Geologic Processes Inside Earth

Karol Leigh-Anne Lacuarin

STEM 11-D Justice

1. Is the primitive Earth hotter than today? Defend your answer.

Primitive Earth has been much hotter than it is now. "Planetesimals," or solid particles, condensed

from the cloud. It is believed that they remained together and made the early Earth. Earth became molten

as a result of bombarding planetesimals. Earth therefore had a very hot beginning. High atmospheric

quantities of carbon dioxide and methane may have kept the ancient Earth warm, claim a study's authors

Eric Wolf and Brian Toon of the University of Colorado at Boulder. These greenhouse gases increased the

amount of heat held in the atmosphere as a result of the weaker sun.

2. How are plate boundaries related to magmatism?

The greatest earthquakes and eruptions occur around plate borders because they concentrate the

majority of tectonic and magmatic activity on the planet's surface. A plate may diverge (when two

interacting plates move apart) or converge (when two plates are moving together) or move parallel to

another plate (without moving apart or approaching). On the continental, transitional, and oceanic

lithosphere are where divergent plate borders are located. Convergent plate boundaries can collide with

continental lithosphere, which has little to no magmatism, or subduct oceanic lithosphere, which has

widespread magmatism. In this study, the volcanic arcs that sit on the edge of the plates overriding the

subducting oceanic slabs are referred to as convergent plate boundaries.

3. What is the difference of pahoehoe and lava flow?

The Hawaiian word "pahoehoe" is used to characterize lava flows with smooth, ropy surfaces.

Small volumes of lava are squeezing out of a cooler crust in pahoehoe flows, which move slowly. As they

form and cool, pahoehoe flows can take on a variety of distinct shapes. These are referred to as "lava

sculpture" at times. Pahoehoe lava has a smooth, billowy, or ropy surface when it has hardened, whereas

aa lava has a rough, jagged, spiky, and generally clinkery surface. The shattered exterior of loose clinkers

and stones in thick aa flows conceals a huge, comparatively dense inner.