrons, like neutrons). Hydrogen formed pretty much instantly and even
helium (with nuclei containing 2 protons) formed in relatively short order (part of a
process referred to as Big Bang nucleosynthesis).

As this hydrogen and helium began to form in the early universe, there were some
areas where it was denser than in others. Gravity took over and eventually these
atoms were pulled together into massive clouds gas in the vastness of space. Once
these clouds became large enough, they were drawn together by gravity with
enough force to actually cause the atomic nuclei to fuse, in a process called nuclear
fusion. The result of this fusion process is that the two one-proton atoms have now
formed a single two-proton atom. In other words, two hydrogen atoms have begun
one single helium atom. The energy released during this process is what causes the
sun (or any other star, for that matter) to burn.

It takes nearly 10 million years to burn through the hydrogen and then things heat
up and the helium begins fusing. Stellar nucleosynthesis continues to create heavier
and heavier elements until you end up with iron.

Creating the Heavier Elements

The burning of helium to produce heavier elements then continues for about 1
million years. Largely, it is fused into carbon via the triple-alpha process in which
three helium-4 nuclei (alpha particles) are transformed. The alpha process then
combines helium with carbon to produce heavier elements, but only those with an
even number of protons. The combinations go in this order:
1. Carbon plus helium produces oxygen.
2. Oxygen plus helium produces neon.
3. Neon plus helium produces magnesium.
4. Magnesium plus helium produces silicon.
5. Silicon plus helium produces sulfur.
6. Sulfur plus helium produces argon.
7. Argon plus helium produces calcium.
8. Calcium plus helium produces titanium.
9. Titanium plus helium produces chromium.
10. Chromium plus helium produces iron.
11.
Other fusion pathways create the elements with odd numbers of protons. Iron has
such a tightly bound nucleus that there isn't further fusion once that point is
reached. Without the heat of fusion, the star collapses and explodes in a
shockwave.

Physicist Lawrence Krauss notes that it takes 100,000 years for the carbon to burn
into oxygen, 10,000 years for the oxygen to burn into silicon, and one day for the
silicon to burn into iron and herald the collapse of the star.

Astronomer Carl Sagan in the TV series "Cosmos" noted, "We are made of star-
stuff." Krauss agreed, stating that "every atom in your body was once inside a star
that exploded...The atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star
than in your right hand, because 200 million stars have exploded to make up the
atoms in your body."

The abundance of the chemical elements is a measure of the occurrence of

the chemical elements relative to all other elements in a given environment.
Abundance is measured in one of three ways: by the mass-fraction (the same as
weight fraction); by the mole-fraction (fraction of atoms by numerical count, or
sometimes fraction of molecules in gases); or by the volume-fraction. Volume-
fraction is a common abundance measure in mixed gases such as planetary
atmospheres, and is similar in value to molecular mole-fraction for gas mixtures at
relatively low densities and pressures, and ideal gas mixtures. Most abundance
values in this article are given as mass-fractions.
For example, the abundance of oxygen in pure water can be measured in two ways:
the mass fraction is about 89%, because that is the fraction of water's mass which
is oxygen. However, the mole-fraction is about 33% because only 1 atom of 3 in
water, H2O, is oxygen. As another example, looking at the mass-fraction abundance
of hydrogen and helium in both the Universe as a whole and in
the atmospheres of gas-giant planets such as Jupiter, it is 74% for hydrogen and
23–25% for helium; while the (atomic) mole-fraction for hydrogen is 92%, and for
helium is 8%, in these environments. Changing the given environment to Jupiter's
outer atmosphere, where hydrogen is diatomic while helium is not, changes
the molecular mole-fraction (fraction of total gas molecules), as well as the fraction
of atmosphere by volume, of hydrogen to about 86%, and of helium to 13%. [Note 1]

The abundance of chemical elements in the universe is dominated by the large

amounts of hydrogen and helium which were produced in the Big Bang. Remaining
elements, making up only about 2% of the universe, were largely produced
by supernovae and certain red giant stars. Lithium, beryllium, and boron, despite
their low atomic number, are rare because, although they are produced by nuclear
fusion, they are destroyed by other reactions in the stars. [1][2] The elements from
carbon to iron are relatively more abundant in the universe because of the ease of
making them in supernova nucleosynthesis. Elements of higher atomic number than
iron (element 26) become progressively rarer in the universe, because they
increasingly absorb stellar energy in their production. Also, elements with even
atomic numbers are generally more common than their neighbors in the periodic
table, due to favorable energetics of formation.

The abundance of elements in the Sun and outer planets is similar to that in the
universe. Due to solar heating, the elements of Earth and the inner rocky planets of
the Solar System have undergone an additional depletion of volatile hydrogen,
helium, neon, nitrogen, and carbon (which volatilizes as methane). The crust,
mantle, and core of the Earth show evidence of chemical segregation plus some
sequestration by density. Lighter silicates of aluminium are found in the crust, with
more magnesium silicate in the mantle, while metallic iron and nickel compose the
core. The abundance of elements in specialized environments, such as
atmospheres, or oceans, or the human body, are primarily a product of chemical
interactions with the medium in which they reside.

ISOTOPES

A family of people often consists of related but not identical individuals. Elements
have families as well, known as isotopes. Isotopes are members of a family of an
element that all have the same number of protons but different numbers of
neutrons.
The number of protons in a nucleus determines the element’s atomic number on
the Periodic Table. For example, carbon has six protons and is atomic number 6.
Carbon occurs naturally in three isotopes: carbon 12, which has 6 neutrons (plus 6
protons equals 12), carbon 13, which has 7 neutrons, and carbon 14, which has 8
neutrons. Every element has its own number of isotopes.

The addition of even one neutron can dramatically change an isotope’s properties.
Carbon-12 is stable, meaning it never undergoes radioactive decay. Carbon-14 is
unstable and undergoes radioactive decay with a half-life of about 5,730 years
(meaning that half of the material will be gone after 5,730 years). This decay
means the amount of carbon-14 in an object serves as a clock, showing the object’s
age in a process called “carbon dating.”
Isotopes have unique properties, and these properties make them useful in
diagnostics and treatment applications. They are important in nuclear medicine, oil
and gas exploration, basic research, and national security.

DOE Office of Science & Isotopes

Isotopes are needed for research, commerce, medical diagnostics and treatment,
and national security. However, isotopes are not always available in sufficient
quantities or at reasonable prices. The DOE Isotope Program addresses this
need. The program produces and distributes radioactive and stable isotopes that
are in short supply, including byproducts, surplus materials, and related isotope
services. The program also maintains the infrastructure required to produce and
supply priority isotope products and related services. Finally, it conducts research
and development on new and improved isotope production and processing
techniques.
Isotope Facts
 All elements have isotopes.
 There are two main types of isotopes: stable and unstable (radioactive).
 There are 254 known stable isotopes.
 All artificial (lab-made) isotopes are unstable and therefore radioactive;
scientists call them radioisotopes.
 Some elements can only exist in an unstable form (for example, uranium).
 Hydrogen is the only element whose isotopes have unique names: deuterium
for hydrogen with one neutron and tritium for hydrogen with two neutrons.

The main components of the earth system

The earth system is itself an integrated system, but it can be subdivided into four main
components, sub-systems or spheres: the geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and
biosphere. These components are also systems in their own right and they are tightly
interconnected. The four main components of the earth system may be described briefly
in the following way.

 The geosphere - this is the part of the planet composed of rock and
minerals; it includes the solid crust, the molten mantle and the liquid and
solid parts of the earth's core. In many places, the geosphere develops a
layer of soil in which nutrients become available to living organisms, and
which thus provides an important ecological habitat and the basis of many
forms of life. The surface of the geosphere is subject to processes of erosion,
weathering and transport, as well as to tectonic forces and volcanic activity,
which result in the formation of landforms such as mountains, hills and
plateaux.
 The atmosphere - this is the gaseous layer surrounding the earth and held
to its surface by gravity. The atmosphere receives energy from solar
radiation which warms the earth's surface and is re-emitted and conducted to
the atmosphere. The atmosphere also absorbs water from the earth's surface
via the process of evaporation; it then acts to redistribute heat and moisture
 across the earth's surface. In addition, the atmosphere contains substances
that are essential for life, including carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen.
 The hydrosphere - this consists of those parts of the earth system
composed of water in its liquid, gaseous (vapour) and solid (ice) phases. The
hydrosphere includes: the earth's oceans and seas; its ice sheets, sea ice
and glaciers; its lakes, rivers and streams; its atmospheric moisture and ice
crystals; and its areas of permafrost. The hydrosphere includes both
saltwater and freshwater systems, and it also includes the moisture found in
the soil (soil water) and within rocks (groundwater). Water is essential for
the existence and maintenance of life on earth. In some classifications, the
hydrosphere is sub-divided into the fluid water systems and
the cryosphere (the ice systems).
 The biosphere - this contains all living organisms and it is intimately related
to the other three spheres: most living organisms require gases from the
atmosphere, water from the hydrosphere and nutrients and minerals from
the geosphere. Living organisms also require a medium for life, and are
adapted to inhabit one or more of the other three spheres. However, much of
the biosphere is contained within a shallow surface layer encompassing the
lower part of the atmosphere, the surface of the geosphere and
approximately the upper 100 metres of the ocean. Humans are part of the
biosphere, although they are increasingly responsible for the creation of
systems that may be largely artificial (such as cities).

The main components of the earth system are interconnected by flows (also known
as pathways or fluxes) of energy and materials. The most important flows in the earth
system are those concerned with the transfer of energy and the cycling of key materials in
biogeochemical cycles.

Energy flows

The earth is a vast, complex system powered by two sources of energy: an internal
source (the decay of radioactive elements in the geosphere, which generates geothermal
heat) and an external source (the solar radiation received from the Sun); the vast
majority of the energy in the earth system comes from the Sun. Whilst some variations in
these two sources occur, their energy supplies are relatively constant and they power all
of the planet's environmental systems. Indeed, energy both drives and flows through
environmental systems, and energy pathways may be highly complex and difficult to
identify. For instance, energy may take the form of latent heat which is absorbed or
released when substances change state (for example, between the liquid and gaseous
phases). An example of energy flow and transformation through an ecosystem is
illustrated in 2.2.2. Energy is transferred within and between environmental systems in
three main ways:

 radiation - this is the process by which energy is transmitted through space,

typically in the form of electromagnetic waves
 convection - this is the physical movement of fluids (such as water or air)
that contain energy in the form of heat; convection does not occur in solids
 conduction - this is the transfer of energy in the form of heat through the
substance of a medium (from molecule to molecule)

As well as being transferred within environmental systems, energy may also be

transformed from one form to another; for instance, a rock fall involves the conversion
of potential energy (due to gravity) to kinetic energy (due to movement) and
to thermal energy, or heat (due to friction). The transfer and transformation of energy
are associated with the performance of work; hence the sun performs work in heating
the earth by its radiation, and a glacier performs work in moving sediment down-slope
using the kinetic energy of its ice, water and rock. When work is carried out within the
earth system, energy is transferred from one body to another, and it may also be
converted from one form to another in the process. Throughout environmental systems,
as energy is transformed from one form to another in performing work, heat is released;
that heat is subsequently exported from the system, usually into the atmosphere and
then into space. Yet the total energy content of the earth system remains the same (it is
conserved), for energy cannot be created or destroyed. It follows that the earth system is
only able to continue to function because it is constantly replenished with a sufficient
supply of energy (mainly from the sun).

The dominant flows of energy at the global scale occur as a result of the large
discrepancies that occur between the amounts of solar radiation received (and re-emitted)
at different points on the earth's surface. Such discrepancies are most clearly apparent in
the wide variations in surface temperature that exist between the equator and the poles.
Those temperature variations drive the global energy circulation which acts to redistribute
heat from the warm to the cold parts of the earth's surface. An overall poleward transfer
of energy occurs by means of a variety of processes: the transfer of heat by winds and
warm air masses; the transfer of latent heat associated with water vapour; the movement
of heat in ocean currents; and the returning counter-flows of cooler air and water. The
three main processes of energy transfer at the global scale may be summarised as:

 the horizontal transfer of sensible heat by the movement of warm air masses
 the transfer of latent heat in the form of atmospheric moisture
 the horizontal convection of sensible heat by ocean currents

It is important to acknowledge that pronounced latitudinal variations occur in these three

processes. Overall, however, these processes of energy transfer maintain a state of
equilibrium in the earth system: they remove energy from areas of surplus (in lower
latitudes) and transfer it to areas of deficit (in higher latitudes).

EARTH’S INTERNAL STRUCTURE

A knowledge of earth's interior is essential for understanding plate tectonics. A good
analogy for teaching about earth's interior is a piece of fruit with a large pit such as
a peach or a plum. Most students are familiar with these fruits and have seen them
cut in half. In addition, the sizes of the features are very similar.

If we cut a piece of fruit in half, we will see that it is composed of three parts: 1) a
very thin skin, 2) a seed of significant size located in the center, and 3) most of the
mass of the fruit being contained within the flesh. Cutting the earth we would see:
1) a very thin crust on the outside, 2) a core of significant size in the center, and 3)
most of the mass of the Earth contained in the mantle.

EARTH’S CRUST
There are two different types of crust: thin oceanic crust that underlies the ocean
basins, and thicker continental crust that underlies the continents. These two
different types of crust are made up of different types of rock. The thin oceanic
crust is composed of primarily of basalt, and the thicker continental crust is
composed primarily of granite. The low density of the thick continental crust allows
it to "float" in high relief on the much higher density mantle below.

EARTH’S MANTLE
Earth's mantle is thought to be composed mainly of olivine-rich rock. It has
different temperatures at different depths. The temperature is lowest immediately
beneath the crust and increases with depth. The highest temperatures occur where
the mantle material is in contact with the heat-producing core. This steady increase
of temperature with depth is known as the geothermal gradient. The geothermal
gradient is responsible for different rock behaviors, and the different rock behaviors
are used to divide the mantle into two different zones. Rocks in the upper mantle
are cool and brittle, while rocks in the lower mantle are hot and soft (but not
molten). Rocks in the upper mantle are brittle enough to break under stress and
produce earthquakes. However, rocks in the lower mantle are soft and flow when
subjected to forces instead of breaking. The lower limit of brittle behavior is the
boundary between the upper and lower mantle.

EARTH’S CORE
Earth's Core is thought to be composed mainly of an iron and nickel alloy. This
composition is assumed based upon calculations of its density and upon the fact
that many meteorites (which are thought to be portions of the interior of a
planetary body) are iron-nickel alloys. The core is earth's source of internal heat
because it contains radioactive materials which release heat as they break down
into more stable substances.

The core is divided into two different zones. The outer core is a liquid because the
temperatures there are adequate to melt the iron-nickel alloy. However, the inner
core is a solid even though its temperature is higher than the outer core. Here,
tremendous pressure, produced by the weight of the overlying rocks, is strong
enough to crowd the atoms tightly together and prevents the liquid state.

THREE CATEGORIES OF ROCKS

Sedimentary Rock Type

Sedimentary rocks are made up of pieces of older rocks (igneous, metamorphic,

and sedimentary) and organic remains (shells, bone, etc.). When rocks break apart
from erosion they are transported by rivers and streams to lakes and oceans. As
the sediment piles up it is compressed and heated in the Earth. Eventually, the high
pressures and temperatures lithify the loose sediment into a sedimentary rock.

Sedimentary rocks are the "recyclers" of the rock cycle, they take any other rock
and turn it into a new one.

Examples of sedimentary rocks

 Sandstone

 Limestone

 Shale
  Conglomerate

Igneous Rock Type

Igneous rocks are formed when magma cools and turns into a rock. This cooling
can either be intrusive, where the magma pool gradually cools and the magma
solidifies into an igneous rock. Alternatively, the cooling can extrusive, where the
magma is cooled very quickly such as during a volcanic eruption. 

Igneous rocks are the "new kids" in the rock cycle. They're the new rock on the
block, ready to start fresh.

Examples of igneous rocks

 Granite

 Basalt

 Pumice

 Gabbro

Metamorphic Rock Type

Metamorphic rocks form from a previously existing rock, be it igneous, sedimentary

or even an older metamorphic rock. Rocks turn metamorphic when they are
subjected to very high heat and pressure. This alters the chemical and structural
makeup of the minerals within the rock, changing it into a new metamorphic rock.
If the rock is heated enough, it fully melts and if cooled would be an igneous rock. 

Metamorphic rocks are the "change makers" of the rock cycle. They take what was
once a rock and change it into a new rock!

Examples of metamorphic rocks

 Marble

 Gneiss

 Schist

 Slate