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Lecture 01 Earth in Space S
Lecture 01 Earth in Space S
• Paradigm shifts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle
http://www.mira.org/fts0/planets/099/text/txt002x.htm
Aristotle’s model is wrong
Europa
Io
• Galileo’s observations of the orbits of Jupiter’s four largest satellites
revealed that the Aristotle-Ptolemy model is unbelievable
• We now know that the planets, including the Earth, orbit the Sun
Callisto
Ganymede
http://www.hcsi.com/im_lib/imlib_space.html
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/jupiter/moons.shtml
A new law
Isaac Newton (1665) discovered the force that
held the planets in their orbits around the sun -
gravity.
gravitation, "every body in the universe attracts
every other body.“
Force = mass x acceleration = ma
Gravitational Force = gm1m2/r2 identify symbols
Both orbit, but …
White light contains a continuum of colors from short wave violet to long wave red
Helium
Redshift: absorption spectra shift to
red with retreat of the emitter
Analogy: Passing train whistle, high to low frequency = short to long wavelength
“Doppler Effect”
Blue, moving toward us
H2O
Symbols for elements
Origin of Heavy Elements
• A star more than 8-20 times the mass of
our sun burns faster, then expands into a
red super giant star, similar to Betelgeuse.
• Pressure is high enough to also produce
the heavier elements including silicon Si,
magnesium Mg, iron Fe.
• Once its fuel is exhausted,
a supernova explosion occurs.
http://www.solarviews.com/cap/ds/betelgeuse.htm
8 Most rocks are Main Sequence Stars
14 made of these two
Super Giant
Stars
Origin of Our Solar System
CORE
(most dense)
Outer ~2900 km
core
Conversion Factors
~5155 km
Inner
core 6370 kilometers to the center of the Earth
“Lithosphere”
“Asthenosphere”
Earth has a large liquid outer core, makes a magnetic field, and so a thick atmosphere
The Magnetic Field protects the
Atmosphere. The Atmosphere
protects Earth from most meteors
A magnetic field once surrounded Mars. The red planet lost its protective
magnetic field as the smaller planet cooled down more rapidly than Earth,
losing its hot liquid core. Mars retains just isolated remnants of its atmosphere
where pockets of relict magnetism remain.
A Perfect Spot
Earth's distance from the Sun allows water to exist as a
liquid.
Barrington Crater
Winslow, Arizona
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event
The dust is found in a thick layer worldwide, and forms the K|T boundary
the boundary between the Age of Reptiles and the Age of Mammals.
Gravity Map
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_Crater
The K\T ash layer in Alberta
Shocked Quartz
One
superfund
cleanup
$21 million
What is That?
Continental drift: An
idea
before its time
• Alfred Wegener
• Proposed hypothesis in 1915
• Published The Origin of
Continents and Oceans
• Continental drift hypothesis
• Supercontinent Pangaea began breaking
apart about 200 million years ago
South American and African
Coastlines Fit
Fossils, mountain ranges, glaciers
Harry Hess
The revolution begins
http://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/~io/Bubble.html
Harry’s Idea:
Sea-Floor
Mid-ocean
Spreading ridge
Here we see Divergent Margins (the Atlantic Mid-Ocean Ridge – Harry’s Sea-Floor
Spreading) and
Convergent Margins (the dense Pacific Ocean Plate is being dragged under South
America – called subduction zones )
Continental Lithosphere
Oceanic Lithosphere
Asthenosphere
Subduction Zone
Divergent Boundaries (Rising Convection Currents) Mid-Ocean Ridge
Convergent Boundaries
(Descending Convection Currents)
Subduction Zone
Mid-Atlantic
Ridge
1_15
45º 45º
NORTH EURASIAN
AMERICAN PLATE
JUAN DE PLATE
FUCA PACIFIC
PLATE ARABIAN PLATE
PLATE
PHILIPPINE
CARIBBEAN
PLATE
PLATE
AFRICAN
0º COCOS PLATE 0º
PLATE
FIJI
SOUTH
PLATE
AMERICAN
PLATE INDIAN-
PACIFIC NAZCA
PLATE AUSTRALIAN
PLATE
PLATE
Mid-Atlantic
SCOTIA
PLATE
Ridge
45º 45º
ANTARCTIC PLATE
ANTARCTIC PLATE
Convergent plate
boundary Seven or so major plates, about an equal number of small plates
Divergent plate
boundary
Transform plate
boundary
Components of Plate Tectonics: there are three main types of plate margins
Divergent, Convergent and Transform
E NTA L PLATE
CONTIN
E
I NE NTA L P LA T
CONT Oceanic lithosphere
being subducted
(a)
Subducted Ocean Plate loses water and adjacent Mantle partially
melts, new buoyant magma rises to the surface, forming a
Volcanic Arc such as the Andes Mountains of South America
Once the ocean crust between them is subducted, the continents collide.
Both are thick and made of buoyant (low density) minerals, so neither
continent can be subducted under the other
Collisional
mountains
(b)
Collisions formed the Appalachians, and, more recently,
the Himalayas and the Alps.
The collision of India and Asia
produced the Himalayas
Ocean-Ocean
Japan, Aleutians
Favorite quiz picture
Asia
India Continent-Continent
Himalayas, Alps,
Appalachians
Transform
Plate
Boundaries