Earth

Origin and
Structure of the
Earth
 Learning Targets

1. State the different hypotheses explaining the origin of the universe

2. Describe the different hypotheses explaining the origin of the solar system
3. Explain the current advancements and information on the solar system
4. Recognize the uniqueness of Earth being the only planet in the solar system with
properties necessary to support life
5. Identify and differentiate the layers of the Earth
6. Explain that the Earth consists of four subsystems, across whose boundaries matter
and energy flow
7. Show the contributions of different people/personalities on the understanding of
the universe, the solar system, and the Earth system.
 How did the Universe Come to Be?

Cosmology – is an understanding of the origin, evolution, structure, and fate of the

universe.

The earliest musings about the origin of the universe can be found in the Rigveda.

The Hymn of Creation in the Rigveda reveals that ancient Indians believed that the
universe had an origin and pondered about how and where the world, and everything
else, began.
For the ancient Greeks, however, the cosmos has always been in existence. Neither
created nor perishable, the cosmos for many Greek thinkers was timeless and infinite
in extent. From the greek thinkers also came the idea of the universe having a center.

Philolaus (470-385 B.C.) was

the first to propose that Earth was not the center of the universe, but a central fire,
around which other celestial objects, such as the Sun, moon, and other planets
revolved uniformly.
Aristarchus (310-230 B.C.) seconded Philolaus, but said that the central fire was
actually the sun. This claim by Aristarchus was the first to propose a heliocentric model
of the universe.

Heliocentric Model of the Universe

Aristotle (384- 322 B.C.), one of the greatest minds in Greek Clasical Antiquity, that the
center of the cosmos is Earth.

Claudius Ptolemy (100-170 A.D.), a Greco-Egyptian mathematician, geographer,

astrologer, and astronomer, popularized/furthered/elaborated the geocentric model,
wherein celestial bodies revolved around the Earth.
Einstein’s theory of the universe would later lead to the
development of the Big Bang Theory.

Many hypotheses had been tested to discuss the origin of the

universe but the most accepted theory today is the Big Bang
Theory. Cosmologists that support this theory claim that our
universe is 13.7 billion years old and they divided the history of
the universe into a series of eras or time periods. Each era is
distinguished from the next by some major changes in the
condition of the universe.
1. Planck Era
2. The Grand Unified Theory (GUT) Era
3. Electroweak Era
4. Particle Era
5. The Era of Nucleosynthesis
6. Era of Nuclei
7. The Era of Atoms and the Era of Galaxies
The Planck Era

The first era that marked the beginning of the universe was the Planck era. In
this era, the universe was very tiny – smaller than an atom – and assumed to
be made up of condensed energy and 1 second old. During this time, the
fundamental forces in nature that we know today – namely
1. Gravity
2. Nuclear strong force Super force
3. Nuclear weak force and
4. Electromagnetic force
The Grand Unified Theory (GUT) Era

The GUT era began when the “super force” split into two types of forces –
gravity and GUT force. The nuclear strong force started to freeze out from the
GUT force, which was accompanied by a release of huge amount of energy
causing space evolution to grow up into the enormous size of our solar
system. This expansion of the universe is called inflation.
Electroweak Era

After the GUT era, our young universe entered the electroweak era. There
were three forces operating in our universe during this era:

1. Gravity
2. Strong force
3. Electroweak force.
Particle Era
When the fundamental forces were finally separated, ordinary particles
started to form. Throughout the particle era, there were spontaneous
creation and annihilation of particles. Photons, a particle of light or other
electromagnetic radiation, collided with another photon to form matter and
antimatter and vice versa. These particles were electrons, neutrinos, and
quarks.

Today, our universe has a photon/photon ratio of 1/1. This observation

suggests that photons must have slightly outnumbered the antiprotons at the
end of the particle era.
The Era of Nucleosynthesis

The end of the particle era marked the beginning of the era of
nucleosynthesis. After the annihilation of antimatter, heavier nuclei started to
form by fusion of proton and neutron left over. However, most nuclei broke
apart because of the high temperature of the universe.

At the end of the era of nucleosynthesis, the temperature of the universe

dropped to 1, which caused the fusion of proton and neutron to stop. At this
stage, the universe was about three minutes old and contained 75% hydrogen
and 25% helium with trace amounts of deuterium and tritium.
 Era of Nuclei

The expanding universe considered of plasma of hydrogen nuclei, helium

nuclei, and free electrons throughout this era. This condition of the universe
was held for about 500 000 years. At the end of the era of nuclei, the
temperature of the universe dropped to 3 000K. At this temperature, the
hydrogen and helium nuclei captured electrons and formed stable, neutral
atoms. As a result, the universe became transparent. The formally trapped
photons in the electrons began to stream freely across the universe. These
photons are known today as cosmic microwave background. Later in this era,
the first twenty-five elements of the periodic table were created.
 The Era of Atoms and the Era of Galaxies

The universe consisted of a mixture of neutral atoms and plasma, which

slowly gathered together to form photogalactic clouds during the era of
atoms. The first generation of stars was formed within the clouds, which
transformed the clouds into galaxies. However, heavier elements could not be
formed having the amount of energy provided by the stars. The needed
energy was derived from the bursting of the stars known as supernova.
Figure 1.1 The history of the universe is divided into eras. The first events in
the history of the universe happened in a span of three minutes.
 How did the Solar System Form?

Recent advances in science and technology aided us in explaining the origin of the Earth and
other planets. Information derived from optical telescopes, space probes, computer power,
and better techniques for detecting planets serve as considerable pieces of evidence in testing
earlier theories. Some of these important pieces of information were:

Mass distribution – The mass of the system is not evenly distributed. Most of the mass is
concentrated in the sun.

Angular momentum distribution – Similar to mass distribution, the angular momentum

(tendency to rotate) is concentrated more among the planets in comparison to the sun.
Shape and alignment of orbits – the planets move in nearly circular orbits that nearly align
with the equator of the sun in the same direction.
 Perihelion –
 Aphelion –

Chemical compositions – the planets and the sun have similar chemical compositions,
although in varying proportions. Planets in the solar system are subdivided into two groups:
the small, heavy, and nonvolatile planets; and the large, light, and volatile planets.
From these scientific data, various models had been created
to explain the origin of the Earth, such as the random
capture model, the close-approach model, and the star-
formation model. The latter was generally favored today and
accepted as explanation for the origin of the planets. It was
later called the nebula theory.
The Nebula Theory

As stars were being created and bursting into supernovas, the solar system began to
form, although it took millions of years in order to produce elements needed to
form the solar system. About 4.6 billion years ago, a supernova occurred and
shocked a nearby interstellar space and triggered the solar nebula to collapse. As the
solar nebula collapsed, its core temperature increased and released thermal energy.
As the temperature of the core reached 10 million Kelvin, hydrogen atoms began to
fuse together, forming helium atoms. At this point, the center of the solar nebula
became a protosun.
Particles in the protoplanetary disk started to collide and form planetesimals. This
led to the following series of formation of the planets in the solar system. At a
distance, near the orbit of Mercury up to that of Mars, varieties of rocks and
minerals condensed. The small solid particles that condensed from the inner solar
nebula orbited around the protosun in almost circular path.
 Each particle moved with the same speed as their neighboring particles, allowing
them to collide and stick to each other very gently.

As the small particles grew slowly into larger solid rocks called planetesimals, started
to produce fragmentation more than accretion. Only the largest planetesimals
avoided such shattering and continued to grow into planets. These planets became
Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. These planets are also called terrestrial planets.
In the outer solar nebula beyond the frost line, solid materials, like all types of rocks,
metals, solid water, methane, and ammonia, accelerated the accretion very rapidly.
These caused the planetesimals to grow many times larger than the Earth. The icy
planetesimals have very strong gravitational force that is enough to capture the
more abundant hydrogen and helium gases within the solar nebula. This process is
called nebula capture. This led to the formation of the jovian planets:

JUPITER, SATURN, NEPTUNE, and URANUS.

Finally, the Sun started to become stable and the remaining gas of the solar nebula
was blown into interstellar space by the solar wind. When the sun was young, solar
wind was much stronger than today’s; it was strong enough to have swept huge
amounts of gas out of the solar system.
 How did the Solar System Form?

One could say that the most important event in the history of the Universe was the formation
of a planet habitable by life. Like its neighbors, Mercury, Venus, and Mars, Earth was formed
during the formation of the solar system.

During the earlier formation of the Earth, heavier elements like iron and nickel settled down at
its center, while lighter materials occupied the surface. This gave rise to the core as the
innermost layer and the crust or lithosphere as the outer rock layer. The middle layer is the
mantle.
 The Composition of Earth

The crust
The crust of the Earth is composed o a great variety of igneous, metamorphic, and
sedimentary rocks. The rocks found in the crust consist mostly of lighter elements such as
silicon, potassium, and sodium. The density of these rocks is about three times that of water.

The oceanic crust, which is 5 km to 10 km thick, is composed primarily of basalt, diabase,

and gabbro.

The continental crust, which is 30 km to 50 km thick, is mostly composed of less dense

rocks that the oceanic crust. Some of these less dense rocks, such as granite, are common in
the continental crust, but rare in the oceanic crust.
The Mantle

Earth’s mantle is a 2 885-km thick shell of rock surrounding the planet’s outer core, lying
directly beneath the thin crust, roughly between 30 and 2 900 km below the surface. It
occupies about 84 % of Earth’s volume. The term “mantle” is also applied to the rock shell
surrounding the core of the other planets. In the solar system, the Earth’s mantle is the only
one that is continually active.

The mantle differs substantially from the crust in terms of mechanical characteristics and
chemical compositions. The crust is, in fact, primarily a product of mantle melting. Mantle
rocks consist of oliviness, different pyroxenes, and other mafic minerals. Mantle rocks also
possess a higher portion of iron and magnesium and a smaller portion of silicon and
aluminum than the crust. The mantle temperature ranges between 1 000 at the upper
boundary near the crust – which extends from the crust to a depth of about 410 km – to over 4
000 at the lower boundary near the outer core.
The Core

With a thickness of 1 216 km, the inner core of the Earth is mostly composed of solid iron and
nickel; surrounded by the liquid iron outer core with a thickness of 2 270 km. the core is
believed to have a maximum relative density of 13 and has a maximum temperature of 6 400.
The flowing iron and nickel in the outer core resulted to the formation of the magnetic field
that further protects the Earth.
Earth: A Habitable Planet

For 4.6 billion years, Earth’s structure has undergone – and is continuously undergoing – grand
changes. In fact, in its primitive form, Earth did not look like how it looks today: a beautiful
blue marble. Between 4.35 and 3.8 billion years ago, Earth experienced heavy bombardment,
making Earth a dangerous place for any living thing. After the bombardment period, about 3.8
to 3 milioon years ago, land and bodies of water have begun to form. In addition, gaseous
materials formed the atmosphere that was finally able to support life on the surface.