The Earth Inside and Out

What is the earth made of?

Three main parts

- Core
- Mantle
- Crust
The solid core is made
of iron and nickel
The mantle is a soft
layer of molten rock
 Solid, Liquid, and Gas

Atmosphere: a layer of gasses that immediately

surrounds the earth
Lithosphere: a part of the earths surface that is
made of solid rock
Hydrosphere: the elements of the earth that are
made up of water
Biosphere: the place where plants and animals live
(atmosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere)
 Continental Drift
The Pangaea theory was
proposed by Alfred Wegener
This supercontinent split into
many different plates which
slowly drifted into their
current position
Scientific Evidence
- puzzle pieces
- fossil records
- rock ages
- magnetic north
The Plates of the Earth
Bodies of Water and Landforms
Oceans, Seas, Lakes, and Rivers

71% of the Earth is

covered by salt water
oceans
Lakes supply more
than 95% of the world’s
fresh water
Water held on the
earth’s surface by soil
is called groundwater
 The Hydrologic Cycle

Water is continuously
circulating between
the atmosphere,
oceans, and earth
Water evaporates,
cools and condenses,
and falls back to the
earth
 What causes the tides?

Tides: periodic rise and fall of the large bodies of water

Caused by the gravitational pull of the moon, thus
making the seas bulge toward the moon
Isaac Newton first proved this in 1686
Oceanic Landforms

Continental Shelf - the

earth’s surface which
stretches to deep parts
of the ocean
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge
is the longest
continuous chain of
underwater mountains
 Continental Landforms

Relief - difference in
elevation measured from
highest to lowest point
- Four Types: mountain,
hill, plateau, and plain
The shape of the surface,
its composition, and
distribution of a landform
defines a region’s
topography
Internal Forces
 Plate Tectonics

Tectonic Plates float on a bed of heated rock (aka:

magma)
When the edges of two plates meet they either form
folds or faults (cracks)
Four Types of Plate Movement
- Divergent
- Convergent : Subduction
- Convergent : Collision
- Transform
 Divergent

Magma rises to the surface, pushing the crust apart,

and thus spreads the plates apart
 Convergent

Subduction - as two plates meet one plate is forced under

the other
Collision – neither plate is subducted, but one folds and
the other splits and is pushed upward (forming mountains)
Transform
Two plates slide past
one another creating a
fault or fracture
This type of sliding
movement does not
create new landforms

The San Andreas Fault

slices through over 800
miles of California
 Volcanoes

When a volcano erupts

magma, gases, and
water rush to the
earth’s surface
Magma that reaches
the surface of the earth
is called lava
The Ring of Fire

Volcanic arcs and

oceanic trenches partly
encircling the Pacific
Basin form the so-
called Ring of Fire, a
zone of frequent
earthquakes and
volcanic eruptions
 Weathering

Weathering is the slow

occurrence of physical
and chemical
processes that break
down the earth’s
surface
Smaller pieces of rock
are created, called
sediment
 Mechanical and Chemical
Weathering
Mechanical Weathering does not change the
composition of rock, it breaks it down into
smaller pieces
Chemical Weathering changes rock into new
substances as a result of interaction between
air or water and minerals within the rock
Erosion

Defined as the
movement of minerals
by wind, water, ice, and
gravity
Three types of erosion
are water, wind, and
glacial
 Erosion continued

Water can cause erosion by the speed of the current,

the amount of sediment being carried (abrasion), and
chemical weathering
Wind can move sediment when wind speeds are
11mph or greater
Glaciers move sediment by using gravity to push,
carry, or grind rock particles
 Soil

Soil is created by weathering and erosion