Geol 1 LE 1 Reviewer

What Lies Beneath? Earths Origin and Internal Processes

Earth Systems
Earth systems
o Integrates various fields of study to understand Earth as a system
o Air, water, land and life interaction with each other to form the Earth
Gaia theory
o All organisms and inorganic surroundings are closely integrated to form a single
and self-regulating complex system.
o Earth is a fragile system: affect one, affect all.
o According to the video:
James Lovelock (from NASA)
Earth behaves like a living thing
Maintains constant temperature
Volcanoes, earthquakes and meteors change the atmosphere, which
affect living things
o Negative feedback loop Earth Cools Life Adapts
o Homeostatis of the earth
Sources of Energy
o Main driving force the Sun (radiation) drives Earths external engine
o Internal engine core
o Man introduces rapid changes to the Earth

The Universe

Big Bang Theory

o Cosmological model
o Hot dense state which is expanding
o Proposed by Georges Lemaitre (1920s)
o Edwin Hubble the universe is continually expanding
Quarks (fraction of a second)
Natural Laws (Classical forces)
Hadrons and Leptons
Nucleosynthesis Era (formed Hydrogen)
Opaque Era (Dark Era no stars)
The Universe Today clumped
o The Big Bang was an expansion, not an explosion.
o Started as a point in space and expanded (both matter and space expands)
o Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP Satellite)
Finds radiation
o Observable Universe
Looking deeper into space is looking further back in time.
 Earth, the Solar System, Solar Interstellar Neighborhood, Milky Way,
Local Galactic Group, Virgo Supercluster, Local Superclusters, Observable
Universe
Diameter of OU 93 billion light years (constantly expands)
Age of the Universe 13.7 billion years old
o Common misconceptions of the Big Bang Theory
Explosion it was not an explosion in space, but an explosion of space.
The Big Bang Theory does not explain what caused it there is no need
because it is simply a model.
No evidence
Cosmological Red Shift change in frequency of light waves
Cosmic Microwave Background space telescopes can observe
Element Distribution 75% H, 24% He, 1% others old
composition is 80% H and 20% He
Solar System and the Earth
o Nebular Hypothesis
Rotating gas-dust cloud began to contract due to gravity
Most of the mass was concentrated at the center the Sun
Proposed by Immanuel Kant and Pierre Simone de Laplace (18th century)
Terrestrial and jovial planets
o Earths Characteristics
Oblate spheroid
Age: 4.54 billion years old
Taken from radiometric dating comparison of abundance of
radioactive isotopes and decay products
Oldest minerals small crystals of zircon from the Jack Hills of
Western Australia (4.404 billion years old)
Oldest known solid constituents calcium-aluminum rich
inclusions within meteorites
Largest and deepest ocean Pacific Ocean
Highest mountain Mount Everest
Surface locations farthest from the center of the earth Mt.
Chimborazo and Mt. Huascaran (near equator oblate spheroid)
Longest river Nile
Largest lake Caspian Sea
Largest island Greenland
o The Moon
Earths only known natural satellite
5th largest satellite
Largest natural satellite relative to the primary
Giant Impact Hypothesis
Moon comes from the debris left from collision between young
Earth and a Mars sized body 4.47 billion years ago.
 Surface Features and Internal Structure of the Earth

Global Topography
o The earth is composed of varied features.
o The ocean or sea name is based on the tectonic plate underneath it.
o Concentration of earthquakes is at the boundaries of the plates.
The Continents
o Cratons
Expansive, stable regions of low relief.
Hardly any earthquakes or volcanoes.
Does not change quickly through geologic time.
o Mountains
Andes
o Volcanoes
Mt. Fuji
Macolod Corridor in southern Luzon many volcanic cones
o Mountain Belts
Himalayan Mountain Range
o Crustal Spreading
Rift zones
o Transform faults
Large strike slip faults (where plates slide past one another)
o The Oceans
Harder to explore
Challenger Deep exploration vehicle to Mariana Trench
Continental Shelf Continental Slope Continental Rise Abyssal
Plain Oceanic Trench
Volcanic chains at the sea floor Hawaii
Canyons in the sea floor Monterrey Bay, California
A river makes the canyon
Atolls originally submarine volcanoes which erupted materials
Coral reefs develop
o The Philippines is a complex region in terms of tectonic plate activity.

The Globe Inside the Earth

Extrapolate surface features below

Direct observation: dig deep
Deepest hole: Kola Peninsula in Russia (~12231 m) took 12 years
o Current deep drilling projects: San Andreas Scientific Drilling Project, Hawaii,
Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean
Oceanic Crust
o Predominantly made of basalt
 o ~6-11 km thick
o 3 g/cm3
Continental Crust
o Composition comparable to granodiorite
o ~30 km thick
o 2.7 g/cm3
Indirect methods
o Seismology ultrasound
o Geochemistry meteorites
Stony meteorites olivine, pyroxene
Iron meteorites iron
Parts
o Crust made of silicate and granodiorite
o Mohorovicic discontinuity separates mantle and crust
o Upper mantle ultramafic rock peridotite
o Mantle perovskite
o Gutenberg discontinuity boundary of mantle and upper core
o Outer core liquid Fe and Ni circulates which is the source of magnetic field
o Lehmann discontinuity
o Inner core solid Fe and Ni
Lithosphere
o Comprises the rigid crust and the upper mantle

Plate Tectonics and Dynamics of the Earths Interior

Continental Drift
o By Alfred Wegener 1915 The Origin of Continents and Oceans
o Supercontinent existed named Pangaea 200 million years ago, and split into
Laurasia and Gondwana in the early part of the Mesozoic Era
o Four evidences
Apparent fit of the continents
South Americas and Africas coastline seemingly fit like a puzzle
Scientists determined a much better approximation: using the
seaward edge of its continental shelf.
o The fit was more precise than expected.
Fossil Correlation
Mesozoic Age lifeforms
o Mesosaurs unlikely to have crossed the ocean because
they are small aquatic reptiles.
o Glyssopteris seed ferns, grew only in cool climates, and
leaves were too large to be blown.
o Cynognathus
o Lystrosaurus
 These fossils were found in South America, Africa, India and
Antarctica
Rock and Mountain Correlation
Puzzle analogy: fitted physically, and the picture should be
continuous.
Rocks found on a particular region in one continent should match
in age and type on the adjacent positions on the once adjoining
continent.
Igneous rocks in Brazil were also found in Africa.
Mountain belts were also cut.
Paleoclimate data
Coal deposits where found in Antarctica (coal is normally found in
the tropics)
Glacial deposits in South Africa, South America, India and
Australia
o Wegener could not explain what force was driving the motion of continents.
Seafloor Spreading
o Harry Hess 1962
o Extensive mapping of the ocean floor young age of ocean floor at 130 million
years old oldest rocks from continents (billions of years old)
o New seafloor is generated at mid-oceanic ridges
o Near ridges younger rocks, sides older
o Magnetic stripes reversal of polarity
o Is the earth expanding? No. Conservation of mass
Subduction zones exist where the seafloor goes back into the mantle
Plate Tectonics
o Isaacs, Oliver and Sykes (1968) Seismology and the New Global Tectonics
o Seismic signals explained if Earth were made of plates
o Pull apart, crash together, slide fuels volcanoes, generates earthquakes, pushes
mountains
o Plate boundaries
Convergent
Two plates move together
o Ex: Luzon Volcanic Arc
o Pinatubo oceanic-oceanic
o Andes oceanic-continental
o Everest continental-continental
o Basalt is denser than granodiorite
Divergent
Two plates move apart
Located at mid-oceanic ridges characterized by high heat flow
and volcanism
o Ex: Mid-Atlantic Ridge
 Can be on land
o Ex: Iceland
Rift valleys evidence that tensional forces are actively pulling the
ocean crust apart at the ridge crest.
Transform Faults
Slides along sides
Ex: San Andreas Fault
o Mechanisms for Plate Motion
Convection in the Mantle
Radioactivity decay releases heat
Slab pull, ridge push
Mantle plumes ex: Hawaii
o Plate tectonics happened 3-4 billion years ago no continents yet/crust