ICT 12 – NEWTON REVIEWER

Earth Subsystem

Atmosphere

✓ Gaseous envelope of the planet.

✓ Contains the air we breathe, traps heat from the Sun, maintain weather system of the
planet, regulates the climate and helps keep temperature to support life.
✓ “pauses” – boundaries between the “spheres” occur.
o Troposphere
o Stratosphere
o Mesosphere
o Thermosphere
o Exosphere
✓ Each layer is defined by thermal character.

Hydrosphere

Consist all the water of the Earth. It comes in different form:

✓ Gas (water vapor)

✓ Liquid (oceans, lakes, rivers, etc.)
✓ Solid (ice also known as cryosphere)

Water moves through a cycle called hydrologic cycle.

Geosphere

✓ The solid portion of the Earth.

✓ Came from the Latin word geo which means “ground”.
✓ It includes the interior layers of the Earth namely core, mantle and crust.

CORE (IRON & NICKEL) METAL

✓ INNER CORE
o Hot and solid
o Remnant of collisions
o Intense pressure and temperature
✓ OUTER CORE
o Hot and liquid
o Contrasting movement of the earth and outer core is responsible for magnetic
field
o Magnetosphere - protects the earth from harmful rays called SolarWinds
 ICT 12 – NEWTON REVIEWER

MANTLE (IRON+MAGNESIUM SILICATES)

✓ Thickest layer
✓ Located below the crust
o UPPER MANTLE
▪ LITHOSPHERE (UPPER MANTLE + CRUST)
• where all rocks and landforms exist on the crust
▪ ASTHENOSPHERE
• a region between the mantle and the crust
• responsible for volcanism and tectonic activity
o LOWER MANTLE
▪ MESOSPHERE
• Region under lithosphere and asthenosphere
• Material flows at much slower rate

CRUST (SILICATES)

✓ Consists of tectonic plates

✓ Can create mountains and trenches
✓ Where we are standing right now
o Continental crust - less dense
o Oceanic crust – denser

Biosphere

✓ Also termed as “zone of life”, a part of the Earth where life exist.
✓ It inhabits all other systems – land, air and water.
✓ It has been said that biosphere existed for after 1 billion years after the Earth was born.
✓ Prokaryotes are said to be the earliest life forms on Earth

Ecological Footprint

Carbon Footprint

Total amount of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide and methane) that are
generated by our actions.

Greenhouse Effect

A process that occurs when gases in Earth’s atmosphere trap the Sun’s heat.
 ICT 12 – NEWTON REVIEWER

The Secret Lives of Rocks 1

Minerals

A mineral is defined as a naturally occurring (not man-made or machine generated),

inorganic (not a byproduct of living things) solid with an orderly crystalline structure and a
definite chemical composition.

Physical Properties

These are properties that can be observed or measured without changing the composition
of the substance.

✓ Color
o Most obvious property of a mineral
✓ Luster
o Interaction with light (shiny/dull/metallic/opaque)
✓ Streak
o Color in powder form
✓ Specific Gravity
o Compare it density with water
✓ Hardness
o Ability to scratch other minerals (Friedrich Mohs)
✓ Cleavage/Fracture
o Tendency to break along specific planes (bonding)

Chemical Properties

Minerals are also grouped according to their chemical composition.

✓ SILICATES
o Most common of the groups based on their chemical composition.
o Contain silicon and oxygen bonded to a metal.
✓ CARBONATES
o Contain carbon and oxygen atoms bonded with another element, usually a
metal.
✓ OXIDES
o These minerals are metals bonded with oxygen, thus the name oxide.
✓ HALIDES
o From the word halogen, halides are minerals that contain a halogen family
element bonded to a metal.
 ICT 12 – NEWTON REVIEWER

✓ SULFATES
o These minerals contain sulfur and oxygen bonded to a metal atom
✓ SULFIDES
o Unlike sulfates, sulfides are minerals where sulfur atoms directly bond with a
metal.
✓ NATIVE ELEMENTS
o These are minerals that contain only one element in their structure.

The Rock Cycle

The rock cycle is the planet’s process that allows the “recycling” of rocks from one form to
another. This is fueled by exogenic and endogenic activities.

Rocks

collection/ combination of one or more minerals.

✓ Sedimentary Rocks
o Formed from the accumulation of sediments over time
o By the aid of gravitational pressure, these sediments (rock fragments) are
compressed together
o The key feature of sedimentary rocks is the presence of discernible remnants
(clasts) of the sediments embedded within the layers of a rock sample
o Among the three types of rocks, sedimentary rocks hold the most possibility of
containing a fossil.
▪ Clastic sedimentary rock - involves the breakdown of rocks into smaller
ones at the surface of crust, accumulate as clasts, piled on the top of one
another.
▪ Chemical sedimentary rock. - form when dissolved materials precipitate.
• Precipitation - process of separating a solid substance from a
liquid.
▪ Organic sedimentary rock. - form by accumulation of sedimentary
debris caused by organic process. May contain fossils of plants and
animals.
✓ Igneous Rocks
o Formed through exposure to heat in the lower layers of the asthenosphere.
o The intense heat allows for the melting of the rocks completely, allowing no
remnants of its former appearance to transcend.
 ICT 12 – NEWTON REVIEWER

o Moreover, due to the presence of heat, minerals clump together in igneous

rocks allowing them to form crystals during the cool down of lava.
▪ Extrusive/Volcanic igneous rocks are formed through cooling quickly and
hardening on the Earth’s surface. Some examples of extrusive igneous
rocks are obsidian and basalt. (Small crystals)
▪ Intrusive/Plutonic igneous rocks then are formed through a slower
cooling that takes place underneath the surface of the Earth’s crust. An
example of intrusive igneous rocks is granite. (Large crystals)
✓ Metamorphic Rock
o Metamorphic rocks are formed through:
▪ HEAT
• Contact metamorphism (non-foliated metamorphic rocks)
▪ PRESSURE
• Regional metamorphism (foliated metamorphic rocks)
o Types of Metamorphic Rocks
▪ Foliated metamorphic rocks
• It is formed through pressure due to compression of rocks that
create bands called foliation. Examples are gneiss, phyllite, schist,
and slate.
▪ Non-foliated metamorphic rocks
• It has no foliation or bands. Examples of this type are hornfels,
marble, quartzite, and novaculite.

Exogenic Activities

WEATHERING
MASS MOVEMENT A chemical and
A large number mechanical
of hammer that
materialsbeing breaks down
transported. rocks to
fragments.

EROSION
The process of
transportation of the
weathered materials.
 ICT 12 – NEWTON REVIEWER

Weathering

A chemical and mechanical hammer that breaks down rocks into fragments

✓ PHYSICAL WEATHERING
o (Mechanical weathering) refers to the breakdown of rocks without a change in
its composition.
▪ BIOSPHERE INFLUENCE
▪ FROST WEATHERING
▪ TEMPERATURE CHANGE
▪ WIND AND WAVES
✓ CHEMICAL WEATHERING
o The decomposition of rocks due to chemical reactions occurring between the
minerals and in the rocks and the environment.
▪ BIOSPHERE INFLUENCE
▪ DISSOLUTION
▪ HYDROLYSIS
▪ OXIDATION

Erosion

The process of transportation of the weathered materials.

Mass Movement

A large number of materials being transported (formerly known as mass wasting) also
known as slope movement.

✓ MATERIALS
o Can be rocks, land, earth, snow
✓ SPEED
o Can be fast (slide) moderate (flow) and slow (creep/solifluction)
✓ WATER
o Is always the secret ingredient
✓ FALL
o The fastest type of mass wasting.
o It is characterized by rapid, free-falling rocks.
✓ SLIDES
o It is the movement of coherent blocks or a few intact materials along
fractures.
 ICT 12 – NEWTON REVIEWER

o It is faster than flow but may still take time for the debris to move entirely.
✓ FLOW
o During flow, loose unconsolidated particles act as a fluid. Some slopes move
at a prolonged rate, (i.e., at a speed of 1 centimeter per year or less.)
o Other slopes such as saturated mud can smoothly flow like water. The
advancing front of flow forms a tongue-shaped lobe and may pick up from
boulders to houses dislodged from their foundations.

The Secret Lives of Rocks 2

Three Types of Heat Transfer

✓ Conduction
▪ There is direct contact between the materials and the heat source.
✓ Convection
▪ The transfer of heat due to the bulk movement of molecules within fluids.
✓ Radiation
▪ Does not rely upon any contact between the heat source and heated object.

Internal Layers of The Earth

✓ Crust
✓ Mantle
✓ Outer Core
✓ Inner Core

Internal Heat

Earth’s internal heat sources:

✓ PRIMORDIAL HEAT
o The early formation of the solar system was marred by catastrophic collision
events that resulted in a high temperature within the earth.
✓ CONVECTION CURRENTS
o Heat from the interior of the earth pass on their heat through the particles that
compose them making convection currents.
✓ SOLAR RADIATION
o Regulation of atmospheric temperature on earth that is also heated by the
radiation from the sun.
 ICT 12 – NEWTON REVIEWER

Magmatism

Ways how magma is formed

✓ Melting by heat transfer

o Same pressure, increase in temperature
✓ Decompression Melting
o Same temperature, decrease in pressure
✓ Flux Melting
o Addition of materials change the melting point of materials

Factors affecting viscosity of magma

✓ Temperature
o Inversely proportional
✓ Silica content
o Directly proportional
✓ Gases dissolved
o Inversely proportional

Gases in Magma

✓ Nearly all magma contain gas dissolved in the liquid similar to carbonated
beverages which is bottled at high pressure.
✓ Lava spilling over from the craters is usually bubbly, a sign that gases are escaping
lowering the lava temperature, volume and composition.
✓ Gas gives magma its explosive character, because the volume of gas expands as
pressure is reduced.
✓ The composition of the gases in magma is:
o Mostly H2O (water vapor) & some CO2 (carbon dioxide)
o Minor amounts of Sulfur, Chlorine, and Fluorine gases

Types of Volcanos

✓ COMPOSITE / Stratovolcano
o High viscosity (eruptive)
✓ CINDER CONE
o High viscosity, high gas content (eruptive)
✓ SHIELD
o Low viscosity, low gas content (effusive)
 ICT 12 – NEWTON REVIEWER

IGNEOUS ROCKS

Formation and classification

By Manner of Cooling

Cooling magma erupts from a volcano and cools quickly on the earth’s surface to from
extrusive igneous rock.

✓ EXTRUSIVE
o Cooled on the surface
o Rapid
o Small Crystals
✓ INTRUSIVE
o Cooled within
o Slow
o Large Crystals

By Composition